Systematic Theology – Work

Bramble Men

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Systematic Theology

Genre: Speech

Lesson: 5 of 19

Track: #5

Year:

Dictation Name: 5 Bramble Men

[Rushdoony] Oh Lord our God unto whom all power, authority, and government belongs, we rejoice our Father that Thou who art on the throne doest laugh at the pretensions and at the ambitions of me. Give us grace always to share in Thy laughter, to be faithful in Thy service but to know oh Lord that Thou art He who dost hold Thy enemies in derision. Give us joy therefore in Thy service, a delight in Thy word, and a confidence in Thy rule. In Jesus name, amen.

Our scripture is from the book of Judges, the ninth chapter verses seven through twenty; our subject Bramble Men. Judges 9:7-20, the setting of this passage is the death of Gideon, or Jerubball as he was also known, and then the seizure of power by one of his sons, Abimelech, who had all the other sons executed except one young man, Jotham, who escaped. And now Abimelech was having himself crowned king near Shechem, which was his mother’s home area. Verse seven of Judges 9

“7 And when they told it to Jotham, he went and stood in the top of mount Gerizim, and lifted up his voice, and cried, and said unto them, Hearken unto me, ye men of Shechem, that God may hearken unto you.

8 The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, reign thou over us.

9 But the olive tree said unto them, Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

10 And the trees said to the fig tree, Come thou, and reign over us.

11 But the fig tree said unto them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?

12 Then said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us.

13 And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?

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

15 And the bramble said unto the trees, 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.

16 Now therefore, if ye have done truly and sincerely, in that ye have made Abimelech king, and if ye have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have done unto him according to the deserving of his hands;

17 (For my father fought for you, and adventured his life far, and delivered you out of the hand of Midian:

18 And ye are risen up against my father's house this day, and have slain his sons, threescore and ten persons, upon one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his maidservant, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother;)

19 If ye then have dealt truly and sincerely with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also rejoice in you:

20 But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and devour Abimelech.”

Abimelech had seized power in Israel and had murdered all the sons of Shechem save one, Jotham, would escape. Because Abimelech’s mother was a Shechemite the men of Shechem rallied around him and he was made king over Israel and Shechem. It was during the coronation ceremony that young Jotham from a cliff on the side of the mountain overlooking the sight of the coronation disturbed that event with his speech, a parable. This parable is a powerful statement against Statism. The Bible is after an anti-Statist book. God as the Lord, as the sovereign, declares emphatically that he will not share His glory or His sovereignty with another power. But men since the tower of Babel have sought to gain sovereignty by means of the state. Jotham here speaks of that perennial attempt, and this is why his parable is as valid today as it was when he spoke it.

The idea of the state as represented by Abimelech is a theology of the anti-god state. The trees in this parable decided that they want a king. The trees represent the people. They want a monarchy which, as God makes clear, is a rejection of Himself because He is the only true king over men and nations. The central idea of the book of judges is precisely that, “In those days there was no king in Israel, the people had rejected God as their king and therefore every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” Thus first of all the trees, or the people, sought government, they sought authority apart from and in rebellion against almighty God. Every attempt by men to live their lives apart from God and His law constitutes a like rebellion by men and nations.

Then second what happened was that the productive men refused to become a part of the ungodly order. The olive tree, the fig tree, the grapevine, all refused. These represent men of ability. Now they were not asked in reality in Shechem to be kings, but they were no doubt approached by Abimelech to be his counselors, to participate in the rule over others; and being productive men they saw no place for themselves in an unproductive state, they rejected Abimelech offer.

Then the third aspect of this parable is that the godless power seeks always to have all things under its authority and below itself. Now David as a Godly man even in his sin when he was confronted with the prophet Nathan by Nathan’s open statement before the court of his adultery, acknowledged the freedom of the word of God, and the freedom of Nathan to rebuke him. But bramble men, men who seek sovereignty and power over other men are not only base and inferior, but as they command the state demand that all others be under them.

Note Jotham’s sense of humor, a grim one, but very real. The bramble bush says to the trees “come, put your trust in my shadow.” Now what’s the implication of that? The bramble bush goes on to say that if they refused he would destroy even the cedars of Lebanon, and the Cedars of Lebanon of whom a very few survive, were very tall, enormous, varieties of cedar. In other words the bramble bush and bramble men say ‘we will cut everything down to our size and lesser, come put your trust in my shadow.” Now this of course is what is being done today by the federal government, every large power in the country is to be destroyed, AT&T must be cut down, the churches must be cut down, everyone who is of any consequence is to be cut down. On principle they have to be below the bramble bush, which is the federal government. This is what bramble men are about. When men play God they seek to imitate God the Lord.

