JUDGES 9
Abimelech is not presented to us as one who delivered Israel, but as representing a principle that has been very much in evidence among the people of God. Like Diotrephes in the New Testament, he seems to be governed by the one desire [p. 158] to be prominent and to rule. He entirely lacked the brotherly spirit; he was so lacking in it that he slew all his brethren. We do not see in Abimelech a single spiritual feature from the beginning of his course to the end; so he is a warning rather than an example.
He is a great contrast to Gideon. Gideon in the main was marked by spiritual features, he failed at the end of his course, which is a solemn warning to us. But in the main he was marked by spiritual features, just the opposite to Abimelech; Gideon would not rule over Israel; he was small in his own eyes, and least in his father’s house. He was consciously small and not wanting prominence. He only accepted the place of deliverer because it was thrust on him in the sovereignty of God.
Abimelech’s origin resulted from an unspiritual connection on the part of Gideon. It is often Satan’s way of working. Gideon had formed a connection that was not spiritual, like Abraham taking Hagar, and the result is that something comes in contrary to the mind of God.
Shechem had good features as well as bad. It is the place where Jacob buried his false gods. It is solemn to think that a place that had such good features should come to be marked by idolatry, and the setting up of a man like Abimelech to be king. It was the place of decision, where Joshua and the people made a covenant. So it is most solemn that this is the place where Baal-Berith, meaning lord of covenant, was set up; it was a terrible imitation of what God is.
We do not see a single divine or spiritual feature in Abimelech. He comes in as a place-seeker, and a power-seeker, and he is prepared to sacrifice and destroy anything that would hinder his getting a place. The result is nothing but contention and trouble, and it ends in Abimelech destroying the people, and the people destroying him. It ends in a terrible way in the government of God. That has often happened in the history of the people of God — men seeking a place, and that is largely the cause of the confusion and departure from God which has marked the Christian profession. The great value of this chapter is that God points out to us what will deliver us entirely from that spirit. Seeking place, prominence, rule and power — that spirit is worthless for God. It is the bramble bush, and it bears no fruit that is acceptable to God. But in contrast to that we have wonderful instruction in what has value, and will [p. 159] deliver us from being brambles. None of us want to be brambles, but to escape we must be olive trees, fig trees and vines.
Jotham represents the faithful remnant. He was the last survivor of Gideon’s sons; he could give a clear and decided testimony against dominant evil. The men of Shechem had no regard for Jehovah or for Gideon. Abimelech does not present himself to them as the son of Gideon, but “as your bone, and your flesh”; he took character from his mother, just as Ishmael did. We very soon forget what God has done for us. “The children of Israel remembered not Jehovah their God, who had delivered them out of the hand of all their enemies on every side. And they showed no kindness to the house of Jerubbaal-Gideon, according to all the good that he had done to Israel”, chapter 8: 34,35.
The three trees — olive, fig and vine — are very often used in Scripture as representing God’s fruitful people; they represent the features that God would have mark the saints. In Romans the olive represents the promises which had been given to Abraham. It represents the saints as deriving everything from God. God is the source of everything; that is the thought in the olive tree. The plain instruction is that it is not trees that have any value that want to reign, but worthless trees, the bramble, the thorn-bush. If I want to be somebody amongst the brethren, it only proves I am a bramble. It is well to take that to heart. We are to have the features of the olive, the fig and the vine; if we had, it would never come into our minds to want the place of rule, or prominence amongst the people of God. It is too far beneath us; it might do for the bramble, but not for the olive, the fig, or the vine; they cannot come down to such degradation as that. All three trees are standing figures of fruitfulness.
The thought of the olive is deriving all from God. The psalmist says, “But as for me, I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; I will confide in the lovingkindness of God for ever and ever”, Psalm 52:8. The olive tree planted in the house of God would derive everything from God, and it flourishes. The saint who is an olive tree trusts in the lovingkindness of God for ever; he derives everything from God. To such a one a place of prominence or rule would be beneath him. If you are on the line of deriving from God, the measure of what you have surpasses everything you could [p. 160] mark out for yourself. It would surpass the most wonderful position you could ever have. A simple believer who is drawing all from God Himself, and is enjoying the fatness that is the substance of divine promise in the power of the Holy Spirit, could not entertain for a moment the thought of changing places with any other, however exalted he might be. It would be a degradation, not an exaltation. The olive is too fat to come down to it. It searches us out, because the devil does not always offer us big things, but he may lead us to desire some sort of place in a small way.
The fulness of the blessing which God has conferred on us in Christ Jesus would take all the conceit out of us. There is nothing to aspire to, there is nothing greater than what I have. That is the wonderful place in which the saint is put, he has nothing to aspire to, he has what is greater than the whole world. He has fatness — all the fatness of God’s house. “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures”, Psalm 36:8. What is there for a man who is abundantly satisfied? There is nothing to offer him. Paul spoke of “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”, Philippians 3:8. He had the best thing possible. Where is the saint who would like to be a worldly king? There is not a saint on earth but would shrink from it. But how easy it is to want some place amongst the brethren! Many a man has come to grief on that line.
Jotham’s parable shows how God would set His people up in superiority to every form of ambition. The olive tree would represent the spiritual man; he only can enjoy the blessing of God. It is said in Romans 11 that the root is holy, because it is of promise; it is altogether of God. If the root is holy, the branches must be. There is nothing more holy than the presence of the Spirit in the saints; that is what makes the saints holy persons.
