The man who tried to be king

Here’s my first ever entry. Sorry for the lack of action on my part. I struggle with blogging as it is not natural for me to articulate my thoughts and reflections in written form – it takes me a long time to write anything. Looks like I just need to overcome this and just get it going.

I have reading OT lately, having just finished numbers (who would have imagined numbers is actually rather interesting) and now starting on the book of judges.

Today I read Judges 9. The context was that Gideon (also known as Jerub-Baal, the one who rescued the Israelites from the Midianites) has just passed away, and the Israelites upon his death began prostituting themselves to the Baals, forgetting everything how God has rescued them from their enemies on every side.

Israel is now without a judge to rule over them. It was during this period that Abimelech, one of the 70 sons of Gideon, forcibly claimed rule over them. In fact, in order to claim his position as king, Abimelech massacred his brothers in order to secure his position. He did this even though we read that the brothers were "inclined to follow Abimelech". Only Jotham, the youngest son managed to escape death. Jotham cursed Abimelech, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo (people who killed his brothers) to be consumed to each other by fire, before escaping to Beer. True enough, it was a short 3 years later that the curse came to past and Abimelech fought a civil war with his subjects before dying a shameful death, being dealt a fatal move by a woman.

What have I learnt from this saga?

1. Abimelech claimed rule by force, and was opportunistic for power
   
2. Abimelech turned against his own family for his own gains
3. Abimelech wanted to rule men (monarchy), he openly disobeyed God's plan of theocracy (see judges 8:23)
4. Interestingly Abimelech's name in hebrew meant "my father, the king"; something which Gideon obviously wasn't. He is only a judge, a servant of the King.

Anyhow, the take home for me was that God has a plan for His people. Our success in life shouldn't be marked by hunger for power, striving against men unhonorably to reach our goals.
Trust God to provide for you, to lead you where He wants you to become, whether or not you become the next president or a humble toilet cleaner.

What matters is -

Is God the king of your life or you are?