Judges chapter 9 and verse 50. Then went Abimelech to Thebes,
and camped against Thebes, and took it. But there was a strong
tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and
all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to
the top of the tower. And Abimelech came unto the tower,
and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower
to burn it with fire. and a certain woman cast a piece
of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to break his skull. Then he called hastily unto the
young man, his armour-bearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword
and slay me, that men say not of me, a woman slew him. And his young man thrust him
through, and he died. And when the men of Israel saw
that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place. Thus God rendered the wickedness
of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy
brethren. And all the evil of the men of
Shechem did God render upon their heads. And upon them came the
curse of Jotham, the son of Jerubael. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. We have been looking at the judges
whom God raised up at various times over the space of several
hundred years to deliver Israel from their enemies and lead the
people with spiritual wisdom and judgment from the Lord. Most of these judges that we've
been thinking about were men. There was one woman that we spoke
about, a lady called Deborah, and she is named. And these judges
judged during difficult times. And those judges that we've been
thinking about, they led their people in battle against the
oppressors of the children of Israel. There was a man called
Othniel who fought against the king of Mesopotamia. Ehud also
fought against Moab and Amun, the Moabites and the Ammonites. A man called Shamgar fought against
the Philistines. Deborah, as we mentioned, fought
against the Canaanites. And Gideon, he fought against
the Midianites and the Amalekites and the Children of the East. And while these judges were successful
in their day, the recurring lesson is that the Children of Israel
were never content to continue worshipping the Lord. They were
never content to worship God alone, but they were always ready
to backslide and to worship the false gods and idols of the nations
that lived amongst them and lived around them. This reminds us that the true
spiritual Israel, even though we've been speaking about the
children of Israel, the 12 tribes, the true spiritual Israel was
always still just a small remnant people amongst the greater number
of the nation Israel and the 12 tribes. We must not confuse
the whole nation with the true spiritual remnant or think that
Old Testament Israel were all followers of God and all men
and women of faith. That was never the case. The
Lord's spiritual kingdom has always been small and whether
from outside forces like the foreign nations, the Midianites
and the Canaanites and the Ammonites and the Philistines and the Amalekites,
whether these neighbouring nations or opposition from within their
own people, the idolatry and the false worship. We find that
the Lord's true people, the remnant people, the elect people, The
true Israel have always been small and they have always faced
opposition from the powers of evil. Now, the past few weeks
we've been speaking about Gideon and following Gideon's death,
one of his sons, he had 70 sons, one of his sons, a man called
Abimelech, seized power and ruled, we're told, for three years in
at least part of Israel. So there was at least a part
of Israel made this man king over them or ruler over them. I don't think he was a true king,
I think he was a usurper, but he seized power anyway. and he
is to us an example of evil. Abimelech was an evil king and
an evil man. He was vicious, a vicious man
who murdered all his brothers, 70 in number, with the exception
of the youngest, a boy, a child called Jotham. And this young
man, he was able to hide when Abimelech slew all his other
brothers. We're told on one rock, so it
was a massacre. He massacred his own family in
order to seize power and control and rule in the land. And at
the end of three years, Abimelech's original supporters rebelled
against him. And we read a few verses out
of the story. We didn't read very much, but
we read enough to see that Abimelech was able to put down this rebellion,
but it was a rebellion of rebels anyway. And these were not desirable
people in the first place. And Abimelech chased them into
a walled city. He stormed the city, he took
control of it and the people fled to a tower, perhaps somewhere
in the heart of the city and there they made their final stand. And he chased them right up to
the very door of this tower with the intention of burning down
the door order that he might gain access and we're told that
during the fight that took place a woman dropped a piece of millstone,
a hard hard rock from the top of the tower and it struck and
mortally wounded Abimelech. Abimelech knew that he was dying
He knew that he was a wicked man. He knew the testimony of
God from his own father. But Abimelech didn't try to make
peace with God. Rather, despite all of his sin,
it was still pride that ruled this man's life. And he ordered
his armour-bearer to kill him so that it would not be said
that he died at the hand of a woman. So that's the narrative that
we read about Abimelech. And I only mention that because
Abimelech is a little bit of a link to the next group of judges. And after Abimelech, we learn
of five more judges. These men were called Tola, Ger,
Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon, and there's next to absolutely no history
recorded about these men beyond the fact that they were judges. And this reminds us that there
was much that happened in Bible times about which there is no
record. But more importantly, it reminds
us that such things as are written in the word of God are written
for a purpose. They are recorded in order to
teach us about God's dealings with his people and his purpose
to gather men and women into his kingdom on earth. Throughout history, from the
very beginning, through this time of the judges, God has called
his elect to faith and salvation according to his plan of mercy
and according to his covenant of grace. And all through the
centuries, God was setting in place what was needed for the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ at the appointed time. So the fact that there is very
