CHAPTER 9
ABIMELECH’S TRAGIC BUT BRIEF HISTORY
CRITICAL NOTES.— Judges 9:22. Had reigned] ruled by force rather than by natural right, implying a hard, as opposed to a mild, rule. Over Israel]. Shechem in some measure represented Ephraim, and Ephraim in some degree represented Israel. Where one is active, and has a strong will, among many who are passive, his ascendency is practically acknowledged.
Judges 9:23. God sent an evil spirit.] not evil temper or disposition, but a wicked spirit, which stirred up evil dispositions, discords, and insurrections, ending in bloodshed (comp. 1 Samuel 16:14-15; 1 Samuel 18:10). In what took place, we see not only the action of those evil passions that gender strifes, but also the controlling and directing influence of the Moral Governor of the world. There was the intention of a Personal Ruler to punish high-handed crime in a manner suited to its character. If the evil feeling which led to the sad issues were in men’s hearts already, it was God that fixed the time for the awakening of these feelings, and directed them to produce these issues in the end, in the exercise of His moral government. The Shechemites were led to break their oath of fidelity to him whom they had chosen to be their king. Though at the moment they endorsed the strong act by which he had effectually cleared the way of all competitors for the throne, yet now after three years’ experience of the rigorous rule of the bramble king, they no doubt began to feel some remorse for their wicked conduct, in having been co-partners in his infamous deed.
Judges 9:24. That their blood might be laid upon Abimelech … and on the men of Shechem. So it usually is in the course of Providence (comp. 1 Kings 2:32; Psalms 7:16; Matthew 23:35-36; Esther 9:25). “He maketh inquisition for blood.” “He beholdeth mischief to requite it with His hand.” All the events that followed were permitted by God, and overruled by Him, to bring down suitable retribution both on Abimelech and his partners in crime. The Shechemites wished to make themselves the rallying point of the nation by making Abimelech king, and they had other interests of their own to serve. But they quickly found, that, while they thought they were making use of him to serve selfish purposes of their own, he was actually making use of them as his tools. At length they resolved that, as he had played falsely by them in his general conduct, they, from being sworn friends, would now turn round and become deceitful foes.
Judges 9:25. Set liers in wait for him, etc] i.e., during his absence. Probably, he was at that moment trying to extend his rule over other places. Supposing he might return attended only by a few followers, and unsuspicious of danger, they placed a number of men in ambush so as if possible to take him prisoner, for they were afraid to face him when on his guard and in the open field. Meantime these “liers in wait” commited acts of brigandage on all travellers as they passed along the mountains, which at once showed their character, and also perhaps a design to make it known that the country was getting disorganised under Abimelech’s rule.
Judges 9:26. Gaal, the son of Ebed,] i.e., the son of a servant. He was so by the father’s side, as Abimelech was by the mother’s side. He too, like the latter, was a Canaanite. Both were morally and socially base in their origin. The appearance of two such men in the front rank indicated, that in these days “vile men were high in place.” It was a case of bramble contesting superiority with bramble. Gaal was probably something of a knight errant, or a chieftain at the head of a company of freebooters, or brigand chief. That such an adventurer should now turn up so unexpectedly, and be able all at once to command so much influence with the masses, was a sign of the evil days that had happened to Israel. The men of worth and of weight have disappeared from society; such nuisances as a Gaal or a Zebul are the rival claimants for the honours of the day; an Abimelech is the chosen king of one of the principal cities of Israel; while public robbery, treachery and disorder overspread the land.
Gaal is judged unworthy of having many particulars given about him, and so he quickly passes across the stage with no more notice taken of him than what is necessary, to show how low Israel’s history at this period had sunk. His appearing on the surface only proves that when base deeds are to be done, there is always someone starting up who is base enough to do them. In this upstart the men of Shechem actually put confidence as a leader.
Judges 9:27. Gathered their vineyards and trode the grapes.] It was the season of vintage. At such a season, it was customary even for the heathen to keep some festival to the god they worshipped, as an act of thanksgiving for his granting them a bountiful harvest. The literal rendering is, they made praise offerings or thank-offerings, along with praise songs. That such a service of joy and thanksgiving was required to be observed among the Israelites, is clear from such passages as Leviticus 23:24; Deuteronomy 16:10-11; Isaiah 9:3. The offerings were of the fruits produced by the vineyards in the fourth year. But the Shechemites transferred to their god Baalberith, what should have been rendered to Jehovah.
Went into the house of their god.] The history of Israel in its deepest meaning, is the history of the true God fighting against all the false gods which men worship, and exposing their utter insufficiency.
