Okay. Judges chapter number nine. In 2013, The paramedics were given a call in Los Angeles to come to a house or a home and the voice on the phone was saying that the little boy that was there was not breathing. The paramedics arrived and when they arrived they determined that there was a lot more going on with the situation than was originally told to them over the phone. They then began to try to do CPR and resuscitation there in the home and then realized that they had to get this child, little 8-year-old boy, into the ambulance and get him to the hospital as soon as possible. They noticed some things as they were working with this young boy that something was gravely wrong with the condition that he was in. When they got him there, the word had already been given to the ER team and there was an entire team already prepped and ready to go for when the ambulance arrived. They immediately took the boy and took him into the ER room and about three doctors and a team of nurses went to work. There was one nurse who stood back and her entire job was to sit back with a clipboard while all of the chaos was going on about trying to save this little boy's life and simply write down what the ER doctors were calling out. Her testimony is that what she, you know, working in an ER and trauma unit in an ER, you see a lot, especially in a major city like Los Angeles. But she said that one instance was something that she said has stuck with her ever since that night. Little boy's name was Gabriel Fernandez. And as they began to work on him, they noticed that there was a contusion to his head. As they began to feel and figure out what happened, they noticed that the skull was basically just so beaten to where they could press just slightly and feel his brain. They then begin to notice the different marks, the swelling around his eye. They noticed the area around his neck and his throat was rubbed almost completely raw and discolored. They noticed cigarette burns on his legs and then ligature marks around his ankles. This boy had been severely abused physically for quite a while, for many months. Little Gabriel did not make it. He died. It began to send a frenzy once it hit the press around Los Angeles County that justice had to be done. And so those that worked in departments like the district attorney started to go to work. Why did this happen? Why did this happen? They immediately arrested the mother and her boyfriend who went on trial. It was pretty obvious the defense attorney's position in the trial was not to defend that they did not do this horrible act to this boy. It was that they did not intend to murder him. because the anger was so incensed, not just by the area and by the citizens, but also by the authorities, that they were seeking the death penalty. So they didn't even try to defend that these two people, this mother and her boyfriend, did this to this... Oh, by the way, whenever they did the autopsy, the doctor, I forget, the name escapes me of what they call them, the medical examiner, found cat litter in his stomach. They were force-feeding him cat litter. That was his diet. They kept him in a small little, where they tied him up and they stuck him into a little table and they shut the door. That's where they kept him. They were not trying to defend that they did this. Basically, their defense was they didn't intend it to be murder. But as they got to looking into the case a little bit further, they found out that There was a little bit more to what led to the murder, the torture and murder of this little eight-year-old boy. What they found out was there were many that were involved with the Child Protective Services, the local police department, and other authorities that had been reported to time and time and time again. that this boy was in serious danger and being tortured and abused. But nothing was ever done about it. And so the district attorney not only went after prosecuting the mother and her boyfriend, they decided to bring social workers and a couple of child protective services workers on charges as well. The entire thing, and this was a documentary my wife and I got enthralled with recently that was talking about this, the entire thing was a tragic, brutal, horrible story that concerned this little boy that everybody around him, after it happened, wanted one thing. Justice. They wanted justice. And they were trying in every way possible they could to seek justice. I think of another time where our criminal justice system tried to seek justice and then justice didn't happen. One of the fascinations with me is, I enjoy court cases, and one of the court cases, I think I've mentioned this before in previous messages, that is always sort of given a fascination is the O.J. Simpson trial. And I think it's given a fascination to me because he got away with it. And I've done a lot of research into that and watched a lot of things and different takes on people from that whole case. And he got away. And in that instance, justice could not be done. And I think it brings a conclusion to this, that we live in a time where everybody wants to cry for justice. Everybody wants justice. They demand justice. But also, I think it brings to a conclusion that human justice is severely inadequate. Human justice is severely inadequate. We read and talked about a story in the book of Judges last week about how a guy who thought he deserved the throne and deserved the recognition by his father's family, convinced a bunch of other people in a neighboring city to give them their money so he could hire mercenaries, and he went and murdered and slaughtered, one by one, his own brothers. 