Good evening. Let's be turning
to 1 Samuel chapter 11. Now, this chapter is related
to a verse that we read back in the last chapter, 10, in verse
9. It said, and it was so that when
Saul had turned his back to go from Samuel, God gave him another
heart. Now, Saul had just been anointed
as the king of Israel by the prophet Samuel. And God changed
Saul's heart from that time. He went from only caring about
his father's herd, And the animals there was a great interest and
love of his. But he went from that to having
a heart for the Lord's people, for his kingdom and the people
of his kingdom. And in chapter 11, we see how
God providentially gave an opportunity to bring out that heart. He gave
an occasion for that heart to prove the heart and the spirit
which he had given to Saul. Now, in looking at Saul in this
chapter, when the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, we're given
a picture of Christ our King. We see types of what our Lord
and our Savior, our King, has done for us, his people, and
his kingdom. And by the Spirit of God, Saul,
we see, was moved by the Lord against his enemies. Against
his enemies, and that with very great success. He triumphed over
the enemies that were coming against Israel. And in seeing
what the Lord did here through this man, our hearts are encouraged. as we set them upon the Lord,
as the Lord turns our eyes upon Jesus Christ, our King, our Lord,
our God, and our Savior. You think about it, our God,
when He was here in the flesh, gave not the Spirit by measure
unto Him. Well, how much more He that now
sitteth at the right hand of the throne of God and intercedes
for His people. He cares for us, brethren. Now,
we're told in Chapter 11 verses 1 and 2, Then Nahash the Ammonite
came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead. Now just a few
remarks on that, the name Nahash means serpent, so we already
have a sense as to the spirit of this man, of who we are dealing
with. is of the spirit of the devil. He's an evil man. And the Ammonites,
they were descended from Lot. So they were brethren. They were
descended from Lot back in the day. And Jabesh Gilead was located
on the other side of Jordan. So as you know, If you think
of Israel over here, if you're looking at the map, it's here,
and then there's the Jordan River, and then there was three tribes,
two and a half tribes on this side, east of that river, and
one of those tribes was Gad, and that's where Jabesh Gilead
was located, on that side, and then a little further east, southeast,
is where it was believed that the Ammonites dwelled and lived,
and so they're pushing up into the tribe of Gad, And all the
men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and
we will serve thee. And Nahash the Ammonite answered
them, On this occasion 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. And so you see here that there's
a willingness of the men of Jabesh Gilead to make a covenant with
them. And actually, this might have
something to do with that. Perhaps they were small in number
in Jabesh Gilead. might recall, when we went through
judges, it was Jabesh Gilead that would not go up against
Benjamin. When there was a strife between
the tribes of Israel and Benjamin, Jabesh Gilead didn't send anybody.
And so when the battle was over and there was almost no Benjamites
left, they were almost all wiped out. I think there was maybe
500 left. They needed wives. They needed wives. And they wanted
to reconcile. They wanted to reconcile with
Benjamin. And so they thought, well, who
didn't send up wives? Oh, Jabesh Gilead didn't. So
they went and slaughtered all the men and wives of those men
in Jabesh Gilead. And then they took the virgin
daughters and gave them, I think, about 400 to those men. So there's a relation there.
And actually, as we get further in 1 Samuel, it was the men of
Jabesh Gilead that when Saul was slain and taken by, I think,
the Philistines, it was the men of Jabesh Gilead that went and
rescued his body. So there's a relation there between
Benjamin and Jabesh Gilead. But they were there. And it shows that they were weak.
They were definitely weak. And they would have done it.
But God had a purpose, a gracious purpose in doing this. because
he, the covenant, the condition of the covenant was so grievous,
so harsh, that it caused these men to reconsider and think,
maybe we better not have a covenant with these people because they're
having us put our right eye out. And it was very, very harsh,
but it was of the Lord because the Lord had a purpose in overthrowing,
in establishing, really in establishing Saul as the king. And the purpose of that back
in that day, well, if you were an archer or you threw a sling,
you needed two eyes to judge the distance properly. Or if
you carried a sword and carried a shield, they trained the armies
to carry it in their left hand so they weren't bouncing into
one another and so you you carried your shield and it was covering
your left eye the one good eye and then you're exposing your
right eye and there isn't any sight there because you've put
it out so it would prevent them from rising up and rebelling
against them. That's why they were doing it.
They probably would have had to do it for their kids and just
keep the thing going until they could eventually overthrow them,
but they wouldn't. They wouldn't because they were
subjected. They were subdued in that sense. But even if they
had no intention of rebelling in the future, It was a harsh
and painful requirement. And so it caused them to reconsider
making this covenant. And it's because God manifested.
