The Means of Grace

Judges 9:55-57
(55) And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, everyone departed to his home.
(56) Thus God returned the evil of Abimelech, which he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers.
(57) And God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem return on their heads, and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.

This concludes the sad story of Abimelech. He was one of Gideon's sons, but was so power-hungry that he murdered 70 of his brothers so that he could take the throne. The only one to escape was Jotham. Earlier in this passage Jotham pronounced a curse on Shechem:

Judges 9:20-24
(20) But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and devour the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the leaders of Shechem and from Beth-millo and devour Abimelech."
(21) And Jotham ran away and fled and went to Beer and lived there, because of Abimelech his brother.
(22) Abimelech ruled over Israel three years.
(23) And God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech,
(24) that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers.

What ends up happening? Abimelech kills everyone in Shechem, but Abimelech eventually is killed by a woman throwing a millstone down from a tower.

My point in mentioning this passage is to show how God works sometimes. I think we naturally want to separate our stories into good guys and bad guys. Here there really aren't any good guys. Yet God used even the bad guys to accomplish His will.

I know I tend to root for Israel and then Judah as I read through the history of Israel. However, none of the groups are particularly good. The only one who is really good is Jesus, and He is the point of the whole Old Testament (or "gospel according to the prophets" if you prefer). These stories of Israel in the time of the Judges show me just how wicked we all are at heart and how badly we need Jesus.