70 of them. 69, at least. And then the one escapee brother came and gave a story and then told about how justice will be done. And so this is God's justice against wicked authority. the story of Abimelech part 2. So we looked at Abimelech's wickedness. Now we're going to look at how God's justice plays into part here. Let's begin reading in chapter number 9. I'm in Matthew. Oh my goodness. All right. Judges. You guys are always there before me. All right. Judges chapter 9 and we'll begin reading in verse number 22. Judges 9 and we'll begin reading verse number 22. After Abimelech had reigned, over Israel three years, God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. And the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech. that the crime done to the seventy sons of Jeroboam might be settled, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brothers. And the men of Shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who passed by them along that way. And it was told Abimelech." Gaal, the son of Ebed, came with his brothers and went over to Shechem, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. So they went out into the fields, and gathered grapes from their vineyards, and trod them, and made merry. And they went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech. Then Gaal, the son of Ebed, said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem? that we should serve him. Is he not the son of Jeroboam, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor, the father of Shechem. But why should we serve him? If only these people were under my authority, then I would remove Abimelech." So he said to Abimelech, increase your army and come out. When Zebul, the ruler of the city, heard the words of Gaal, the son of Ebed, his anger was aroused, and he sent messengers to Abimelech, secretly saying, Take note! Gaal, the son of Ebed, and his brothers have come to Shechem, and here they are fortifying the city against you. Now therefore, get up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field. And it shall be as soon as the sun is up in the morning that you shall rise early and rush upon the city. And when he and the people who are with him come out against you, you may then do to them as you find opportunity. So Abimelech and all the people who were with him rose by night and lay in wait against Shechem and four companies. When Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood in the entrance to the city gate, Abimelech and the people who were with him rose from lying in wait. And when Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, Look, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains. But Zabul said to him, I'm sorry, this part right here makes me laugh because here's the guy that set it up. I'm getting into my exposition a little bit, but here's the guy that set it up. And he's like, no, that's not what you're seeing. It cracks me up. He says, there's people coming down from the mountains. But Zabul said to him, you see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men. Verse 37, So Gaal spoke again and said, See, people are coming down from the center of the land, and another company is coming from the diviner's terrament tree. Then Zebul said to him, Where indeed is your mouth now, with which you said, Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? Are not these the people whom you despise? Go out, if you will, and fight with them now. So Gaal went out, leading the men of Shechem, and fought with Abimelech. And Abimelech chased him, and he fled from him. And many fell wounded to the very entrance of the gate. Then Abimelech dwelt at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, so that they would not dwell in Shechem. And it came about on the next day that the people went out into the field, and they told Abimelech. So he took his people, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the field. And he looked, and there were the people coming out of the city, and he rose against them and attacked them. Then Abimelech and the company that was with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, and the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and killed them. So Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He took the city and killed the people who were in it, and he demolished the city and sowed it with salt." when all the men of the tower of Shechem had heard that, they entered the stronghold of the temple of the god of Barith. And it was told Abimelech that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. Then Abimelech went up to Mount Zalman, he and all the people who were with him. And Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a bough from the trees, and took it, and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, What you have seen me do, make haste, and do as I have done. So each of the people likewise cut down his own bough, and followed Abimelech, and put them against the stronghold, and set the stronghold on fire above them, so that all the people of the towers of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women. Then Abimelech went to Thebes, and he camped against Thebes and took it. But there was a strong tower in the city, and all the men and women, all the people of the city fled there and shut themselves in, and they went up to the top of the tower. So Abimelech came as far as the tower and fought against it. And he drew near the door of the tower to burn it with fire, but a certain woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. Then he called quickly to the young man, his armor-bearer, and said to him, Draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me, O woman, kill him. So this young man thrust him through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed, every man to his Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers, and all the evil of the men of Shechem. God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jeroboam." We want to read the next five verses of chapter 10. After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola, the son of Pua, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar, and he dwelt in Shamir in the mountains