They did eat and drink and cursed Abimelech.] How general the sin of drunkenness. Even in the earliest days of human history we see the blighting effects of it, and that in the case of Noah himself, ere he had time to settle down after coming out of the ark. And we see it now, like the opening mouth of a volcano, ready to pour its destructive streams on every side. To curse their ruler, in defiance of the law laid down (Exodus 22:28; 2 Samuel 19:21; Isaiah 8:21), was the first evil effect and led on to worse. Thus it was among the heathen; at the feasts of Bacchus among the Romans, and at similar festivals among the Greeks, and other peoples. The harvest home was an occasion celebrated with banqueting and songs of rejoicing. But how often did those occasions, which might have been harmless and cheerful, become, through indulgence, the means of producing the deepest sorrow and woe!
Judges 9:28. And Gaal said, who is Abimelech, etc.?] What is to be noted here, is the contrast between the present jubilant strain of merriment, and the tragic issue which anyone might see could not be far off, when such a man as Abimelech was to be dealt with. What a difference between the lighthearted braggartism of the revellers of to-day, while the enemy was at a safe distance, and the pallid terror of the cowards on the morrow, when the lion really appeared. Hitherto they had been too much cowed by the stern spirit, and energetic action, of their tyrant ruler, to do more than speak in whispers, and express their thoughts by signs. But now being treated with wine, and the object of their dread being beyond the hills, they could name him as a despot, and utter curses both loud and deep against his despotic sway.
Now was the time for this base upstart to step forward, when men of worth were hanging their heads with shame. If Gaal had courage for nothing else, he was bold enough to set all laws of decency and propriety at defiance, by proposing himself to be ruler in place of Abimelech. It was time to strike the iron, when he saw them begin to curse Abimelech. Accordingly he shouts out defiantly, “Who is this Abimelech, whom you have allowed to get the upper hand of you—this man who adopts to himself the title of Shechem, as if he were the only person who could speak or move there?” This is said contemptuously, and when, being well out of harm’s way, the speaker could afford to use treasonable language. Some would make the word Shechem apply to the people of the town, or even to Zebul. It is more natural to suppose, that one and the same person is alluded to in the language, for it was customary to address the same person by a double name, as may be seen in the parallel passages (1 Samuel 25:10; 1 Kings 12:16). “Is he not a son of the man who boasted against your god, and though he proudly usurps the name of your town as his own, was not his mother a bondwoman, and no true descendant of Hamor, the father of your clan? And Zebul, who now rules over you, is but his officer in his absence, who has no other claim to advance. Your wisdom is to serve the true stock of the children of Hamor, and not this low caste usurper.”
Judges 9:29. Would to God this people were under my hand.] This thought was what was uppermost in his heart all the time, but he did not dare at first to bring it out. Probably he waited to see if anyone else would make the proposal, but as none did, he, as if speaking aloud to himself, ventures the proposal himself. He puts it as if it were a special favour, and act of kindness done to the Shechemites, for him to take the command over them, and restore prosperity to their city. Since no one seemed to oppose the proposal, he takes for granted that it is carried, and proceeds to act accordingly. The great thing to be done is first to remove Abimelech. Accordingly a message of defiance is sent to the tyrant king, which was the most likely thing to unite the men of the city around Gaal and his company.
Judges 9:30. And when Zebul heard the words of Gaal, etc.] Though these words were spoken amid a scene of dissipation, they were resented by Zebul, who whether a warm adherent of Abimelech or not, was deeply offended at being regarded as his tool, and also at being marked out for destruction equally with his master. Hence he sends secret reports of how matters are going to Abimelech.
Judges 9:32. Up by night, thou, and the people that are with thee.] Zebul, from these verses, and from the whole account, seems to have been a man of considerable shrewdness; but how tame any character becomes, that is so sadly wanting in the higher moral qualities.
Judges 9:35. And Gaal went out and stood at the gate.] Doubtless he would suppose, that someone may have conveyed information to Abimelech of what was going on; and now he came to see whether the way was clear. Besides he had sent a challenge to Abimelech. Meanwhile, Abimelech was acting on Zebul’s instructions, and was lying in wait to enter the city, so soon as Gaal should have left it. But the latter was getting more cautious, or timid, as danger approached, and was now only feeling his way.
Judges 9:36. There come people down from the top of the mountains.] Zebul had not till now openly opposed Gaal, for the great body of the Shechemites appeared to be opposed to Abimelech. He therefore thought it better to temporise for a time. Zebul knew very well, that the figures on the mountain were real men, but wished to put Gaal off the tack of thinking so (who was a man of much less sharpness of discernment), in order to gain time for Abimelech’s four companies to effect a junction.
Judges 9:37. There come people down by the middle—the elevated centre of the land.] Meonenim—the Wizard’s Oak—a place where these idolatrous soldiers may have looked for omens as to their success.
