Context No. 3835 of 4322 · Judges

Judges 9:21-25: in context

21Jotham ran away and fled, and went to Beer and lived there, for fear of Abimelech his brother. 22Abimelech was prince over Israel three years. 23Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech, 24that the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother who killed them, and on the men of Shechem who strengthened his hands to kill his brothers. 25The men of Shechem set an ambush for him on the tops of the mountains, and they robbed all who came along that way by them; and Abimelech was told about it.

Abimelech had murdered seventy of his brothers to seize power, and for a time he seemed to have gotten away with it, ruling over Israel. But the passage records how justice began to catch up with him. God sent a spirit of discord between Abimelech and the men of Shechem who had helped him, so that the very people who had backed his crime turned against him.

The text states the reason plainly: that the violence done to the seventy sons might be avenged on Abimelech and on those who strengthened his hand to kill his brothers. What stands out is that bloodguilt is not forgotten by God, even when human justice fails to act. Abimelech and his accomplices had escaped human punishment, but God's justice was at work beneath the surface, and it began, in his own time, to turn their treachery back on their own heads. There is a sober assurance here. Wrong that seems to go unpunished is not overlooked by God; in his time, and by means we may not foresee, he brings hidden evil to account.

Do I trust that God does not forget wrong done, even when human justice fails, and that his righteous judgment reaches, in his own time, what escapes every earthly reckoning?

Sources

Judges 9:23: "Then God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem; and the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech."
Judges 9:24: "That the violence done to the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come, and that their blood might be laid on Abimelech their brother who killed them."
Judges 9:56: "Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did to his father, in killing his seventy brothers."