Bible Commentaries

Abimelech

The Bramble King

Judges 9:2). Would you like to have seventy kings, or one king? Now the spirit of Abimelech was false, because the seventy men had never said anything about wishing to be kings. Why do we first credit men with bad motives, and then charge those bad motives upon them as accusations, as if they had originated in the spirit of the men themselves? We must not put one another into false positions. If the seventy sons of Jerubbaal had said, "We would all like to be kings," the case would have been put precisely in the terms which Abimelech used. But Gideon had refused the kingship. Long ago, when the Israelites said, Rule thou over us, and thy house, he said, No, I will not rule over you, nor my house: the Lord is your king. How subtle is the temptation to misconstrue a man's purposes, and then to treat him as if he had actually originated those purposes! We transfer ourselves to the Judges 9:45-49] from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech" ( Judges 9:16-20).

The epimuthion, or application of the fable, was magnificent in moral tone. Jotham comprehended the great philosophy that water cannot rise above its level: men cannot rise above the honour that is in them. Little men cannot be great; ungrateful men cannot be just; mean souls can never be majestic. Jotham said in effect: If this is your idea of honour, so be it, take the consequences; if this is your reading of history, and this your tribute to the illustrious dead, let it be so. Men must act according to their own quality. Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. The criticism with which your life is followed will be according to the quality of the critics: tainted men will see putridity in you; men of ungenerous mind will never write or speak one glowing word about your action. They are hardly to be blamed; they cannot help it: every tree grows after its own kind, so does every man. The appeal of Jotham is the appeal which men may address to the ages, though they run away as Jotham did, and flee into darkness; but the appeal will abide when the speaker has gone. Children, if this is your idea of what is due to your father and your mother who lived for you, suffered for you, had but one thought, and that a thought for your comfort and progress, if this is your idea of gratitude and justice to their memory, carry out your programme, and let the times that are coming judge you. Nations, if this is the way in which you treat your statesmen, your patriots, your reformers, so be it: nations cannot rise above their level: by your treatment of your leaders and patriots we shall know your own quality. Nations write themselves in the deeds which they do to those who have led and instructed them. Congregations, if this be your idea of what is due to your ministers and teachers, so be it; if after the men have prayed themselves into agony for you, studied your distresses that they might heal your wounds, lived for you, thought for you, sacrificed themselves on the altar of your welfare, if you care to forget the past, to throw out the old men and let them die where they may, so be it: congregations cannot rise above their level. Congregations must carry out their own idea of honour. They find it convenient to forget, to obliterate, the noblest service which man can render to man. Be it so. Do not reason with them. It is an inevitable meanness. Then the other side is true: there are grateful children; there are nations loyal to their chiefs; there are congregations greater than the ministers. So be it. On both sides we can but say with Jotham, So be it; rejoice, and rejoice in one another.

After three years peace was broken. Abimelech conquered until he came to Thebez, where there was a strong tower; and full of his father's intrepidity and daring courage, he went straight up to the tower and said he would destroy it, or overthrow it, or burn it The people went to the top of the tower, and a woman among them looked out, and saw this man fighting against its very walls, and she dropped a stone, and it crushed the head of Abimelech. He killed the sons of Gideon with a stone: God also can throw stones. Let us take care: "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." When Adoni-bezek had his thumbs and great toes cut off he said, "As I have done, so God hath requited me." The treacherous idolaters had their temple burned by the treachery of their enemies. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

"Thus,"—we read:

"God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren: and all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal" ( Judges 9:56-57).

Selected Notes

Cast a piece of millstone.—So that ambitious King Pyrrhus was at last slain with a tile-stone thrown upon his head by a woman. And the like deadly blow by a like hand, upon the head of Hermanius, Earl of Lucelberg, whom Pope Hildebrand had set up in opposition to Henry the Emperor, whom he had excommunicated. Simeon De" Monteforti also, another of the Pope's champions, fighting against those ancient Protestants, the Waldenses, was brained with a stone at the siege of Toulouse. That scholar that took his death by the falling of a letter of stone from the Earl of Northampton's house at the funeral of Queen Anne, was to be pitied. But commentators observe it for a just hand of God upon Abimelech, that upon one stone he had slain his seventy brethren, and now a stone slayeth him: his head had stolen the crown of Israel, and now his head is smitten.

