The Bramble's Bonfire: The Wages of Sin Text: Judges 9:42-49
Introduction: The Inescapable Harvest
The book of Judges is a brutal and necessary book. It is a record of what happens when men do what is right in their own eyes, which is another way of saying they do what is wrong in God's eyes. It is a downward spiral, a societal decay that accelerates with each passing generation. And in the dead center of this book, we find the sordid tale of Abimelech, the anti-judge. He is not a deliverer raised up by God; he is a usurper, a bramble-king, raised up by his own ambition and the foolishness of the men of Shechem.
In the verses preceding our text, Jotham, the lone surviving son of Gideon, pronounced a curse upon Abimelech and his co-conspirators in Shechem. He told a parable where the useful trees, the olive, fig, and vine, refused the kingship, but the worthless bramble eagerly accepted it. And Jotham's curse was this: "But if you have not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume you, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and let fire come out from you, the citizens of Shechem and Beth Millo, and consume Abimelech!" (Judges 9:20). This was not a wish; it was a prophecy. It was a declaration of how the moral universe, under God's governance, actually works. Sin is not just a violation of an arbitrary rule; it is a self-destructive force. It is a fire that, once kindled, consumes those who lit it.
What we are about to read is the outworking of that curse. It is the grisly harvest of a crop sown in blood and treachery. Abimelech and the men of Shechem made a covenant, a pact sealed with the blood of Gideon's seventy sons. And now, God sends an evil spirit between them (Judges 9:23), not to make them sin, but to ripen the sin that was already there. God is sovereign over all of this. He does not author the sin, but He directs the consequences. He uses the wrath of man to praise Him. The treachery they used to gain power is the same treachery that will now tear them apart. They are caught in the gears of their own wicked machine. This passage is a graphic, bloody, and fiery demonstration that you reap what you sow. There is no escaping the divine equation.
The Text
Now it happened the next day, that the people went out to the field, and it was told to Abimelech. So he took his people and divided them into three companies and lay in wait in the field; then he looked, and behold, the people were coming out from the city. So he arose against them and struck them down. Then Abimelech and the company who was with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the city gate; but the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and struck them down. So Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he captured the city and killed the people who were in it; then he tore the city down and sowed it with salt.
Then all the lords of the tower of Shechem heard of it, and they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith. And it was told to Abimelech that all the lords of the tower of Shechem were gathered together. So Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him; and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees and lifted it and laid it on his shoulder. Then he said to the people who were with him, "What you have seen me do, hurry and do likewise." And all the people also cut down each one his branch and followed Abimelech and put them on the inner chamber and set the inner chamber on fire over those inside, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem also died, about one thousand men and women.
(Judges 9:42-49 LSB)
The Treacherous Field (vv. 42-45)
We begin with the grim strategy of Abimelech.
"Now it happened the next day, that the people went out to the field, and it was told to Abimelech. So he took his people and divided them into three companies and lay in wait in the field; then he looked, and behold, the people were coming out from the city. So he arose against them and struck them down." (Judges 9:42-43)
The rebellion against Abimelech had been dealt a blow, but it was not extinguished. The people of Shechem, perhaps thinking the worst was over, go out to their fields. This was an act of normalcy, an attempt to get back to life. But for a tyrant like Abimelech, there is no going back. His rule was founded on violence, and it can only be maintained by more violence. Forgiveness and reconciliation are not in the vocabulary of a bramble-king.
Abimelech employs a classic military ambush. He divides his forces, a tactic his father Gideon used under God's direction for a holy purpose (Judges 7). Abimelech mimics the form of his father's prowess but without the substance of his father's anointing. This is what godless men do. They take the patterns of righteousness and use them for wicked ends. He uses wisdom, strategy, and patience, all gifts from God, to slaughter the very people who made him king. This is the nature of sin; it takes good things and perverts them.
"Then Abimelech and the company who was with him rushed forward and stood in the entrance of the city gate; but the other two companies rushed upon all who were in the field and struck them down." (Judges 9:44)
The trap is sprung with brutal efficiency. Abimelech himself cuts off the escape route. By seizing the gate, he ensures that those in the field have nowhere to run. The other two companies then become a meat grinder, moving through the fields and slaughtering the trapped Shechemites. The very fields that were meant to give them bread now receive their blood. This is a picture of covenantal curse. The blessings of the land are turned into instruments of death because of their rebellion against God's order.
