My group study of Judges this week took me off on a tangent. About TOWERS. I became interested in them after thinking about the role they played in the story and thinking about towers we have today that have fallen, or leaning. Even today there is a new tower being built that will change the skyline of our capitol city.
We were studying evil king Abimelech. The son of Gideon (good guy) and a Canaanite woman (bad guys), he murdered 70 of his brothers to rule over Shechem. He did rule for 3 years but he was repaid for his evil deeds. God stirred up animosity between him and his people. He ended up battling his own people and they ran to the TOWER of Shechem for safety. Unfortunately Abimelech and his followers cut branches and made a bonfire out of the tower. 1000 people died as the tower burned! Their "safe haven" became a DEATH TRAP. Kinda reminds me of the "Towering Inferno," the first disaster movie I ever saw as a child. Scared me and fascinated me at the same time.
Here is a tower we saw a couple of years ago in Cinque Terre. It's hundreds of years old, and we were told that when pirates approached these coastal towns, the lookout would send word and all the people of the village would go to the TOWER for protection, until the pirates were gone. It's a logical place of safety. Unfortunately, the towers we build can't always protect us from danger. We also resort to other things for protection and comfort from life's stress. We try to escape with unhealthy results many times, like addictions.
Where is your safe haven, your TOWER? Is it in manmade things? I love these scriptures that tell us where our safe haven should be:
The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;
The righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10
For you have been my refuge
A strong tower against my foe. Psalm 61:3
