Abimelech: The Bramble King | Judges 8:29-9:57

Intro

“All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?” When a “global public opinion company” asked that question in a poll, 65% of Americans thought the world is getting worse, 23%  said neither, and only 6% thought the world is getting better. What do you think?

What really matters is not what Americans think, but what God thinks and what God is doing in the world in human history. God has spoken to us through his Word, giving us much needed perspective. The true stories in the Book of Judges help us know and trust God—the God who authors great salvation—and help us read the true story of the world.

Judges 8:29–9:24, 56–57

29 Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house. 30 Now Gideon had seventy sons, his own offspring, for he had many wives. 31 And his concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech. 32 And Gideon the son of Joash died in a good old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of the Abiezrites. 33 As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. 34 And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, 35 and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel. 

9:1 Now Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother’s relatives and said to them and to the whole clan of his mother’s family, 2 “Say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one rule over you?’ Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.” 3 And his mother’s relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, “He is our brother.” 4 And they gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, who followed him. 5 And he went to his father’s house at Ophrah and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he hid himself. 6 And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth-millo, and they went and made Abimelech king, by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. 

7 When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. 8 The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ 9 But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ 10 And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 11 But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?’ 12 And the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 13 But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?’ 14 Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’ 15 And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’ 16 “Now therefore, if you acted in good faith and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house and have done to him as his deeds deserved— 17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian, 18 and you have risen up against my father’s house this day and have killed his sons, seventy men on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his female servant, king over the leaders of Shechem, because he is your relative— 19 if you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. 20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.” 21 And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother. 

22 Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. 23 And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24 that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 

…

50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez and encamped against Thebez and captured it. 51 But there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in, and they went up to the roof of the tower. 52 And Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it and drew near to the door of the tower to burn it with fire. 53 And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. 54 Then he called quickly to the young man his armor-bearer and said to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’ ” And his young man thrust him through, and he died. 55 And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. 

56 Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

Summary of the Text

The story of Abimelech is one of the longer narratives we’ve encountered in Judges. Several characters come and go quickly and the plot twists like a pretzel. So let me give an overview and outline of the story.

Judges 8:29–35 is a transitional summary. It covers the death of Gideon and the apostasy of Israel. And it introduces the central character in the next story, moving the spotlight from Gideon to Abimelech, the son of Gideon’s concubine in Shechem.

Next, Judges 9:1–6 describes Abimelech’s treachery. Abimelech was ambitious and resolved to use his father’s legacy to acquire power. The problem was that he had seventy brothers who stood in his way. So Abimelech went to his blood relatives in Shechem to launch his campaign. His argument was simple: Wouldn’t it be in your best interest to be ruled by one man than by seventy, especially one man who is your blood relative? His family then convinced the rulers of Shechem to take Abimelech’s side, which they did by funding his campaign with money from the treasury of a temple to Baal. The seventy pieces of silver bears an ominous correlation to Gideon’s seventy sons. Abimelech put those funds to use by hiring “worthless and reckless fellows,” a Brute Squad meant to ensure voter turnout. Immediately Abimelech marched to his father’s house in Ophrah and murdered his seventy brothers “on one stone” (v. 5), a detail that foreshadows Abimelech’s own fate. The only hint of hope in the story is that Jotham the youngest brother escaped. But the scene ends with the apparent triumph of evil conspirators as the leaders of Shechem crown Abimelech king.

In Judges 9:7–21, Jotham emerges (as loose ends are wont to do) and publicly denounces Abimelech and the men of Shechem for their treachery against Gideon and his family. He makes his point by telling a fable in which the trees choose a king. First they ask the olive tree, then the fig tree, then the vine to rule over them. These are all cultivated trees that produce something of value: rich oil, sweet figs, or grapes that make wine. When the fruitful trees decline, the trees ask the bramble. The bramble is likely the buckthorn, “a thorny bush or small tree with black berries” (Webb, PTW, 160). One commentator says, “Unlike the olive, fig, and vine, it is a wild rather than cultivated tree, and the things specifically associated with it in Jotham’s story are ‘shade’ and ‘fire’ (v. 15).” The point is that the bramble is unpredictable and treacherous. It may provide some sort of shade or shelter, but it can also burst into flames and destroy.

The point of Jotham’s fable is that the men of Shechem have been treacherous. Gideon risked his life to deliver them from their enemies. Murdering his sons is a strange way to show honor and appreciation.

Jotham ends with a blessing and a curse. The weight of his words is intensified by the fact that he is standing on Mount Gerizim (v. 7), the mountain from which all the blessings of the covenant were read when Joshua and Israel arrived in Canaan (Deut 11:29; Josh 8:33). Jotham says, “If you then have acted in good faith and integrity with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you. But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech.”” (Judges 9:19–20). Then Jotham runs away and hides and we never see him again (v. 21).

