Judges 9:15,20,52 KJB
Sometimes, a group of basically good people will select a murderous criminal to be their leader because they mistake his pretense of being a strong man with his being a wise leader. These evil leaders have a talent for persuasion. They convince the people that they have a certain group of enemies that if they allow the evil ruler to get rid of, then the people will be liberated from their threat, and they will have a better life. Such evil leaders will appoint other evil men to authority in every position in their society to protect themselves from the good people who will sooner or later realize that they are being led by criminals. Too often good people also happen to be naive. The Bible records that an evil man named Abimelech convinced the people of the city of Shechem that he should be their king because the seventy sons of Gideon were their enemies. The people gave him money which he used to hire other evil men to follow him. He and his evil followers then murdered seventy of Gideon's sons who were actually his own half- brothers. Judges 9:1-6 (KJB).
But one of the sons of Gideon named Jotham escaped from this slaughter and from a safe distance he shouted out a prophetic parable to the people of Shechem. Jotham related that the trees, which symbolized a society, asked two fruit bearing trees and a grape vine to be their kings. Being bearers of fruit, they symbolized good people, but they all refrained from being leaders because they just wanted to tend to their own business. Too often, good people reject being leaders because politics can be an ugly business. Jotham further related that then the trees asked a worthless bramble, which symbolized Abimelech, to be their king. The bramble replied that he would be their king if they would "trust in my shadow" which meant he would provide no real protection for them. But if they made him king, and then rejected him, he would burn them with fire which meant he would slaughter as many of them as needed in order to stay in power. Judges 9:7-21 (KJB). God sometimes uses His fiery wrath to temporarily kill evil people, and even good people who serve them, but, in the end of the world, He will cause all of their good natures to repent and return to faith in Him as their Savior because He created them all in His image, and they all belong to Him. Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 1:31; Revelation 5:11-14 (KJB). But the Devil also has his fiery wrath which he uses to kill good people in the hope that they will remain dead for eternity. But God can never lose anything He has ever created. Genesis 2:17; Romans 7:23-25; Ecclesiastes 3:14 (KJB).
Jotham reminded the people of Shechem that his father, Gideon, had liberated them from the tyranny of the Midianites, and therefore, his sons should have been their leaders, but they allowed Abimelech to kill them all except for him. Jotham then sarcastically appealed to their conscience when he told them that if they had been right in making Abimelech their king, they should rejoice over it. Jotham then made a prophecy which is universally true. He prophesied that evil leaders will often raise up followers who will fight will each other for dominance in their societies. This is an evil fire that comes from the Devil. Jotham's prophecy came true because Abimelech had to go to war with other evil leaders who desired to take his place. Abimelech used the fire of the Devil to kill a lot of people. Finally, Abimelech used fire to burn the door of a tower that held some of his enemies, but a woman threw down a millstone that mortally wounded Abimelech. He knew he was dying but being too proud to have been killed by a woman, he ordered his amourbearer to finish him off with his sword. God sometimes gets tired of the fire of the Devil, and God will use other means to kill evil people, sometimes in ways that humiliate them. Judges 9:22-57 (KJB).
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