Gideon's Sons Killed Off

from K


This story is fascinating to me, and it's also new to me.  I had never heard this before  The story of Gideon and his 300 men conquering the enemy with a bunch of horns and loud clanging was a classic, but somehow I never learned what happened to Gideon afterwards.

Did you catch in the commentaries that the father of these 70 brothers was Gideon?  It says Jerub-Baal, but that's a nickname given to Gideon which means "let Baal fight for himself". (from http://www.bibletrack.org/cgi-bin/bible.pl?incr=0&mo=5&dy=3).  

What's interesting to me is how the Israelites are so willing to worship Baal and scream for a king when God had set up this system of judges for them.  They are so short focused and unwilling to put God first.  When Gideon was victorious, they wanted to make him king.  But he refused (reminds me of George Washington refusing to be king of the United States-- what a good leader!)  Gideon does ask for the spoils of victory ( the gold) and makes an ephod from it to put on display in his hometown of Oprhah.  I thought that was interesting--I couldn't see George Washington doing that!  Seems there was a little pride creeping in for Gideon.  But I don't think Gideon intended for the ephod to be worshipped, and it doesn't say it was.  But once Gideon dies, the people are worshipping Baal again!

Isn't it interesting that the one son who kills all but one of the others was the son of a concubine?  And the people of Shechem didn't let that bother him when they supported him by helping him kill his brothers?  Interesting.  I suppose its simply their sinful hearts again, along with the fact that the mother of Abimelech, the concubine, was from the hometown of Shechem and that's why the townspeople of Shechem aligned themselves with Abimelech.

Perhaps the rest of Israel wanted a king so badly, that the people of Shechem saw their relationship to Gideon, the hero, through the concubine from their town, as an opportunity for a power grab.

All of it is rooted in Israel's weakness. They keep crying for a king and they keep worshipping Baal.  Weak weak!

But aren't we all?

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from H

Well this is an interesting story. Seems like a modern day movie to some degree. 
Abimelech wants the power of a king! So he kills 70 of his brothers do they can not challenge his power. 
So vain that he could not stand the shame of being killed by a woman that he has his servant finish him off!
I read one place that this was classic in that if you can not manage your family then there is no way you can manage or rule a group of people. 

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