It all turned out exactly the way Jotham had predicted: Abimelech’s naked ambition and the men of Shechem’s willingness to use brute force to seize power ended up destroying them all. It’s a story that has repeated itself throughout history, as Adolf Hitler and Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and Fidel Castro so clearly demonstrated in just the twentieth century.

But Jotham’s fable helps us understand why even the most powerful politicians are never able to fulfill the grandiose promises they make. After all, olive trees and fig trees and grape vines may not soar into the sky, towering over other trees. But olives were used to make oil that anointed kings and priests (Judges 9:9). Figs still bless us with their sweetness (9:11), and wine or grape juice remains essential to Christian worship (9:13), as our communion service tomorrow reminds us.

And it is still the case that only farms and forests and factories can feed and clothe and house people. Only churches and schools can truly inspire and educate people. The truly productive parts of society just don’t have the time or interest to push everyone else around: they’re too busy blessing everyone else with their efforts.

In contrast, the monopoly on power that we grant to governments is really only capable of one thing: coercion. Taxes and regulations can alter people’s behavior, compelling them to act in different ways, but such rules can’t really make anything or do anything. Just as a thorny thicket of brambles can redirect a traveler’s path, laws can only reorganize things that the truly fruitful parts of society produce.

Now, history has shown us that some laws can be good and helpful, creating firm foundations on which safety and security, justice and peace can be built. But what happens when the productive parts of society rely too much on political power? Well, the only way that towering trees can rest in the shade of worthless, thorny brambles is for the trees to fall to the forest floor. And as our Western states witness every year, dead timber is only fuel for wildfires (verse 15).

Ben Franklin once said, “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Will we heed his and Jotham’s warnings? Or will we surrender to the siren song of the tyrants, and end up losing everything they are powerless to give us?

Judges 9:8-20 (NASB)

8 “Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’
9 “But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are honored, and go to wave over the trees?’
10 “Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come, reign over us!’
11 “But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’
12 “Then the trees said to the vine, ‘You come, reign over us!’
13 “But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my new wine, which cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?’
14 “Finally all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come, reign over us!’
15 “And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If in truth you are anointing me as king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out from the bramble and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’
16 “Now therefore, if you have dealt in truth and integrity in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have dealt with him as he deserved–
17 for my father fought for you and risked his life and delivered you from the hand of Midian;
18 but you have risen against my father’s house today and have killed his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your relative–
19 if then you have dealt in truth and integrity with Jerubbaal and his house this day, rejoice in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you.
20 “But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and consume the men of Shechem and Beth-millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from Beth-millo, and consume Abimelech.”