Judges 9 - The Rule Of Abimelech

kind of looking forward to that as well all right let's open our Bible tonight judges chapter 9 as we continue our study through the book of Judges we've told you I know more than once that judges from a chronological standpoint just follows the book of Joshua but whereas Joshua is a 25 year timespan this book is about 340 years it takes us all the way from the death of Joshua till the birth of the first King in Israel Samuel but it isn't a happy book there's no outlet there's a lot of good lessons to be learned certainly but it is a very depressing book because we find you know a people of God who through generation after generation just kind of do their own thing and as such there was years of neglect and and waste there are 15 judges or or 15 leaders I should say they're not all judges the one we're going to look at tonight certainly is not who the Lord will use during these generations that arise after Joshua's death the problem certainly in one of the big problems coming out of the second generation is that no one passed along their relationship with God so even the generation right after Joshua found a group of folks who didn't know the Lord himself personally and they weren't very aware of his power Joshua's group was they were not and as a result because they didn't pass that along you find this habit that that is you know indicative of the nation away from God that they go from a good time of rest to rebellion ultimately with the people they left in the land they the the idolaters and all to a time when God pays them for going in that direction the retribution comes because the Lord is interested in being no close so he puts their fire unto their feet he shows them the difficulty of life like that and at some point sometimes quickly sometimes very slowly they come back to the Lord they repent of their sin and they admit that he's right and then Lord sends them a deliverer a judge there's repentance first restoration rest settles in again for twenty years thirty years forty or sometimes two generations and then it's right back to the kind of thing and so it's a tough book to read but it is one that unfortunately can be repeated in our lives as well God is gracious but God you know the Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God and that's because God doesn't just let you lay there he really does want to move you forward and is interested that you do well for the last couple of weeks we've looked at chapters 6 8 6 7 & 8 through the life of Gideon he was the fifth judge we saw great lesson now how God prepares weak people to do his bidding Gideon early on was a very humble kid he was weak in his faith God did everything he could to build up his faith one when he needed proof God gave it to him when he you know was growing the Lord put him to the test and asked him to do certain things and yet he continued to help him even when he hesitated great victory over a very predominant threat the Midianites through chapter 7 and then unfortunately later on in his life Gideon kind of fell off the wagon spiritually he didn't do very well we didn't finish very well if you will he did so well that the people asked if he and his children could be their king and he could know God wants to be your king not me and so that was the way he left it but he said but I would like to take up an offering and he did made a huge statue of something maybe to honor himself we don't know but it was you know tons of gold and it caused his house to stumble and it caused Israel to stumble and a man that early on was such a help to get them back on their feet turned out with a great lapse of faith kind of towards the end of his life so tonight we pick up one chapter and it's only one and this guy's not a guy I like very well but we're we've got to learn from Abimelech he was one of the sons of Gideon his name means my father is king how you think about that they came to get him and said be our King you and your sons he said oh no God wants to be your king and then he has a son a names of my father's a king so he's reaching a little bit isn't he for glory and yet the idol he made like I said at the end chapter 8 is to honor himself the background of our chapter tonight begins in verse 29 of the previous chapter where it says Aruba bel the son of joash when and dwelt in his own house gideon had seventy sons his oak offspring by many wise and he had a concubine in Shechem at the Canaanite land who Boram a son whose name was my father is king of Emily but gideon the son of joash died at a good old age they buried him in the throne of his father joash in oprah and then it was as soon as getting was dead that the children of israel again played the harlot with the bales and and made balberith their God and then the children of Israel didn't remember the Lord their God how he had delivered them from the hand of their enemies on every side nor did they show any kindness to the house of Giroux Bevelle which is Gideon in accordance with the good that he had done for Israel so that's the setting guru Baba means may baled contend for himself it was a name that his dad had given to Gideon when he had come at the direction of Lord and wife's got that Bale altar in his dad's backyard you remember and that the family are and the men of the city that they came and said will send your boy out here he destroyed