Judges 9

I don't want to get too political here, especially in such a volatile election year, but I'm sure most of you are aware by now of Brexit (i.e., Great Britain's departure from the European Union). Although the actual exit is not yet a fait accompli, and its full ramifications have yet to manifest themselves, one of the most telling facts is how many British people looked up what the European Union was--after they had voted to leave it. One almost wants to say to those folks, "Well, you're going to get what you asked for…"

So too did the people of Shechem get what they asked for, but it didn't take them long to realize just what they had gotten their sorry selves into. Abimelek, one of Gideon's seventy sons, wants to establish himself as an autocrat of the Shechem region because he's "related" to them (verse 2). "OK!" say the people of Shechem with eager, dazzled eyes, after which Abimelek proceeds to promptly murder all 70 of his brothers. Not only that, but he offers them as human sacrifices on an offering stone (verse 5). Murdering your siblings is bad enough, but to do so on an offering stone is beyond despicable. He also surrounds himself with "reckless scoundrels" (verse 4), as the NIV colorfully puts it, though I think that's a poor choice of words. "Scoundrel" calls to mind a fellow who is dishonest, yes, but also rakish as well--kind of like Han Solo from Star Wars or Captain Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly. Abimelek's flunkies probably committed much more heinous crimes than shooting Greedo first.

Jotham, Abimelek's sole surviving brother, takes the trouble to literally shout from a mountaintop how imbecilic the people of Shechem are to follow his fratricidal brother. After telling an evocative (and, as it will turn out, prophetic) parable, he turns tail, never to be heard from again. But perhaps the Shechemites take Jotham's words to heart, for God soon stirs up discontent in their fickle hearts. So when a fellow named Gaal appears to challenge Abimelek's rule, the people are only too ready to support him. Although Gaal ultimately fails, I do like the exchange he has with Zebul, Abimelek's lackey. When Gaal sees Abimelek's troops marching down from the mountains, Zebul disingenuously dismisses them as shadows (verse 36). Gaal probably thinks, "Just how dumb do you think I am?"--forcing Zebul to backpedal and challenge Gaal to confront the army, using the charmingly colloquial phrase, "Where is your big talk now?" (verse 38).

Abimelek squelches the first few uprisings, burning down a tower for good measure. But when he tries to take the same tack again with a different tower, a woman finally does what someone in the first tower with a modicum of logic should have done: She drops a millstone on Abimelek's wretched head (verse 53). Such an ignominious end befits a man so crazed for control that he murdered all but one of his multitudinous brothers. Many Shechemites died at the hands of the man they put into power, meaning that no one really came out on top in this story. Let's just hope that Brexit doesn't cause some tyrant to take over Britain until a woman decides to drop a stale mincemeat pie on his head from atop Big Ben.