Calvary Church is
dedicated to doctrine, and we want you to
experience a life change that comes from knowing God's Word
and applying it to your life. So we explain the
Bible verse by verse, every chapter, every book. This is Expound. Would you turn in your Bibles
to Judges chapter 8 and 9, two the most-- well, two of the weirdest
chapters in Scripture. I remember when I was in
college and they gave me my curricula for the years
that I was going to college. They gave me a set of
classes that I had to take, whether I wanted to
take them or not. If I wanted to pass
in a certain area, I had to take certain classes. In God's curriculum,
there are certain things you need to know, and
Judges is one of them. One of the things that
makes this church unique is that we believe
that God has given to us everything in
His Word for a reason, and that we should read
it, we should study it, we should explore it,
and we should apply it. And in His wisdom,
He has made sure that the account that is given
in Judges 8 and 9 are there. And I say they're strange. I've always felt a little
weird about these chapters. I've always felt a little
disquieted by them, unnerved by them, and
that feeling kind of persists more and
more and more as I get into the book of Judges. I've told you before,
when we started, it is rated R for raunchy. And you'll see that in spades
coming up, but also tonight. I heard a story about
a wedding reception that was done in the
basement of a church, and they decorated the
basement of the church with different Scriptures
for different occasions. They wanted to
put the gospel up, and they did, using scriptures
around this basement. And so the reception
for the wedding took place in that basement. Most of the Scriptures
that were on the wall were Scriptures
about God's love, His kindness, His goodness. But for some reason,
unknowingly-- the wedding planner wasn't
really thinking it through probably-- but decided to place the wedding
cake at a particular part of the basement. And the Scripture over the
top of the cake on the wall happened to be Matthew
chapter 3 verse 7, that says "flee from
the wrath that is to come." I don't know, maybe it
was planned that way. Maybe she had some insight
that others didn't have. But it was an odd thing to
read over the wedding cake, "flee from the wrath
that is to come." When you marry the
world, you're going to have problems
with your in-laws. When children of God marry
children of the devil, you're going to have
problems with your in-laws. We see lots of compromise
in the book of Judges. We see people of God
marrying themselves to values and ideologies
that are patently against God's revealed
will and His order. And I mentioned that these
chapters are a little bit confusing and disconcerting. And actually, as I was
reading this week-- and I wanted to
familiarize myself, so I read through these
two chapters several times in the past week-- I really felt that they are
appropriate for the times in which we live. Because we live in
strange times right now. It's a strange season
we find ourselves in-- in the world with COVID-19,
trying to figure out the best way through that;
with unrest that is happening in cities
around our country; in this election cycle. And the more I
read Judges, I feel like the Lord is allowing
us to really glean some of these principles,
because I think what we're reading in this book
is reflective of what's going on in our culture
and in our world. A quick quote by President
Abraham Lincoln in 1863. He said, "We have grown
in numbers as a country. We have grown in
wealth and power as no other nation
has ever grown. But we have forgotten God." We've grown in numbers. We've grown in wealth. We've grown in power
like no other nation. But we have forgotten God. "And we have vainly imagined
that all these blessings were produced by some superior
wisdom and virtue of our own." The people of Israel were,
at one point, one nation under God. Since that time, they
are very divided, and this book shows the
nature of that division and the civil wars that occur
because of that division. Now, to refresh your
memory from last time, we were looking at the
story of one of the judges by the name of
Gideon, and how Gideon took 300 men, down from
32,000 men, at God's command, and went against 135,000
Midianites, and won. Toward the end of that battle,
when they were being routed and they were being
scattered, Gideon sent messengers to the
northern tribe of Ephraim-- probably the largest of
the 12 tribes of Israel-- and asked them to
come in and capture the two princes of the
Midianites, which they did. They happily did it,
and they succeeded. And so we are told at the
end of chapter 7 in verse 25, they captured two princes of
the Midiantes, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the
rock of Oreb and Zeeb they killed at the
winepress of Zeeb. But chapter 8 verse 1 shows
the problem with that. "Now the men of Ephraim
said to him, to Gideon, why have you done this
to us by not calling us when you went to fight
with the Midianites? And they reprimanded
him sharply." Hey, you should have selected
us as well for the fight. Why are you telling us at
the end of the battle instead of conscripting us
to fight with you at the beginning of the battle? So they were in a tiff because
of this, probably jealous because they wanted to be in
on the fight and the victory. But notice this, verse 2. "So he said to them"-- this is Gideon the judge
speaking to the men of Ephraim. "He said to them, what have
I done now in comparison with you? Is not the gleaning of the
grapes of Ephraim better than the vintage of Abiezer? God has delivered
into your hands the princes of
Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. And what was I able to do
in comparison with you?" Then their anger toward him
abated when he said that. I love Gideon because
of his diplomacy. This is really smart. He's very tactful. They're all mad because you
didn't call us to fight. And he goes, man, you guys did
way more than we could ever do. You mopped up the battle
and captured the prize. We didn't do that. Oh, yeah, we were involved
in the initial parts of the battle, but we
took care of the harvest. Your gleaning was
