Judges 9 Bible Study (Abimelech's Conspiracy/The Downfall of Abimelech) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

Please meet me in the book of Judges chapter nine as we continue our bible study. Now, if you were with us a couple weeks ago, you know that we were studying the man and the ministry, Gideon. One of the many judges that God raised up to deliver the nation of his And just a reminder, as we come into this chapter of who Gideon was, Gideon was the deliverer over the oppressors known as the Midianites. And after a successful conquest, a miraculous conquest, the people were so touched by Gideon's service to the Lord and who he was as a man that they they requested that he would be the king over them. And that was the first time in the Old Testament for this nation that the people of Israel requested a human king.

And Gideon, hearing this, did not hesitate, but rejected the offer and reminded Israel, the Lord is your king. And what a noble thing to do. What a pious thing to do. But if you remember, though he rejected it, it was followed by what seems to be a contradiction because he lived like a king. He said, and we rejected the official position, but following that statement, he ends up making decisions as though he was the ruler of the nation.

And following that, we are told at the end of chapter eight that Gideon took many wives and he had, now listen to this, 70 sons. 70 sons. And in verse 31, we are told on top of that, and his concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son and he called his name Abimelech. So you got 71 kids, Gideon. And he dies.

And you and I are familiar with this book enough to realize that we are about to restart the cycle. Right? Here we go. The people are gonna plunge into sin again. God is gonna have to raise up another deliverer because they're gonna cry out to him.

But in fact, when we come to chapter nine, that is not the case. The cycle is interrupted. And Gideon's story continues in some way through his one son, Abimelech. And what we read from Abimelech story in this long chapter, as you realize in your bible, you see how many verses are there dedicated to this chapter. Taste, a clear picture of the depravity that they're headed towards.

It's not getting better for the nation of Israel. It's only getting worse. And we're gonna read and find out why that is the case. So let's read the first few verses of chapter nine. Now Abimelech, the son of Jerubal, went to Shechem, to his mother's relatives and said to them, and to the whole clan of his mother's family, say in the ears of all the leaders of Shechem, which is better for you, that all 70 of the sons of Jerubal rule over you or that one rule over you?

Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh. So Abimelech is all grown up. Gideon is long gone. And in this man's heart, he devises a plan. Remember, he is not the son of his wives, of Gideon's, one of Gideon's wives.

He's a son of a concubine. And in Abby Melek's heart, he desired to follow in the footsteps of his father and be a ruler to some degree. But he realizes because of his birth, because of the concubine as his mother, he had less of a chance in comparison to the other sons. And so he now he plays politics, and he decides to go to his mother's side and to persuade them to make him the king, play on their emotions, and he tries to play on their selfish ambitions. And what we read here early on is that Abby Melek proves to us already that it is possible for a man to be so possessed with a lust for power and authority, and he will do anything in order to satisfy that desire.

We can't make the mistake that Abi Malek at this point is ambitious, and he he just wants to follow on what he believes God is calling him to. Everything about Abi Malek's desire here for ministry, for this title, for this place of authority, is completely carnal and evil. And we're gonna discover that together. How do we know this? How do we know that this is the case?

Well, what Gideon rejected, he's now pursuing. And and here's just a question for our bible study tonight. What is the name Abimelech even mean? Abimelech name means, my father is king. We might have the misunderstanding that Gideon, again, rejected to be king and he just fell into some weird sin.

No, no, no. We have every reason to believe that although Gideon verbally rejected to be king, he had an internal conflict that he really really wanted to be King. So much so that though he said, I will not take this official position of a King, he names one of his sons Abimelech. Why would you name your son that? Every time you would call his name, you would be reminded, I'm king.

Abimelech, my father is king, my father is king. And you'd be told by your son's name that you are what you said you wouldn't be, but you really wanted to be. And that was a king. And because of his failure to speak truth over his son, now they're gonna be consequences that are gonna outlive Gideon. Now Abby Malek thinks that his father was a king, and he is living with this false idea that he deserves to be king.

You see the mess that Gideon got his descendants into? It doesn't make it any better for you to reject verbally something, when internally it is the opposite. It matter what you tell people? Does it matter what you tell your spiritual leaders? If you live something else, there will be consequences.

And that is the case for this story. You know what's amazing? As we pause here, think about how many scenarios in the Bible are dedicated to describing how this lust for power and prestige and authority is real and rampant throughout history. Can you name some instances where that is the case? Where there is this envy, this covetous desire to pursue something at any cost and oftentimes is done by evil means?

Think now, think. What comes to mind? In what sense? Yeah. Right from the beginning.

She wanted to be like God, because Satan persuaded her that you can be like God. Right there. Genesis three. Where else? Simon the sorcerer wanted the power of the Holy Spirit because he clearly saw something visible for him to say, I want what you have, apostles, and I'm willing to pay for it.