of Ephraim. He judged Israel twenty-three years and died and was buried in Shamir. After him arose Jair, a Gileadite, and he judged Israel twenty-two years. Now he had 30 sons who rode on 30 donkeys, and he also had 30 towns, which are called Havoth-Jair, to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. And Jair died, and was buried, and came on." So God's justice against wicked authority, the story of Abimelech II. So we've already sort of went past where we begin in this chapter. Jotham had just declared the curse His curse on Abimelech, on the people of Shechem. And so beginning in verse 22, we immediately get into that. And so the first point we have covers verses 22 through 25, which is God's judgment on Abimelech. I want to look closely at these verses and then we'll cover the story. But Abimelech became a tyrant. I don't think that was hard to see. Whenever you even see how he took his quote-unquote throne, it was hard to see that this guy was a tyrant to begin with. But that's what he was. He did not live in Shechem either. He lived in Aruma, which was about five miles southeast of Shechem. But we have something in these first 30 verses that I think is very important because in our passage we learn some things. I think we learn some things about God, and I think we learn some things about man. And I think those are very important for our everyday life. I was counseling a couple and working mainly with the husbands, some of the issues that the husband has going on, and he was explaining how he believes that he knows, has a lot of knowledge, but he's just not sure if he believes it because it doesn't really carry out into his behavior. So I asked him, I said, what is one thing that you do believe? And he said, well, I believe the gospel. I said, okay, well, define the gospel for me. What is the gospel? He said, well, that Jesus came to this earth, lived a sinless life, died, was buried, rose again for our sins according to the scriptures. I mean, he just laid it right out there. And if we repent and believe, we can partake in his salvation. I was like, okay. I said, you believe that? He said, yeah. And I said, OK. I said, he said, I believe it in my heart and I believe it in my mind. I was like, OK. I said, why? Why do you believe that? If you're saying that you're having issues with what you have knowledge of about Bible doctrine and theology and there's a disconnect with whether you think you believe it and you're rock solid on that, this is one thing you do believe. Why do you believe it? And it took him a minute. Because he said, I said, don't tell me what you think I want to hear. I said, tell me what you really got going on inside. He was like, so after a while he said, I think I believe it because if I don't, God will be mad at me. I said, aha, I believe we found an issue. He said, what? I said, because you have a distorted view of God. I said that with your distorted view of God, if your view of God and your belief on God is wrong, then your view of man or yourself is going to be distorted as well, which then causes the relationships in your life then to have problems as well because the way you view those relationships is distorted. It all starts with how you're viewing God. And so when we approach this passage, that we're covering today. Don't just look at it as some obscure Old Testament story. By the way, let me ask this. How many of you have ever heard this story before? Of Abimelech and the stone crushing his head? I'll be honest with you guys, I'd never heard it before. There's a lot that I know in the Bible, okay, but when I came to the story as I'm coming to this verse by verse, I was like, I've never seen that before. That is a really interesting story. It's not just some obscure story in the Old Testament with people whose names are hard to pronounce. This is a story that teaches us things about God and it teaches us things about man that if we understand those things can help us in our everyday life. So, first of all, we see God's judgment on Abimelech. What does this teach us about God? First of all, I believe it teaches us that God is patient. Look at verse 22. Verse number 22. After Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years. Now, had Abimelech done something very, very wicked, Yes, so wicked that Jotham was willing to risk his life to call out the city of Shechem. I mean, we were talking in our small group on Wednesday night about suffering and things that maybe we get our alignment off of God that if something was removed from us, it would reveal that maybe our view is not quite right. What would be that one thing that maybe that could be? And the answer that came up was family. What if you had faith? We love family. We love our family. Imagine if somebody killed all of your siblings. Murdered your siblings. Imagine that someone was in your own family. All right? Abimelech had done something very, very wicked for his own selfish gain. If that happened in our society, you talk about cancel culture on steroids. Okay? This would be, we must have justice. We must have his head right now. Now, there are many times where God's justice and God's patience is really exemplified a lot longer than three years, right? I mean, think about our own sin. Think about the sin and depravity of mankind from the time of creation and how many years God has been patient with those that have blasphemed and rejected His name. God is patient because Abimelech reigned three years. We wouldn't be so patient, would we? We'd want this guy answering for it right away. We'd start building a coalition, getting the nations around us. You can't let this stand. Stop trade routes with him. I mean, we would do whatever we could to make sure justice was enacted. But what does this teach us? Is God a God of justice? Yes. Does his patience inflict on his accurate justice? No. That's going to teach us something about how we view these