Would you turn with me to 1 Samuel
chapter 11? I'd like to read this. This is an
unusual chapter. 1 Samuel chapter 11. Then Nahash the Ammonite came
up. and encamped against Jabash Gilead,
this was a part of Israel, and all the men of Jabash said unto
Nahash, make a covenant with us and we will serve thee. Evidently they were afraid and
they were of this man and his army and they said, you make
a covenant with us and we'll serve you. You agree to not hurt
us. 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. Well, that's cruel, isn't it? Why would someone do that? 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
and let you do what you want. Notice they're not calling upon
the Lord to deliver them. They're looking to men to save
them. Verse four, then came the messengers
to Gibeah of Saul and told the tidings of the ears of the people.
And all the people lifted up their voices and wept. And behold, Saul came after the
herd out of the field. And Saul said, what aileth the
people that they weep? And they told the tidings of
the men of Jabesh what was going to happen to them that Nashath
was going to put out their right eyes, and the Spirit of God came
upon Saul when he heard those things, those tidings, and his
anger was kindled greatly. And he took a yoke of oxen and
hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coast
of Israel by the hands of the messenger, 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 with one consent,
as one man with one mind. And when he numbered them, and
Bezek, the children of Israel, were 300,000, and the men of
Judah 30,000. And they said unto the messengers
that came, thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabash, Gilead,
tomorrow by that time the sun be hot, you shall have help.
And the messengers came and showed it to the men of Jabash, and
they were glad. Don't you reckon they were? I
would be awful glad. Therefore the men of Jabesh said,
Tomorrow we will come out unto you, and you shall do with us
all that seemeth good unto you. 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
into 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." They just destroyed the Ammonites. And the people
said unto Samuel, who is he that has said, shall Saul reign over
us? Bring the men that we may put
them to death. And if you'll remember at the end of chapter
10, there were some people who said, we will not have this man
reign over us. Verse 13, and Saul said, there
shall not a man be put to death this day for today the Lord hath
wrought salvation in Israel. Then said Samuel to the people,
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
they sacrificed sacrifice of peace offerings before the Lord.
And there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly."
Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in the high and holy name of your Son. And we ask that we
might have your blessing upon us, that you'd speak to our hearts
from your word, that you'd forgive us of our sins and cleanse us
from our sins. And Lord, grant us, bestow unto
us faith in thy dear son. Teach us what it is to trust
him completely and have no other trusts. Give us the grace to
call upon your name. Lord, we pray for your blessing
on our dear brother Cody as he preaches the gospel to us. Give
him a word from you and give us hearing ears and receptive
hearts. And Lord, bless us for the Lord's
sake. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. J. Bash Gilead was a part of
the nation of Israel. And the names are very important.
Gilead means a heap of stones for a witness. Every believer
has witnessed something. They've seen something. There's
something they can bear witness to. The Lord has made himself
known to them. That's every believer. And Jabesh
means dried up. Dried up. Now these are two words,
one good, one bad. There is a witness and a dried-up
witness. And I believe that this represents
the believer when he gets up, gets in a dried-up condition.
Now is there anybody that doesn't know what I'm talking about when
I say that? Every believer knows what it is to get up in a dried-up
condition. And you can see by the way they
responded to this trial. They didn't ask the Lord to deliver
them. They look for men to help them.
And that's the condition they had brought themselves into.
They were looking to men instead of the Lord. And you know, we
have so many examples of this in the Scripture, of believers
getting themselves into a wrong position, a wrong way of thinking. And that's them. Think of the
church at Ephesus, where the Lord said to them, you've lost
your first love. Think of the church at Sardis,
where it says you have a name that you live. But you're dead. You're living in the past. And
thus we have this group of people, Jabash-Gilead. And this man that
came against them in verse 1, Nahash the Ammonite. Now the
Ammonites were the descendants of Lot's incestuous relationship. That's where they came from.
And Nahash means serpent. serpent. So this represents the
devil coming against a believer. That's exactly what it means.
His name actually means serpent. He just pops up out of the blue,
it seems like. Here he is, Nahash the Ammonite,
coming against Jabesh Gilead. And how Satan will encamp against
believers. And don't ever think that Satan
would not deal with me or with you. I think of what he said,
what the Lord said to Peter, get thee behind me, Satan. He said that to Peter. Remember
when Paul said we're not ignorant of his devices, lest he should
get the advantage over us. Now don't think that this is
meaningless. This is Satan coming against
a believer in a weakened condition. A true witness, someone who has
seen something, someone who has dried up. And one of the things
I love about this thing, the thought of being dried up, the
Lord pours his waters of grace upon what? Dry ground. So that gives me an encouragement
right there in how this comes about. Now, verse 2. And Nahash
the Ammonite answered them, on this condition will I make a
covenant with you. Now we see why did they want
to make a covenant with him in the first place? Why didn't they
ask the Lord to deliver them in the first place when the Lord
had given them so many glorious deliverances? Yet here they are
trying to enter in a covenant with this man. How come? Well,
you know, do I even have to ask that question? Look in your own
heart and look at the silly, crazy, stupid things you think
and I think. I don't think we even need to
answer that question. I know how come, because they're flesh,
just the way you and I are. So let's go on reading. Then
Nahash the Ammonite answered them, On this condition will
I make a covenant with you, that I may thrust out all your right
eye and lay it for reproach on all of Israel. Now, that's cruel,
isn't it? Can you imagine how you would
feel if somebody said, I'm going to thrust out your right eye?