Great example. Any other examples? In what sense? Absolutely. Here comes the Messiah.

Uh-oh. I'm not gonna go and worship him. Let's slaughter any rival to my kingdom. These are great examples. Saul and David, absolutely, to remain as king, to kill David.

Sure. Yep. Absolutely. David's descendants. Yes.

Wanting to rebel against their own father, wanting to rebel against one another to try to occupy that that throne. Listen, if you actually pause and think about it, it is from cover to cover. How in different covenants, in different moments of redemptive history, there is this very real lust. Even near the end of the book, think about this in one of the epistles in third John. Are you familiar with third John?

Let's read verse nine. There's no chapter, so just verse nine and ten. Listen to these words that the Apostle John writes to this specific church. I have written something to the church, but the atrophies who likes to put himself first does not acknowledge our authority. Verse 10.

So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to, and puts them out of the church. Now can you imagine that? Arguably, before the first century, the church even being born, you have somebody in the new covenant church who is wanting to be first. Paul, could you read that verse in the King James?

If you can open up there. Now, listen to the wording of the King James of verse nine, and you'll get even a stronger language. It's the same meaning, but stronger language of what is happening in this man's heart. Who love it to have preeminence. I want to be supreme.

I want to be above everybody else. I want to be recognized. I want some control in the church. I want a position. I want a name for myself.

So much so that he disregarded the letter that John wrote. And then what does he do? What often happens when a person lusts for position and there's rivals in his pursuit, he speaks wicked nonsense against the apostles, the ones who walk with Jesus. And then on top of that, he obviously persuaded some people in the church to have some kind of a say in who can stay in the church and who doesn't stay in the church. And we think about that sin, and how often it is real in many churches, yet so very few are willing to confront it when they see it.

John was not scared to confront it when he saw it. He says, when I come watch how I'm gonna deal with this guy. And the point here is this, is that this is a very real temptation in churches even today. You have people who want to pursue something and because it's not a call from God, and because it's not controlled by God, and because they won't submit to the will of God, they will take it into their own hands and that's when it gets very very ugly. Whether with the atrophies, whether with Abi Malek.

And in Abi Malek's life, we're gonna take him as our example to see how somebody can have such a lust, so intense that it can be destructive to him and to those that he chooses or wanting to choose to be in leadership over. I want you to realize this, that there's nothing wrong with ambition and desire. But if it's not from God, if it's not led by the Holy Spirit, if it's not inspired by him, and if it's not something that he's clearly advocating in your life, be careful. Let's look at the ingredients of how Abby Melek is proving that his desire is not from God. This calling is not for him.

Let's look back at our text. Firstly, we realized number one that God was not his motive. If you read the entire chapter of chapter nine, you see very little of God mentioned in the whole story, especially in this man's pursuit of kingship. Number one, who is their The Lord. It was the Lord.

He had no right to assume that position no matter what his father believed about himself. He had no right to pursue it. But even in his pursuit, realize that there is nothing of the Lord in the equation at all. In fact, look at verse four. When he eventually persuades his relatives on his mother's side, we are told, and they gave him 70 pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, in which Abi Malek hired worthless and reckless fellows who followed him.

You realize what's happening here, right? Money that was dedicated to a false god was withdrawn and given to Abi Malek so he can pursue more effectively what he wanted. He even took illegitimate resources to go where he wanted to be. There's nothing of God in this. See, you can pursue even the right thing, like in first Timothy three one.

Whoever desires to be an overseer desires a noble task, you can desire the right thing for with the wrong motive. And God is not in it. And that was a case for this man. The Lord's glory, the well-being of the people, that was not what he was after. Use this language.

He tries to say, which is better for you? It's not God in mind. He says, which is better for you? If the 70 sons rule over you? If I rule over you?

See, he is he is pulling on their selfish desires to satisfy his own selfish desires. Now, when God is not in it Listen. This is not just for ministry positions. This is for anything in life. When God is not in it, here's point number two, you often fall into sinful patterns to try to obtain it.

Because if God is closing the door and you're forcing the door open, oftentimes you realize that I can't get it this way, so I'm gonna have to find another way. And that's what he does here. Look at verse three. He plays politics. He goes to his relatives on his mother's side, and he appeals to them by sharing the same blood.

Hey, we share the same blood here. That's why it should be a rule over you. Then you come here in verse four, as we just heard that he has to buy a following. He has to buy a following. And then you go down to verse five, and you realize that not only after he hires these reckless fellows, he uses them as mercenaries.

He uses them as assassins to join him in a slaughter fest of his potential threats in his half brothers. Nothing of God in this. And that's important because listen, if you're a Christian who desires something or desires someone, listen very carefully. If God is in it, never forget this principle, if God is in it, then you don't have to manipulate for it. Understand?

