Week Two - Talking Trees and a Thorn Bush King

 Welcome to Week Two of our Bible Study! This week, we will officially jump into our first parable and it actually fits the definition of a fable, since we have talking trees. Yes that’s right, talking trees and a thorn bush king, oh my..

This story takes place in the times of the Judges; the recurring theme in Judges is, “then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord…” It was during this period, after Joshua was gone and before King Saul, that Israel lacked a moral compass. The Nation did evil, God rebuked them and they were punished for a season, cried out to God, and he provided deliverance. Rinse, repeat, and that’s Judges.

Our story takes place after the passing of Gideon, which most of us remember reading or hearing at some point if we’ve hung around in church long enough. You can read about Gideon in Judges 6-8. The net of Gideon’s obedience was 40 years of peace for Israel. As often occurs though, after Gideon was gone, things went south. The instrument of evil in this story was the son born by Gideon’s concubine, Abimelech. Even though Gideon had many wives and at least 70 sons, he still had at least one concubine.

We will unpack all these events and provide some context during our study time. In the meantime, read Judges 2:16-23 and chapters 6-9 and ponder the lessons we can take from these events. The verses in chapter 2 are the outline for the whole book of Judges and the experience of Israel during the time of the judges. Chapters 6-9 tell the story of Gideon and culminate with our parable/fable for this week. At the end of chapter 9 we see God’s judgment fall on Abimelech.

Some questions to consider, although I would like for you all to have some of your own thoughts/questions as well.  

-          What can we learn from Israel’s actions and patterns of rebellion?

-          Is there correlation between the mindset of Israel and the mindset of many nations today?

-          Why did the olive and fig tree and grape vine not want to be king?

-          Why did the people of Israel forsake God after the passing of each Judge?

-          What are the consequences of disobedience?

-          Why do we so often focus on symptoms of problem rather than addressing the problem? Examples?

We will actually begin our study by backtracking to Joshua and see what he said to the nation of Israel in his final address. We will see how prophetic his words were and how the nation did the very thing he warned them not to do.

I hope everyone is having a great week and has found many things to be thankful for this week. God is always good and always faithful, so we can be thankful for that indeed!

Blessing to you all. Greg