It has been already said to have been an early fact in the history of the "Judges," and not chronologically near the close of the book. He made us. (Judges 15:4-5). And so then he went to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez. And it was of the greatest importance that His people should be trained in this. No way. What came out we know too well. By proceeding, you consent to our cookie usage. So Abimelech and all the people who were with him rose by night, and lay in wait against Shechem in four companies. Is it not increasingly true that we can go no lower, whether we look at the people of God or the last deliverer in the book of Judges? If God permits him for a season to do his own will, what shame and pain he must reap ere long! He permitted that there should be no confidence in the peaceable intentions of Israel, for the very purpose of putting them in possession of the land. "And so they came to the vine and said, "Rule over us. i. Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before Jehovah, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah. His father and mother remonstrate in vain. God's Word is the Truth see John 17:17). The ruin of Christianity was when two systems so distinct got confounded. What a picture of the true state of things! The word of God is always in itself not only right, but fraught with light. But if not, let fire come out of the bramble There is little moral elevation in Samson, little in any way to command respect or love. These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Judges 9 Bible Commentary - Matthew Henry (concise) - Christianity "Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So low were things now in Israel, that even this man becomes an instrument of God's deliverance; and so evidently in all this was God stamping on the people His moral sentence of their state. Here then we have certain facts, apart from the historic course, introduced in these words: "There was a man of mount Ephraim." Treat Satan as Satan when he betrays himself; and what can he do against the name of the Lord? Changes will take effect once you reload the page. Well, site uncertain) where he hid from his brothers wrath. 9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees? But He knows how to wake them up from such disgraceful insensibility. The king of the Ammonites did not speak candidly. They don't have their sound pollution like we have here. It seems to me then that the reserve of the Holy Spirit is as strikingly according to God as the rashness of Jephthah is a solemn warning to man. i. As the children are playing you hear them laughing, screaming and all a couple miles away. But when God and His word are in question, it ought to be a simple matter for a child of God. Though Abimelech sought a place of leadership in Israel, God did not raise him up as a judge. Now the moral importance of this was immense, for if they were simply doing the will and word of God, who could stand in their way? Abimelech was the bramble; and the ceders of Lebanon, all the nobles and people of Israel. To those who discern what a witness it is that the people were far gone from Him here the principle reappears in all its strength the isolation of the man himself, the circumstances that had brought about the rupture with the foe, the mind of Judah, if not treacherous to the Israelite, cowering before the uncircumcised, and now the strangest of weapons for war that Samson uses against them the jawbone of an ass. ', To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. What is to become of you then? Gaal . They had been at length brought down to their right place before God; they had taken the shame to themselves; the Lord had chastised them, and they had needed and deserved it righteously. 21. So Abimelech and all the people who were with him rose by night, and lay in wait: Abimelech agreed with and followed the plan suggested by Zebul. What a man sows he must reap: if he sows to the flesh, of the flesh he reaps corruption. Yet they rejected the warning of God, and therefore came to ruin. And its sound just really carries over there. This is exceedingly instructive. For on the contrary after Samson's days, the sufferings of the children of Israel reached even a higher degree than they had ever attained under Samson or before. He had far too often made a wretched use of them in times that were past; and even now, in spite of the work of God in his soul, was there nothing weightier, was there nothing deeper, was there nothing to lament over more than the loss of those two eyes? There is no difficulty in principle either way. (Judges 12:1-15) Jephthah might little desire such a conflict; nevertheless, where do we see meekness, where patience? * Yet there is little reason to suppose that the exile of the land means Shalmaneser's, but rather under the Philistines; for it was merely all the time the house of God was in Shiloh. even when God gave them one in a man after His own heart, we then trace greater abominations under the lines either of those who broke off in self-will or of those who turned the line of promise to nothing but corruption. See what great swelling words of vanity he speaks (Judges 9:15; Judges 9:15), what promises he makes to his faithful subjects: Let them come and trust in my shadow: a goodly shadow to trust in! 42 - 49. a. Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit, The bramble said to the trees, If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon. I doubt that any believer, without inspiration, would have felt it desirable to write that verse, and many more, as God has done it. (1.) Judges 9:9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and god to be promoted over the trees? And its then in chapter 9 where we see He got an opportunity of speaking to them from the top of Mount Gerizim, the mount of blessings, at the foot of which probably the Shechemites were, upon some occasion or other, gathered together (Josephus says, solemnizing a festival), and it seems they were willing to hear what he had to say. What avails the show of Jehovah's name, or form of consecrating a Levite to be priest? Then the trees said to the fig tree, Most of the resources below are newer works (written after 1970) which previously were available only for purchase in book form or in a Bible computer program. We see a man, not without faith indeed (Hebrews 11:32), though his confidence was largely in the strength with which God had invested him, rather than in Him who would yet prove Himself the sole source of it; a man who was roused by personal affront and desire of vengeance, not by a solemn duty; a man who slowly and weakly wakes up to any sense of his mission, who is ever too ready to sink down again into the lowest indulgence of fallen nature among the enemy. With the help of some worthless Shechemites, Abimelech killed all his brothers (except one who escaped) and established himself king in Shechem. No way. Abimelech was no doubt the son of a concubine; but here we descend lower still. Hear what a solemn appeal Jephthah makes to the elders before he acts. Now; in Abimelech's history we see that he had begun with the most intense selfishness taking an utterly reckless advantage of those who had a better claim to represent their father than himself. Let us not think it strange if we see folly set in great dignity (Ecclesiastes 10:6), and the vilest men exalted (Psalms 12:8), and men blind to their own interest in the choice of their guides. Now, broken down before God who had ordered their defeat, they are made to feel for their brother, guilty as he was, no doubt. Now when all the men of the tower of Shechem had heard that, they entered the stronghold of the temple of the god Berith. And all the men of Shechem gathered together, all of Beth Millo, and they went and made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem. These features reflect the authors unambiguous stance toward the nation and the characters: Israel has been totally Canaanized; Baal has contended for himself and prevailed." The ANSWER is: "Practice makes Perfect!" The world was large enough for all. Alas! The bramble, being chosen to the government, takes no time to consider whether he should accept it or no, but immediately, as if he had been born and bred to dominion, hectors, and assures them they shall find him as he found them.
