The Bramble King (Part B)

The temptations will come, and they will sound very sweet and make us feel useful or fruitful, but they're outside of what we're called to do. And even as they came to these trees, temptations, regardless again of what shape they come in, they're outside our purpose. And it helps us as a believer to know what your purpose is, and do that.

Stay focused on what your purpose is. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Judges.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. The Bramble King is the title of Pastor Rick's message, and today he'll be in Judges chapter 9. Verse 8, the trees once went forth, now he begins his parable, to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, reign over us. Now this is the first recorded parable in the Bible. And of course parables are in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

They are timeless illustrations, very beneficial, and they take some concrete situation and they cast it in an abstract, you know, sort of light that ends up, or kind of like abstract concept, and it ends up being concrete, solid, something you can say, yes, I see it, and you don't forget it easily. Ezekiel and Daniel, in their ministries, they use trees to make their point to the nation before Nebuchadnezzar, and so we have Jotham doing the same thing. He's using these trees. He starts off with the olive tree.

These fruit trees are nominated. That's where he's going with this. He said the olive tree, the vine, the fig tree, the olive, fig, and vine, they represent those nominated to rule over them, those fruitful people to rule over them.

That's where he's going with this. The fruit-bearing trees were those who fulfilled the needs in life. They made a contribution to life, and then in a society where harvest and the animals dictated the rhythm, people were very in touch with these things. Now the grocery stores do it for us.

What time do they open? These trees that he's giving as an example, they're not looking to do anything else but bear their fruit, unlike Bimalak. Spurgeon preaches about this one of his sermons. He says, they strove to win over those better trees, which had remained faithful.

So now look at it in this light. You have someone who is very fruitful in life, and someone wants that person to run for political office. To stop being fruitful and come lead us in this office, and their response of the olive tree type character. Now, what I am doing here is very important.

I'll get back to that as we color in more the parable. Verse 9, but the olive tree said to them, should I cease giving my oil with which they honor God and men to go and sway over trees? Now the trees are the people that are coming to the fruit trees to nominate them to rule over them. And the fruit trees are telling the non-fruit-bearing trees, and in one sense all trees bear fruit, that's how they continue to exist. Acorns, the fruit of an oak for example, but they're not, it's not a crop.

You can't eat, I'm told you can eat an acorn if you know how to prepare it, and it's quite dramatic, but let's just go with you can't eat an acorn and not suffer consequence. So verse 10, then the trees said to the fig, you come and reign over us. So the olive tree said, I'm not interested. So they went, they're going down the list, okay let's try and find a fig tree. And they figured out where a fig tree was, and he says, verse 11, but the fig tree said to them, should I cease my sweetness and my good fruit and go sway over trees?

This is a masterpiece of a parable. The quality and value of these trees, they're not measured by size, they're measured by their fruit, by their contribution to life. I don't know, I love olive oil.

I'm not big on the figs, but there's other fruit that you could substitute, like cherries or something, peaches. So anyway, but they make this contribution, and they would be distracted from what they were created for, what they are ordained to do, even anointed to do. They would be distracted from serving their God-given purpose if they were just to listen to anybody, no matter how noble the nomination might appear. Should I stop serving God and care about those who don't care about God's system? I don't want to have sway over the cares of the world. In verse 12, he says, then the trees said to the vine, you come and reign over us.

Well the fig tree said no, the olive tree said no. I have always felt, since I've been a Christian, that it's a step down for a pastor to leave his pulpit for politics. I think it's not only a step, it's not like a step down a step, it's a step down an abyss.

And yet they do it. They think they get a following of people in a church that then qualifies them, and somebody gets hold of their ear, you'd make a good senator the way you deliver your points, oh boy, and the flattery just pours on them. We need more godly men in pulpits, we need godly people in politics, but not at the cost of our pulpits.