He had a purpose in this for their good. And James tells us
that he says, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God." And so the Lord made
it so that they couldn't covenant with Ammon. It was painful to
covenant with Ammon. The Lord purposely drove a wedge
there so that they wouldn't become friends with the Ammonites and
work with the Ammonites. He wanted to bring them into
the body and establish Saul as their king over them and so that
friendship was so painful it caused them to seek relief elsewhere. Had it been easy they wouldn't
have sought relief but it was made difficult for them. and where they sought relief
ended up being in their newly ordained king. Now the Lord does
this in his salvation. He makes a friendship with this
world painful because we're not friends with this world. We are
strangers and pilgrims in this world. Our Lord has separated
us unto himself. We are his people. And so we
go through trials and we go through difficulties that are made for
us and are made painful so that our friendship with the world
is made more painful. So that we don't find our refuge
and our comfort and relief in this world, we find it in our
God and Savior. Our Lord does this for our good. Because we would, we would just
hug up on the world if it was left to us, because by nature,
we are of this world by nature, but it's only by God's grace
that we are separated and brought out from the love of this world.
So when you go through trials and difficulties, and you don't
find relief that you would find in this world, and your heart
is turned to the Lord, that's his grace. That's his grace,
because he does that for his people. Not everybody has that. But you that believe Him, He
does that for your good and your salvation. And this life's but
a vapor. This life's but a vapor. And
so the trials are good for us. For our everlasting salvation.
The people asked for seven days. They said, well, give us seven
days to see if somebody will come to our aid. And they asked that of Nahash.
They said, allow us seven days to go find somebody to help us.
And this was of interest to Nahash to allow it because he knew that
it's impossible for them to get help. They're a divided nation.
They're in different tribes. If he even knew about Saul, I
don't know if he did, but if he did know about Saul, he had
just become king. He was just anointed king. Things
are in disarray. He doesn't have an army. He doesn't
have any means to do this. This is the time to strike. Do
it now. End it right now before they
get organized and get themselves together. And he wanted this
to be a reproach against Israel. so that he could say, they don't
even, you guys are so, they might turn against Saul, you know,
at that point and say, you failed us, you didn't do it. You know,
it might just send them into greater disarray and keep them down. But the messengers were wise
in that they went directly to Gibeah of Saul. And we see that
picking up in verse four. It says, 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. Saul wasn't
there yet. So they're telling this to the
people there in Gibeah. And behold, Saul came after the
herd out of the field. We see that he's a humble man. He's been anointed king, but
he's yet humble. He's still taking care. He doesn't
have any responsibilities. He's not collecting any taxes.
There's nothing for him yet to do as king. So he's just doing
what he knows. He's taking care of daddy's herd. And Saul said, what aileth the
people that they weep? And they told him the tidings
of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God came upon
Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. Now, I want you to notice something
here. When the messengers were speaking
to the people, what did the people do? They wept. They wept with
them. They were in fellowship with
them, weeping. Why? Because they didn't think
there was anything that can be done. They sorrowed for their
brethren who were going to lose their right eye. What can they
muster? Maybe 10, 15 guys, brave men
that might go out there and help? They wouldn't do anything much
against that army, against the Ammonites. And so they wept because
they felt themselves powerless to do anything. They couldn't
deliver their brethren. But when Saul heard it, the Spirit
of God came upon him. It came upon him when he heard
those tidings, and his anger was kindled greatly. Why? Because he is the king, and God
was establishing him as their king. And as the king, he's able
to do something, and he does it. He does it. And this is where
we begin to see some very telling things that the Lord works in
Saul that also we see in our Savior. our Savior as our King,
our Lord, our Savior, and what He does for His people. This
is where we begin to see a picture of what Christ has done for us,
who look to Him as our King, our God, our Savior, our all,
our deliverer, our strength. That's what He is. This is the
picture that we're getting here. As one example, we can relate
to the men of Jabesh Gilead, those who are going to have their
eyes put out. We can relate because what do
we often do when we are troubled by something? When we're troubled
by something, I know for myself, and I think for some of you,
whether it's at work or something in the family or it's some difficulty
that we can't figure out and don't know how to resolve ourselves,
especially if it's a spiritual trouble, what do we do? We often
like to talk to someone. We go to someone and we complain,
or we just express our pain and suffering or the trouble that
we're having, and why do we do that? We're hoping that that
person who we're talking to might know something, might say something,
might have some timely word, some wisdom, or be able to help
us and say, I know what to do, and be able to resolve it. We're
looking for some relief in that sense. And so we talk to others,
hoping that they might be able to do something for us. But more
often than not, we go away empty. And sometimes even in greater
despair, because we were hopeful that maybe this person might
be able to help figure it out, and they can't. And so now we
feel even more undone a lot of times. And that's what happens
when we turn to the flesh. It's not wrong to share your
concerns with others, but if that's our hope, we're going
to be disappointed because especially and you notice that it's when
the stakes are higher that's when you find there's none to
help and that's because the lord has done that for his people
and a lot of times i've found even in my own experience that
when the stakes are very very very high I'm not even thinking
of the Lord. And the Lord does that because
I'm slipping down the rope, getting lower and lower. And now I'm
at the end of the rope. And there's nowhere else to slide
down to. There's nothing else to grip onto. And I'm losing
the grip. And that's when, like the prodigal
son, I come to myself. And I remember my father. And
that's when we begin to call out to him. Lord, save me. Lord, I've explored and tried
every avenue. I've tried to do everything.
