9:2 These events took place at Shechem. It is interesting to notice that Abimelech misappropriates the words of Joshua

In an attempt to justify his actions. Remember Joshua was at Shechem when he gave this charge to Israel.

9:22 Notice the record says that Abimelech 'reigned'  which echoes his words 9:2 )where his presumption was that he was going to be a ruler of king like figure.

It didn't take long for the Israelites to get involved with strange gods. Judg 9:4 tells how the hire money came "out of the house of Baal-berith" in Shechem.

9:6       In making Abimelech king the people had rejected God who reigned over them.  Dissatisfied with the way He was ordering their lives they thought that their own solution would be better! How often do we turn away from God’s way to a way that we think it better, ignoring Scripture in the process?

9:7 Shechem is between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerazim. Abimelech had gone there – 9:1 – and now Jotham climbs Gerazim to pronounce his words – the mount from which the blessings had been recited – Deut 27:12. Did he think his words were a ‘blessing’?

9:29    Gaal’s complaint is the complaint of an envious man. Seeing the problems he tried to capitalise upon it. Are we ever opportunists, seeking our own advantage when someone else is in difficulty?

V.45 The term salt in Hebrew is melach.  However, sometimes the term salt, in the Bible, does not mean the white powdery crystals with which we are familiar. 

Take the case of Lot's wife.  She was turned into a pillar of salt (Gen 19:26).  Salt here is also melach, but a pillar (Heb. netsib = post, statute) hardly signifies just a covering of white crystalline powder.  The area of Sodom and Gomorrah contains sulphur, bitumen and gypsum.  When destruction occurred, great clumps of these substances were sent airborne and rained down in a fiery shower (Gen 19:24).  One of these clumps engulfed Lot's wife and crystallized into a solid mass. 

Today, in the Dead Sea region, one can pick up rocks which comprise these substances.

V.4 Baal-berith , which was the god the Shechemites worshipped, means lord of the covenant. The god is simply called Berith in v.46.  This god is called lord of the covenant because when Israel came to the Promised Land, it entered into a covenant with the Canaanites to worship their false god.  This was contrary to Yahweh’s directive (Exo 34:12).

V.7 Shechem was situated in a narrow valley having Mt. Ebal to the north and Mt. Gerazim to the south.  The bases of these two mountains were about 500yds (457m) apart.  Jotham chose Mt. Gerazim to address the men of Shechem.  Mt. Gerazim was the mount from which the blessings were uttered (Deut 27:12).

V.20 Jotham’s prophesy came true in vs.52,56,57.  And so, it is ironic that Jotham uttered a curse from Mt. Gerazim, the mount of blessings.

The term Millo means filling and refers to an embankment made of stones, filled in with earth, to fortify an area.  It is sometimes called a rampart or citadel.

If Gideon is an echo of Christ, is Abimelech an antichrist or false Christ?