"So Abimelech fought against the city all that day, and he captured the city and killed the people who were in it; then he tore the city down and sowed it with salt." (Judges 9:45)
The slaughter is not enough. Abimelech's rage is total. He takes the city, kills everyone left, and then demolishes it. But the final act is the most significant: he sowed it with salt. This was not about agriculture; it was a symbolic act of utter and permanent desolation. Sowing a conquered city with salt was an ancient curse, declaring the land barren and uninhabitable forever. It was a statement that this place was to be wiped from memory, a monument to a failed covenant. What is the irony here? The word "salt" is often associated with preservation and covenant in the Bible, a "covenant of salt" (Numbers 18:19). But here, the symbol is inverted. Their treacherous covenant with Abimelech, their Baal-berith or "Lord of the Covenant," has produced the ultimate anti-covenant blessing: total annihilation. They have been salted with judgment.
The Bramble's Bonfire (vv. 46-49)
The remaining leaders of Shechem flee to what they believe is their last refuge.
"Then all the lords of the tower of Shechem heard of it, and they entered the inner chamber of the temple of El-berith." (Judges 9:46)
The "tower of Shechem" likely refers to a fortified citadel, and within it, the leaders retreat to the stronghold of their pagan temple. They run to their god, Baal-berith, the "Lord of the Covenant." This is where they made their treacherous deal with Abimelech. This is where they got the seventy shekels of silver to fund the murder of Gideon's sons (Judges 9:4). They are fleeing to the scene of their original crime, seeking sanctuary from the consequences of that very crime. But a false god is no refuge. A house built on a foundation of blood and idolatry cannot stand. It is a spiritual deathtrap.
"So Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon... and Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees... Then he said to the people who were with him, 'What you have seen me do, hurry and do likewise.' And all the people also cut down each one his branch and followed Abimelech and put them on the inner chamber and set the inner chamber on fire over those inside..." (Judges 9:48-49)
Here we see the curse of Jotham fulfilled with terrifying precision. Remember the parable? The trees asked the bramble to be king, and the bramble replied, "If in truth you anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shadow; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon" (Judges 9:15). Abimelech is the worthless bramble. And now, he literally brings the fire. He goes to a wooded mountain, cuts down branches, and leads his men in turning the temple of Baal-berith into a funeral pyre.
The fire has come out of the bramble and is consuming the "lords" of Shechem. The very covenant they made has turned on them and is destroying them. The money from this temple hired the killers; now the temple itself becomes the oven. The judgment is perfectly, poetically just. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man, or a city, sows, that will he also reap. They sowed blood and treachery, and they are reaping a harvest of fire and death.
"...so that all the men of the tower of Shechem also died, about one thousand men and women." (Judges 9:49)
The destruction is total. A thousand men and women, the leadership of the city, are incinerated in the house of their false god. Their idol is silent. Their covenant lord is impotent. He cannot save them from the fire of the bramble they anointed. This is the end of all idolatry. It promises security and delivers destruction. It promises life and pays out in death. The wages of sin is death, and here the paycheck is delivered in a cloud of smoke and ash.
Conclusion: The True King and the Consuming Fire
This is a dark and bloody chapter. It is a story of how sin, when it is mature, brings forth death. The covenant between Abimelech and Shechem was a microcosm of Israel's larger apostasy. They rejected the rule of God through Gideon, a flawed but appointed judge, and opted for a king of their own making, a king who was "bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh" (Judges 9:2). And the result was mutual destruction.
This story is a warning against all man-centered politics, all man-centered religion. When we reject God as our king, we do not get freedom. We get tyrants. We get brambles. And brambles only know how to do one thing in the end, and that is burn. The fire that consumed the tower of Shechem is a type, a foreshadowing, of a much greater fire. Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). He is a holy God who will not tolerate rivals and will not let sin go unpunished.
But the story does not end here. The book of Judges, with all its blood and chaos, is screaming for a king. Not a bramble-king like Abimelech, who takes life, but a true king who gives His life. This entire sordid episode points us to our need for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Son, not the murderous son of a concubine. He establishes a new covenant, not with silver from a pagan temple, but with His own precious blood. He calls us to take refuge, not in a tower of idolatry, but in the shadow of His cross.
The fire of God's judgment fell on Him there, so that all who flee to Him might be saved. For those who reject Him, who, like the men of Shechem, choose a king of their own making, there remains only a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries (Hebrews 10:27). The choice before us is the same choice that was before Shechem. Will we have the bramble or the vine? Will we trust in our man-made covenants, or will we trust in the covenant of salt, the everlasting covenant sealed in the blood of Jesus? One leads to a bonfire of judgment. The other leads to the water of life.