[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 9:53 (NIV) “But a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.”

[Meditation]

The end of Abimelech, who killed his seventy brothers to become king himself, is so futile and ironic. As he approached the door of a tower to burn it down, an upper millstone dropped by an unnamed woman cracked his skull. Even in his dying moments, he was a man of intense self-pity and pride, choosing to be killed by his subordinate’s sword because he couldn’t bear to have it said that “a woman killed him.”

The life of Abimelech, who tried to exalt himself, ends just like that—not by the hand of a great warrior or with a mighty weapon, but by the hand of an unknown woman, with an everyday tool, a millstone. The subtext of this scene clearly shows God’s way of working. The Lord always brings down the proud, and He does it through the weakest beings, those who are nothing in the world’s eyes. This is an unchanging principle of God. The Apostle Paul confesses this principle as well:

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

This principle of the cross, which is the very opposite of the world’s logic where the strong win, is what draws us to the Lord today. Because it allows us to meet the Lord who works not in our strength, but in our weakness; not in our wisdom, but in our foolishness.

[Prayer]

Lord, break my pride today, so that I may stand before you as a weak person. And in doing so, let this be a day where I boast only in You. Amen.
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(Daily Reading)

Judges 9:46-10:5