Abimelech was the son of Gideon by a slave woman who lived with her father’s family in Shechem (8:30–31; 9:18). His name means “my father is a king.” Although Gideon had certainly lived like a king, he had still refused to establish a dynasty in Israel, but Abimelech felt that his father had made a mistake. After his father’s death, Abimelech decided that he should be king, thus he moved from Ophrah to Shechem, where he started his campaign. In what he did, Abimelech broke several of God’s laws and as a result brought destruction to himself and trouble to the people.
Selfish ambition (vv. 1–2). “You shall not covet” is the last of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20: nkjv), but breaking it is the first step toward breaking the other nine. Of itself ambition isn’t an evil thing, provided it’s mixed with genuine humility and is controlled by the will of God. If it’s God’s wind that lifts you and you’re soaring on wings that He’s given you, then fly as high as He takes you. But if you manufacture both the wind and the wings, you’re heading for a terrible fall.
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar,” said Helen Keller; and her counsel is good, so long as the impulse to soar comes from the Lord. Selfish ambition destroys. “I will ascend into heaven!” turned an angel into the devil (Isa. 14: nkjv), and “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built” turned a king into an animal (Dan 4:28–37 nkjv). If we exalt ourselves, God has many ways of bringing us down (Matt. 23:12).
The Jews had been acquainted with the people of Shechem since the days of the patriarchs (Gen. 12:6; 33:18–20, 34:1ff.). Both Jews and Canaanites lived in Shechem during Abimelech’s days, which explains why he started his campaign there. His mother was a Shechemite and his father was a Jew. Therefore, if Abimelech became king, he could represent both constituencies!
Abimelech had another plank in his political platform: The Canaanites in Shechem had no indebtedness to Gideon’s sons, while Abimelech was definitely one of their own. Furthermore, which of Gideon’s seventy sons should be chosen king and how would he be selected? Or would all seventy try to rule the land together? With this kind of logic, Abimelech enlisted the support of both his relatives and the men of the city, and now he was ready to move into action.
Idolatry (v. 4). “You shall have no other gods before Me” and “You shall not make for yourself any carved image” are the first and second of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:3–4 nkjv), and Abimelech broke them both. It’s obvious that he was his own god and that he had no interest in God’s will for the nation. His accepting money from the Baal worshippers to finance his crusade was a public announcement that he had renounced the God of Israel and was on the side of Baal.
But Abimelech had another god beside ambition and Baal, and that was might. With the tainted money from the heathen temple, he hired a group of noaccount mercenaries who helped him gain and keep control over the people. These vile terrorists also assisted him in his evil plot to murder his seventy half brothers and remove every rival to the throne.
The Greek philosopher Plato said, “Might is right,” and three centuries later, the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, “Might makes right.” The French novelist Joseph Joubert wrote seventeen centuries later, “Might and right govern everything in the world; might till right is ready.” But when might is in the hands of selfish dictators, right rarely has a chance to get ready or to take over. Might seizes control and will hold it unless a stronger power overcomes and brings freedom. The prophet Habakkuk described these people as “guilty men, whose own strength is their god” (Hab. 1: niv).
Murder (v. 5). The sixth commandment, “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20: nkjv), was violated scores of times by Abimelech and his mercenaries, beginning in Ophrah with their slaughter of sixty-nine of Abimelech’s seventy half brothers. Why didn’t somebody stop these murderers and defend Gideon’s family? Because the people of Israel had forgotten both the goodness of the Lord and the kindness of Gideon (Judg. 8:33–35). They had neither the conviction to be concerned nor the courage to intervene. It doesn’t take long for society to change yesterday’s hero into today’s scoundrel. What the Irish poet William Butler Yeats described in his famous poem “The Second Coming” was true in the nation of Israel:
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.
“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!” (Hab. 2: niv) Revelation 21: and 22: make it clear that murderers go to hell. Of course, a murderer can call on the Lord and be saved just as any other sinner can, but there’s no evidence that Abimelech and his crowd ever repented of their sins. Their feet were “swift to shed blood” (Rom. 3:15; Isa. 59:7), and the blood that they shed eventually came back on their own heads.
Murder is bad enough, but when brother kills brother, the sin is even more heinous. By murdering his half brothers, Abimelech joined the ranks of other men in the Bible who committed fratricide, including Cain (Gen. 4), Absalom (2 Sam. 13:23ff.), and Jehoram (2 Chron. 21:4). Not very nice company.