The pulpits should contribute to producing fruitful characters who have what it takes to hold public office and survive on that salary at the same time. 12 verse 12, then the trees said to the vine, you come and reign over us. These are distractions from greater things to lesser things. That's what the trees in this parable, that's what he's saying. He's getting to the point, he's getting to Abimelech, he's not lost sight at all, he's just building this up. He's saying there are those characters that are not distracted from what they're supposed to be doing, not moving from greater things to lesser things. Nehemiah, you got to love Nehemiah, they tried to, ooh Nehemiah come, we need to meet with you, we need to talk to you about all this work you're doing. He knew what they were up to. So I sent messages to them, Nehemiah 6-3, saying I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down, why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?

You just got to love Nehemiah. Then Luke chapter 10, Jesus speaking, before he speaks we'll just take what Luke records, but Martha was distracted with much serving. It's a trap. You are a diligent servant, you've got to put all sorts of guards out against possessing the ministry, against, you know, being competitive, and against working so hard that no one can challenge you. That without me the whole thing stops.

That is the devil feeding the flesh. You have to have a servant's heart and say I serve the master. If he says go, I go.

If he says stop, I stop. That is how it has got to be. It is the best system we know in this life. Everything else is a recipe for disaster and we see it over and over again. Sometimes you have a good servant and they may mess up something and someone just pointed it out to them and there they are, they can't handle it. They think they're above correction or reproach. I don't like someone pointing out my mistakes. It's not pleasant, so we work hard to not let it happen.

And if it should happen, always have ready someone else to blame. I'm kidding. Psalm 119 verse 37, turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things and revive me in your way. Well, that's the illustration of these three trees that Jotham has presented to us. They are fruitful and they will not be distracted from being fruitful because you think they should go do something else. Verse 13, but the vine said to them, should I cease my new wine, which cheers both God and men, and go sway over trees.

I like the translators doing that. I'm not trying to sway over people. I'm trying to be fruitful in what I was called to do. And so it teaches this fable that he is presenting to them that temptations will come and they will sound very sweet and make us feel useful or fruitful, but they're outside of what we're called to do.

And even as they came to these trees, these temptations, regardless again of what shape they come in, they're outside our purpose. And it helps as a believer to know what your purpose is and do that. Stay focused on what your purpose is. Spurgeon also said once, if you're going to be the second fiddle, be the best second fiddler there is. And not trying to, I'm going to be first.

Just be, just concentrate on your calling. And so he pictures the trees looking for a king among the trees. All of them refused the nomination because each would have to sacrifice their calling, their appointment, in order to rule over people. And it's not what they wanted to do.

They were not willing to make that sacrifice. But the bramble, the bramble would be king without dignity. He had no such conviction and no such purpose. He was unworthy, he was unqualified, he was unfruitful, and he was unkind as a person, as is the bramble. The wicked qualifications mean nothing, only ambition.

Get that power, what can you do for me and what have you done for me lately? The fruit trees not leaving their sweet appointments, that message has now been said by Jotham in front of everybody. And of course, as we look around, we see the political world, we see that it offers much power. And the wicked go towards power. They want the power, whereas many of the righteous do not have the power, they have the success and fruitfulness and fulfillment and usefulness.

And so many very qualified people, they would never run for office. They would occupy themselves with other things. Verse 14, then all the trees said to the bramble, you come and reign over us. Look at that. So they settle for, alright fine.

The other trees, the oaks, the sycamores, the cedars, the elms, they come to the bramble, which is a shrub. They'll settle for a useless ruler over them. And we see this in politics all the time.

We're just talking about the last Sunday, some of us were talking that in Georgia, some time back, their candidate was in a mental institution and he won the election from a mental institution without even running and wanting to stand on his mind. This is madness. So the trees were persistent in the parable, ready to be satisfied with the bramble king. These are the people of Shechem.

This is what he's saying. The bramble is a thorn bush. It is useless except as kindlewood.