attributes, but we'll get to there. Next, I believe the next few verses point out that God is just. God is just. Look at verse 23. God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem. And the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, that this crime done to the seventy sons of Jeroboam, or Gideon, might be settled, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who aided him in the killing of his brothers. So what does God do? The interesting thing is that God sends, the New King James puts it, ill will. Now, number one, this teaches us that God's way of exacting His justice is not our ways. We probably would not have done it this way. We probably would not have thought about doing it this way. But what did God do as far as enacting His justice on this situation? He sent a, I believe the ESV says, evil spirit. KJV says that too. Evil spirit. He sends an evil spirit. Now that actually brings up some questions for us as well. What is an evil spirit and what is this that God is sending this evil spirit? What does that tell us about God? Is God sending evil spirits now? Why would God do such a thing? The evil spirit or the ill will, agent or agency through which Yahweh achieves this end is identified in the Hebrew as ruach ra'ah. Translated, spirit of ill will in the New King James or evil spirit in the King James or ESV. To understand the meaning of the phrase ruach ra'ah, two considerations must be borne in mind. Number one, the Hebrew word ra'ah can have two meanings. One is moral malignancy, meaning a moral evil. Is that what we're laying at the feet of God, that His sending this then constitutes us to say that God is somehow morally evil? Or experiential misfortune or unfortunate conditions? The other point is that in each of the four contexts that this phrase occurs, the spirit produces negative and destructive effects upon the object, that is, unfortunate conditions. Therefore, I believe that the understanding of this evil spirit or ill will means that it is sending unproprietous conditions or unfortunate misfortune. In this passage, the identity of the Ruach remains vague and its role is clearly subservient to Yahweh. One thing it tells us is that the calamity that is brought upon them is ordained by God. That's hard to swallow, isn't it? Because what did we just get through singing? whatever my God ordains is. Now, you meditate on that this afternoon and you will have some issues with God, probably. Wait a second, God. Does this mean this and this mean... Yeah. Can I tell you something? That's okay for you to think that because theologians have wrestled on this issue for 2,000 years and debated it as well. So there is healthy tension in our theology that we get from scripture. But I believe this is what it is teaching. Number two, God's way of exacting justice is always appropriate. God's ways of exacting justice is always appropriate. The desired method that he used in this situation was exactly appropriate. And the method that he uses today to carry out his justice is appropriate. Number three, God's way of exacting justice is always enough. God's ways of exacting justice is always enough. Can I say this? This is why we have a biblical standard for how we seek justice. And that is that we don't pronounce judgment or that we are not to pronounce judgment on the situation without two or three witnesses, as is mentioned, not just in the Old Testament, but the New Testament. And somebody may say, well, we can't get justice because sometimes those situations in cases of abuse or maybe even rape aren't there. That's hard. That's difficult. But you know what, there's one thing that I think sometimes as believers, and I know the world's not gonna understand this, but as believers we have to understand that God's justice is always enough. And sometimes our justice is severely inadequate and we can't get to it. And we have to trust in God. to handle that injustice. Because it may not happen in this life, but in eternity, there's nothing that I think any human could come up with that is a harsher punishment than what God can deal out. And listen, I say that from a position of someone who is very, very sympathetic to those who have been abused and in those situations. So please understand my heart in that. Number four, God always exacts justice on the deserving parties. Look at verse 23. He sent the Spirit between two parties, Abimelech and who? The men of Shechem. which reveals to us what? That even though Abimelech may have manipulated or tricked or deceived the men of Shechem, the men of Shechem still had blame, still had guilt. And so God brought that on them as well. So this brings us to the sort of the meat of the story in number two, Gaal's revolt of Abimelech in verses 26 through 41. First you have this guy Gaal's drunken reveling. I call him the fool. So this guy comes in. Let me run through the story real quick. This guy comes in And he's actually not even from Shechem either. He comes into Shechem and he starts talking to the guys. This is three years. You've had three years with Abimelech. You don't like him. Has he been a great king? No. I understand you guys made a mistake. It's not too late to correct that mistake. He said, I'll tell you what, I'll bring my guys over, we'll have a party, set it up. And so they go out into the vineyard. The Bible says they go out into their fields, and they bring out their vineyards, and they create a big, massive party, and they have all these things, and they have lots of wine, and so everybody's there doing their thing and getting drunk. And then, Gaal, in his drunken reveling, then begins to give his speech. And he gives his speech, and he says, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jeroboam or Gideon, and is not Zebul his officer?" What is he saying? Remember what Abimelech said to them, which is the reason why they should follow Abimelech? My mother was one of your