I Samuel 11:1-15
Good Morning! We continue today
in our series Prophet and King with the unusual story of the unveiling of the
first king of Israel. Two weeks ago, we
saw how Samuel pulls Saul from an obscure activity (looking for lost donkeys)
and gives him VIP treatment. Last week,
the story continued in that same meeting, and Samuel anoints Saul with oil in
private, saying to him, “Has not the Lord anointed you leader over his
inheritance?” After an amazing sequence
of events which Samuel prophesied to Saul in advance, Saul arrives home. When his uncle asks what Samuel said, Saul
does not tell his uncle about the kingship.
Then, Samuel summons the people to Mizpah and begins the process of
publically revealing the chosen king for Israel. Keep in mind that Samuel has already anointed
Saul at God’s command. Samuel knows
exactly who’s supposed to be king. Then,
they begin to choose which tribe the king will come from by lot, by “chance.” The tribe of Benjamin is chosen. Then, the clans within Benjamin come forward, and Matri’s
clan was chosen and so on all the way down to Saul. It seems like the craziest activity.
I don’t mean to be disrespectful or silly, but to me, this feels like
they are choosing the king with a Magic 8 Ball.
In my logic-based western education and experience, I think who would do
that? And yet, Scripture is clear and
there are other examples where this kind of decision making is successfully
used. (Joshua 7:15-18; I Samuel 14:41-42)
Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every
decision is from the LORD.” And so, it was
God’s way and the peoples’ accepted way to go about making a major
decision. It was also a moment for
Samuel to demonstrate both faith and patience that this would work out as God
had shown him previously.
Once Saul is selected (and they pull him out from hiding in the
baggage), Samuel presents him to the Israelites and extols the obvious fact
that Saul is bigger than anyone else.
The people cheer, “Long live the king!”
Samuel goes on to explain to the people the regulations of the
kingship. And then? And then, Samuel dismisses everyone and they
all go home, including Saul.
That brings us to today’s passage.
Up till now, it seems very little has changed. I wonder how the people felt. Did it feel anti-climactic? Or, was this the situation they wanted? A king who was simply there on his own
property without demands. There were a
couple of other groups. There were some
valiant men whose hearts the Lord had touched.
They went with Saul to his home.
Then, there were some troublemakers who questioned how Saul would “save
them.” Maybe these are people that I
would have identified with. They seem
skeptical. “How is what Samuel just did
going to do us any good in a fight?”
There is some feeling of uncertainty among the people at this point.
In addition to giving us the background for today’s passage, there is
another reason behind this rather lengthy introduction. There has probably never been another
situation quite like this in history. At
least, I couldn’t think of one. There
have been a few times where the people wanted to make someone king, but I don’t
think there’s ever been another time where a king has arisen in such a
roundabout sort of way. Not only that,
there has never been a time where a new king was a completely unknown and
untested leader. A new ruler is almost
always a person of power and influence.
If not, then that ruler is a hereditary one becoming the leader by
birthright.
We’ve been watching more VeggieTales at the house lately. I have to confess that the reason is a little
bit selfish. Elijah is at that age where
he imprints nearly everything he sees, and then anything that isn’t clear to
him, he’ll ask a hundred questions about it for days afterward. I got a little tired answering questions like
why the squirrel in the movie Hoodwinked
is named Twitchy and why did they give him coffee to drink and on and on. I figured it would be a lot better if Elijah
was asking a million questions about Bible-based videos.
In the video Josh and the Big Wall, Junior Asparagus sings a song
titled “God’s Way Is the Best Way.” One
of the verses goes like this …
The Lord has given His Word
to us,
No need to fuss, He knows
what He's doing.
We know that He will take care
of us,
If we will follow Him.
God's way is the best way,
Now that I know, He loves me
so.
His way is the best way!
And that's the way for me!
He sings this song because the other characters who represent the
people of Israel are having a difficult time trusting God, particularly about
what looks like one of the most foolish military strategies in the history of
the world: walking around the city of
Jericho in circles as a means to gain entry into the city.
The question must come to all of us and sometimes more than once. Do we believe like Junior did? Do we know that He will take care of us when
we follow Him? Or, do our doubts drive
us to take matters into our own hands?
What if God’s way looks hokey or just flat out weird? What will we do then?
Let’s pray, and we’ll see what happens to Saul in his first big test.
