Most humans want to be king in their own world. The problem is they don't want to have God in the equation. The tragedy of what happened to Adam and Eve and what happens to many of us in one way or another is that we think we can rule ourselves without depending on the Lord. In some areas we want to be king without submitting to the king of kings. Probably all of us in one way or another have some ambition to be some sort of dominant king. Let's face it, submitting ourselves to someone else's authority is spiritually right, but it is not the fleshly or worldly norm. Certainly, we would admit that in a right sense, there's nothing wrong with good ambition. It's better to be ambitious than to be lazy. But when one has ambition apart from God, it can become deadly. Try to establish your own little kingdom apart from God. Try to set yourself up as your own ruler over everything, you're heading to disaster. There are some people who crave power. They don't care what they have to do to get it. There are some people who don't care who they have to hurt to get it. That's the story of Abimelech, who may be biblically called the Bramblebush King. Abimelech was a selfish, power-crazed man who wanted to be king, and he literally would lie and kill in order to become a king. He was a man who committed cold-blooded murder, and for a while he seems to get away with it. But as you'll see, he's not going to get away with it. And Lord willing, next Sunday night you'll see God's going to track him down. But the lesson we learn along the way is when one lies, and when one manipulates his way into dominant power, and when one hurts other people to get it, he will eventually be destroyed by God. Now people learn how to get themselves appointed to various high positions, but self-appointment won't ever last long. It's the appointment of God that lasts. And somebody that wants to try to manipulate his or her way into some appointment will discover God will knock him down. Every politician should carefully study this text. Every leader of a church should carefully study this text. Any person who's willing to hurt somebody else just so you can get up a little higher in the organization or you can somehow reach your goal should study this text. The one who does those kinds of things is being monitored by a holy God and God will track them down. You have the Word of God on it. Now to set the stage for how all of this happens, we need to kind of refresh our minds to what has happened in Judges chapter 8. Israel is back to doing that which is right in her own eyes. You don't have any spiritual focus. You don't have any biblical focus. You don't have anybody interested in doing the will of God, so she's at another spiritual low. Gideon was dead. And for the fifth time in Judges the people are turning away from God and they have gone right back into idolatry. The only difference is the trouble this time is not going to come from some oppressive enemy outside of Israel like the Canaanites or the Midianites. This time it's going to come from an enemy within. Now we may remember that Abimelech came from a very troubled background. Gideon was his dad. His mother was one of his concubines whom Gideon never married. And we also may recall from our exposition last Sunday night that Gideon had 70 legitimate sons through his harem of wives and Abimelech was not one of them. He was not one of the legal sons. He was not entitled to any legal inheritance at all. And it becomes obvious that Abimelech never felt apparently loved by his dad. His dad never taught him anything about the importance of a relationship with God or being focused on the word of God or the will of God. In fact, when Gideon died, everyone in the nation was given over to idolatry. Now Abimelech knew that the men of Israel wanted his dad, Gideon, to be their king. And he also knew that Gideon had turned that job down. He also knew that his other 70 sons had turned the job down. Because Gideon had said back in chapter 8, I don't want the job, and neither do my sons. We're not going to form some kingly dynasty over you. But Abimelech is listening to this. He's a guy who craves that kind of power. He wants to be king. He wants to have authority, and he'll do anything he has to do to get it. So in some ways, Abimelech is a byproduct of his environment because nobody there is doing anything that pleases the Lord. Nobody there is focused on the Word of God. You take a world that is not focused on the Word of God and not focused on the will of God and some political person can move in there and take charge of things, it's diabolical. Abimelech will manipulate his way into power. He will lie. He will kill innocent people and he will seem to get away with it for just a time. But then God is going to track him down and he's going to pay. Now there are three parts to the story I want to show you tonight. First of all, the evil manipulative actions of Bimelech, verses 1 to 6 of Judges 9. And of Bimelech, the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem to his mother's relatives and spoke to them. and to the whole clan of the household of his mother's father, saying, Speak now in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, which is better for you, that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or that one man rule over you. Also remember that I am your bone and your flesh. And his mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem. And they were inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said he is our relative. They gave him 70 pieces of silver from the house of Baal Bereith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, and they followed him. Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men on one stone, but Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left for he hid himself. All the men of Shechem and all the Beth Malo assembled together, and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem." Now I believe that Abimelech is a great picture of the Antichrist who will be after dominant political power, who's going to ritualistic kill Jewish people just like Abimelech did. He's also a type of Satan who is not content with his status. He wanted dominant authority even over God. He wanted to be like God. In the end These Abimelech types, these Antichrist types, these Satanic types, these lying evil manipulators end up being crushed by the Lord. But along the way they do some diabolical stuff. And there are five observations I want to make about this narrative tonight. First of all, Abimelech goes to visit his mother's family in Shechem. That's what we learn from verse 1. Now Shechem was the place where Joshua at one time had led Israel to dedicate themselves to God, but now it is a place totally given over to Baal worship. In fact, there is a temple dedicated to Baal in Shechem. Verse 4 makes it clear that Baal Barith, there is a house there dedicated to Baal, what you're calling the covenant God. This city had no commitment to the God of the Bible. This city is not interested in the Word of God, and therefore it became a place of evil, sensual, godless immorality. And when you have a city or a nation in that condition, when you have a city or a nation not interested in carefully understanding the Scriptures, developing sound minds of spirituality, it is ripe to be taken over by some lying, evil, power-crazed madman. And that is what's going to happen when the rapture of the church occurs. Because even though it's getting fewer and fewer places where really the Word of God is reverenced and reverent worship is actually promoted, the fact of the matter is when the rapture occurs, all believers are going to meet the Lord in the air. And those that know the Word, those that are in a position to proclaim the Word, are going to be gone. And that's going to leave this world given over to idolatrous and immoral condition. And it'll be ripe for the Antichrist. The fact is, this world, including the United States, is a lot like Shechem right now. I don't see a lot in this world that's interested in understanding the scriptures and bringing God into anything. This world, this country of ours, is more interested in taking God out of everything. And when you get a nation like that, it becomes right for this type of person to take charge. Which brings us to the second observation that Bimelech uses false scare tactics to get people to follow him. Verse two, speak now in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, which is better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubah, all rule over you, or one man rule over you. Also remember that I am bone of your flesh. He deceitfully suggests and implies, this is so political, it's like watching political rhetoric in an election year. He secretly, deceitfully implies that 70 of Gideon's sons are interested in ruling over these people of Shechem, which is absolutely not true. And the word rule over in Hebrew, mashal, is a particular Hebrew word that speaks of, he's telling them, those people want to dominate you. Those people want to take charge of you. Gideon and his sons weren't interested in that at all. They weren't interested in dominating power. They weren't interested in being kings. There's no evidence at all that any of this is true. So this is flatly an outright lie, but that's what ruthless people who want power are willing to do. They will bend things and twist things, and they'll lie if they can get their way. It is just horrific to see politicians in the United States of America doing that in election years. They twist things around. You watch those political debates, and they're debating the president of the United States, and especially last time, and he's going, that isn't true. I didn't do that. I didn't say that. But they just twist things around. They want to scare people. Politicians know how to masquerade things for their own advantage, and Abimelech was a good politician. He wants the dominant power, so he lies, and he presents them the option that here's the problem here. You've got Gideon's sons down the road there in Ophrah. They're interested in taking charge of you and ruling over you, and he's scaring people. And what he seems to be presenting to them appears to be reasonable, so the people were scared. And may we see a very important principle here, ladies and gentlemen, and this is something you never want to forget as a child of God. God is always interested in truth. We must be people who always search out truth and facts. We don't just concede a point