The Meaning Of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/judges/9.htm

Lying.

Envy.

Covetousness.

Treachery.

Deceit.

Murder.

Arson.

I think we’ve covered it all in this chapter.

Gideon’s sin was making the ephod that the children of Israel worshiped. But Gideon was still a man of God; when the people asked him and his sons to rule over them, Gideon told them that no one should rule except for God.

Now Gideon had several wives and concubines, as was the custom in those days, so he had many sons. But Abimelech, the son of Gideon, decided he wanted to rule, so he went to his family and asked them if it was better for him, their own blood to rule, than the other 70 sons of Gideon who were likely sons of other wives and concubines. So they agreed, and gave Abimelech money, which he used to hired “worthless men”, and they went and killed Gideons 70 other sons, except for Jotham who hid.

Before we go further, once again, there are many people in the Bible called Abimelech, so this one is referred to as “Abimelech, son of Jerubbaal (who was Gideon)”. And obviously, Abimelech craved power and the perks that came with it. But after deceitfully working his way to the top and murdering his half brothers, he certainly wasn’t one of God’s favorites.

When we get into the New Testament, we will see where Jesus often spoke in parables. A parable is a fictitous story that is used to illustrate something of moral value.”The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf” is a fictitious story to demonstrate why you shouldn’t lie, but since it is not a Biblical story, I’m unsure if it qualifies to be a parable or not. Regardless, Jotham, the son of Gideon who escaped Abimelech’s slaughter, stood at the top of a mount and shouted a “parable” to the people. The parable was about trees, and how the trees wanted to select a ruler over them, and the worst vegetation, the bramble was eventually selected, and the bramble rose over them, essentially giving them shade instead of sunlight which killed them. This parable related to the people who made Abimelech their leader, the worst of the brothers, who would eventually lead to their demised.

Once the people saw that Abimelech wasn’t what they expected, the hired an avenger, who came to town shooting his mouth off, and the Mayor of the town ran and told Abimelech. So Abimlech attacked at night, and killed the avenger and his men. Then some of the people of Shechem went to attack Abimelech, but Abimelech killed them as well.

Sigh. Sound’s like a soap opera doesn’t it? If you’ve ever watched a soap opera, it is full of vanity and deceit, and adultery, and every other sin in the book, and this story as you can tell, just about covers it all.

After Abimelech killed most of the people of the town and made entry into the city, the remaining people ran and hid in the tower of Shechem, barricading themselves in. So Abimelech ordered his men to cut branches of trees which they piled up against the tower and set them on fire, burning the tower and killing everyone inside, burning them to death.

We often think our world is bad today because of the violence and madness, but it didn’t look so good back then either.

Then Abimelech went to another town, Thebez, which the Bible doesn’t give a reason for, and attacked that town. The people of Thebez fled to their tower for safety and barricaded themselves in, and once again, Abimelech went to set fire to the wood tower door to burn the tower and the people inside, but one of the women of the town took a millstock, a stone used to grind grain, and dropped it on Abimelech, crushing his head. The Abimelech told his armorer, to kill him with the sword so he would die at the hand of a woman, so his armor bearing finished Abimelech off with the sword.

So, all of this sin. What have we learned from this story? If you blatantly and willfully and intentionally sin, God will withdraw His “hedge of protection” from you. And that is what He did in this case, letting Satan runs the show, tempting everyone involved, and before you know it, one sin, the sin of the envy of Abimelech, turned into a blood bath, and many people died from it.

If you love your God and be obedient to Him, He will protect us from evil. Yes, we will face trouble in our life, Satan even tried to tempt Jesus, but God gives us a moral compass that if we resist the temptation of Satan, God will protect us. Satan wants you to die prematurely. Satan wants to kill you, because he know that that hurts God. God is our Father, we are His children, and He loves each and every one of us so much. People who have lost a child say it is one of the worst things anyone can experience, so imagine the heartache God has when He sees on of His children die from a sinful life.

The children of Manasseh turned from God. Despite their blessings of God delivering them from the Midianites, they almost immediately turned and began worshiping idols. And that led them astray, leading to all of the sins and crimes I’ve mentioned here.

And today, it isn’t much different. You can see the lives of people that are chaotic because they’ve turned from God. And I continually see people on social media, that every time something bad happens like a natural disaster, or perhaps a mass shooting, they question God, asking where He is. And I often say, you would know where God is if you search for Him.

Every book of the Bible is a lesson, either of lesson of how to live, or a lesson on how not to live.

God bless you all.