If it's God's will, God will make a way. You don't have to pull strings. You don't have to do tricks. You don't have to try to set things up. You don't have to try to gain your own following.

You don't have to do anything. If it's really the Lord, he will providentially and sovereignly make a way where he will get glory for the testimony from point a to point z. Understand? This is incredibly important because you are setting yourself up for disaster, if you try to do it any other way, especially when it comes to God's work. Compare Gideon to his son and this whole relationship of invitation to king, though the position was not right for any person, it would belong to God alone.

What happened with Gideon's case? Did Gideon ask them or did they ask Gideon?

What happened? Did

they not ask Gideon? Be king over us? Right? They invited the man. What happened with Abi Malek?

He put it in their minds. He invited himself. He pushed for it himself. It was not something that was offered to him. It was something that he tried to force to make happen.

And what's amazing about Abi Malik's selfish desires is that it is often the pattern that when a person really wants something and is not seeing God in it, they will begin to manifest wickedness, and evil, and divisiveness, and slander to attain it. This is true throughout the scriptures. So he says, which is better for you? Right? Which is better for you?

And he puts himself in the spotlight. Remember Absalom, when Absalom wanted to overthrow his father from his throne. What did he say in that chapter where it all starts out in chapter 15 in second Samuel? What did he say to the people? Let me read it to you in verse four of chapter 15.

Then Absalom would say, oh, that I were judge in the land. Oh, that I were judge in the land. Then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me and I would give him justice. There was a judge in the land. But he's playing on their emotions, he was playing comparison, and he was winning their hearts.

The pattern in many churches when there's splits and when other churches start from a church that's already established is that you'll have one or others who will begin to slander the leadership. Compare themselves to the leadership. Begin to convince a small group of people of how they would be better leaders, and then they go off and they start something else. It's a sad, sad commentary of many people who've experienced church splits. They win an audience from within, and they sever the body so that they can start something for what?

Is that God? Is that God in that? Unless it's a church that's gone apostate, and there's false doctrine being preached, there's very little reason for that to happen. Oftentimes, it's ugly, it's nasty, and it's deceptive. That was the case for this man, and for many people, like the Atrophes, the book of third John.

Let me repeat what I said earlier. This is counsel for every area of our lives. If you believe that you should be doing something, that you should be somewhere, or that you should be with someone, Saying be with someone. You'd be crazy to know what people are willing to do to be with someone. You don't need to manipulate anything.

God will move heaven and earth for his will to be accomplished in your life if your heart is set for his glory. And he will open doors that no man can shut, and he will shut doors that doesn't matter who's in your life can try to open. If there's any example of that, think of one example of a long story dedicated to that principle amongst many other principles. I think of David. I can't help but think of David.

Here you have a man who was anointed as king as a teenager. How do we know that he was under the age of 20? You want to know if David was under the age of 20? How do we know that when he killed Goliath?

Well, because he wasn't allowed to be a soldier before he was only known. Yeah.

And the reason why he wasn't in the army when his three eldest brothers were was because according to the book of numbers, you had to be above the age of 20. David was a teenager. And David went up anointed early on in his life. And many times, he had the opportunity when he served in Saul's kingdom to have the throne earlier, and what what did he have in mind? If God really called me, then I don't have to kill to sin to get it.

I don't have to step outside of God's character to receive it. If God called me to it, then I'll be patient for him to give it at the right time. Unfortunately, with Abby Melek, he didn't believe that. He had his whole goal there skewed in the first place. He shouldn't be pursuing what he was pursuing.

But here's the third principle, and this is the scariest one, that, you know, God can't be in it, and you have obviously sinful means to obtain it. But here's a third point. Nonetheless, there are some who still want to have it their way, And they won't submit to God, so they will push for it, and their lust are just too strong. So what happens? Well, they now use, again, lies, bribery, division, slander, and any other wicked tactic to try to get one step closer.

And here's the thing, for a lot of people, it works. It works. You know, Abimelech was being persuaded by his flesh 100 and he actually got what he wanted. And many people with hands stained with blood can come to that place that they so long for. But here's the thing.

Here's the point. Ready for this? Even though you may have received it, even though you may walked into it, even though they have given you a title, even though they've given you a position, whatever it may be, if God was not in it, then God will never bless it. He'll never bless it. In Abi Malik's case, he became king.

Let's look at verse six. And all the leaders of Shechem came together, and all Beth Milo, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar at Shechem. He became a king. Wonderful testimony. Right?

You slaughtered 70 of your half brothers, but here's what Abimelech did not realize. The youngest escaped. Jotham. Right? We're told in the second part of verse five, but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerabel was left, for he hid himself.

