Many may think Jotham is just a misspelling of Batman’s famous city. In fact, several people in the Bible had this name. One was a good king. The other was a person who appeared in the Book of Judges.
It’s not atypical to hear of people in the Bible who have the same names. After all, we have many people named Mary, Judas, etc.
So why highlight Jotham?
As always with our profile articles, it’s important to mention that every name in the Bible is important. Whether someone takes up one verse or an entire chapter, they have an important story to tell about God and us.
Let’s dive in.
It helps to start in chronological order. So let’s look at the Jotham in the Book of Judges.
Jotham’s name means “Yahweh is perfect” or “complete” instead of perfect. In either case, a variation of the YHWH (the original Hebrew spelling) appears in Jotham’s name.
Jotham, in the book of Judges, is the youngest son of Gideon. For those who need a refresher, Gideon was one of the judges over Israel. His fear often marked him. Nevertheless, he followed God’s commands and ended up defeating the enemies of Israel, despite the overwhelming odds against him.
Jotham’s half-brother Abimelech (more on him in a moment) decided to massacre the other sons of Gideon. Jotham appears to be the only one to survive this.
Once Jotham escapes, he speaks against the Shechmites, who have crowned Abimelech as their king. He tells a fable which foretells the fall of Abimelech. Abimelech does indeed fall later on.
After Jotham speaks, we don’t hear what happened to him. He supposedly flees to another land, but we aren’t told what takes place after the fable about trees.
This begs the question, “Why would Abimelech (sometimes spelled Abimelek) want to kill Jotham and his 70 brothers?”
Easy. He wanted to be king.
He knew that his chances of becoming king were short to none because he was a half-brother. So he decided to kill the 70 sons of Gideon.
Abimelech’s scheme appears to work initially, as the Shechmites accept him as their ruler.
He ends up governing for three years.
But eventually, his reign comes to an end. He dies in, in fact, a humiliating way. A woman drops a millstone on Abimelech, cracking his skull. To avoid his final blow being delivered by a woman, he has one of his men kill him in an assisted suicide.
Any time we see someone usurp the throne unrightfully in Scripture, they tend to have a terrible demise. For example, look at all the evil kings in the northern kingdom of Israel (although it doesn’t hurt to look at the southern kingdom as well).
Now that we’ve looked at Jotham in the book of Judges, what do we know about the king Jotham?
Jotham was one of the few good kings in Judah. If you don’t know what Judah is, no worries. A brief recap: Israel split into two kingdoms after the death of Solomon. The northern kingdom, Israel, had no good kings. The southern kingdom, Judah, had a few good kings.
Jotham was one of them.
His father had been pretty good—until he let his pride get the better of him.
Jotham’s father, Uzziah, had attempted to take over some of the temple duties only allocated to priests. Scripture made it clear that those from the tribe of Levi were the only ones who could do this.
Because of this, Uzziah ended up with leprosy and had to live in isolation. The isolation left Jotham to take over, even while the king was still alive.
There’s about a three-year overlap between when Jotham takes over and when Uzziah is still alive. Jotham rules for quite a while (16 years, starting at 25 years old).
During his time as king, he led many rebuilding projects for the temple and obeyed God. He did have one fault, though. He didn’t take down some places of worship dedicated to the gods of other nations. These included monuments to Baal and Asherah poles.
This may seem like “no big deal” at first glance. However, we must understand that because he didn’t tear these down, the Israelites continued worshiping them. This led, ultimately, to a trajectory of captivity in Babylon. Because they continued to disobey God, God allowed them to be given over to their enemies.
However, during the reign of Jotham, he managed to defeat the Amorites, enemies of God’s people. Several famous prophets gave crucial prophecies during the time of Jotham. You may recognize some of their names: Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah.
Hosea may be one of the most recognizable. He had married a prostitute to reflect how God felt about Israel’s idolatry. Again, a reason why Jotham should’ve torn down the high places in the first place. Judah, even under the rule of a good king, was still whoring itself out to other gods.
Micah often talked about social justice and where the Israelites failed to see the needs of those around them. Isaiah covers many of the nation’s sins in his book and has several prophecies about the coming Messiah. No matter how bad Israel got, God had a plan to rescue them from their sin.
We can learn a lot from both Jothams mentioned. The first Jotham taught us a great deal about the dangers of taking control of a throne (or leadership) if God has not ordained it. It will always end in disaster. In the case of Abimelech, the disaster involved a rather humiliating death.
As for the king Jotham, what can we learn from this good king of Judah?
First, we can learn from the mistakes of our fathers.
Unlike Uzziah, Jotham did not set foot in the temple in the same ways he did. In other words, he didn’t try to take over high priest duties. Hence, not getting leprosy. We must recognize past mistakes so that we aren’t doomed to repeat them.
Second, we can recognize the importance of turning back to God.
No matter how far away our families or our nations turn from God, we can be curse-breakers. We can return to God and vow to devote our lives to him. In every generation, there’s a curse breaker. We need to recognize that through Jesus, we can change lives and disrupt vicious cycles.
Finally, we need to give God 100 percent.
Jotham had one bad thing going against him. He compromised. He didn’t tear down the Asherah poles and the altars to Baal. However, Hoseah’s prophecies showed that Israel was still acting like a prostitute.
Because Jotham did not give 100 percent to God, it solidified the trajectory of Judah toward their captivity. Although a few good kings came along after Jotham, no one seemed to break the curse long enough. Their fate was set. They would end up in captivity for seventy years.
In the same way, what ways are we holding back? Not speaking up for what is right? Tearing down our own Asherahs? If we analyze our lives, I imagine we can find several instances where we’ve withheld surrender.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/pamela_d_mcadams
Hope Bolinger is an acquisitions editor at End Game Press, book editor for hire, and the author of almost 30 books. More than 1500 of her works have been featured in various publications. Check out her books at hopebolinger.com for clean books in most genres, great for adults and kids. Check out her editing profile at Reedsy.com to find out about hiring her for your next book project.
This article is part of our People of Christianity catalog that features the stories, meaning, and significance of well-known people from the Bible and history. Here are some of the most popular articles for knowing important figures in Christianity:
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