Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Kingdom Are You a Part Of? | Judges | Judges 9:22-57

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. And I'm Patrick Miller. Right now, we're going through the Book of Judges. If you haven't subscribed to our new podcast, Truth Over Tribe, I'd encourage you to take some time and go do that right now. We've got interviews about culture, politics, and the things you really care about with people like John Mark Comer, John Tyson, Oz Guinness, and many, many others. It's going to be a great podcast.

Starting point is 00:00:33 I've been excited about the interviews and the topics that we've taken on. So stop right now. Go subscribe to Truth Over Tribe on your podcast player. There's a new Facebook ad right now, and it's advertising its popular groups feature. So according to the ad, you can go to Facebook and type in something like, I'm feeling lost. And then you can get picked up or found by various groups where you can fit in. Maybe it's doing something new, doing something you enjoy, or just being part of a conversation. Facebook has been doing these kinds of ads for a while, and they're tapping into something so

Starting point is 00:01:06 very much within us, the need to belong. We'll have this desire within, the desire to belong. Because we want to feel grounded, we might seek our ancestry. We might reconnect with high school friends. We might join a hobby group like cycling or we might start a book club. Belonging gives us a sense of value, of confidence, and a group of people with whom we identify. identify. In ancient Israel, there was a man named Abimelech who really wanted to belong, and he was a salty character. His father was Gideon, and he had 70 other half-brothers. Abimelik might have been excluded, though, from the family reunions because of his birth mother. She was Gideon's concubine. Abimelik's name means, my father is king, and this is interesting because his father, Gideon, wasn't actually a king.

Starting point is 00:01:59 In fact, Gideon publicly declined Israel's request to be named king in an effort to honor God as the true king of the nation. But it didn't stop him from privately acting like one, as he took on some of the traditions and lifestyles of the pagan kings around him, like having a concubine. So did Gideon name his son, Abimelech, so Abimelech would feel like he belonged, even though his mother was from a different place? Or did the name my father's king actually make Gideon feel like he? he belonged, like he was dipping his toe in the waters of the pagan kingship and was actually part of something bigger. Either way, the name might have planted some of the seeds in Abimelik's heart that caused heartache and trouble for the rest of his life. What might have been a hidden desire for a kingship and a dynasty within Gideon became a full-fledged quest for power and

Starting point is 00:02:52 dominion for his son Abimalik. And Abimelik's rule is a true life story of someone who spent a lot of years trying to belong in the wrong kingdom. Let's be honest, have you ever hurt someone in a quest to belong? I know I have. Have you ever excluded someone or embarrassed them or gossiped about them to gain status in a group? I know I have. Or have you ever excluded someone so that you could be included? I know I have. Abimelik takes the cake as it goes with damaging and hurting people so we could figure out his place in the world. He had to kill 70 half-brothers just to feel like the legitimate son of a king and convince Israel to make him a leader. And after just three years of ruling over Shechem, his story took an even worse downfall. Judges 923 describes what happened. God stirred up

Starting point is 00:03:46 animosity between Abimelik and the citizens of Shechem. So they acted treacherously against Abimelik. God did this in order that the crime against Chishchev. God did this in order that the crime against Jerobiel, that's Gideon's, 70 sons, the shedding of their blood might be avenged on their brother Abimelech and on the citizens of Shukham, who had helped him murder his brothers. So God brought justice for the blood that was shed, and he used Abimeluk's own people to work against him instead of for him. That made Abimelik feel unstable and afraid. If your tribe is against you and your kingdom is fledging, you have to do something to maintain your balance of power. Well, Abimelech did a lot of things.

Starting point is 00:04:28 And at first his efforts were successful. When someone rose up to lead the citizens against Abimelech, at first his forces were stronger. And he had a counterattack that was well planned and executed. But that victory only fueled his tyranny. He wasn't satisfied with just that. He wanted to destroy anyone who might ever, even in the future, betray him, insecure about what was going on in the minds of Shechem citizens, Abimelech assumed they were all potential enemies.

Starting point is 00:04:58 So he took up arms against the unarmed and he forced the people, including women and children, to run to shelter in Sheckham's tower. And there, acting only in accordance with evil, he burned the tower down, killing everyone in it. But his path of destruction and his thirst for power still wasn't finished. And he moved on to another city where the people did the same thing, run to the tower for refuge. But this time the outcome was different.

Starting point is 00:05:22 A brave and intentional woman holding a millstone placed herself strategically over the door of the tower. And when Abemalek approached, she dropped the millstone on his head fatally wounding his body and his pride. The son of a king couldn't go down in history, though, being killed by a woman. So he asked a servant to drive a sword through his heart before he died of her wound. And there, reader, we have the true story, the true ending, the true desires and complicated thoughts of a son. of a king living a life that never measured up to what he really wanted. And we can't help but hear that story and see a need to examine what's within. How are we prone to identify with things other than God's kingdom to find a sense of belonging and security? Just taking a look at the places where we

Starting point is 00:06:09 feel like we belong, would our sense of security or identity be threatened if we opened it up for other people to come in, to share in fellowship or the influence that we have there? Would newcomers threaten our position, our power, our influence? That's a good way to know that we are wanting to be king more than be a part of God's kingdom. What measures do we take to retain positions and influence within a group? Do we have to look inward and to make everyone look inward to feel safe and secure? Do we have to only meet with and hang out with people who think the same way? Can we only celebrate the work of people who think like us and act like us? I know that when I'm doing these things, I'm in an unhealthy thought process. I've lost sight of whose kingdom are really living in.

Starting point is 00:06:56 And I'm also just closing off my ability to see outside of myself and to see other ideas and opinions and ways to learn and grow. There's a verse we see a lot. It's on wooden signs inside our houses, and sometimes it's on church marquees. Sometimes it's used to distinguish a business and let us know it's owned by a Christian. From Joshua 2415. As for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. This is Joshua talking to the Israelite people about the choice they have to make, to cast off anything that's less than living in God's kingdom, to worship the one true God alone. If we're living in accordance with this verse, we're constantly examining anything other than God that identifies us as his people. But I think what we've done

Starting point is 00:07:44 to this verse instead is to put bullet points beneath it that describe us and her choices and that justify us as people who are serving God. And we've misrepresented to ourselves and others that these choices are what makes us or identifies us as God's people. We've turned the kingdom into Jesus serving us because we've made the right choices. And this is honestly just not far off of what Abimelik was thinking and doing with swords and fire instead of social media. And words of fire. But the good news is we aren't without hope. We have hope because of our namesake. Abimelik was son of a king, and Gideon wasn't the king. Jesus is. Abelmaelic was created to serve and live a life of faith for God, adopted into sonship by the creator of the universe. Galatians 326 gives us

Starting point is 00:08:36 true words of belonging, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. It isn't through fighting and winning, excluding, proving, striving. It's through faith in Jesus Christ and its work for us on the cross that we are called sons and daughters of the true king. As sons and daughters of the true king, we don't just see the sins of the world, but we see the sins of our own hearts. We mourn the conflictions of our own hearts and the divisions in the people around us, and we lean into the cross for our future and our hope. We imagine the kingdom like it's described in Revelation 7.9. It says, after this, I looked. And there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the

Starting point is 00:09:25 lamb. We look forward to a kingdom where worship, grace, mercy, and compassion for all people mark the lives of believers. And we work hard to build that kind of community around us today. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually. If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.

Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Kingdom Are You a Part Of? | Judges | Judges 9:22-57

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