Judges 9
PLAINLY the state of Israel was getting worse; the son of Gideon did not tread in his father’s earlier footsteps. The former lessons are forgotten; God Himself is given up for Baal-Berith. The source of some of the evil of the ninth chapter we may trace back to Gideon, whose heart was ensnared by Satan when the victory over the Midianites was complete. Popularity and worldly comfort are dangerous for God’s people; they lost to Gideon and his children the far greater rewards of a walk with God.
Abimelech, son of Gideon, planning to be made king over Israel, went to his native city, Shechem, and so won over to himself his mother’s relations, and through them, the people of the place, that they were disposed to follow him. He hired “vain and light persons” (verse 4) with money taken from the false god Baal-Berith by the people of Shechem, and his next step was to go to his father’s house and murder all his seventy brothers except one who escaped by hiding himself. The citizens of Shechem, far from punishing this man of blood, now gathered together and made Abimelech their king.
Jotham, sole survivor of the seventy sons, delivered a warning, but it appears to have passed without much notice at the time; we hear no more of him, but his testimony was shortly fulfilled. God was pat in their thoughts, whether Shechemites or followers of Abimelech. He had been given up by them for Baal-Berith, and violence and deceit thereafter marked them.
The two last verses of the chapter give the divine side of the whole matter. It was impossible that God should pass over sin. Perhaps to Abimelech it seemed only a question of getting rid of his brothers and thereby becoming king, and afterward of enforcing his claims: the people of Shechem had been for Abimelech, partners in his crime and when their feeling, changed toward him they turned away from him. But God was to be reckoned with nothing escaped His eves, and judgment came; the “wickedness” of the one and “all the evil” of the other, was rendered to them.
Reader, let me press upon you, if unsaved, Romans 2:3, “And thinkest thou this, ........that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” You may have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1) who is now offered you as a Saviour, but do not delay. Now is the accepted time with God.
ML 11/29/1925