This week we read chapters 9 & 10 of Judges. If you want to read the text for Sunday, read it here
Abimelech has very few redeeming qualities (in fact, if you can name any, let me know). The story is bounded by stones. In the Hebrew the parallel is clearer: he kills his brothers on a certain stone and then he is killed by a certain stone that falls on him. It is interesting to note that his name means "my father is king" although Gideon (aka Jerubbaal) rejected kingship. Abimelech obviously desires to be king badly enough to kill all (except the one who gets away) contenders to the throne. The explanation of using a stone to kill them on is likely an allusion to the story of Cain and Abel. In that story, it is the slain brother's blood reaching the ground that alerts God to the crime, so Abimelech would have wanted to collect the blood of his murdered brothers so that it couldn't reach the ground.
This is the story that introduces the empty men. They are hired by Abimelech to be his mercenary army. I can't help but think that these characters were likely sociopaths for the most part; cut off from all kinship bonds and guilty of a variety of heinous acts that caused their shunning. Abimelech would have been among them if he hadn't had access to money and power.
Abimelech has very few redeeming qualities (in fact, if you can name any, let me know). The story is bounded by stones. In the Hebrew the parallel is clearer: he kills his brothers on a certain stone and then he is killed by a certain stone that falls on him. It is interesting to note that his name means "my father is king" although Gideon (aka Jerubbaal) rejected kingship. Abimelech obviously desires to be king badly enough to kill all (except the one who gets away) contenders to the throne. The explanation of using a stone to kill them on is likely an allusion to the story of Cain and Abel. In that story, it is the slain brother's blood reaching the ground that alerts God to the crime, so Abimelech would have wanted to collect the blood of his murdered brothers so that it couldn't reach the ground.
This is the story that introduces the empty men. They are hired by Abimelech to be his mercenary army. I can't help but think that these characters were likely sociopaths for the most part; cut off from all kinship bonds and guilty of a variety of heinous acts that caused their shunning. Abimelech would have been among them if he hadn't had access to money and power.
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