judges 9:8 15 explanation

But when God and His word are in question, it ought to be a simple matter for a child of God. But verse 30 seems adverse to this view. And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. He leaves it to the event to determine whether they had done well, whereby he lodges the appeal with the divine providence. But there follows a second tale of excessive atrocity in a moral way, which begins in Judges 19:1-30. in terms expressly similar to the beginning ofJudges 18:1-31; Judges 18:1-31: "And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah." You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. Abimelech got up to mount Zalmon, with his people; and he began to with his axe to cut down the boughs from the trees, he laid them on his shoulder, and said to the people, Follow my example. Alas! Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech: We can be certain that God will repay wickedness, either in this life or the life to come. 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? Now when they told Jotham: Jotham was the only son of Gideon to escape the massacre at the stone (Judges 9:5). Then all the trees said to the bramble, 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. But in the end He acts in His own way, which will ever be what we little expect. O what a mercy it is to have God to take care of our walk! The fact which comes out first is that Gibeah of Benjamin was scarce better than Sodom or Gomorrah, on which Jehovah rained fire and brimstone for their uncleanness. 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. His kingdom probably consisted only of Shechem and a few towns round about (9:1-6). with all the family of the house of his mother's father--Here is a striking instance of the evils of polygamy--one son has connections and interests totally alien to those of his brothers. It was not merely that the people were unworthily oppressed by the Ammonites, but Jephthah does not venture to go to war, nor does the Spirit of God clothe him with energy for the conflict, until he had the certainty in his soul that the cause was a righteous one, and this founded upon the dealings of God with the children of Israel and with Ammon respectively. Of this tribe Samson was born. Either they could not reach him or they were so far convinced that they would not add the guilt of his blood to all the rest. But commentators observe it for a just hand of God upon Abimelech, that upon one stone he had slain his seventy brethren, and now a stone slayeth him: his head had stolen the crown of Israel, and now his head is smitten. (Trapp). After Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years, God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that the crime done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be settled and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brothers. 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. But the good was hard to reach or even to discern, the evil abundant and obvious, "And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years." Now they could deal with guilty Benjamin. Judges 9:22-49 . GAAL'S CONSPIRACY. 22. When Abimelech had reigned three years --His reign did not, probably at first, extend beyond Shechem; but by stealthy and progressive encroachments he subjected some of the neighboring towns to his sway. 51-53. all the men and women, . Not only were they in slavery, but content to be slaves, yea, traitors. 7 And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you. Peter - A watchman of His Word. all those stories that Jesus told that provide so much of how we understand our faith. By the Holy Spirit only can we enter in and enjoy. And Abimelech dwelt in Arumah: and Zebul thrust out Gaal with his brothers, that they should not dwell in Shechem. The condensed moral of the whole fable is this: Weak, worthless, and wicked men, will ever be foremost to thrust themselves into power; and, in the end, to bring ruin upon themselves, and on the unhappy people over whom they preside. Now you know, they used to say of the sailors "a girl in every port." And so Abimelech came to the tower, he fought against it, he was up against the door trying to burn it with fire. Samson made great destruction among the Philistines. and where such a sufferer? Judges 18:1-31 shows that the moral condition, especially of the priest-Levite, was as bad as the religious state. "And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place." . His parable is very ingenious--that when the trees were disposed to choose a king the government was offered to those valuable trees the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, but they refused it, choosing rather to serve than rule, to do good than bear sway. All are aware there are a great many who try to explain the difficulty away or soften it down. . One of these, Abimelech, was not a full-blooded Israelite, for his mother was a Shechemite. We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. Go out and take him on. Undoubtedly the desire of his own importance and aggrandizement is but too manifest; but when he enters upon the service itself, he not only takes care that the right should be felt by Israel to be indisputably with them, but that this should be known and pressed on the