our gods and and dad's eyes you know kind of were open and he said well wait a minute why does a God need your protection let him fight for himself let him contend for himself he changed the name of his boy to to Zerubbabel and it is in this rest of this chapter because all of the rubyville followers who you know make themselves prominent in this chapter you know or go the same way of bail they can't protect themselves they ultimately have to answer to the learning so you'll find Gideon's name but it is used that saruba building throughout chapter 9 so Gideon has 70 kids from a lot of different wives that's a pearly good flaw right and weakness and then he has another son a number 71 if you will with a concubine a Canaanite woman who dwelt in Shechem but it is this one woman from our sight sorry this one son from this Canaanite woman that takes center stage tonight not as a judge he's in your list that we gave you of judges because he over the people at this time so you have them in order but this isn't a guy that God raised up to help his people this is a guy that raised himself up to help himself and like I said he's a real creep and I think we'll learn that may be the lesson of the chapter is you know here's life in the midst of a nation that is far from God more often than not except for the periods whether ledwell by godly folks in response to cries from the faithful few and it isn't even always the the whole nation you know here's the here's the way life is when everyone does whatever they want to do in their own eyes so this guy was not called by the Lord and so you don't read you know and the judge died and the people did evil and then they suffered at the hands of so-and-so and then they cried out on the Lord brought them another judge that's how its kind of happened up until this point but not now so this is the end forget Gideon but because of the way he ended and what his son I think saw his wife he left these boys behind at least this one that was a great detriment and a stumbling block not only to his household but to the nation so verse 1 says this then them elect the son of Giroux baba went to Shechem or he went back to the house of his mother if you will it to his mother's brothers and spoke with him and all over the house of his mother's father and said please speak in the hearing of all of the men of Shechem what is better for you that seventy of the sons of jerubbaal would ruin over you or that one would reign over you and remember I am your own flesh and bones and his mother's brother spoke to all of those concerning him in the ears of all of the men of Shechem and their hearts were inclined to follow Abimelech for he said or they said he is our brother like I said this guy was not the fella that was chosen by God this was a guy who really had an ambition to make a name for himself he is distinct from all of the other judges by the fact that God did not choose him there was no national repentance that wasn't a response to the people finally saying gods were going in the wrong direction which they were but he wasn't a judge like I said he was you can write creep across the chapter if you are you know he seeks power with extreme violence he is very simple in his ambition he had the taste for the life of his dad's and so you know here's one of the I think for me one of the saddest chapters in one of the saddest books in the Bible I William Penn years ago wrote if we're not going to be ruled by God then we're going to be ruled by tyrants and here's a guy that because the nation was unwilling to let God rule really tasted that that truism that tyrants then come to the top you know I think about that in terms of our own nation tonight that you know if we continue to set the Lord aside we'll be ruled by someone other than you know the Lord Himself I mean God you know as much as he wants to bless you know calls us out this was a time in Israel's history you know for 1382 - 10 30 or 40 BC so you know 1,400 years before Jesus but it was a time in the nation's history where there was no leadership no King no counsel everyone did right what was right in their own eyes you read that that very phrase in chapter 17 of this book verse 6 at the end of the book as well chapter 21 verse 24 twice the Lord said this is the life that these folks in this time we're leading it's pure existentialism which means that there's no absolutes right everyone has their idea of how things should be every one determines what's right everyone seeks to follow what they believe they should do at the time daven in about a thousand BC wrote Psalm 113 in he wrote if the foundations are destroyed then what can the righteous do and the word foundation is the word in Greek for Armenian Hebrew for moral standards or the word is literally underpinnings underpinnings shafa it means that to hold up if the if what holds up the society is gone what are you but what what can the righteous do you know it's kind of our our way of life and you see it reflected here if you pull out a you know money out of your pocket and look at it it'll say In God We Trust but but that's not true of us anymore not as a nation or or we might say well which God do we trust in reality I think that we have no we're not only not a Christian nation anymore we've just simply redefined what a Christian means right so we've defied decided that we can deify our way of