I told you that Judges was hard to read, and chapter 9 is a case in point. 57 verses given to Judge #6, Abimelech. He doesn’t even lead them into battle. He just “rules” for three years after he kills 70 of his half-brothers:

[Abimelech] hired some reckless riffraff soldiers and they followed along after him. He went to his father’s house in Ophrah and killed his half brothers, the sons of Jerub-Baal—seventy men! And on one stone! The youngest, Jotham son of Jerub-Baal, managed to hide, the only survivor. (Judges 9.4, 5, MSG)

Abimelech is just a murdering scoundrel. Eventually, his own city, Shechem, turns against him, so he kills 1,000 of them by setting their tower on fire. His story ends in the next town, when, while attempting to burn down their tower, “some woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and crushed his skull.”

57 verses of mayhem. I’ve always wondered why the story was included in the sacred text in that much detail. What’s the point? What lesson are we supposed to learn?

I think it’s in the “Parable of the Trees,” told by Jotham, the one surviving son of Gideon, which starts this way:

Listen to me, leaders of Shechem. And let God listen to you! The trees set out one day to anoint a king for themselves. They said to Olive Tree, “Rule over us.” But Olive Tree told them, “Am I no longer good for making oil That gives glory to gods and men, and to be demoted to waving over trees?” (Judges 9.7 – 9, MSG)

The Olive Tree, the Fig Tree, and the Vine did not want to leave their productive work “to be demoted to waving over trees.” So the trees selected the useless tumbleweed.

The trees seemed to think that they could do useful work or they could pretend to lead – “to go waving over the trees.”

Once I turned down a position on the Adult Education Committee of a church. “I can either do adult education or I can sit on a committee and talk about adult education. I can’t do both.” Like the Olive Tree, I would have considered the committee position a demotion.

Abimelech exemplifies people who like positions as long as they don’t have to do anything. It’s been said, only half in jest, that anyone who aspires to be President of the United States should be disqualified for the job for that reason alone. It sometimes feels that in this country the only qualification for elected office is that one knows how to get elected.

Maybe I’m digressing…

But Jesus was clear on what leadership was supposed to be:

Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”…And when the ten heard it, they were indignant at the two brothers. But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20.20 – 28, ESV)

I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary. (John 10.11, MSG)