The blood of Gideon’s sons cried out for justice. God knows how to deal with those who bully His people.
Three years passed (Jdg 9:26). A false peace had settled over the land. Abimelech, supposed to be a deliverer, is nothing but a tyrant. The echo of Jotham’s words had long since died in the Vale of Shechem, but heaven remembers. Thus “God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem” (v 23). Our Lord said, “with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you” (Mt 7:2). The way you treat others will boomerang and hit you on the return flight. Just as Abimelech “dealt treacherously” with the sons of Gideon, so “the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech” (Jdg 9:23). This was the prediction of Jotham, what the military calls mutually assured destruction. Yes, the acronym spells MAD! “Let fire…from Abimelech…devour the men of Shechem and…fire…from the men of Shechem…devour Abimelech!” (v 20). Here’s what happened. A usurper named Gaal took over Shechem while Abimelech was away. Zebul, the king of Shechem, sent word to Abimelech to surround the city. Then the king told Gaal, if he was as tough as he said he was, to go and fight Abimelech. This he did, and was soundly defeated. But Abimelech didn’t stop there. He killed everyone, destroying the city. Some who escaped to a tower, he incinerated. Then he turned his wrath on Thebez. They also had a tower, and as Abimelech drew near, a woman in the tower, perhaps making dinner, dealt with the gravity of the situation, so to speak. Dropping her millstone out the window, she ended Abimelech’s tortured history. Unwilling to be known as the man who had sense knocked into him by a woman, he asked his armor bearer to dispatch him, which he did. “Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech” (v 56).