more than our harvest. Now, the gleaning
of the fields was principal from
the Old Testament, that whenever they
would harvest the field they would leave portions
of it for the poor. The poor would come in and
be able to glean, or just walk through and take
what's left on the branches. And so the gleaning, the
idea is you just picked up the end part of the vintage,
but you got the best part. And they thought
about that and said, well, when you put it to us this
way or that way, it sounds OK. So says their anger subsided. But that's a principle, and
it's a principle all of us should learn, especially
in the era of social media. Here's the principle,
Proverbs 15 verse 1. You know it. Some of you know it by heart. "A soft answer
turns away wrath." Learn to use your mouth
well, or your thumbs well, your response well. Let it be filled with grace,
filled with diplomacy, filled with tact. "A soft answer
turns away wrath." When somebody
attacks us verbally, like these men
attacked Gideon, we have an initial response
going on inside of us. We hear their attack. We listen to the
words, especially when it is written in a social
media tweet or text, and I have always thought
Twitter is the repository of all weirdness. But somebody says something,
either to us face to face or they text it out
or write it out, and the first reaction
is to rip into them and to reduce them to
ashes with a counterpunch. There's an old saying, that
those who fly into a rage are apt to make a poor landing. A soft answer turns away wrath,
but harsh words stir up anger. So it was the right tact. Now, having said that,
notice the change. Verse 4, "When Gideon
came to the Jordan"-- that is, the Jordan River-- "he and the 300 men who
were with them crossed over exhausted, but
still in pursuit." Now, up to this
point, they really didn't do anything in battle. They didn't fight the battle. Oh, yeah, there was only
300 against 135,000. I get that. But they still
didn't do anything. Because if you remember what it
said in the previous chapter, all they did is blow the
horn, break a few pots, and hold a torch, and
the Lord did the rest. But they ran from
the battlefield about 20 miles to
the Jordan River. So just that run is
enough to take any soldier and wear him out. So they're tuckered out. They're tired. They're exhausted. And when you're
exhausted, you do and say some pretty weird things. Watch this. Then he said to
the men of Succoth, "Please give loaves of bread
to the people who follow me, for they're exhausted, and I
am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian." So the two princes of
Midian are out of the way, but the two leaders of those
countries, of that area, are still afoot. Gideon says, I'm
chasing these two kings. Haven't caught up with them yet. And the leaders of Succoth-- these are lands
on the other side of the Jordan, the eastern
side of the Jordan-- said, "Are the hands
of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand that we should
give bread to your army?" In other words, we're not
going to give you food because we don't
really know who's going to win this battle yet. If you still have the kings
on the loose, they might win, and if we give you
food but they win, they're going to
come back and get us. So this shows you the
lack of unity going on in the nation of
Israel at the time. There's a real lack of
nationalism, a real lack of unity, fighting one cause. These are tribal areas
out for themselves, fending for themselves, not
tying into the greater good, and not willing to join
the fight with this judge by the name of Gideon. So it shows how
divided they are. It's interesting that
they have this response, and it's interesting that they
are east of the Jordan River. Now remember, God promised
the Promised Land. The Promised Land was going
to be when you cross over the Jordan, right? But do you remember there were
two tribes, 2 and 1/2 tribes, really, that wanted to
stay east of the Jordan? Reuben, Gad, and half
the tribe of Manasseh, they loved it so much,
especially in the north. They just said,
hey, we don't really want to cross the Jordan. And this really bothered Moses. What we're reading
here is exactly what Moses was worried would happen. I'll remind you of it, way
back in Numbers chapter 32. Those 2 and 1/2 tribes wanted to
stay east of the Jordan River. And so they said
to Moses, "If we have found favor in your
sight, let this land be given to your servants as a
possession and do not take us over the Jordan. And Moses said to
the children of Gad, to the children of
Reuben, shall your brother and go to war
while you sit here? Now why will you discourage the
heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land
which the Lord has given them?" He says, you guys are
just like your forefathers in what you did at Kadesh
Barnea in disheartening the spirit of the people. So Moses foresaw that if they
stayed east of the Jordan, that there could be, just by the
natural boundary of the river itself, a lack of
unity, a challenge to their national unity. And we see it in the days
of the judges happening. So I want you to look
at Gideon's response to that, back in
Chapter 8 verse 7. So Gideon said, "For
this cause, when the Lord has delivered Zebah and
Zalmunna into my hand, then I will tear your flesh with
the thorns of the wilderness and with the briars." Uh, what happened to a soft
answer turns away wrath? You were doing so good for
a minute there, Gideon. And then he went up
from there to Penuel and spoke to them
in the same way. And the men of Penuel
answered as the men of Succoth had answered. So he spoke to the men
of Penuel and said, when I come back in peace,
I will tear down this tower. OK, so back to that proverb,
there's two parts of it, and this dude
fulfilled both parts. A soft answer turns
away wrath, check. A harsh word stirs
up anger, check. He went from a soft
answer to a harsh word in two different locations. He was so diplomatic, and then
with the same mouth, he said, I'm going to rip your flesh
when I get a hold of you guys. Now, this is exactly
what James talks about in the New Testament
book of James chapter 3. He said, you know, our
tongue is like a fire, and it can burn
down a lot of lives. He said, with our mouth we
