Judges 9:1-21.
Judges 9:1 And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,
Judges 9:2 Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.
Judges 9:3 And his mother's brethren spake of him in the ears of all the men of Shechem all these words: and their hearts inclined to follow Abimelech; for they said, He is our brother.
Judges 9:4 And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baalberith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him.
Judges 9:5 And he went unto his father's house at Ophrah, and slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal, being threescore and ten persons, upon one stone: notwithstanding yet Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left; for he hid himself.
Judges 9:6 And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went, and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.
Judges 9:7 And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.
Judges 9:8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us.
Judges 9:9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honour God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
Judges 9:10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.
Judges 9:11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?
Judges 9:12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.
Judges 9:13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?
Judges 9:14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.
Judges 9:15 And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow: and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon.
Judges 9:16 Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;
Judges 9:17 (For my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:
Judges 9:18 And ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother
Judges 9:19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:
Judges 9:20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.
Judges 9:21 And Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother.
Notwithstanding Abimelech's cruelty to his father's house and his brethren in Judges chapter 9, that will not concern here. The main concern here is about the woman, God in His infinite wisdom has prepared for every man, especially for every Adam mad in His image. (I do not believe everyone is in the image of God, see the essay Newton's third law, laws, and the creation account recorded in Genesis). In verses 1 and 2 of Judges 9, the Bible says,
Judges 9:1 And Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem unto his mother's brethren, and communed with them, and with all the family of the house of his mother's father, saying,
Judges 9:2 Speak, I pray you, in the ears of all the men of Shechem, Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, which are threescore and ten persons, reign over you, or that one reign over you? remember also that I am your bone and your flesh.
Briefly, let us look at two more passages in the Bible, the one in 2 Samuel chapter 5, verses 1 to 3, and also the story of Abraham in Genesis chapter 20, with particular emphasis on verses 10 and 11. Here, in the second passage, we see another "Abimelech". Anyone who doubts the accuracy of the Bible and His inspiration on how it was written, should be having second thoughts by now. Abimelech probably means, the father is king, or the father of a King. In Genesis 26, we see yet another Abimelech, snatching Rebekah from Isaac, just as a previous one had done for Abraham, Isaac's father, by snatching Sarah. Also both times, they quarelled over a well. What is the information God is trying to pass to us n these passages? Abimelech, actually could have been a title , just as people nowadays in some parts of the world use aliases instead of their names .
2 Samuel 5: 1-5,
2nd Samuel 5:1 Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.
2nd Samuel 5:2 Also in time past, when Saul was king over us, thou wast he that leddest out and broughtest in Israel: and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel.
2nd Samuel 5:3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a league with them in Hebron before the LORD: and they anointed David king over Israel.
2nd Samuel 5:4 David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
2nd Samuel 5:5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.
Genesis chapter 20,
Genesis 20:1 And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar.
Genesis 20:2 And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.
Genesis 20:3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.
Genesis 20:4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, LORD, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation?
Genesis 20:5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.
Genesis 20:6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.
Genesis 20:7 Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.
Genesis 20:8 Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid.
Genesis 20:9 Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done.
Genesis 20:10 And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
Genesis 20:11 And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake.
Genesis 20:12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.
Genesis 20:13 And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.
Genesis 20:14 And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife.
Genesis 20:15 And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee.
Genesis 20:16 And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved.
Genesis 20:17 So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.
Genesis 20:18 For the LORD had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife.
In genesis 20:11-12, the Bible states,
"And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing?
And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife." In the previous passage in Judges 9, Abimelech went to his mother's brethren and the house of his mother's father, no mention of the house of his father, but in the case of Abraham, mention is mostly made of his father, no mention of his mother's house, when the Bible talks about his wife. This mystery is very deep. I will not lay claim to know all the facts and mysteries of the passages, but I would try.
You see, your wife is your sister. This is the fact! Your wife is your sister. She is the same species as you, she belongs to the same family, the same clan and to the same tribe (spiritually). The Hebrew word for family is Mispahah. The term includes such things as clan, nation, or species or kind. Another word mainly used for for family is Bayith, house. The Greek word for family is Patria, having the sense of clan. Inside every family, as God intends, is a father, a mother, and also the children. As I said family also includes the clan in the Bible. The word family is also related in the Hebrew to the word for servant girl. Your wife is a member of your family in Christ who is also a servant girl of Christ. Anyway, any Adam is a sort of Servant girl in relation to Christ himself.
