Reading
- Judg. 8:4-9:57
Devotional
Gideon had many wives and they bore him seventy sons. He also had a concubine (a woman who lives with a man but has lower status than his wife or wives) who bore him a son named Abimelech. As soon as Gideon died the Israelites did evil again before GOD and they also failed to show kindness to Gideon's family for all the good he had done for them.
Abimelech went to the citizens of Shechem and convinced them to support him in his quest for power. He then hired followers and went to Gideon's home in Ophrah and killed all but one of his brothers—Jotham, who escaped and fled to Beer.
After governing Israel three years, GOD sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem as punishment for Abimelech's sin of murdering his brothers. Abimelech was eventually killed after a woman in a tower dropped a stone upon his head as he was attempting to set fire to the tower's base.
Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers. And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads, and on them came the curse of Jotham the son of [Gideon].
(Judg. 9:56-57 NKJV)
GOD cares about what happens to His creation. He is ever watchful to see how we treat one another. Sadly, people often mistreat one another and are hateful, unkind and unloving toward each other. We each need to take Abimelech's example to heart. Not only is it sinful for us to mistreat or behave wrongly towards someone, if you do so, you just might get the same thing back in return. After all, as the old saying goes, what goes around comes around.
