Were you able to find the meaning hiding in Jotham’s fable which we studied in last week’s lesson?
This was a very thought provoking story that Jotham told. We really don’t have enough room and time to devote to it merely with this blog post. There is a lot more to the meaning of this amazing fable than we can discuss today. I would encourage you to dig deeper on your own later.
However; we will try our best to cover some of the main points of consideration. I think the story may be even more prophetic than many realize.
ISRAEL IS ALWAYS A PATTERN FOR TODAY
Of course, every single step that the nation of Israel took in its growing into a nation has become like a prophetic pattern for Christians of today to observe. We all need to pay attention to these national patterns as as we continue seeking God’s leadership toward The Kingdom of Heaven. In this fable we see so many lessons for the nations of our own times.
Jotham’s story contrasts the arrogant, self-serving and dangerous “bramble” (symbolic of Abimelech) with the altruistic service of the metaphorical trio of trees. We saw an olive tree, a fig tree and a grape vine. Each of these three affirm that the true goal in life is to bring God’s blessings to others, and to produce fruit that all of the earth may enjoy.
We could shorten this whole explanation and say; the whole purpose of mankind is to serve God and others.
If you did not catch last weeks lesson and you wish to review; please refer to the lesson here:
All of this information we comment on today is found and taken from Judges Chapter 9. Thus, I highly recommend you read and review that chapter before going any further with this lesson.
WELCOME
Welcome to the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY. We are reviewing the bible together one-page-at-a-time. While reviewing the pages we are looking at the scriptures as if we had never seen them before. All we desire to do in this particular pursuit is to imitate our Father. This immitation would be similar to that of a child who greatly admires the One who brought them into being (their Father.)
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THE DEFINITION OF TRUE LEADERSHIP
Gideon was an example of a true leader.
One thing we admired most about Gideon in our studies of the past is the fact that he did not want or desire the Kingship of Israel. Gideon was simply about serving God and serving the people of the land.
His son, Abimelech, was so different. In contrast to Gideon’s leadership, Abimelech wanted to seize the kingship all for himself. He used the paid support of others to get to where he wanted to be. Abimelech desired this power only for his own personal gain. He ageed to whatever he needed to agree to to gain political power.
ABIMELECH IS THE BRAMBLE
The “Bramble” in this story/parable from Jotham is the symbol of the arrogant Abimelech. The true leaders (the olive tree, the fig tree and the grape vine) were approached first. They only wanted to serve as one of the people following God. Their only goal was to bring blessings to others by bearing the fruit of their blessings from God to others.
CALLED TO BE FRUITFUL AND SERVE OTHERS
These three leaders, the olive tree, the fig tree and the grape vine, were representing the calling of the nation to the people. Israel was called by God to be fruitful. In staying who they were these three were fulfilling the commands of God and serving well. They were leading without ruling.
Ruling simply for the sake of being ruler is a fruitless pursuit. It only amounts to a popularity contest. Popularity can be bought if you are ruthless enough to pursue that route. Abimelech was. He was playing out his own political and criminal plot for evil. Nothing about Abimelech served the best interest of the Nation of Israel.
AN ILLUSTRATION FOR THE TIMES
Israel was called to serve God. The nation of America was founded on the service of God and the freedom of His people.
If we hired a cartoonist to illustrate the last ten years of American history, he would also be illustrating Jotham’s story. The two run together as a complete parallel of one another.
In the story a ruler who did good and only wanted to help others is replaced by a ruler who bribes, steals, lies and commits crimes for his own personal gain. His rulership bears no fruit and is detrimental to the welfare of his country.
Now go back to Judges Chapter 9 and replace the name of Gideon with Trump. Put Biden in the place of every passage where you see the name Abimelech. Put elected officials and appointed government officials from such institutions as the IRS, DOD, IMF, WHO, FBI, etc. in the places that name Abimelech’s hired cronies. You will get the picture. It all becomes an illustration of history repeating itself.
Of course, if you are a liberal (which I am NOT) you will of want to rearrange this name changing. See how much better you can come out by reversing the truth. That may satisfy the fact-checkers who don’t understand certain things about our culture; but I doubt it. Follow my arrangement or be Burger King and “have it your way.” All of the above depends on your definition of the truth. For the sake of publishing this message; I’ll give everyone their own choice.
