5 "He went to his father’s home in Ophrah and on one stone murdered his seventy brothers"
45 All that day Abimelek pressed his attack against the city until he had captured it and killed its people.
54 Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelek was dead, they went home.
When I read the Old Testament, I'm struck by the apparent lack deep meaning for the lives of people. We've read several excerpts where the Israelites kill an entire village/town. Its almost as if the author could be writing about a crack in the sidewalk as easy as a man's skull getting cracked open. Don't you think that's odd? I wonder if life was so difficult back then, that people were dying around you all the time....and it really wasn't a BIG deal, like it is to us.
Thankfully, it happens very seldom to us, and is EXTREMELY dramatic and life changing.
Second thing;
56 Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelek had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the people of Shechem pay for all their wickedness.
Don't mess with God or turn against him....he might let you go on for a while, but eventually God's judgment comes looking for you, and he always finds you. He even allowed Abimelek to rule over he land for a period of time....Abimelek probably thought he was "fine"
Yeah, I agree like does almost feel cheap sometimes the way entire villages are struck down. I also agree, I don't think I actively "mess" with God but there are plenty of times I don't listen or obey--I need to recognize this has consequences.
ReplyDeletethe parable of the trees struck me as something to investigate. I struggle sometimes to find meaning in these stories, and then I read what someone else can get out of the same words and I'm amazed. I found several different takes on this one, but one that made some sense to me--
We can see the trinity in the parable. The first 3 trees (Fig-Father, Vine--Son, Olive--Holy Spirit) and the Thorn Bush--Enemy. I don't have a specific take away yet, but just something interesting to think about more.
here is the link to this with much more detail if you are interested
http://kingdomservice.org/Resources_files/Jothams%20Parable%20about%20the%20Trees.pdf