Summary: Gideon shunned position but kept power, his son Abimelech had position but not power as both were ruled by the flesh and from the flesh reaped corruption. Learn how we can fall prey to that as Christians and how to avoid it.

Judges 8 and 9 give us a good picture of what happens when we decide to let the flesh rule in our lives instead of God’s Spirit.

Galatians 5:16-17 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ESV

We say we want to do God’s will, but when we let our fleshly nature have a place of primary importance for our values and actions, then we find ourselves doing and saying things we know we shouldn’t say or do.

Gideon did not want to be a king. He knew and even said that Yahweh should rule over Israel (which means "governed by God"). But in his actions he did exactly that - he became a king and let his flesh so rule that it was passed down to his son Abimelech who became a tyrant and was Gideon’s flesh times 10.

So these chapters begin a series of accounts that show us the result of the flesh. This is the story of power and position-what they do to us and the effects on others around us. Gideon and Abimelech are an interesting contrast. Gideon had influence (power) but shunned position-saying that God should be king, and yet went out and acted just like a worldly king of a Canaanite nation. Abimelech grabbed for position and got it, but lacked the influence (power) to hold on to it. Both are examples of what happens when we desire power or position instead of giving both to God.

Verses 1 - 3

We see here the beginning of the end of friendship between the tribes. Rivalries had been set aside for the most part as Israel conquered Canaan. But without Yahweh as their leader, the flesh starts to rear up and guide the thoughts of Ephraim.

Ephraim was a strong and proud tribe. They’d helped Ehud and Barak and were now insulted that they hadn’t been included in the fight with Gideon and his "puny" group of 300 soldiers. May I just say that God doesn’t need a massive, well organized group with a history in order to do His will? He can use 300 rag tag solders with some torches and jars. He can use you, even though you don’t have all the experience or credibility in the world to do His will.

Anyway - Gideon is very smart in appealing to Ephraim’s pride in appeasing them. He basically convinces them that they are going to get the bigger victory by going after the Midian princes Oreb and Zeeb.

The animosity towards Gideon doesn’t end here, though but for the opposite reason.

Verses 4 - 21

Succoth and Peniel (which are near one another) complain because they want no part in Gideon’s battle. It’s thought that the reason was they believed that the Midianites would eventually win and if they sided with Gideon now they would regret it later. It shows that their loyalties have switched from a spiritual loyalty to God, to a political loyalty based on how they can fare best.

Let me just say that this is a dangerous attitude to take - but one many Christians adopt all too easily. How does this happen? It can be subtle. Let me use an example that’s sure to rankle someone’s feathers: homosexuality. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that homosexuality does not reflect the character of God and is thus sin - along with lying, murder, and a hundred other things.

In recent years in America, our society has made it politically acceptable for homosexuality, and now politically unacceptable to proclaim that this practice is sin.

As a Christian, you have a choice. You can buy into the "tolerance" mandate and follow the reasoning that you don’t want to get in trouble with your friends, co-workers or others so you either stay mute or actually agree that the Bible doesn’t really say that homosexuality is not in concert with God’s character.

Now I’m not saying that you single out homosexuals and preach against them. Our job as ambassadors for Christ is to make known the good news of the gospel that ALL sinners can find grace and forgiveness if they will repent (change their mind) about sin and cling to the Savior Jesus Christ.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and "the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23, 3:23).

Our problem is that we don’t want to appear different than those around us. We don’t want to ruffle feathers. We want to go along to get along. The truth is we are different. This is a life and death struggle. Sin is death and anyone who is not washed by the blood of the Lamb will perish. Is that not worth being different?

Cutting off of the hands (verse 6 & 15) was a convenient way of counting bodies.

Gideon pays back the treason of the leaders of these towns by executing them.

Verse 18 - Gideon probably went back across the Jordan closer to home. The killing of his full brothers probably happened in an earlier campaign - when the Midianites were not worried about revenge.

Verse 19: death by anyone other than a noble warrior would have been a terrible disgrace (so too death by a women - go Jael!). His son is not old enough to do it, so Gideon executes these enemy kings.