Now God declares to Moses in Deuteronomy 32 verses 39-41 “ See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live forever.41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.” When God so speaks he does so as absolute, total, and perfect justice, but these words of God have been echoed again and again in history by civil governments. When the state assumes like power independently of God and His law, or any powers independently of God and His law. It acts in terms of power injustice and evil, not justice.

Then fourth we must say that Jotham contrasts the productivity of the trees with a non-producing power of the bramble bush, of the Humanistic state. Bramble men are unproductive men, they seek power over others. The idea of trees under a bramble bush is ludicrous, and it is evil, and so too are bramble men. But bramble men are not to be found only in the state where they are with us in abundance, they are also very much in evidence in the church and the power play is prominent in all churches, even those that have no bishops or hierarchies, they have their men who seek power and wield it. It is very definitely the case with corporations, and indeed one can say that corporations today are filled with bramble men, ruled by bramble men.

At our staff breakfast the other day we were commenting on the fact that corporations are begun by men who very often are anything but tall, handsome characters. But once they become successful the average height of the corporate executives becomes remarkably tall because the image is important, and the power of ruling over big men and a big corporation and of making them submit is very seductive. Of course we have the same kind of situation, bramble men, in our schools and universities. As one teacher in a public school said not long ago, in his lifetime the schools had shifted from a situation of administration and teachers being a unity to a capital versus labor situation with the administration seeking power and disassociating itself from the teachers in the public schools. So that now the growing problem, according to this article, is the conflict in public schools between administration and teachers.

The arts, the sciences, every area of life is being taken over by bramble men. Production gives way to destruction and to power ploys. The world of bramble men is the world of bramble concerns, and the world of hypercritical people. It is interesting, for example, to go back to ancient Greece, that Diogenes, who went around with a lantern looking for an honest man, never found one, assumed that he was honest. He could of found a liar by looking in a mirror, he could of found a useless by looking in the mirror. On one occasion when Plato was seated, Diogenes with his dirty sandals trampled on Plato’s robes and said “thus I tread on Plato’s pride” and Plato replied “but with a greater pride of your own.” And both men were right, both were bramble men.

Joseph Parker saw clearly the heart of issue of the matter. He said and I quote “all the men worth having to reign over us are already enthroned”. They are enthroned in their own productive callings and works and they have no desire for power for the sake of power. They reign as God’s vice{?} in their own callings. “Jotham comprehended” said Parker, “the great philosophy that water cannot rise above its level. Men cannot rise above the honor that is in them, little men cannot be great, ungrateful men cannot be just, mean souls can never be majestic.” In other words the state can never rise above its moral level. If it rules by man-made laws, if it promotes homosexuality and is favorable to abortion and Humanism the level it seeks will be progressively lower year by year unless Christians reverse that trend. The present disintegration all around us is evidence of the direction that bramble men and bramble states take. As our Lord said “you shall know them by their fruits, do men gather grapes of thorns? Or figs of thistles?” Thistles, bramble bushes, bramble men.

Abimelech is not dead; he has reappeared in our own day. The bramble men are very much with us. The modern state and modern institutions from the church on down are all filled with bramble men whose productions are brambles and not the fruits of righteousness. The modern state is a masterpiece of anti-productivity because its essential goal is power. George Orwell in 1984 deal this very, very tellingly. In the high point of the story he has O’Brien declaring to the dissident man, and I quote: “We know that no-one ever ceases power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution. One makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” This is fallen mans major concern, his major work, because fallen man is a bramble man and the greater his opportunity to express his nature, the greater his hostility to productivity, the greater his proneness to power over others. The more powerful fallen man becomes, the more unproductive he is.

It is interesting that Orwell’s 1984 written in 1948, was confirmed very clearly by a statement in China in 1966 by one of the top men in Red China, Lin Biao {?} he said, and I quote: “Political power is an instrument by which one class oppresses another. It is exactly the same with revolution and with counter-revolution. As I see it, political power is the power to oppress.” And wherever you have a concentration of political power, where politics concerns itself more than with simple justice, this becomes true. It is the logical end of Plato’s Republic, of philosopher kings, and every utopian order. The goal is mans fiat word, his ability to play God. It is interesting that Plato fathered the thirty tyrants of Greece, they were his pupils. Moreover Plato never gave any attention to law as he wrote his Republic, there are no laws in it; just the power of the philosopher kings. Only towards the end of his life when his dream of the Republic was a failure did he write his book The Laws, his weakest production because he had no real appreciation of what law means. Bramble men see the future as power, their power. Hence their essential direction in every age can be summed up in three words “back to Babel.” Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God Thy word is truth and Thy word spoken through Jotham of old is still the living word. Give us grace and power and patience as we deal with the bramble men of our time, by Thy Spirit and power enable us to replace them, to supplant them with Thy word, with Thy law, and with Thy people. Preserve us from the Spirit and power of Bramble men, we beseech Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson?