Judges 9:38. Where is now thy month, etc.] A little time had been gained for the approach of Abimelech’s troops while Gaal continued inactive. The treacherous Zebul now throws off his mask, and bitterly taunts his rival with the boastful language he had used in Abimelech’s absence, ending with a challenge to him to fight his adversary in the open field, now that he was actually come. It is thus that Satan deludes his dupes in making them imagine there is no such thing as a pit of perdition. It is only a “shadow,” a mere figure of speech. Thus he temporises, until the time comes for transfixing the culprit with the arrow of an accusing conscience, and then he taunts him with a malicious sneer, while he writhes in his agony (Matthew 27:4).
Judges 9:39. Gaal went out before the men of Shechem.] At the head of the men of Shechem, for his whole drift was to enlist them on his side, and having already publicly dared to curse Abimelech they were no longer neutral.
Judges 9:40. Unto the entering in of the gate] but could not pass through the gates, when they were shut against him in time.
Judges 9:41. Dwelt at Arnmah.] Remained יֵֹשֵׁב sat down, not dwelt for any length of time, continued for the day at Arumah. Zebul thrust out Gaal and his brethren.] When it was manifest that Gaal was no match for Abimelech, the Shechemites fell from him, and Zebul took advantage of the moment of his weakness, to thrust him out of the town altogether. From this moment, we hear no more of him. He disappears as one who goes down no more to rise. Zebul also is seen no more. He fades from public view the moment his master comes to the front.
Judges 9:42. The people went out into the field] probably for the purpose of resuming their harvesting work. They supposed there could now be no longer any trouble, seeing that Gaal had been thrust out from their midst, and Abimelech’s authority was restored. But the wrath of the bramble king was not to be so easily pacified. All the night long he had been meditating farther revenge on those who had dared to revolt from him; and, expecting that the people of the town would have to resume their field operations, he laid a trap for them accordingly. Dividing his men into three companies, with one company he seized the gate, and the other two companies he employed to make a regular massacre among the people, as they fled in all directions across the plain.
Judges 9:45. Slew the people, beat down the city, and sowed it with salt. In this the human tiger went beyond his usual mark. It is as if a king were to slay all his subjects, and then rase his capital to its foundations, that it might not be known ever such a place had existed. This meant more than merely condemning Shechem for the future to a state of comparative infertility. For the sowing of salt on the surface of the ground could not absolutely prevent all growth. But salt was the symbol of any covenant which the people made with their god, and when for the breach of that covenant salt was employed, it meant that such a people came under the curse of their god. These Shechemites had made a covenant, in the house of their god (Baalberith), to be faithful subjects to Abimelech as their king; and now that that covenant was broken, he brings over their city the sign of the curse. Infidelity to such covenants was reckoned the greatest of crimes, and was understood to mean that they were devoted to destruction.
When Milan was taken (A. D. 1162) it was sowed with salt. At the massacre of St. Bartholomew (A. D. 1572) the house of Admiral Coligny, after he was murdered, was sown with salt (see illustrations in Micah 3:12; Psalms 107:34; Jeremiah 17:6; Deuteronomy 29:23).
Judges 9:46. When the men of the tower of Shechem heard that, etc.] i.e., the same with the “house of Millo” in Judges 9:6. Their numbers were now so reduced, while Abimelech was still as strong as ever, and roused to fury like an unchained lion, that they abandoned all resistance, and thought only of betaking themselves to the best place of security they could find. There was only one place they could run to with any hope of getting safety—the house of their god, called in Canaanite language Baalberith, but in that of the Israelites, Elberith. This was a stronghold—in the special sense, that those who were in it were understood to be under the special protection of their god. But there was also a fortified enclosure within it, which might be called their safe, where their money and treasures were preserved. This was the upper chambers of a lofty tower. The same word is used in 1 Samuel 13:6, where it means the topmost portion of inaccesible rocks.
Judges 9:48. He gat him up to Mount Zalmon.] Abimelech now supposed that he had got a fit opportunity of carrying out his whole thought of revenge upon the rebels at once. When they were all brought together into one place, and in a helpless condition, it was easy to destroy them at one blow. Like Nero, afterwards, who wished that all the people of Rome should have but one neck, that he might have the pleasure of cutting off their heads at one stroke, so, now, this human fiend was glad to find that all the people of Shechem who were left, were gathered together into one bundle, that he might have the satisfaction of consuming them by one holocaust.
To raise a conflagration around them occurred to him as the readiest method of accomplishing their ruin. Hence he repairs to the thicket of Zalmon, in the immediate neighbourhood, a mountain covered with wood, which has been called a “Black Forest” [Luther], though some have identified it with Ebal, [Stanley]. (Psalms 68:14). The reference in the Psalm is to the snow which sometimes rested on its top, and appeared the more striking, because of its contrast with the thick shade of wood that covered its sides. There was no difficulty in finding fuel sufficient for the purpose. Each man had but to carry one branch, and 1,000 men would have brought 1,000 branches. He himself set the example, axe in hand, cutting down his branch and setting it in order. Every man was invited to do the same, by which not only was fuel provided, but also a test was applied to ascertain whether all were faithful to their leader.