Dishonesty (v. 6). The third commandment says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Ex. 20: nkjv), and the ninth commandment forbids us bearing false witness (Ex. 20:16). Abimelech broke both commandments when he was crowned king. If he took an oath of office in the name of the Lord, it was pure blasphemy, and if he promised to protect the people and obey the law, it was further deception. (See Deut. 17:14–20.) No matter what he promised at the coronation, Abimelech had his own agenda and intended to carry it out.
The cynical journalist Ambrose Bierce defined “politics” as “a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles; the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” Certainly history records the names of dedicated men and women who put the good of their country ahead of the good of their party and personal gain, but in the case of Abimelech, Bierce’s definition applies perfectly.
Abimelech’s “coronation” was a farce, an empty ritual that was never accepted or blessed by the Lord. The new “king” not only blasphemed God by the promises he made, but he defiled a place sacred in Jewish history. The coronation took place at the “great tree at the pillar in Shechem” (Judg. 9: niv). This is probably the “oak of Moreh,” where the Lord appeared to Abraham and promised to give him and his descendants the land (Gen. 12:6). It was near this site that the nation of Israel heard the blessings and curses read from the law and promised to obey the Lord (Deut. 11:26–32; Josh. 8:30–35). Jacob buried the idols here as he called his family back to God (Gen. 35:1–5), and here Joshua gave his last speech and led the people in reaffirming their obedience to the Lord (Josh. 24:25–26). All of this sacred history was degraded and dishonored by the selfish acts of one godless man.
Pride (vv. 7–21). Jotham was the only brother to escape the massacre (v. 5). Perhaps the coronation celebrations were still in progress when Jotham interrupted with his parable from Mount Gerizim, which was adjacent to Shechem and the oak of Moreh. It was from Mount Gerizim that the blessings were to be read (Deut. 27:12, 28), but Jotham’s story was anything but a blessing. It’s worth noting that the tribe of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) was to stand on the mount of blessing, but Abimelech certainly hadn’t brought any blessing to Gideon’s tribe of Manasseh.
This is the first parable recorded in Scripture. Many people have the idea that Jesus invented parables and that they are found only in the four gospels, but neither is the case. Besides this “parable of the trees,” the Old Testament also contains Nathan’s “parable of the ewe lamb” (2 Sam. 12:1–4), the parable by the woman of Tekoa (2 Sam. 14:5–20), the parable of the thistle (2 Kings 14:8–14), and the parable of the vineyard (Isa. 5:1–7). The prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel contain both standard parables as well as “action” parables (Jer. 13; 18—19; 27—28; Ezek. 4—5; 16; 31; etc.).
Jotham pictured the trees looking for a king. They approached the olive tree with its valuable oil, the fig tree with its sweet fruit, and the vine with its clusters that could be made into wine, but all of them refused to accept the honor. They would each have to sacrifice something in order to reign, and they weren’t prepared to make that sacrifice.
All that remained was the bramble, a thornbush that was a useless nuisance in the land, good only for fuel for the fire. This, of course, was a symbol of Abimelech, the new king. For a thornbush to invite the other trees to trust in its shadow is a laughable proposition indeed! Often in the summer, fires would break out in the bramble bushes, and these fires would spread and threaten the safety of the trees. (See David’s use of this image in 2 Sam. 23:6–7, and also Isa. 9:18–19.)
Jotham had made his point: Abimelech, the “bramble king,” would be unable to protect the people, but he would cause judgment to come that would destroy those who trusted him. The men of Shechem should have been ashamed of the way they rejected the house of Gideon and honored a worthless opportunist like Abimelech. Eventually, both Abimelech and his followers would destroy one another.
Abimelech considered himself to be a stately tree of great value, but Jotham said he was nothing but a useless weed. What a blow to the new king’s pride! When they chose Abimelech as their king, the men of Shechem didn’t get useful olive oil, tasty figs, or cheery wine; they got only thorns—fuel for the fire.
Abimelech was actually trying to wrest the kingdom away from God (Judg. 8:23), and the Lord permitted him to have a measure of success. But God was still on the throne and would see to it that man’s selfish purposes would be frustrated.
It’s a dangerous thing for us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think (Rom. 12:3). We all need to discover the gifts God has given us and then use them in the place where He puts us. Each member in the body of Christ is important (1 Cor. 12:12–31), and we all need one another and to minister to one another. Since there’s no competition in the work of the Lord (John 4:34–38; 1 Cor. 3:5–9), there’s no need for us to promote ourselves. The important thing is that God receives the glory.