life and choose what's important to us and and leave God completely out of the picture and that's just the way that we live we didn't start that way I mean way back in I wasn't a big history buffs I was big into sigh sigh you know a biology and sciences but you know the Mayflower Compact which was written onboard a ship back in their 1600s you know their initial statement was that they had come by the grace of God to this gland for the glory of God and for the advancement of our Christian faith that's what drove us at least initially that was far different than what we have now and now even the you know the Declaration of Independence talked about all men being equal created equal by the way not evolved equally endowed by their creator bribed with an alien life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness so so here we come at least historically into a time of Israel's history God's people to a time where the moral and and the spiritual under pending for the nations had all but then set aside which allowed them the rise of a guy like Abimelech who literally could find support for the slaughter of sixty descendants of his father so that he could take the throne for himself that's the same kind of climate that we find ourselves in we we redefine what being a Christian we call ourselves Christian but I think you'd be hard-pressed to find that from a you know a societal standpoint that you could make a list of things we are actually doing as Christians not in the church but in the nation itself so zerubabbel and that's why i said the name is used because here's a you know that really is let bill defend himself and here comes a bim elect and his proposal to his people now you know gideon was dead and his thought was what we need to replace him and by the way no judges have succession rights you don't find that in the book of Judges you define it with kings you don't find that with judges God just hand-picked individuals didn't mean that their descendants would would serve after them so here comes Gideon's boy Abimelech who though there is no right of familial succession cease to exploit the relationship he has with the Canaanites for his own benefit so he goes to his mother's family he goes to his mother's country I don't doubt that as a outcasts of the family being born to a prostitute or a kurtas on if you will that he was set aside from the other 70 gods I'm sure there was some some hatred back and forth and some you know some isolation if you will maybe some mistreatment as well by the other 70 sons of Gideon Gideon put this boy in a difficult place but at the same time you know concubines were usually at least in the Old Testament owned by or used by the rich to show their power or their their ownership but they live with their own families they didn't live with their husbands they lived at their own people and amongst their own families and and just received is sometimes visits if you will from the man of the house Shechem was a city that was right at their crossroads between the veeram ah via amara the verum of the vir mars the road along the coast of the mediterranean and the king's highway which was inland along the jordan river so there's these two very big roads that go north and south in israel there was at the time and then there's this middle ground where it is intersected by the main road and Shechem is on main kind of trade route Shechem was the place that God appeared to Abraham and said this land is going to be yours it was a pretty important place in in Israel's history history it was a place that that Jacob moved he bought some land he dug a well it turned out to be the same well that Jesus would set out in jeonse for it in Psych car or in Shechem if you will and have a discussion with a a woman Samaritan about who the Lord was and he would share the gospel with her it was the place Joshua brought the whole nation when he came into the land to stand on those two mountains remember a ball and giri's I'm Joshua I think chapter eight and declare God's promises to the those who would walk with him and God's judgment to those who would not so here's a biblical is in an opera not Oprah over ax or don't miss for him and he goes 30 miles to Shechem where this concubine and his whether lives with her family and makes them an offer based on blood and options here's your choice you got me and I'm on your side who here like this we're family or you got those seventy funds over there of Gideon who who really want to destroy us who would you rather rule over you many or one what would you rather choose I guess in principle I would have answered that I'd rather have a good leader than a bad committee I don't know about you I remember hearing years ago that old joke about a camel is just a horse put together by a committee nothing went in the right spot you know so a bit like speaks to his Canaanite family in Shem and gives them the choice between he and the seven sons of Gideon out mind you know one had the right to the throne judges were chosen by God but you want me or one of your own you know and the implication was you'll get favored status with me it sounds like a line politician still use right just vote for me I'll give you everything you want until you vote for them and then they forgot verse 3 tells us that it didn't take long for the family to decide he's the guy he's our brother and so