It is no crop. It is no wood that you can gain from it to make furniture or weapons or anything. It's just good to kindle fires and sometimes in the summer months it catches fire and it causes destruction to the other trees or people or people's interests, crops for example. It was a menace. And Psalm 58 translates the same word as thorns. This bramble bush was a thorny bush. It's a compliment to say to someone, you're an oak or you're as beautiful as an elm. Have you ever seen an elm tree?

I've only seen them in pictures knowing what I'm looking at. A beautiful tree. So again, this powerful image. Verse 15, Then 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 of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.

This is prophetic. He's speaking under the anointing. That's why we wish we knew more about this man, Jotham. But the bramble said to the trees, this Abimelech says to the people, this shrub, this useless shrub says to the citizens, If you anoint me king, I'll bring you under my shade.

And in the parable, Jotham is saying, Is this a joke? You have no shade to offer trees. You're a shrub. Can you imagine, you know, the rose bush saying to an oak, Come under my shade.

It would be like a possum saying to a pride of lions, Come under my authority and I'll protect you. It is a nuisance, this thorn bush. And once on fire, it's a problem. And so he says in the parable, Let fire come out of the bramble, symbol of Abimelech, their new king. And he is going to be very much involved in destructive fire. And he also will perish. And where he says the cedars of Lebanon in this at the bottom of verse 15, But if not, let the fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. Those are the people of Shechem, and they will be devoured by the fire kindled by Abimelech.

And we'll come to that in just a little bit. And so he says, Let, bottom of verse 15, Let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon. And it is, again, prophetic. Verse 16, Now therefore, if you have acted in truth and sincerity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubabel and his house, and have done him as he deserves, for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian. But if you have risen up against my father's house this day and killed his seventy sons on one stone, and made Abimelech the son of his female servant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother.

And we'll just pause there. So he stopped with the parable. Verse 16 begins now his statement to the men of Shechem, the citizens of Shechem, from Mount Gerizim. And events will prove his words accurate and prophetic. Now is a good time to read Proverbs 19 and 10. Luxury is not fitting for a fool, much less a servant, to rule over princes. That's the connection that Jotam is making by saying, this man you're making king is the son of a servant to a king, and you should know better. That is saying that his low status has not prepared him for such a task. As a side note, the Bible never presents polygamy as a virtuous quality, as something to be practiced.

It always shows the consequence of it, and it's unfortunate that it took so long to get a handle on this. Verse 19, if then you have acted in truth and sincerity with Jerubbabel and with his house this day, then rejoice in Abimelech and let him also rejoice in you. So he dares them to justify their deeds.

You think this is good? You think the slaughter of the children of this hero of the nation is somehow noble? Okay, then you run with that.

You're going to pay, though. That's the point. And so he's chopped down, Abimelech saying you're nothing but a shrub. You wish you could be as fruitful as others, but you're not. And if you people are satisfied with this kind of king, you get the king you deserve.

That's how he's closing this up. Verse 20, but if not, let fire come from Abimelech and devour the men of Shechem and Bethmielo, and let fire come from the men of Shechem and from Bethmielo and devour Abimelech. And in other words, they're going to be on a disastrous course once these fires are lit, and that will come out in the story. Unfortunately, Jotham is talking to the wall, brick wall. You know, we don't know. There are people in the audience during these events when the righteous stand up and preach that may have genuinely been moved by these things, but their attention is placed on the key characters.

And so we know that to this day is the case. A man can give a sermon or you can preach in the office place of someone. Someone overhears you and is moved enough to move to the Lord. And you may never know, many times you never know who is being impacted by just being a righteous preacher or preacher of righteousness. Otherwise, the stories are just depressing and not realistic because the realistic factor is that people get saved from hearing people say things that are righteous. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Well, verse 21, then Jotham ran away and fled and he went to Bier and dwelt there for fear of Abimelech his brother.

