Judges 9-12

This passage provides a glimpse of an especially flawed character. Abimilech, son of Gideon, assembles a band of shady characters, paying them with silver shekels from the temple of Baal. Together, they murdered Gideon's 70 (!) other sons--all except the youngest, Jotham, who escaped. Jotham warned the citizens of Shechem of what would befall them if they placed their faith in Abimilech. As time passed, a conflict with Shechem arose and Abimilech and his army captured that city and slaughtered its inhabitants in most gruesome ways. He and his army proceeded to the city of Thebez, where he was undone by a woman who dropped half a millstone on his head from a tower that he and his army were storming. To avoid the "shame" of being slain by a woman, Abimilech ordered one of his own men to take his life before his millstone injury killed him. This is presented as God's justice providing an appropriate punishment to Abimilech. Two more judges, Tola and Jair, appear and disappear with hardly a mention, and then Israel falls into the hands of the Ammonites and Philistines because of their unfaithfulness to the Lord. 

For 18 years the Israelites suffered, and at first God turned a deaf ear to their cries for mercy, offended by their disobedience and by their lack of gratitude for all He had done for them. But the Israelites continued to cry out, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever you please. Only save us this day." They cast out the false idols they had been worshipping. In a beautiful image, we learn that the Lord was moved: "He grieved over the misery of Israel." Isn't that an incredible notion? God grieved for the Israelites because their lack of gratitude, their faithlessness, their sinfulness, their turning away from Him, had resulted in deep suffering in their lives. 

Does God grieve for me when I turn away from Him and cause myself to suffer? Does God the Father suffer when I suffer in this way? There was a heresy known as Patripassianism about which I hope to write more at some point. It advanced this notion that God the Father suffers. But there is apparently no room in Catholic doctrine or philosophy for this concept. If God is perfect, He has no lack. Suffering implies a lacking of a sort--an emptiness or absence where happiness or joy or fulfillment should be. Since God lacks nothing, He cannot suffer. Only in the humanness of Jesus Christ does God allow Himself to experience suffering. But God the Father cannot suffer. I find this difficult to accept. Not because God the Father isn't perfect, but because God the Father is a father, like me. It is hard for me to conceive a father NOT suffering in watching his children suffer. This passage, where God "grieved over the misery" of the Israelites is a far more fatherly image to me than the Father I meet in Catholic doctrine. The parables of Jesus, such as the Prodigal Son and the Good Shepherd reinforce this notion of a suffering Father for me.

This passage continues with the story of Jephthah and some other minor judges, leading up to the time of Samson, to be covered in the next passage.