people. What is the reason Goal comes and says you shouldn't follow him? His daddy was Gideon. He wasn't a Shechemite. And it's funny how they're playing on both issues and now that they don't like their nests that they've built for themselves. And so Gaal's given this thing and he says, by the way, he's given you Zebul, you don't like Zebul. And I don't know this for a fact, but I almost imagine Zebul definitely knew what was saying. I almost wonder if he was sitting or standing over in a corner just taking it all in. Maybe he hadn't partaken so much of the drinking and he was completely sober-minded at the count based on what he does later. So he does all these things, and he tells them, in his drunkenness, he says, if Abimelech was out there, I'd tell him to, what is the Bible says? He says, increase your army and come out. What does that mean? Basically, what he's saying is, get every soldier you got and meet us on the battlefield and we'll take you. That's what he was saying. Big high talk when you're amongst your friends and the big school bully's not there, right? And that's what he was saying, and Zebul's just taking it in. Yep, yep, yep. After all his little speech was over, Zebul goes and finds a messenger and he says, hey, come here. And he writes out a note. This is Abimelech, this guy Ga'al's come in, he's swayed them into Shechem, they're planning this, here's what you need to do. Bring your army, hide in the fields, and when morning comes, attack the city. Because they're already getting prepared, they're ready for this. Go ahead and take them out now. Messenger takes the note to Abimelech and Abimelech says, all right, guys, that's what we're doing. And so Abimelech, though, I have this Abimelech's violent reaction and I call him the wicked because we see at the very get-go we think, oh, he's just going out there to defeat Gaul. It's just a military reaction from the leader. But that's not what happens. This guy gets a bloodlust. He gets a bloodlust, and He is out just for carnage. Just for carnage. So, this is what happens up to verse 41, and He does that. Now, okay, this is one of the things that I thought was interesting. Whenever Gaal wakes up, probably with a hangover, goes out and looks, and he sees the, he said to Zebul, he said, look, people coming down, verse 36, coming down from the tops of the mountains. But Zebul said to him, ah, you see the shadows of the mountains as if they were man. Gaal says, ah, ah, this, this, Soldiers are here! Soldiers are here!" And Zebul said, no it's not, you're just seeing things. That's the shadows. And Ga'al goes, nope, nope, that's soldiers, they're here! And he goes, and Zebul comes up, and he's not a good character either, but he comes up and I feel like maybe if I was seeing this situation play out in my mind, Zebul just walks up behind him and just whispers in his ear, where's your big talk now? They're here. Why don't you get your army and go out there and meet him? I mean, he's setting up this entire situation, and now he's got Gaul playing to his tune. And so Gaul just freaks out. Yep, Gaul gets the whole soldier, and they go out there, and of course, they lose. So then the next, starting in verse 42, we see the fury of Abimelech. The fury of Abimelech. And I have this, what does this teach us about man? What does this teach us about man? Biblical anthropology, if you want the technical term. What does this teach us about man? First of all, I think it teaches us that man is violent because after he defeats, soundly defeats Gaal, he can set things up back the way that they were and go on being a king. But he refuses to do that. No, he either wants to punish them or he's not even so concerned about punishment. He just wants carnage, bloodlust. Look at verse 42. Abimelech dwelt at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers so that they would not dwell in Shechem." So they soundly defeated Gaal, and it came to pass on the next day, I don't know if Abimelech was stewing on this and he just had enough, the people went out into the field and they told Abimelech. The people of Shechem thought it was over. So these are not soldiers. These are common farmers and their families going out. Well, it's all over. We got to get back to work. We got to go tend the fields. They go out. They're defenseless. And as soldiers say, hey, tell Abimelech the people of the city are coming out into the field. Verse 43, So he took his people, divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the field. And he looked, and there were people coming out of the city, and he rose against them and attacked them. He slaughtered and murdered these defenseless citizens of this city. And he rushed, verse 44, and with them rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the gate of the city, and the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the fields and killed them. Verse 45, so Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he took the city and killed the people who were in it, and he demolished the city and sowed it with salt. This was an ancient sort of message that they would send. that whenever they had taken something and they had defeated the city and they wanted to give a sign that this was going to be laying in ruins and destruction and it was just sort of like a, we would say it in our vernacular today, salt in the wound. Right? He just wanted to rub their face in it. He just wanted to say, I have utterly destroyed you and you will never rebuild. So what they would do is they take salt and they would spread it on the ground. And it was a sign or a symbol to say, you're never coming back. I mean, that sign right there showed he had no interest in the city anymore. He just wanted complete destruction. Man is violent. Man is vengeful. Number three, man is relentless at his pursuit of wickedness. Look at verse 48. See, they retreat to this tower. Towers were signs of power and safety. They