From His Heart

Speaker 1

Today, on from his heart, with Pastor Jeff Shreve, you'll discover the truth that is not all about you.

Speaker 2

You know, ambition can be good or ambition can be bad. Very, very bad. But you know, the Bible warns us about selfish ambition, the bad side of ambition. When ambition is all about me, me, me.

James says in James 3:16, "For where jealousy and self exists, there is disorder and every evil thing." Selfish ambition, when it's all about you, is deadly.

He can heal every scar with real truth, real love, real hope. From his heart.

Speaker 1

The word ambition is defined as an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction. Ambition can be good or ambition can be very bad. Today, on From His Heart, Pastor Jeff Shreve will share what the Bible warns about. It's called selfish ambition.

Now, when ambition is all about you and it doesn't bring glory to God, it can be deadly. In today's message, Pastor Jeff has three lessons from the story of Abimelech that serve as an alarm for us today. The message is from his 10-lesson series, Before There Were the Cost of Compromise.

Open your Bible to the Book of Judges, chapter nine. Here's Pastor Jeff to begin the lesson, simply entitled "Selfish Ambition."

Speaker 2

Now, the word ambition is defined in the dictionary as an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction. You know, ambition can be good or it can be bad—very, very bad. The good side of ambition is when you're ambitious for the Lord, for His glory, and for His kingdom. But the Bible warns us about selfish ambition, the bad side of ambition, when ambition is all about me, me, me. James says in James 3:16, "For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing." Selfish ambition, when it's all about you, is deadly.

The Puritan pastor from yesteryear, Thomas Brooks, said this about selfish ambition: "It is a gilded misery, a secret poison, a hidden plague, the engineer of deceit, the mother of hypocrisy, the parent of envy, the original of vices, the moth of holiness, the blinder of hearts, turning medicines into maladies and remedies into diseases." Pretty poetic in his language, but the Bible makes it clear: watch out for selfish ambition.

Well, we're in a series in the book of Judges entitled "Before There Were Kings." We're looking at that approximately 300-year period after the death of Joshua and before the coronation of King Saul. In the book of Judges, we see things that are not necessarily pretty because it contains some very gory and graphic elements. It is a book of triumph, yes, as God brings about deliverance through the Judges, but it is also a book of tragedy. The tragedy starts bleeding through each page as the people forsake the Lord and begin serving the Baals in the land of Canaan, the land of promise.

We looked at Gideon, the second half of his life. Gideon was a man who was a coward, who became a conqueror, but then became a compromiser. Most of us aren't familiar with the end part of his life; he didn't end well. Even though he is included in Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Faith, he didn't finish strong. Then we hit Judges chapter nine, where we learn about his son, Abimelech, who was born to a pagan concubine, a Canaanite woman. Abimelech's story is one of selfish ambition and serves as a warning to you and to me.

Judges chapter nine begins with Abimelech, the son of Jerubaal, going to Shechem to speak to his mother's relatives and the whole clan of his mother's father. He asks them, "Which is better for you? That 70 men, all the sons of Jerubaal, rule over you, or that one man rule over you? Also remember that I am your bone and your flesh." His mother's relatives spoke all these words on his behalf in the hearing of all the leaders of Shechem, and they were inclined to follow Abimelech, saying, "He is our relative." They gave him 70 pieces of silver from the house of the false god Baal Berith, which means God of the Covenant, with which Abimelech hired worthless and reckless fellows to follow him.

Then he went to his father's house at Ophrah and killed his brothers, the sons of Jerubaal—70 men on one stone beheaded them. But Jotham, the youngest son of Jerubaal, was left, for he hid himself. All the men of Shechem and all Beth Millo assembled together and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar which was in Shechem. What can we learn from this awful story, this true account of the life of Abimelech? There are three key lessons for you and me today.

Lesson number one: A father greatly impacts a child's life, for good or for evil. This man who kills all his brothers is Abimelech. His name means "my father is king." His father was Gideon. After Gideon won the battle with the Midianites, the people wanted to make Gideon king, saying, "You rule over us, you and your sons." Gideon replied, "No, I'm not going to be your king. The Lord God is your king."

In 1 Samuel, when they asked Samuel for a king, he was disheartened, but the Lord reassured him, saying, "They haven't rejected you; they've rejected me from being their king." God was Israel's king. After the great victory over Midian, the people were severely distressed by Midian for seven years, and then God called on Gideon. Gideon trusted the Lord and performed a great miracle through Him. The people wanted Gideon to be king, but he refused, saying, "Not me or my sons." However, as we saw last week, he proceeded to live like a king and fell prey to money, sex, and power.