I've tried to figure this out. I've tried to do it this way.
I spoke to that person. I got this advice. And nothing. Nothing, Lord. And that's when
we turn to the Lord. And that's when we see Him arise. And that's when we see Him. do
his mighty work, whether it's to comfort us and to give us
that patience and faith to endure the trial, or we see him rise
up and he fixes it and he does it. But it's always according
to his will and his purpose, but he does that for our good. And so we remember the Lord in
our need. And a lot of times we do turn
to the flesh But a lot of those times our Lord is very gracious
to us because he's showing us that we're not going to find
relief in this world. We're not going to find relief
in the flesh. We're going to find our relief
and our comfort and our all in the Lord because that's what
he does. And so I was thinking of Isaiah 30, verse 18, which
says, and therefore will the Lord wait. As you're going down
the road and you're trying this thing and that thing and trying
to find some escape out of your predicament, therefore will the
Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you. And therefore will
he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you. For the Lord
is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for him. And so he does this. And when
he's prepared the heart, when he's brought us to the end of
ourselves, that's when we hear the preciousness of his voice
and his words, which say, come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall
find rest for your souls. He's the Savior, and He'll make
you to know that He is the Savior. If you're His, you're going to
know that He is my salvation. He's the God who hears my prayers,
and I need Him. I need Him. He makes you desperate
for His righteousness. He makes you hunger and thirst
for what only He can give, that you would know what others in
this world don't know that He is the true and living God. And
so it's for your good, brethren. It's for your good. When the
Spirit came upon Saul, he cared deeply for the people of his
kingdom. Well, if that man who was a sinner cared for the people,
how much more Christ, who is perfect and holy just and righteous,
and is your God and Savior, how much more does He care for you
and for you in your time of need? Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. That's his word to us, brethren.
Next, we see the anger of Saul at the report of what the enemies
of his people planned to do to them. It angered him. What they
were going to do to the people, he was angry with them. Some people say he was maybe
angry at other things. He was angry with the enemies.
He was angry with the enemies. Verse 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. And so
the Lord blessed that. He rallied the people as one
people. They came out as a body to their head, which was Saul. They came out to him and followed
him into battle against their enemies. Likewise, our Lord exposes
the evil and the corruption of dead-letter religion, of the
wickedness of this world, he exposes it and shows it for what
it is to his people and rallies us to himself. He brings us to
himself. And then he drives the enemy
from his people graciously for his people. An example of this
is that in John chapter 2 when when at the beginning of our
Lord's ministry. On Sunday, we saw how the Lord
drove out the money changers from the temple at the end of
his earthly ministry before he was crucified. Well, he also
did that at the very beginning of his ministry. He drove them
out, and that's where he declared that, destroy this temple, and
in three days, I'll raise it up again. But when that happened,
his disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine
house hath eaten me up. He was consumed, that's what
the psalmist wrote. He was consumed by the zeal of the Lord. He was
angry against the enemies. He purposed to show the truth
of God, to shine a light into the hearts of his people and
deliver them out of the darkness that they were in. And that's
what he does for us. He's jealous for us. He delivers
us out of death and darkness and gives us life and light in
himself. The thief, he said, cometh not
but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that
they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. And so he is our champion. He
is our king. He's our savior, our Lord. And
he rises up to deliver his people from the hand of their enemies
who would abuse and use and destroy them and wipe them out. He does
this for us, brethren. Next, we see the authority with
which Saul executed his duties. He was given power to move the
people so that they came to his call. Right. They joined themselves
unto him. His cause well so it is that
our Lord moves with power and authority and he sends out his
word the gospel word and he blesses that word to triumph over the
hearts of his people and to move his people to him to command
his people to come out of darkness and come to him and he works