bless God, and with our mouth we curse men made in
this similitude of God. He said, these things ought
not to be so, my brothers. I think we sin with our mouths
more than any other part of our body. That's why James says no
man can tame the tongue. But if the Lord could
tame our tongues, give us restraint, how far
ahead of the game we would be. So Gideon is tired. Gideon is hungry. And Gideon is pretty mad. Now, something to note here. In the midst of all
this flesh-mongering, even of Gideon, there's
no indication in this part of the story-- even though he is
the judge and God used him to deliver
the Midianites-- in this part of the
story coming up, there's no indication
of God's involvement. I'm not saying he's not involved
because, God is sovereign in the affairs of mankind and He
lifts up those that He chooses. However, it seems that here,
he is out to even the score and it's all about personal
pursuit than the glory of God. More than just
delivering Israel, which was the last
couple of chapters, this seems to be all
about him, because you're going to notice how he
changes in his personality. Numbers 10, "Zebah
and Zalmunna were at Karkor, and their
armies with them-- about 15,000 men,
all who were left of all the army of the
people of the east, for 120,000 men who drew
the sword had fallen." Now that's where we come up
with the figure that I mentioned last week, 135,000 Midianites,
just by adding those two figures together. You have 120,000 plus
15,000, that's 135,000. That's why you often hear
the Bible story, where you've got 32,000 Israelites down to
300 Israelites against 135,000 Midianites. Now, that's at least
135,000 Midianites. 120,000 of them died in
this series of battles. 15,000 are left. But we don't know
how many escaped, so there probably were far
more in that original camp of Midianites than 135,000. We don't know the exact number. "Then Gideon went up
by the road of those who dwell on the tents on the
east side of Nobah and Jogbehah and he attacked the army
while the camp felt secure. When Zebah and Zalmunna
fled, he pursued them, and he took the two kings of
Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and routed the whole army. Then Gideon, the son of
Joash, returned from battle from the Ascent of Heres. I don't even know where
that is, but it's obviously a pass, a mountain
pass, a mountain ascent between the
hills somewhere in that part of the country. "And he caught a young man
of the men of Succoth." That's one of the
cities that said, we're not going to help
you, even though they're part of the tribes of Israel. "He caught a young
man of Succoth and interrogated him,
and wrote down for him the leaders of Succoth
and its elders, 77 men. Then he came to
the men of Succoth and said, here are
Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you ridiculed me,
saying, are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna now in your hand
that we should give bread to your weary men? And he took the
elders of the city and thorns of the
wilderness and briars and with them he taught
the men of Succoth." He taught them a lesson. Don't know if he
took these things and flogged them with
thorn bushes or drug them over the thorns,
but it was pretty nasty. Now, is this the same
Gideon that we read about in the previous chapters? The guy who was so timid, the
guy who the angel of the Lord found threshing wheat
in the winepress because he was so scared of
the enemy and so intimidated and so timid? He's gone from a timid
man to a tyrannical man. He's now totally in the flesh. It's all about him. It's all about
evening the score. And here's the problem-- and I'm setting this up
for the next chapter-- his kids are watching him. You always have an audience,
and if you're a parent, your audience is
always your children. It's amazing what they
are able to pick up and what they bust you on. Hey, I remember when you said
this or when you did that. You go, you do? You weren't supposed
to remember that. I was so stealth about that. But they're so observant. And his kids are watching. And one child, in particular,
is watching this whole thing by the name of Abimelech. He's the problem child that we
read about in the next chapter. In Ephesians chapter
6, we are told, fathers, do not provoke
your children to wrath. You're going to see
Abimelech, the son of Gideon, provoked to wrath,
provoked to anger. And I believe, in part,
because, like the old adage says, like father, like son. He is watching his dad. That's why I always like to tell
men, the most important thing you can ever do for
your children is to A, love God with all your heart
mind, soul, and strength, and love that child's mother
in front of your child. Let your child see how
much you love that woman. And then show love
to other people, because they're going
to take that example and be molded by it. Provoke not your
children to wrath. Just keep that in mind. As we follow the
story of Gideon and we follow the story of
his son, Abimelech, in the next chapter-- it's much easier to build a
boy than it is to repair a man. You can mess a kid up. You can jack that kid's mind. And I believe that
happened because of this. Verse 17, "He tore down
the tower of Penuel and he killed the
men of the city." Filled with rage,
filled with wrath. "And he said to Zebah and
Zalmunna, what kind of men were they whom you
killed at Tabor? That is Mount Tabor, that is
where that battle took place that we read about
and I told you about. "What kind of men were they
that you killed at Tabor? And so they
answered, as you are. They were like you are. They look like you. So were they. Each one resembled
the son of a king." Now, that this is just
worded interestingly, so I want to just ask
you, who do you resemble? Do you resemble a son of the
king, a daughter of the king? Do people look at you and
go, you remind me of royalty. You conduct your affairs
like you're a child of God. Each one resembled
the son of a king. "And he said, they
were my brothers, the sons of my mother. As the Lord lives, if
you had let them live, I would not kill you. And he said to Jethro, his
firstborn, rise and kill them. But the youth would
not draw his sword for he was afraid because
he was still a youth. So Zebah and Zalmunna said,