because somebody says it. Just because someone says something doesn't make it right. It doesn't even make it true. Somebody from Shechem should have said, maybe we ought to check up on this. Maybe we ought to send a group of ambassadors over there to Ofra to see if that's really what the sons of Abimelech are wanting to do. We've had no problems with them to this point. So maybe it might be wise for us to look into this and see whether or not if what he's telling us is the truth, they don't even bother to check this out. We need to understand that God is interested in truth. Love and truth, righteousness and truth go hand in hand. And people who want to do evil won't tell the truth. They will lie. People who want to manipulate things their way, people who want to get power will put their spin on things, and they'll twist it up, they'll mess it up, so they're not even communicating what is accurate. We are supposed to be, according to scripture, wise people, not gullible simpletons. And we learn here a great lesson about godliness, because I believe great people of God are simple, straightforward, honest, forthright people. When God's spirit has somebody in its control, they're not going to be deceptive. They're not going to be false. They're not going to be phony. They're going to be straight, upfront people. Abimelech was anything but that. Which brings us to the third observation. Abimelech's relatives decide to give him their full support. This is so sad. Verse 3, his mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem and they were inclined to follow Abimelech. It's so ironic because when Gideon was doing a great work for God, he couldn't get people to support him with even a loaf of bread. But when Abimelech is doing a satanic work, his satanic relatives rally around him. And notice, according to verse 3, he is fooling all the leaders of Shechem. Now, I love listening to the political speeches when we have those election years. What amazes me is that politicians can fool people by saying nothing. It's just incredible to me. I mean, we could almost tell you what next year's political rhetoric is going to be. We've got to cut spending. We've got to see that no child's left behind. They've got to have their education, and we've got to make sure that jobs are here in the country. Okay, how are you going to do that? That's the issue, isn't it? We've heard all of that stuff before. Politicians know how to talk to people, and people get in some type of foggy daze in their minds, and they actually believe them. And here's the Bimelech, and these leaders of Shechem are rallying around him. His plan worked. which tells us something, doesn't it? Being successfully elected to a position doesn't mean you have the character to have the position. Just because a person is elected to a position of responsibility doesn't mean they really have the character behind the scenes to hold the office. It's true of politicians, it's true of people in the church, it's true of a board, it's true in any arena. Just because somebody has the power doesn't mean they have the character that should have the power. And the reason why it worked is because these people in Shechem never bothered to investigate any of the charges. They never tracked down truth. Had they investigated any of this, they would have discovered, you know, those 70 sons of Gideon, they could care less whether or not they have power over us. They're not even talking about that. They are not even interested in that. They don't want to dominate us. But Abimelech's lies worked because nobody checked it out. His family got behind him. They said, we can trust him, so let's support him. And they gave him According to verse 4, 70 pieces of silver from the temple of Baal. More than likely, the 70 pieces of silver represented one piece of silver for every son of Gideon. This is blood money. Now when I read that, I can't help but think of people who will actually support people who are doing evil stuff. And the most recent thing in my mind is Casey Anthony. She killed her daughter. and people are sending her money. One guy in Texas offered to give her a home. One reporter said she stands to make millions of dollars. For what? For doing evil. You look at this and you say, well, is God anywhere in this? Is God ever going to make any of this right? The same thing could be asked of a Bimelech. He's lying. He's about to commit cold-blooded murder. People are supporting him. People are giving him money, and he will be tracked down by God. But you know, there are some Christians who are just about as dumb as the Shechemites. Because there are some who are willing to just toss in and give their full allegiance to the world, the sin, and flesh. They know it's going to end up in a disaster. They know by living that way it isn't going to be a happily ever ending story. But the fact of the matter is they are all twisted up and they support it fully by their lives, by what they say, by what they do. And they're going to be tracked down. Which brings us to the fourth observation. He hires thugs to go with him to commit murder. The end of verse 4 says, Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows, and they followed him. Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubbaal, 70 men on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubbaal, was left where he hid himself. crave this kind of power, they'll do anything to get it, even if it's ruthless. And so what Abimelech did is he hired some worthless and reckless people. And the Hebrew words here are colorful words. The word ruthless means these men were poor, empty, vain men. And the word reckless means these were proud men, lascivious men, men of loose morals. Those are the kinds of people that will follow some satanic leader. They're typically poor and proud. They have no morals. They have no scruples. These are the kinds of people they don't want to work for anything. They're empty of any solid character. They don't have character at all. They don't have morality. They're low-lifes. One writer said, they're nothing more than vile terrorists. Abimelech hired these godless mercenaries and they followed him right to his criminal activity. They followed Abimelech, he led them into Ophrah, and then they ritualistically killed 69 of Gideon's innocent sons. And the text says in verse 5, they were all killed on one stone. And more than likely, the stone that they're referring to is the very altar that just a few years earlier had been used by Gideon as he dedicated things to God. So what you have here is religious, ritualistic, satanic murder. It's being committed on a place that was once a sacred place of worship. This is nothing more than systematic serial killing. This is as evil as it gets. I agree with something Dr. Andrew Fawcett said back in 1885, false religion has no morals. And I cannot help but see a parallel to what the Antichrist is going to do in the Temple of Jerusalem. in the moment referred to by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24 called the abomination of desolation. The Antichrist is going to actually ritualistically kill Jews in the temple if they don't worship him. That very spot that is supposed to be a sacred spot of worship will become a spot of satanic murder. That is what Abimelech is doing right here. He commits ritualistic religious murder. But according to the end of verse 5, he killed all but one. One of Gideon's boys got away. His name was Jotham. He was the youngest son. He hid. He escaped slaughter. He'll turn out to be a very brave son. Which brings us to the final observation. Abimelech returns to Shechem and he's made king. Verse 6 says, And all the men of Shechem and all Beth-meloh assembled together, and they went and they made Abimelech king by the oak of Pillar, which was in Shechem. Instead of there being an outcry, what did you do, Abimelech? You went down the road and you slaughtered these innocent guys. Instead of there being an outrage that you're nothing but a cold-blooded killer, Abimelech becomes a hero. All the people of Shechem get together at Beth Miloh, which was some meeting spot outside the city on a hill sort of structure, and they gather there and they're honoring him. They're honoring him as king. As Dr. Warren Wiersbe said, this coronation is a farce. He's not a king. He's a murderer. The Israelites are not making him king. The Shechemites are making him king of their city. And you can't help, when you're reading this, to say, where in the world is God here? Why is this taking place? An evil, lying murderer could care less about God. He gets himself elected by lying to become king. And then you wonder, where in the world is God? Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who's written much about the Holocaust, said that when he watched some of his own family being hanged during the days of Hitler, he said, I ask, where is God now? And this past week, many people wondered the same thing. As one arrogantly walks out of jail, and they begin to wonder, where is God? Why are people supporting her? Why aren't people standing up for what's right? Well, I guarantee you God is there. He'll take care of things. Which brings us to the second part, the righteous response of Jotham, verses 7 to 21. The text says, now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim. and lifted his voice and called out. Thus he said to them, listen to me, O men of Shechem, listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, rain over us. But the olive tree said to them, shall I leave my fatness, with which God and men are honored, and go and wave over the trees? Then the trees said to the fig tree, you come rain over us. But the fig tree said to them, shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit and go and wave over the trees? Then the trees said to the vine, you come rain over us. But the vine said to them, shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go and wave over the trees? finally all the trees said to the bramble you come rain over us the bramble said to the trees if in truth you're anointing me as king over you come and take refuge in my shade but if not may fire come out of the bramble and consume the cedars of lebanon now therefore if you have dealt in truth and integrity in making Abimelech king and if you've dealt with Jerubbaal and his house and have dealt with him as he deserved for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian but you've risen against my father's house today and killed his son seventy men on one stone and