Ezekiel 1:26 “And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the thro

 In addition to God, man also makes distinctions according to gender in humanity and has not see both genders of humanity as coequal bearer's of God's image throughout Biblical history. So it is seen in Judges 9:53-54, as is in the case of Abimelech, a very wicked man who slew seventy of his brothers so that he alone might reign in Israel. (Judges 9:2) .

Judges 9:53-54 “And acertain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech’s head, and all to brake his skull. Then he called hastily unto the young man his armourbearer, and said unto him, Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young man thrust him through, and he died.”

Even wicked men can be correct in a few things, thereby discreetly in a moment on the other side of righteousness as both Abimelech and at least certain men in Israel who followed him in life, surely did not see women as coequal bearer's of the Image of God. If they did believed women were equal to men and inherited the Image of God from creation, the blessing there-width in which man was given dominion by God over the earth, wherein is the shame in being slain by a women in which Abimelech said, “Draw thy sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him.” In this much at least one can assert that the Israelites in the time of Judges believed that Men and Women were not equal, and as most certainly they did not believe that women were made in God's Masculine Image.

The book of Judges tells us that Abimelech did very wickedly in the sight of the Lord. Seeing that God tries the hearts of all men and recompenses man accordingly as seen even in the case of Abimelech through the word of God spoken centuries preceding these events in Jeremiah 17:9-11. It stands to reason that the eternal Living God knew Abimelech's heart, and knew him as a wicked doer and a man of pride, and so rendered unto him a shameful injury according to Abimelech's ego at the hands of a woman that his pride might be injured. Then in trying Abimelech's heart, God allowed Abimilech enough mental cognizance and spirit of life even after having had his skull crushed in as I would imagine he would be lying on the ground dying, to speak or murmur to his armor bearer. As Jesus notes concerning men and their words in Mathew 12:37 “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

What does Abimelech do and why is their perhaps condemnation in his final words? Is he wise in his dying breath that he recognize that his wickedness will not stand in the sight of God, that there is an eternal judgment coming, and so repent of his murders that God might forgive him and not blot out his name from the book of life and the land of the living? It is true even as that which was spoken in God through the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 18:23 “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” and Ezekiel 18:32 “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.” God gives opportunity even to wicked man, even to Abimelech it seems gave he space to repent and to return from his wicked ways, but instead Abimelech, as an ungodly man, being spiritually undiscerning, ruled by the wicked desires of his own heart and his own pride was not so much concerned with his eternal well being, but rather the glory of his self centered self-deluded temporal renown, his perceived legacy. He used the grace of God given him in his dying moments to command his armor bearer to thrust him through so that his perceived legacy would not be tarnished in his own eyes instead repenting of his wickedness before God. His legacy came to not much at all. Does anyone much remember Abimelech, the man of Israel in the time of the book of Judges and esteem him much even to this day?