You better believe that's a providence of God. And what happens? Whether this happened at his inauguration, we don't we're not sure, but we read from verse seven down to verse 15 that Jotham steps on the scene as soon as Abby Melek, his half brother, becomes and he pronounces a curse over Abby Melek and those who have willingly submitted to his leadership through a parable. And what's amazing is, it proves the principle that if you try to do it without God, then God won't bless it. And what's amazing is look at verse seven of where Jotham, before he pronounces this prophetic parable, he places himself on a specific mountain.

Verse seven. When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerasim and cried aloud and said to them, listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you. Why is that significant? Does Gerasim ring a bell to us as we've covered the book of Deuteronomy? What does Gerasim represent?

There's two mountains. Right? Gerasim, and what was the other one? Let's see who remembers Deuteronomy. Gerasim and?

Let's go to Deuteronomy 27. Can't just give the answer just like that. Well, as you're turning there, do you remember what these mountains were for? What were they what were they what did they mean? Paul, you're nodding your head, so you have to answer.

Cursing and blessing. Right? So Deuteronomy 27. Let's look at verse 12. When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Garrison to bless the people.

Then he names the tribes. Look at verse 13. And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse. Ebal is the name of the second one. So you have Jotham strategically placing himself on Mount Garrison, which symbolizes the blessings.

And what he has to say has nothing to do with blessings. He's about to pronounce a curse over his half brother and his little kingdom, which is significant. Isn't it? Abimelech broke many of God's laws already just to be where he was at, and you have his half brother standing on a mountain that represents the blessings that are to be received if you obey God's law. And as though as though he's saying, Abimelech, I'm calling out to you from this mountain to tell you, look what you forfeited.

Look at the mountain of blessings that you rejected so that you can have what God never intended you to have in the first place. It's a sermon illustration in itself. Look at all the blessings that you forsook. That's only reserved for the path of obedience. And instead you're gonna inherit a curse.

It's a powerful illustration. And as he goes on, as I said, he's about to now give a parable. A parable that has to do with trees. So let's just read it very quickly in verse eight. The trees, this is a parable, remember.

The trees once went out to anoint a king over them and they said to the olive tree, reign over us. But the olive tree said to them, shall I leave my abundance by which gods and men are honored and go hold sway over the trees? And the tree said to the fig tree, you come and reign over us. But the fig tree said to them, shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees? And the tree said to the vine, you come and reign over us.

The vine said to them, shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees? Then all the trees said to the bramble, you come and reign over us. And the bramble said to the trees, if in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade. But if not, let fire come out from the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. What's happening here?

You have these trees that represent men, and they are coming to their options for a potential king. And the first three, the olive, the fig, and the vine, these plants rejected the offer because they would have to forsake what they were called to do, the fruit they were supposed to produce. They were to abandon the medicinal, and the economic, and the spiritual value that they brought to the people of Israel. So they said, no way. So finally, they came to the bramble.

Now, here's what's significant about the bramble. It had literally nothing to offer in terms of fruitfulness, like the first three options. The Bramble was literally a bush of thorns. A bush of thorns. And these bush of thorns, they had nothing to give.

Now there's a little noise, so if somebody can take care of that noise, that would be wonderful because you guys look more distracted than I do. So if somebody can take care of that, that'd be great. This Bramble, what would happen with the Bramble? The only thing that it would actually do oftentimes is catch fire in the summer and put other trees in danger. And here's the point of this principle.

Here's the point of this parable. The parable was this, you literally chose a man who produce no fruit, no value, no goodness to anyone, including you. In fact, the only thing that you're gonna inherit from this Bramble is what? Destruction. Destruction.

Now think of the bows of the bramble. He's speaking to trees. Right? And what is he saying to the trees? Come and make your shade under me.

You're speaking to cedars. You're speaking to these towering trees, and you're saying, come and take shade under me. The pride, the arrogance, the silliness of the of the even the statement itself. That's the point. What is Jotham saying?

You recruited a man. You partner with a man who has literally nothing to offer you. And in fact, on top of that, fire will come from him. Just like a bramble catches fire and puts its surrounding environment in danger. But here's what's important.

I want you here to look at verse 19, and he makes this incredibly sobering statement that puts to light everything that we're saying in terms of this lust that made it illegitimate. If you then have acted in good faith, look at verse 19, and integrity with Jerabel and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech, and let him rejoice also in you. You see what he's saying? Look. Even if this guy is a bramble, and he has nothing to offer you as a king, if you did this with good faith and integrity, then have at it.

Let him be your king. You rejoice in him, and let him rejoice in you. But they didn't. That's the point. That is the point.

You didn't do this in righteousness. You didn't do this with integrity and the fear of God. There's blood on you, And because of that, you're not gonna get blessing, you're gonna get a curse. And look at Habakkuk two twelve. This is a woe.

Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a city on iniquity. Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and founds a city on iniquity. Woe to him who builds a ministry with blood, and founds, fill in the blank, on iniquity. It's a woah. It's a curse.

There's no blessing in it. And this was the curse. Fire would come out from the people to devour Abimelech, and fire would come from Abimelech and devour the people, and Jotham runs off. And we think to ourselves, well, this is it. Here's a prophetic curse declared from a mountain top.

It's about to happen. Here's a suddenly. Here's God's intervention. Here's gonna make fire rain from heaven. It's all over.

The chapter is about to close. No. What do we read? You come down here in verse 22. Abimelech ruled over Israel three years.

Abimelech ruled over Israel for three years. Three uninterrupted, unchallenged, seemingly confident that what? We broke God's commandments. We killed to get ourselves here. And look, he's not doing anything.

And we're here enjoying our reign. And Abi Malik surely is deceived at this point, thinking that he has accomplished something and even outsmarted God himself. Isn't it amazing how God's timing is different than ours? And God's judgments are not always immediate. We would like for him to intervene right away.

We look at an injustice. We look at a clearly deceptive fill in the blank, and we think, Lord, are you really gonna allow this to go on another day? If there's anyone who felt the pain of this was Jotham himself who pronounced the curse, waiting day after day, Lord, when is it actually going to happen? And it doesn't happen for three years. Nothing comes to pass.

And we wonder, Lord, why is it that you do things differently? Why is it that you handle some people like Ananias and Sapphire before they can even answer and defend themselves? They drop dead. And in other cases, you take years and years and years. We don't have a commentary why.

But one thing's for certain, they had ample time to repent. They had enough time to look at their own ways and realize that they were in the wrong, but they didn't. It teaches us a lot of things. As you just heard, God's judgments are not always right away. But secondly, God's judgments are not always recognizable.

You know, sometimes God's blessings are obvious and sometimes they're hidden. Right? You sometimes look in retrospect and you realize, oh that was God's blessing. That was God's providence. That was God's sovereign power in my life.

He protected me. He provided for me. That was I see his fingerprints. But the same is true with his judgments. Sometimes we don't realize that his judgments occur or are happening until just like his blessings, we look back.

And that was the case here. You know why? God does bring judgment and look how he does in verse 23. And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem. And the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech.

That leadership or those who are familiar with the leadership would have saw just bickering and divisiveness and just some problems within. But you know what? We're being told God allowed an evil spirit to intervene and to meddle with their affairs and to meddle with their hearts. It's amazing how there's a connection between division and evil spirits. Is it not?

Not that this evil spirit possessed them, but he certainly influenced them. And clearly, that's possible especially when what? You start something or something is not sustained by the spirit of God. When you don't do something in the spirit, and when you don't sustain something in the spirit, you leave plenty of room for the flesh or even demonic spirits themselves to come in and have their way in whatever you're doing. That's why it's important for leadership to have fellow leadership that are filled with the Holy Spirit and that fear the Lord.

We have enough battles out there in the world. We don't need things within, especially on that level of those who serve with authority. Evil spirit comes in because God permitted it. Look at his sovereign power. Here's this evil spirit, probably foaming from the mouth.

Just let me get in there. And then Laura says, you can go now. And he goes in. And he goes in, and what happens? Well, now they begin to fight with each other, and these leaders of Shechem are interfering with his business affairs, and they start robbing caravans and and things that are coming in, and Abi Malek is realizing it.

And there's all this conflict starting at a minuscule level you can say. But it's about to get worse. It's about to get more intense, because a guy moves into the neighborhood. A fellow man with his relatives move in and it's in verse 26. His name is Gaal, the son of Ebed, moved into Shechem with his relatives and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him.

So this guy comes in and doesn't take much time for him to now win their hearts. Here's a new fellow, perhaps charismatic, perhaps persuasive with his words, and now he realizes that there's an opportunity because he he's getting word in town that people don't really like, Abi Malik. And this guy is thinking, well, if that's the case, and he begins to now, just like so many, win a small group of people, win a little audience, begin to slander and speak against what? What do we see here? Well, they have a party, and it says here in verse 27, they went out to the field and gather the grapes from the vineyards and trod them and held a festival, and they went into the house of their God, and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech.

Remember that sermon on slander? Were you guys here on that Sunday morning? That whole sermon on slander? You know what's amazing? You see that they reviled Abbie Melek in the house of their false god.

Because slander is the speech of demons. Demons have no problem having you slander in their presence. But you cannot and we should not find or hear any such thing in the house of the true God. In their God, they can do whatever they want. That's the common speech of the wicked, reviling and chopping up their reputation and tearing them down.

Of course, they're in a false God's house, that's where they do things like that. Right, Christian? And he begins to say in verse 28, who is Abimelech? And who are we of Shechem that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubal?