Lord God, sometimes I question your ways. And yet, Your ways are truly the best
ways. Help us each one to follow
You. When we have doubts, help our
unbelief. Thank You for Your patience
toward us. I know I need it. Teach us from the passage before us, we pray
in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
I Samuel 11, verse 1:
Nahash the Ammonite went up
and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, “Make a
treaty with us, and we will be subject to you.” –I Samuel 11:1
Up until now in this series, we’ve heard almost exclusively about the
Philistines as the enemy of Israel.
Looking at a map, you can see the Philistine territory to the west of
Israel. The Ammonites were on the
eastern side of Israel.
Interestingly, there is a relationship between the people of Ammon and
the people of Israel. Israel consists of
Abraham’s descendants. Ammon consists of
the descendants of Abraham’s nephew, Lot.
In fact, God specifically told the Israelites not to conquer or even
harass Ammon because of this relationship (Deuteronomy 2:19).
There had been a couple of losses to the Ammonites during the time of
the Judges. First, in Judges 3, the
Ammonites are part of an alliance led by Moab to attack Israel and take the
city of Jericho. Later, in Judges 10-12,
the Ammonites are victorious over Israel, holding large areas of their
territory and oppressing them. Both
times, these attacks came because the people of Israel turned from worshiping
the Lord to worship the false gods of the peoples around them, including the
Ammonites.
It says Nahash besieged Jabesh Gilead.
A siege is when an army surrounds a city. Typically, all the people of the outlying
lands flee into the city. Once everyone
is bottled up in the city, they really can’t get out. Then, it turns into a waiting game. So long as another army does not come to
rescue the people inside the city, they army only has to wait until the food
and water supply runs short. The people
in the city eventually become so weak that they cannot even fight. Depending on the city this was often a few
weeks or months though some could last for years. It is horrible with people dying from
starvation and disease. I’ll spare the
details, but the leaders of Jabesh Gilead know this, and their solution is
simply to surrender.
The terms, though, are chilling.
But Nahash the Ammonite replied,
“I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right
eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”
The elders of Jabesh said to
him, “Give us seven days so we can send messengers throughout Israel; if no one
comes to rescue us, we will surrender to you.” –I Samuel 11:2-3
In addition to the humiliation, this brutal treatment further weakens
the military capability of the people.
Effectively, this would likely insure Ammonite control east of the
Jordan for more than a generation.
The leaders of Jabesh ask for a chance to send for help. The Ammonites are either incredibly
confident, incredibly dumb, or incredibly impatient here. The whole point of a siege is to not let
anyone out. It may indicate that the
people of Israel felt duress from both east and west sides. Perhaps the Ammonites were confident that no
one could come and help because the people would be afraid to leave their own
lands unprotected against the Philistines or the Amorites or some other -ites.
The problem for an attacking army during a siege is that it takes a
long time. Yes, the attacking army is
free to go about and forage for food and get water, but they still have to be
supplied. In ancient times, armies were
mostly made up of conscripts (people who were not professional soldiers), so
the soldiers had farms and flocks and families they needed to return to take
care of. If they stayed too long in the
siege, they may miss planting or harvesting, for example. The offer of complete surrender in seven days
may have sounded pretty good.
When the messengers came to
Gibeah of Saul and reported these terms to the people, they all wept aloud. Just
then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, “What
is wrong with the people? Why are they weeping?” Then they repeated to him what
the men of Jabesh had said. –I Samuel 11:4-5
Saul is still back at his “day job.”
He’s working in the fields. What
would you think if you saw the president mowing the lawn at the White House? That would be totally weird, right?
The people are grieved. There is
a spirit of kinship between them. This
kinship between Jabesh Gilead and the people of Gibeah runs even deeper than
between the other tribes. More than two
hundred years before today’s passage, it was the people of Gibeah whose sin
(rape and sodomy) resulted in the near destruction of the tribe of Benjamin
(Judges 19-21). Then, after a brief but
horrifically costly civil war, the people of Israel came up with a plan to
reestablish Benjamin from the 600 surviving Benjamite soldiers. Four hundred new wives for the Benjamites
were taken from Jabesh Gilead because the people of Jabesh Gilead had not
participated in the assemblies of Israel at Mizpah or Bethel about this crisis. Without going deeper into the story,
something like two thirds of the people of Benjamin’s
great-great-great-great-great-great grandmothers were from Jabesh Gilead.
When Saul heard their words,
the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he burned with anger. He took a
pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers
throughout Israel, proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of
anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” –I Samuel 11:6-7
Here we see the secret of how God can take an unknown and untested leader
and make him successful. Just as it says
in Zechariah 4:6, “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the
Lord Almighty.” His anger is righteous
anger from the Spirit of God.
