2 Samuel 2

Paying Your Debts

The men of Jabesh-gilead were they that buried Saul. 2 Samuel 2:4.

This seems like an odd text, doesn't it? Perhaps you wonder what it has to do with you and me. But you see it is only the end of a story, and for the beginning of it we must go back many years right back to the commencement of King Saul's reign.

In those days the men of Jabesh-gilead weren't at all brave; in fact they showed themselves rather cowardly and servile.

Their enemies, the fierce Ammonites, came up and surrounded their city. Later the people of Jabesh were worn out with the siege and they began to get badly frightened. They were afraid of what would happen to them if they fell into the hands of their enemies, and they sent messengers to the Ammonites, saying, “Make terms with us and we will serve you.” What do you think the answer was? “On one condition only will we treat with you on the condition that we put out the right eye of every one of you and that the disgrace of it be laid to the account of all Israel who have not come to your aid.”

Somewhere in the hearts of the people of Jabesh-gilead there must have been a spark of courage left.

And that cruel reply fanned it into flame. They were not going to lose their eyes without making a big effort, they were not going to bring disgrace upon all Israel without making a last attempt to remedy matters. They asked for seven days' respite in which they were to be allowed to send messages into all parts of Israel. Then if their fellow-countrymen refused indeed to come to their aid, they would give themselves into the hands of the Ammonites.

So the messengers went through all the land of Israel, and they came, among other places, to Gibeah, where Saul lived. Saul was not at home when they arrived; he was out in the fields ploughing, for, as you know, he was a farmer. And when the people of Gibeah received the message, what do you suppose they did? They sat down and cried just like a lot of babies. They wept and they wailed, they wrung their hands, and they made a most awful noise.

Well, you know, sitting down and crying about a thing never mended matters and never will. Presently Saul returned from his day's work and when he heard the din he said, “What in all the world is the row about?” Then somebody told him the story of the men of Jabesh-gilead. And when Saul heard it he grew hot with righteous wrath. He didn't sit down and cry about it. He began to act.

First he slew a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces. Then he sent the pieces by messengers through all the land of Israel just as the Highlanders of Scotland used to send the fiery cross from hand to hand to gather the members of their clans. And with the messengers he sent a message “Whosoever cometh not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen.”

The effect was wonderful. In a very short time he had gathered together an army of three hundred and thirty thousand men. They marched upon Jabesh-gilead and fell upon the Ammonites in the early morning, surprising and utterly routing them.

So the men of Jabesh-gilead were delivered.

But that is not all the story. Many years afterwards Saul was defeated in battle by the Philistines. Three of his sons were killed. He himself was sorely wounded, and rather than fall into the hands of the enemy he took his own life.

The following day the Philistines found the bodies of Saul and of his sons on the battlefield. They stripped the king of his armor and cut off his head. His armor they put in the house of one of their gods, his head in the temple of another, while his body and that of his sons they hung upon the wail of one of their fortified cities Beth-shan.

Now Beth-shan was on the opposite side of the Jordan from Jabesh-gilead and distant from it less than twenty miles. And when it came to the ears of the men of Jabesh how the Philistines had insulted their king, all the valiant men among them arose and set out at dead of night to rescue the bodies. It was a hazardous business, but they did not hesitate.

All night they went, and before dawn they reached the hill on which stood the city. They climbed the steep rock to the wall, rescued the bodies, and carried them back to Jabesh-gilead. There they buried them under a sacred tree.

So the men of Jabesh paid their debt. They forgot Saul's mistakes, they forgot his faults, they remembered only that he had once helped them when they were in sore straits, and they risked their lives to save his body from disgrace.

I want to tell you another story, boys and girls. It is a little story that is told in the life of one of the first and best of hospital nurses Sister Dora and it happened half a century ago.

In those days surgeons did not know so well as they do now how to save a badly injured arm or leg. The usual cure was “Take it off.”

One day a young man was brought into the hospital where Sister Dora was working. His arm had been badly twisted and torn by machinery and the surgeon gave his verdict that, in order to save the patient's life, he must amputate the limb.

The young man was greatly distressed. It was his right arm and without it he would be very helpless. Sister Dora examined the limb and then she said to the surgeon, “I believe I can save this arm if you will let me try.”

The surgeon was very angry, but finally he consented. “But remember it's your arm,” he said, “I wash my bands of the case.”

Sister Dora did save the arm, and at hospital the man received the nickname of “Sister's arm.”

Some time later Sister Dora herself fell ill and this same man walked eleven miles to ask for her every Sunday his only free day.

He used to pull the bell very hard and when the servant appeared he would anxiously inquire, “How's Sister?” And always before he went away, he would say, “Tell her that's her arm that rang the bell.”

How many of you can find a connection between these two stories? It is just this. In both cases they tell of people who remembered and who paid their debt as best they could. Do we?

Do we pay our debts to our father and mother, to God? I think sometimes it isn't that we forget or mean to be ungrateful; it is just that we don't think. We are so accustomed to the benefits and kindnesses that are showered upon us that we don't realize how big they are or how numerous.

Will you try to begin to think today? Above all, will you try to remember that, far more than that man had the right to be called “Sister's arm,” you have the right to be called “Jesus' boy” or “Jesus' girl,” for He died to save you. Are you ready to acknowledge that? Are you ready to pay your debt to Him?