Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died. – Judges 9:54

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 7, 2019): Judges 9

Joseph Conrad, in his 1913 novel “Chance,” writes “Being a woman is a terribly difficult trade since it consists principally of dealings with men.” Historically, the task of women has often been to “lead from the second chair.” They did not just have to discern to the correct action, but they also had to convince the men of what is right and needed to be done. And sometimes they still do. One of the greatest trials of the female is in their dealings with the male. We will probably never know the extent that the woman, who stood behind the male endowed with the reigns of power, was the real political power of the nation. But we need to pause more often than we do and acknowledge the real power of some amazing women who led the United States through the reigns of their husbands, whether or not we agree with their politics: women like Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalynn Carter, and Sara Polk.

Abimelek is dying. The life and reign of the man who I think should be listed as the first King of Israel, instead of Saul, has come around full circle. He killed almost all of his brothers so that he could take a position of leadership that his father, Gideon, had rejected. And Gideon had rejected the idea of “king” not just for himself, but for his family. Gideon recognized that God was the king of Israel; Abimelek recognized no such thing. Abimelek believed that he was king of his own life and, on the basis of his father’s accomplishments, felt that he should reign over the whole nation. He had taken a role in history that was never really his to claim.

Abimelek is dying, but he is not yet dead. And as he lays breathing his last, he is still thinking about his legacy in history. And Abimelek recognizes that his death is not going to be a glorious defeat in battle that he might have dreamed of, but rather that it would be what he probably considered to be an honorless death at the hand of a woman. And so Abimelek calls for his armor-bearer and tells his male soldier, gender is the point here, to kill him with a sword. In the mind of Abimelek, it would be better to die as a result of treachery, at the hands of his own men, than to die at the hands of an enemy who happened to be a woman. And so Abimelek is killed by his armor-bearer.

But as far as history was concerned, Abimelek’s hopes were dashed. History still remembers the death of Abimelek the king happening at the hands of a woman. The author of 2 Samuel writes this: “Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez” (2 Samuel 11:21)? Yes, she did. Sometimes the work of a woman is hard and is made even harder because they have to deal with men like Abimelek.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 10