they gave to him verse for 70 shekels of silver from the temple of bear bail vareeth which was with which Abimelech hired some worthless and reckless men political committee and they followed him so all the uncles thought this was a good idea they even finances can pay with money that had been given to their false god interesting isn't it they're going to donate religion to false religious funding to be the murder of everyone else for their benefit this really is Saddam Abimelech right here's the guy with such lust for power locked up in a false religious system that he just knows no bounds to his wickedness he's the Hitler and the Marcos and and the Duvalier and the Qaddafi and Hussein and Arafat and Al Asad and Khomeini all of them wrapped up into into one these are these are men that come to power at the and on the blood of many others and and there's there's able to do it without kind of a checks and balances their self seeking individuals and you find that kind of climate in this time of Israel's history in book of Judges so unlike you know Moses or Samuel or or Joshua who denied themselves for the sake of others so Abimelech gets money from the false god temple he uses it to buy worthless men the word worthless means devoid of moral character the word reckless means pretty much what it needs in English impulsive or reactive they weren't very much thinkers and they gave to him seventy shekels of silver now that's not very much money even in that in that time but I think from a symbolic standpoint it was kind of like saying we'd rather give each seventy chuckles to you rather than give each one to these other seventy boys and we're voting if you will for you now notice the name of the place of the of the of the offering of the false you know a temple the name Val barrese the words balberith translate Lord of the covenant which unfortunately is now here taken by a false god thriving in the heart of the Land of Israel Israel that God had given to them while 12 miles away from Shechem is Shiloh and Shiloh is the place where God had put his name right it's whether the children of Israel came to worship and to sacrifice it was the only place they could offer sacrifice and 12 miles away stood a tabernacle where God was known as the lord of the Covenant exact same name is a side to this false God and that happens a lot doesn't it the enemy just comes and he tries to to take and obscure I've to his false deity that which we know about God and so you know a little bit of truth when mixed with a lot of lies it makes it look like the truths and that's exactly what was going on here because they had left these false gods in the land if we if we let it percolate around us you know Satan's going to take as much as you can get because his goal is is to is to defeat you and the God that you serve and be recognizes God in the eyes of the people and it's exactly what is going on here with a bit motive so he's got money from a a false religious system he's got people that are standing with him for ethnic and and relational issues they stand against God and His people we can blame some of it I guess on Gideon's you know years of life after he had done well but but certainly he'd done a lot of good for Israel to the Lord marks that out even marks is his life and some of his choices in Hebrews 11 as ones of faith first 5 tells us that he took he went to his father's house in Oprah and he killed so he makes a 30-mile trip and he kills all 70 of his brothers on one stone except for a young man named Jonathan the youngest of zuru Lebel who was left who had hidden himself so on one stone would suggest in one place ritualistically barbarically they they took these men throughout threats to the throne and hid mind and they killed them all in one place years ago it was Plato the Greek philosopher he wrote he wrote might is right to write but I'll tell you that might in the hands of a wicked man is not right right we'll take a back seat when wicked men rule there's that scripture and I think it's proverbs maybe 29 maybe not I'll just guess that if that's where it is that when the righteous are in authority the people will rejoice but when the wicked rule people groan I think that's right that's what you'll find here right when the when the righteous rule then then there's blessing for all but when the wicked come into power and I think you've seen that even in our day today you know you might say to you have you been groaning lately it's because the wicked when they rule well here's this young man see 69 of his brothers slaughtered by this Abimelech if you will he escapes with his life he hides from the wicked men of Shechem that come 230 miles and we read in verse 6 that all of the men of Shechem quickly gathered together at Beth mellow and they went and they made them like the king next to the terebinth tree at the pillar which stands in Shechem so notice what they did they wanted to make him King know and called anyone King who died and made you King but he that's what he was after so he escaped this young man Jotham and then in this place and check them very well-known they go by the tree and they declare they do a little ceremony and they say you're our King you might want to ride in the margin Genesis chapter 12 verse 6 because you'll read way back in Abraham's time that when Abraham passed through the land he came to Shechem as