The History You Want to Forget

 Judges 9:26 And Gaal the son of Ebed moved into Shechem with his relatives, and the leaders of Shechem put confidence in him. 27 And they went out into the field and gathered the grapes from their vineyards and trod them and held a festival; and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and reviled Abimelech. 28 And Gaal the son of Ebed said, “Who is Abimelech, and who are we of Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and is not Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem; but why should we serve him? 29 Would that this people were under my hand! Then I would remove Abimelech. I would say to Abimelech, ‘Increase your army, and come out.’”

Judges 9 contains a lesser-known account of the self-proclaimed king Abimelech. It is a twisted account of self-promotion, mass murder, failed revolt, and especially, the infiltration of idolatry.  It is a fitting account to follow what we observed in Gideon's rule at the end of yesterday's study. Because of the events of this chapter, the city of Shechem became a by-word for generations.  This chapter shows how far people can stray when they turn from God to idols and worldly leaders. May we not contribute to a history we regret.