Judges 9 Commentary - Commentary Critical and Check to enable permanent hiding of message bar and refuse all cookies if you do not opt in. Thanks. And they said to the olive tree, WebThose who bear fruit for the public good, are justly respected and honoured by all that are wise, more than those who merely make a figure. The object of the king of Ammon was to put the children of Israel in the wrong. ". One very brief definition that may help is to describe a parable as an earthly story that speaks beyond itself.. Now therefore, get up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field. It is the perfection of the creature, giving God His place, and man his own; it is the lowliest, and withal the morally highest place for one here below, as for the angels above. And be assured, brethren, that in an evil world patience is morally much beyond power. But all of the other sons of Gideon were killed. Carried away by his uncurbed feelings (to whatever end God might turn all, for He always governs), he was mighty to act; but as to intelligence, little more than an unconscious instrument. Then Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem, to his mothers brothers, and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his mothers father, saying, Please speak in the hearing of all the men of Shechem: Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of Jerubbaal reign over you, or that one reign over you? Remember that I am your own flesh and bone. And his mothers brothers spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem; and their heart was inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, He is our brother.. Alas! Jotham's parable, ver. This is our calling; but we see even in Israel that outside the limits, the very narrow limits, in which God called them to be the executors of divine vengeance even they calmly bear and brook as they best might; and there were those that understood the mind of God, and knew perfectly well why they were not so called to do. Killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal: Therefore, Abimelech killed his brothers with the support of his relatives on his mothers side. Abimelech son of Jerub-Baal went to Shechem to his uncles and all his mothers relatives and said to them, Ask all the leading men of Shechem, What do you think is best, that seventy men rule youal And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mothers relatives, and spoke to them and to the whole clan of the If his only desire is to destroy those who disagree, then he is much like the bramble plenty of good points, but no real substance for good. This is always true in the ways of God. Click to enable/disable Google reCaptcha. Acts 2:38 tells the ONLY WAY one receives the gift of the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins is at adult full immersion Baptism. If the Amorite got them from Ammon in the first instance, as was no doubt the fact, this was an affair not between Israel and Ammon, but between Ammon and Sihon. It is the expression of the agent of divine power in no way the seal of redemption or the earnest of the inheritance, as we know Him dwelling in us now since the shedding of the blood of Jesus. Gaal probably was not prepared for a siege; so he had little choice but to leave the city walls behind and confront Abimelech out in the open. (Wolf). Dear Pilgrims Christianity is singular and not plural all things plural become corrupt Jesus begins each letter/epistle in Revelation to a church (plural) but He ends each letter/epistle addressing individual/s (singular) (i.e. Even the man who above all others perhaps illustrates the danger of rash vows in the joy of a divine deliverance, and that affecting him in the nearest possible way, was the very reverse of rash in entering on his service for the people of Israel. Respectfully submitted as my Scriptural understanding; I share with you what His Spirit has shared with my spirit.
And Jehovah said, Go up; for tomorrow I will deliver them into thine hand." This again leads to a bitter vengeance of the Philistines on those of Timnath who had served him so ill the very fate befalling them at last, to escape which at first the woman had lent herself to the basest treachery. Article Images Copyright 2023 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. The danger was incomparably greater where the trial was to stand to the truth fully revealed and to walk in the Spirit, and not subjection to commandments and ritual observances. However this may have been, we may notice first the quarter whence deliverance was to come: "There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites." c. Let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem: Jothams warning to the men of Shechem was that their unwise choice would come back to hurt them. We know that the spirit of ease and self-indulgence readily finds a lion in the way can make one where none is; but here was a real lion that roared against the self-willed youth. Could they therefore suppose that such a low-born, uneducated, cruel, and murderous man, could be a proper protector, or a humane governor? So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men; and they followed him. If in truth you anoint me as king over you, WebJudges 9:8-15.
Judges 9 In him we have a man who took advantage of the reputation for the power of God that had wrought by his father; but where anything of the sort is used for self, and not for God, bitter disappointment must be the result; and if there be anything more marked than another in his history, it is the solemnity of divine retribution.