rise yourself and kill us. For as a man is,
so is his strength. So Gideon arose and
killed Zebah and Zalmunna and took the crescent
ornaments that were on their camels' necks." A couple of things to note. Pretty obviously, the brothers
that Gideon is talking about, whom these two kings
killed, were not killed by these kings
on the battlefield but during a time of peace. Probably they were killed at
home, they raided the home, or they were killed
while they were in the fields in
a time of peace. And because it wasn't
fought on a battlefield, Gideon felt the obligation to
revenge his brothers' blood. That happens to be
an ancient custom. In fact, it is even part
of the biblical tradition of evening the score. You know the text, right? Eye for an eye,
tooth for a tooth. Comes from the Old Testament. In fact, it's interesting. Jesus, in the
Sermon on the Mount, said, you have heard that it
has been said to those of old, an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth. And most people
lived by that law. That's called the lex talionis,
the law of exact retribution. It goes all the way
back in antiquity. It's used in the Babylonian
codes, the Assyrian codes, the ancient code of Hammurabi
as the lex talionis, an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth. So Jesus said, you
have heard that it has been said to those
of old, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, most people hearing
just that part go, yup, I've heard
that and I like it. I like the whole idea of eye for
an eye and tooth for a tooth. I feel really good when I
get to take my pound of flesh away for somebody who's
done something to me, or text something really
nasty to somebody. Makes me feel good. Well, you're losing a part of
your mind you can't afford it, but have at it. But then Jesus
said, but I say unto you, whoever slaps you
on one cheek, turn to him the other cheek. Whoever tells you to go
one mile, go with him two. Whoever asks for this
piece of clothing, give him more than that. Now, let's go back to that
ancient law of lex talionis, eye for eye, tooth for
a tooth, because that's what he's working off of. People read that from
the Old Testament. They think, man, God is
such a mean God to say that. Why would he say that? Why is that a part
of the biblical text? First of all, that is
not a personal law. That is a national law. It is something you're
not to do on your own. It is something to be done with
the help of the civil legality, the civil court system. The legal court has the
right to exact justice when a crime is committed. This isn't done for
personal reasons. Number two, it was to be
a deterrent to a crime, and I think it's a very
powerful deterrent. The full law, stated
in Deuteronomy 19, goes life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. But number 3, and most
importantly, the law was given to limit vengeance. To limit vengeance. I've discovered something
about human nature. Vengeance is not
satisfied with justice. Vengeance wants
more than justice. It is human nature. If you knock out
one of my teeth, I'm going to make sure you wear
dentures the rest of your life. If you take out one of
my eyes, man, you're going to be blind in both eyes. I'm going to give you
more than you deserve. That's human nature. So to limit that
expression of human nature, to make sure that
it is right, there was the law of
exact retribution. That's how it was given. But again, Jesus said,
turn the other cheek. That's New Testament. That's what it
says, but I say unto you, whoever slaps you on the
cheek, turn the other to him. Now, I grew up with
three older brothers. This did not happen. It was survival in my house. Lots of pounding, lots of
slugging, lots of wrestling, lots of hitting. And I struggled with this
when I came to the Lord, because the Lord had to
deal with me and my response to their activity. Then verse 22. "The men of Israel said
to Gideon, rule over us." This is an invitation
now for Gideon to become their first king. "Rule over us, both you and
your son and your grandson also, for you've delivered us
from the hand of Midian." We are giving you the full
right of dynastic succession. You and your family,
in perpetuity, you can rule over us as a dynasty. Be our king. "But Gideon said to them,
I will not rule over you, nor shall my son rule over you. The Lord shall rule over you." Now that's a beautiful text. There's only one problem. He didn't live up to it. Now, I like it. I agree with that. I'm not going to rule over you. The Lord needs to be the
one who rules over you. But now what he does
is turns to idolatry, so that he gets people not to
let the Lord rule over them at all, but to actually
turn their affections to another god. "Then Gideon said
to them, I would like to make a request
of you, that each of you would give me the
earrings from his plunder. For they had gold earrings
because they were Ishmaelites." So he says on one hand, I
don't want to be a king, but I'd like to tax you
like a king would tax you. I'd like to have the benefits
of rulership and authority. I just don't want
the responsibility. But I'd like the payment. So they answered. Now, they're in a place where
they just got delivered. "They answered, we
will gladly give them. And they spread out a
garment and each man threw in the earrings
from his plunder. Now the weight of the gold
earrings that he requested was 1,700 shekels of gold,"
about 43 pounds of solid gold. "Besides"-- that's just
that-- "besides the crescent ornaments." Now, this is interesting, and
I don't want to belabor this. You can chase this
down on your own. Crescent ornaments were
used by Ishmaelites. It was the crescent moon,
which even to this day is a symbol of Islam, of Allah. And that's because
researchers can show-- even though this is highly
disputed in Islam as one of their apologetic points--
but it can be corroborated by history, by archaeology,
that in antiquity, the Arabian peoples-- and the Midianites
were one of them, they lived in that region-- worshipped a multiplicity
of gods, and one of them was the moon god Allah. Worship with the crescent moon. That was prevalent back then. So they took off
the gold crescents that was part of that motif. "And Gideon,"-- verse 27-- "made it into an ephod and set
