How deeply interesting are common things when their true character is apprehended.‭ ‬Ineffable wisdom is everywhere visible to the eye that can see.‭—Bro‬.‭ ‬Roberts

TC 07/1899

14 Then said all the trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over us.

"Trees" are symbolical of the great men among a people.

This is evident from Jotham's parable in Judges ix. 8. "The trees went forth," said he, "to anoint a king over them, and they said unto the Olive Tree, 'Reign thou over us.'" But, when the olive, and the fig, and the vine, severally declined to be promoted over the trees, all the trees with one voice invited the bramble to wear the crown; to which this prickly bush replied,

"If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and, if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon."

All this is perfectly intelligible, and no sane mind would think of trying to interpret it upon what is called the literal principle of hermeneutics. The trees in Jotham's parable symbolized all the men of Shechem, and all the house of Millo, in whom the king-making and king-sustaining power resided. It is unnecessary to adduce further proof of this notable signification of "trees" in the symbolic language.

Eureka 8. Act 1.

23 Then Elohim sent an evil spirit [ruach ra'ah] between [Avimelech] and the men [ba'alei] of Shechem; and the men [ba'alei] of Shechem dealt treacherously with [Avimelech]:

An evil spirit. Yahweh impelled the men in question into the channel of bad temper and mutual animosity.

Here was the beginning of a retribution which afterwards destroyed both Abimelech and his friends in guilt—the stirring-up of discord between them. Had we been witnesses of what went on between them, we should not have discerned any visible intervention of God. We should have noticed, perhaps, an irritability and proneness to take offence, which, if we had been asked the cause, we might have attributed to disordered liver.

In this, perhaps, we should not have been wrong: but it might not have occurred to us that the disordered livers were due to a cause set in motion further back, for the purpose of making mischief between Abimelech and his friends.

The Ways of Providence Ch 13

55 And when the men of Israel [Ish Yisroel] saw that [Avimelech] was dead, they departed every man unto his place.

The evil spirit enkindled between Abimelech and his friends worked itself out in acts of mutual hostility, until they came to fighting, and in the fighting, Abimelech was slain and the men of Shechem burnt to ashes in their stronghold. It all came about in a perfectly natural manner, yet it was all of God, whence arises the obvious reflection that, as God has not deserted the earth, He works out retribution now in special cases in a perfectly natural way.

57 And all the evil of the men [anshei] of Shechem did Elohim render upon their heads: and upon them came the curse [Kelalat] of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal [Yotam ben Yerubaal.].

The unenlightened natural man sees only natural mischance in the case; enlightenment discerns the hand of God.

The Ways of Providence Ch 13