Judges 9:49. All the people likewise cut down, etc.] All complied, for where there is a strong will in action, other wills naturally yield to its decisions. The wood was applied to the hold, and as a portion of it appears to have been of wood, it was soon enveloped amid the flames, and every man within the walls met with a horrible death. So true to the letter was Jotham’s curse fulfilled (Judges 9:20).
Judges 9:50. Thebez] now called Tubas, a small town about 13 miles north from Shechem. This town seems to have joined with Shechem in throwing off the yoke of Abimelech, and as this ferocious despot knew no limit to his malice short of extermination, when his lordly will was crossed, he now proceeded to do to Thebez as he had done to Shechem. This town appears to have been built in circular form, with a tower in the centre, many missiles being gathered on the top. To the highest part of this tower all the inhabitants fled for refuge, fastening every entrance securely behind them. Abimelech himself headed the attack. Being in a frenzy of rage he became regardless of the danger arising from showers of missiles thrown by the besieged. So it happened, that while fighting furiously in the thickest of the crowd, he was struck on the head by an upper millstone כֶּלַח רֶנֶב thrown from a woman’s hand—the hand, the moment, and the instrument, being all determined by the Disposer of all events. The effect was “all to break his skull.” i.e. entirely to break, or crush in his skull. [It is an old English expression]. It was the upper part of a hand-mill that was used, that which revolves when grinding, while the under part is fixed (Deuteronomy 24:6; Luke 17:35). It was the work of women to use such a mill. Some supposed they expected to be imprisoned several days in the top flat of the tower, and therefore would need to grind corn. It is singular that the great warrior Pyrrhus met his death in a manner precisely similar; a large tile from the roof of a house being thrown upon him by a poor woman, whose son was engaged in combat with the warrior, and in danger of being slain by him.
At length we see the “violent man’s dealing come down on his own pate.” “The wickedness of the wicked has come to an end.” There lies proud Abimelech, and a woman slew him! This was the last arrow he received from a world which he bitterly hated, and by which in turn he was shunned as a demon in human form. It was to him a small thing to die, but for a man of such lofty pretensions, it was bitter gall to have it said, that a woman slew the proud Abimelech!
How in a moment suddenly
To ruin brought are they!
With fearful terrors utterly
They are consumed away.
Even like unto a dream when one
From sleeping doth arise;
So thou, O Lord, when thou awak’st
Their image shalt despise.
Judges 9:54-57. His young man thrust him through … and when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, etc.] An incubus was taken off the land. Everyone breathed more freely. Not a single tear was shed. No mourner was anywhere seen. The young man is glad of the opportunity offered to put his master to death (unlike the case of Saul, 1 Samuel 31:4-5). The men who composed Abimelech’s army will not do another stroke of the bloody work, to which he had called them. The army melted away, and every man went to his own home. We hear nothing of a funeral—nothing of a successor—nothing of a wind-up!—nothing but an ominous pause on earth, and a whisper from Heaven’s Justice saying, “Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren; and all the evil of the men of Shechem, did God render upon their heads; and upon them came the curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubbaal.”
What was said of Pope Boniface VIII. might also be set up as a suitable epitaph for this bramble king of Shechem. “He entered the world like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog.”—(Trapp). O unhappy son of Gideon!—perhaps the child of many prayers, certainly the child of a noble example of parental piety, perhaps the child of many pious counsels, certainly the child of great religious privileges, would that the hand of mercy had placed a protracted sick bed between thee, and the summons to appear before the great Judge, that so an opportunity might have been given for repenting of thy evil deeds, and taking refuge in the “blood which cleanseth from all sin!”
HOMILETICAL SUGGESTIONS.—Judges 9:22-57
THE TEACHINGS OF A DARK NIGHT IN ISRAEL’S HISTORY
I. God sometimes sends winnowing seasons both on individuals and on communities.
Ordinarily, He is gentle in His providential dealings with men, and for the most part, even under not a few provocations, there is little of the frown on His face, or of the stern in His voice. He would allure, rather than terrify them into repentance. But when they have long made light of sin, and have turned a deaf ear to gentler warnings, at fit seasons He brings influences around them, which thoroughly sift and try their character. Then it is impossible for a man to refrain altogether undiscovered. His arts of concealment will no longer serve his purpose, his heart is stirred as a pool is by the application of a rod, when, from the surface to the bottom, all that it contains is put into a state of agitation. Circumstances in Providence ferment round a man, and he is shaken and tossed as the leaf in the wind, so that he is obliged to appear exactly as he is. The false is then discovered from the true, and what is false in any character is detected as well as what is genuine.