The vengeance which he had wreaked upon Shechem, he intended also for Thebez, a town placed by the Onomasticon thirteen Roman miles from Neapolis (Shechem) on the road to Beth-Shean, or Beisn; which is therefore the modern Tbs, twelve miles e.n.e. of Shechem. One might infer from this that the son considered himself the lawful successor of his father in the government of Israel, and meant to punish these two cities as Succoth and Penuel had been punished for their rebellion. But his utter failure, his death by the hand of a woman (like Sisera, Judges 4:9), and his miserable effort to escape by suicide from this disgrace, to a bold warrior, were the tokens in providence that he wanted the moral and spiritual qualities of Gideon. And his personal ruin, together with the immediately resulting collapse of the government which he had established over Israel, marked the fulfilment of Jotham's curse. It is mere ignorance of old English which in many copies of the Bible changed "alto brake," that Judges 9:36.

This text may be used as showing how possible it is to be magnifying dangers, or creating illusory enemies.—Whilst this is historically true, it is spiritually indisputable.—There is a tendency in the spiritual life to magnify all difficulties, and so to discourage the soul.—Who has not been frightened by shadows? Who has not shrunk from the conclusions of his own just reasoning?—The hill always looks to be highest when viewed from a distance.—When approached it subsides and becomes really easy of ascent.—We may turn some men into enemies by looking upon them from a great distance, or seeing them under unfavourable circumstances.—We must come near them, and estimate them at their proper strength.—Approach is sometimes the best solution of difficulties.—Boldness often dissolves the mystery which it has feared.—The Christian should set it down as an article of his faith that they can be only shadows which are arrayed against the Lord and against his anointed.—Even Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was "but a noise."—The mightiest men who set themselves against Christ are not so much men as shadows.—All this has been proved again and again in history, and the proof should be taken as an inspiration and an encouragement by the age now living and by all the ages to come.—All clever arguments, all elaborated scepticisms, all new heterodoxies are but so many shadows, and are on no account to be feared by the soldiers of Christ.—Remember that shadows are not to be destroyed by swords and guns, or by violence of any kind; the shadows can only be chased away by light: "Ye are the light of the world."—If we were more radiant we should see fewer shadows, or the shadows would flee away before the approaching glory.—Pray for an increase of luminous-ness, that the whole character may be as a sun, shining in his strength, and dissolving and dispersing every shadow.

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"What ye have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done."- Judges 9:48.

This exhortation may be adopted by Christian believers.—What ye have seen me do in difficult business circumstances.—What ye have seen me do in the presence of great temptations.—What ye have seen me do in the way of self-sacrifice.—What ye have seen me do in great afflictions.—This may be adopted also by Christian teachers.—The Apostle Paul said. "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."—What ye have seen me do in the way of energy, in the way of faith, in the way of self-expenditure, in the way of forgiveness, make haste, and do as I have done.—Is the Christian believer prepared to make himself an example to others? What Christian man would be willing to say, You need not at present look any further than to myself, for I am guide and standard enough to the Church?—This exhortation may also be adopted by parents when addressing their children: each father or mother should be able to say, What ye have seen me do in the thick of domestic difficulties, in the night of pain, in the assured oncoming of poverty, in the very cloud and overshadowing of despair.—If we were to accustom ourselves to the thought that we have to show forth our own conduct as a standard, it would make us more careful to see that that standard is noble and right.—Even if we do not call attention to our actions ourselves, yet men are looking on, and may well claim that they have a right to copy us.—We may affect humility, and say, Do not look at us, but look at our Master; but after all the men of the world have a right to say, No: Christ is too high for us: we will look at his followers, and judge his Christianity by their spirit and their action.—A point, too, might be made of the words "make haste," because that which is an example today may be no example to-morrow in relation to certain practical matters; the circumstances altering, the adaptation to them must alter also. Beside, if we do not copy the example of today we may not be living to copy it to-morrow.—There are circumstances under which everything depends upon a prompt use of time.—The train goes at a certain moment, so does the post; the bank closes at a given hour: opportunities of all kinds are limited.—Hence the great importance which ought to be attached to the words "make haste."