little recorded beyond the names of these five judges reminds
us that the history of grace is not the history of Israel. It's not the history of individuals. It's not the history of all the
judges, but it is the work of God in gathering his people to
himself by giving them faith and hope in Christ the Messiah. So even though these men are
not spoken of much, I think there are some lessons about the littleness
that is said. that we might draw upon at this
time. Here's what I want to leave with
you today. While the facts of the Bible are important, the
names and the places and the circumstances and the people
involved It is the message of Scripture that matters most. Now, the message cannot be independent
of the facts, and I'm not trying to make a contrast here, but
I am saying this, while all Scripture is important, And Paul tells
us that. Paul tells us in, he's speaking
to Timothy and he tells us in 2 Timothy 3, verse 16, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God and all scripture is profitable
for doctrine and for reproof and for correction and for instruction
in righteousness. It's all profitable to us. But
here's the point I'm making. People can know a lot about the
Bible. They can even memorise and be
able to quote large parts of it without ever truly understanding
the true purpose of Scripture. And the Apostle John tells us
what the purpose of Scripture is. He tells us in John chapter
20 verse 31, these are written that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have
life through his name. That's why these things are written,
that we might have life through the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've got a question. Do you have
spiritual life? Do you have spiritual life? John was speaking when he wrote
about this life, that we might have life through his name. He
was speaking about his own gospel, the things that he had written
in his own gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ. But just as he
spoke about nothing being added to scripture and nothing being
taken from scripture when he wrote his book of Revelation,
so What is said of one part of Holy
Scripture applies to it all. The things that are written in
the word of God are written that we might know the Lord Jesus
Christ and believe in him and might have life through his name. We love and we value the scriptures
from beginning to end but the power and the use of scripture
when rightly divided and properly interpreted is to point us to
Christ and lead us to the saviour. So the fact that these men, Tola,
Jer, Ibzan, Elon and Abdon are not spoken very much about isn't
important. We don't need to know their history.
We know sufficient in this scripture to lead us and point us to Christ. Here's another thing that we
might say about this matter. When I bring these stories, these
accounts, these little lessons to you week by week, it's my
purpose in bringing these passages, these histories, these accounts
of the Lord's people, it's my purpose to show you how God has
been at work in history accomplishing his purpose of grace and peace
in the hearts and lives of his people. It's not just a history
lesson. Hebrews, the book of Hebrews
tells us that Gideon was a man of faith and therefore Gideon
was an example to us. Abimelech, on the other hand,
who was Gideon's son, son of Jerubbael, he is a warning to
us. Abimelech was a murderous man,
a murderous creature, who slew his own brothers to achieve his
ambition. And perhaps some of those brothers
themselves had true faith. They were part of that spiritual
Israel that were part of the larger nation of Israel. If that is indeed the case, then
those brothers whom he slew are in heaven today enjoying the
presence of their true king, the Lord Jesus Christ. Abimelech,
on the other hand, is in hell today and he, for those three
years that he had as king before that woman took his life, For
those three years and the ambitions that he had, he has been in hell
ever since and will be for all eternity, separated from the
Lord Jesus Christ, separated from the joy of the Lord. Abimelech shows us that grace
and faith do not run in families. His father, Gideon was a believer
in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Abimelech was not. And children are not saved because
their parents are. We all need personally to know
the Lord as our saviour. We each must trust in the Lord
for ourselves in our own lives. And here's the third thing that
I want to just mention and then we will be through. Going back
to these five judges whose names we know but whose lives we don't
know anything about. Perhaps, perhaps Tola and Jair
and Ibzan and Elon and Abdon. Perhaps they lived in times that
were peaceful and there was nothing really memorable or important
to report about their lives. I kind of doubt that, but we
don't really know. But what we do know is this,
that during all the years of these men's lives, God did not
leave himself without a witness. God raised these men to serve
him and to judge Israel, the nation, at that time. For that
spiritual Israel that he was calling to himself, those who
were the elect amongst that people also, for those that were the
church in the Old Testament, whom God called to eternal life,
the true spiritual Israel of God. There was always a witness,
always a testimony, always a judge. Whether it was Judge Tola, Judge
Jair, Judge Ibzan, Judge Elon or Judge Abdon, there was always
a testimony, there was always a preacher, there was always
a judge to point them to Christ and to be an encouragement for
the faith that had been implanted in their souls. We don't know who wrote the book
of Judges. Maybe it was Samuel. We don't
know why he didn't write any more about these Judges than
he did. And maybe you think that it would
have been interesting to know some more things about the lives
that these Judges lived. I'm sure it would have been. but there is sufficient here
to lead us to Christ and that's what matters. If you don't trust
the Lord Jesus, why not? And if on judgment day you are
called to stand before Almighty God and you don't have a saviour
of your own, It won't be an excuse that there wasn't enough written
in the Bible about Tola and Jer and Ebzan and Elon and Abdon. The message of the gospel is
here and we are called to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and
by his name and his word and his works to find peace with
God. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us. Amen.