And is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem, but why should we serve him? What is he doing now? The opposite of what Abimelech did. Abimelech appealed to his mother's side to persuade the Shechemites.

And here's Gaal pointing to his father's side. And he's saying, do you realize who his dad is? You're gonna let this guy with this kind of a dad rule over you? Shouldn't you have somebody who's a Shechemite? Shouldn't you serve somebody who's coming from your tribe, your people?

Now look what he says in the next verse, the first 29. Would that these people were under my end. They all say the same thing. Would that these people were under my hand. Oh, I would be such a better ruler, such a better leader, such a better fill in the blank.

Then I would remove Abby Malek, and I would say to Abby Malek, increase your army and come out. You ready for this? Here's what we learned from this, because he wins the heart of the very same people that Abby Malek won earlier. If someone shows no fear in sinning with you, they will also show no fear in sinning against you. If someone does not hesitate to sin with you, do not be surprised if at one point they end up sinning against you.

That's the quality of your group of people. You can apply that to so many different sins in life. I think about adultery, and you hear stories of how a married man meets a married woman, they fall in love, fall in lust. Let's just call And you didn't fall, you made a conscious decision. Don't say you fell.

Decision. A married man with a married woman, and sometimes it gets so scary that that married man divorces his wife, and that married woman divorces her husband, and they go off and they get married. And you hear stories like that, and you think to yourself, man, just think. If this lady left her husband for you, what makes you so confident that if not the right guy comes later on that she will leave you for him? What kind of confidence do you have?

How do you sleep at night? The whole basis of your relationship is her leaving a married man. She was married to come to you. What makes you think that you're not gonna be left in the dust one day? This, if people gossip with you, if they gladly giggle and talk about so and so, you better believe that they gossip about you, and they're not afraid to do it.

That's why I don't hang around gossipers, man. I don't. The moment people love to talk about others, I'll say, hi, bye, God bless you, pray for you, but I am no way staying in any relationship or close relationship with you. Because if you're willing to gossip about people with me, surely at one point, if I just touch one nerve by accident even, you're willing to gossip about me. If people are freely wanting to sin with you, they will gladly at one point and without hesitation, sin against you.

That's what Abimelech is gonna learn in a moment here. And what happens? Well, unknown to Gaal, he offended Abi Malik's officer, Zebul. And Zebul heard it. In verse 30, we're told, Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed.

His anger was kindled. He says, okay, you're gonna talk about me, You're gonna talk about my master. So he devises a plan, and he gives word to Abimelech, and he says, Abimelech. Verse 31. Behold, Gaal, the son of Ebed and his relatives have come to Shechem, and they're stirring up the city against you.

So listen to what I'm about to say. He he gives him a plan. He says, go up into the fields at night, and set up an ambush, so that when the sun comes up, you would invade the city and take care of this man and his new following. And Abimelech listens. Verse 34.

So Abimelech and all the men who were with him rose up by night and set an ambush against Shechem and four companies. And some would say that Abimelech is almost imitating Gideon here, trying to imitate his tactics of how he overcame the Midianites. The difference between Abimelech and Gideon is that Abimelech does not have God on his side. And, Ga'al, the son of Ebed, went out and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city, and Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from the ambush. So you have now, Gaal and Zebul standing and hanging around the gate of the city for some reason in the morning, and look what is being said in verse 36.

And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, look, people are coming down from the mountain tops. He makes an observation. He sees clearly people running down the hill, and he's wondering, am I seeing is that really an army right there that's coming? Why? Because you have the sun coming up, and obviously there is some kind of a thing going on with the shadows from the trees and the rocks, and so he can't make it out just quite yet.

And you have Zibbel in verse 38, and Zibbel said to him excuse me, here in verse the same verse, verse 36, and Zebul said to him, you mistake the shadow of the mountains for men. So he thinks he's seeing men. He is seeing men, and Zebul says, no, he's probably playing with his fingernails saying, no, no, no. You're mistaking the shadows for men. And he's giving Abi Malek more time to catch Gal and his band of men off guard.

So what's Zibbel doing here? Pure deception. It's pure deception. He's telling him what is obviously true, and he's convincing him otherwise. He's keeping him in darkness, and he wants him to be destroyed.

And I read that and I couldn't help but think of an instance in Christ's ministry, where Christ's attitude is the complete opposite of Zibyl in this instance. It's one of my favorite recordings of Jesus' miracles. It's found in Mark chapter eight. I would encourage you to turn there in your Bibles, so you would never forget this picture. It's in Mark chapter eight verse 23, when a man from Bethany comes out.

Excuse me, not Bethany. In Mark chapter eight, Bethsaida in verse 22, and they came to Bethsaida and some people brought him a blind man and begged him to touch him. They begged Jesus to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand and let him out of the village, him. He asked, do you see anything?

