Judges 9:22-41.  It looks like Abimelech did not spend all of his time at Shechem.  In this part of the story we get teased a little.  Yesterday Jotham, the one half-brother that escaped Abimelech’s murderous adventure against his other half-brothers, spoke a curse against Abimelech and the people of Shechem.  Today’s reading starts out pretty quickly with God starting to fulfill that request but then the action seems to work in Abimelech’s favor.  Unlike the other leaders so far that we have seen trouble seems to be coming fairly quickly in Abimelech’s rule, three years in.  An evil spirit comes to stir up trouble between Abimelech and the Shechemites.  We are informed that this evil spirit is sent because of Abimelech and the Shechemite’s actions against Gideon’s other sons.  Evidently the evil spirit inspired a guy named Gaal to talk trash against Abimelech to the people of Shechem and they responded to him.  Notice too the mention of his relatives.  More tribal rivalry,  more individuality, and the people of Shechem eat it up, literally, at a feast for the guy.  They even went out, picked the grapes, and trod them out to make the drinks.

Just a side note here, if you read commentaries (Books by scholars about the Bible) they call this an excursus.  Andrew (Happy) and I were talking yesterday a little bit about the stories in the Bible and it can be easy to miss time and distance when we read.  Sometimes it seems like everything happens right here, right now.  We fail to see how far people traveled in these stories and the time it took. Like earlier in the story when Gideon went to war with Midian.  He travelled dozens of miles on foot in that story before he came to the town that would not feed him.  Maybe as far as here to Magic Mountain and back, or more.  And when he sent to gather more fighters from Ephraim, that would be like getting people together from Irvine to East LA, all on foot and all on terrain that was hilly.  It would have taken days.  In this story think about the time it would take to prepare a festival for the whole town.  So don’t forget to stop and think about this as you read the stories.

Now back to the story.  Gaal stirs up the people against Abimelech.  The reader at this point might be thinking, “Yes, here comes God’s hand.  God will even the score.  Abimelech will pay for his deeds.   But Abimelech has an ally in the town, Zebul the mayor.  Zebul has a plan to get rid of this rival and that is just what they do. Zebul and Abimelech trick the guy into a fight he cannot win and chase him out of the area.  And that is where our story ends for today.

“But wait I thought God was going to get Abimelech and the Shechemites back for the murders”, you might be thinking.  Well wait a little longer.  What can we learn in the mean time?  Here are some  thoughts.  First, the evil spirit was controlled by God.  Second, the evil spirit worked through a man and was manipulative.  Third, human alliances can quickly turn.  Fourth, God sees our wicked actions and will deal with them.  Fifth, the word “relative” shows up several times in our story today.  This seems to be pointing to more personal motives rather than these people thinking of themselves as Israelites.  Sixth, look at verse 27.  They went into the house of “their god” for the party.  So there were probably still many Canaanites in this town that was supposed to be controlled by God’s priests, the Levites.  It was supposed to be a city of Refuge (Coming soon: “Where You Gonna Run?”.  About Cities of Refuge) but instead it was city of rebellion (against God).  I would assume that by this time in history at least some of the people in the city were Israelites.

“But what about the revenge?  The evil spirit didn’t seem to get his job done.”  God’s timing is not our timing.  If you’ve read “The Old Testament Connection” you know that this story, the Bible, is specifically about the part of history that relates to fixing our broken relationship with God.  Along the way we learn a lot of other truth, it’s still history, not fables.  but this history has a point and it’s pointed at our relationship with God.  In Romans 8:28 Paul tells us that God is working all things together for our good.  A couple of verses later in Romans 8:35 Paul talks about a lot of bad stuff that happens in the mean time, but it cannot separate us from God.  In between those  verses is a hint at what is going on.  In romans 8:29-30 we see that the good God is doing relates to our character.  We are being shaped  and molded by the troubles in life into the image of Jesus.  Paul says a couple of verses earlier in Romans 8:18 that he doesn’t think the trouble he is going through even compares to what he will experience in Heaven (I think I mention some of those trouble in “Paul:  Sent one to the Gentiles” or see 2 Corinthians 11:22-33).  In 2 Peter 3:9 we learn that early Christians were being made fun of because They were looking forward to God fixing the world and settling the score (See also  2 Thessalonians 1:5-10).  In 2 Peter we are told that the end hasn’t come yet because God is patiently waiting for more people to turn to Him.  We need to be patient too, especially since Peter seems to be  telling us that we are responsible for the delay.  God is patient “toward us”.  Are we doing our part or are we serving our own tribe, clan, or self with our lives?  Are we taking time to tell that friend at school, that neighbor, that cousin, or that guy from across the street about Jesus?  Is Jesus really good news or just something we do because…?  Isn’t he good news for them too?  It’s not easy, I know.  The people of the town might just turn on you.  They did when Gideon tore down their altar.  But 10,000,000 years from now will that really matter?  Yes it will, but only in relationship to Heaven and hell.

Lord, help me keep my eyes on the goal.  Help me remember what we are fighting for.  Help me remember that history, the important history, is about fixing relationships with you.  Let my history be about that.  Fill me with hope in the trials and give me opportunity and the words and the courage to explain it all to others.  Let me not lose heart in doing good for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.  Give me patience in the mean time.

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.