How tragic. He ran from his brother because his brother was a mass murderer. Verse 22, and Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years. Again, no evidence that his reign really extended. We don't know what Bier is, as mentioned in verse 21, but we have no evidence of his authority really spilling out and the writer just maybe just throwing that out there to say, you know, nobody contested he was king, but it'd be hard to make a case for it. You don't see her about, you know, the coronation of Judah came and Ephraim came and the tribes. You don't have any of that that you see, of course, when Saul and David are coronated. Well, in fact, when Saul was coronated, there were those protesters.

We're not going to have this guy rule over us. Verse 23, God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech that the crime done to the 70 sons of Jerubabel might be settled and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother who killed them and on the men of Shechem who aided him in the killing of his brothers. Several times, three, four times in this chapter we read, it brought up the 70 that were killed, the 70, because this was of course a horrific event. The shielding that Abimelech would have had had he been God anointed and appointed is not there.

It's absent. And within three years, his relative success relative to what's coming is collapsing. God permitted the natural tendencies of these characters to run their course.

He didn't put no stops in place. This guy is, this guy over here is a creep and this guy over here is a creep and I'm gonna let them go together because that's what those kind of people do. Birds of a feather flock together and they're gonna get together and they're gonna turn on Abimelech and I'm not gonna stop it.

That's what's going on. Isaiah 66 verse 4, God speaking to the prophet. So I will choose their delusions and bring their fears on them because when I called no one answered. When I spoke they did not hear but they did evil before my eyes and chose that in which I do not delight.

They chose it. They didn't care about what God says. We read these words and when we stumble we say but Lord I do care and I don't want to stumble. Well the wicked don't care. They don't make that prayer. They're not interested in what offends God unless they think he's going to punish them. Still they really don't care what God thinks. They don't have a relationship with him.

Before I became a Christian I didn't care what the Bible said but now it's a whole nother story. Verse 25, and the men of Shechem set men in ambush against him on the tops of the mountains and they robbed all who passed by them along the way and it was told of Abimelech. Men of Shechem set men in ambush against him. What do you mean him? There's not Abimelech riding through here being ambushed.

It's his interest. This was a trade route and unrest stirred up in Shechem. Abimelech's not living in Shechem at this time and they're hitting the trade routes which means they're taking his tariffs, the money he's getting from these caravans going through, the trust of the people is being challenged, they're coming under the shade of his ranches.

It's not working. He's five miles from Shechem and that'll come out in verse 41 in Arumah, not it's a rumor but Arumah is the name of the village where he is and so the bramble king is losing money. He's losing control. He's not protecting. He's not offering relief, the shade that he promised. Verse 26, Ga'el the son of Ieb, they'll repeat that enough times, just for me.

They just did it for me. Came with his brothers and went over to Shechem and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. So here's an upstart going to come on the scene now. Ga'el, another opportunist but he's not as successful as Abimelech in his unprincipled ways. Him and his buddies, they're probably the ones robbing all who pass by along the way.

He's probably got his hands in it anyway. Verse 27, so they went out into the field and gathered grapes from their vineyards and trod them and made merry and they went into the house of their god and ate and drank and cursed Abimelech. So their vineyards, as some pronounce it, produced this fruit for them. This is now July, June-July, the grape harvest, a time when armies go out to war also. Again, alcohol is influencing these individuals. They have their harvests, they've made their grapes, they wait for it to ferment and do what it does.

Then they start drinking it and the inhibitors are gone and they start vocalizing their resentment towards Abimelech and they do it publicly, they're railing against him and now that's the beginning of the end for them. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio for this study in the book of Judges. Cross Reference Radio is the teaching ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. If you'd like more information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com. You'll find additional teachings from Pastor Rick available there and we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. By doing so, you'll be notified of each new edition of Cross Reference Radio. You can search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app or just follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. That's all the time we have for today. Join us next time to continue learning more from the book of Judges right here on Cross Reference Radio.