Those Who Need Saving

Problems

Last week, we looked at how God chose Saul to become king. Saul gets anointed privately by Samuel and then publicly selected. Now today we are going to see how he is confirmed on the battlefield. Turn to .

The Hardship of Jabesh-gilead

English Standard Version Chapter 11

Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” 2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel.”

How about that as a problem? How serious is their situation? The Ammonites come out and either begin besieging the town or encamp by it. The elders of the people send out a message of surrender and agreement to any terms. In return Nahash says that he will only treaty with them if he can gouge out their eyes. He doesn’t just want plunder. He also wants to bring disgrace to the Israelites. He wants to cut all the people not just have them make payment. He wants to hurt them deeply and have them remember his name and disgrace.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.” 4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud.

Nahash doesn’t even worry about what Israel can do to him. He seems to let them have the time to send out messengers.

Have you ever felt like you were someone who needed saving? Have you ever felt in danger? In trouble or in hardship? You don’t know how you can be delivered from such a problem.

What have you felt pressure from? Hardships that make you question is God good? Maybe threats from others or hurts. Perhaps a Spiritual battle is being waged in your heart and you need a breakthrough. You never need to look far to find someone facing a health issue. Maybe it’s in your mind? Are depression and anxiety is weighing you down? Very easily it could also be yourself. Is sinful temptation lurking around ever door, screen or interaction with others? Has fear and insecurity got you besieged?

Jabesh-Gilead’s Dark Past

Imagine being in those threatened people. Everything you have, every loved one around you is in the balance. All that you could do is surrender and they wont accept that. The words must of hung heavy over them as their message to Nahash ended with, ‘If there is no one to deliver us, we will come out to you.’

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

You see this town has been mentioned in the bible before. In judges chapter 19 a dark and sad story is told. This event has always been one that always makes me so sad. It is an event that just shows how broken we are because of sin. We grow up hearing stories of good guys verse bad guys, but that is not here. This is a story of victims and repulsive reciprocation.

A certain Levite man, who lives in Ephraim -in the north- has a concubine, so she is not even his wife just his possession that he sleeps with. Now, she is unfaithful to her husband/boyfriend/man, whatever, and decides to flee to her fathers house in Judah, in the south. The Levite man goes to get his concubine back and travels down to Judah. He arrives at the concubines father’s house and after a few days starts travelling back north. He stops in a town called Gibeah. He waits in the town square and no one accepts them into their home. At that time they would of been very disgraceful, hospitality was huge in those times but not in this terrible place. Eventually an old man, who is not even from that town -he is just staying there for work reasons- invites him into his house. Then things get very Sodom and Gomorrah. Men of Gibeah start banging on the walls of the house and shouting that the old man give up the Levite man up to them so that they may have sex with him. They want to rape this man. The old man offers his virgin daughters and then the Levite grabs/seizes his concubine and put her out with them. They raped her and abused her all night until morning, then let her go at the approach of dawn. The woman came and fell down on the doorway of the house. The Levite, who saved himself and gave her up, he was about to continue his journey, but behold, his concubine was lying down on the door step. He said to her, “Get up and let us go.” but there was no answer. So he puts her on his donkey and goes home. When he got there, he took a knife and cut up the concubines body into twelve pieces and sent them to the tribes of Israel. All of Israel comes out and fights the Benjaminites in three consecutive battles.

This is what sin does to humanity. This is why we need saving from sin. Without Jesus this dark and twisted event has no hope. I know I haven’t brought Jabesh into the story yet but just never forget that through Jesus we have been saved from sin. We have been delivered from our own wickedness. Without Jesus we are just like the sinful people in this story. We needed saving and God sent Jesus to be our deliverer. He is the light in this world and the only reason we can stand in freedom from sin.

Now remember how the Levite sent out all those body pieces out? Well all of Israel came out but the Israelites from Jabesh-gilead did not. In fact, Israel sent men to kill the people of Jabesh and take their virgin woman. Is this the most dark story in scripture? I think so. This is actually at the end of the book of judges where it just ends by saying that there was no king in Israel and everyone just did what was right in their eyes.

So as the people of Jabesh are sending out messengers to all Israel, I wonder how many are remembering how they never went to help others. They are yelling “please help!” and perhaps some Israelites are like “aren’t they the ones that stayed home while we found against the sins of the Benjaminites?”

Would help actually come? “We don’t deserve saving.” Praise God that their story doesn’t end here and neither does yours. You see God is moving in this event and God is moving now. You never face anything alone.