far as set it says as the carob and tree which is mentioned here and the Canaanites lived in the land and the Lord appeared on to Abraham there and said to him next to this terrible tree this land is yours I'm going to give you this land and he built an altar there the Lord who had appeared dim but here we have the same mention of the same terebinth tree at a monument or at a pillar which was marked in check when I suspect that it might very well have been there all of this time to mark out that place where the Lord had made promises to Abraham well we read in verse 7 that it came to pass that when they told it to Jotham he went and he stood upon the mountain buries him on the top he lifted up his voice and he cried out and he said to these men of Shechem and and Abimelech down in the valley listen to me you men of Shechem that God may listen to you the trees once were once went forth to anoint a king over them and they said to the olive tree reign over us but the olive tree said no should I give you giving you my oil which with which they can honor God a man and go sway over trees and then the tree said to the fig tree well then you come and reign over us on the fig tree said shall I cease my sweetness and my good fruit so I can go to sway over the trees and then the tree said to the vine will you come then and reign over us but the vine said should I cease my new wine which tears both God and man and and go to slay over other trees and then finally the tree said to the bramble bush you come and reign over us and the bramble bush said to the tree if in truth you anoint me as king over you I will come and take shelter you can take shelter in my shade and if not let fire come out of the bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon now understand this young guy goes up to the top of mountain gorilla mitt maybe as a 15 minute hike it's very low it overlooks the city but because it's positioned right across from Mount Ebal there's a valley in between and like I said when the children of Israel came into the land they walked between these mountains and from one they would hear the blessings about from the other the cursings of disobedience and so it's in that same place the acoustics are wonderful and and I think that Bach Jocelin wanted to call upon the Lord to deal with these guys but he couldn't talk long he'd have to kind of speak and get out because they could run up again means to have you know delivered his message and bailed but he gives them the short little parable and notice from verse 7 down through at verse 15 here he personifies trees in his parable and he brings up all of the important and fruitful trees in Israel the ones that would give them oil for their lamps and and would make wine you know for their consumption and you know and so he speaks to the trees of just all of them say no no you know the olive tree the fig tree the the vineyard we're supplying good things to God's people we're not going to stop to rule or seek that position where we found our place and we're and we're fruitful in the place that God has put us and so they were busy serving others and finally notice the trees he cried out to the bramble bush the only thing that was left a a worthless kind of tumbleweed found in abundance in the in the Samaritan Hills in fact there are plenty of stories of the heat being so hot during the summer that because these are these are dead kind of bushes that they combust and actually burst into flames because of the heat so these are these are not food sources this is a dead weed kind of rolling along and so the boy of getting job infested and finally they come to you and they call upon you to be their king and you say well if you want to vote me in you know I'll provide shelter for you but look if you're not there legally or rightfully Jotham says at the end here in verse 15 may fire come out of you and devour the Cedars of Lebanon these folks that have tried to take power and may you be destroyed by them and so he ends by saying to this low kind of growing weed as tumbleweed this thorny bush that's dead you know you're the one now that's going to rain or you're dead to the things of God he gives the application verse 16 he said therefore if you have acted in truth and in sincerity in thirty and making a bimolecular King if you have dealt well with the Rubel in this house and have done to him as he deserves for my father fought for you he risked his life he delivered you from the hand of the Midianites but you have risen up against my father's house this day and killed his seventy sons on one stone and you have made them elect the son of his female servant king over the men of Shechem because he is your brother now if you have done this in truth and sincerity with guru belt with his house this day then rejoice in at brim elect and may he rejoice anew but let fire come from a brim Allah and destroy the men of Shechem and and and Bethel me low and let fire come out of the men of Shechem and from Vesely low and devoured emilich and trust him ran away and fled and he high he had written hid not in beer the air and we do out there because he was afraid so you know he's the last guy left he was the only one left so the application if you've really been honest about this humanish Ekrem then rejoice in your decision if you've treated us horribly if you've done this wickedly in murdering my