For most of the first readings in the
daily masses this week, we will hear passages from the book of Judges. Judges
tells the story about how the people of Israel kept turning away from God, even
though he would call judges and prophets to preach his message, to try to get
his people to repent and return to their faith.
Instead of listening to God's message, the people often turned to false
gods.
In the passage we hear today, Gideon
had just served as a judge over Israel.
Gideon had been chosen by God from the humble tribe of Manasseh, to free
Israel from attacks from neighboring tribes & to condemn their worship of
foreign gods. In fact, Gideon destroyed
one town's temple to the foreign god Baal.
Gideon had 71 sons. With the aid of his mother's relatives, his
son Abimelech had 69 of his brothers put to death so that he alone would be
able to claim the right to rule. Jotham,
the youngest son, escaped death. The
people of Shechem made Abimelech king.
Even though Gideon had a reputation of being a man of great faith, even
being named as such by the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament,
Abimelech became an unprincipled, ambitious ruler who did not listen to God and
who often engaged in war with his own people.
After Abimelech became king, Jotham
told a parable, in which the fig tree, the vine, & the olive tree all declined
to be named king when asked, because they were too busy bearing fruit, even
though each of them would have made a worthy king. The bramble bush is asked to be king and he
accepts. Even though the bramble has
pretty flowers, it is a shrub with spines, a twisted, tangled mess. It bears no fruit, its wood is not useful for
construction, & it is not large enough to provide shade.
We can often pick leaders for the wrong
reasons, as this story about Abimelech shows.
If we stay true to God and his commandments, we will not go wrong.
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