Power

English Standard Version Chapter 11

5 Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. 6 And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.

Now remember, this is before the cross and the coming of the church. So this is a very intense moment. God here is stepping in to come in power on Saul to direct his way. The Hebrew in verse 6 that says that his anger was greatly kindled has this image of flared nostrils, God’s empowering Saul and he is angry against the enemies who want to disgrace Israel.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. 8 When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.

Does this sound familiar? Remember the Levite man in judges? This again was used but this time were oxen. God’s Spirit came upon Saul and directed him to do this. And all of Israel come out to fight as one man. This is the power of God to save. The Spirit of God is the one leading Saul, leading the deliverance of the people of Jabesh-gilead.

In life hard times will come. Who has the power to deliver you from evil? God does. In hard times you realize that you are not enough. You are not powerful enough. Don’t give in to the thinking of our day that you are strong and powerful. We are limited and that’s okay! God is the one who saves and the only one who has power at a great magnitude. It’s not like as though there is levels and Gods on top with angels, man and animals following. God is in a whole different league, dimension, place of His own.

I was going to write up a resume for God but the more I thought about it it just came out cheesy. So here are the works and person of God.

God has always been, is and always will be. No one taught God he just knows everything. When there was nothing, there was God. God didn’t require space to be in like we do He just is.

Out of nothing God created everything. Physics, wisdom, time, space, spiritual beings, mankind and life itself. There is no sentence that can give that all justice. When you see a sunset, rainbow, lighting, animals, water boiling and freezing, the deepest part of the ocean, the highest mountain, the smallest bacteria and biological system that was all God. It all scream GLORY to the CREATOR! In six days He created all things. That was His first written miracle.

After sin entered the world, there has been 264 miracles recorded that God has done. There is not a single human who has ever done 1 unless God what the one doing it through him.

The Flood

The Rainbow

Babel

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot’s wife turned into salt

The conception of Isaac in Sarah, who was over 90 years old

The burning bush, the rod turning into a snake

The 10 plagues of Egypt

The cloud of fire and smoke to lead the Israelites

The sun stays still for a day

(Skipping more now)

The birth of Samuel

The fall of Dagon and the tumors against the Philistines

Fire from heaven consumes Elijah’s sacrifice

A Syrian army is stuck with blindness so that they retreat from the walls of Jerusalem

Rescuing Daniel from the lion’s den

List all of Jesus’

God, the all powerful and terrifying God of the universe, becomes a baby in a virgins womb

Demons being cast out

Paul survived a snake bite

The miracle of salvation through Jesus Christ

These are the miracles of God that have been recorded in His word. This doesn’t count the individual believers who are not mentioned and all up til today. God is the only one who can hold a promise no matter the circumstances. God is the God of miracles. If you talk to any true born again believer they will tell God has worked in their life. We worship a God that changes His people through the working of His Spirit and grace.

God revealed to me when I was 12 that He died for me and that I needed to decide for myself that I was going to follow Jesus. As I walked away from God, in rebellion and bitterness, He did a miracle in my heart. He just changed me. I didn’t do anything. I was still bitter against him but yet I remember the moment when all the faces of those who were praying for me at home while I was at camp. I felt the walls of my heart just come down and I was drawn back to Him. There are moments in my life of simple things where I could of been seriously hurt. The story when I choked on chicken strips. It’s a funny story but my life felt very fragile at that moment and then the blockage just went away. I do see God’s mercy and grace in my life in big life changing ways and simple coincidental ways. When my son, William was a still born, God was with me. Even though I was not praying or devoting myself to God’s word or will, He walked with me. When I got fired, when my car broke down in the midst of everything, when I failed my insurance license that I needed to have a job, when my wife got bed ridden for weeks and I had to take care of my 2 year old and new born. God walked with me. I held on to the most simple thing that my heart could at the time. ‘Don’t get bitter at God He is not the sin in this world He is the saviour.’ When sin and temptation stained my walk and I needed a breakthrough, God was there, my deliverer and constant grace and strength supplier.

My life is not about me and how amazing I am. It has always been about look how limited I am and how limitless God is. Do I follow him with my trust and belief? I am not the hero of my story, Jesus is.

He has the power to save you from sin, no matter the sin. And as he walks with you he will keep his word and promise to you. God has the power to deliver. God empowers Saul and brings all Israel out as one man to come and save the people of Jabesh.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

9 And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.’ ” When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. 8 When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.’ ” When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad.

