Judges 9-10

God’s message to me: My job is what God gives me to do. Pursuing other things because I can is a path to disaster. Attacking others to promote myself is completely wrong. If I am not enough on my own destroying others will not make me more. The trick is to use what I have to it’s best effect and let God ceal with others.

Promises: “Vengeance is mine”, says the Lord. “I will repay.” Abimelech was in the position of a king with the backing of the locals and his family plus a military at his disposal. Jotham didn’t have much chance of being the Avenger of blood for his family against those odds. Instead he put it in God’s hands to decide if Abimilech was where he belonged and to deal with him if he wasn’t. God fulfilled Jotham’s curse on Abimilech and his followers and kept Jotham safe in the meantime.

Commands: Don’t assume authority that God hasn’t given you. God intends us all to be priests and kings in his kingdom and he has jobs for us here but assuming authority He reserved for another can be real trouble.

Timeless principles: The fact that you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Even if you can find a lot of people who agree with your actions you need to be certain it is your job. Just as Abimilech got those around him to make him king I think we can all remember someone who got into elected office and didn’t belong. Likewise I have known a few pastors who did the job for a few years and wound up losing the position later because they weren’t meant to hold it. Most had bad experiences on their way out as a result of doing things they shouldn’t have because they weren’t supposed to be there.

How can I apply what I’ve learned: God places us in positions we are often uncomfortable with. Some of those positions involve leadership. We often find ourselves surprised at how well we do in positions we felt unqualified to hold.

By the same token, there are times when we feel we could do a job better than the person who is in it. Most often these are jobs with authority. The appropriate way to handle this is to add our support to the leaders and WORK WITH THEM (not against them or in spite of them) to help them accomplish the job they are doing. If they don’t belong there God will put the appropriate person there. In the meantime, doing what God has gifted us to do will attract the attention of those who need those things done.

Those who do their best with what they have find their abilities and responsibilities increased. Do well in a little and God will give you much.

more to learn for in-depth study: Gideon had 70 sons and many wives. He even had a son by a concubine in Shechem. Abimelech has his own part of the story later. With all his mistakes Gideon did a few things right besides leading the army. After defeating the Midinites the Israelites tried to make him king. He refused the job and told them God would rule them.

Abimelech, son of the concubine, decided he could be king and convinced the people of his town to make him king. He killed all but one of Gideon’s other sons so that none could take his place. The last son called a curse on him for the evil he did to his father and on the people that made him king for repaying Gideon’s valor with treachery. Abimilech was king 3 years before people started turning against him. He tried to reinforce his rule with force and destroyed the city that made him king and was killed trying to take another city. God fulfilled the curse brought on him by his act of murder and attempt to take power that wasn’t his.

After Abimilech came Tola who judged Israel for 23 years and then Jair who judged Israel for 22 years and had 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys and had 30 towns called Havoth Jair in Gilead. After Him the Israelites again began worshipping the gods of the surrounding peoples. They worshipped the Baals, the Ashtoreths, The Syrian, Sidonian and Moabite Gods as well as the Ammonite and Philistine gods.

God gave them into the Oppression of the Philistines and the Ammonites who oppressed them 18 years even crossing the Jordon to harass the tribes that were there. When they cried to God for help He told them to try calling the false gods they had served after he delivered them from each of the oppressors that had come upon them from Egypt until that time. The Israelites got rid of the false gods and idols and served God and begged His help until He could no longer ignore their misery. As the people of Israel prepared for war against their oppressors they asked “who will lead us as an army?”

Thus the passage ends just prior to one of my favorite judges. Whenever I read about Jephtha I get a mental picture of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the Scorpion King, striding out to defend Israel.

tomorrow: Judges 11-13