The Parable of the Bramble
Monday, March 3
The Parable of the Bramble
Judges 9:8-11 & 14
“The trees once went out to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my abundance, by which gods and men are honored, and go hold sway over the trees?’ And the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and reign over us.’ But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness … and go hold sway over the trees?’… Then all the trees said to the bramble, ‘You come and reign over us.’”
The prophetic and the poetic often go hand in glove in the Scriptures because they’re two undertones of the same Voice. One proclaims the truth in black and white—in letters—and the other illustrates the truth in full color—through pictures. Hence, the greatest prophets in history have also been the greatest poets and vice versa. In this uniquely divine language of truth-telling, one cannot be weak in prophecy and strong in poetry, or weak in poetry and strong in prophecy, and be considered great in either. A double-edged sword must be sharp on both sides.
To that end, notice how much Jotham’s parable here to these chiefs of Shechem mimics the language our Lord will later employ against the transgressing chiefs and Pharisees of His day. This Parable of the Bramble would fit perfectly in Matthew 13, somewhere between the Parable of the Seed and the Parable of the Sower. It’s precisely the sort of rhetorical thrust Christ will use so deftly, forged in the same fire of divine holiness. And wasn’t our Lord the best at that, by the way? None of the thousands of prophet-poets before or after have come close to matching His mastery of wielding words to redeem the lost and heal the sick and expose the hypocrisy of elites and cast out demons and exegete invisible God to men through parables, yet saints like Jothan bear His likeness when they speak truth in such manner.
Perhaps that’s too literary-critical for a devotional, friend, but listen past Jotham’s youthful, tremoring voice, and you’ll hear Christ thundering to Pharisees and religious charlatans, in words as crimson as the blood on Abimelech’s hands, a heavenly word through an earthy symbol. And these leaders of Shechem, like us still today, better take them to heart.