The Bramble King. So the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth 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.’ Jdg 9:15
INTRODUCTION
This is a history of the chosen people during the 400 or 450 years which intervened between the death of Joshua and the time of Eli, Act_13:20. It is not a connected history, but a collection of outstanding incidents, which determined the fortunes of the chosen people, and gave special illustrations of the power of faith in God. The chief lesson of the book is the intimate connection between loyalty or disloyalty to God and the corresponding results in well-being or misery. This is distinctly stated in Jdg_2:11-23.
The judges were extraordinary agents of the divine pity and helpfulness, raised up as the urgency of the people’s need demanded, to deliver Israel from their oppressors, to reform religion, and to administer justice. Their administration was generally local, as Barak among the northern tribes, Samson in the extreme south, and Jephthah across the Jordan in Gilead.
It must not be supposed that Israel perpetrated an unbroken series of apostasies. Though these and their special deliverances occupy the major part of the book, there were evidently long interspaces of fidelity and prosperity. And in the darkest hours, there were probably large numbers who, amid the abominations, sighed and cried for a better day.
There are two appendices, relating events which took place not long after Joshua’s death, and therefore preceding the greater part of the history. We may almost consider the book of Ruth as the third. The touches of human characteristics are very vivid and instinctive, and the book deserves much more attention than it receives from the ordinary reader.
Israel’s Apostasies and Deliverances
INTRODUCTION, Jdg_1:1-36; Jdg_2:1-23; Jdg_3:1-432.
RULE OF THE JUDGES, Judges 3:5-16:31
Following repeated apostasy and oppression, the Israelites were successively delivered:
4. From the Kings of Midian by Gideon, Jdg_6:1-40; Jdg_7:1-25; Jdg_8:1-35
(Story of Gideon’s sons), Jdg_9:1-57
20. What was Jotham’s parable?
THE LORD RAISES UP JUDGES
ABIMELECH’S CONSPIRACY
When they told Jotham, he went and stood at the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted to them, “Hear me, O men of Shechem, so that God may hear you.
Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’
But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I give up my fatness by which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’
Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us!’
But the fig tree said to them, ‘Should I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’
Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come and reign over us.’
And the vine replied, ‘Should I give up my new wine, which makes God and men happy, and go to wave over the trees?’
Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’
So the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth 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.’
“Now then, if you acted in truth and integrity when you made Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have dealt with him as he deserved–
for my father fought for you and risked his life and rescued you from the hand of Midian;
but you have risen against my father’s house today and have murdered his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, son of his maidservant, king over the people of Shechem, because he is your relative–
if then you have acted in truth and integrity with Jerubbaal and his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
if not, may fire come out from Abimelech and devour the people of Shechem and Beth-millo; and may fire come out from the people of Shechem and Beth-millo, and devour Abimelech.”
Then Jotham escaped and fled, and went to Beer and lived there because of Abimelech his brother.
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
THE BRAMBLE KING
Men must have leadership. The reason lies deep in human nature. The French Revolutionaries destroyed the royal family, but Robespierre, Danton and Marat were practically enthroned in the position from which Louis was hurled. In Oliver Cromwell’s commonwealth, he exercised the royal prerogative. Some of us enthrone the fatness of the olive, some the sweetness of the fig, and some the good cheer of the vine. In other words, the guiding ideal of some souls is Prosperity, of others Love, of others Pleasure. And yet others choose the bramble-with its prickly thorns-which, when scorched by the summer-heat, is near unto burning, Heb_6:8. It stands, therefore, for the useless and perilous life, which is doomed to the scrap-heap. See 1Co_9:27.
In the meanwhile Jesus waits to become the crowned King of each soul. He adventured his life and delivered us from the hand of the enemy, to whom we had sold ourselves. Do we deal truly and uprightly with Him, in allowing other lords to rule over us while we crown Him with thorns? See Jdg_9:17; Jdg_19:1-30.
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