Who is the Bramble King?
The book of Judges is the story of the Israelites trying to figure out their new identity as landed people after conquering Canaan. Their military commander foreshadows the Messiah of the same name (not “Jesus”) whose crown is not made of gold and jewels but of thorns and thistles.
In the first parable in the Bible, Christians will recognize both a warning about kings in general and a promise of a perfect one who is to come. With possession of the Promised Land came the question of polity - were the people of Israel a confederation of clans or a bunch of unified pseudo-states? Political violence is one of the central concerns of the Book of Judges. It begins with the people asking which political entity, which tribe, will lead the rest against their collective enemies, the Canaanites. It then proceeds to describe the death of their leader, Joshua, and his replacements, the judges.
Israelite judges, however, were not like most political leaders. Their position was non-hereditary, meaning power could not be hoarded by certain family lines. They did more or less what modern judges do; preside over disputes and prescribe solutions. Power was not their primary function; salvation was. Judges were raised up to "save Israel from the hands of" their enemies, oppressors, and plunderers. Violence was a byproduct of their political responsibility, not their primary task.
The whole point of the judges is that they were NOT kings, no matter how much the Israelites wanted them. This brings us to the earliest parable in the Bible, that of the Bramble King.
The “parable”
Parables are parabolic short stories, which is to say they convey meaning indirectly; you only take a parable at face value if its message is not intended for you. They do not conceal secrets since anyone can understand them if they humble themselves by adopting a marginal, disempowered perspective. Influential people tell stories that they expect everyone to understand. Marginalized people tell stories they want other marginalized people to understand.
The earliest parable in the Bible appears in Judges 9, where one of Gideon's seventy two(!) sons, Abimelech, wants to subvert the system to his benefit. It's unclear, however, where the narrative ends and the parable begins, not just because of the insane number of progeny. Hebrew readers would recognize Āḇîmeleḵ as the "father of kings" and Yôṯām as "YHWH is perfect." Talk about hyperbole...
Jotham has avoided becoming a victim of Abimelech's murderous pursuit of power, a feat his 70 brothers failed at. From Mount Gerizim, the original mount of blessing (Deut.11:29), he calls for the attention of the leaders of Israel to tell them this first parable. I'll let you read it yourself, from Judges 9:8-15;
The trees want one king rather than a handful of tribal chiefs and the occasional judge. That is, after all, the selling point Abimelech makes in Judges 9:2, “Which is better for you, that all seventy of the sons of [Gideon] rule over you, or that one rule over you?” Seventy symbolizes exaggeration, like how many times Cain’s progeny Lamech feels entitled to violence and how many times “Jesus” says we are to forgive.
The trees represent Israel, who in 1 Samuel 8:5 will make a similar request to “appoint for us… a king.” They go from one of their kind to another; olive, fig, and grape may just as well be Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (the oldest of Jacob’s sons, who would have been first in line anyway). But then they come to the bramble (Judah? the fourth eldest), which isn’t really even a tree. Bramble is a family of thorn bushes; there is no central trunk, like the olive and fig, and it is not a climbing vine, like the grape. Its canes grow in dense, low-lying tangles, creating entire swaths of unusable land.
The olive, fig, and grape have all rejected a king's crown because their gifts would be squandered. They (the tribes of Israel) were not made to rule; it is not part of their created purpose. The thorny monstrosity accepts under the condition; that the rest of the trees “take refuge in my shade.” Spoiler alert: that puts its subjects smack dab in the middle of its spiky snarl. The parable is thoroughly anti-authoritarian, with the story's moral being something like “fµ¢k around [with kings] and find out.”
The “king”
Like the bramble, Judah is fourth in line and the would-be king. Kings are a foreign concept to Israel; when the people demand one from Samuel he is told “They have rejected [YHWH] from being king over them” (1 Samuel 8:7). Israel’s first king is a callback to the brother-murderer Cain and his douchebag descendant, Lamech. The parable is a failed cautionary tale. Israel was to be the exemplary un-nation, a people set apart from the world, but they chose to be just like the gentiles.
The tribe of Judah set apart from the rest in a few ways, setting up its ascension to royal status. In the first verse of Judges 1, the people ask God “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” The Lord choses Judah, whose people in turn invite the tribe of Simeon to accompany them. After an easy victory over the Perizites, Judah captures Jerusalem (allotted to Benjamin) and a slew of other nations living within their tribal allotment.
Worldly rule may have been a foreign concept to Israel, but that doesn’t spoil it through and through. David is one of the few kings of the Hebrew Bible that maintain a good relationship both with God and his subjects. So good, in fact, that YHWH promises him an everlasting kingdom. Make no mistake, however, rulership is still highly corruptible and there are vastly more evil rulers than good ones in the Bible. But YHWH keeps their word, and worldly rule will be with humanity for eternity.
That worldly rulership could be redeemed is the mustard seed of good news hidden in the thorn bush of the very first Biblical parable. “Jesus” loved parables; his extensive use of them was unprecedented at the time. By most estimates, there are about ten parables in the entire Old Testament (four of which are one-liners). In the Gospels alone, depending who you ask, there are between 35 and 50. You can’t convince me that the Bramble King, the first parable of the Hebrew Bible, had little to no appeal to “Jesus.” That makes Jesus’ coronation at Golgotha all the more significant.
The trees are Israel, who had rejected YHWH by ‘going out’ to annoint a king (rather than relying on a high priest or judge). The Persian King Cyrus gave them hope that worldly rule might be beneficial, but after being subject to the Greeks, Seleucids, and Maccabees, the Romans came to power. “Jesus” was a rural bastard child of a perceived harlot, not exactly the choicest of shrubs.
By accepting the symbolic headgear of a king, “Jesus” was taking the corruption of royalty upon himself. Centralized power is as anathema to the Israelite imagination as bramble is to anything that encounters it. We shouldn’t see the Christ as a king, rather we should see power through a cruciform lens. That’s why “Jesus” wears a crown of bramble to the cross, because that is what power was made to look like. If a leader won’t die for you, then they don’t deserve power. We deserve leaders who love the good and will sacrifice themselves for it, just like a good soldier, parent, or spouse. It’s no coincidence that these are the themes of “Jesus’” parables, because He is the bramble king. Not one who causes you pain, but who perseveres pain by accepting the bramble crown.