Abimelech set himself in place of the true king Yahweh (Judg 8:22-23;9:6) compared with the "antichrist" (500) meaning "instead of Christ, or an opponent of the messiah, or one who assuming the guise of Christ opposes Christ" (1John 2:18,22;4:3).  Abimelech born of a concubine and thus by birth a bondservant (Judg 8:31) comp with the beginnings of the apostate church (2Tim 2:16-18;Gal 1:6-9;Acts 20:29-31;Matt 7:15-16;2Thess 2:3,7).  Abimelech's name means my father (is) king (Judg 8:31) comp with "Call no man your father" (Matt 23:8-9).  Slew 70 brethren (Judg 9:5) comp with slaughter of faithful witnesses (Rev 6:9;17:6;20:4).  Faithful brethren slain upon one stone (Judg 9:5,18) comp with Christ's brethren killed in the name of a church associated with a rock (Matt 16:18).  Denied the true God (Judg 8:33;9:4) comp with denies the true God and his purpose (1John 2:22;4:3).  Corruption of worship (Judg 8:27) comp with corruption of worship (Rev 13:1-18).  Corruption of covenant (Judg 8:33) comp with corruption of doctrine (2Tim 4:3-4;1Tim 4:1-3).  Apostate church sponsors war (Judg 9:4-5,34-35,39-45,50) comp with apostacy makes war (Rev 13:4,7).  Jotham flees to Beer in the wilderness(Judg 9:5,21;Num 21:16) comp with faithful flee to wilderness in time of persecution (Matt 2:13-16;Rev 12:13-17).  Abimelech's end is prophesied (Judg 9:15,20) comp with end prophesied for the son of perdition (2Thess 2:3-8;Rev 17:8).  Prophecy of destruction by fire (Judg 9:15,20) comp with prophesy of destruction by fire (Rev 19:20).  "Remember also that I am your bone and your flesh" (Judg 9:2) comp with "They went out from us" (1John 2:18-19).  A woman wounded Abimelech in the head with a stone which may echo Christ (Judg 9:53) comp with The seed of the woman will yet bruise sin in the head and the antichrist will be destroyed at Christ's return (2Thess 2:8;Gen 3:14-15;Dan 2:34,44,45).  In this parable and prophesy by Jotham the "fruit trees" are Gideon and his sons who refuse to be made king while the "thorn bush", which is Abimelech, agrees to reign (Judg 9:8-15,19-20,22) comp with Jesus alluding to Jotham's parable connecting it to the coming apostasy (Matt 7:15-20;Acts 20:29-31). 

Abimelech as a false messiah took up a tree (Judg 9:48) compared with Jesus the true messiah took up a tree (John 19:16-18;Matt 27:31-32).  Abimelech told followers to follow his action (Judg 9:48) comp with Jesus told followers to imitate him (Matt 16:24).  Abimelech kills people at the gate (Judg 9:40,44) comp with Jesus who saves people as the gate (John 10:7-10). Abimelech died with a blow to the head (Judg 9:53-54) comp with Jesus died with a blow to the heel (Gen 3:14-15).

Some of the above gleaned from The Gospel in the Book of Judges by Ian Giles, pps. 119-128.

So Jeremiah, when speaking of the 'new covenant' draws on the language of Isaiah 35.

After the judgement of the nations in Ch. 34, there is a beautiful, peaceful picture of the Kingdom.  We need such revelations to boost our faith (Prov 29:18).  If we make the Kingdom our goal, then all other things will fall into place (Matt 6:21,33).

The first question that arises in reading this chapter is whether or not the prophecy is about the land itself, or does it concern the people, that is, Israel

It must be remembered that in the beginning, the curse for disobedience came first upon Adam, and then the ground for his sake. And so, in the remedy proposed as indicated in this chapter, and throughout Isaiah’s prophecy, the people must first be healed ,and then the ground itself will be blessed and bring forth abundantly.

Regarding Zion’s wilderness, we read in Jer 12:10“Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.”

It was in this wilderness that Christ arose “as a root out of the dry ground”-Isa 53:2. So we have Jewish life as a wilderness, and Christ a despised and rejected “plant”.

The land and the nation and the saints had for ages to lie in the wilderness condition till the time of transformation should arise.

As time progressed, “the word” passed westward, and as with Israel, so with Christendom, “many pastors” destroyed and trod down the “planting of the Lord”- even the faithful remnant. So as the Apostasy triumphed, John saw (in Rev 12) the faithful remnant as a fugitive woman flee into the wilderness from the face of the serpent. And when, afterwards, John was shown by the spirit the fate of the Great Roman System, he was “carried away in the spirit into the wilderness.” So that Christendom is regarded of God as was Israel - a destroyed, downtrodden, and desolate vineyard, broken by wild beasts, and turned into a wilderness.

It is to alter all this, both with relation to Israel and to the world, that Christ comes. He is the kernel of this vision of the conversion of the wilderness into Paradise

35:6  That the lame man would leap is fulfilled in Acts 3:8  showing that this chapter speaks of the effects of the work of Jesus.

two words that are similar but different

V.9 - the word used for redeemed [Heb. "ga'al" (1350) means "to free by avenging or repaying, to redeem (according to the oriental law of kinship), i.e. to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative's property, marry his widow, etc.): - avenger, deliverer, (do, perform the part of near, next) kinsfolk (-man), purchase, ransom, redeem (-er), revenger", etc.].