Again, Imagine being in the shoes of the Jabesh. You were going to be mutilated and so you send out messengers. All the while, in the back of their mind is their shamed past. But then a messenger shows up and says that hundreds of thousands are coming to deliver the people from their enemies. Glad doesn’t do it justice in my opinion. Glad is when someone brought an extra snack for you or brought something you forgot. No instead understand that they rejoiced. In the CSB it gets translated that way and the Hebrew allows that.

So they are going be saved from this gouging situation.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. 8 When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.’ ” When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” 11 And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” 11 And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

Perspective

Perspective

God used Saul to deliver the people from persecution. Now, what we are about to see is the Israelites see this victory in a very humanistic perspective.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.”

So they split in to three companies, which was a common tactic, and took the Ammonites by surprise. This has happened in human history many times. And the men who fought are not like, ‘Saul, the king that we wanted, worked! He is the one who saved us, now where are the men who didn’t send him presents in Chapter 11?’

They saw the victory as Saul’s. How many times do we do this? Wow that was all me. How crazy smart and cunning and strong am I?'Please that was nothing’. But, we see that Saul doesn’t respond to God’s deliverance as his own doing.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

13 But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has worked salvation in Israel.”

‘The Lord is the one who saved us not us.’ Give glory to God not to yourself when He pulls you through troubles. Cynicism is huge in our humanistic world today. We see coincidence but in faith we can see God at work. When we look at our hearts do we see self help balancing acts or scheduling with a bunch of empowering Instagram posts? Or do you see the grace and constant hand of God changing your heart through His Spirit.

Praise

Saul’s perspective of God’s deliverance then produces a response of worship.

English Standard Version Chapter 11

14 Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.” 15 So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the LORD, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

How do you respond because of the deliverance of God? First, your deliverance from sin through Jesus. How do you feeling during songs like ‘Living Hope’?

How great the chasm that lay between us How high the mountain I could not climb In desperation I turned to heaven And spoke Your name into the night Then through the darkness Your loving-kindness Tore through the shadows of my soul The work is finished the end is written Jesus Christ my living hope

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Not only have you been Saved but God has made some very powerful and strengthening promises. God actually put Him self on the line by saying these word in His word. (These are taken from James MacDonald’s book, Always True. Which are taken from the bible)

God is always with me.

English Standard Version Chapter 13

for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper;

I will not fear;

what can man do to me?”

When people thing of God making promises to you, we can think of things like he promises to save me from any trouble like debt, pain, health, enemies, etc. God doesn’t promise that your life is going to be easy. Through Jesus’ death on the cross God will deliver you from everything that is caused by sin. The problem is now you have the promise but the day you receive the blessing is in the future. On top of that we don’t know if that will come in this life or in eternity. In Christ you are eternally with God. In this life, you do not need to fear life because God walks with you.

English Standard Version Psalm 23

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and your staff,

they comfort me.

2. God is in Control.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.

6  In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

God’s sovereignty is something that we cannot fully grasp or comprehend. So it is something that we have to take with faith. Do you believe that God is in Control? Maybe you look at the world and you see all the pain and struggle and death. Is God in control if all that is here? Well in God’s sovereignty, He gave mankind freewill. The terrible things that are not good are results from sin. God is going to restore everything in His time. He is in control, we are not. Trust in the Lord even when it’s hard to believe that He knows best.

3. God is always Good.

This one is one that you need to bring your definition of good and align that with God’s definition of good.

English Standard Version Chapter 8

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

No all things work together for good doesn’t that you will have no pain because in Jesus tells us that God prunes the branches. He prunes us. Pruning doesn’t feel good but it is good. All things, that means things now and eternally. God is with you, God is in control and God is always good.

4. God is always watching.

There is nothing that God doesn’t see.

English Standard Version Chapter 10

13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

All the struggle, pain and heartache God is there. He see you and where you are. He doesn’t stop being present. Find comfort being in His sight.

5. God is always victorious.

English Standard Version Chapter 54

17  no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed,

and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment.

This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD

and their vindication from me, declares the LORD.”

No one can compare to God. No demon, no enemy of the gospel no hardship. God is always victorious. All things are in His hands. Nothing can overthrow our God. There is no failure in your life that is too powerful for God to not forgive. There is no place that you can go that He will not follow. There is no weapon that can work against God. There is no weakness or fault in God.

In His perfection he doesn’t lord that over us. He gives grace and love. You are loved by God and he is the one the we cling to through our struggle and hardships. It takes faith to believe in God and that faith will work in your heart and change you. It will strengthen you because on your own you are not enough.