Judges 9:50

Judges 9:50 says, Then went Abimelech to Thebez, and encamped against Thebez, and took it.  Abimelech next went to Thebez and captured it.  He was expanding his kingdom, but without following God.  Verse fifty-one adds, But there was a strong tower within the city, and thither fled all the men and women, and all they of the city, and shut it to them, and gat them up to the top of the tower.  Though Abimelech took control of the city of Thebez, he did not capture the people who fled to a strong tower within the city.  As followers of Christ, we may have everything we own taken away, but we are always spiritually safe in our great tower, Jesus Christ.  Verse fifty-two continues, And Abimelech came unto the tower, and fought against it, and went hard unto the door of the tower to burn it with fire.   Abimelech went strongly against the tower, planning to burn it down.  People today may come strongly against us as Christians planning to destroy our Tower, our faith in Jesus Christ, but as long as we remain faithful to Him, they will never be successful.  Verse fifty-three states, And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull.  We are told a certain woman on the wall of the tower dropped a piece of millstone on Abimelech's head and broke his skull.  She is not even identified by name, though she effectively put Abimelech out of commission, even if he did not die immediately.  As we do what God calls us to do today as His people, we should not do it for self glorification, but for the glory of God.  Even if we do not immediately kill off all the sin in the world, if we remain faithful to Jesus Christ, we can stop its effectiveness in our life.  Verse fifty-four adds, Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.  Abimelech was still worried about what people would think about him after he died.  He called his armor bearer and told his armor bearer to kill him with his sword, so that people would not say that he was killed by a woman.  Those who live for their own glory today are often more concerned with their legacy than they are with life itself.  We as Christians should never be that way, because we should live for God's glory and not our own.  The armor bearer did as Abimelech commanded him to do, and killed Abimelech with his sword.  Verse fifty-five continues, And when the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they departed every man unto his place. When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they gave up the fight and went home.  They had entered into an unholy alliance with Abimelech to start with, and once he was dead, they had no desire to continue the fight.  Often, people who follow a leader today are only committed to the fight for as long as that leader is alive.  Fortunately, as followers of Christ, our leader will never die, so no matter what happens in this world, we need to continue to be committed to the fight against sin and evil in this world.  Verse fifty-six declares, Thus God rendered the wickedness of Abimelech, which he did unto his father, in slaying his seventy brethren:  Though Abimelech declared himself the king of Israel by killing his seventy brothers, God had never declared him to be.  We are told instead that by the death of Abimelech that God had put an end to his wickedness.  The woman on the wall may have dropped the millstone and the armor bearer may have killed Abimelech with a sword, but it was God Who directed these events, just as He will one day put an end to all the evil in the world and to those who live outside of His will, choosing the ways of the world over Jesus Christ.  Verse fifty-seven adds, And all the evil of the men of Shechem did God render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal.  The men of Shechem who had empowered Abimelech in his killing of the sons of Jerubbaal, or Gilead, may have returned home, but God still held them accountable for their actions, just as He does everyone today.