The taking of the oxen and cutting them into pieces and sending them
out is reminiscent of the call to the people of Israel which had led them to
assemble in Judges 19-20 against the Benjamites.
Then the terror of the LORD
fell on the people, and they turned out as one man. When Saul mustered them at
Bezek, the men of Israel numbered three hundred thousand and the men of Judah
thirty thousand. –I Samuel 11:7-8
This is nearly unbelievable as far as speed is concerned. It’s 60-80 miles from Jabesh Gilead to Gibeah
of Saul in Benjamin depending on the route taken. That’s a full two day journey. Saul sends out the message calling the people
to assemble. It would take that message
two more days to reach all Israel. Then,
it would take another two days for the people to assemble. That’s six days. They only have seven days to rescue Jabesh
Gilead.
The people would have had to have been in a terror to move that fast. I only could find four times that there were
larger numbers of Israelite soldiers assembled for a battle. The fact that they are assembled only in a
couple of days makes this count still more amazing.
Bezek is twenty miles from Jabesh Gilead perhaps half a day’s journey,
maybe a bit more because they have to ford the Jordan River on the way.
They told the messengers who
had come, “Say to the men of Jabesh Gilead, ‘By the time the sun is hot
tomorrow, you will be delivered.’” When the messengers went and reported this
to the men of Jabesh, they were elated. They said to the Ammonites, “Tomorrow
we will surrender to you, and you can do to us whatever seems good to you.” –I
Samuel 11:9-10
More than likely, the messengers of Jabesh Gilead have returned on the
sixth day of their seven allotted days.
Because the people were elated at the news of deliverance, I don’t think
the messengers left Bezek until they had seen hundreds of thousands of soldiers
assembled. They didn’t return with mere
words, they were sure that help was on the way.
The leaders of Jabesh Gilead are shrewd here. They send out the notice of their impending
surrender to put the Ammonites at ease.
The Ammonites are likely kicking back and smugly congratulating
themselves on their successful plan.
The next day Saul separated
his men into three divisions; during the last watch of the night they broke
into the camp of the Ammonites and slaughtered them until the heat of the day.
Those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. –I
Samuel 11:11
If we think about a day from a Jewish standpoint, it goes from evening to
evening rather than dawn to dawn or midnight to midnight. I read this as to say that the Saul divided
the soldiers up after sunset. Then, they
traveled through the night, and arrived at Jabesh Gilead during the last watch
which meant between 2:00 AM and 6:00 AM.
That means they forded the Jordan in the dark. That’s both crazy and seriously strategic. First, it’s hard to sneak up on someone in
broad daylight. Second, who would think
that someone would ford a river with an army in the dark? The reason you don’t ford rivers or even
travel much in the dark is because it’s dangerous when you can’t see where
you’re going. So, it is both strategic
and crazy.
It was also successful. The
Ammonites were in complete disarray.
They were scattered, and any group was attacked and further divided down
to individuals. It was a slaughter. By midday, there were no Ammonites left at
Jabesh Gilead. The few survivors were on
the run back to Ammon. It was a complete
and total victory for Saul and the Israelites.
The people then said to
Samuel, “Who was it that asked, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring these men to
us and we will put them to death.”
But Saul said, “No one shall
be put to death today, for this day the LORD has rescued Israel.” –I Samuel
11:12-13
In last week’s passage after Saul had been selected as king, we read
that “some troublemakers had said, ‘How can this fellow save us?’ ” (I Samuel
10:27). There were some real hot heads
among the Israelites. After Saul had
lead the people in such a fantastically successful deliverance, they wanted to
silence the opposition independent of whether or not they were still opposed to
Saul.
Saul has a good answer. It is
one of humility and peace. If he was
power hungry, he could have supported those who wanted to kill potential
opponents. Later kings in Israel and
Judah would take steps of solidifying their power by killing potential rivals.
Saul also recognizes who truly won the battle. It was the Lord who rescued Israel. Saul had nothing to do with the outlandish
seven day deadline from the leaders of Jabesh Gilead which set things in
motion. Saul made a call to the people,
but the people had to answer and answer quickly with their own weapons and
supplies. Then, they had to successfully
execute a dangerous plan to deliver the people of Jabesh Gilead. If there had been any obstacles along the
way, they would not have been in time.
It was critical that they were able to come to Jabesh Gilead at a time
when the enemy was least expecting an attack.