I love it. They asked Jesus to touch the man. Jesus had a completely different approach. Sometimes we ask the Lord to do something. He has a different idea and a different plan.

Touch him. Touch him. Heal him. He goes beyond that. He spits in his eyes.

He spits on his eyes. He touches him, then he asked the question, do you see anything? And look what the man says in verse 24. And he looked up and said, I see people, but they look like trees walking. I see people, but they they look like trees walking.

And Jesus obvious this is not a complete miracle here. And it's not that Jesus did not and was not able to heal him on the spot completely, but there's a there's a principle here. But do you see what happens? He prays for him again, he gets his complete sight. Because that's the attitude of Christ.

See, the enemy wants to keep us in deception. He wants to block truth from us, but Christ wants to make things more clear, and more true, and more understanding, and more obvious to us. Christ continually wants to sanct that's what the miracle is about. He sanctifies our spiritual vision until we see things the way he wants us to see things. And this man saw people as trees and he said, no that's not how people look.

That's not people. That's not how they're supposed to look. And so what? He laid his hands on his eyes again, and he opened his eyes, and the sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. So in the Abimelech story, you have a man who who saw right, but another man that want to put him and keep him in darkness, and here's the attitude of Christ.

He wants to touch our eyes over and over again until we see people, his will, this world, the church, every element, the way he wants us to do and sometimes it's a process. Sometimes it's not instantaneous. But know this, the heart of Christ is to keep working with us until our vision is the way he wants it to be. You come back to the story in Judges chapter nine. Zebul was successful in deceiving this man and keeping him in the dark.

And all of a sudden, he calls him out in that verse 38 And he says, where's your big mouth now? Paraphrase. Where's your big mouth now? You were talking about calling out Abimelech. Verse 38, and Zebul said to him, where's your mouth now?

You who said, who is Abimelech that we should serve him, are not these people whom you despise? Go out now and fight with them. And so they go out and fight. And what happens? From verse 39 down to verse 30 49, you see a detailed description of the battle.

Abi Malek is successful. He destroys some of his men. He goes back home. These men stay within and Zebul kicks him out of Shechem. But this man is so infuriated that the people plotted against him that the next day what happens?

On the following day in verse 42, the people come out and they think everything is just calm and and things are going back to normal, and they go out to the field to work, but then Abimelech comes and he separates three companies and he slaughters them. And then the leaders of Shechem hear about it. And so what do they do? They run from the tower, in verse 46, the leaders of the Tower Of Shechem heard of it. They entered the stronghold of the house of El Berith.

It's the same god that we read from the beginning, the false god. Stronghold that's dedicated to him. So Abi Malik looks and he goes, look how pathetic these people are. They're gonna try to hide from me. Do as I do.

And he goes and he chops up some wood. He lays the wood by the stronghold. He lights it on fire. And he allows them to cook alive. And it's a it's a picture of how men who try to hide in another refuge apart from Christ will find no refuge at all.

These men are trying to hide in a false god, a false idea, and try to find security from danger, and they ended up seeing that their god failed them. Any god apart from Jesus Christ, I don't care what's his name, I don't care how many people ascribe to that religion, I don't care how convinced you are if it's not Christ, he is no refuge at all. He's no stronghold at all. He might make you feel warm and fuzzy. He might allow you to sin the way you wanna sin.

But when they will come judgment and hell fire, he will not be able to save you. And that's the case for them. And this man is so enraged, so intoxicated with vengeance, so consumed with hatred, that he moves on from there. And verse 50, we're told, then Abi Balik went to and it camped against and captured it. Now it's believed that this group of people partnered with the Shechemites to try to revolt against Abi Malek.

What the others did. There was a strong tower we're told in verse 51 within the city, and all the men and women and all the leaders of the city fled to it and shut themselves in. And they went up to the roof and they said, Oh, hopefully this man will not come near us. And Abimelech says, are you kidding me? Did you not see what I did earlier?

Okay, fine. You wanna stay there? We're gonna have a second barbecue tonight. So he grabs wood, he goes and he puts it around, but Abimelech wasn't thinking. He got too close to the tower.

When he came too close, look at what happens in verse 53. And a certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. An unnamed woman realizes that Abimelech is organizing his sticks and his wood there, and whether by her own strength or by the help of others, takes a heavy large stone, rolls it off the tower, and it lands perfectly on Abimelech's nice little head there, and crushes his skull. One stone took this man down. Now think about this.

Go back earlier in the chapter and look at verse five of Judges chapter nine. This is when Abby went to kill his half brothers because he saw them as rivals and threats. And he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Jeroboam, 70 men on what? One stone. Whatever you sow, that you shall reap.