So in the case of Abraham, mention is made of his father' house, because in this case it is the spiritual house. We are all children of Abraham by faith. In the second case of Abimelech, it is the physical house, the flesh, the desire, the house of strife. So you see, there are two houses, the physical house and the spiritual house. As Christians, being kings and priests over God's house we have a father in the faith, Abraham and also we have a father, from whom we all derive, God himself, hence we could all be called Abimlech, father of a king, for we are kings and we have a father, God Himself. Also, we have a mother spiritually, Jesus Christ the Son of God, for by him we were born into God's kingdom, and we are all the bride of Christ.
So as I said, there are two houses, the spiritual and the physical. Bayith, meaning family or house is derived from the letter Beth, represented by a house, and also having number 2. In Genesis 3:23, Adam seeing his wife said this, "And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of Man." The word flesh is the Hebrew word Baser. It is also related to the word "to declare good news, bear tidings, preach, show forth." One primary objective of every Christian is to preach the the word of God. Doing so, God will provide you with your wife. The Hebrew word for "bones" is 'etsem, derived from two words or should I say which can be broken into two words, 'ets, tree and 'em, mother. So you see the reason in Judges 9, where mention of trees was made. There is a correlation here. Actually the word for someone's kinsman on the father's side is more a fit for the word 'em here, itself starting with the letter Ayin, while the one for mother starts with the letter aleph. But you see, you cannot see the one you are married on the father's side being a representation of spiritual things and of Christ. Hence, the word 'em here starts with letter Ayin, which is represented by eyes, and which is also the word for eyes in the Hebrew, while the word for mother is represented by the letter Aleph, the staring letter for the word 'Ayin, meaning nothing. Sometimes I think the letters Ayin and Aleph have such a close connection in the Bible and sometimes pass on a message to us that we always fail to catch.
When God created Eve and presented her to Adam, Adam exclaimed: "This time, bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! This one shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken from man" (Genesis 2:23). Spontaneously saying "this time," he expressed his delight and emotional arousal -- his love at first sight -- for his newfound mate. His wife was actually taken from 'adam, the children of men, that is, Adam, just to reiterate the point here again. She is not taken from the spiritual house as such, though she is a member of it.
Physically your wife is from the family or tribe or clan of your mother or the tribe or family of your mother's father. Whether we believe it or not, marriage is a thing of the flesh, no matter how spiritual we might want to be. There is no marriage in heaven, Christ says, or should I say in the resurrection people do not marry.. Apostle Paul said something in 1 Corinthians 7. He says, those who who would marry will have tribulation in the flesh. So marriage is a thing of the Flesh. Hence your wife is either from your mother's house, or from the the house of your mother's father, if you are an Adam. As I said earlier, just to repeat for emphasis because of its importance here, house includes tribe, nation or clan or the same species. Also you and your wife share in the same tree of life.
Spiritually, your wife is of the "house of Christ," if you are a Christian. She is your "best friend," hence the term " bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Anyway, being your best friend also means she is your friend. The Bible says in Songs of Solomon chapter 6, verse 13, "Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will we see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies. Some other translations say as the "dance" of two armies or of two angels. She belongs to these two houses, your physical house, and your spiritual house. The word dance in this passage is the Hebrew word Meholah, quite similar to a Hebrew word for sickness. By the "dance" of Christ, he by his power has redeemed us from all disease and sickness. Hence, another word, very similar to 'etsem, the word for bones, is the Hebrew word 'atsam, which means to be strong, be mighty, be vast, numerous. It also means to shut the eyes, to close the eyes. You have to fall into a deep sleep like Adam, by closing your eyes to your physical desires and lusts, so that God can show you your wife. Christ being stronger than the "strongman" that bound us hitherto has released us to go on and become sons of God. By his release, we are free from sin, and we have an inheritance in Christ, which includes a physical wife.
The Bible in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9 says, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of men, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." You cannot see Christ in this "spiritual house" to which you are married to him( His Glory would simply consume you, you still being in your sins), but you would be able to see your physical bride when you are fully washed from your sins. The Bible says the carnal man does not know the things of God, neither can he receive hem, he still being in the flesh, but the spiritual man is able to receive the things of God. Hence verse ten of the same 1 Corinthians chapter 2 says, he has revealed them to us by His spirit.We have his spirit because we are sons of God.
