Guest Post by Rich Lusk
I was teaching a Bible study on Judges 9 the other night and it occurred to me just how relevant this chapter is to many of our current issues. (We will eventually get audio up on the TPC website.)
First, anyone who wants a so-called “strong man” to rule should pay close attention to the beginning of this chapter. Abimelech offers to become king over the people of Shechem instead of Gideon’s 70 sons — why decentralize rule into 70 men when you can concentrate it on one man? Of course, as you might expect, when they accept Abimelech’s offer, it turns out to be a disaster.a
Abimelech was a revolutionary and revolution always breeds revolution.b Revolution always breeds anarchy, tyranny, or both, but it is never stable. Revolution leads to more revolution. Revolutions easily become rolling revolutions that steamroll everything in sight. Not surprisingly, Abimelech has rivals who rise up against him in a revolutionary way. A man named Gaal throws a big party, everyone gets drunk, Gaal curses Abimelech, and then inspires the men of Shechem to turn against him.c Abimelech manages to put the revolt down – the men of Shechem pay a huge price for their unstable political loyalties. But then Abimelech, power-hungry and over-confident from his victory, decides to try to expand his territory. He goes after Thebez, a peaceful Jewish town. He traps the people of Thebez in a tower when a woman drops a millstone on him and crushes his headd. Abimelech dies in a shameful and humiliating way, at the hands of a productive woman (note that a millstone is a domestic tool used for making bread).
One interesting thing about a number of stories in the Bible is that God often gives his people victory by causing the wicked to turn against one another. For example, when Gideon fights against the Midianites in Judges 7, the Midianites get confused and turn their swords on one another. This is the point: evil ultimately self-destructs. This is one reason we should be confident even in the face of so much cultural upheaval in our day. It’s not just that stupidity doesn’t work. It’s that evil doesn’t work. Living contrary to the way God made the world, living contrary to God’s law, will always bring disaster and ruin — which means the righteous will always inherit what the wicked leave behind when they fall. In our own day, we are not seeing the wicked turn on one another just yet, but we are seeing hints of it. For example, look at what progressive student protestors have done with progressive-run universities; the “L” and “G” have turned against the “T” amongst the alphabet people; etc.
Here’s another way to put this: Progressives will not make very much progress. Progressivism is a dead end. Think about what Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:1-9. Paul describes what people will be like in the last days.e Paul lists a number of vices in verses 2-5, and a great many of them sound a lot like modern-day progressives – people who are lovers of self, lovers of money, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, lacking self-control, lovers of pleasure, etc. But note what he says in verse 9: “The will not make very much progress.” Or “they will not get very far.”
That’s the bottom line: progressives will not make very much progress. And that should be a hopeful sign for us. Progressivism is not sustainable. It cannot go on forever. Progressives are only making progress into greater and greater evil. As they increasingly lose touch with reality, their movement will self-destruct and come to a grinding halt. The only question is whether or not God’s people will be ready, with millstones in hand, to get to work at building something better when the progressive movement gets crushed.
- I realize that most guys who talk about the rule of a ”strong man” today in Christian nationalist circles are not advocating for it, but rather pointing to its inevitability given the collapse of our constitutional order. But this is still a point worth making. (back)
- Think of the French Revolution — I always feel sorry for those French kids who have to memorize that period of history because it’s such chaos, with a constant cycle of regime churn and change — until the anarchy finally gives way to the tyranny of Napoleon’s dictatorship –- a true “strong man” if there ever was one. (back)
- The party/orgy is another sign of revolutionary decadence. (back)
- an obvious allusion to Genesis 3:15, with the twist that it is the bride/mother who crushes the skull of the serpent in the garden this time; cf. Romans 16:20 (back)
- Whether you take “last days” here to reference the whole inter-advental age, the last days of human history, or the last days of the covenant doesn’t much matter for my point. Paul is giving us a principle here that applies in many situations. (back)