So it was with the Israelites as a community, at different periods of their history; so it was with Gideon; so with Abimelech, and with the men of Shechem. This is one of those lines of practical instruction, which God keeps up in every history from age to age, whether of individuals, or of communities. To bring out men’s characters, and show what they are, when exposed to different fires as tests, is one of the great moral uses of such history as is contained in the word of God.
Winnowing seasons are intended not only to reveal what is chaff, but to clear it away. Such a history as that of Abimelech resembles the raging whirlwind, which, however destructive it may seem, has usually the effect of clearing a stagnant atmosphere. It is God’s voice saying solemnly, “Stand in awe and sin not. Woe to the wicked man! for it shall be ill with him.” It is another kind of rod, that God takes into His hand to chastise His people, besides the Moabites or Midianites.
II. The importance of choosing a right King.
(1.) It was important for Israel now. While Gideon ruled as a “judge” the “peace of the nation flowed as a river, and its righteousness as the waves of the sea.” But when Abimelech was chosen to occupy the place of power, the wheels went rapidly backwards, and at last by leaps and bounds rolled downhill. A greater mistake could not have been committed, than to choose a fellow mortal to be their king at all, when the King Eternal Himself so graciously condescended to single out this people from all the people of the earth to reign over them. But when they did commit this sin, and cast a slight on the wonderful love of their God, they were punished by being left to choose the worst man in all Israel to occupy that position. “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is the reproach of any people.”
(2.) It was so in their after history. In the days when kings ruled over Israel and Judah, the colour of the history was uniformly given by the character of the king. When a certain king ascended the throne, and we read, that “he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord,” we uniformly find that the state of things prospered in the land. But when we read, that “he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord,” all things begin to go against him. The sovereign in those days had it in his power to give a tone to society, which none but a despot can wield now. Society then for the most part followed the example of him who reigned over it. But there was in the case of the chosen people another reason. The King was held to represent the people, so that what he was, and did, the people were reckoned to be and to do. Hence we see in one reign the country going to ruin under Saul, and in the very next rising under David to the very climax of its greatness.
(3.) It is important for any people. In England, we see the Queen of the freest and most enterprising people on the face of the globe, after the long test of fifty years’ rule, retaining as much of the love and loyalty of her subjects as she did on the day when first they hailed her as sovereign; and this, notwithstanding the fact, that the intellectual forces were never more strongly brought into collision than during her reign. While something certainly is due to the excellent constitution of the realm, by which the sovereign is exempted from the responsibility of guiding the legislation of the nation, not a little also, is due to the wise, benevolent, and virtuous character of the Sovereign herself.
(4.) And there is a King in Zion, who has seen not one jubilee only, but all the jubilees that are contained in eighteen centuries, and who will see all that are to come through unending time. The Church of God has an everlasting King, to whom she owes all her vital energy, her survival from a thousand dangers, and her future prosperity, until she become a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Jesus is, under the Gospel, the rightful King of all individual hearts, and they are wise indeed who allow Him to reign alike over their thoughts, words, and deeds. Where He is allowed to reign, there order, Heaven’s first law, is set up, peace with God is established, peace of conscience is enjoyed, and the joy of the Holy Ghost is the happy atmosphere breathed by the soul. Every man’s heart is the chosen seat of Government for this King, and from that centre, He desires to rule the whole life.
III. God’s delay in punishing high-handed sin.
Why should three years be allowed to pass, ere such outrageous conduct received the punishment it deserved? The principle of instant retribution for offences committed against the laws of righteousness, under the government of a holy and righteous God, certainly seems the most natural. We see it in the remark which Shimei’s conduct called forth from Abishai to David, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head.” Such is the instinct of many. And the first threatening uttered by the Lawgiver against the first sin, required instant execution of the penalty on the head of the offender. “In the day thou eatest, thou shalt surely die.” That moment the sense of moral turpitude was felt for the first time, separation took place between man and his God, and his body became mortal. But here, as on so many occasions, judgment is deferred. The sun does not cease to shine, nor do Heaven’s lightnings flash out against the perpetrator of so many awful murders, but, for three long years, he is permitted to walk the earth, while Heaven’s thunders sleep, and he is not consumed.
Two important principles are illustrated by this delay—
1. Without such delay moral government could not be carried on. Moral government requires that there be the fullest liberty for the exercise of the will allowed to the subject of moral rule. Were the transgressor always to be cut down at the moment of transgression, there could be no further opportunity for moral dealing with him. And as the whole race of men have within them a tendency to depart from God, and offend against the laws of His government, in one short hour their history would, on this principle, come to an end. For the tendency to violate the laws of God would certainly show itself, and on every occasion it did death must happen, so that in one day the world would be swept clear of its inhabitants. Besides, were man always to be punished with death for his first sin, there would be no opportunity of bringing out his character on all its sides, and under every variety of circumstance. Farther, if a man saw that for the first known sin he might commit the certain consequence would be death, he would be put under a system of terrorism as to his obedience, which would destroy all liberty of action, and it would not be known what his character really was, until he were left free to act according to his own disposition.
