Title Judge 0956 The Way of the Wicked
Contents
The way of the wicked (Judges 9:56-57)
56 So God repaid the evil that Abimelech had done to his father by killing seventy of his brothers. 57 And God repaid all the wickedness of the people of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.
I. Introduction
If you are faced with a situation like the abduction in Afghanistan, as a Christian, you may wonder if God is really the ruler of history.
Does God Live? And are you still interfering in history and ruling this world? Then why do churches and believers suffer, and God-ignoring people, or pagans, prevail? Do you make the unrighteous and unclean grab the hilt of their sword and shake it, and the righteous barely grasp the blade and make them panic? Does God Really Live?
However, this kind of question is actually not just a question we have today, it is a very old question. A psalmist is asked, “Where is your God?” from those around him in unspeakable pain. Job, who lived in the 12th century B.C., also raised the question: “Why should the righteous suffer?” Shushaku Endo, a Japanese Christian writer, also wrote a novel called “Silence” through the mouths of believers who suffered during the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan and asked, “Is God alive? Does it work in human life?” asked. So did the Jews under the Nazis.
A man named Weizel, who miraculously survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, wrote in his book 'Night':
The secret police hung two Jewish men and a boy on a gallows where all of the camp's comrades had gathered. The two men died quickly, but the boy's fight to death took half an hour. At this moment, a man standing behind me murmured. “Where is God? Where is he?” Another person was heard. “Where is God now?” I then said in my mind: “He is here. He is hanging on the gallows over there.”
The processes of our lives are not as simple as math problems, with formulas coming up with answers.
Today is the fifth hour of Judges. Let's take a look at what the Bible says to those of us who have to live with doubts between good and evil.
II.
Last week we looked at Gideon. Gideon was so good at politics with the Israelites that the Israelites asked Gideon to be their king. To establish a king means to pay taxes for him and to risk his life for his son or husband to be drafted into the military. However, Gideon refused to become the king of Israel, saying that there is only God to be king.
After that, Gideon grew old and died.
The person who appeared at that time was Abimelech, the son of Gideon, mentioned in Judges 9.
I. The Story of Abimelech
Abimelech's hometown is Shechem, the son of Gideon's concubine. Abimelech started a political movement from Shechem, his mother's house. In today's expression, they recruit mercenaries by collecting political donations from the people of their hometown. And with them, he kills all the sons of Gideon, who can be called his rivals. Of Gideon's 70 sons, Jotham, the youngest, barely escapes death and is killed by Abimelech. Jotham, who barely saved his life from Abimelech, uses this parable to curse Abimelech (verses 8-15).
The trees in the forest are trying to establish a king, but there are no trees trying to become a king.
The olive tree, the fig tree, and the vine all refused to become kings, but one of them said that he would become king, and that tree was a thorn. The thorn tree says:
“I must become a king, or if I do not, a fire will come out of me and burn the forest.” So the thorn tree became king.
The final conclusion of this parable of Jotham is 9:19-20, a warning to Israel and Abimelech.
“19 If it is truth and righteousness that you have treated Jerubbaal (= Gideon) and his house today, then you will rejoice over Abimelech, and Abimelech will rejoice over you. And fire will come out from the men of Shechem and also from the people of Milo, and it will consume Abimelech.”
3. The betrayal of Shechem.
After three years of Abimelech's reign, the people of Shechem betray Abimelech and make Gaal the new king.
4. So the war between Abimelech and Gaal.
①Abimelech's victory 39-45 Gaal fled from Shechem, and Abimelech burned and killed about 1,000 Shechemites gathered in the tower.
② The second war zone is Deves.
Abimelech attacked in the same way as Shechem when he heard that there were also people gathered at the tower in Thebes. While trying to set a fire under the tower, a woman threw a millstone in the face and shattered her skull. Not wanting to tell the woman that he was killed, he had his subordinate stab him to death with a sword.
5. Conclusion of Judges 9
9:56-57
“56 So God repaid the evil that Abimelech had done to his father by killing seventy of his brothers, 57 and God repaid all the wickedness of the people of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.”
III.
What lessons can we learn from Judges 9?
i. God's evaluation of the achievements achieved through greed. = bang
Verses 16 and 19, Jotham's words to the people of Shechem, have a common word. 16 Now that you have appointed Abimelech to be king, are your actions true and just? Is this kindness to Jerubbaal and his household?
verse 19
19 If your hospitality to Jerubbaal and his house today is truth and righteousness, then you will rejoice over Abimelech, and Abimelech will rejoice over you.
I ask if your actions are sincere and just.
Ultimately, Judges 9 emphasizes that any work that goes beyond truth and righteousness will fail.
There are people who achieve their goals by any means and methods. Abimelech reigned over the land of Israel for three years, but his methods and means were very evil. Hear Abimelech's first words at Shechem. verse 2
“Please, speak in the ears of the men of Shechem, which is better for you, that all seventy sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one man rule over you?
I am your bone and weary = 'You are my bones and my flesh'... It is a sign of communion. A term for creating mutual trust and a common sentiment. The people of Shechem also speak of Abimelech. “He is our brother” (verse 3). Abimelech and the people of Shechem form a solidarity by blood and kinship. It is a word that creates hostility toward competitors and fosters a sense of brotherhood and trend toward oneself.
Where people live, there is a culture between each other. It is not a problem in itself, but rather a problem of ignoring fairness and justice with its logic ahead. It's a matter of insisting that it's standard based on your own taste and convenience.
Where did the seventy pieces of money that the people of Shechem collected from Abimelech come from? (Verse 4) It was money “from the tomb of Baalberit.” Baalbrit refers to the temple of Baal.
Father Gideon was the one who broke down the altar of Baal! However, his son Abemelech used the money he had collected from the temple of Baal.
Where did he spend this money? “Buying debauchery and frivolous oil…” (verse 4)
This is not to say that they bought diesel from among gasoline, kerosene, and diesel... They do not know the difference between justice and injustice, and if they give money, they bribe the crowds who attack anything if it is beneficial to them.
What did you do with them? Verse 5 “He went to his father’s house and killed his sons, seventy of his brothers, on one rock…” He killed all the brothers he thought were his rivals in order to become king. Previously, in Shechem, he pursued his own will by emphasizing skeletal relatives.
This is what the wicked one is. When it's good for him, he promotes it, but when it's bad, he ignores it. There are no principles. If there is a principle, the principle is that it is only for one's own benefit. We need principles to live.
America is a very complex country, but it is because it revolves around principles that remain undivided. The standard of life given by the Bible to us is always ‘God’s will’. More specifically, it is love. It saves lives.
When Jesus healed the paralytic on the Sabbath, the Pharisees did not like to see the sick being healed. Because it was a violation of their standard religious ordinances. So instead, they blame Jesus for that.
The same is true of the woman caught in adultery. The purpose of the Jews was to use this woman to kill Jesus, and Jesus was interested in how to save people and make life more abundant. It is a very striking characteristic of Jesus' actions in the Gospels.