have made Abimelech the son of his maidservant king over the men of Shechem because he is your relative if then you've dealt in truth and integrity with Jerubbaal and his house this day rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you but if not let fire come out from abimelech and consume the men of shechem and beth maloh and let fire come out from the men of shechem and from beth maloh and consume abimelech then jotham escaped and fled and went to beir and remained there because of abimelech his brother now the apostle paul said that part of the job of the responsibility of the New Testament Grace Age Believer is we're supposed to expose evil things. Expose them. We're not to participate in them, but we do have a responsibility to expose dark things. And God is going to track down this evil Abimelech and destroy him. And the process starts right here when Jotham has the guts to expose him. Jotham is the only survivor of the Ophrah massacre. He's one man who dares to go on the front lines and speak up for God and speak out against this evil guy. And there are two main actions of Jotham. First of all, he goes to Mount Gerizim to verbally confront the Shechemites in verse 7. Now that's a bold move he's making here. He's the only son of Gideon still alive. He could have said, well, Abimelech has won over the Shechemites. He's killed all my brothers. There's no point in me doing anything. That's not what he did. He's willing to stand alone and act alone. He's willing to confront evil and defend God. So what he does is he goes to Mount Gerizim, which is located just outside of Shechem. There's a hill area that stands up about 500 yards above the people. It is said that the acoustics are good there. One writer said it is a natural amphitheater. And Jotham is standing on top of there in a relatively safe place. They couldn't get up to him real quick. He could probably go off the back side before they could get up to him. And he's going to shout out to the people. He's a brave young man. It is suspected that this could have actually happened on the actual time that Abimelech is being coronated. He's not afraid to stand up before these people, look them in the eyes, and tell them the truth. And there are three verbal messages that he gives them. Number one, he says, I want you people to listen to me. He says at the end of verse seven, listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to you. He said, I'm about to tell you revelatory truth. If you want to have any relationship with God at all, you better listen to me. Secondly, he says, I'm going to tell you a parable. Now, here's the first parable that is actually recorded in the Bible. Some think that Jesus spoke the first parable, but actually the first parable is spoken by Jotham. Parables were story illustrations designed to illustrate a powerful truth. And the specific parable that Jotham tells them is a parable associated with a couple of trees, a vine, and a bramble bush. Now, in the parable, the trees go looking for a king. The trees and the vine represent the productive people of Shechem who were men of dignity and integrity. And notice, the trees make the first move, which is not really what Abimelech did. But the reason why this is brought up is because God wants Israel to understand that they want a king to rule over them rather than God. And they're not even interested in doing the will of God. But this is, as Fawcett said, a suicidal wish. And there are four parable parts to this. The trees, first of all, ask an olive tree to reign over them, and it declines. You'll see that in verse 8. Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, they said to the olive tree, reign over us. But the olive tree said to them, shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored and go and wave over the trees? The olive tree said, no, I don't want the job. I've got a good thing going here. I mean, I am productive. I'm producing oil. They're using the oil for God, for worship. They're using the oil for men. I don't want the job. It declines it. The second parable is the fig tree, and the trees ask the fig tree to rain over them, and it declines. The fig tree declines for the same reason. I'm involved in productive work. It says that in verse 11. I have sweetness with my fruit. I'm doing things for God. I'm doing things for men. So I don't want that responsibility of reigning over anybody. Thirdly, the trees ask a grapevine to reign over them and it declines. Verse 12 says, Then the trees said to the vine, You come rain over us. But the vine said to them, Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go wave over the trees? Now all three of these first illustrations decline the responsibility to rule over anybody because, first of all, every one of those are doing something honorably before the Lord. Secondly, everybody is involved in serving the Lord. Every one of those trees were doing something fruitful and productive for the Lord. And then each person was doing something to benefit man. So when this offer of invitation is given to this olive tree and this fig tree and this grape vine, they decline because they said, look, we're already involved in productive work for the Lord. We're already involved in productive work for men. We don't want