In Judges 9 the usual cycle of apostasy, oppression, groaning, and deliverance is put on pause while judgment arises, not from outside of Israel, but from within. The previous judge, Gideon, had not finished well; and his sins appeared to forecast what was going to follow in Israel after he died. Although he turned down the offer of kingship, he nonetheless lived like a king, gathered a harem, accumulated wealth, and made a golden ephod that became a snare to him, his family, and Israel. Yep, that’s the same Gideon from Sunday school class. Ironically, the man who rejected the kingship named the son of his concubine in Shechem, Abimelech, which means ‘my father is king’. It’s no surprise, then, that Abimelech coveted a place of kingship as he grew older. You could imagine him thinking (based on his name), ‘If my father was king then someone has to be his successor, right?’