I think it is interesting that this was once a very popular text for sermons, and it’s rarely heard in our day.

Yes?

[Audience Member] I was going to ask about that, because I’ve never heard it before, never heard it discussed.

[Rushdoony] Well it doesn’t fit the times and it might be offensive to any civil-service official or any politician in a congregation.

Yes John?

[John] Getting to long term, our basic thrust in terms of reconstruction out of the, at the township and county level, and maybe fighting brush fire to the federal and state level while building from the county level?

[Rushdoony] I think we need to fight on every level, its total war.

[John] I mean in the long term I’m talking about, because we have, it seems like we have to build some kind of a basis of discipleship in terms of the philosophy of government and…

[Rushdoony] Well, I think the county level and the federal level right now are urgent levels. The county can refuse federal funds, period. Almost no counties in the United States are doing that, the pressure is to great on them; however we need work on the congressional level too because so much of the evil is being perpetrated there and so much done to destroy the autonomy of the county.

Similarly the courts are a tremendous center of evil now, and a lot needs to be done there.

Any other questions or comments?

[Audience Member] When the county supervisors are sworn in a couple of years ago a paper made a note of the fact that they were not sworn in to protect the people of the county, they were sworn in as employees of the state and to uphold the laws of the state.

[Rushdoony] Yes this is part of the shift that has taken place. The American system as it was set up had as its basic unit of government the county. Now the county is being replaced by the state and the federal government. So what we see in the counties is many of the men who were for long the bulwark of resistance have retired, and the newer breed are basically submissive.

Any other questions or comments?

Ken, you had an interesting comment on the unproductive nature, one aspect of the federal government.

[Ken] Goes a long with last week and this week when talking about the unproductive nature and especially because the government level in the income taxation where so much of the productive element of business sector, and private life, has to be used in preparing records to collect tax, and then there’s a lot of government bureaucracy to check those records and impose the laws. I’ve heard somewhere years ago, I don’t know how true it is, that the government kind of breaks even on what it collects in income taxes, it really costs them about as much to collect the tax as it collects for people, and it’s really a source of power over the people and the means of collecting income to run the government.

[Rushdoony] About twenty years ago I did know someone who was in charge of the investigations for a house committee, and he made that statement with regard to the IRS, the income tax, that it was, he felt, mainly an instrument of control because the cost of operation was so high that it hardly merited the effort that went into it as far as revenue is concerned. He said they were balked when they went so far on their investigations of the financial operations, the cost of the IRS.

Any other comments or questions?

Yes?

[Audience Member] {?} Talking about the politicians, the people running government at the county level, the difference between the people we used to have and the people we have now. I wonder if that’s because we no longer have statesmen, we have politicians who are thinking either of their own next election, or their getting into county government as a means of stepping up in the state or federal level so they have to go on with the, whatever the level of government is above them so that they can move easily into those next steps.

[Rushdoony] And so much of campaigning today is in terms of the benefits derived financially for the people, which usually come from a higher level.

Yes?

[Audience Member] I would think that the county would provide an extremely vulnerable point to insert the scalpel so to speak, because I’ve been reading the newspapers, the local county newspapers here recently and it seems to me like there’s just massive, massive incompetency at the county level and double talk, double think, contradiction, the whole nine years. And it would just seem to me like someone could come along at the county level and just institute a flat rate tax across the board and say “this county will pay its own bills and take care of its own, and the amount of money that’s taken from each person to pay the county tax is deductable from federal and state income taxes.” And then let the federal government and the state government throw us all in jail. See if they’ll throw the entire county board of supervisors in jail, and I would think that something like that the upstart county could really just create a grassroots movement across the country if you just maintained your cool and didn’t let the federal and state governments intimidate you. I would begin to think that the county, as small as it is, could really affect, really get in there and mix it with them.

[Rushdoony] In recent years we have had some small counties in California and elsewhere that have simply said “no, hands off and stay out.” But no-one ever hears about this, that’s one of the problems.

[Audience Member] [Says one indiscernible word that causes laughter]

[Rushdoony] Now this is why there has to be a growth of a Christian sense of responsibility so that Christians can make their stand, let others know of it, and work together.

Well let us bow our heads now in prayer.

Our Lord and our God we thank Thee that Thy judgment is upon the bramble state and bramble men. We pray that we may not be a part of that judgment because of our silence and our fearfulness, give us grace each in our place to make our stand, and prosper us there-in, and give us the joy of seeing things, all things, brought into captivity to our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.