So next we see the flesh take over in Gideon and turn him into an uncrowned king:

Verses 22 - 35

Gideon refuses to be king - acknowledging that Yahweh is their king. Though he says that - he actually takes on the prerogatives of a king - he had a large harem (vs 27), a large fortune (vs 26), acquired a royal robe and made an ephod to (ostensibly) inquire of God (vs 27).

The acts become a "snare" to Gideon and his family (vs 27). An ephod was used by the high priest to inquire of God. Gideon should not have created one. He almost seems to taken on priestly as well as kingly duties.

If Yahweh had truly been king then what happens at the end of the chapter wouldn’t have take place. I don’t know if Israel began to worship Gideon, the victory, or just took on some form of idolatry as a synthesis of taking their enemy’s gold and mixing in a healthy dose of the local religion.

Trying to make up our own religion and our own ideas about God apart from his revealed Word will also be a "snare" that will draw you away into idolatry. In the end Israel forgot what great things God had done and totally disregarded it.

So now Gideon, who acted like a king though he didn’t want the title, has a son who wants to be king no matter how he gets it!

Chapter 9 Verses 1 - 2

Abimelech is not a judge nor was he raised up to save Israel. He is a usurper. Abimelech was the son of one of Gideon’s servants (vs 18). He was thus not considered a full brother but a half brother. His mom came from Shechem, which was about 30 miles south of Ophrah, Gideon’s home town.

He wants to be king but knows he can’t do it by claiming Gideon’s abandoned throne from Ophrah - there were too many standing in the way. So he asks the Shechemites to help, and they do.

Verses 3 - 6

So Abimelech becomes the first person declared king in Israel. It was a short and brutal reign and one that was certainly not recognized by God. He accomplishes it through mass murder - a murder that is not totally successful. Jotham, the youngest, escapes and challenges Abimelech’s reign.

Verses 7 - 21

In essence, Jotham is saying that Gideon was the olive tree of verse 8, and that Abimelech is the bramble of verse 14. The bramble was good for nothing and was a menace to agriculture. All it did do was dry and burn quickly. The "shade" of verse 15 is sarcastic.

Though his meaning was clear, Jotham gives it to them straight - that Shechem and Abimelech deserve each other for the way they treated Gideon and his sons.

Verses 22 - 49

Shechem and its inhabitants are no stranger to takeovers and deceit. Back in Genesis 34 when Hamor the Hivite wanted to intermarry with Israel and subsume them within the Hivite culture after Shechem raped Israel’s daughter Dinah. You remember the story-the sons of Israel told them to get circumcised and then killed them all. It was a disgrace to Israel. I wonder if some memory of that didn’t linger on and that’s why in verse 23 they ambush the caravans to keep Abimelech’s power at a minimum.

So essentially what happens here is that you have a bad leader in a city of bad people. Another bad guy (Gaal) and his gang comes along to take over and the city of bad people think this is pretty cool. Abimelech’s henchman, Zebul, hears about it he lets Abimelech know and they set up an ambush to wipe the guy out.

Then Abimelech seeks revenge against the Shechemites and kills a bunch of them.

It’s evil judging evil and its what in the fleshly grab for power-everyone gets in the game and like a bunch of people pointing guns at each other and all firing at the same time, everyone gets hurt-including Abimelech, who gets his in a very ironic way.

Verses 50 - 57

I love this part of the story. Here is Mr. Important. He thinks that he has finally triumphed and gotten revenge against everyone he can possibly think of. So he now tries to stretch his kingdom out to Thebez. They’d heard of how Abimelech punished Shechem so they retreat to the roof of their tower to offer some kind of defense.

So just as Abimelech is setting a fire like at Shechem he gets a surprise knock on the head by a woman! The upper millstone was about 10" long and would ride back and forth on the larger lower millstone to grind the wheat. It was women’s work so she no doubt thought of this and perhaps wanted to use it as a weapon.

Her accuracy is amazing, and no doubt, God had a hand in it. Even though Abimelech isn’t killed outright by the stone, it is remembered that a woman killed him (2 Samuel 11:21).

So as if it wasn’t clear already, God is repaying both Abimelech and Shechem for their evil.

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