Sharper Iron From Kfuo Radio

Rev. Dr. Adam Filipek, pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church and Immanuel Lutheran Church, both in Lidgerwood, ND, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Judges 9:1-21. Israel has once again entered into the downward cycle. The rise of Abimelech does not represent the LORD’s deliverance, but a deeper fall into idolatry. Abimelech’s offer to the men of Shechem is shrewd from a worldly perspective, but his subsequent murder of his brothers through the use of money from a pagan treasury shows how bad the idolatry in Israel really is. This is true for sinners in every age. Idolatry lies at the heart of all our sin; though it seems to offer much, it always delivers nothing but death. Jotham, the lone son of Gideon to escape Abimelech’s fratricide, tells a parable that speaks the truth of the deadly trajectory Abimelech’s account must go. Though this section of Scripture seems hopeless, when we see it in light of the entire account of God’s merciful dealings with sinful man, we see the great need to put not our tru