A Biblical Record of Major Crimes: Mass Murder, Fratricide
A Biblical Record of Major Crimes: Mass Murder, Fratricide.
[this article is in process, so please don’t read until it is finished soon]
“Tell all the truth, but tell it slant. Truth in indirection lies.” (Emily Dickenson).
A Different Look to a True Story. Emily Dickenson’s advice was to come at the truth from different angles; reveal the truth while approaching it sideways. There are times when only an indirect story will effectively grab a reader’s attention and will inspire a fresh perspective on an ancient truth. There are occasions when coming at a truth from the side through a story will go further than a didactic, systematic study using logic and reason. We seem to be created in a way in which truth can often be better understood from the side instead of head-on through a blunt statement of raw truth. This fictional story below is intended to reveal the truth of a biblical crime story in a way that brings a fresh perspective, an unexpected layer of meaning, to a familiar story. Perhaps we can learn something new in this indirect approach to the true story of Gideon, and the mass murder by his son Abimelech . (Judges 8-9).
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“We welcome now our listening audience to another episode of ‘Podcasts from Sheol‘. This is your host, Judge Deborah, as we continue our series of interviews with occupants in the Place of the Dead, asking each person to answer the question, “What was I thinking?” As you faithful listeners know, we have had scintillating interviews thus far with none other than Eve, the mother of mankind, as she struggles with her second thoughts about her choice of fruitage; with Noah and his wondering about his questionable wine intake soon after the famous Flood; and of course dear Sarah as she reconsiders handing her servant girl over to her husband to start a family. Today we are privileged to have a truly heroic military leader and fellow Judge of Israel, none other than Gideon himself. Welcome to our podcast, Gideon, as we discuss your answer to the question, “What was I thinking?”
Gideon: Thank you, Judge Deborah. The privilege is all mine. I have admired you for several decades now, ever since you were recently admitted into the Hebrew Hall of Fame as one of the official “Holy Women of Israel.” It’s not surprising that you were called the “Mother of Israel” during time as a prophetess, a renowned Judge, and a military leader as well! And your national leadership is legendary, guiding our people to 60 years of peace during your time in office. Thank you for your service, Deborah, and I’m thrilled to be a part of your podcast here in this rather mysteriously dark place, just hanging out till the Lord decides to make an appearance.
Deborah: Thank you for those kind words, Gideon, since you were called one of the all-timers yourself for your heroic service to your country. After all, you tore down your own father’s pagan altar dedicated to Baal and rebuilt it into a sacred worship space to honor Yahweh, and then you led a group of only 300 soldiers, each carrying a trumpet and a torch in a jar, to defeat an enormous Midianite army. On top of that, you were able to keep Israel at peace with its enemies for 40 years! That’s quite a legacy.
Gideon: Thank you, Judge. I am blessed with quite a few amazing memories these days, including the time at the very start of my calling when I talked face-to-face with the Angel of the Lord! That of course was unforgettable, and started me on my path to completely trust in God’s strength and wisdom every step of the way, for the most part.
Deborah: Yes, of course, but now I would like to dig into what your life looked like toward the end of your days, after establishing peace with the Midianite enemies. Your life turned sideways, didn’t it? Tell the listening audience why you would now be asking yourself our theme question, “What was I thinking?”
Gideon: Yes, Deborah, I have been asking myself that very question over and over again these days while we’re in this holding tank for all us dead people. Here’s a major example… “What was I thinking when I established my huge royal harem with many wives and concubines? It should have been obvious that God created one woman for Adam’s companionship, not a hundred. And why didn’t I remember that Moses heard the Lord Himself tell the people that those in authority should not “multiply wives for himself,” gathering wives and demeaning womanhood that way. It’s a little too late for me to say, ‘One Wife, One Life’ now, isn’t it. And has it ever turned out well for any family or so-called marriage when a man has multiple wives? Never! So, what was I thinking? Well, I wasn’t thinking with my brain, I’m afraid. I think I let another part of my anatomy do all my thinking for me.
Deborah: Yes, I see what you mean, Gideon. In fact, official records show that you had produced as many as 70 sons through this harem of yours, and that doesn’t even count all the daughters you no doubt had in your royal family as well! Tell the audience how this home-based foolishness led to a terrible low point in Israel’s history.