it up in his city of Ophrah. And all Israel played
the harlot with it there. It became a snare to
Gideon and to his house." Now, remember the ephod. The ephod in Israel was a vest
that the high priest wore, and on the high priest
it was highly decorated. On the ephod was a breastplate
and the breastplate had 12 stones, one
representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel. Inside in the back part
was a little pocket that had the urim
and the thummim, these two stones to
discern the will of God. That was the authority,
that was the anointing of the high priest. It seems that Gideon
made an ephod, a vest like the
high priest, but not according to the
Israelite religion, because he's not a priest. He's not of the
household of Aaron. He's an Ephraimite,
or he's a Manasseh. He's of a different tribe. So he gets this ephod
and probably wore it to divine the will of God,
to discern the will of God. And watch this. "And all Israel played
the harlot with it there. It became a snare to
Gideon and to his house. Thus, Midian was subdued
before the children of Israel so that they lifted
their heads no more. And the country was quiet for
40 years in the days of Gideon. Then Jerubbaal"-- Yerubbaal,
which means Baal contends. It's just another
name for Gideon that we learned in the
previous chapters-- "then Yerubbaal, son of Joash"-- i.e. Gideon-- "went and
dwelt in his own house. Gideon had 70 sons who
were his own offspring, for he had many wives. And his concubine"-- that's
his chick on the side-- "who was in Schechem
also bore him a son, whose name he
called Abimelech." You know what Abimelech means? My father is king. He says, no, I don't
want to be your king. Wink, wink. I'll just name my son
My Father the King. And I'll make sure
that I tax you so I get all the
benefits of being a king, but oh, I won't rule over you. The Lord will rule over you. Now Gideon, the son of
Joash, died at a good old age and was buried in
the tomb of Joash his father in Ophrah
of the Abiezrites. And it was so, as soon
as Gideon was dead, that the children of
Israel again played the harlot with the Baals and
made Baal-Berith their God." The words Baal-Berith
means covenant with Baal. So they made some kind
of an arrangement, some kind of a covenant
there with Shechem. "Thus, the children of Israel
did not remember the Lord their God who had delivered
them from the hands of all their enemies on every side,
nor did they show kindness to the house of Yerubball"--
that is Gideon-- "in accordance with the good
that he had done for Israel." Now, we have two
areas of national life that are highlighted at
the end of this chapter-- spirituality, morality. First is spirituality. Spiritually speaking, it
was a combined system. They did not worship
Yahweh exclusively. They worship Yahweh and other
gods and other goddesses. This is called syncretism. We've told you about it. It was very prevalent
in antiquity. Gideon himself makes an ephod
and the people worship it, some kind of weird
worship system with this ephod that he wore. I don't know what
Gideon was thinking. All I know is that
it's one thing to begin well but finish poorly
versus begin well and end well. He began well and he
began in humility. He began in timidity. He ended in pride. He ended in hubris. He ended in idolatry. And it brought the
people of Israel back to a place where they
would be judged again by God. So it's a combination
of these worship system. Second is morality. He has 70 wives, lots of sons. And not just 70 wives, but he
has these gals on the side. Now, a concubine was
like a second wife. Concubines didn't
live with the husband. They lived with their own
families in their own towns. The husband could visit
when he wanted to visit, have relations with
her in that town. But the children
born to a concubine did not receive the
inheritance of the father, but rather they were part
of the family of the mother. Now, that's just
sort of sets up what you're about to read
in the next chapter. Oh, by the way, in
the next chapter, notice how in these chapters
the interchangeability between the name Gideon
and Yerubbaal, Jerubbaal? However you want
to pronounce it. In chapter 9, exclusively
the name Yerubbaal is used for Gideon, not Gideon. Exclusively he is called
by the pagan name. And exclusively in chapter
9, Yahweh is not used, the covenant name of God,
but the generic name of God is used, elohim. So that's important,
because it gives you the temperature of what's
happening in this chapter. It's a highly
Canaanized religion and highly Canaanized chapter,
imbued in Canaanized religion. So it says, "And Abimelech,
the son of Yerubbaal, went to Shechem, to his mother's
brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the
house of his mother's father, saying, please speak in the
hearing of the men of Shechem. Which is better for you, that
all 70 of the sons of Yerubbaal reign over you or that
one reign over you? Remember that I am your
own flesh and bone. And his mother's brothers
spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing
of all the men of Shechem, and their heart was inclined
to follow Abimelech, for they said, well,
he is our brother." This kid Abimelech obviously
misrepresented the intentions of dear old dad, who said, I'm
not going to reign over you nor are my sons going
to reign over you. Now this kid says, what do
you want, 70 of his kids ruling over you or
do you want just me? I belong to you. I'm one of you. Let me be the king. Now, dad said, I
won't be the king. This kid says, I will. I'll rule over you. I want that job. And so he talks them into it. There's an interesting
proverb in Proverbs 28 that says this, "because of
the transgression of a land, many are its princes. But by a man of
understanding and knowledge, right will be prolonged." Another way of saying the
bigger the government, the indication of the more
wickedness in the land, because it's needed that
you require a bigger government to handle it. So because of the
transgression of a land, many are its princes. But it just takes
the right leader-- like we said last time,
it's not how many, it's having the right people. Gideon, Deborah, Barak, the
