Judges 9:28
And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him? And Gaal the son of Ebed said, Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? is not he the son of Jerubbaal? and Zebul his officer? serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem: for why should we serve him?
Judges 9:28 belongs to the account of Jotham's parable and the men of Shechem's choice of Abimelech as ruler. It falls within the larger record of Israel's backsliding from God and the resulting suffering and oppression, alongside episodes of return to God, forgiveness, and deliverance. The account to which it belongs shows how the family of Gideon degenerated because they trusted in things which are seen instead of the power that is unseen.
Abimelech, Gideon's son by a maid, caused his brothers, the sons of Gideon, to be slain and hired worthless followers and destroyed Shechem in order to become ruler. The verse expresses the rebellion of Shechem against Abimelech after his three-year wicked reign, when the Lord sent trouble among those united in evil. The very men who had made Abimelech king by treachery became disgusted with his demoralizing rule and heartless tyranny and determined by treachery to remove him, fulfilling the words of Jotham with discord, strife, and hatred between Abimelech and his subjects.
The time of retribution was at hand for both Abimelech and the Shechemites who sustained him, for his cruelty did not end with the sons of Gideon but put to death everyone who opposed his will. Shechem rebelled and was attacked by the king's forces, its inhabitants were slain, the city was reduced to ashes and the ground sown with salt as a token of perpetual desolation, and when a neighboring city united with Shechem in the insurrection Abimelech attacked it to burn the inhabitants with the tower. Abimelech had been permitted to execute the vengeance of God upon Israel, but he passed the limits of divine forbearance, and his career of crime was cut short when a piece of millstone hurled by a woman's hand fatally wounded him and he was at his own request immediately slain by his armor-bearer to avoid the disgrace of dying by a woman's hand, so that the justice of God punished both Abimelech and the Shechemites.
The choice illustrates folly, teaching that those doing the most valuable work in the Lord's cause do not seek to rule over their brethren, and that ambition to be exalted over others shows a lack of qualification for rulership. The outcome teaches that sin will never go unpunished and shows the danger of entering the path of disobedience, while all true greatness of character and all peace and joy of soul must come from entire conformity to the will of God in the path of cheerful obedience as the path of safety and happiness.