Gideon: Yes, I will talk about that shameful point in my life, Deborah. But I must first be fully transparent here and discuss my decision to foolishly make an ephod for my hometown which led to the profoundly ungodly return to pagan worship in Israel. So, what was I thinking when I collected 43 pounds of gold from my Midianite conquests and decided to make a golden ephod to display at home? Well, I unfortunately turned out to be the poster boy for that old saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. That turned out to be literally true, and I’m ashamed of the whole thing. Here’s the story… After collecting all those gold and other valuable pieces of plunder from my military victories, I thought it was a good idea to make a priestly ephod to be proudly displayed as a memorial to all those triumphs over our enemies, which of course were the Lord’s victories more than anything. I thought that if we had our own memorial here at home, we could celebrate the defeat of our enemies. But when I’m brutally honest with myself, I had mixed motives with this ephod. I thought that if we could duplicate the high priest’s sacred vest, we could also acquire the Lord’s guidance whenever we wanted conveniently here at home instead of having to travel all the way to God’s established worship center in Shiloh. Little did I know, for one thing, that long ago the Lord had told Moses that there was only to be one sacred ephod in Israel, and it was to remain in His tabernacle. On top of that, only one person was to use this ephod, and that was the high priest in the line of Aaron the Levite. So during this supremely weak moment of mine, I made this dazzling ephod out of the Midianite gold, with tainted goods in other words. But I didn’t think that this home-built shrine would be such a stumbling block to me or my family or the people of Israel. My beautiful ephod was so prominently displayed, so dazzling and impressive, that I started to use it as an object for worship instead of an object to help us worship Yahweh. How stupid can I get! I helped turn something dedicated to God into a pagan idol! Not only that, but people began to forget to worship at Shiloh, and began to use my unauthorized home worship center as their adopted place for pagan worship! My ephod distracted the people of Israel from the true worship of Yahweh! How awful. Will I ever live that down? I actually made something with my own hands that proved to be the spiritual undoing of my people! They used my ephod to play the whore after pagan gods and prove unfaithful to the Covenant God!
Deborah: That is quite the tragic tale, Gideon, but we’re not done with story, are we?
Gideon: Unfortunately, no. And now to continue this tragedy… One of my 70 sons was named Abimelech. I was feeling full of myself at the time, and I gave him a name that meant “My father is King.” I know, I know, I refused offers of kingship, but foolishly I arrogantly functioned as one anyway, with my royal harem and my unauthorized ephod and my carrying on as if I was king. And it’s certainly possible that Abimelech followed my lead in his thirst for kingly power, because as soon as I was cold in the ground, he proclaimed himself king of Israel! He was the first man to do that, I am ashamed to say. The worst of it is that in his quest for the throne, Abimelech did the unthinkable. He decided that he wanted to remove all potential competition for the throne by murdering all 70 of his brothers! Well, actually, one of his brothers was able to escape with his life. but Abimelech took each brother, one at a time, went to a pagan site for human sacrifice, an unholy stone of some sort, and he slew them one after the other! How horrific! My own flesh and blood murders 69 of my own children, just so he could declare himself king, which he had no right do in the first place! This is fratricide at the worst possible level, grotesque and evil to the core. And to think I started this whole process by deciding it was okay to sire all those children! I am sorry Abimelech was ever born, and that I had even a distant part in this wickedness.
Deborah: How truly awful and despicable! So whatever happened to this evil son of yours?
Gideon: Justice from God might have been a bit delayed to my way of thinking, but the Lord finally brought an end to Abimelech’s miserable existence when he was killed in battle. He was about to burn down a tower filled with many people, which was just like him, wasn’t it, and a brave woman up in the tower dropped a heavy millstone right onto his skull, which led to one of his men thrusting a sword into his heart to finish the matter once and for all.
Deborah: Yes, in fact I’d like to read from the official records of this horrific crime… “Thus God repaid the wickedness that Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his 70 brothers. Also, all the evil his men in town, God returned on their own heads.”
Gideon: Well, I seem to have made a tragic mess of things after a lifetime of obedience and courage. It goes to show, doesn’t it, that being wise at one season of life doesn’t guarantee wisdom later on in the same life. Once we turn our eyes of faith away from Yahweh, the source of wisdom disappears.
Deborah: Yes, Gideon, that’s a hard-earned lesson, I’m afraid. I am sorry that I had to bring up these painful memories from your life on earth, but you do know that God’s mercy endures forever, right? Even to those of us here in Sheol! And now, listening audience, please tune in next week at this same time, when we can ask Samson what he was thinking about with Delilah! Until then, this is Judge Deborah, signing off from the “Podcasts from Sheol.“