It says of Gideon in chapter 8, verse 30, "Now Gideon had 70 sons who were his direct descendants, for he had many wives." The king wasn't supposed to multiply wives, and if the king's not supposed to do that, a citizen's not supposed to do that, for sure. His concubine, who was in Shechem, also bore him a son, whom he named Abimelech. Gideon, the son of Joash, died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father, Joash, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

Gideon, as I said, said, "Don't make me king," but he lived like a king. He fell prey to money, sex, and power, having 70 sons and then one other son with a Canaanite woman. From the reading of chapter nine, we get the distinct impression that she was not an Israelite but a Canaanite. Deuteronomy chapter 7 made it very clear that intermarriage with the Canaanites was forbidden. But he did. He had this woman as a concubine, which was essentially a "friend with benefits." Any children he had with her were not considered first-tier and were not included in the inheritance.

He had 70 sons with however many wives he had, and then he had this one concubine on the side who bore him a son named "My father is king." If we get into the mind of Abimelech, the man so evil that he killed all his brothers, we can ask what fueled this murder and selfish ambition. Abimelech probably felt overlooked and second-class because he wasn't a full son. Gideon never married his mother; she was just a girlfriend on the side. She lived in Shechem, while Gideon lived in Ophrah, six miles away. They didn't even live together, and Abimelech likely spent most of his life not living with his dad and half-brothers.

He could have easily felt overlooked and second-class, not part of the inheritance that the 70 sons would receive. Secondly, Abimelech probably saw his father live a duplicitous life. He likely witnessed Gideon say, "I'm not going to be king," while simultaneously living like one. Gideon had a harem, money, and power, and he even named one of his sons "My father is king."

Abimelech observed this hypocrisy and likely felt animosity toward his father. Ephesians 6:4 says, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord." We would say of Gideon that he didn't bring Abimelech up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, but he did provoke him to anger. Abimelech was bitter and wanted power at any cost. It's hard not to see that in Abimelech's life; he was bitter.

Speaker 1

I mean, he.

Speaker 2

He says to the people of Shechem, "He." He goes to Shechem. So six miles from Ophrah to Shechem, he goes to Shechem, and he talks to his mother's father's family, his uncles, and he says, "Listen, here's the deal. Gideon is dead." But they don't call him Gideon. They call him Jerubaal. "Jerubaal's dead. He's got these 70 sons that live in Ophir. You want 70 sons to rule over you, or do you want just one? Just me. And I'm part of you. I am your relative. I am part of your family. I am your bone and your flesh."

Well, he wins them over. He wins them over with lies. Scripture never says that Gideon's sons wanted to be king. So it wasn't like everybody's jockeying for the kingdom. There is no kingdom, because although Gideon might have lived like a king, he wasn't king. And so Abimelech pushes the issue. And so they say, "Well, okay, I mean, if that's the case, yeah, you're our relative, we'd want you to be the king." And so they throw their weight behind him, and they give him 70 pieces of silver from the house of the false god Baal Berith, the Lord of the Covenant. After Gideon died, they began to worship Baal Berith, the Lord of the Covenant. They went back to the Baals, which is the broken record in the book of Judges.

And so they give him, out of the treasury of this false god, 70 pieces of silver. Now, 70 pieces of silver is not a lot of money. That's his startup money for his coronation, for his kingdom. If you remember, Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. In the book of Zechariah, we read that Zechariah, the prophet, said, speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that that was a pitiful sum. The book of Zechariah uses it in irony. It says, "Oh, they weighed out for me my wages, which was 30 pieces of silver." Such a lordly sum, speaking ironically and sarcastically, that was a pittance. That's the price of a slave. So 70 pieces of silver, you know, not quite two and a half times that, is about $11,000 in today's money.

And so they give him, from the treasury of this false god, $1,000. "Here's your startup money to be king, Abimelech." And with that, he hires worthless and reckless fellows. He hires a bunch of thugs, and they're guys that are doing a bunch of nothing, right? They're just hanging out because however many he hires, it doesn't say how many he hires. They're going to kill 69 sons of Gideon. So he doesn't have just three or four guys, because three or four guys aren't going to be able to kill 70 or 69. So he's probably got at least 50 guys in his militia, maybe more like 70 or maybe even 100. He's not paying them much money. "Here's 10 bucks. Will you be part of my entourage?" "Yeah, sure. I'm not doing anything. I'm a worthless guy. I'm a reckless guy."