2. This delay shows God’s unwillingness that men should perish. If it were a pleasure to Him to inflict death on the wicked, we might suppose He would make haste, on the commission of sin, always to carry out the sentence. Had even His love for men been according to an ordinary standard, and measurable by a man’s conception, we might suppose, that the heinous character of several sins would be such, as to provoke the offended Lawgiver to send swift and condign punishment on the heads of the transgressors, in order to mark His detestation of their sins. But God is so unwilling that men should perish, that He always acts as one reluctant to punish. He delays and defers, and defers and delays, until men begin to think He has forgotten their sins entirely. Though opposed to sin more than light is to darkness, His patience goes far beyond the measure of a man’s forbearance. He never loses the absolute calm of His holy nature. The want of self-government is far beneath the majesty of His august character. “I am God—not man,—therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” That he rises up so slowly to do the work of the Just Judge, proves His reluctance to proceed against the rebel, even when the argument on the side of justice is most strong. It shows that His heart is at the farthest possible remove from taking delight in the death of the sinner, and that no possible motive could induce Him to inflict the penal sentence, except that, on the one hand, justice requires that He should administer to sin what is its due, and on the other, He jealously requires that there should be a full vindication of His own holy and righteous character as the moral Governor of the universe.
IV. God remembers all the sins that wicked men commit.
Though full three years passed since the great crimes were committed, which opened the way for Abimelech’s ascending the throne of at least a part of Israel, nothing had been forgotten by the all-seeing God. Every moment of that time these sins were present to His view, yet He did not depart from the customary method to act with deliberation, in bringing round the time and the manner of the punishment.
Men forget that “with the Lord a thousand years are as one day.” The sins of a man’s whole lifetime are as present to “that faithful witness,” at the last hour of life, as they were at any previous part of it. Sins which he has left fifty years behind him in the past, are as freshly in the presence of Him with whom he has to do, as they were each one at the moment of commission. God says of His backsliding people, “They consider not, that I remember all their wickedness.” This is an element which the wicked too often leave out of consideration. For there is ever a proneness in men to make light of sin, because it is not visibly and solemnly dealt with the moment it is committed. So far however is God from not marking it, that He says even of His own people, “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond” (Jeremiah 17:1). It is impossible that sin can ever fall into oblivion, until satisfaction is given for it. No man is safe from the sins he committed many years ago, on the ground that possibly they may now be forgotten. Not a single sin can be forgotten, until it is solemnly dealt with, and due atonement made.
For the final account, God will bring every secret work and thought into judgment. And to represent the accuracy and particularity with which the process shall be gone through, we are told there are “Books of remembrance” which shall be opened, and every man shall be dealt with according to what is found written in the Books. It will then be seen, that “God requireth that which is past.” Not only the acts of the life, but the springs of character in the thoughts, volitions and purposes of the inner man—all the lines of a man’s conduct, beginning with his motives and aims, his judgments and decisions, and going out to the spirit which he displayed, the principles on which he acted, and the whole course of life which he led. It is clear, therefore, that no sinful man can build any hope of deliverance from condemnation on the ground, that any of his past sins may become forgotten through lapse of time. Unless some abnormally great and solemn transaction should take place before the end of life, he will to a certainty find all the sins of his life then meeting him, in the same measure of guilt they had when they were committed (Ecclesiastes 12:14; Psalms 50:21; Romans 2:16; Psalms 90:8).
What a relief from anxiety does the Gospel message bring at this point. For 1500 years the atoning victim was laid on the altar year by year, showing that there was still a remembrance of sins. At last came “the Lamb of God which bore away the sin of the world.” “Christ died for our sins.” “Now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.” He hath “finished transgression, and made an end of sin.” “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” So great is the change wrought in the condition of those who accept of this solemn method of disposing of their sins, that we read in one place, “In those days, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found again.” “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” And yet again, “They are without fault before the throne of God.”
V. The miseries which befall the wicked come not by chance, but as the result of God’s moral government of the world.
It was not by mere accident, without any directing cause, that a spirit of disaffection rose between the Shechemites and their self-appointed king. It was indeed a natural expectation, when we take the dispositions and proclivities of the parties into account. It was natural that the rule of a man so imperious in will, so selfish in aims, so capricious in tastes, so unprincipled in character, with no relaxation in his rod-of-iron treatment, and nothing benignant, or even tolerant in his bearing, would very soon cool down loyalty in any hearts where it really existed, and, in spite of themselves, the men of Shechem would waken sooner or later to the conviction, that they had been made dupes of by a bold and aspiring man, whom they could neither love nor respect. They saw that he was making use of them as tools, or stepping-ladders, to something higher. For, not content with remaining at home in Shechem, he seems to have been making occasional excursions to other places; and Thebez is mentioned as one of the towns which he had brought under his authority. Hence, among those who elected him king, there would be coldness first, then alienation, and by-and-bye hatred and resentment, with, at last, a desire for revenge. All this was according to the working of natural causes.
