1 Samuel 11
Notes
Transcript
We ended last week by talking about Samuel calling the Israelites together and presenting them their king
he told them about how they rejected God’s plan for them and went after kingship
but he told them that God had chosen Saul as king for them, since they wanted one so bad
so God still has not given up on them
1 Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabesh-gilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
also we saw how Samuel laid out the “manner of the kingdom” and wrote it all in a book for them to follow
The Ammonites lived on the other side of the jordan river for the most part
they were ultimately descendants of Lot, although they had turned idolatrous
they fought Israel many times over the course of the OT
Nahash, through the Bible and also other information like Jewish historians, was known as oppressive and cruel toward the Israelites
Jabesh-gilead was right in the middle of the sea of galilee and the dead sea (would show a map but they tend not to show up well)
So the men of this city offer to make a covenant with Nahash
this sounds weird at first, but it’s because Nahash has an overwhelming force
Israel at this time was more of a bunch of scattered cities and territories that were banded together as opposed to a highly unified nation that all worked together as a well oiled machine
this would not happen until david
so if Nahash shows up with an entire army ready to campaign against Israel, how is the one town of jabesh-gilead going to fight against that?
the rest of Israel had not had time to come to their aid or even know about what’s going on
so this is why that Jabesh-gilead offered to make peace, so they did not get utterly destroyed and conquered
2 And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
So we see that Nahash is truly merciless here, not only wanting to defeat Israel by military force but also by utterly shaming them
as if he’s on a power trip or something
Multiple Jewish historians, like Josephus, attest to the fact that it was common for Nahash to gouge out enemy eyes
so we are dealing with a pretty wicked oppressor here
3 And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, Give us seven days’ respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coasts of Israel: and then, if there be no man to save us, we will come out to thee.
As we go forward in the chapter, keep in mind that we are on a 7 day time limit
so they have to find some of their fellow Israelites to help them in 7 days, which is not a long time when everyone has to travel by donkeys
So theyre sending out the sos, they’re sending the message all over Israel to their brothers for help
When we reviewed at the start, we talked about how God had not given up on Israel yet, let’s see what happens next...
4 Then came the messengers to Gibeah of Saul, and told the tidings in the ears of the people: and all the people lifted up their voices, and wept.
5 And, behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field; and Saul said, What aileth the people that they weep? And they told him the tidings of the men of Jabesh.
6 And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly.
So we see the people crying and panicking, they are about to be attacked with overwhelming force and much violence, on top of the fact that they’re on a time limit
Saul, who at this point is not bathing in kingly royalty, he is still seemingly herding a flock, a very normal thing for Israelites to do
So he wants to know what’s going on, he is their new leader, after all, and needs to know these kinds of things
They tell him, and we see that the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul and he was very angry
anger is not always bad, we can be angry at evil, we can be angry at sin
it is about control of this anger, and the way this anger affects us
if it pushes us into sinful ways of behaving or acting, then we need to do our best not to be angry in this way
you might say “that’s all that anger does”
however, anger can sometimes be a motivating force that can be used positively
it’s like riches, most people cannot handle riches without it affecting them negatively, whether its regarding greed or them having the money to commit any sin they could want or imagine
however, there are some people who can use it without it affecting them negatively and who use their money for good causes and the right reasons
anger can be the same way, most of the time it’s a negative influence but the point is that it’s not ALWAYS bad
again, it’s about it not affecting your thoughts and actions negatively
you also have to control it
So Saul hears this, the Spirit of God rushes upon him, and he is ready to go out there and defend his fellow people and his kingdom
7 And he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen. And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent.
We see an interesting tactic by Saul here
interestingly, Saul is not the only one to have done this, there are multiple other examples from roughly the OT time period of rulers doing similar things to send a message
with Saul’s message being, “Hey, you guys better come and help us here or you’re going to end up like these oxen”
it says that he sent this message throughout all of Israel
we see that the people got the message, and they all came out in one accord
the hebrew behind this can also mean, “as one man”
8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
We see an absolutely massive number come out
when you have 300k gathered together as one man, that is a force to be reckoned with, that is a lot of manpower
Nahash and the ammonites are going to end up having a bad time
and we see God working as well, the Spirit of God fell on Saul, and afterward he sent the message with the oxen, and as we see here, that worked very well
we see in the book of judges sometimes that when the Spirit of God fell on one of their deliverers, it would be when they needed to assemble an army
assembling an army was hard in a country like Israel, which was somewhat loosely united like we talked about earlier
9 And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help. And the messengers came and shewed it to the men of Jabesh; and they were glad.
