Judges 9:7-21

Hey, hey, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions. Today we're going to continue on with a story of Gideon through his two sons of Mimch whose name my father is king has talked the people into Sheckchum, letting him be a ruler. And what's going to happen with his brother Jotham, who's stolen away, who's run away, he's escaped the onslaught, the murder of all of his brothers. How will this resolve itself? Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's word. Father, we thank you so much privilege it is to get to read your word. Lord, it is such a delight. Even though there are difficult things, even though so often your word shows us how we fail, where we're wrong, how easily it is for our hearts to get pulled aside to the right and to the left and go after our own ways. God, please help us, instruct us, teach us how we are not to go the ways that we should in Jesus's name. Amen. Here we go. We're at Judges 9 beginning at verse 7. Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Garazim and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them, "Listen to me, you men of Sheckchham, that God may listen to you." The trees on once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, "Reign over us." But the olive tree said to them, "Did I cease giving my oil which with which they honor God and men and go and sway over trees?" Then the tree said to the fig tree, "You come and reign over us." But the fig tree said to them, "Should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit and go to sway over trees?" Then the tree said to the vine, "You come and reign over us." The vine said to them, "Could I cease my new wine which cheers both God and men and go to sway over trees?" Then all the trees said to the bramble, "You come and reign over us." And the bramble said to the trees, "If in truth you anoint me as king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade. But if not, let fire come out from out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon." Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Aimilec king, and if you have dwelt or and if you have dealt well with Jerubal and his house, and have done to him as he deserves, for my father fought for, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hands of Midian. But you have risen up against my father's house this day, and killed his 70 sons on one stone, and made Aimilec the son of his female servant, king over the men of Sheckchham, because he is your brother. If then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubal and with his house this day, then rejoice in Aimilec, and let him go also rejoice in you. If not, let fire come from Aimilec and devour the men of Sheckchham and Beth Milo. And let fire come from the men of Sheckchham and from Beth Milo and devour Aimilec. And Jotham ran away and fled. He went to Bior or to Beir and dwelt there for fear of Aimilec his brother. We'll stop there and we'll pick up the rest tomorrow. But we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? So, what is this about? Well, this is remember what's gone on beforehand. Gideon, also named Drewal, he's he reigns for a period of time. Well, doesn't actually reign, although he's kind of leading. They tried to make him king and he said, "No, I'm not going to be king. The Lord's going to be your king." And yet, he makes his lenon ephod. He leads the people astray. They commit the spiritual adultery. And he has one of his sons from a concubine and names that boy Aimilec. Aimilec, my father, king. And so he do last time. He went and he made a treaty with the people of Sheckchum. And and as he's there, check him. He they give him money and goes and assembles all of his brothers, slaughter them, murders them. 70, kills them all. Only Jotham thieves. This whole idea of like killing them on one stone, it's very possible that meant you almost as like this ritualistic sacrifice, right? This is a bloody, gory, ugly mess. And so Jotham is afraid, but he shows up. He shows up on the scene and he stands on top of Mount Garazim and lifted his voice and cried out, "Mount Garazim is full of significance. This mountain upon which the curses of the covenant were spoken for." Tells them there's this allegory that where trees go and they're trying to find a king and trying to find a trying to find a king. But he wants to be their king. Eventually they go to a bramble bush. What a bush. The cedars of Lebanon. You, you mighty men of Sheckchum. You've gone to a thorny ugly little bush full of pomp and makes it seem like you're going to get rest, right? Come and sit it in my shade. Bush don't have no much shade. Ramble bush. That's what you guys have done. Then he calls them to remembrance and he says, "Right, remember what my father did for you, saved you from Midian, did all these good things." So essentially what he says is like, "Hey, look, if you guys have done well, great. Rejoice in your king. But if you've not, there's going to come civil war. The men of Sheckchum are going to turn and they're going to hate Aimilec. And Aimilec's going to turn and he's going to hate you all." And he says, "Fire is going to come out of you all." Then he hightails it. Gets out of there, right? because he's afraid of a baby like and rightly so. He's watched his brothers get killed. He goes to beer the fear of his brother and we're going to find what happens coming after this. So this this is the part of this difficult story where somebody finally steps up and they this is wrong shouldn't have done. So, so that's really what's going on here is Jotham and his speech to the people of Sheckchum. So, what's the best verse, right? Be what's the best verse in my Bible? I have verse 20 underlined. And what are we called to do? The calling. How does it show us the covenant of grace or to point us to Jesus Christ? Right. Well, Abimc is nothing like Jesus. Aimilec is nothing like what God's anointed king was supposed to be like. The Lord himself was supposed to be king. And this is what we find when people are power hungry, when people are are so drunk with their own passions for their own authority, they're willing to kill people, do anything necessary to just grab hold of the reigns. Going to cause civil war, causes heartache, causes corruption. This is not the way God's people were. Go in Samaria and Sheckchham. They don't want to be ruled by Rubel's Gideon's other boys or their family member. Instead, nepotra or rules the day. How often how often though do we use shoes and human reasoning ends up fighting us? How often do we instead of being patient for the Lord's often desire things our way to be done we want and then we end up finding you ruined things way of sin it's our normal way I'm no better than thee And in my heart every time I misuse any authority that God is also that same acts like him. We love justice. Wait on the all this is meant to stoke up in the viewers's hearts. We're reading Judges. There's got to be a better king. Got to be a better way than she that brought out the true. Father, we thank you so you have shown us in Christ your son. And God, we pray that we would please walk in your way. Keep us from following the desires of our own hearts. Father, please let us follow not some bramble bush that you Lord have given us king of kings, lord of lords, love and to follow. Jesus's name. May the Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace Christ. I'll see you. Bye.