were difficult. If somebody could hold up in a tower, they were difficult to fight, even for a strong army. So Bimelech had to come up with a way to defeat this tower. Not because this was a strong military fortification that was there. These were families. Men, women, stuck there. And he wanted them dead. So he had to start thinking, how are we going to get them out to kill them? And what does he do? His creativity starts. And this is why I said man is relentless at his pursuit of wickedness. And how can we not admit to this today? Because when we look at our culture today, we look at so many different ways man has created, or man has come up with, that they can sin. Man is innovative when it comes to getting at his sinful, wicked desires. And so what does he do? Abimelech goes and he says, all right guys, follow me. Gets all of his soldiers, chops down some trees, chops down some brush, as much as one man could hold, and then they just surround the place. And they light it on fire. Won't burn them out. And then verse number 49, at the end of verse 49, so that all the people of the tower of Shechem died, about a thousand men and women. Next, we have the death of Abimelech in verses 50 through 57. Verse 50, he doesn't stop there. Then he goes to this place called Thebes, and he's doing the exact same thing at Thebes. And he gets them, and these people hold back, and they come to their tower, and they're holding, and they're trying to survive this violent, insane thirst that this guy will not quit, that will not be quenched, and so he's wanting to slaughter all of these people in this city. Verse 53, but a certain woman. I love the language of the Bible. A certain woman. What does that mean? It was the woman that God chose. It was the woman that God chose. The upper millstone. She grabs, it says, an upper millstone. She drops an upper millstone on Abimelech's head and crushed his skull. This great military leader, this great warrior, as he would call himself, killing men and women and children, just like a plague running through these cities. A woman drops a rock on his The upper millstone was an easily held stone about 10 inches long that rode back and forth over the larger lower millstone as the grain was crushed." So he was killed. And what does he do? In his pride, he says, hey, stab me with your sword so it's not said that a woman killed me. Of course, that is exactly how history records it. Later on in 1 Samuel, he's mentioned, and it's mentioned that he was killed by a woman with a millstone. That's what it goes down in history as. Daniel Bloch writes in his exegetical commentary, he says, the man who came to prominence by bragging about his relationship to a woman is ended by a woman. Such is the way when man's pride and arrogance gets in the way that God has ways of abasing him. So, we have the sort of addendum in verses 56 and 57. What does this tell us? This is not hard to figure out. God's justice was done. Justice for what? For the murder of His family. Verse 57, And all the evil of the men of Shechem, God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jeroboam. The men of Shechem were punished as well for their part to play in it. God's justice took place. God's justice took place. We did read the first five verses of chapter 10 because they are what is considered the two minor judges. We could have covered this next time or covered it at the end. There's really not a great place to fit this in, but the Bible for some reason decides to just tell us real quickly about two people. And I wanted to put it on today because we're talking about wrapping up the story of this man Abimelech. And it says that this is what happens after Abimelech. Verse 1 of chapter 10. After Abimelech there arose to save Israel. Now what did they just have with Abimelech? Wickedness, oppression, a tyrant, mass murder by the government. And after Abimelech, God rose up these two people to save them. We're not told details. We don't know. I read a lot of speculation. A lot of speculation. But we don't know. These are the second and third minor judges. The first one that we have already talked about was Shamgar and considered minor by the space that is given to him. The first one is this person Tola who is from the tribe of Issachar and he reigned 23 years and died. And then you have Jair. who obviously was wealthy, who had more than one wife because he had 30 sons. Those 30 sons each had donkeys to ride. And then he was able to, some commentators believe that based on this writing that says that it was still called Havath-Shair, which is the area that he ruled over, that this sort of indicates that he was a good ruler. Because what he established actually stayed in place after he died and those sort of government cities that he had under his sons were actually being run well because they were still there. And so I don't know if that's the case. That's what some believe that indicates with the way that his 30 sons then ran those 30 cities and called it Havoth. Havoth-Jair just simply means the city of Jair or the cities of Jair. And then he died. What do we get out of this? 45 years of peace after these three years of wickedness. And I just wrote this down. God's grace. God's grace. Did Israel deserve it? No. They went to Abimelech because they were worshiping the Canaanite gods. They didn't deserve that grace. But God's grace was brought to Israel after the wickedness of Abimelech. They enjoyed 45 years of peace and prosperity, but didn't take time to thank the Lord for what He had done for them. So when we get back in the chapter 10, we're going to see Israel's reaction after God had given them this 45 years of peace. But real quickly, before we start our meal, let's look at a couple of points of application. Number one, as we look through this story, I think we see God is in control of Israelite affairs, whether or not they like it or acknowledge it. God is