1 Samuel 11:1-15
1 Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
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.
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.
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.
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.
8 And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
9 And they said unto the messengers that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabeshgilead, To morrow, by that time the sun be hot, ye shall have help.a 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Now in the study last we came to the place where Saul was anointed king over Israel. We remember at the time of his anointing that he was hiding in the stuff. So as Samuel got ready to present, you know, the trumpet fanfare and all, "And now you're king," and the curtains opened kind of a thing, there's nobody there.
So Samuel said, "Lord what's going on? We got the right man? Is this the right day?"
The Lord said, "He's over hiding in the stuff." So they went over and got him, and brought Saul before the people, and all the people joined together in a cry, "God save the king." But there were some men who were objecting to Saul's reign, the children of Belial.
Now the children of Belial are usually the evil men, Belial being a term for Satan, the children of the Devil. They were saying that, "Shall Saul rule over us?" They were creating a little undercurrent against Saul's reign. Now Saul returned to his home and just went back to his work of farming.
When the king of the Ammonites came against the Israeli settlement of Jabeshgilead. So he demanded that they surrender, or when he came against them they volunteered some kind of a tribute. What must we do to be your servants? He said, Let all of the men pluck out their right eyes, and put them in a basket to be a reproach against all Israel. Then we'll be your servants. They said, Well give us seven days to think about that: So they sent to Saul and they told him the demands that this fellow was making, the king of the Ammonites was making against them. So Saul took the oxen that he was plowing with; and he cut them up into pieces, and sent them throughout Israel, and said, And so shall the man's oxen be cut up who doesn't come and follow me in battle. [In other words, it was a call to battle, "If you don't come, when we get back we're gonna cut your oxen all up."] So the men of Israel gathered together with Saul some three hundred thousand, plus another thirty thousand from the tribe of Judah. So they came down and they sent a message back to the men of Jabeshgilead, and said, Don't worry help is on the way. So the seventh day the men of Jabeshgilead sent a message out to the king of the Ammonites, and said, We're gonna fight instead of pluck out our right eyes. About this time Saul's first contingent arrives and he began to smite them, then the second contingent moved in, and the third contingent and they utterly wiped out all of this invading force that had come against them, they were thoroughly defeated until there weren't two men left together (1 Samuel 11:1-11).
Just really decimated the troops. And God gave unto Saul a great victory. It really was the thing that sort of catapulted him into the real position of king. This is what the people were looking for, a man who would go out and lead their armies into battle against their enemies and all. So when this great victory was given to Saul over their enemies, then
The people said, Where are those guys that said, Who is Saul that he should reign? bring them out, and we're gonna wipe them out. And Saul said, [Wait a minute no, no, no let's not have any recriminations] God has wrought salvation for Israel today. [And let's rejoice in the victory of God, and let's not have any recriminations] (1 Samuel 11:12-13).
Now this is Saul at the beginning of his reign, and at the beginning of his reign he does show many marvelous characteristics. Among those, that of humility. In reality when Samuel first met Saul and said, "Behold the man upon whom is all the eyes upon or, the desire of Israel."
Saul said, "Hey, you can't mean me. I'm from the tribe of Benjamin one of the little tribes. My dad's family is nothing. You surely can't mean me." There was a real humility manifested in this fellow Saul.
When Samuel laid out the fact that he was to be the king and all, when he got home and his uncle said, "What took you so long?"
He said, "Oh man we really got lost."
He said, "We finally ended up with Samuel."
And he said, "Oh, what did Samuel tell you?"
He said, "He told us that the donkeys had come home."
But he didn't bother, you know, he didn't say to his uncle, "He told me I was gonna be king" and this kind of stuff. I mean there was none of that. There seemed to be a true humility.
It is tragic that as the story progresses of the life of Saul, one of the bad characteristics of his later life is the lack of humility. This spiritual pride, this more than, just plain pride that took over in his life. Starting out a very humble man, but as time progressed he became a very proud man. But in this particular case here, the men were ready to go out and wipe out these guys who had spoken against him. He said, "Oh no. God has wrought salvation in Israel and thus there'll be no recrimination." So here is still right at the beginning, signs of real good qualities of humility.
So all of the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul the king before the Lord; and they sacrificed the sacrifices of peace offerings; and Saul and the men of Israel rejoiced greatly (1 Samuel 11:15).
So there was a reconfirmation. But this was really, "Hey, this is the fellow. This is the man." And now the general acknowledgment of Saul as king.
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