Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for the privilege of reading his Word in our own language, and ask him to teach our hearts rather than merely increase intellectual understanding.
Read
Scripture Passage
Judges 9:1-6
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Abimelech persuades his mother's relatives in Shechem to make him their ruler, uses money from Baal's temple to hire worthless men, murders his brothers, and makes himself king without God's call or anointing. His rule rests on human ambition, violence, and self-made authority.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
Judges 9:4, 6
Bryan explicitly says verses 4 and 6 are underlined in his Bible. They connect the corrupt means of Abimelech's rise—temple money and hired worthless men—with its result, his humanly engineered coronation at Shechem.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Reject self-made authority and follow Jesus, the true King chosen and anointed by the Father. Unlike Abimelech, Christ did not slaughter rivals to seize a crown; he obeyed perfectly and died for his people.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Alright, well good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Judges chapter 9. We're going to look at the first six verses. You ready to have some coffee? It's hot. You tell me. Yeah. Okay, so you don't want any coffee? I'm going to have to ask, though. I'm going to drink all your coffee after. Okay, well we're going to have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into Abimelech.
Let's have some coffee and get into God's Word. All right, Lord, we thank you so much for the blessing it is to get to read your word. It is a privilege that we have to have it in our own language and be able to understand it. But Father, we pray that we would not just understand it intellectually, but in our hearts. Lord, you would please teach us in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, here we go. Judges chapter nine, verses one through six.
So I'll read the first verse, Daniel, and you can read the second verse and then I'll read the rest. then Abimelech the son of Jerubal went to Shechem to his mother's brothers and spoke with them and with all the family of the house of his father of his mother's father saying please speak in the hearing of all the men of Shechem oops sorry you're supposed to read that The Shechem, which is better for you that all servants of the sons of Jeroboam reign over you, Remember that I am your own flesh and bone.
And his mother's brother spoke all these words concerning him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem. And their heart was inclined to follow Abimelech, for they said, he is our brother. So they gave him 70 shekels of silver from the temple of Bealperith, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men, and they followed him. Then he went to his father's house at Orpha. and killed his brothers, the 70 sons of Jerubal, on one stone. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubal, was left, because he hid himself. And all the men of Shechem gathered together at Beth Milo, and they went and made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem. Whew, well we got three questions. A, what is this? About B, what's the best for us to summarize C, what are we called to do? Alright, so what do you think this is about, Daniel?
Uh, that Drubalwell became king. Well, he wasn't king, right? Drubal is another word for the judge's name, Gideon. Right. And so Jerubal, Jerubal has a son. His name is Abimelech. Do you know what Abimelech means? Nope. My God is king. The people had tried to make Gideon king and he said, no, no, no, I won't be your king. But then later on named the son Abimelech. My dad is king. But now the son whose name Abimelech, the son of one of his concubines, what does he what does he do with the people of Shechem?
What does he ask them? To be his men. Yeah, right. Should they serve all of his brothers? He has like 70 brothers or 69 brothers. Or would they follow one? And what's the people of Shechem's answer? I forgot. Yeah, they said that they'll serve him, and they even give him a whole bunch of money, right? And what's he do with the money? He goes and he hires reckless men. Worthless and reckless men, and they follow him. And he goes down to his dad's household, down to Orpha. He finds all of his brothers, and what does he do with them? He murders all of them.
Except one. one of them hides right we'll find out about that that one next he's got he's got something to say when he comes back and they make him king by the parrot uh terebinth tree yeah so uh and they went and made Abimelech a king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem interestingly god said they were never supposed to have a king god was supposed to be their king And here, they've turned against God.
Did God anoint him to be king? Nope. Did God say he was supposed to be king? Nope. No, this is a king by his own might, his own strength, his own authority, his own power, his own making. Not much of a ruler, is he? No, but he tries to establish his rule by killing every single person in his dad's house.
This might be one of those things about, right, some people get so popular that they end up setting up their own dynasties, their own kingdoms, their own houses, yeah. Yeah, so in my Bible for the best verse I have verse 4 and verse 6 underlined in my Bible. Maybe other people would underline something different. That's fine.
So sometimes we think about like, oh Saul was the first king of Israel. Well, there was a king of Shechem, which is part of Israel. And Abimelech was the first king there. So maybe we might say that this was the first attempt to have a king. That was the first king for everything.
Well, let's go ahead and talk about seek calling. What do you think you were called to do? Having read this, what do you think that you might be? Or how does this show you Jesus Christ? He saved that one brother. Yeah, isn't that interesting? If you compare and contrast Jesus to Abimelech, right? Did Jesus say his father was king? Yeah. But did Abimelech, was Abimelech's dad really king? Nope, Gideon wasn't king. How did Jesus earn his authority and his crown? Well, he died on the cross. Well, he lived his perfect life. He did everything that his father desired. But was it his own choice?
Yeah. No. What did Jesus say to his disciples in the Great Commission? All authority on in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Do you know what the word Messiah means? Oh good guess. No, it means anointed. David was anointed. Yeah, by the prophet Samuel, right? And who told Samuel to anoint David?
God. God. Who chose Jesus to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords? God. Yeah, his Heavenly Father, right? Yeah, and so it's the difference between one guy who makes himself king without an anointing and One who is king because of God's anointing.
But then let's talk about, did Jesus come and like kill all of his rivals? Nope. He died for them. That's right. Yeah. Right. So Jesus, Jesus comes and he establishes in a very different way, his kingdom, doesn't he? Yeah. You think you can follow in the way of Jesus? Not perfectly, but you can try. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, you ready to pray? All right.
Lord, we thank you so much for giving us our perfect King, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that we would follow him. Lord, we pray that you would teach us to walk in your ways. Turn us, Lord, from our own wicked schemes. Let us follow you. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you and you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ, and we'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.