in control whether we like it or acknowledge it. Can I say this? God is in control whether the world likes it or acknowledges it. God is in control whether the church likes it or acknowledges it. This has many implications. Many implications. Because God is not just in control of the good that comes, that works out in our favor, the successes. This also means that God is in control of the suffering and the persecution. When we think of our dear brothers that are in Canada, They're being severely persecuted by the government up there. Tim Stephens, Pastor Stephens, Pastor Coates. Their congregation being hidden. Because if the government finds out, they'd arrest their pastor again. God's in control of that. Whatever my God ordains is right. God operates on the basis of fairness and honesty, doing what is right, and giving people what they have earned. This is what I was sort of coming to at the beginning, I'm going to come back around to. The interesting thing is that I want to say the world, but so many times it seems that we do the same thing. And that is we have defined justice, fairness, and honesty in our terms. We want to declare that what God has done is either not just or not fair based on the way we define that. We think about this too with the aspect of love, and we say that some certain action or some certain thing is not necessarily loving, but we may need to step back and consider our own blindness because are we interpreting the definition of love by our definition of love or God's definition? Because when we look and we try to discern whether God's doings or dealings with someone or some people is just or fair, they are. Because He sets the rules. He defines what is fair and just. And He decides what is loving. And that is something that is very important for us to remember. And as we see in this story, what happens? God does pay justice. And they got what they earned. In fact, Bloch says this, And this should be something that we should comfort those who have been severely hurt and done wrong to. that if we're speaking to them and they have a past situation of abuse or even a rape or that kind of situation, that we can comfort them for because our God is a God of retribution. And He does not let it go undone. Oh, we may not see it. It may not happen in this time, in our lifetime, in this little realm we call life, but eternity will hold the measure of it. Number three, the sins of the Father does have an effect on the life of the Son. Gideon made many mistakes. And those mistakes turned into Abimelech. Now, is Abimelech responsible for his decisions? Absolutely. But this should go for us and we could look at the way life is even in our own lives and see how we are affected by those who have come before. We are affected by our parents. I am at the place now where I think, What of my sins are gonna be struggles for my children when they get older? And what am I doing to help that? What am I doing to work at that? What am I doing to teach them in those opportune moments that those things when daddy did sin, that is not something that he is proud of? or that he needs their forgiveness to go on. And then lastly, the essence of idolatry is enjoying God's gifts, but giving adoration and gratitude to another. You ever done this? You did something for someone and you wanted to make sure that you, you actually took great pains to make sure that you stayed anonymous in it. And then whenever that gift or that thing that happened to them that you had taken care of, that you knew was going to be a blessing to them, happened, they go around giving credit to someone that you know didn't have anything to do with it. Now you say in your heart, no, I wanted it to be anonymous. But inside there is a piece of you that says, it wasn't them. They didn't have anything to do with it. In those moments, I think that we can understand a little bit of what God understands as idolatry. As you think about what are some of the gifts of God, our earth, our air to breathe, life, sustenance to live on, and how many people walk this earth And either ignore, do not recognize, or give the honor and praise to something else. Please do not let it be said of his own people. Not the church. Not us. Not me. And that comes and flows out of a heart of gratitude. A heart of thankfulness. I know I've been long this morning. I apologize. And many of you are like, we can smell the food out there. So we'll finish this morning and we will have a song, we'll have a word of prayer and then we'll be dismissed and we'll turn this over into the fellowship hall for a minute. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us this morning. We thank you for the many blessings that you've given us, the freedom to come and worship you and lift up you. We thank you for the lessons that we have learned from your word. We thank you for being a God that is patient, a God that is just, Father, we rely on that in times where we have experienced the unjustness of someone else. We know that we can't exact that, but you do and you can. We pray for our brothers and sisters in other countries across the world that are experiencing persecution. We here in Tennessee on June 27th are asking you that you will encourage their hearts this morning wherever they may be or find themselves. Our hearts go to those congregations who cannot let others know where they are meeting. We pray for them. We pray for Pastor Stevens. We pray for Pastor Coates. We pray for all the other pastors that are faithfully shepherding their people during these things, these times where government intrusion has tried to stop that. We pray now, Father, for the time of fellowship that we're going to have. We pray that it glorifies and honors you. We thank you for all those that had a part in preparing it. We ask that it will bless us and that everything is done. We'll glorify your name. We love you and give you praise in Jesus' name. Amen.