JU9-5: How The Word ELOHIM Reveals Depth And Meaning Your Average Bible Reader Is Blind To

“When they told this to Yotam, he went and stood on top of Mount G’rizim and shouted, “Listen to me, you leaders of Sh’khem; then God will listen to you!”-Judges 9:7

Our attention now shifts to Yotam, the last surviving son following the massacre Avimelech instigated at Ofrah.

Yotam’ actions after the murder of his brothers seemed a bit puzzling at first.

We’re told he climbed all the way to the top of Mount Gerizim and began shouting out a parable.

Actually, it was more like an oracle.

Or to be even more accurate, it was a full blown curse he pronounced upon Avimelech and the scoundrels who had just crowned him king.

There’s a couple of key things about this situation we should make note of.

First is the location.

Because almost 2 centuries earlier Joshua himself stood at that very same spot where Yotam was now standing when he reconfirmed Israel’s covenant with Adonai.

And you may recall the town of Shechem was situated smack dab at the foot of the twin mountains of Ebal and Gerizim.

In other words, it was the PERFECT place for Yotam to deliver his prophetic parable.

The echo of his voice would strongly reverberate as his words traveled down the mountain slope and arrived like an ugly explosion waking up all of the people standing below.

Let’s take a look at Yotam’s opening words.

Our English Bibles say…

“Listen to me, you leaders of Sh’khem;
then God will listen to you!”

But, the original Hebrew says….

“SHEMA to me, you leaders of Sh’khem;
then ELOHIM will SHEMA to you!”

You do remember what SHEMA means now, don’t you?

It doesn’t just mean to sit on your butt and passively listen to someone…which is what a good majority of “worshippers” do when they go to their houses of worship on Shabbat or the sun day.

No, it means to get off your rear end and be proactive as all hell.

The word SHEMA demands vigorous action.

You’re not just nodding your head in passive acknowledgement while chomping on Cheetos and binging on Netflix.

It’s also interesting that Yotam used the all-purpose generic term for God when addressing his audience.

He used ELOHIM instead of the Lord’s formal name.

Why is that?

The answer is because Yotam was speaking to a mixed audience comprised of Canaanites, backslidden Hebrews, and folks of mixed background (Israelite and Canaanite blood) as well as those whose spiritual loyalties were all over the freakin’ map.

By using the generic word ELOHIM, Yotam was basically just telling each man to fill in the blank of whatever deity he held allegiance to.

Bottomline, this tells us he was speaking to a mixed audience.

Alrighty, folks that’s my post for today.

The next time we meet we’ll start breaking down that mysterious parable Yotam shouted out to his audience.