JU9-4: There Isn’t A Shred Of Religious Tolerance Anywhere In The Scriptures

“They also gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Ba‘al-B’rit; and he used these to pay good-for-nothing thugs to follow him.  He went back to his father’s house in ‘Ofrah and killed his brothers the sons of Yeruba‘al, all seventy of them, on a single rock, except for Yotam Yeruba‘al’s youngest son, who stayed alive because he hid himself.”-Judges 9:4-5

So Avimelech begins to execute his treachery against his own flesh-and-blood Hebrew brothers.

We’re told the first step to get the ball rolling is that his mother’s brothers went to Ba’al’s temple to secure the funds needed to carry out Avimelech’s dirty work.

The funds I’m talking about were 70 pieces of silver and the Temple they got it from was called BA’AL BRIT...literally the “Covenant of Ba’al”.

A lot of folks misunderstand this part and think the 70 pieces of silver were stolen from this temple.

Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.

It was quite common in those days to tap into a temple’s treasury cash to support political causes.

However, in this case, the silver was being used to hire a group of scoundrels to carry out Avimelech’s devious plans.

And we’re told that’s exactly what happened.

The hired men accompanied Avimelech to Ofrah and killed 69 of Gideon’s 70 sons (with Avimelech the total number of Gideon’s sons would have been 71). 

However, Avimelech missed one.

The youngest son Yotam got away and escaped the slaughter.

He wasn’t overlooked however.

Avimelech had every person on his hit list numbered, so he would have known Yotam was missing.

Onward.

Let’s move on to verse 6 where things start get really bizarre.

“All the men of Sh’khem and all Beit-Millo got together and went and made Avimelekh king at the oak by the cult-pillar in Sh’khem.”

So here we encounter a merry scene of killer thugs making the treacherous Avimelech king at some cult-pillar in Shechem.

However, the truth of the matter is that after all of the dust cleared and settled, Avimelech didn’t end up with much of a kingdom.

He only controlled the 4 towns of Shechem, Beth-Millo, Arumah, and Thebez and possibly some land in the western parts of Manessah territory.

And in terms of character and leadership ability, he was as far from a Biblical king as a cockroach is from a lion.

He was like a North Korean dictator but on a much more petty level.

Avimelech had zero idea on how to build a productive economy or establish win-win political connections.

He only knew how to advance himself through treachery and violence.

And as Yeshua said “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword”.

Interestingly, excavators have actually dug up the very place where Avimelech was made king.

It was a stone pillar dating all the way back to Joshua’s era of rule.

And not only that, the temple of Ba’al Brit was also found.

Check out the photo above!

So let’s try to wrap our heads around the insanity that was taking place right here.

Here we have Avimelech entering into a covenant with God’s sworn enemies, the Canaanites, and taking that vow in the name of Ba’al.

And to top things off, this traitor’s own father was the famous Yeruba’al or “The BA’AL Fighter”.

The irony is so think you could cut it with a wooden butter knife about 1 inch thick in diameter.

Are you flabbergasted and shocked?

Well, I’ve got news for you folks.

What Avimelech did really isn’t any different than the blasphemous interfaith worship or prayer sessions that take place regularly across the country.

I can’t mince my words here.

A platform that asserts it’s perfectly okay to worship the moon god Allah or Hindu deities or Buddha along with the God of the Bible is from a Scriptural perspective an ABOMINATION!

And what makes the whole thing laughable is that all this interfaith worship nonsense is conducted under the guise of universal peace and harmony and is applauded by governments all over the world.

“Isn’t this just a beautiful demonstration of love and religious tolerance?” they say with beatific smiles plastered on their faces.

It’s time to wake up and smell the aroma of truth emanating from God’s Word folks.

Because there isn’t a shred of religious tolerance anywhere in the Scriptures.

You’re just not gonna find it no matter how hard you look or want it to be there to justify your “God loves everybody and everything” unscriptural theology.

Heck, I’ll pay you $10,000 if you can find one single sentence anywhere in the Bible, either “Old” or New Testament where we are asked to show love to our neighbors by bowing down to their gods.

I said it before and I’ll say it again.

The blindness that overtook Israel during the era of the Judges is a picture perfect portrayal of what’s happening right now in our world today.