There were so many things which had to come about for which there was no
way Saul could have made them happen.
Saul did his part, sure, but he did it while filled with God’s Spirit
who was directing his thoughts, plans, and movements.
Then Samuel said to the
people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there reaffirm the kingship.” So all the
people went to Gilgal and confirmed Saul as king in the presence of the LORD.
There they sacrificed fellowship offerings before the LORD, and Saul and all
the Israelites held a great celebration. –I Samuel 11:14-15
The victory has been won. Now,
it is time to celebrate. The people
return to the west side of the Jordan.
Gilgal is shown in the map here with a question mark—there were several
Gilgal’s in Israel. Another possibility
is closer to Jericho where Joshua had the Israelites stack stones as a memorial
after they had crossed the Jordan when they initially entered the Promised Land.
The people now reaffirm the kingship.
Everyone is a believer now: Saul
is the king. They confirm Saul before
the Lord. Essentially, they say, “Yep,
we agree, God. This guy You picked is
king.” They worship the Lord with
fellowship offerings. Leviticus 7
(v.12-13, 15) describes one function of the fellowship offering as
thanksgiving. They are thankful for a
victorious king.
When I read this chapter a couple of weeks ago as I started to think
about teaching on it, the first thing which came to mind was spiritual
warfare. I think there are some things for
us to consider, but before we do that, I want look a little bit more at some of
the impacts of this victory by Saul.
First, people are saved. The
people of Jabesh Gilead and the surrounding area are delivered. In these last couple of verses, we see that
this victory by God brought unity to the people. There were no troublemakers speaking against
the Lord’s anointed. In addition, it
caused them worship God in unity.
Because of the way this had come about, the people recognized God.
But that is not all, we talked already about the fact that perhaps
Saul’s great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother might have come from
Jabesh Gilead. We didn’t talk about the
fact that Gibeah’s sin had indirectly resulted in the total destruction of
Jabesh Gilead. And so, this battle, this
victory comes in a restorative way.
Rather than Gibeah causing destruction and death because of their sin,
the Spirit of God in Saul causes deliverance and victory for the people of
Jabesh Gilead. There is a complete
reversal if you compare the two events.
Something else about this victory which is interesting is what happens
to the Ammonites. I figured that this
was probably the first and last time we would hear about Nahash king of the
Ammonites. But, it isn’t. Strangely, this same Nahash, who wanted to
put out the right eye of everyone who had been herded into the city of Jabesh
Gilead, would become a supporter of King David. I’m not saying that this one battle in I
Samuel 11 is the whole story. In fact, I
imagine there is much more in the progression.
Unfortunately, this is one of the stories which did not reach its full
explanation in the pages of the Bible.
We only know that at the time of Nahash’s death “David thought, ‘I will
show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to
me.’ (II Samuel 10:2) There are only a couple of intervening verses
about Ammon between today’s passage and the one I just read: one including
Ammon in a list of nations Saul had victories over, and one including Ammon in
a list of nations David took silver and gold from. And while those things are true, there was a
kindness which developed between Nahash and David.
Could it be possible that there was something in the totality of this
defeat which caused Nahash to develop respect for Israel and perhaps even
respect for God Himself? I’m not trying
to say that you’re going to see Nahash in heaven. There’s nothing in Scripture to give that
kind of assurance. At the same time
though, you might. But surely, there was
a change brought about in Nahash toward Israel, and it is quite possible that
it started here.
What does any of this have to do with spiritual warfare? Well, spiritual warfare has everything to do
with the bigger picture. God’s heart,
His love, is immense. He is in the
business of saving the world. Probably
the most well-known verse about spiritual warfare is Ephesians 6:12:
For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms. –Ephesians 6:12
How often do I get caught up in the struggle with flesh and blood
rather than the struggle against the spiritual forces of evil?
Do you know what drives me absolutely batty? It’s being disrespected. If you really want to push my buttons, figure
out a way to make me go out of my way to do something and then just jerk the
rug out from under me and tell me it was all for naught. This week, I had a situation that was just
like that. I worked my tail off to do
something for someone. I even scheduled
a follow up meeting a week in advance that explained what I was going to
prepare. Then, I sent the information I
prepared an hour before the meeting so they would have the chance to look over
it before we met. About 5 minutes before
the meeting, they came back and said I had done the wrong thing and that I
needed to have done something that was at least ten times as much effort. Then, in the meeting they explained that
everybody knew that was what I was supposed to do and they were expecting
it. There were four participants in this
meeting and no one countered this person’s assertion, and yet they had all seen
the scope of this discussion in advance.
