JUDGES - Christian Identity Forum

Abimelech: Israells First King 16’7
expect. Fire will come from the bramble (Abimelech) and devour
his kingdom. Then Jotham adds a second thought: Fire
will come from the Shechemites and devour Abimelech. They
are not productive trees – they also are brambles.
The wrath of the two brambles, Abimelech and the Shechemites,
will mutually destroy one another. Like the Gingham
Dog and the Calico Cat, they will fight all night, and in the
morning no one will fmd them, because they will have devoured
one another. Evil is self-destructive. Each man wants to play
god, and each man seeks to murder those who thwart his plans.
Each wants to have his own wrath propitiated, by sacrificing the
troublemaker. Each wants to expiate the problem out of the situation,
and it is always the other guy who is the problem.
Because of this fact, the brambles cannot win in history.
Eventually they destroy each other. This same point is made in
Zechariah 1:18-21. The four horns represent the bramble-powers
of the world. Horns represent power and dominion, whether on
the four corners of God’s altar, or on the helmets of Vikings.
The bramble horns acquire wealth not by work, but by taking
what they want through force or taxation.
The carpenters, smiths, or craftsmen represent God’s people.
They just quietly go about their business of laboring in the
garden of God, working to produce good things, being thrifty,
helping their neighbors, and so on. One would think that such
hard working people will always be a prey to the tyrants of this
world; but no! Scripture says that the craftsmen will overcome
the horns! A civilization based on hard work and capital accumulation
will eventually overcome a civilization based on theft,
rapine, and violence. This is due in part to the fact that God will
give power to His own (Zech. 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power,
but by My Spirit, says the Lord”). It is also due to the selfdestructiveness
of evil.
The destruction of evil culture is seen in Zechariah 14:12-15.
Evil civilizations are destroyed in four complementary ways:
1. They rot away due to their own inner corruption and will
to death, v. 12 (compare Prov. 8:36).
2. They are destroyed by mutual hate and strife, v. 13 (the
theme of Judges 9).
3. They are conquered by the militant kingdom of God, by
the preaching of the gospel, v. 14 (compare 2 Cor. 10:4).