What can we learn from this horribly sad and disturbing story full of bloodshed, brambles, and barbaric behaviour? It almost seems as if it should not even be in the book. It is not about a judge. It is not about outside oppressors. It is about trouble from within.

In the first place, this chapter teaches us about the certainty of divine judgment against sin. Up until now in the book, the stories have been about God saving people who do not deserve saving because they’ve done evil. So these have been stories about God’s grace to sinners. But that is not what the story of Abimelech is about. It is not about God showing grace. For the first time in the book we see God giving people what they have earned. He gives Israel the king it deserves. It is a story about divine retribution, judgment. Judgment is not God’s preferred option; he would much rather rescue, save. Judgment, says Isaiah 28:21, is God’s strange, alien work. But God can and does and will invoke judgment, whether in this life or the next. And so as the story develops, we see evil answering evil. Fratricide answers with fratricide. Abimelech incites the leaders of Shechem to conspire against Gideon’s sons; Gaal incites the leaders of Shechem to conspire with him against Abimelech. The men of Shechem set up an ambush against Abimelech; Abimelech then does the same to them, burning them to a crisp. Abimelech kills his brothers on one stone, and later has his own skull crushed beneath one stone. Evil destroys evil. God frequently judges in this way, using evil men to destroy evil men. So here, God is behind all of it, sovereign over all, including evil. He does what is right, giving people what they have earned. He acts to judge sin, whether that is outside or inside the covenant community. The Israelites, by making Baal-berith their god, had declared themselves spiritual Canaanites, which brought them under God’s covenant curse.¹ Sin has consequences. What God says will come to pass. It took three long years before Jotham’s curse came to pass, but come to pass it did.

Second, this chapter teaches us about the quietness of judgment at times. This whole episode seems so natural, from the highway robberies to Gaal’s drunken blatherings. Even the last blow is mentioned as a matter of course: A certain woman threw an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head. Sometimes that is how God’s judgment works—silently, gradually. No smoke and thunder, fire and brimstone. The Lord has his own timing. His judgment, though not always seen, is taking shape, and will in his time become visible. In this account, we would not know, if we were not told, that God was involved at all. But he was, as Judges 9:23, Judges 9:56–57 reveal. Evil is rampant in Judges 9, and God seems mostly absent, he appears to have left, but the fact is, God never left; he was sovereignly, steadily directing things to a just outcome.² Between the explicit references to God, his hand “may be hidden, but we must recognize his involvement in (1) the emergence of Gaal out of nowhere; (2) Abimelech’s initial victory over Gaal, emboldening him to attempt greater exploits; (3) the ease with which Abimelech conquers Thebez; (4) the inspiration and empowerment of the woman to drop the millstone from the tower of Thebes; (5) the guidance of the millstone to Abimelech’s head.³ He always accomplishes his will—and not in spite of evil in this world. Our text reminds us that he accomplishes his purposes even in and through evil.

There is then also a certain comfort in this judgment of Abimelech. God contains the fire burning in Israel. God destroys the destroyers of his people. God keeps his people from utter destruction. Whoever touches the people of God touches the apple of his eye, and therefore they place themselves under the sword or millstone of God.⁴