family then may you destroy each other that's really really what his it's pretty specific isn't it and then Jotham hightailed it out of there he doesn't want to be caught verse 22 is interesting because it says after a Billick had reigned over israel for three years then God sent a spirit of ill will between Abdullah and the men of Shechem and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with a BIM aleksa you know put yourself a little jothomas placed the one kid who's looking to the Lord and and he's cried out for God's judgement and three years take place and nothing happens this guy literally gets away with murder right we we always say well the Lord will take care of it but at some point we though be good if you could do it now and I don't know how he could wait you know a bit look hadn't faced the consequences of his actions we read three years I'm sure that for Jaffa most it was three it seemed like thirty years God's not in a hurry he'll have the last word his judgment will prevail his ways are beyond our finding out but it took three years Longfellow I remember having to read long talk from school he went wrote he once wrote that the mills of God grinds slowly but they grind very fine you know whether if he he gets to the bottom of it doesn't he so in time God's judgment now begins to come and it you know as we were paying attention it is exactly the thing that this young man had cried out for prophetically if you guys are wicked may you destroy each other and then three days later three years later the Lord sends a spirit of ill will between you know Abimelech and the men of Shechem who had financed him and supported him and stood by him and helped him hide out as he had done this painted heinous act so you know there was no retribution or responsibility seen for three years but then God sent a spirit of ill-will in Greek it reads mutual mistrust God put out the devising you know antagonism between Abdul Malik and the men that once supported him of shechem and God began to stir up difficulty I know sometimes we wonder how the Lord works you know and I didn't see what he did but isn't it interesting that God gets credit here for stirring up animosity between two very hateful folks who done some pretty awful things and the Lord using them to destroy each other while the righteous young man sits and watches from afar so the the spirit of ill-will begins to work amongst these wicked men and the way that it worked first 23 verse 24 so that it says verse 23 the men of Shechem did treacherously with a bit of luck how did they do that that the crime done to the 70 sons of jewelry all might be settled and their blood be laid upon have been like their brother who had killed them and on the men of Shechem who had aided him in the killing of the brothers so the men of Shechem did set men in ambush against him at the top of the mountains and they robbed all who came by that way and it was told to Abimelech so here's the spirit of ill-will the the men of Shechem who had helped Abimelech kind of come to power now seek to use the place that he is ruling for themselves their wicked guys they start to put people along the trout you know the roads the crossroads they begin to rob travelers right Abimelech gets a bad name people are saying well don't go through his neck of the wood and it's not safe there he begins to lose you know income if you will and they created this tension and mistrust between a Bhim elect and these men who had kind of propped him up that we're now using him while that's going on and in adem elect when t5 hears about it verse 26 tells us that the spark of the seller named guile the son of eber came with his brothers to Shechem and the men of Shechem began to put their confidence in this guy that kind of just showed up if you will this upstart right this vagabond kind of criminal and he went out into the fields and he gathered grapes from the vineyards and he trod them and he made merry and they went into the house of their gods they ate and they drank and they got together in their drunkenness and began to curse the god they elected last time of Emelin and god the son of bed said who is this Abimelech who and who is Shechem that we should serve Him is he not the son of Juba Belen is not Z bel his officer so served the men of Haymore the son of Shechem why should we serve him if only this people were under my authority I'd remove them elec and so he said to have them elect increase your army and and let's go at it together and Z bell or Isabel the the ruler there in the city had heard these words from God l and his anger was aroused and and he sent messengers to Abdul Malik and he said you should take notes at the selig al and his brothers have come to Shechem and they're here for fighting the city against you spirit of ill-will God is at work sometimes you wonder where the Lord is like what he's doing well here comes this like I said vagabonder this you know this scoundrel if you will he arrives in Shechem the people embraces his kind of outward behavior he brings drinks for everyone he begins to curse you know whoever's over them and exalt himself I was in charge man we could handle it and then he begins to yell out loud they have a relic shop manimals work it out in the back yard you know or in the alley let's just meet together and find out who could be who and one of the noble notable