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After Gideon was dead, the
Israelites again forgot God, and worshiped idols. They had none now
to warn them, and they were glad to have their own way. We do not
worship images, as the Israelites did; but we often forget God, and love
the world, and ourselves, and our pleasures, better than we love
Him. If we love anything better than we love God, we make an idol of
it. Many people make idols of money, and possessions, and self; and
they serve them, as the Israelites served Baal. Gideon
had many sons, but they were not like him. The name of one was
Abimelech. He was a very ambitious man, and wanted to be king.
He went to Shechem, and asked the people there, to let him reign over
them. The men of Shechem were pleased with Abimelech, and they
attended to what he said and gave him money, and promised to make him
king. Then he went home to Ophrah, and called his brothers together,
and killed them upon one stone; all but the youngest, named Jotham, who
hid himself, and escaped. Why did Abimelech kill his brothers?
Because he feared they might wish to reign too, and he wanted to be king
alone. When the brothers
were dead, the men of Shechem made Abimelech king. He reigned three
years; and his brother Jotham lived far away from him, because he was
afraid of Abimelech. Was Abimelech very happy when he was
king? No; wicked men cannot be very happy; power and riches cannot
make them so. The people of
Shechem soon grew tired of their cruel king. God remembered all that
Abimelech had done to his brothers; and now He was going to punish
him. The people in Shechem rebelled, and would obey Abimelech no
more. So Abimelech came and fought against them, and conquered the
rebellious Shechemites. Some of them escaped to an idol temple, and
hid there. But Abimelech and his soldiers cut down boughs from the
tree, and put the boughs under the place where the people were hid, and
set it on fire; and the people were all burnt to death. Then
Abimelech went to a city named Thebez, and tried to take it. The
people in Thebez went up to a high strong tower; and Abimelech was under
the tower fighting against it. Then a woman on the top of the tower
took a very large millstone, and threw it down upon Abimelech's
head. Abimelech was much hurt by the stone, and felt that he must
soon die, and he cried to a soldier near him, "Thrust thy sword into
me, and slay me; for I will not let people say that a woman killed
me." So the soldier thrust his sword into him, and Abimelech
fell down dead. God punished this wicked, proud, ambitious man, and
all the wicked people who had helped him. It
is a fearful thing to make God angry; He always punishes His
enemies. Perhaps he spares them a long time, and lets them live many
years in sin and cruelty; but if they do not repent, He must punish them
at last. He sees the wicked things people do, and writes all down in
the book of His remembrance. All our sins are there; and in the day
of judgment it must be opened, and read before the world, and before the
holy angels. What can blot out our sins from that book? The
blood of Jesus Christ alone. Ask forgiveness then from Him; and pray
that your name may be written in the book of life, with those of all His
people who love and serve Him.
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