But this Book sees God’s hand in everything. So we read that “God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem.” It is added that there was a special design in view, “that the cruelty done to the sons of Jerubbaal,” &c. This testimony implies, that there was something more than the blind working of natural causes. Overruling these and directing these, was the will of the Supreme Ruler in Providence at work, to fulfil a purpose of retribution on the heads of perpetrators of a great wickedness. We dare not deny to God the character of a Moral Governor, nor His presence in His own works. We cannot resolve the whole course of causes and consequences in the history of this world into a mere system of naturalism, nor can we accept of deism as the true philosophy of God’s relation to man, and at the same time be guided by the teachings of this Book. Scripture uniformly recognises God’s presence among the affairs of men, adjusting the laws so as to reward the righteous, and inflict retribution on the wicked. God could have brought a hundred different issues out of the train of causes that were at work in this history, had it so pleased him. But he arranged to bring about that which did actually happen, that the object might be gained which He intended, in the righteous punishment of evildoers.
VI. Compacts formed in sin are soon broken.
The Shechemites appear to have sworn to Abimelech to be faithful to him as their king, while he on his part engaged to act similarly by them. But, at the time they did so, their hands were reeking with the innocent blood they had shed, and so the compact was formed in sin.
(1.) The curse of the Lord rested on such compact. High-handed sin always brings down the frown of Him who sits on the Throne of Righteousness. When men “walk contrary to Him, He walks contrary to them;” and though they “associate themselves together they shall be broken in pieces; though they take counsel together, it shall come to nought.” “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” “He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.” “He is angry with the wicked every day.”
(2.) There is no principle in such compact which conscience can respect. None of these wicked men could respect either themselves, or each other, for the revolting act of wickedness of which they were guilty, in having slain the seventy innocent sons of Jerubbaal. On the contrary, conscience, as the “domestic chaplain” of the soul [Trapp], in so far as he was allowed to utter his voice, must have loudly condemned the iniquity, and this must have led to mutual recrimination against one another. It must indeed have produced the constant risk of an explosion, conscience acting as a sort of dynamitard in the camp. Or, if conscience were seared and practically inoperative among them, then there was no principle of right to hold them to their compact; conscience being the faculty which acknowledges the existence of what is right and what is wrong. But when the sense of doing what is right is taken away, where is the security for continuing faithful to the compact?
(3.) Among wicked associations there is no real cohesive power. The parties here concerned, both the man who aspired to be king and those who agreed to elect him to that high office, knew that this was an open act of rebellion against that God who was already King of Israel, and who wished none other to usurp the seat. And there was the terrible aggravation of this sin, in the previous massacre. What then could have led them to associate together to gain such an end? It could not possibly have been any desire thereby to promote the good of the commonwealth. It could only have been some selfish and interested purposes of their own which they believed would thereby be served. Abimelech was a man of unbounded ambition, and seemed to have no thoughts but those of self-aggrandisement. The men of Shechem were nothing to him but tools to serve his purpose. They, on the other hand, thought they saw in Abimelech one who might form a suitable rallying point for the scattered tribes of Israel, and one who, by uniting all the people, and going out before them to fight their battles, might make them become respected all around, as one of the great nations of the earth—Shechem being the capital city. It was an additional consideration to this, that he had destroyed the house of Jerrubbaal, who was the destroyer of their god. And still further they said of Abimelech, “Is he not our brother—of our own stock, and a young man of excellent promise?”
In all this banding, together there was no real cohesive power. The motives of the respective parties were not only not the same, but were strongly in conflict; and each party had but to come to see in actual history what the aims of the other were, in order to become at once jealous, and suspicious of deceit being practised by their partners in the compact. What cared Abimelech for the feelings and interests of the men of Shechem, if only his iron will were fully carried out among them. Was not he their master, and was not their whole purpose in life summed up simply in obeying the king? Let any one tremble if he should dare to think otherwise. Such was the spirit of the ruler. Those who had chosen him to the office felt that they were as birds caught in a snare. Their eyes were opened to the fact, that, in place of being exalted in station, and realising a new golden age of their history as a people, they had come under a reign of terror, and had sunk to the position of slaves, to be trodden under foot and made to do all kinds of drudgery at the will of a capricious despot. Here, surely, was nothing that was attractive, but everything that was repellent.
