Life With The Bramble

Gail Landgraf

Sep 7

yellow and blue bird perched on brown stem

Life with The Bramble ruling the land wasn't very good.

Abimelech had turned out to be more like a tyrant toward Israel than a king.

WHEN TYRANTS RULE

We heard the fable of Jotham and last week we did our best to understand it. At the end of his fable, Jotham warned the people of troubles to come upon those who had followed Abimelech (the "bramble" in Jotham's symbolic story.)

For three years all seemed to be working out for Abimelech, but at the end of that time the men of Shechem found fault with him. The scriptures recount this fact by stating that God sent a "spirit of ill-will" between Abimelech and Shechem.

A SPIRIT OF ILL WILL

When this "ill-will" set in, the people became afraid to travel the roads for trade purposes because the men of Shechem were hiding in the hills and ambushing and robbing those who passed by.

This disturbed Abimelech's reason for taking the office. He had craved the money the ruler would receive from the trading in the land. For awhile he was quite propsperous, but when all travel was haulted because the people of the land lived in fear; the trade stopped too.

Abimelech was not getting rich off of other people any more.

For a time God did not interfere. He allowed the devil to rule over people's minds and hearts and all sorts of chaos and confusion existed in the land.

There was no peace.

GAAL ARRIVES IN TOWN

Gaal the Son of Ebed came to town. His brothers were with him. It was the time of the grape harvest at Shechem. The men went out after the end of their good harvests and drank and celebrated before their false gods.

As each of the townsmen became drunker and drunker from the celebrations, Gaal became louder and louder with his bragging about how he would not put up with Abimelech.

His words resonated with the drunk men of Shechem and they made Gaal their new leader.

ZEBUL TO THE RESCUE

Zebul had been set over the city of Shechem by Abimelech. When he heard all that Gaal was bragging about, he sent word to Abimelech. He advised Abimelech to ambush Gaal and his men by surprise.

The scriptures tell of Gaal speaking to Zebul near the city gates. He noted that men were coming down from the mountains. Zebul played dumb and said that he was only seeing the shadows of the mountains.

Then Gaal noticed men coming from the area where the Tenebinth tree grew, the place where Gideon had placed a copy of the commandments underneath the shade of the tree. He pointed this out to Zebul.

This time Zebul smirked back at Gaal and reminded him of how he had bragged to the town about being able to handle Abimelech. He pointed out the fact that the opportunity was now staring Gaal in the face.

So Gaal set out to defend his own words. He did battle against Abimelech.

ABIMELECH'S STRATEGY PREVAILS

Abimelech chased Gaal and drove him away. Gaal was caught off guard and had no plan for defense.

Zebul then finished the business for Abimelech by driving Gaal and his brothers completely out of Shechem.

Abimelech realized that the men of Shechem had plotted with Gaal to destroy him. He was not happy.

GETTING EVEN

When the men of Shechem were busy tending to their fields, Abimelech attacked them and killed them.

Then he completely destroyed the city.

He scattered salt over the land and it lay idle for many years after.

This way of life seemed to be the way of Abimelech. If he could not have the backing of Shechem, no one else would get it either.

History has seen this story over-and-over again. A man comes to power by evil means and violence. Other power-hungry men help him to make the achievement. They do this for their own prosperity.

NO LOYALTY AMONG THEIVES

In the end, the man who took over for all the wrong reasons and used those who followed all the wrong ways to do so, winds up facing those who helped to put him into power.

He turns on them and eventually destroys them too. There is no loyalty among theives.

This is how a "bramble" does business.

The moral of the story?

Don't give your power over to a bramble if you don't want to wind up burned.

And that ends another strange, yet true, portion of the story of The Judges of Israel.