Layers Upon Layers

There is a poem in the book of Judges that I have written on before, not here in this blog, but in an article published elsewhere (you can read it here if you like).   It is called by some, Jotham's parable or the Parable of the Bramble.

The story starts way back in chapter 6 of Judges and goes all the way through chapter 9.  Any time God gives this much attention to a story in His Word, we should pay attention.  Remember that, in just a few chapters from now will come the story of Samson, and it, too, is four chapters long.  The creation story doesn't get four chapters even if you include the fall and curses.  The length of these stories implies that there are many things to be learned from them, not just on the surface, but layered deeply in the story. 

The story begins with Gideon, actually no; the story begins with Israel doing evil in the sight of the Lord and He hands them over to the Midianites.  They are sorely oppressed, they call on the Lord, He hears them, and raises up a deliverer by the name of Gideon.

The story of Gideon is a great one but today, we are going to be focusing on a couple of his sons, Abimilech and Jotham.  Gideon had done such a great job, by the hand of God, that the people wanted to make him king.  Gideon refused and said that neither he, nor his sons would rule them but God will rule over them.

There is so much important stuff in this story that we are going to skip over.  Please take the lesson of the title, "Layers upon Layers," and read the entire passage prayerfully and ask God to reveal Himself in His Word to you.  

Anyway, eventually Gideon dies.  He was a judge so this did leave kind of a vacuum.  He has 70 sons born of his many wives, one of whom was Jotham, and at least one son born of a concubine, Abimelech.  Abimelech decided that he wanted to be king.  He went to the people of his mother in Shechem and told them that having one of their own ruling would be better that having all 70 of Gideon's other sons rule.  so all the people of Shechem decided in favor of Abilelech because, you know, blood is thicker that water.  The people took money from the temple of Baal and Abimelech used the money to hire mercenaries and took them to his father's home town of Ophrah.

What happens next is pretty unthinkable.  Abimelech and his mercenaries gather all 70 of Gideon's sons, except for Jotham who hid, and "slew them upon one stone."  There is a layer right there, though not the first.  This has all the appearance of a sacrificial offering, and it worked.  The people of Shechem made Abimelech king.

Jotham, Gideon's youngest, stood on the mountain, lifted up his voice, cried and said to them...(I'm going to write the whole thing out because it is important)

"Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you.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 uto them, 'shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?'And the trees 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 trees said to the vine, 'You come and reign over us.'

 But the vine said to the, '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 of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon."'          Judges 9:7-15 

On the surface, it is pretty self-explanatory.  Gideon would be represented by the Olive tree which is most valuable.  It gives both fruit and oil, oil that is used to minister before the Lord in the tabernacle at this point.  The fig tree is very valuable as well and would likely represent Gideon's sons.  The vine is likely the priests which wouldn't rule either.  

So, the people refused to be ruled by God.  There is a progression that takes place, but in the end, they would rather have a bramble as king, Abimelech, who obviously wasn't a good man.  He is the thorny shrub of a ruler that offers shade but there really wouldn't be any.  The promise he can keep though, is consuming fire.  

In my mind, this is the first prophecy of the Beast, or Antichrist as he is often known.  There are many types and shadows before this, but this isn't a Pharoah or Nimrod.  This is a prophetic parable.

There are even more layers.  Study out the relevance of Shechem, and we have already touched on the fact that Abimelech's money came from the temple of Baal to whom he offered 70 of his brothers. 

There is such significance here; but, I say all this to talk about a completely different passage of scripture, Jeremiah 17:5 which says,

"Thus says the Lord: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come.  He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, and an uninhabited salt land."

I know that the bramble in Judges is a king and this shrub is the individual that doesn't trust the Lord but, hear me out.  When the bramble became king, who was the king supposed to be?  God was supposed to be the king of the people (the same thing happened with Saul but that is another story).  It is the same spirit is behind it in both cases.

The unworthy king is ruled by the same ungodly thinking that would turn a person into a naked shrub in the barren salt land.  It is the spirit of antichrist, a spirit that will lead a person to trust in man rather than God.

And what is the spirit of antichrist, you may ask?  The word antichrist occurs only four times in the Bible.  
They are:

1 John 2:18- "Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.  Therefore, we know that it is the last hour."

1 John 2:22- "Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the son."

1 John 4:3- "...and every spirit that does not confess Jesus, is not from God.  this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already."

1 John 1:7- "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh.  Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist."

All of these verses are relevant but the main one for our story, is the first one.  It is the spirit of the antichrist that denies the Father and the Son.  Deuteronomy 32:7 says,

"Is not He your father, who created you, who made you and established you?"

How can you trust in whom you deny?  You can't.  All through our passage in Judges, from the Israelites being oppressed by the Midianites, to the end where they are worshiping Baal-berith, these people weren't trusting God and they got a type of the Beast or Antichrist as their king in Abimelech.

Not only will lack of trust in the Lord cause a person to be a barren shrub in the wilderness, they won't recognize a good thing when they see it (look back at the verse from Jeremiah).  They will crown one of their own kind, and it will be antichrist.