KING BRAMBLE
As you probably know, there are in the Bible only two parables of the kind, often called fables. One of these was spoken by Jotham, son of Gideon, to the men of Shechem (Judges 9), and the other, which is a very short one, by Jehoash, the king of Israel, to Amaziah, the King of Judah (2 Kings 14 verse 9). The particular feature of fables is that trees, etc., are in them represented as using human speech, the object being to convey some moral or ethical lesson in a more striking manner than would be done by bare statement.
Jotham spoke to the Shechemites of the desire of the trees to choose a king for themselves. They made their offer first to the olive tree, then to the fig tree, and afterwards to the vine. But each of these had a sphere of usefulness with which it was quite content. The olive had its fatness, the fig its sweetness, and the vine its good cheer; and they were not willing to exchange these good services for the anxieties and responsibilities of a crown.
Then the trees made their offer to the bramble, which was of neither value nor utility. It had no beauty of appearance; it produced no fruit for the hungry; it offered no shade to the weary. It checked and choked the growth of useful trees and shrubs in its neighbourhood. Its sharp prickles were an annoyance and a danger to all. Its very presence was melancholy evidence that sin was reigning in the world unto death; for there were no thorn in sinless Eden.
Plainly, the offer to the bramble was the invitation to the lowest and basest in the vegetable kingdom to be the ruler of the trees. This choice was the depth of folly, and would be a constant menace of danger to them; for the bramble could easily begin a fire which would devour even the might cedars of Lebanon-a confession which Jotham put into its mouth in the parable.
The direct object before Jotham was to impress upon the men of Shechem their folly in accepting Abimelech as their king, which they had done. Abimelech, had no claim to such a place of pre-eminence and government. Besides, he was base-born, unworthy, and unprincipled, a wholesale murderer of his brethren, and an idol-worshipper.
The rule of such a king was founded upon unholiness, and would end in disaster. Jothm prophesied that the fire of destruction would come upon the men of Schechem from Abimelech, who himself would be destroyed. And in the chapter (Judges 9), the narrative shows that subsequent events proved the truth of the prophecy of Jotham.
There are many examples in scripture, as well as elsewhere, of wicked rulers who have made the lives of those they governed bitter and unbearable. Pharaoh ground down the Israelites in Egypt until their cries, by reason of the cruelty of their taskmasters, rose up to the God of heaven. Rehoboam proposed to add to the heavy yoke of his father Solomon; if his father had chastised the people with whips, he would chastise them with scorpions (1Kings 12 verse 11). Ahab murdered Naboth the Jezreelite in order to secure the vineyard of the dead man (1 Kings 21)
Besides, evil rulers, not only brought troubles and afflictions upon their people, but by their example and their laws caused them to sin against God. King Jeroboam sinned grievously himself, and he also made the people of Israel to sin (1Kings 14 verse 16). A wicked ruler leads his subjects into the paths of wickedness, as it is said, Like king, like people. The iniquities of the master are reproduced in his servants. The bramble brings forth thorns only.
Who then would choose to be under the government of King Bramble? And the Christian is warned against the reign of King Bramble, even as Jotham warned the Shechemites. For the latter, King Bramble meant Abimelech, while for the Christian, King Bramble means sin, the indwelling evil nature.
You will recollect the apostle Paul’s words of warning to the believers in Rome; he said, “Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6 verse 12). Unless this warning is carefully heeded the evil nature within will lord it over you, and cause you to carry out in action the inward lusts or desires which spring from it. To do this is to acquiesce in dominion of sin over you; and if you do the things you know to be wrong, sooner or later you will reap the bitter consequences, as the scripture shows.
If you read the whole of Romans 6 attentively, you will notice that the chapter speaks of two masters and two classes of servants or slaves. There are (1) those who serve God, and who yield their members as instruments to God. There are also (2) those who are servants to sin, who yield their members servants to uncleanness and iniquity. But the believer is exhorted to yield himself a servant to God, and to be no longer a slave to sin.
Now the service of sin is an easy line to take; it seems pleasant and attractive. Sin is another name for self, and it shows itself in what scripture calls the flesh. Sin is a morsel to the tongue, because it is what we like naturally. But the results of indulgence are bitter and deadly.
Lot is an instance of one who allowed King Bramble to reign in his mortal body, and who obeyed the lust s of his eyes. He saw the well-watered plains of Jordan, and he pitched his tent towards Sodom, regardless of its evil reputation. He gained wealth and a position of eminence in the city, but the end of him was moral and spiritual ruin. What fruit had Lot in those things whereof he was afterwards ashamed? It was death to his life of testimony for the living and true God in Canaan.
It is very easy for a young believer in the Lord to be carried off his feet by the rush of worldly pursuits. He is bound to pursue his daily occupation with energy. His danger is that his necessary occupations in the office or the workshop should exercise dominion over him, and that he should be filled with an overwhelming ambition to excel his fellows, to acquire money and a social position for himself, and to gain a power of control over others. Such aims are very attractive to those who have what are called “business instincts,” that is, the knack of doing well for themselves professionally. To those who have these, or similar overmastering aspirations, the word of the apostle is specially applicable, “Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?” (Romans 6 verse 16)
The love of the world and its things are servitude to King Bramble. The Lord Jesus died to deliver us from bondage to sin and all selfish aims and pursuits. Because of our identification with the death of Christ we are bound, if we are faithful, to walk in newness of life. How can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? We ought to remember that our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be destroyed for the very purpose that henceforth we should not serve sin.
“Put your Bible on the top of your textbooks,” was the long remembered advice of a dear man of God to a young believer who had to prepare for some thirty examinations a year. The Lord foresaw the danger to which His followers would be exposed from the incessant claims of present things; and He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” You are no longer in the kingdom of Satan, but bondslaves to Christ that you may do the will of God from the heart.
King Bramble supplies nothing for others, like the olive, the vine, and fig, nothing but thorns and prickles. But the Lord Jesus teaches us to be fruitful by living for others. A young correspondent said the other day that if she read a good thing she likes to pass it on to others. This is the true spirit of Christian helpfulness. What is a cordial to one believer’s heart is a cordial to others. Seek then to be doing good to all you can, and not to be striving after an exalted place in this world like the wretched bramble.
Y.O.D.