Message 6
Chapters 2—16
(4)
Scripture Reading: Judg. 8:33-35; 9:1-57; 10:1-5
The intrinsic significance of the fifth and sixth cycles of Israel’s miserable history (8:33—10:5; 10:6—12:15) consists of Israel’s forsaking God and joining herself to idols. This means that Israel divorced God, her legitimate Husband, and went after many idols.
Man’s forsaking of God began in Genesis 3. God created man with a spirit so that man could contact Him, receive Him, and take Him in as life. The tree of life in the garden signified God Himself as the embodiment of life for us to contact and receive. God warned man not to partake of the other tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for eating of the fruit of that tree would issue in death. However, from the beginning of man’s existence, Satan has been seducing man to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the embodiment of Satan himself. To take the tree of knowledge is actually to marry Satan and divorce God.
This forsaking of God and joining to Satan is the strongest factor behind the chaos in human society. Due to man’s forsaking of God and joining to Satan, the entire world, including every nation, society, and family, has become chaotic. Immediately after man forsook God and joined himself to Satan, chaos came in. The first manifestation of this chaos was the first murder, which took place in Adam’s family when Cain slew Abel. From that time onward, there has been chaos in every nation, society, and family.
Gideon’s failure was due to his forsaking of God and his joining himself to Satan. In his success he was joined to God, but in his failure he joined himself to Satan. When he joined himself to Satan, the issue was murder. He also indulged in the flesh, coveted, and committed idolatry. This issued in the corruption of his family and the entire society of Israel.
Even religion is part of the universal chaos. The world spoken of in Galatians 6:14 is not the secular world but the religious world. Christ died to save us from the religious world (1:4). In man’s eyes religion is good, but in God’s eyes every kind of religion is a section of the satanic world. In principle, the situation in today’s Christianity is the same as the universal situation of the human race — it has forsaken God and joined itself to Satan.
We have also had periods of chaos in the Lord’s recovery. It seems that in the recovery there are cycles of rebellion about every ten years, involving struggles for power to fulfill ambitions. The recent rebellion among us had two roots — unforgiven offenses and unfulfilled ambitions. The intrinsic significance of all these rebellions is forsaking God to go along with Satan. Satan fell because of ambition. To go along with Satan is to enter into the ambition that was present in Satan when he fell. He wanted to ascend to the throne; he wanted to be like the Most High (Isa. 14:13-14). Hence, to forsake God and join with Satan is to enter into the intrinsic ambition within this evil one.
The result of rebellion has always been chaos, with the rebellious ones causing damage to themselves. The churches that joined the recent rebellion have become barren and have even decreased in number, while the remaining churches have increased.
In family life, whenever a husband and a wife love the Lord and reject everything other than Him, their married life will be wonderful. But once a husband or wife begins to love something else in place of the Lord, their married life and family life become chaotic.
We have no right to divorce the Lord; we have no basis to forsake Him. We must take Him, love Him, honor Him, respect Him, regard Him, exalt Him, and cling to Him, rejecting Satan to the uttermost. Then we will be blessed.
This principle can be applied to the entire human race, to every nation, to every society, to every family, and to every individual. If we love the Lord and hate Satan, we will be blessed. However, we will only get into trouble whenever we change and begin to love something other than Christ. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is Jehovah.” Blessed is everyone — nation, society, group, and individual — whose Lord, Head, King, and Husband is Jehovah.
At this point, let us turn to Judges 8:33—10:5, which covers yet another cycle of Israel’s miserable history.
As soon as Gideon died, Israel turned again and went as harlots after the Baalim, making Baal-berith their god. They did not remember Jehovah their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies all around, nor did they show mercy to the house of Gideon for all the good he had done to Israel (8:33-35).
Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, Gideon, slew his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone (9:1-5). He was supported by his mother’s brothers, all the family of his mother’s father, and all the men of Shechem (vv. 1-3). They supported Abimelech with seventy pieces of silver from the temple of the idol Baal-berith, with which he hired worthless and wanton men to follow him (v. 4). However, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, Jotham, was left, for he hid himself (v. 5).
The men of Shechem and all the house of Millo made Abimelech king at Shechem (v. 6).
Jotham protested against Abimelech (vv. 7-21). He likened Abimelech not to a good olive tree or a good fig tree or a good vine but, derisively, to an evil bramble (vv. 7-15). Then he cursed the men of Shechem, the house of Millo, and Abimelech with God’s punishment over them (vv. 16-20). After Jotham did this, he ran off and fled (v. 21).
Abimelech ruled over Israel three years (v. 22).
God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and they dealt treacherously with him, so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might be avenged and so that their blood might be upon Abimelech their brother and upon the men of Shechem, who strengthened him to slay his brothers (vv. 23-24).
The men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, revolting against him and being strengthened by Gaal the son of Ebed (vv. 25-29).
Zebul the ruler of the city helped Abimelech to defeat Gaal and the men of Shechem, tear down the city of Shechem, and set its stronghold on fire to burn about a thousand men and women who escaped there (vv. 30-49).
Abimelech went to take Thebez. When he came up to the tower and fought against it, a certain woman threw a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and it cracked his skull. He immediately called to the young man who bore his armor and told him to draw his sword and kill him, lest people say that he was slain by a woman. The young man pierced him through, and he died. Thus, God repaid the evil of Abimelech and all the evil of the men of Shechem, and the curse of Jotham came upon them (vv. 50-57).
After considering chapter nine of Judges, we can see that it presents to us a picture of what a mess God’s elect Israel had become and to what extent they had degraded. Their degradation was initiated in their forsaking of Jehovah their God and their worshipping of the idols of the Canaanites, which issued in their indulgence in fleshly lust by having many wives to produce many sons. Gideon produced seventy-two sons of many wives (8:30-31; 9:5); another judge produced thirty sons (10:4); another judge produced thirty sons and thirty daughters (12:8-9); and another judge produced forty sons and thirty grandsons (vv. 13-14). Israel’s degradation also issued in the wantonness of their hatred in slaying one another, ending themselves in full destruction.
After Abimelech, Tola, a man of Issachar, rose up to save Israel, and he judged Israel twenty-three years. After Tola, Jair the Gileadite, who had thirty sons, rose up and judged Israel twenty-two years (10:1-5).