In Judges 9:22–57, God’s retributive justice falls on Abimelech and the people of Shechem, just as Jotham foretold. First, the men of Shechem betray Abimelech (vv. 25–29), placing bandits in the hills to ambush and rob travelers (v. 25). Such rampant crime was not a good look for Abimelech’s new administration. Then they betray Abimelech and shift their allegiance to a man named Gaal.

Next, Abimelech lashes out against Shechem (vv. 30–49). He sets an ambush in the hills and lures Gaal out to fight, easily squashing that attempted coup (vv. 30–41). Enraged and eager for revenge, Abimelech’s rampage continues the next day, when he slaughters the people of Shechem and destroys their city (vv. 42–45). The leaders in Shechem managed to escape to a stronghold, which Abimelech promptly burned to the ground, killing 1,000 men and women and quite literally fulfilling Jotham’s curse: “Let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem” (v. 20).

But what about Jotham’s curse on Abimelech? That comes to fruition in vv. 50–55. Abimelech, seeing red, marched from Shechem to a city called Thebez (v. 50). His plan was to burn down that tower like he did in Shechem. But as he approached the door, “a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull” (v. 53). Fatally wounded, Abimelech asked his armor-bearer to kill him in order to spare him the humiliation of being killed by a random, nameless woman.

And that’s it. Upon Abimelech’s death, the madness and brutality ceases. The text says, “And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home” (v. 55). Commentator Barry Webb observes, “There are no winners here except God.”

God Triumphs Over Evil

Except God. God wins. God always wins.

In Judges we have seen God’s salvation on display in a rich array. God saved Israel through Ehud, the left-handed warrior from the right-handed tribe. God saved Israel through Jael with a hammer and a tent peg. God saved Israel through Gideon and a band of 300 men outnumbered 450 to 1. But what about when everyone in power is evil and there is no deliverer? The story of Abimelech assures us that even then, God is able to work a great salvation.

The purpose of this story is to convince you that evil is always doomed to fail. This is true, not just at the end of the world, but throughout human history. Although it often looks like evil has the upper hand and all hope is lost, God always triumphs over evil.
The Book of Judges gives us much needed perspective when we’re tempted to think that the world is always getting worse and worse. On the one hand, Judges presents a nation in moral decline, spiraling into chaos. But simultaneously, it presents the glory of the God who works in the world and asserts himself in history to save his people—graciously and repeatedly and unexpectedly—from destruction.

So Scripture warns us that sin always makes things worse. Yet the Bible does not present human history as a perpetual descent. Scripture provides hope by convincing us that evil is doomed to fail. Evildoers cannot amass infinite power forever. Eventually their plans fail, their power vanishes, and they are thwarted. 

If you are living in rebellion against God, this reality should cause you to repent and forsake the evil of your ways. And if you trust in God and lament all the evil in the world, this truth should secure and stabilize your soul, fortify your faith, and fill you with peace and hope and joy.

From the story of Abimelech, I want to show you three reasons evil is doomed to fail.

1. Evil is doomed to fail because it denies reality.

The text says in 8:33–34, “As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god. And the people of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side.” As we’ve noted before, forgetting the Lord is not some sort of cognitive decline, but a morally culpable failure to acknowledge and trust the Lord. Dale Ralph Davis comments, “It means that what they knew of Yahweh exercised no control over them, held no grip on their loyalties. They could still answer catechism questions about Yahweh but that knowledge did not determine their commitment.”

All of the backstabbing, conspiracy, ambush, and murder in this story flows out of this failure to trust and treasure the faithful God who had saved them again and again. Abimelech’s conspiracy with the men of Shechem was possible in a culture that was nearsighted and forgetful, ungrateful and idolatrous.

And the offense of Israel’s idolatry is highlighted by the name of their god, Baal-berith (v. 33). Baal-berith means “Lord of the Covenant.” That is a direct and insulting rejection of Yahweh and his covenant with Israel. 

Further denial of reality is evident when Abimelech and the men of Shechem conspire to commit treachery against Gideon and his sons. Ingratitude and unfaithfulness are at the root: “They did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel” (8:35). Their crime is completely contrary to reality, as if none of that ever happened.

Evil is completely irrational and incompatible with reality. And that is why evil is doomed. It is impossible to live in God’s created world and deny God-created realities without suffering grave consequences. Imagine someone who asserts he does not believe in gravity and refuses to be hindered by those who do. His exhilarating experience of freedom will last as long as his free fall and end abruptly.

This is why Scripture encourages the righteous with the brevity of the wicked:

“Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb. … In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. … The enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away” (Psalm 37:1–2, 10, 20).

Evil cannot prevail for long because all of these things—idolatry, ingratitude, forgetfulness, and unfaithfulness—are built on lies—the outright rejection and denial of who God is, what he has done, what he has said, and how he made the world. It’s like the cartoon character who cuts off the branch he’s sitting on. It’s just a matter of time until they hit the ground.

2. Evil is doomed to fail because it is self-destructive.

One of the most intriguing elements in this story is Jotham’s prediction of mutual destruction: “Let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech” (Judges 9:20).

