Abimelech - one of the seventy sons of Jerubbaal (Gideon)... what a piece of work! In order to be king, he kills all his brothers except Jotham, the youngest, who hid himself. Doesn't matter who dies - even his brothers - so long as he gets to be king!
Abimelech does this treacherous thing with the aid of his kingsmen of Shechem. Jothan stands on a mountain top and curses the whole lot. He curses them with fire if they have not acted in good faith in choosing their king. Shechem and Abimelech end up warring against each other. Abimelech enemies are holed up in the tower of Thebez. He sets it on fire fulfilling Jothan's curse. And... after only three years of ruling, Abimelech has his head crushed by a woman. To save face, he has his armor bearer kill him so that it could not be said that he died at the hand's of a woman. What a mess Abimelech's lust for power got him and the people into. Nasty stuff sure does seem to happen when one follows after his own hearts desires instead of the will of God for the people. Stuff happens when we go following false gods...
We are in the midst of another Presidential election year. I find it increasingly difficult to discern if any of the politicians are serious about doing the will of God (as many imply) for the good of the people or if they all have personal agendas as their top priority. Actually, I do believe that they all put their personal agendas first. They all want to be king. But, I wonder which one(s) put the people at least second on the list. During election year some (most) wear their religiousity proudly. You see so many wearing their Christian faces. The question is how far from reality are those masks? Are we really dealing with Christians or are their other gods they serve that they are not willing to reveal publically.
History, I am afraid, is doomed to repeat itself so long as we put false gods (including ourselves) before the LORD, God Almighty.
Abimelech does this treacherous thing with the aid of his kingsmen of Shechem. Jothan stands on a mountain top and curses the whole lot. He curses them with fire if they have not acted in good faith in choosing their king. Shechem and Abimelech end up warring against each other. Abimelech enemies are holed up in the tower of Thebez. He sets it on fire fulfilling Jothan's curse. And... after only three years of ruling, Abimelech has his head crushed by a woman. To save face, he has his armor bearer kill him so that it could not be said that he died at the hand's of a woman. What a mess Abimelech's lust for power got him and the people into. Nasty stuff sure does seem to happen when one follows after his own hearts desires instead of the will of God for the people. Stuff happens when we go following false gods...
We are in the midst of another Presidential election year. I find it increasingly difficult to discern if any of the politicians are serious about doing the will of God (as many imply) for the good of the people or if they all have personal agendas as their top priority. Actually, I do believe that they all put their personal agendas first. They all want to be king. But, I wonder which one(s) put the people at least second on the list. During election year some (most) wear their religiousity proudly. You see so many wearing their Christian faces. The question is how far from reality are those masks? Are we really dealing with Christians or are their other gods they serve that they are not willing to reveal publically.
History, I am afraid, is doomed to repeat itself so long as we put false gods (including ourselves) before the LORD, God Almighty.
No comments:
Post a Comment