So is it universally among the wicked—there is no proper cohesive power. We cannot accept the line of the poet as correct—
“Devil with devil damn’d firm concord holds.”
The only point in which the wicked entirely agree is, their common hatred of what is good. Pilate and Herod for once agreed, when they both had occasion to oppose the Saviour. The nations around Israel were as a rule ever quarrelling with each other, until some one of them began to oppose Israel, when quickly the others joined with them (Psalms 83). The wicked are in their very nature selfish, proud, jealous, full of envy, covetousness, malice, and evil lusts and passions, which could not fail to break up and disintegrate their unions more or less.
(4.) Where there is no strongly uniting force, men’s fickleness tends to break up compacts. Nothing is more capricious than the human will, when left entirely without the restraint of right principle. All history proves it. We see it in the treatment given by the populace of the Grecian States to their heroes in the field, or their wise men of the senate or the schools, who were half worshipped by them to-day; yet to-morrow, for some freak of the popular will, were either banished their country, or had a deep brand of odium affixed to their names. It is not without reason that our essayist has said—“The head that to-day grows giddy with the roar of the million has the very next been fixed on a pole.” Nearly all Oriental history proves it, portions of Roman history, portions of the history of nearly all the other countries of Europe, and especially France, exemplify it; nor do we except certain periods of our own English history.
VII. Our idols often prove our scourges.
The men of Shechem were at first hero-worshippers of Abimelech, in which they grievously sinned, when they made him king in place of Jehovah. Now Abimelech becomes their scourge in the terrible tragedy here recorded (Jeremiah 2:19; Proverbs 1:31). Thus David found it with Absalom and Adonijah; Jacob, for many years with Joseph; Jehoshaphat with Ahab; and the Israelites, with several heathen nations with whom they intermarried and had too friendly relations.
VIII. Men are often called to read their sin in their punishment.
(1.) Abimelech rose to influence by putting forth false claims as an adventurer, and now it is by the setting forth of the false claims of another adventurer (Gaal), that the standard of revolt is raised against his authority.
(2.) In the house where he found the money, that enabled him to carry into execution the awful deed which left his way free to ascend the throne, his subjects met to pour curses on his head, and to plot his ruin.
(3) The man who made it his boast to say, “My father was a king,” is at last rejected by his votaries for one who was the son of a slave (Ebed means a slave).
(4.) By a woman he rose to power (his mother; when the Shechemites said. “He is our brother”) and by a woman he met his death.
(5.) He slew all his brothers on one stone, and now by means of one stone he is slain.
(6.) He sinned so much, that he might get the crown set on his head, and now he dies through his head being crushed.
(7.) His grand ambition was, that his name might go down to posterity as Abimelech the Invincible,” and yet the last thing the world hears of him is, ‘A woman slew him.”
IX. All the wicked’s confidences are refuges of lies.
The men of Shechem who swore to be faithful to the upstart king, soon rebelled against him in a body, and followed another adventurer—Zebul the ruler of the city, was the only friend that stuck to his master, and he appears to have acted from selfish motives. The men of the tower were against him. The people of Thebez to a man rose against him. And the very men who followed him did so through fear; for, the moment he breathed his last, every man threw down his sword and retired to his home; while the body of their chief was left to the vultures, and his name to the execration of posterity. (Psalms 37:35; Jonah 2)
How different the confidence of the righteous! (Isaiah 57:2; Isaiah 26:3-4; Psalms 112:7; Psalms 125:1; Isaiah 33:15-16).
X. The wicked are often employed to be the instruments of inflicting the punishment of their sins on each other.
Thus it was conspicuously here, in the case of the men of Shechem and their so-called king. Thus it has been in nearly all ages, in the wars which one nation has had with another. How often, too, in Scripture history do we read of the king of Babylon at one time, of Nineveh at another, or of Egypt at still another, being employed by the Governor among the nations, to punish this or that people for their long-continued wickedness in the sight of high Heaven! The wars of the Saracens and Crusaders, the descent of the Turkish hordes from the heights of Central Asia, on the west of Asia, and the east of Europe, and the wars of ancient Rome, when the Cæsars conquered all the west, the north, and the east of Europe, and the wars, too, which led to the fall of the Roman empire by the inrushing of Goths, Huns, and Vandals from all parts of the north, for the destruction of the city that had so long sinned, are examples.
It is on the same principle, that the evil angels are said to be the instruments of inflicting wrath on the wicked. They brought the plagues on Egypt (Psalms 78:49); perhaps they brought the flood on the old world; some suppose they brought the hail, the lightning, and the hornet on the Canaanites for their destruction; also they destroyed the property of the Gadarenes by entering into the swine; Satan himself is said to have the power of inflicting death on mankind as God’s messenger (Hebrews 2:14)—he is the “spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), and these are “led captive by him at his will” (2 Timothy 2:26).