this he's got he has all power and authority to work this in
his people and And He makes it so that we're delivered from
indifference, we're delivered from ignorance, we're delivered
from darkness and brought into life and joy and an understanding
and a knowledge and understanding of our Lord and Savior. Who He
is and what He's accomplished, past tense, for us and is accomplishing
for us and what He shall accomplish for us and in us, brethren. And so He's doing this, He's
making us faithful and obedient servants of our God, who long
for Him, who love Him, who seek Him, and who follow Him. And
we follow Him and look to Him because we long for His triumph
over our enemies, to put them down. to destroy their lies,
to close their mouth, to break their teeth, to shut them up
what they're saying and spewing and lying, and to see the justice
and the mercy of our God shine among us and in this world. We
want to see our Lord triumph over all our enemies. Peter said,
but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation,
a peculiar people. that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in time past were not a people." Alright,
just like we see Israel here, they were scattered, they were
divided, they were separate, they were indifferent, they were
powerless, they couldn't do anything, but now are the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Christ did that. for you by His
power and authority given to Him by the Father which He obtained
for us when He came and laid down His life for us on the cross
and redeemed us with His own blood. Then we see the faith
and confidence of Saul. Saul assured the messengers.
He said, I'm going, you're going to be delivered. You go and you
tell the men of the city that sent you, you shall be delivered
by this time tomorrow. And it says in verse 9 and 10.
And they said unto the messengers that came, thus shall ye say
unto the men of Jabesh Gilead, tomorrow, by that time the sun
be hot, I think that's around noonish, by the time it be hot,
ye shall have help. And the messengers came and showed
it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. You see, the
people believed the word that Saul had spoken unto them. They
believed what he said, they trusted in that and they rejoiced and
they were glad because he was coming to their aid and to their
defense. Verse 10, therefore the men of
Jabesh said, and they said this to Nahash the Ammonite, tomorrow
we will come out unto you and ye shall do with us all that
seemeth good unto you. They told them, we're gonna go
out there, but they went out there knowing, right? They sent
that message knowing that they were delivered and that their
enemy was gonna be defeated, right? They were rejoicing in
that. And our Lord gives us assurance
of his help and his salvation. For he hath said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. The Lord will not leave you his
people. He loves you. He chose you. He committed you to the care
of His darling Son, and sent His Son, and spared Him not,
but sent Him to lay down His life as the sacrifice of His
people, to die in their place as their substitute, and He accomplished
their redemption. And He raised Him again from
the dead, thus justifying all you that believe in Him, and
trust Him for your righteousness and your salvation. Christ did
that so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper and I will
not fear what man shall do unto me. He does that for us, brethren. And being filled with the Spirit,
we're blessed of God to believe his word, because it's a work
of his grace, it's a work of his omnipotent power over our
hard hearts, over our this dead flesh by making us new creatures
in himself. He does this. He bears this fruit
in his people. Paul said to the Romans, for
the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. And so it is all the grace of
our Lord that bears these fruits, that brings us to see our Savior,
that He is our salvation, and that His word can be depended
upon, and is to be depended upon. He calls us to faith, to believe
Him, to trust Him, to call upon Him, and He comes through for
His people. He does that for us, brethren.
Then we see the victory of Saul here, who came and defeated the
enemies. He was given victory over the
enemies of his people. It says in verse 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." Not so much as two people ran
off together, they were all scattered in different directions. And
so you can imagine that when the enemy heard that the people
said, we give up, we'll come out tomorrow, and you can do
what seems right to you, They rejoiced. They probably began
to drink and do things and to party and just celebrate that
they had done it. It was a victory for them. And
they were not ready or prepared for what happened the very next
day when Saul came upon them in the morning and just began
wiping them out, wiping them out. And so he did that. And
you think about our Savior who came in the weakness of his flesh.