other judges before, they were God's men and God's women. But these people want a dynasty. These people want the government
to come in and take care of it, and they want him
to rule over them. So verse 4, "They gave
him 70 shekels of silver from the temple of
Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless
and reckless men, and they followed him." So he's got his staff. "And he went to his
father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers,
the 70 sons of Yerubbaal, on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest
son of Yerubbaal was left because he hid himself. And all the men of Shechem
gathered together, all of them at Beth Millo"-- which is
a little contingent town next door. "And they went and
made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at
the pillar that was at Shechem. And when it was told Jotham"-- this is the kid who escaped. So there are 70 sons. Either that's just a general
number or a precise number, meaning he killed 69. He thought he killed 70. One escaped, by
the name of Jotham. When they told it
to Jotham, he went and stood atop Mount Gerizim and
lifted his voice and cried out and said to them"-- Now, where is this
taking place at? What city? It says what? Shechem. Shechem. They have a temple
to Baal-Berith. That is, they made
a covenant with one of the gods of the Canaanites,
Baal, Ba'al, at Shechem. They follow this
would-be king of Shechem. They're sitting at Shechem. I'm saying that
because, boy, has a lot changed since the book of
Joshua, just one book before. In Joshua chapter
24, we read this, Joshua gathered all the tribes
of Israel together at Shechem. At Shechem he made a covenant. At Shechem, we are told,
Joshua made a covenant with the people that day
and made for them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. It was at Shechem he said,
as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. It was at Shechem the people
of Israel said, we're with you. We'll serve the Lord. It was at Shechem that Joshua
said, you can't serve the Lord. You like serving other gods. It was at Shechem
they said, we'll put away the other gods
and worship only God. Now it's at Shechem that they
have to eat all those words, because they're
back to worshipping idols in that place. So Jotham, the
surviving kid, stands on Mount Gerizim, a very
interesting place, a very important place historically. Do you remember that in the
Book of Joshua in chapter 8, six tribal leaders stood on
Mount Gerizim, six of them stood on Mount Ebal. And the ones on Gerizim
gave out the blessings that Moses gave to them. If you obey God fully
with your heart, here's the blessings
God will give you. That was the mountain. Now he's standing
on that mountain. "And he says, listen
to me, men of Shechem, that God may listen to you." Now we have the very first
parable in the Bible. It's really a fable, but
it's a parabolic story. It's a story of figurative
language to bring home a point. And here it is. "The trees once went forth
to anoint a king over them, and they said to the
olive tree, reign over us. But the olive tree
said to them, should I cease giving my oil, with
which they honor God and men, and go to sway over trees? And the trees said
to the fig tree, you come and reign over us. But the fig tree said
to them, should I cease my sweetness
and my good fruit and go to sway over trees? Then the trees said to the vine,
you come and reign over us. But the vine said
to them, should I cease my new wine, which
cheers both God and men, and go to sway over trees? Then all the trees
said to the bramble"-- the weed, the tumbleweed,
the sticker bush-- "you come and reign over us. And the bramble
said to the trees, if in truth you anoint
me as king over you, then come and take
shelter in my shade." There's not much shade
and the tumbleweed. "But if not, let fire come
down out of the bramble and devour the
cedars of Lebanon." Now this is a parable. This is a fable. This is a picture. In the story, in the
fable, in the parable, the olive tree
represents Gideon. The fig tree and the
vine tree represent the legitimate sons of
Gideon, both of whom refused to rule over the
people and said, no, we're not going to sway over
people, sway over the trees. So they wisely refused the
position of leadership. Have you ever thought of this? Have you ever thought that
perhaps, in some cases, a promotion can be a demotion? Man, I'd love to have that job. I'd love to be promoted to king. No, you wouldn't if God
hasn't called you to it. If God hasn't called you
to it, then the promotion is actually a demotion. If God's called
you to deliver mail or UPS or God's called you
behind a desk or God called you to anything else,
don't stoop yourself to becoming a king
if God is not in it. A promotion can
become a demotion. And they knew God didn't
call me to do that. We're not going to
leave, giving that up. So they go to the tumbleweed,
Abimelech, the bramble king, the tumbleweed king. "And he says, if in truth
you anoint me as king, come and take shelter in my shade." There really isn't any shade. "But if not, let fire
come out of the bramble and devour the
cedars of Lebanon." You'll discover
that's a prophecy. You'll discover that
Abimelech will devour the people of Shechem,
and this king, Abimelech, will die at Shechem. "Now, therefore, if you have
acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, if you
have dealt well with Yerubbaal and his house, if
you have done him as he deserves-- for my
father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered
you out of the hand of Midian. But if you have risen up against
my father's house this day and killed his 70
sons on one stone and made Abimelech, the
son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem,
because he is your brother-- if then you have acted
in truth and sincerity with Yerubbaal and with
his house to this day, then rejoice in Abimelech and
let him also rejoice in you." Take shelter under his shade. "But if not, let fire
come from Abimelech and devour the men of
Shechem and Beth Millo." They're going to die in a fire
by the end of the chapter. "And let fire come
from the men of Shechem and from Beth Millo
and devour Abimelech. And Jotham ran away and fled." Of course he would do that,
