Judges 9:1-21.  Again, an interesting story and we are only part of the  way through it.  So Gideon died.  Although he denied being a king he had acted like one.  He took money from his country men.  He had many wives and at least one concubine.  His son, Abimelech, however was not so shy (Abimelech by the way means “my father is king”.  For more on names in the Old Testament check out “What in a Name?”).  Abimelech went to his mother’s home town, Shechem.  Shechem was in the territory of Ephraim but it had been given to the tribe of Levi as one of their Cities of Refuge.  The Levites were to be priests for the whole nation and certain cities were given to them.  They were not to work outside of their priestly duties.  Shechem was also the place where Joshua got the people together for his last words to them before he died.  Later in Old Testament history Shechem would be the capital of the the 10 northern tribes and later yet in the New Testament times it would be recognized by the Samaritans as the center of their worship  (See “The Old Testament Connection”).  In spite of all of this Israelite activity  Shechem continued to be a center of Canaanite worship of Baal (Notice in v. 4 that there is a temple to Baal in Shechem).  In Shechem Abimelech appeals to his relatives to throw off the rulership of Gideon and make him their ruler instead.  They give him money from the pagan temple and declare him to be their king.  Abimelech then returned to his father’s house and proceeded to kill all of his half-brothers. Or so he thought.  This was a common practice among kings in those days.  It was their way of protecting their reign from others in the family.  One half-brother had escaped, Jotham.  Abimelech returned to Shechem where the people had a formal ceremony to declare him king.  Jotham appears on the scene and from a nearby hill top he basically pronounces a curse on Abimelech and the Shechemites.

In all of this we see a lot of talk about “relatives”, local tribal personal jealousies.  Israel was to be a unified nation made up of the twelve tribes but here Abimelech and the people of Shechem are motivated by personal power and family loyalty.  To be sure God did not completely erase all of the family identities in Israel but He wanted them to be one people.  We need to be careful to do the same in the church.  God has made us each a part of a family and we have responsibilities to our families.  Parents are to care for their children.  Widows and orphans are to be cared for first by their families.  Children are to care for their parents when they become old.  But we are also a part of God’s family, the church, and we need to remember that the other members are our “brothers” and “sisters”.  We need to not let God’s work be messed up by personal rivalries.

Lord, help me be faithful to my family and also to Yours.  Let me care as much for the church as I do for my own “flesh and bone” and for my own family as much as I do for the church.  Thank you for my earthly family and my heavenly one.