And the enemy thought, we got him. We got him. We got him now
away from the people. We secured him. He's going to
be crucified. We'll put him on trial. We'll
send him over to Pilate. And he was condemned there. They
got what they wanted, for him to be crucified. And in that
very weakness of our Lord, that's where He triumphed over our enemy. And that weakness, they thought
they had Him. The enemy thought that the Son of God, the heir
was taken and that they had seized the inheritance. And the devil
thought he had won the victory and Christ defeated them all. He won the victory over all our
enemies. Colossians 2 verse 13-15 And
you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath He quickened, that is made alive together with Him,
having forgiven you all trespasses. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, as the law stood contrary
to us, and we could not keep that law and it stood opposed
to us, he put it away, blotting it out, which was contrary to
us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And
having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of
them openly. That means He made a public spectacle
of them. He shamed them, embarrassed them
openly before all the world. For you that know and believe
and understand what Christ accomplished for you, they're ashamed. The enemies are destroyed. annihilated,
destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ, triumphing over them in it. And
so our Savior, our Christ, our King is triumphant. He's glorious. He accomplished everything he
was sent here to do. Everything he came to do, that's
exactly what he accomplished so that we who trust in him are
redeemed. We have been delivered. There's
nothing hanging out there or waiting or has to yet be done
by us. Christ has done it all and he's
executing and implementing everything necessary for the salvation of
his people. And so he's crowned with success. The devil has defeated our enemies,
the devil, sin, and the grave. So that the devil has no more
power over you, sin hath no more dominion over you, and the grave
cannot hold you or keep you there. When Christ comes, you shall
be raised from the dead by our Lord. By our Lord. And so he's
given us the victory in him. Now, after this victory, the
people of Israel, they wanted to put to death those people
that had opposed Saul being made king at the end of chapter 10.
There were some sons of Belial that says that, that asked, how
is this man going to save us? How is this man going to be our
king? He doesn't know nothing. He doesn't
know anything. How is he going to do this? Well,
they wanted those men put to death now, because they were
excited. They saw their king, and he triumphed mightily over
their enemies. And Saul said, there shall not
a man be put to death this day, for today the Lord hath wrought
salvation in Israel. And this is a great comfort to
my heart, because by nature, I'm an enemy of God and of Christ. By my nature, I didn't know the
true and living God, and neither did you. We all were natural
born enemies against the true and living God. And he could
have destroyed us all in Adam. He could destroy us all the first
time we sinned, which wouldn't be very long at all. And so he
is merciful to his people. So we were all enemies until
God showed mercy to us and was gracious to us in causing his
word to come to us. and to enter our ears and by
his power go down into a prepared heart to receive his word and
to believe the word of our God and to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so our Lord was merciful
to us when we were foolish and ignorant and in darkness and
he delivered us. And so our Lord has won the victory. And even his people who don't
know him this day, he's won the victory. And He's already purposed
to give you, His child, life. You that are His, that He laid
down His life, His Word will come with power in the day that
He's ordained you to hear that Word and to believe that Word.
He's already won the victory for His people. It says in Isaiah
53 11, He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied. He knows exactly who He came
for. He knows exactly who He laid
down His life for. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Christ knew exactly who He laid
down His life for and He accomplished their redemption. He did not
fail. He is the successful Savior who triumphed over all our enemies
and delivers us from death and darkness in the day of His grace
and power. Believe Him. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He cannot be denied. He cannot fail. And so he successfully
triumphed over all his enemies at the cross and there on the
cross he successfully secured our redemption and it shall be
given into the heart of his people who believe him. Christ makes
evident those who are his people. How so? He reveals faith in his
people. He sends his word and he reveals
faith in them that are his, that he purchased. He says in John
10, 26, but ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I
said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. He calls his people out of darkness.
And his people cry, Lord, save me. Make me one of your sheep.
Lord, have mercy on me. Don't leave me behind. Lord,
open my ear. Open my heart. Make me to hear
your word and to believe you. He works that in his people.
and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand." There's nothing that can come
in and torpedo what God has already accomplished in His darling Son,
our Lord and Savior. Nothing's gonna prevent that.
You're His, His forever, and nothing can take you out of His
hand. Not you, not any enemy, your Christ's forever. Now in Romans 9 verse 22, What
if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, that He might make known the riches of His grace
on the vessels of mercy? For he had a fort prepared, which
he had a fort prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. He knows his
children. He knows his children. Now, in
closing, the people were all gathered into one place, and
there they rejoiced and saw their king. And we see a picture of
what our Lord does in gathering His people, and we shall rejoice
with Him in that day when He comes and takes us up to forever
be with Him. Then said Samuel to the people,
verse 14, come and let us go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom
there. 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."
And so, brethren, we have a Sure and certain good hope in that
day when the last sheep is called by his grace the Lord shall descend
He shall come and gather us up and we shall be forever with
the Lord by his grace and power amen