Wednesday Bible Study: Picking through Judges, Part 6

 

As we wrap the story of Gideon, this week's watchword is the destructiveness of- compromise.  Already the seeds of it were planted in Gideon's allowing of the Ephraimites into the battle, and his reply to them when they complained about not being in it sooner.  You might not catch that this is a problem, but remember what God said when He selected the 300:

Jdg 7:2  The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'

And that's exactly what did happen- and Gideon didn't bother to disabuse the Ephraimites of the notion.  The second compromise is what happened next:

Jdg 8:22  Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and your son and your grandson also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian."
Jdg 8:23  Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the LORD will rule over you."

So they weren't ready to bow to God for the win, but there were willing to bow to Gideon!  Now Gideon refused the crown- to his credit- but here was that second compromise:

Jdg 8:28  So Midian was subdued before the people of Israel, and they raised their heads no more. And the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon.
Jdg 8:29  Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.
Jdg 8:30  Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives.
Jdg 8:31  And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.
Jdg 8:32  And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Seventy wives, eh?  While he wasn't the king in name, he sure lived like it.  And his son Abimelech bears a name that roughly, according to Pastor Denny, translates to "My father is king".  One might say, well, what WAS due Gideon?  God clears that up for us as well, as we enter the next phase of the story:

Jdg 8:33  As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.
Jdg 8:34  And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side,
Jdg 8:35  and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. 

 

This is what Israel owed the heirs of Gideon:  Loyalty to God, and steadfast love (elsewhere translated 'kindness') to the house of Gideon.  And even this was beyond this people, so far had they fallen.  And as a result, they would get no rescuer this time, no prophet, but only a curse.  The scene shifts to the Levitical (supposedly) city of Shechem, which in truth was the headquarters of the cult of Baal-Berith, "Baal of our covenant".  What we learn in this digging is that Shechem never kicked the Canaanites out, and much of the city had Canaanite roots.  And, we might assume, the concubine that bore Abimelech was a Canaanite as well.  Thus, Abimelech has a hatred for his Hebrew brothers, and a plan:

Jdg 9:1  Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother's family,
Jdg 9:2  "Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, 'Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?' Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh."
Jdg 9:3  And his mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, "He is our brother."

We are going to see as we move on, Shechem was a divided city, used to compromise, and the leaders thereof were more than willing to compromise on a half-Canaanite king.  So, as we saw last time, they gave him money to buy a mercenary force, and then...

Jdg 9:5  And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself.
Jdg 9:6  And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem.

Ironic isn't it, that we meet but 3 of Gideon's 70 kids- Jether, who wasn't bold enough to kill the kings of Midian, and died the same way; Abimelech the half-breed; and Jothan, who survives to deliver the only part in this story that God takes a direct hand in.  Because, the escaping Jothan delivers a curse in the form of a parable.  The parable tells, through a story about the trees electing a king, about how Israel had sunk to the level of selecting someone wholly worthless as a king, and how they would both pay:

Jdg 9:16  "Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved--
Jdg 9:17  for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian,
Jdg 9:18  and you have risen up against my father's house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative--
Jdg 9:19  if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
Jdg 9:20  But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech."

And of course, they had not.  They had compromised, and three years later, they soured on the lawless rule of Abimelech.  The Jews and the commentators both tell that this became an era of wandering groups of 'freebooters' (much like the 'army' Abimelech bought), and one such group decided to base in Shechem...

Jdg 9:26  And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him.
Jdg 9:27  And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech.
Jdg 9:28  And Gaal the son of Ebed said, "Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him?
Jdg 9:29  Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, 'Increase your army, and come out.'"

Much to unpack here.  First Gaal (as well as Zebul, the 'ruler' of Shechem) were Canaanite names.  Second, notice how easy it is to be a big man when you're liquored up- this we'll see played out next.  Third, "serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem" refers to the fact that Shechem was originally founded by a guy of the same name, and his father, and guess who they were...

Gen 33:18  And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on his way from Paddan-aram, and he camped before the city.
Gen 33:19  And from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, he bought for a hundred pieces of money the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
Gen 33:20  There he erected an altar and called it El-Elohe-Israel. 

 

So not only Canaanites, but Canaanites with a long, proud tradition- a tradition Israel had compromised with.  So this beer bash made it to the ear of Zebul, who tipped Abimelech off to it.  And they set an ambush for Gaal and the traitorous city, one which the hung over Gaal quickly fell into, in a penultimate act of this story's dark humor:

Jdg 9:34  So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem in four companies.
Jdg 9:35  And Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush.
Jdg 9:36  And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, "Look, people are coming down from the mountaintops!" And Zebul said to him, "You mistake the shadow of the mountains for men."
Jdg 9:37  Gaal spoke again and said, "Look, people are coming down from the center of the land, and one company is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak."
Jdg 9:38  Then Zebul said to him, "Where is your mouth now, you who said, 'Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?' Are not these the people whom you despised? Go out now and fight with them."

By the time bleary-eyed Gaal knows what's going on, he and his men are trapped between the onrushing men of Abimelech, and the gates of the city, which Zebul closed behind him.  Gaal's men were scattered, and Gaal's fate is unknown.  But then Abimelech paid Shechem back for their treachery...

Jdg 9:45  And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt.
Jdg 9:46  When all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered the stronghold of the house of El-berith.
Jdg 9:47  Abimelech was told that all the leaders of the Tower of Shechem were gathered together.
Jdg 9:48  And Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bundle of brushwood and took it up and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the men who were with him, "What you have seen me do, hurry and do as I have done."
Jdg 9:49  So every one of the people cut down his bundle and following Abimelech put it against the stronghold, and they set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the people of the Tower of Shechem also died, about 1,000 men and women.

And that would be they end of the story, except that only half of Jotham's curse had been fulfilled, and God does NOT compromise.  So Abimelech, with a newly-energized bully pulpit, decided to get greedy.  He attacks a town called Thebez, and when they fled to the defense tower, Abimelech thought to do the same trick he did to Shechem.  But, here's that last bit of dark humor...

Jdg 9:52  And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire.
Jdg 9:53  And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull.
Jdg 9:54  Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, "Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, 'A woman killed him.'" And his young man thrust him through, and he died.

Thus coining the phrase, "his evil came upon his own head."  And the point of this final section of the Gideon story is this:  Compromising with sin is mocking God, and God is not mocked.