political figures at the time in Shechem was a an officer named Z Bell and he happened to be working for Abimelech and he's offended and goes tells his boss and says like there's this loudmouth upstart manage plan and he's looking laying for you you better deal with this so we were told in verse 34 that Abimelech and all of the people who are with him came that night and they lay in wait against Shechem in four different companies and when God the Son of he bid went out and stood in the entrance of the city Abimelech and the people who were with him rose up from lying in wait and when God saw the people he said to this fella this political figure Z Bale who worked for who worked for a bimolecular of the mountains and z-bo said oh you're just seeing shadows it just looks like men it's not so he was buying them some time and gal looked again he said look see there's people down there in the center of the land and there's another company over there by the diviners terrible through tree and the Bell said well indeed in you where indeed is your mouth now big mouth and what were you saying about who is a bimolecular despised we'll go out if you will and fight with him now go check on Julia he'll show you who hits so guy went out leading the men of Shechem and fought with the Bema lash and Abimelech chased him down he fled from him and many were wounded all the way to the entrance of the gate and Abimelech dwelt at Aramis and Z Bell drove out el and his brother saw that there were not anywhere to be found and shook him anymore and it came to pass on that next day that the people went out into the field and they told a brim alack all that had taken place so you know this guy is pushed to a fight he wants the fight Abimelech comes to fight him and in the mind of a bum like he's furious he gets rid of this guy but now he has to look at this everyone in shechem turned on me in a moment I can't trust any of them so he's not about to leave quickly he's already killed for this position he doesn't mind killing the entire city if necessary to maintain his power and so he intends to to bring everything upon the city itself to its leaders and all of the people making choices and so we read in verse 42 that the people came out of the city on the next day and they spoke to him and so he took his people divided them into three companies and waited late and late for the fields again in the field and he looked and there were people coming out of the city and he will rose up against them he attacked them and Abimelech along with his company that were with him they rushed forward entered into the gate of the city and the other two companies rushed in as well into the fields and killed everyone there and Abimelech fought against the city all day he took the city he killed the people with it and he demolished the city and he sewed it with salt wow this guy can't be stopped the practice of the people in those days was that they would stay in the walls at night it's safe for protection they would come out in the morning into the neighboring fields to do harvesting and work in the phase and then they would come in again at night they thought with what guy I'll take it out and the overthrow of the men of Shechem that you know the roads were no longer being ambushed you could go back to work and they thought it was safe what they didn't realize was a bit like blaming them all and so he and his loyal men waited slaughtered the people took the city salted it so nothing would grow and left everyone for dead this in the country that is just it's God's people in God's land and yet God is nowhere to be found sad verse 46 well then all of the men of the tower of Shechem had heard what had happened and they entered the stronghold of the temple of their God buried the lord of the covenant and it was told to them like well these guys these are the big shots now in town they were you know they were hiding in Washington DC and and and so they told Abimelech that all of the men of the tower of the second were being gathered together so Abimelech went up to the mount to mountain salman he and all of the people with him and he took and axed in his head and he cut down a bow from a tree and he laid it on his shoulders and he said to the people what you're seeing me do now you make a sand do as well and so the people with him all cut down a branch they all followed him look up to the stronghold and then they set the stronghold on fire above them so that the people in the tower died and there were a thousand men and women terrorists the sky and Abimelech went to Stephen and he encamped there because apparently he thought this town six miles away also had something to do with the conspiracy he wasn't done with his anger so a Bimala quent to Phoebus he encamped against it he took it and there was also a strong tower in that city and so all of the men and women that people of the city they fled and they shut themselves in there at the top of the tower being elects ed to himself well this I know how this works so he went as far as the tower and he fought against and he drew near with to the door of the temple he was going to burn it with fire except this time there was a certain woman up above him who dropped a millstone on his head and crushed his skull kind of the end of him and he was quickly and then he quickly too called to his young men his armor bearers