V.10 - the word used here for ransomed [Heb."padah" (6299) means "to free, ransom, redeem, redeemed, release, preserve, deliver, to sever, rescue, surely", etc.].

 We also have these two words used in Hos 13:14 "I will 'ransom' [Heb."padah" (6299)]them from the power of the grave; I will 'redeem' [Heb. "ga'al" (1350)] them from death..."

35:5  The deaf being’ unstopped’ is the basis for Jesus’ words in Mark 7:34 – Ephphatha is from the same root as the word translated ‘unstopped’ here.

35:10 We might see in the ransomed returning to Zion with singing the two on the road to Emmaus – Luke 24:33 – the ‘sorrow and sighing’ that they had been experiencing had certainly flown away by the time they set off back to Jerusalem.

35:3 In this wonderful chapter of hope when the kingdom is established the prophet encourages his hearers to ‘strengthen the feeble knees’. The wonderful hop of the kingdom should be an encouragement to us. This is how the apostle uses this verse in Heb 12:12

Vs.3,4 Israel will be in peril in the end times.  The enemy will overflow the land a wreak havoc (Eze 38:16; Zech 14:2).  Then Jesus and His immortalized brethren will defeat the enemy and save Israel (Eze 39:3-5). Vs.3,4 are surrounded by verses of beauty and peace in the kingdom, significant of the remnant of Israel’s experience.

35:10 The ‘ransomed’ who ‘return’ ‘to Zion with songs’ is rather like the two on the road to Emmaus who turned round and returned to Jerusalem joyful at having met with the risen Lord – Luke 24:33

V.1 Peter addresses brothers and sisters in Christ throughout a large portion of present-day Turkey.  These chosen ones in Christ he calls strangers.  They were citizens of these areas in the political sense but aliens in the spiritual sense because they, like all true believers, were awaiting a new city and country (Heb 13:14). Peter describes the existence of these strangers as sojourning (V.17). 

How do we view our own existence?  Do we consider ourselves Christadelphian Americans or American Christadelphians (for example)?  Does our hope lie with the world which shall pass away or with the grace of the Lord (v.13;1John 2:17)?

V.4 The key word in this verse is "inheritance". Peter places the word in the context of life rather than death, as it is generally associated with. In V.3 Peter mentions the resurrection of Christ and the new birth which we receive through him. Instead of death there is life. Through the resurrection of Christ, we are recipients of the inheritance God has stored for us. Paul writes "We are heirs--Heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ" Rom 8:17 

1:1 The ‘strangers’ possibly actually heard Peter on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem – Acts 2:5, 2:9-10, 2:14

V.7 By comparison, faith, which is more precious than gold, originates not in the mines of the earth, but on things concerning the Kingdom of God and on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is God's gift to man. God, not man, determines the value of faith, and we are told that the goal of man's faith is his salvation. (V.9).

1:7 The faith tried like gold echoes Zechariah 13:9 which is an exhortation to the Jews returned from Babylon under persecution. Peter is writing to Jewish brethren scattered and under persecution.

1:2      Peter was writing to the ‘church in Babylon’ 1Pet 5:13 so maybe this is why he uses Nebuchadnezzar’s phrase ‘peace be multiplied unto you’ (Dan 4:1, 6:25) – to make the contrast between what Babylon claimed and God’s offer to us. Of course Babylon vanished off the scene. God is still here!

“All flesh is as grass” says Peter (1Pet 1:24) quoting Isa 40:6-8. The best of us die, just like the worst of us. There are degrees of glory in the flowers and plants, but they all end up dead. So it is with people.

Vs.9,10 The hope in Christ is firmly established in the Old Testament.  Therefore, it is imperative that one reads the whole Bible, not just the New Testament, to understand the Gospel message.

Vs.15,18 The word conversation (KJV) means behavior.

1:17  Peter had been a respecter of persons – Acts 10:34– when dealing with the gentile Cornelius. But now he encourages all believers not to hold such a narrow view. It is all too easy to be a judge of motives and thoughts by simply looking at a person.