SATIRE OFTEN PROTRAYS TRUTH
Wisdom is sometimes born from satire. Such animated satire as this imagined cartoon portrays much of America’s past as well as Israel’s past. When we take a step back and look at situations in this simplified way of telling Jotham’s fable the truth becomes easier to grasp.
Satires have a way of portraying higher and hidden truths that can’t be seen by those who are living through interesting and confusing times. The people often can’t look at the forest for the trees. (It is interesting that Jotham chose to use trees here and we could expand on that more but will not do so today for the sake of time.)
Jotham’s use of satire in this fable gets the message across to the common people, who until now had not been hearing or seeing the covered up actions of their culture.
This can happen in any culture and in any time period.
A TURNING POINT
The Abimelech episodes we speak of in these last few lessons from The Book of Judges takes the Nation of Israel into a turning point. This new turn shows the tragedy which the common people often face when their ruler has not been chosen or appointed by God. This usually happens when the people of the land become careless in listening for God’s guidance.
After the rule of Abimelech, the Nation of Israel had great troubles and could not recover the times of peace it had experienced under Gideon’s leadership.
A new type of leadership took over when “the Bramble” came into power.
THE DIFFERENCE IN GODLY LEADERS AND MAN APPOINTED LEADERS
The olive tree, the fig tree and the grape vine belonged to the ways of God and followed the Ten Commandments given by God to Israel. They represent the men of true leadership.
The Bramble ruled with vanity. He was known for flying his flag high above all the other trees; lording it over them daily. It emphasized his own self-proclaimed importance. (We’ve seen many groups use this technique to get their way in today’s culture too.)
The men of Shechem were the real government behind Abimelech. They too were ruthless, evil, greedy and self-absorbed by their power hungry desires. Nothing of the Israeli traditions were of value to these men and their culture. They had only become part of Israel because of the marriage of a concubine to Gideon. They used this to every advantage for gain and power. These self-appointed men trampled on the work that God had completed through Gideon. They and Abimelech murdered Gideon’s other sons.
IGNORING THE OLD AND FAITHFUL LEADERS
These men and Abimelech totally ignored the God-given principles handed down to the people by God through Moses, Aaron and Joshua.
It is all very similar to the way our new leaders chose to ignore the founders of America’s Constitution.
In America and In Israel these men were the great leaders of the past who had followed God and brought them all out of Egyptian slavery into the Promised Land full of fruit, milk, honey and freedom. As it was with Americans being brought out from under the rule of an evil and greedy King into a country that allowed equal rights to all. Such a country was founded on God’s principals (whether our schools chose to edit it or not.) At that time America chose to follow the ways of God instead of the laws of men.
When Abimelech ruled the old ways were soon put aside and forgotten. Only the ways of his shadow government prevailed. These new leaders had been put into place by mankind; not God. The land and the people suffered greatly from their evil and corruption. Seventy good men died at their hands. They were murdered in cold blood.
WHEN ISRAEL PROSPERS AND/OR FAILS
Here we must stop to note one thing that is constant about The Nation of Israel, or any other nation for that matter.
When Israel was ruled by God’s servants they prevailed and prospered in the land.
When they were ruled by rulers who had no respect for God or God’s ways, especially the sacredness of life, Israel failed to prosper or prevail in the land. The people suffered in safety, provision and well-being every time this happened.
This trait isn’t just true of Israel, but any nation who ignores God or disobeys His ways will eventually come to ruin and failure. We can see this principle play out over-and-over again as we continue to study the history of Israel and observe all of Israel’s rulers.
THE BIG QUESTION
The question is always the same – will we learn from this or continue on in the path of evil and destruction.
That was Jotham’s question to the people through the words of the fable; and that is the question we all face today.
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. His people of today must learn how to walk in His footsteps. True steps following Christ and the ways of God can turn a nation in trouble around. A true walk of every faithful soul from a nation would bring hope and salvation to a hopeless and fearful land.
Almost every word of The Book of Judges gives us a keen insight into the prophetic future of the nations of our world today. Jotham stood on top of a huge mountain and echoed the message down through the valley and the ages years and years ago. It fell on their ears like a trumpet blast. His people did not listen.
Will we heed the message today?