otherwise he'd lose his life. And he went to beer. That doesn't mean he went
to the bar and had a beer. He went to a place called
Beer, which means well. And there are so
many wells, it could be one of a number of them. So he went over to
Beer, hid out, hung out. "And he dwelt there for fear
of Abimelech his brother. After Abimelech had reigned
over Israel three years"-- that's all he got, three years-- "God sent a spirit"-- notice this-- "God sent a spirit
of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem
and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously
with Abimelech." It's a very telling little text. It does not mean God
is the author of evil, but it does mean
God controls evil, that even evil spirits
are controlled by God. Even like 1 Samuel
chapter 16, where we are told a distressing spirit
from the Lord troubled King Saul. Job was the victim
of satan's attack against him, but
only at the control and the bequest, the
behest, of the Lord God, so that at the end of the
book, chapter 42 of Job, Job says to God, I know that
you can do everything and that no purpose of
yours can be withheld. According to Paul in
Ephesians chapter 1, God does all things according to
the counsel of His own purpose, His own will. So a spirit of ill
will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. The men of Shechem dealt
treacherously with Abimelech, so it's not working out. It's a bad deal,
"that the crime done to the 70 sons of
Yerubbaal might be settled and their blood be
laid on Abimelech their brother, who
killed them, and the men of Shechem, who aided him in
the killing of his brothers. And the men of Shechem set
men in ambush against him on the tops of the
mountains, and they robbed all who passed
by them along the way, and it was told Abimelech." Now, why would
this be a problem? Well, when you have
people ambushing travelers on the main road,
taking tolls from them, taking monies from
them, you are now depriving Abimelech of the tax
money that runs his government. So there's a guy who takes
advantage of this guy-- Gaal, verse 26,
obviously a Caananite. "Gaal, the son of Ebed,
came with his brothers and went over to Shechem,
and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him." So now there's a rival leader. "They went out into the
fields, gathered grapes from their vineyards and
trod them, and made merry"-- that's a nice biblical way
of saying they got smashed. This is pagan revelry. The grape harvest is June and
July in that part of the world, and it's obviously a festival,
where there's winemaking and wine drinking and
weird stuff that happens. "Then Gaal of the son of
Ebed said, who is Abimelech?" That's what you do
when you're soused. (SLURRING) Who is Abimelech? Who is Shechem that
we should serve him? Is he not the son of Yerubbaal
and is not Zebul his officer. Serve the men of Hamor
the father of Shechem-- why should we serve him? Now, Hamor was the guy who
founded the city of Shechem. Hamor goes all the way back
to the book of Genesis. So what he's saying is I don't
know who this Shechem dude is, but you should really
get back to your roots. Get back to the historical
roots of this city. Whatever that means. The guy's drunk. "If only this people
were under my hand then I would remove Abimelech. So he said to Abimelech,
increase your army and come out." We don't even know if
Abimelech's at the party, but he's choosing them off. He's saying, grab your men. Let's fight it out. "When Zebul, the ruler
of the city"-- this is the puppet governor under
the control of Abimelech-- when he heard the words
of Gaal the son of Ebed, his anger was aroused. He sent messengers to Abimelech
secretly and said, take note. Gaal the son of Ebed and his
brothers have come to Shechem, and here they are fortifying
the city against you. Now, therefore, get up by night. You and all the people
who are with you, lie in wait in the field." Ambush them. Kill them. "And it shall be, as soon as
the sun is up in the morning, that you shall rise
and rush upon the city. As soon as he and the
people who are with him come out against you, you
may then due to them as you find opportunity." In other words,
quell the uprising. Kill them all. "So Abimelech and
all the people who were with him rose by night,
laid in wait against Shechem in the four companies. When Gaal the son of
Ebed went out and stood in the entrance
of the city gate, Abimelech and all the
people who were with him rose from lying in wait. And when Gaal saw the people,
he said to Zebul, look, people are coming down from
the tops of the mountains. But Zebul said to him, you see
the shadows of the mountains as if they were men." So evidently, this takes place
very early in the morning when you think you see movement. It's just really a shadow. And so Gaal sees men
coming down in the shadows. It's a very early morning. It's dawn. And Zebul is trying to
buy time for Abimelech to get his men in place. He says, nah, you're
seeing things, man. Verse 37. "So Gaal spoke again
and said, see, people are coming down from
the center of the land, and another company is
coming from the diviner's terebinth tree. Then Zebul said to him, where
indeed is your mouth now"-- now that you're sobered up-- "with which you said,
who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Are not these the
people whom you despise? Go out, if you will,
and fight with them now. So Gaal went out, leading
the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him
and he fled from him. And many fell wounded, even
to the entrance of the gate." So a civil war is breaking out. "And Abimelech dwelt
at Arumah and Zebul drove out Gaal and his
brothers so that they would not dwell in Shechem. Came about on the next day
that the people went out into the field and
they told Abimelech. So he took his people, divided
them into three companies, and laid in wait in the field." Now, where did he get the
idea to divide his men into three companies? His dad Gideon did it. He had 300 men against
135,000 Midianites. He divided the camp
into three camps, and that's how he fought. So he's taking a play
from dad's playbook. "And he looked. There were the people
coming out of the city, and he rose against
them and attacked them. Then Abimelech and the