more power. We're not looking for power. We're happy serving where God has given us the privilege of serving. See, people right with God, doing a work for God, are not out for power. It's the worthless people who want the power. People that are actually doing something for the Lord, getting something done, they're not wasting time hoping they get more power. Which brings us to the fourth part of the parable, the trees ask the bramble bush to rain over them and that bramble bush accepts it. You'll notice in verse 14, finally all the trees send to the bramble. You come reign over us. The bramble said of the trees, if in truth you're anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume these cedars of Lebanon. The bramble bush, or the thorn bush, is invited by all the trees to rule over them. The bramble bush is a scrubby, thorny, worthless bush that's good for nothing. It contributes nothing but prickles. It is a zero in life. It is something that is good for nothing. It is, it would love to have power. It would love to be offered this opportunity. And Jotham is comparing a bibelech to this worthless, useless weed. And I want you to notice the bramble bush makes a false claim. According to verse 15, he invites the trees to take refuge in its shade, which is impossible. That's a lie. It's impossible for a bramble bush to give shade to trees. First of all, the stem of a bramble bush is too thin and the leaves are too few. It doesn't offer any shade. It's crazy to think that here would be a big tree or a big vine finding anything of value in a thorn bush. And furthermore, it boldly threatens that if the trees don't make it king, it will destroy them by burning them down. This bramble bush could destroy big trees. It's threatening to destroy big trees because its tinder will burn as fast as sagebrush. So Jotham is standing on this side of a hill, and he's yelling out this parable to the Shechemites, and he compliments the Shechemites. You'll notice in verse 15, he says in verse 15, "...and consume the cedars of Lebanon." So he refers to the Shechemites and comparing them to the cedars of Lebanon, but he says, I want you to understand, this Abimelech that you've put into power is going to destroy you. And then, Jotham applies the parable and there are two applications he makes. He says, if you've done right in this matter with Abimelech and you've honored Gideon, you have nothing to fear. Verses 16 to 19. If you've dealt in truth and honesty, if you've dealt in integrity, if you're clean, You have nothing to worry about. If you elected Abimelech to be king and you treated Gideon's family down the road there respectfully, you view them properly, you view God properly, then you have nothing to fear. In fact, you can rejoice. Rejoice, he says in verse 19, if you did right. But his second application, if you've done wrong, if you haven't done right, then you need to understand Abimelech is going to destroy you and Abimelech is going to be destroyed. The image given in verse 20, let fire come out from Abimelech, is that Abimelech is going to be the source of a judgment that's going to come against you and ultimately it's going to burn him. The second action is Jotham flees the area. Verse 21 says, then Jotham escaped and fled and went to Beir and remained there because of Abimelech, his brother. After Jotham preached this message, he goes down the backside of that mountain, and he got out of there quick. He fled to a city of Beir. It's a city south of Shechem, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem. And frankly, we never hear about him again. What we understand, though, from this is if you get yourself appointed by fraudulent means, If you weasel your way into some situation and you're lying to get the power, God will track you down and you're never secure. If you're here tonight and you're lying about a relationship with Jesus Christ that you know you don't have. If you know that you've never really believed in your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can know you're never secure. God will track you down. Which brings us to the third part. Abimelech is tracked down by God. The process starts right here. Verse 22 says, Now, Abimelech ruled over Israel three years. Then, God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, so that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood might be laid on Abimelech, their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. The men of Shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who might pass by them along the road, and it was told to Abimelech. Now, notice how verse 22 begins, Abimelech rules over Israel three years. That's not the normal word that would be used for rule if you were a real king. The particular Hebrew word that is used here means he princed himself over Israel. He didn't have this appointment from God. He's not really a king. He's made himself king. He's weaseled his way into this position of power. But he doesn't have the spiritual wits or depth to even handle the power. He princed, as it were, he dominated people, but he never was a real appointed king. but he hadn't gotten away with what he did. It looked like it for three years. For three years it looked like, well, where's God here? When's God gonna