‘Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal’ (Judges 9:56-57).
The phrase ‘the lunatics have taken over the asylum’ could apply to the situation we find in Judges chapter 9. After Gideon’s death, once again, Israel had turned away from the worship of the Lord and was worshipping other gods. So Israel is in a poor state, but it’s about to get a lot worse. This time the threat is not some foreign invader as the threat comes from within!
Abimelech, Gideon son’s by his concubine from Shechem seizes power by appealing to his kinship with the people of Shechem. Dale Ralph Davis points out: ‘Blood is thicker than brains,’[1] and after hiring mercenaries with the money they have given him, he slaughters his seventy brothers (vs 1-5)! However, Gideon’s youngest son Jotham escapes.
Abimelech is made king. Yet Jotham spoils the party by climbing to the top of Mount Gerizim and, getting people’s attention, tells a witty fable about the trees wanting to elect a king. The premise is that all the trees that are seen as noble and suitable for Kingship are reluctant to do it. But the Bramble Bush, the most unproductive and unsuitable of them all, becomes their King (vs6-15)! Jotham’s point is simple, they are getting the King they deserve due to their lack of gratitude and their bad treatment of his family (8:35) and the murder of his brothers (vs16-21).
What follows proves Jotham’s point. By the Lord’s doing, Abimelech and the people of Shechem fall out. The leaders of Shechem take to / or at least encourage highway robbery to undermine Abimelech’s authority. Also, when: ‘Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives’ (v26) they decide to have him as their leader and even arrange a party to celebrate after gathering in their grapes. Some Pagan worship later, with the wine flowing, it all goes to Gaal’s head and he’s boasting about his position and bad mouthing Abimelech (which is not unreasonable). However, this drunken boast backfires when he says it’s time to remove Abimelech and the news gets back to Abimelech (vs26-29)!
Abimelech is advised to attack by night by Zebul who brought the news about Gaal to him. He does this setting: an ambush against Shechem (v34). Gaal, probably suffering from the king of all hangovers and regretting that he was a bit free with his comments about Abimelech, is forced to go out and fight against him. Not surprisingly, the battle goes badly and Abimelech succeeds it driving Gaal and his relatives out of Shechem. Abimelech, living up to his reputation of being a brutal and vengeful individual, massacres the inhabitants of the city and raises it to the ground. But some of the leaders have escaped and taken refuge, with others, in the ‘Tower of Shechem.’ Abimelech, adds to his already sorry reputation by setting the tower on fire, which results in the massacre of: ‘about 1000 men and women’ (v49). But he hasn’t finished his revenge yet (vs30-49)!
His next target is the city of Thebez which he captures except for: ‘a strong tower within the city’ (v51). Abimelech figures he can win the battle in the same way he did at Shechem, and so he fights to get in a position where he can set fire to the tower. Unfortunately for him, a woman just happens to have a millstone handy, takes aim, and Abimelech suffers severe head injuries. Figuring it would be better to have his armour bearer kill him, than the humiliation of the common knowledge he was killed by a woman, he asked him to finish him off which he does (vs50-54).
In the aftermath (vs55-57), we get an accurate picture of how people felt about Abimelech as: ‘when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home’ (v55). No one has any enthusiasm to continue flighting Abimelech’s cause. But we are reminded that even when there is a godless judge the Lord is in control as he had: ‘returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers’ (v56) as well as punishing the men of Shechem (v57).
If Gideon was someone who grew in faith to be used by the Lord, but lost sight of that, Abimelech was just downright bad from the beginning! He was no more than an ambitious murdering tyrant who would see a grudge through to the end! So, once again, we are reminded human leadership fails. What we need is God’s king, the Lord Jesus Christ who: ‘came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many’ (Mark 10:45).
[1] Dale Ralph Davis, Judges, Such a Great Salvation (Fearn, Christian Focus Pubilcations,2000) 122.