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Context No. 3949 of 4322 · Judges

Context · Reflection

Judges 9:34-38: in context

34Abimelech rose up, and all the people who were with him, by night, and they laid wait against Shechem in four companies. 35Gaal the son of Ebed went out, and stood in the entrance of the gate of the city. Abimelech rose up, and the people who were with him, from the ambush. 36When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, “Behold, people are coming down from the tops of the mountains.” Zebul said to him, “You see the shadows of the mountains as if they were men.” 37Gaal spoke again and said, “Behold, people are coming down by the middle of the land, and one company comes by the way of the oak of Meonenim.” 38Then Zebul said to him, “Now where is your mouth, that you said, ‘Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?’ Isn’t this the people that you have despised? Please go out now and fight with them.”

Gaal, a newcomer to Shechem, had boldly boasted against Abimelech: who is Abimelech, that we should serve him? But now, as Abimelech's forces advance on the city from their ambush, Gaal's confidence falters. Watching the troops come down the mountains, he hesitates, unsure of what he sees, and Zebul throws his earlier bravado back at him: where is your mouth now, that said, who is Abimelech that we should serve him? Now go out and fight the ones you despised.

There is a pointed lesson in this moment. Gaal had been full of brave words when there was no danger, boasting of what he would do to Abimelech. But when the test came, when the enemy actually appeared, his big talk deserted him. It is a picture of the emptiness of boasting, of words not backed by reality. It is easy to make bold claims from a place of safety, to talk big about what we would do or how strong we are, and quite another to make good on those words when the real test comes. Where is your mouth now? is a question worth asking ourselves whenever we are tempted to boast.

Am I tempted to bold talk and boasting from a place of safety, and would my words hold up in the hour of testing, or is my confidence, like Gaal's, empty talk not backed by reality?

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