settle this thing? But you see, God tends to do things in his time, not our time. God will punish him. You'll see it, Lord willing, next Sunday night. God will track him down, but it's gonna be his way. But the process starts in verse 23 when we read, God sent an evil spirit. God sovereignly sent an evil spirit between the men of Shechem and Abimelech. Now don't overlook this and don't miss this. You want to understand this. It's God who controls Satan. It's God who controls demons. It's God who controls evil. He's not the source of evil, but he sovereignly uses it for his purposes. He's about to deal with Abimelech in perfect justice. He's about to track him down and destroy him, and he's going to use demonic evil spirits as part of the process of doing it. God was going to do this because of the evil that Abimelech had committed against the sons of Gideon. And even though it had been three years, it was not out from the memory of God. Even though three years had transpired, God had not forgot. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, The men of Shechem started to hate Abimelech. Something was stirring in him. God was using evil spirits to cause this to happen, and these men started to hate Abimelech, and they started to set traps to ambush him. Dr. Lawson Younger drew parallels between Abimelech and Adolf Hitler, which are worth noting. He observed six, but we'll make it eight. Both Abimelech and Hitler hated their father, which led to hating others. Both hated Jews. Both lied about Jews. Both rose to power through brutal killings of rivals. Both employed ruthless and morally bankrupt people to support them. Both made pacts with those who were in power. Abimelech made pacts with the leaders of Shechem. Hitler made pacts with industrialists. Both brought total destruction to their own people and their own land and both died in obscurity with a mortal wound to the head. There's a real parallel here between what happened to Abimelech and what did happen to Hitler. But what I want you to understand is that God was in all of this. God was watching this. He didn't get away with it. He's not getting away with it. Now let me leave us with Five practical thoughts tonight. First of all, God watches every evil thing that is done. And he will judge the one who does the evil in perfect justice in his perfect time. Wise is the person who wants to settle things with God out of court. Wise is the person who wants to run to the Lord and throw himself down and beg for the mercy of God. Because if God tracks the person down, you can be sure he will do that. Secondly, God is a sovereign God who is in control of Satan. God is a sovereign God who's in control of demonic forces. I've been with some people and they're wondering, well, do we need to get demons out of here? Do we need to go around and get them out of the house? You need to be right with God. God's the one controlling that. Get right with God. Get Christ in the life. Be dedicated to Christ. You won't have to worry about demons or anything else because they're under his authority. Thirdly, the responsibility of the believer is to look people in the face and tell them the truth. We need to be people of integrity, and that's what we must do. Sometimes we have to tell them the truth. Whether or not they like it, tell them the truth anyway. Fourthly, it may appear that a person who's evil is getting away with it for a time, but he is not. And finally, we've all done evil, all of us, in one way or another. in one time or another. And if we're not willing to turn to Jesus Christ by faith, we will pay eternally. You can be sure that the judgment of God will track a person down. I mean, they may appear to be getting away with sin. They may appear to be enjoying sin. They may appear to be on top of the world. But without Jesus Christ, they're going to be tracked down and they will be destroyed forever. May we pray. If you're here tonight and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, Right now, in this moment, you can do that. You pray something like this, God, I know I'm a sinner. I admit it. I thank you that Christ died for me. And right now, I am doing honest business with you. I am placing all of my faith in him to save me forever. Our Father, we thank you for the precious Word of God. We thank you for these great, inspired stories of Scripture that reveal much to us about the world in which we live, because we do see a lot of parallels between what was happening in the days of judges, when people were doing that which was right in their own eyes, and what is happening in the days right now in the United States. It's the same deal. And I pray, Lord, that our political leaders will realize the importance of seeking you and putting you and your word and a reverence for you back into this country. And I pray that you would keep our people from succumbing to con artists, political con artists, who can sway them with rhetoric when they twist things just like a bimelec. I pray we would be people of sound minds and wits. And I pray that you would do that not just with us as individuals and with our church here, but we pray that your Holy Spirit would cause that to happen all across the United States of America. And we will thank you for that in Jesus' name, amen.