Family Feud

Last week I taught a Bible Study class and the lesson provided by LifeWay Cirriculum was entitled Family Feud.  It dealt with one of Gideon's sons, Abimelech, being greedy and arrogant and killing his siblings in order to gain control.  [Judges 9].  He had 70 siblings and killed all but one, Jotham. 

Today, we find ourselves in our own family feud like many others.  Ours involves extended family and the care of an aging parent that affects all of us.  At the middle of the issue....control.   

Abimelech wanted control.  He went to "his people" in Schechem [his mother was Schechemite] and convinced them to support his cause of being a leader.  They supported him and he indeed became the leader causing oppression and demanding things his way. 

Jotham, the sole survivor of Gideon tried to make the people see Abimelech's wickedness but eventually fled because of fear. 

If you are involved in a family feud, those can be the worst.  In fact, one of my favorite songs by Tenth Avenue North-Losing- depicts much of how I feel.  I love the verse that says:

Oh Father won't you forgive them, they don't know what they've been doing....
Oh Father give me grace to forgive them, cause I feel like the one losing. 

I felt like I was losing because I was no longer able to visit this family member.  My first thought was "...but we're blood."

It's the same in the family of God.  Whether we are "related" or not, if we are in the family of God, it was his blood that made us family and yet we allow animosity, anger, envy, greed and control take over. 

God will not let our sin go unaddressed.  Family feuds tear at the heart of us and while we may feel like we are "losing"  God has not forgotten, he has seen the rebellion and disobedience and he does deal with Family Feuds. 

Thus God repaid the wickedness Abimelech had done to his father by murdering his seventy brothers.  God also made the men of Sechem pay for all their wickedness.  Judges 9:56-57

2012 Tenth Avenue North, Losing