and he said draw your soul and sword and kill me less people will save me a woman is killed and so the young man said fine here you go and he's dead so live by the stone die by the stone that's what I'm thinking right he he killed three people on one stone you remember reading that now I got hit in the head by a stone and look at it the depth of his foolish varieties he's worried about being remembered as dying by the hands of a one well guess what it's written right here in the Bible you can't hide him as if this isn't enough if you if you go forward I think to second Samuel Chapter eleven there is a question that the Lord is asking and speaking and he said who struck Abimelech wasn't it a woman so there's even a quotation there so he didn't get away with it but here in the picture look what the Lord doesn't wiping out the enemy that you know one guy wiping out a whole group and city of people who are all enemies of God's people so inadvertently so even as the people were not walking with God God is still very good to protect them and keep them from from evil but notice the evil that kind of destroys from within doesn't it and so the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead and they went home everyone to his own place and God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech which he had done to it his father by killing his seventy brothers and all of the men the wicked of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads and on them came the curse of Jotham this the son of Zerubbabel so in the end you know both evil men of Shechem and Abimelech meet God's judgment God will have his way sooner or later with the same measure you measure out it will be measured to you again but but understand that this is the culture in which these things could take place well by the time we get to chapter 10 notice it begins with the words after abemolik there arose to save Israel not a bit like he didn't save anything but then God begins to raise up these folks that we know very little about verses one to a fella that ruins for 23 years verses three four and five another fella that wrote that reigns for twenty-two years and then we will find ourselves with Jeff the first really the next couple of chapters before we spend like five weeks with Samson who I can't relate to at all father thank you tonight as we sit together that you are a God who has far greater plans for us than we certainly oftentimes find in our own lives and cultures because we find ourselves living amongst people that are ungodly and don't want anything to do with you and to the effect or the extent that they have an effect upon our walks with you we suffer and though you will still have your way you'll have the last say in all things Lord we realized that the influence of a few can turn the hearts of many that you can save by many or by few and so tonight as we sit together we we think about our country and and what we won't allow and what we will allow that will embrace sinfulness and and wickedness and yet there there's plenty of criticism to be had if you're a believer and stand upon God's word that you will be isolated and mocked and sometimes just set aside and yet you've called us to be a witness so that these kind of things that we read about here in a nation that was all doing their own thing would not happen to us that we would be spared and that there would be many Jotham x' in our community Lord standing for you and crying out for you to work and may I encourage you that it's not hopeless it shouldn't even be discouraging in the sense that God is able to do far more than we could ask her thing now Jonathan and his armor-bearer sure had tremendous trust in God to do impossible things and and I trust that God with your life in mind living in our generation can make a world of difference in the lives of tens of thousands of people that the Lord can do that and he can spare us the national calamity that we read here which invariably if we if we don't speak up cry out and intercede it's going to happen to us because when the righteous rule there's blessing else the people are going to grow god help us to be the vessels through whom and by whom his word and his spirit are poured out in our neighborhoods our schools at work our families that God might do great things through your life in mind that we might take the warning of the book of Judges and especially these these three hundred and forty years of up and down and all around and take it to heart and be those judges be those delivers be those those men and women that stand for the things of God and that you would be glorified through them so Lord working us work with us and when we dismiss after a little bit we'll have some of our pastors up front if you'd like to just pray tonight if God would maybe bring you out from a worldly way of life maybe just deliver you from from being caught up in what is so acceptable around this book man God hasn't called us to walk that path we have a path that's light and and this is merciful and gracious and washed in his blood how blessed we are the challenge is great our God is greater so we will trust in him when we in Jesus name

Channel: morningstarcc

Views: 4,365

Rating: 4.6595745 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: M9HwaQwfi3c

Length: 47min 43sec (2863 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 10 2017