conscience of his adversary. And in Thebez there was a strong tower within the city, and all the men and women, fled to the tower there in Thebez. i. That government involves a man in a great deal both of toil and care; he that is promoted over the trees must go up and down for them, and make himself a perfect drudge to business. (Judges 9:1-57), On Tola and Jair (Judges 10:1-18) we need not pause; but in Jephthah again we have solemn issues brought out But here again is found the same brand of what was worthless or untowardly in the instruments that God used in a day of declension "Jephthah the Gileadite," we are told in Judges 11:1-40, "was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot." Web1. You will never understand the Bible otherwise. And he gave him a real rebuke and then he took off running as fast as he could go. Nothing justifies departure from the word of God. There is no difference as to form. The people, apparently confident that the matter was concluded, went out into the fields as usual to engage in their daily occupations. (Cundall). There is little moral elevation in Samson, little in any way to command respect or love. But we are sanctified by the Spirit unto the obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and are called to obey, as the wife her husband. . Grave truth! Go to your Bible and begin there to follow God's Word. It is not here meant that there is any special difficulty in that which has been the occasion of these general remarks; still less is it implied that he who speaks makes any pretension to know anything as he ought to know, more than those he sees around him. The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them: In the parable told by Jotham, the worthy trees (such as the olive, the fig, and the vine) didnt want to be king; but the unworthy bramble agreed to be king. WebWhen the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, his cords were loosed: where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, and those are free indeed who are thus set free. If some of these had taken away lands that belonged to the Ammonites, it was open and perfectly lawful in this case for Israel to put these intruders out of the land, and to take possession of whatever was their spoil. Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and he encamped against Thebez and took it. They help ius to translate the great concepts of faith into practical action. But God takes means to make them feel what such a state comes to. "To the church of" and "He who has an ear let him hear" Yes indeed God is ever present both as a protector and also as a Judge for we each make our own bed and we must all sleep in the bed we make for ourselves! Because he is your brother: The real reason the men of Shechem supported Abimelech was because he was their brother. Scripture does not in any way vouch for the immaculateness of those even who wrought in faith. if a man attempts: to put himself under it for shelter, he will find it will be of no use to him, but harmful, since, the nearer and closer he comes to it, the more he will be scratched and torn by it: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon; signifying, that if they did not heartily submit to his government, and put confidence in him, and prove faithful to him, they should smart for it, and feel his wrath and vengeance, even the greatest men among them, comparable to the cedars of Lebanon; for thorns and brambles catching fire, as they easily do, or fire being put to them, as weak as they are, and placed under the tallest and strongest cedars, will soon fetch them down to the ground; and the words of the bramble, or Abimelech, proved true to the Shechemites, he is made to speak in this parable. Be it remarked, that what drew out their unanimous condemnation was not an outrage done to God's name. The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. From the temple of Baal-Berith: Abimelech received his pay from the temple dedicated to Baal. b. (Compare Psalms 78:60-61) Such are the prominent points of instruction in this appendix. But God reserved great things for his death. There is something about the elastic atmosphere of an Eastern clime which causes it to transmit sound with wonderful celerity and distinctness [HACKETT]. ( Judges 9:28 ). "And the olive tree said, "Should I leave my fatness and so forth and rule over you? We may request cookies to be set on your device. We should each consider if God is warning us about something in the present time. The end was that he met with the judgment least of all to be coveted by man, most of all detestable to a proud spirit like his own. If you google The Church of Christ it will tell you of one near you. "As they did unto me, so have I done unto them." Before Abimelechs sole surviving brother went into hiding, he uttered a protest against Abimelech that predicted the effect of his rule. about a thousand men and women ( Judges 9:49 ). And in like manner they sent unto the king of Moab: but he would not consent: and Israel abode in Kadesh.". But alas! 89-95.]