And so he gets these thugs together, and what do they do? They murder. They make the trip from Shechem to go up to Ophrah, where Gideon lives or where he did and where the sons are, and they grab the sons and they kill them all on one stone. This makes you understand how they are killing them or probably beheading them. And there's one son, the youngest son, Jotham. He escapes, and he is going to be a key figure in the story. But Gideon was bitter. He wanted power at any cost. He didn't care if he had to lie, cheat, steal, or kill.

Now, it's one thing to be a murderer, but it's another thing to be a mass murderer. And it's still another thing to be a mass murderer of your relatives. Very, very awful. We can say that Gideon failed this boy greatly in his upbringing. Now, Gideon is not responsible for everything Abimelech did, but the truth of the matter is this: a father greatly impacts a child's life, for good or for evil. Because a child looks up to Dad. I watch with my grandsons, Jack and Chase. Jack especially, because he's older. The way he deals with my daughter Amy is one way. The way he deals with Travis is another way. Travis is Superman to Jack. Travis is 6 foot 5, big and strong. And you can just tell how Jack looks at him. "That's my dad." And dad has a huge impact on the life of a child.

Lesson number two: A bramble king will lead people to curses, not blessings. Now, we're going to read here that Abimelech, he's known in theological circles as a bramble king, a thorn bush king. And it comes about through the lips of Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon, who escaped, says in verse 7, "They, all the men of Shechem and all Beth Millo assembled together and they went and made Abimelech king by the oak of the pillar which is in Shechem."

Now when they told Jotham, that's the youngest son, verse 7, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and lifted his voice and called out. "Thus he to them, listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to you." Now, where they are is really important because they're not just at any old place. They're in Shechem. Shechem is a city that was spoken about first in Scripture, in Genesis chapter 12. Abraham, when he was Abram, came from Ur of the Chaldees into the land of Canaan. And he comes to Shechem and he builds an altar at Shechem. God speaks to him at Shechem. Shechem's an important place all the way back in the time of the patriarchs, Abraham.

It's an important place in Jacob's life. Jacob lives there for a while. Jacob's daughter Dinah was raped by the men of Shechem, by Shechem himself and the son of Hamor. And then Jacob's sons end up killing the men of Shechem for raping their sister Dinah. There's a lot of history in Shechem. Shechem is the place where they went after they came into the promised land, after they defeated the men of Jericho, the people of Jericho. God brought about a great victory. They went to Shechem to celebrate and to repeat the words of the covenant. You have two mountains there at Shechem, Mount Ebal to the north and then Mount Gerizim to the south. And Shechem is right in between. And so Jotham, he is right there on Mount Gerizim, which was the mountain of blessing. But he's not going to pronounce blessing.

Speaker 1

This has truly been an urgent warning to believers everywhere to consider what fuels your ambitions. And we're confronted with that reality and understand what is really going on in our hearts and priorities. It can change your life forever and bring glory to God.

The title of today's message, "Selfish Ambition," is from the new 10-message series "Before There Were the Cost of Compromise." It's an extended study of the Book of Judges, one chapter at a time, with an eye-opening reminder of what happens when people reject God's truth in favor of their own desires. During the time of the Judges, it was a time of chaos—no king, no clear direction, just a cycle of sin, suffering, and desperate cries for deliverance.

And yet, even in that mess, God raised up imperfect, unexpected, ordinary people who were called leaders to get God's people back to Him. In this new 10-message series, "Before There Were the Cost of Compromise," Pastor Jeff Shreve unpacks the lessons of Judges, the warnings against selfishness, apathy, and the dangers of compromise, and then the hope of redemption. When you stray from God's way, life unravels. When you turn back to Him, He is always faithful to restore.

The series is our gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount. You can get your copy of "Before There Were Kings" when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. You can request it on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or immediate MP3 digital download—your choice. Thank you for supporting From His Heart. We really appreciate it. This is an outreach broadcast ministry from which Pastor Jeff Shreve receives no income. Everything you give goes to get these programs on the air.

Reach out today with your gift to From His Heart, and we'll get this extensive study out to you. Thank you. Thank you for being with us today. I'm Larry Nobles, requesting you join us again tomorrow for part two of the lesson called "Selfish Ambition." That's on Thursday when we'll open God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope. From His Heart.

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Every Scar.

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From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and a hurting world.

Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

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