[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 8:31 (NIV) “His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech.”

[Meditation]

Gideon had seventy sons through his many wives, and he also had a son through his concubine in Shechem. He named that son ‘Abimelech.’ The name means ‘my father is king.’ Although he waved his hands and refused when the people tried to make him king, saying, “The LORD will rule over you,” despite that great confession, on one side of his heart, he himself was slowly taking the king’s throne.

The son who inherited this hidden heart of Gideon was Abimelech. He did not hesitate to use unscrupulous means to become king. He incited his mother’s relatives in Shechem to raise funds, hired scoundrels with the money, and then massacred his seventy brothers on a single stone. The seventy shekels of silver that the people of Shechem gave him, proclaiming, “He is our brother,” became the very price for the lives of his seventy brothers.

We tut-tut at Abimelech and the people of Shechem, but the Bible says that this story is, in fact, ‘my’ story. Of course, we do not commit such horrific sins. But isn’t the desire to assert ‘my own kingship,’ the ‘Abimelech within me’ who wants to control everything according to my will, still alive?

Why did God record this terrible incident? It is so that we may see ourselves in the image of Abimelech, see our true state, and turn back to the Lord. Therefore, the very fact that we can see the Abimelech within us is a ‘grace’ that Abimelech himself never enjoyed. Those who live by that grace are the holy community, the ‘saints.’

[Prayer]

Lord, through the time You have given me today, let me see the ‘me’ within myself, and let me see the ‘You’ who is beyond me. Crucify the hidden Abimelech within me, and let me confess that You alone are my King this day. Amen.
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(Daily Reading)

Judges 8:25-9:6