. It is in no way a carrying forward of the history. Great merits often meet with very ill returns. The besieged city--the strong tower within--the men and women crowding its battlements--the fire applied to the doors, and even the huge fragments of stone dropping from the hands of one of the garrison on the heads of the assailants, are all well represented to the life--just as they are here described in the narrative of inspired truth [GOSS]. The acoustics are quite interesting in many areas of the land. ""Should I forsake the wine and so forth that cheers God and man to rule you? Not as if He could not care for His own; but our strength, comfort, and blessing are in His name. Abimelech and the Shechemites, that had strengthened one another's hands in this villany, would certainly be a plague and ruin one to another. He fought their battles, at the hazard of his own life, and to their unspeakable advantage. "Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? 5 Samson went down to Timnah. On the other hand, is there not real beauty in the obscurity in which Scripture treats a matter so painful? From the answer of the olive tree we learn that usefulness is better than honour. They only injured those who got too close to them. And as naturally as possible too they take it. Hey, no he wasn't so meek and mild. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.". stood in the top of mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice--The spot he chose was, like the housetops, the public place of Shechem; and the parable [ Judges 9:8-15 ] drawn from the rivalry of the various trees was appropriate to the diversified foliage of the valley below. i. What a picture of the true state of things! And the bramble said to the trees, Resent it? Jotham, having given them this admonition, made a shift to escape with his life, Judges 9:21; Judges 9:21. And the men of Shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way; and it was told Abimelech. 1 - 6. Thus we may find the most striking manifestations of power in men as disorderly as the Corinthian Christians; but the same persons are a plain proof that it is a far harder thing to do the will of the Lord, and harder still to suffer according to God, than to work any miracles whatever. This again makes the case of Israel still more clear, because it might have been supposed that surely the Amorite must be put out of the way, seeing that that most wicked race was devoted expressly to destruction. WebJudges Commentary - Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete) Bible Study Tools Join PLUS Login. What a figure of, but contrast with, His death who only pursued to that final point His absolute devotedness to the will of God, not doing it only but suffering it to the uttermost, and thus righteously by His death securing what no living obedience could have touched! Thus there was an arrest on the road. The great point of the preface is that "in those days there was no king in Israel" the opening words of Judges 18:1-31. Where was the just horror at the idolatry of Micah? WebThe 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 The king of Ammon had no just claim whatever. But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it; and we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel. "Then they went along through the wilderness, and compassed the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and pitched on the other side of Arnon." How unlike to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, which a good magistrate is compared to! You think of Jesus speaking to a crowd of ten thousand people and they're all able to hear Him and that's without amplifying systems. If only this people were under my authority! You can check these in your browser security settings. (3.) Gideon had rejected, with abhorrence, the proposal to make himself or any of his family king, and there is no evidence that any of his other sons coveted the title. 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. They have no shame nor resentment on their part at this accusation of treachery. But if it was his hidden power, it acted also as a test; and now the enemy possessed it, disclosed to a harlot, who had wrung it for gold from his foolish heart. communed . Yet there is a more secure tower than the tower of Shechem. There was then "a man of mount Ephraim whose name was Micah," who, not satisfied with carrying out the impiety of his mother in making a graven and a molten image of silver dedicated to Jehovah, for this purpose gets a Levite to be consecrated as his priest. Bright contrast between Samson and the man that overthrew Satan on that cross where He Himself reached the very climax of weakness! Alas! This is exceedingly instructive. Now when Jotham heard that they had made Abimelech king, he went to the top of mount Gerizim ( Judges 9:5-7 ). "Art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? 15 And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon. This shows the problem of following a man who comes to power through violence. By contrast Abimelech is like a bramble: he can give neither shelter nor protection. Why Does God Compare Our Relationship with Him to That of a Bride and And he said to the men of Shechem, [Now look fellas] who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve them? God might be said to be "cheered" by it, when the sacrifices were accepted, as He is said also to be honored by oil ( Judges 9:9 ). His preface is very serious: "Hearken unto me, you men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you,Judges 9:7; Judges 9:7. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars. And so then he went to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez. a. This was as if a man should run into a stack of straw or barrel of gunpowder, to secure himself from a raging fire. His heart was glad of a better living and of a larger sphere (verses 19, 20), as he goes off from the house of Micah with the lawless children of Dan to blot out Laish with fire and sword, and call their new city after their own name, where the graven image was set up, and a succession that failed not till the day of the captivity of the land; for error takes root faster, and bears fruit more luxuriantly as well as permanently than the truth. ., and all the house of Millo--that is, a mound or rampart, so that the meaning is, all the men in the house or temple; namely, the priests of Baal. i. 28-45. would to God this people were under my hand--He seems to have been a boastful, impudent, and cowardly person, totally unfit to be a leader in a revolutionary crisis. Then the trees said to the fig tree, Killed his brothers, the seventy sons of Jerubbaal: Therefore, Abimelech killed his brothers with the support of his relatives on his mothers side. especially to posterity, when the benefactor if forgotten, as Joseph was among the Egyptians. 22. WebJotham imputes the slaying of his brothers to the citizens of Shechem, as a crime which they themselves had committed ( Judges 9:18 ), because they had given Abimelech money out of their temple of Baal to carry out his designs against the sons of Jerubbaal ( Judges 9:4 ). Verse Judges 9:15. Never was there failure of divine power with Samson against the foe; but moreover the pitifulness of Jehovah is marked towards His poor servant (for did He disdain when the thirsty man called on Himself, as he cried to God in his distress?). The way of instruction by parables is an ancient way, and very useful, especially to give reproofs by. And it was of the greatest importance that His people should be trained in this. And its then in chapter 9 where we see WebIn Judges 9:8-15, Jotham conveys a message about the trees speaking amongst themselves while seeking a king. Respectfully submitted as my Scriptural understanding; I share with you what His Spirit has shared with my spirit. They spread abroad the revolting tale; they readily respond to the call for their advice and counsel. No doubt it was a wonderful display of physical force on the one hand; as on the other those he vanquished were the unrelenting enemies of God's people. He decided to teach his subjects a lesson. The descent is great, when one bearing the name of the Lord slights His word and seeks a path of his own. And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.". a. Then follows the story of his companions and the riddle a riddle which he was clever enough to put, but which he had little faith to understand or appropriate himself. 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? Thus it was proved that Israel had, in whatever light regarded, a valid title, not only from long-continued possession, but from a right founded on their conquest of one of the enemies devoted to destruction by God Himself, but an enemy who had wantonly attacked them, when they would have left him unharmed, as they would the Ammonite now. Never indeed is good the fruit of man's will, but of God's. Here he told a parable to rebuke the men of Shechem for their choice of Abimelech as a king. But no "Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. i. c. Where indeed is your mouth now: When Zebul knew that Gaal was at a disadvantage, he could not resist rebuking him for his proud, arrogant words against Abimelech, an enemy he could not defeat. I have taken no ground beyond your own, my brethren; but surely this is a ground that calls you to assert the very same inestimable privilege that I boast as by grace a man of faith. Here the LORD showed His faithfulness to Samson by supplying the needs of His servant. how the very thought of Jehovah's name seems lost at this time among the children of Israel. Click to enable/disable Google Analytics tracking. It is well sometimes for all those who teach that they should be obliged to learn; well that they should be forced to feel that they do not know; an excellent moral lesson that they should confess it not only be conscious of it, but own it; for indeed the necessary claim of scripture is that it be confided in as the word of God, though it does not thence follow that we are competent to explain all. 50. And the fig tree said unto them, "Should I forsake my sweetness, my good fruit? If not.The bramble is not only eager to be king, but has spiteful and dangerous threatsthe counterpart of those, doubtless, which had been used by Abimelechto discourage any withdrawal of the offer. why did not the strong man learn wisdom in the fear of Jehovah, as he again visited the place where his first lesson was given? Is it not evident that Samson feebly knew what God was teaching him by the lion which he slew, and by the lion's carcase which he found with the honey in it? And he said to God the people were under my rule, because I can really do a good job here, you know.

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