Judges 9:7-15 – The call to rightly appraisal one's calling

Judges 9:6 briefly describes the coronation of Abimelech which took place at the oak of the pillar in Shechem. Interestingly, according to Joshua 24:26-27, this was the very spot that Joshua gathered the Israelites years earlier and challenged them to remain faithful to God. How ironical! While the coronation was going on, Jotham, the youngest brother who escaped the massacred tried to interrupt the proceedings from a distance. He went somewhere near. Judges 9 said that he went up to Mount Gerizim, which was a safe distance from the oak of the pillar in Shechem. There he told an allegorical story seeking to awake the people of Shechem from the foolishness of installing Abimelech as the king.   

Using trees in his allegory, Jotham told the stories of how the trees were seeking to install a king. Three particular trees namely, the olive, the fig and the vine, were each in consecutive turns invited to be the king. Each of these three trees declined the invitation. Finally, the bramble, a worthless shrub agreed to be the king. This bramble was only accepted and installed as king because it threatened to burn the forest down unless it was made the king. What Jotham was seeking to do was to show that Abimelech was the least qualified to serve as a king. His allegory was to show the sheer foolishness of making Abimelech, such an unqualified person to be the king. This highlights for us the importance of putting the right people in the position of leadership. A leader plays a key role in the advancement of any community, much so the church. When a wrong person is installed as the leader, the community will suffer the effect of the wrong choice.

This story serves as a caution for us to be discerning as we seek to fill the leadership position in our fellowship. We mustn’t put incompetent people that could stifle the progress of our God-given mission.  This story also reminds us that when we are invited to fill a role, we must also carefully evaluate the invitation. We must not accept a role that promotes us into incompetence. The olive, the fig and the vine, all three realized and enjoyed the roles that they each were playing. Why should they leave their comfort zone to do something they knew they were not cut out for? We must learn to rightly appraise our own capacity. Do not try to promote ourselves at the expense of the overall good of the ministry. Paul tells us in Philippians 2:3-4 to “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” Let us seek the best interest of the community which we are a part of for the glory of God!