The Judges. Day 31, The Wicked Abimelek, Son Of Gideon

In Chapter 8 we were told that Gideon had seventy sons, including a son named Abimelek by his concubine who lived in Shechem. This son, whose name means "my father is king", intends to set himself up as successor to his father who passed away in our last study. Abimelek is not in the clear line of succession; Gideon's eldest son Jether should have been next in line for the judgeship of Israel if it had been the Lord's will for all the judges of Israel to spring from one family. As we have seen so far, the judges of Israel have not been from the same family or even from the same tribe. The Lord will continue to select judges from different families and different tribes.

But Abimelek sees himself as the leader of Israel, though he has not been chosen by God for this role. He even sees himself as more than a judge; he wants to be king. It is not important to him whether he is chosen by God or elected by the people. Indeed, it's quite likely he doesn't worship the God of Israel at all, for his hometown had been an ancient city of the Canaanites and scholars believe Abimelek's mother was probably a Canaanite and a worshiper of Baal. If that's the case, Abimelek's mother was not in a position to be a godly influence on him. 

Gideon was not the godly influence he could have been because after he defeated the Midianites he set up a golden image of a priestly ephod in his town of Ophrah and the people (including Gideon and his family) used the location of this image as a center of worship. The Bible is not clear about how the Israelites "prostituted" themselves to this image but I think perhaps they forsook worship at the tabernacle in Shiloh for bringing offerings and sacrifices to the location in Ophrah. I think they ended up blending their own manmade rituals or some type of pagan rituals with their worship of the one true God. Judges 8 told us that the golden ephod became a "snare" to Gideon and his family, so it's clear that Gideon was not living a life wholly committed to the Lord. Because of this, he was not able to set the example for his children that he should have set. 

"Abimelek son of Jerub-Baal went to his mother's brothers in Shechem and said to them and to all his mother's clan, 'Ask all the citizens of Shechem, 'Which is better for you: to have all seventy of Jerub-Baal's sons rule over you, or just one man? Remember, I am your flesh and blood.'" (Judges 9:1-2) Chapter 8 ended with the burial of Gideon (also known by the name of Jerub-Baal) and Abimelek is probably returning to Shechem after attending his father's funeral. He wastes no time in speaking with his uncles, who I suspect are men of influence since it was common for great leaders in ancient times to take wives from the royal families/most powerful clans of other cultures. Gideon, who appeared to be prideful about himself in his last four decades of life, may have married his Shechemite wife because she was the daughter of a powerful clan leader. Abimelek says to his uncles something like this, "Gideon has seventy sons in all. Do you want them ruling over the whole region and telling you what to do? Or would you rather have just one of his sons--the one who is your kinsman---as leader?"

We don't know the cities of origin of Gideon's other wives. We don't even know how many wives he had but the majority of them may have been Israelites. Naturally, men who consider themselves Canaanites and who do not worship the God of Israel would prefer to have a man who is half-Canaanite ruling the region than a man who is a full Israelite. 

Abimelek's uncles agree with his words and begin campaigning for him. "When the brothers repeated all this to the citizens of Shechem, they were inclined to follow Abimelek, for they said, 'He is related to us.' They gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and Abimelek used it to hire reckless scoundrels, who became his followers." (Judges 9:3-4) Baal-Berith, which means "lord of the covenant", is a god whom many of the Israelites began to worship after the death of Gideon, as we learned at the end of Judges 8. Apparently there was a temple to Baal-Berith in Shechem and the men of Shechem take seventy shekels of silver from this temple and give it to Abimelek so he can hire mercenaries to help him assassinate the other sons of Gideon.

"He went to his father's home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal." (Judges 9:5a) Abimelech's soldiers-for-hire rush into the town armed and round up his half-brothers and drag them to a large rock, perhaps in the city center, and either they execute them for Abimelek or Abimelek personally kills each of them one by one. When the Bible says Abimelek murdered his brothers it can either mean they were killed by his own hand or that they were killed upon his orders. Either way, he is responsible for their deaths. 

Abimelek's men were not able to capture all of Gideon's sons. One managed to conceal himself. "But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerub-Baal, escaped by hiding." (Judges 9:5b) In tomorrow's passage Jotham will make an impassioned speech from Mount Gerizim in which he will prophetically pronounce a curse upon the men of Shechem for their support of Abimelek. 

While Jotham makes good his escape from Ophrah, Abimelek is crowned king by his kinsmen. "Then all the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo gathered beside the great tree at the pillar in Shechem to crown Abimelek king." (Judges 9:6) This is the great tree beside which Joshua set up a monument to the Lord, writing upon it the words of the law---of the covenant---and what's taking place here is an abomination. Abimelek is rejecting the one true God and His holy covenant for a false god and a false covenant. He's desecrating this sacred spot by allowing himself to be crowned king, which is something that is not the Lord's will. But never fear: though it may seem as if the wicked prosper for a time, their day of judgment is coming. As Asaph said about the wicked who are lifted up in pride about their prosperity, the Lord knows how to deal with them at the right time and in the right way, for the Lord has placed them on "slippery ground" and at the right moment He will "cast them down to ruin". (See the entirety of Psalm 73 for Asaph's discourse on the wicked and their bitter end.) Abimelek is currently doing whatever he pleases but the Lord will have the final word.