He killed 70 brothers on one stone, execution style, and here, one certain unnamed woman with one stone takes out Abimelech. He's still alive. This man still has the ability to even speak. So clearly, there's there's a window of time for something to happen. Abi Malek, are you gonna repent now?

You've been humbled. Because we know as we've heard so many times that in this time of history, it was a disgrace to die at the hands of a woman or a child. This man has been brought very low very quickly. Oh, Abimelech. Are you gonna do something?

Are you gonna change? Are you gonna turn? Are you gonna repent? What do you think he does? Look at verse 54.

Then he called quickly. This was what's on this man's mind the whole time. He's about to die. He called quickly to the young man, his armor bearer and said to them, draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me a woman killed me. And his young man thrust him through and he died.

Pride is so ugly and so powerful. This man, we are introduced to him in his pride. It brings him low, and he gladly dies with it. The only thing that's running through Abi Malek's mind is what was running through his mind since we are introduced to him, his reputation. How people will see him and recognize him and praise him, and he wants to go out in a way where at least he will be remembered in such a fashion that at least it wasn't as disgraceful as it could have been.

If we don't deal with pride, pride will deal with us. That's just the truth of the matter. And here's the scary thing about pride, is that it's so deceptive in making us think that it's not really pride. You've heard the saying, right? That everybody, when it comes to bad breath, everybody knows you have it except yourself.

Yeah. That's exactly what pride is like. And so this is a lesson for this man. He destroyed his own life because he chose to pursue a life apart from God's will. And here's the sad part.

Look at verse 55. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home. Like he's okay. Let's move on now. They all just go home like nothing happened.

You know what's so amazing when you read later on, When it comes to David's life and his military campaigns? He actually makes comment to Joab in correcting his attempts in one of the wars. And he says, don't you remember Abimelech? He came too close to the walls and a woman threw a stone on his head. Read that in second Samuel.

What does that tell you? That Abimelech did not want to be remembered as a man who died by the hands of a woman. And yet, David, he doesn't appeal to the fact that he died by his armor bearer. He appeals to the fact that he died by the hands of a woman who threw a stone on his head. So sad.

Everybody goes home. Verse 56. Who's the winner of the story? Does God return the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his 70 brothers? And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jeribam.

God will win in the end. And no matter how much a man may think he's successful in manipulating politics, in manipulating government, in manipulating ministry, in trying to push and shove and kill and bribe and slander, no matter how much a man thinks he has done, the end story of Abimelech is the end story of human history. God will have his way, always. And don't leave that just to human history. Apply that to your life.

Apply that to your life. No matter what you do in life, make sure that it's God's will. You say, how do I know that? That's everybody's question. How do I know that?

How do I know that? You tell me as well, I don't care about that. I wanna know that. All you have to do is invite God into it. Make sure that your heart is set on him being glorified through it.

And as long as those two things are set and established in your heart, you have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. And God will miraculously sometimes, providentially all the time, move you to be where you're supposed to be, to serve in the way you're supposed to serve, to go where you need to go, and you don't have to worry about God bringing correction and discipline. You can expect blessing and fruit. And God moving on your behalf for his glory. And so submit to the Lord today.

Just give it to God. Whatever is in your heart, ask the Lord that he would take preeminence in your life. And if you set him in that place, he will do amazing things in your life, and you'll have a much different testimony story than Abi Malek. That's what we learn from here. Be careful of that lust.

Be careful of that selfish ambition that might be coated with different buzz words and ideas. It doesn't matter who you're trying to convince, even yourself. Make sure that your heart is in the light, and that before God, he knows your motive. Whatever is for, just give it to him, and he will make sure to bless it because it's for him in the end anyway. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this chapter and how it speaks so profoundly in a specific area of life. Lord, we pray that this story would not have been studied in vain, but that, God, our hearts would be humbled in your presence. And that, Lord, we would see a tragic life and make sure by your grace that it would not be our story, but that, lord, we would we would long at whatever cost, no matter who knows about us or doesn't know about us, no matter if it slays our desires, that you would have your way, and you would do it the way you want it to be done. We pray, Lord, that our hearts would be protected from envy and a covetous spirit, that our hearts would be protected from anything that would try to rob you of your glory. But we pray that we would not be like Gideon in that.

We say that we don't want it, but live differently. That when we say it's because out of the abundance of our hearts, the mouth speaks. And, Lord, make us like David in the sense that we would so trust in your providence. We would so trust in your timing. We would so trust in your perfect plan that you have known and established before the foundations of this world, that we would just walk in them.

Help us believe that. Lord, if any heart is troubled, may John fourteen one be their portion today. Believe in God. Lord, may your name be established as a banner over every area of our lives, trusting in your perfect will. But we thank you that in this study, there's so many things to learn.

We pray that we would have ears to hear and hearts to obey. Lord, be exalted and glorified. For your name's sake, we pray.

Amen.