company that was with him rushed forward and
stood at the entrance of the gate of the city,
and the other two companies rushed upon all who were in
the fields and killed them. So Abimelech fought against
the city all that day and took the city, and killed
the people who were in it and demolished the city
and sowed it with salt." When you put salt on the
ground, it kills things. It poisons it. It ensures future sterilization,
that things will not grow there. By the way, archaeology
confirms the destruction of shack them from the 12th
century BC when this happened, and that it wasn't built again
until the reign of Jeroboam the First, which
we'll get to later on. Archaeology confirms
all of this. But here's the deal. This is his city. He's destroying his town, his
people, where his family lived. Numbskull. "When all the men of the
tower of Shechem heard that, they entered the stronghold of
the Temple of the god Berith. And it was told Abimelech
that all the men of the tower of Shechem
were gathered together, and Abimelech went
up to Mount Zilmon." That means black mountain. "He and all the people
who were with him." We don't exactly
know where that is, but Psalm 68 mentioned Zilmon. It's the only other mentioning
of that black mountain. And Abimelech took
an ax in his hand, cut down a bough
from the tree, took and laid it on his shoulder. And he said to the
people who were with him, what you have seen
me do, make haste and do as I have done. So each of the people likewise
cut down his own bough and followed Abimelech, put
them against the stronghold, and set the stronghold
on fire above them, so that all the people
of the tower of Shechem died, about 1,000
men and women." Remember that fable? Remember that parable? May fire come out
and destroy you if you have picked this
guy for the wrong reasons. "Then Abimelech went to Thebez,
and he encamped against Thebez and he took it." Not that it matters, not that
this is relevant to anyone here, but Thebez is on the way
to Beit She'an from Shechem. That wouldn't mean much to us,
but if you've been on a tour to Israel, you haven't
been to Shechem but you have been
to Beit She'an. So it's on that road. "Abimelech went
to Thebez, but"-- verse 15-- "there was a
strong tower in the city. And all the men and women
all the people of the city fled there and
shut themselves in. They went to the
top of the tower. So Abimelech came as far as the
tower and fought against it, drew near the door of the
tower to burn it with fire. But a certain woman
dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech's head
and crushed his skull." Man, you gotta love these
women in the book of Judges. The man are scared. Oh, I'm scared of the tower. The enemy's coming. There's a woman that says,
who's this Abimelech dude? Where's a millstone? I'm going to crush his skull. Millstones were what you
would grind mill with, and the upper millstone,
it was a hand mill. It was chronically shaped. It was several pounds. It's not one of
the big millstones that you would grind
in the city square. A chick isn't
going to lift that. A guy ain't going to lift that. So one of those hand
millstones, and just, let's say, I'm going to get ahead in life. Couldn't resist. "Then he called quickly to the
young man, his armor bearer." So evidently hit his
head but didn't kill him. Probably got a
subdural hematoma. "He said to his armor bearer,
draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me,
a woman killed him. So his young man thrust
him through and he died." Now, that was an
honorable death. Previously, remember
Gideon told his son to kill the kings of Midian
and he wouldn't do it? The reason he would
have his son do it is he didn't just want
to kill the kings of Midian, but he wanted to humiliate them. If you want to
humiliate a king, you have somebody untried in
battle, like a kid or a woman, kill you. So this is too much for him. He's like, man, I don't want
to die at the hand of a woman, kill me. So the guy said,
OK, I'll kill you. I'm your Huckleberry. "And when the men of Israel
saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every
man to his own place. Thus God repaid the
wickedness of Abimelech, he had done to his father
by killing his 70 brothers. And the evil of the
men of Shechem God returned on their own heads. And on them came the
curse of Jotham"-- that's that fable,
that parable-- "the son of Yerubbaal." So the first attempt
at a monarchy failed miserably,
as we see here, and that's because they
wanted independence from God instead of dependence on God. This is how it ends. Now, Galatians chapter 6
gives us this principle, "Be not deceived,
God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows
that will he also reap." It's significant that
he died by a stone, because he had killed
70 of the sons of Gideon on a single stone. You reap what you sow. God has a way of
evening that score. So you don't fight against God. Man, you will lose. You can't fight
against God's purpose. You will lose. Father, thank you
for the time we spent in these two very unusual,
very unnerving chapters, but we see a little bit of
insight into the kind of life lived when there was
no king in Israel and every man did what
was right in his own eyes. They had once made a covenant
with You in that place. Now they broke that covenant
with You in that place, and they worshiped
and served other gods. And they didn't want
you to rule over them. Even though Gideon said,
God will rule over you, they didn't want that. They wanted the very worst
of people to rule over them. Lord, tonight, we, as a small
group of people in this place, declare our dependence upon You. We who have freedoms
in this country declare our slavery to You. We are servants of
the most high God. We proudly bear that mark. May we serve You and only You. And in serving You,
give us a soft answer that turns away wrath. But in all cases,
in all events, I pray that you would give
us the boldness and stamina to serve the Lord as your
rule over us, in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's all stand and together. For more resources from Calvary
Church and Skip Heitzig, visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us during
this teaching in our Expound series.
