. . . 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 my good fruit and go hold sway over the trees?” And the trees said to the vine, “You come and reign over us.” But the vine said to them, “Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?” Then all the trees said to the bramble, “You come and reign over us.” And the bramble said to the trees, “If in good faith you are anointing me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shade, but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.”
–Jotham, son of Gideon, protesting the murder of his brothers and the crowning of his brother Abimelech as king in Judges 9, ESV
There’s a lot of context that we should look at carefully if we want to try to get any theology out of this passage, or even any detailed conclusions about a theory of government.
But it’s an interesting illustration, isn’t it?
Who has time to be a ruler and isn’t already doing something more useful? It’s often the least useful people, whose elevation to greater power only leads to trouble.
Reminds me of that silly joke I found at Stupid.com back when Stupid.com was still a website: If con is the opposite of pro, what’s the opposite of progress?
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