They had no excuse not to know what I was planning and doing. I’m pretty sure I had smoke coming out of my
ears, and I was pretty glad I had an ocean between me and three of the other
participants.
But being mad at those guys is really just struggling against flesh and
blood. Sometimes I think I’m as dumb as
a rock. Where do I get the expectation
that a group of lost guys are going to show me respect? And even if they did, what good would it do
me or them?
The rest of the passage in Ephesians 6 talks about putting on the full
armor of God. I wonder sometimes if I
ever put on the full armor all at the same time. I feel like I’m always forgetting something. Maybe that’s my takeaway from the
message. I need to meditate on the full
armor each day and carefully put it on to make sure I’m prepared to face the
day. I found this graphic which gives a
good overview:
Are we ready and prepared at all times for the spiritual battle? When we are ready, and we are filled with
God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, then amazing things can happen. God is looking for victories which defeat
powers and spiritual forces of evil.
When I get caught up in the struggle against flesh and blood, in this
case, wanting so bad to prove that I’m right, I can easily miss the bigger,
more important struggle as well as the bigger, eternal victory God desires in
the lives of those around me.
In the book of Judges, God gives the reasons why He left some of the
nations there undefeated. First, He said
because of the Israelites’ disobedience the nations would remain as thorns in
their sides and their gods would be a snare. (Judges 2:3) Then, He said He
wanted to test whether or not Israel would walk in the way of the Lord and obey
His commands during adversity. (Judges 2:22, 3:4) Finally, He also allowed the
nations to remain in order to teach warfare to the people who had not had
previous battle experience. (Judges 3:2)
We do not live in the time of the Judges, but we can see some parallels
in the New Testament. In the parable of
the wheat and the tares (or weeds), the enemy comes and sows bad seeds (weed
seed) in among the good (wheat seed).
When it is discovered, the servants ask what to do. The owner says to leave both the weeds and
the wheat. Then, at the harvest, they
will be separated. Jesus explained this
parable as the difference between the children of the Kingdom of God and the
children of the evil one (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
We also see how Paul had a figurative thorn in his flesh, some kind of
physical ailment that God allowed to remain even after Paul repeatedly asked
for it to be removed. God told Paul, “My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (II
Corinthians 12:7-10)
This week in the Faithwalkers devotional, there have been several
entries about what Jesus said about being a disciple of His. One entry talked about how we are to take up
our cross daily and follow Jesus. (Luke 9:23) Another talked about how when we
try to save our lives, we lose them.
Only by losing our lives for Jesus’ sake will we find life. (Luke
9:24-25) Yesterday’s talked about how Jesus was homeless with no place to lay
his head. (Luke 9:57-58) In short,
following Jesus is not going to be comfortable.
That’s tough stuff.
And so, you and I are like Saul in a way. We probably spend a lot of time plowing our
fields. We have obligations and
responsibilities given to us by God. He
has given us things to do which we are accountable for. These are things we have to do. At the same time, there is a battle raging
for the hearts and lives of people around us.
God calls to us to engage in this battle. It is not a battle against flesh and
blood. It is not a battle to be
right. It wasn’t long ago that I heard Ravi
Zacharias describe Jesus’ mission on earth.
I’d heard him say it before, but it still struck me to hear it
again. Jesus didn’t come to die in order
to make bad people good. Jesus came to
give His life so that dead people would come to life.
That is the battle that we are a part of. The outcome is far more fantastic than any
battle against flesh and blood could ever be.
Victory in this struggle brings dead people back to life. Let us be prepared to endure difficulty and
hardship, obscurity and being misunderstood.
Paul said, “for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in
hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.” (II Corinthians 12:10) He even went so far as to say, “We are fools
for Christ.” (I Corinthians 4:10)
Let us be reminded to see the battle with the proper perspective. Let us be willing to be Jesus’
disciples. Let us be grieved over the
people who the evil one has taken captive.
I encourage you to think on these things. Ask the Lord if there are places or
relationships where you need to take a step of faith. May each of you see eternal victories in the
lives of those who are precious to you.
Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, help us see what we are to do. I pray for Your Holy Spirit to fill each of
our hearts freshly. Give us eyes to see
what You would like for each of us to do in this battle to rescue lives. Thank You that You always lead us in Your
triumphal procession and use us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of You
everywhere. (II Corinthians 2:14) Glorify Your Name. Build Your Kingdom, we pray in Jesus’
precious Name. Amen.
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