10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, To morrow we will come out unto you, and ye shall do with us all that seemeth good unto you.
So the men of Jabesh had essentially been rescued
it was a pretty amazing rescue as well, with Saul gathering the people and God behind the scenes
and it all happened within 7 days!
11 And it was so on the morrow, that Saul put the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the host in the morning watch, and slew the Ammonites until the heat of the day: and it came to pass, that they which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left together.
Saul invades their camp in the morning watch
this was anywhere between like 2-3 am to 6 am, so this was the veeeery early morning when there would not have been much activity at all
so he got the element of surprise on this army, attacking them when they were nowhere near ready with an army of 300k
the Bible says they slew the ammonites until the heat of the day
so this doesn’t really sound like even daybreak, it sounds like they were going for hours and hours
12 And the people said unto Samuel, Who is he that said, Shall Saul reign over us? bring the men, that we may put them to death.
at the very end of chapter 10, last week, we saw that most people were fine with being told Saul was chosen by God as their new king, others did not like it so much
and the Bible goes as far as to call them sons of Belial, or the devil
So you had these who questioned Saul, and kind of questioned God, because God had chosen Saul
So now the Israelites have this massive victory under Saul, and it must have given them a lot of zeal and confidence in him, and now they want to kill the ones who questioned
as if they hadn’t killed enough people recently!
13 And Saul said, There shall not a man be put to death this day: for to day the Lord hath wrought salvation in Israel.
So we see Saul kind of take a leadership role, calming the people down and pointing them toward the salvation that God had provided for them
so at this point we see some pretty great leadership from Saul
14 Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
so we see Saul officially set completely in as the new king over Israel.
he’s no longer just annointed, no longer just presented, he has now been officialized as the king of Israel
QUALITIES WE SEE IN THIS CHAPTER
We saw that when Saul heard about the peril of Jabesh, the Spirit of God fell upon him
what did he do? - he decided to act
SLIDE
“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing”
as Christians, as believers in Christ, as a force for good in this world, we have to actually be out there doing something
evil is out there going on every day, it’s all over the place, all over tv, all over social media, all over towns and cities
we are the positive, Godly force on this earth, we should be out here fighting the “good fight”
if we are believers at home, and every one of us just sat at watched from the sidelines, evil would end up triumphing and not much good would be accomplished
it’s imperative that we should all be out there doing our part
we talked last week about God being able to use every person and every person having their own unique qualities and talents
if we all go out there, bringing our positive, God given talents to the table in the good fight, the fight against evil, we can make progress in this world
we can truly make positive change, we really can change the world with the help of God, we just have to DO IT
there is a saying, “the only way to change is to change”, and the only way for the world to be changed is if someone goes out there and changes it
and who better than believers in God who fight for good
we also know that we have God’s help, and that we are pleasing God when we go out here and do our part
what better way to put our life to use than to please God and to make positive change in the world? to help bring Christ to people, to help the world become a better place.
“If God is with us, who can be against us?”
LEADER
Something related that we see in this chapter is being a leader
we don’t always have a strong leadership personality
for instance in the male world, you have some people who are much more of a leader than others
but we don’t have to have one of these strong leadership personalities to lead
for instance, we don’t even have to be the leader of a friend group or whatever group
but we can lead in various ways, for instance, say we’re talking to a couple of friends, you can just bring up an idea and try to suggest something good you guys can do together
you can also lead by example
leading by example can be very powerful
not only can it be insprirational, but it can sometimes give ideas to others if they see you doing something that they never thought of
in this way, you could lead without ever saying a word
you may also could call this being a “trend setter” or something to that effect.
So we can decide to take action and do good in an evil world, we can be a leader
we saw both of these things in this chapter
but we also saw God working throughout this chapter as well, God provided salvation from the ammonites, and God never gave up on them
God was there for them as they fought the good fight, God was with Saul when he decided to stand up and be a leader, and God will be with us when we do these things as well
Jesus said He’ll be with us always, we know that the Holy Spirit indwells us, God will be with us, He will help us, He will comfort us
and at the end of the day, we do all these things for Him, right? we should want to do all these things for Him
so ultimately, that should be our motivation
so may God help us to take action and be leaders in this sinful world so that we can help change the world and most importantly, be pleasing to God and what we are meant to be.