Judges 9 Devotional

No Crime Beyond His Reach

“In this way God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father in murdering his seventy brothers.”Judges 9:56 (BSB)

Abimelech wants the throne his father refused. With silver from Baal's temple he hires reckless men, murders his seventy brothers on one stone, and is made king at Shechem (9:4-6). Only Jotham escapes, and he answers with a parable. The fruitful trees decline to rule, so the trees crown a thornbush, which offers its shade and threatens fire (9:8-15). If Shechem has acted in bad faith, he says, may fire consume them and their king alike (9:19-20).

God is named only a few times, but his hand is decisive. He sends a spirit of hostility between Abimelech and Shechem so that the murder of the seventy might be avenged (9:23-24). The city is razed, and Abimelech dies at Thebez when a woman drops a millstone on him (9:53-54). The narrator explains it plainly: God repaid them both (9:56-57). Evil that seems to win is not forgotten. That frees God's people from taking revenge and leaves room for the God who repays (Romans 12:19). You can hand him the wrong done to you.

To think about: What wrong done to you do you need to place in God's hands rather than try to repay yourself?