Preaching from the Mountaintops
Preaching from the Mountaintops
Judges 9:7
When it was told to Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and cried aloud and said to them, “Listen to me, you leaders of Shechem, that God may listen to you.”
The biblical author doesn’t tell us how Jotham managed to escape his brother’s carnage, nor why a vicious man like Abimelech didn’t race after him in hot pursuit, but I’m thoroughly astonished by Jotham’s move here given the circumstances. His thundering, Mosaic-type speech from Mount Gerizim to the leaders of Shechem in the aftermath of this bloodbath deserves our deepest respect.
What would you do if you’d just found out that seventy of your brothers were brutally murdered and that the killer was still on the loose? Would you run for your life, or would you start preaching a sermon to the assassin’s partners in crime? You’d run for your life of course! I mean, even Moses, as stalwart as he was, ran as fast and as far as he could from Egypt after killing that Egyptian. And even Jacob, after stealing Esau’s birthright, fled to Uncle Laban’s house for refuge till Esau’s fury blew over. See, nobody would ever disparage Jotham here for hitching a saddle to his fastest horse and getting out of dodge. That wouldn’t be the cowardly response, but the reasonable response, right? But for him to climb the nearest mountain, effectively grab a megaphone like a street preacher, and call out the enablers in Shechem who’d filled Abimelech’s pockets with the cash to buy this militia, provides an astounding illustration of the fact that preaching the truth is more noble than preserving your life.
Ask Noah if he regrets preaching to his wayward society to repent and believe, despite being mocked relentlessly. Ask Caleb and Joshua if they regret speaking out against those ten lying spies and nearly getting stoned to death for it. Ask Moses if he regrets standing up to Pharaoh even though his exhortation provoked a heavier workload. And they’ll all say the same thing. That’s the power of Jotham’s testimony here. Whether he gets speared or stoned or imprisoned in the next scene, he decides that, here, in the face of grave injustice, it’s better to stand than to run, better to preach than remain silent, and better to call out the evil than save his own skin.
May we do the same today.