What do we choose: blessing or curse? (Judg 9:16-21)

During a gap year that I spent in Israel, a Jewish woman at a café struck up a conversation with me. She came from Poland and her father was a well-known rabbi in Eastern Europe who translated the Talmud into Polish; she herself was a practising Jew. When she found out that I was a Christian, she said, ‘Oh that’s all right, it doesn’t matter what you believe in as long as you preserve your humanity and are a good person’. She probably wanted to reassure me without really thinking what her statement implied, namely, that religion was largely neutral territory and somewhat separate from how we lived. Today, this idea has taken hold in Western culture. As long as you don’t hold extreme views that will lead you to harm others, religion is perceived as the practice of private spirituality and communion with (a) God or the divine. It is to comfort and uplift the soul without having a major bearing on our lives, private or public. Yet this is a misunderstanding of traditional religions, especially the Christian faith where life and practice are deeply integrated with the relationship with God.

This is a point implicit in our passage, where Jotham, the one remaining survivor of the massacre against Gideon’s sons (Judg 9:5), continues to interpret Shechem’s alliance with Abimelech. On one level, Jotham’s analysis focuses on the human treachery towards Gideon, who delivered the nation from their enemy (Judg 9:16-18). However, this is connected to God because when Israel broke faith with Him, they no longer valued what He had done for them, nor His instrument, Gideon, who achieved His purposes when Israel cried out to Him (Judg 8:33-35). The geographical locations in the story further connect human actions and the relationship with God. Shechem that has acted so faithlessly was the very place where Joshua renewed the covenant with God before he died (Josh 24:24-25) and which has now become the centre of Baal worship (Judg 9:4). Mount Gerizim, where Jotham invoked a curse against Shechem for their actions (Judg 9:7, 20) was the place where Israel, upon entering the Promised Land, recited God’s blessings for those who obeyed His covenant (Deut 27:9-13).

This story then, and more broadly the Book of Judges, teaches that what Israelites did to each other was ultimately a reflection of their attitude to God. From the time of Joshua’s death, they increasingly worshipped other gods and knowledge of the true God was forgotten (Judg 2:8, 10-11). It may have seemed an innocent thing that mattered little. Israel for a while had deliverers, men and women of faith like Deborah, Barak, even with all his faults, Gideon. Yet, the people placed themselves on a trajectory that led them deeper and deeper into sin and moral evil (Rom 1:18-32), and Abimelech’s story is a real turning point where the weaknesses and occasional problems noticed earlier erupt into dark violence unremitted by any goodness. Jotham, like Moses did to the Israelites, puts the choice before Shechem: if you have acted with truth and integrity then you can enjoy the blessings of your alliance, but if not, then you will be cursed with destroying each other (Judg 9:19-20).

As Christians, this passage challenges us to ask what our lives tell of our relationship with God and whether our relationship to Him makes a difference to how we live. This, in effect, is the choice between blessing and curse, as it was for Israel. They were God’s people and already saved when Moses admonished them to live according to God’s instructions, so it was not about earning salvation by works. Rather, they were warned that the pattern of their lives was going to be affected by the choices they made. We may not see this in our lives in such extreme form as in this story, but we are challenged to let our relationship with God shape our decisions and life practices (Deut 30:15-20).[1]

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[1] Although the passage in Deuteronomy speaks of material blessings and prosperity, this is not a justification for the prosperity gospel. For one thing, Israel at this point did not understand about life after death, so their focus was on this life only and God accommodated His message to this. However, the witness of the whole of Scripture is that God’s blessings are neither automatic, nor always material. See a brief reflection on this issue in the second part of this post (under ‘For interest’).

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