The spirit of service would correct the desire to be great. The Lord says, “I am in the midst of you as the one that serves”, Luke 22:27. It should be a great desire with every one of us to serve the brethren, to yield some oil for the brethren. If I could render the brethren some little service, that is something. If I could yield something spiritual to the brethren it would be a great gratification; but ruling over them is just the opposite. The olive yields that which honours [p. 161] God and men. It does not honour self. If we are olive trees we shall honour God and the brethren; we shall think highly of the brethren, and never think that we are superior to them. The olive tree says, “By me they honour God and man”. If God gets His place, the brethren will have their place of honour too. It is yielding something; the olive yields, the fig yields, the vine yields. The question is, What am I yielding for the good of the brethren? It is good when a brother comes along and ministers, and you can see the saints’ faces shine. He is an olive tree; that is the kind of man to imitate. The question is, What are the brethren getting out of me? not, How can I get my way? This spirit is the opposite to the Abimelech spirit, of which christendom is so full. A great deal of the present state of christendom is a result of man wanting a place. The first coming in of it was with Ananias and his wife; they wanted a place among the brethren so as to be thought highly of as devoted people; they told a lie to the Holy Spirit to get a place. Then Simon Magus wanted to buy the power to give the Holy Spirit; he offered money; he wanted a place.
Jotham represents the remnant who are in the secret of God and of what has true value with God. It was not possible for him to come out as a rival to Abimelech; he did not think of such a thing. If a man desires to have a place, he always finds the place he desires, but he always ends at the bottom; he gets his skull fractured sooner or later. Jotham indicates the line of blessing on which God can hear us; it is striking that he says, “Hearken to me ... that God may hearken to you”. This parable of Jotham is the secret of being heard of God. If we are not heard of God we shall not be worth anything; we shall only be brambles.
The fig-tree in Scripture comes in on the line of righteousness. Adam and Eve made themselves aprons of fig-leaves to cover themselves; in the language of the type, they attempted to establish their own righteousness. There was no real fruit there, but pretentious leaves. The fig-tree represents Israel as that from which God expected the fruit of righteousness; He expected what was right. The olive-tree rather represents what is spiritual; the fig-tree more what is moral on the line of righteousness. The olive tree represents the saints drawing from God the infinite and everlasting wealth of divine good, filled with fatness flowing thus from the fulness of God Himself, all spiritual enjoyment being in the Holy Spirit. The saint [p. 162] who is conscious of that would consider a position of rule, reigning over the brethren, far beneath him.
Nathaniel under the fig-tree had been recognising his own lack of righteous feelings; he had been confessing his own state, and there was no guile left in him; so he was a true Israelite, a true fig-tree himself.
In Jeremiah 24 we read of good and bad figs. The bad figs were those who would not submit to the government of God; there were very good and very bad, naughty figs, so vile that they could not be eaten. The good were those who had gone to Babylon; they had submitted to the righteous government of God. The others, who remained in Jerusalem and stuck to the place of privilege and pretension, were vile figs.
The fig-tree has sweetness and good fruit. It sets forth the moral line rather than the spiritual. The spiritual has to do with what a man is inwardly, but the fig-tree brings into evidence the moral character and course which the saint follows, and Paul says to the Philippians, “being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness which is by Jesus Christ, to God’s glory and praise”, Philippians 1:11. That is the line of the fig-tree. In Hebrews 12 we read of the “peaceable fruit of righteousness”. Righteousness always makes for peace. Why leave the beautiful characteristics of which the epistle to the Philippians speaks, to want to be exalted and think oneself better than one’s brethren? My happiness consists in thinking better of the brethren than of myself.
I think that everything is exemplified in the Lord. He is the pattern of the olive-tree, the fig-tree, and the vine. He does not appropriate the two former titles, but He says, “I am the true vine”, John 15: 1. He was really the true olive and fig-tree also. He has a right to rule, and He rules in a day when God has His rights. The question is, Do I want to rule now when neither God nor Christ have their rights? Paul says to the Corinthians, You are reigning as kings, but we are debased to the lowest possible point “the offscouring of the world”, 1 Corinthians 4:13.
Then the vine clearly speaks of joy — “wine which gladdeneth the heart of men”, Psalm 104:15. Here it is, “should I leave my new wine, which cheers God and man, and go to wave over the trees?” It is connected with joy. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace”, Galatians 5: 22. There is nothing more to be lamented than the absence of joy among the people of God;
[p. 163] they are not choice vines. God wants his people not only to be vines, but choice vines. If so, we shall have joy ourselves and make others happy. Eternal life involves fulness of joy. John says, after speaking of eternal life, “these things write we to you that your joy may be full”, 1 John 1:4. I have a very feeble idea of how necessary it is to the joy of God that I should be happy.
The Lord said, “I will no more drink at all of the fruit of the vine until ... I drink it new in the kingdom of God”, Mark 14:25. The Lord had spiritual joy of an earthly character in the company of His saints on earth. It was a great joy to Him to have a few hearts around Him who could appreciate Him and give evidence of being characterised by the Father’s teaching, but all that was to be broken up by His death, and He would not resume any earthly joy of that character until He renewed it again in the kingdom, when God’s will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He had a little taste of it beforehand in the company of His disciples. He had His children: “Behold, I and the children which God has given me”, Hebrews 2:13. The Lord had a profound joy in the company of His saints, but then His death came in; the Shepherd was smitten, and the flock scattered; all came to an end, but He says that He will have it again in the kingdom of God.
Gaius, in John’s third epistle, was a very good example of these trees. He was yielding joy for the brethren, in contrast to the dreadful spirit seen in Diotrephes, which has been the blight and curse of christendom. We are all in danger of this spirit, and Jotham’s parable is intended to affect us, so that in contrast we are concerned about yielding pleasure for God and man, as portrayed in the olive, the fig-tree and the vine.