When we think of a conflict, we think of winners and losers. So we naturally expect Abimelech to prevail over Shechem, or Shechem to prevail over Abimelech. But how will Abimelech destroy Shechem while also being destroyed by Shechem? That paradox drives the plot.

And as that plot unfolds, we see that in this world God made, evil self-destructs. Evil is not constructive or productive, it is destructive—self-destructive and cannibalistic. Evil is not creative. It is barren and fruitless. 

According to Scripture, poetic justice is not just a feature of fiction; it is a reality in God’s world. Proverbs 26:27 states the principle in a pithy way: “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling.” And Psalm 7 says, “Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies. He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made. His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends” (Psalm 7:14–16).

And the poetic justice in the relationship between Abimelech and Shechem is stunning. Abimelech conspired with the men of Shechem to murder his brothers (vv. 1–2), only to have Gaal and his brothers conspire with Shechem against Abimelech (vv. 26–29). In v. 25, the men of Shechem set men in ambush to cause trouble for Abimelech, but Abimelech overcame Shechem through an ambush of his own (vv. 32, 43). And most notably, Abimelech killed Gideon’s seventy sons “on one stone” (9:5), only to be killed by a single stone (9:53)

The story of Abimelech is unique in the Judges because it lacks a hero, a judge who delivers. Abimelech is the main character, but he is a murderous maniac. Thus, these circumstances reveal a different aspect of God and his ways. Could things be any more bleak than when evil men are conspiring to commit evil atrocities for their own evil ends, and there is no one to stop them.

Except that evil is self-destructive.

In our day, think of specific manifestations of rebellion like abortion and the LGBTQ agenda. Both ideologies are willfully fruitless, childless. They quite literally have no future apart from indoctrinating other people’s kids.

But God blesses and multiplies his people and promises that the meek shall inherit the earth.  In other words, in the long-run, right makes might. 

3. Evil is doomed to fail because God rules over evil.

The story of Abimelech is full of poetic justice, but there is more to this story than karma.Karma is a popular idea in our culture because people can plainly observe the biblical truth built into God’s world: “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap” (Gal 6:7). But karma an impersonal principle of cause and effect or consequences. It denies a personal and holy God who acts in history and judges in righteousness.

In Judges 9, however, the Living God is actively at work in the world he made. He is ruling over every evil power, whether spiritual or physical. Twice the inspired narrator pulls back the curtain so we can see God at work.

“And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.” (Judges 9:23–24).

From a strictly human perspective, we see evil men plotting evil schemes. But it turns out that God is at work in a strange way: “God sent an evil spirit” (v. 23). And what was God’s purpose? That the very violence [injustice, evil] done to Gideon’s sons might come upon all those who committed that violence (v. 24).

Does this absolve Abimelech or the men of Shechem of personal responsibility? Can they “blame it on the devil”? Not at all! The whole point of the narrative is that they are receiving exactly the fitting punishment that their actions deserve.

Does the statement that God sent an evil spirit imply that God is guilty of evil? Not at all! God himself is not evil and never does evil. But God is sovereign over all things, including evil. And God is able to sovereignly rule over evil spirits and evil men who plot evil for their own evil purposes to ensure that God’s good and glorious purposes are accomplished.

The other theological explanation is found at the very end: “Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.” (Judges 9:56–57).

God returned their evil on their own heads, like Jason Bourne disarming an assailant and pointing the gun back in his own face. That word return (used twice) implies payback, recompense, or retribution. It is a term for justice. God’s retributive justice is the theme of this story.

Up to this point, we have seen God’s grace on repeat in the Book of Judges. God has graciously delivered his ill-deserving people by his power and for his glory. But now, we see God giving people exactly what they deserve.

This story is a warning to all who plot evil: God will turn their evil plans against them. God’s patience and compassion must not be taken lightly. If you are persisting in rebellion against God today, repent and turn to the Lord.

This story is a comfort to the righteous. If you think God owes you salvation, you will not treasure his mercy. But when you consider that God did not have to save you, but chose to save you because of his mercy, you will see and treasure the glory of his grace. Abimelech was crushed for his sins. You and I deserve to be. And yet Isaiah says that Jesus “was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities …,” and “It was the will of the LORD to crush him” (Isaiah 53:5, 10). We know  evil is doomed to fail because God has triumphed over the powers of darkness through his Son Jesus Christ at the cross (Col 2:15).

Conclusion

So is the world getting worse or getting better? Well, would you rather be alive in the days of Judges or today? Evildoers have always existed, and they do commit awful atrocities. And when you zoom in, you can find dumpster fires of evil throughout history.

But Jesus Christ came in the middle of history to take away the sins of the world. When you zoom out and see history in light of the cross, you gain perspective. Jesus came not to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17). In history, the Lord Jesus is building his Church and the gates of hell will not prevail. The victory that Christ won at the cross will be completed at his return.

“[God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him [Jesus] from the dead” (Acts 17:31).