Judges

Posted on by stmaggiep

This sermon was given by Rev Helen on Wednesday 23 August 2023. Here it is for you again.

We all like a good parable, a story with a meaning hidden only for those who wish to see it. A story of a good future to come, mainly alluding to the Kingdom Of Heaven/God. You don’t just have parables in the New Testament they can come elsewhere like in todays reading from the Book of Judges. We have a parable of three trees and a bramble bush, foreseeing troubling times for the people of Israel.

To understand that you have to look at the book of Judges as this passage comes right in the middle. The book starts after the Israelites have taken the land of Cana back from the Canaanites who had settled there, however they don’t drive them all out so live alongside them. They are told to obey God’s commandments and stay faithful. However this didn’t happen and over time they became distant from God and started to adopt other behaviours and culture around them like worshiping idols and human sacrifice. It’s a very disturbing and very violent book showing Israel’s fall from Grace. I don’t say this lightly but I don’t advise engaging with Judges if you’re having a bad day, it’s not an easy read.

Today’s reading is on the cusp of the downwards spiral let me put it into context. The Judges in the stories aren’t the type we think of in a court room, they were like tribal chiefs for each of the tribes of Israel and the book speaks of their varying levels of success, it starts with the good ones like Deborah and Othniel but then detail those who weren’t so good like Gideon, Jephthah and Samson. These not so good judges and their lives or the decisions they have made are also symbolic of the nation of Israel as it falls into disarray.

Then in the middle we have this parable of the three trees and the bramble bush. Jotham, one of the ok-ish judges tells it. He speaks of three trees, the olive tree, the fig tree and the vine tree. Each of these trees symbolise the gifs and the good of the people of Israel. The Olive tree which produces the oil to anoint kings, as our own king Charles was anointed with oil at his coronation. The fig tree Israel’s material blessings, a fruitfulness of the people and finally a vine tree, the fruit of the vine which shows Israel’s privilege, but none of those trees wish to rule they remain silent: has that corruption and slide into decent already started to happen? The Bramble bush comes next which is cursed, fruitlessness, self promoting and hurts people. This is the choice that is taken and it is a sad thing but it is so vivid of what was going to happen as the judges described in the next part of the book Gideon, Jephthah and Samson. Gideon, he’s ok wins some battles but when the spoils are gathered the gold is melted down and made into a statute which the people of Israel started to worship, like the Canaanites not their God. Jephthah who was bad, wanting to win a battle and offers God the first person who comes out of his house as a sacrifice to win, not how God wants to be praised and who is the first person to come out of Jephthah home? His daughter, his only child who now has to be a sacrifice, Jephthah is so distant from God he doesn’t know what God wants from him or how to worship. Then finally Samson and the story of Samson and Delilah has been so romanticised but he is really a promiscuous, violent and arrogant man, not good. The bramble bush is definitely very relevant and very prevalent these people and finally the fall of the people Judges 17 to the end and those stories are very disturbing. And of course when you look at the Kings who came next and the invasions of Babylon and the Persians, there’s bad times ahead.

So do these trees represent the future, it’s not great now but things will get better, when the people turn back to and start to listen to God. There are those who are faithful to God who are blessed like King David, he has his moments but he was ok, Elijah, the other prophets, Daniel. They stay faithful to God and they survive against those who challenge them. Elijah having his altar set on fire to prove God’s power when the Canaanites’ gods can’t or Daniel surviving the night he is forced to spend in the Lions Den. God is good to those people who are faithful.

However will there be a time when those trees come to reign over the people of Israel, long after the Lords of Shechem first hear the parable. Will there be a king who is anointed with oil, perhaps by a woman just before death, a sign of burial or a sign of coronation as king. Will there be a sign of the vine? The redness of grapes like blood being spilled to save those people who the king reigns over from their fall from grace, using the fruit of the vine to remember this act in the future. Maybe like the fig tree, the blessing that will be given to those people by their king, perhaps before he leaves them to join God, the light shining through the sign of the suffering that he endured to save those he rules over. I mean it’s all supplication and of course we’ll never know for sure as this was long, long before Jesus was born but it’s with thinking about isn’t it? Is this Jesus who is being described or though about in this model of kingship that will come in the future?? The person who would help the people turn back to and worship God how God would want and appreciate.

That’s the point of the book of Judges, despite the Harrowing stories and the fall of a troubled nation it is a moral tale, a story of hope. Hope that things can and will get better. These stories from the past are pointing to the peoples future hope. Despite feeling that this is a corrupt world, things are going badly and will never improve but never lose faith and hope. If you stay faithful to God,  stay faithful to Jesus, the one who came to teach us how to worship and appreciate God but also to save us. The despite the troubles and however long they may last if we stay faithful and don’t lose sight of God all will be well. Amen.

Useful resources on the book of Judges:

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