But this also has some typical significance. When Satan deals
with us, here's what happens. We can't see clearly. We can't
see the Lord clearly. And consequently, we can't see
ourselves clearly. That's Satan's way of dealing
with us. He makes it to, and I'm glad
he's God's devil. We don't have to fear Satan in
the sense that he's God's devil and he can't do anything any
more than the Lord will allow him to. And I'm so thankful for
that. But yet here he is seeking to
mar the sight of Israel. And when you can't see the Lord
clearly, you're gonna see him smaller than he is. And when
you can't see yourself clearly, you're going to see yourself
bigger than you really are. Now that was his plan. I want
to thrust out their right eye and take away their sight. Verse
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'll come out to thee." Once again, they're not
asking the Lord to do anything for them. They're just waiting
for some man to deliver them. Where's their faith? I don't
know. I don't know. Why aren't they calling upon
the Lord? I don't know, but they're not. They're in this weakened
condition, this dried up condition, and it's preventing them from
calling upon the name of the Lord. Now, verse 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."
Once again, we don't read where they're crying out to the Lord.
And you think, just in the previous chapter, the Lord had defeated
their enemies for them without them helping at all. He just
disconfited them. And that didn't happen too long
ago, but yet at this time, they're not calling out to the Lord.
They're just lifting up their voice and weeping. Verse 5, And
behold, Saul came after the herd out of the field. He'd just been
tending the sheep. Now remember, God already said,
this is the man I'm going to make king. And as a matter of
fact, he said in his anger, he gave them this king. But he's
still going to use this king to deliver them. Now, 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, how Nahash had said he was going to put
out their right eyes. Verse 6, And the Spirit of God
came upon Saul when he heard those tidings, and his anger
was kindled greatly. Now, Saul had the Spirit of God
come upon him. Saul was not a believer. Well,
how can that be? Well, the Lord uses unbelievers
all the time. As a matter of fact, every unbeliever
is in his hands, and he is working out his purposes at all times. I think of Pharaoh. He said to
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Now, the Lord is going to use
Saul, and he does use unbelievers. Do you remember last week how
it said he was given another heart? Not a new heart, but another
heart. He was not made a new man, but
another man. And the Spirit of God comes upon
him at this time because the Spirit of God is going to use
him to unite and deliver Israel. And so he was angered. He was
indignant that this Ammonite would take it upon himself to
do this, to say, I'm going to put out the right eye of the
children of Israel. And so in verse 7, after his
anger was kindled greatly, he took a yoke of oxen and knew
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. Now that was their means of livelihood, those oxen. They did all their work and plowing
and everything. They wouldn't even be able to
have anything to eat if they don't have these oxen. So he's
saying, this is what's going to happen to your oxen if you
don't come after me into this big army. and fight against the
Ammonites, and the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and
they came out with one consent." Now, I love that. You know, I
want the fear of the Lord to fall on me, don't you? The beginning
of wisdom. And I know this, when the fear
of the Lord falls upon a people, they will be of one consent. They will be of one mind. They'll be going the same direction.
And so the people were all of one consent when the fear of
the Lord fell upon them. Verse 8. And when he numbered
them and Bezek, the children of Israel, were 300,000 and the
men of Judah 30,000. Now that's quite an army, isn't
it? 330,000 people that were going
to come and deliver these men in Jabesh Gilead. Verse 9, And they said unto the messengers
that came, Thus shall ye say unto the men of Jabesh-Gilead,
Tomorrow, by the time the sun be hot, you shall have help. And the messengers came and showed
it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. Can you imagine
how relieved you would be? I mean, you'd probably be thinking
about getting your right eye thrust out. Can you imagine the
dread of that? Having to come up and have your
right eye, I can't even imagine. Try to put myself in their place?
Wow, you know, you squint your eyes thinking about it. I reckon
they were glad when they found out they were gonna have deliverance.
Thank God for the deliverance that he gives us. Verse 10, therefore
the men of Jabesh said, tomorrow we will come out unto you. This
is when they're talking to Nahash, the Ammonite. Therefore the men
of Jabesh said, tomorrow we will come out unto you and you shall
do with us all that seemeth good unto you. So they know that they're
having deliverance, but they still say this to the Ammonites. 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. They crushed them, they destroyed
them 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. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Nay, Hashem may be a mighty foe,
Satan may be a mighty foe, but he's nothing before God. If God
be for us, who can be against us? Verse 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. Now, I think this
is interesting. At this time, we don't read where
they're thanking the Lord for this deliverance. They're thanking
Saul for this deliverance, this king. that they chose. And you remember what a wrong
thing it was for them to choose him as king in the first place,
as we saw last week. I mean, it's a rejection of Christ
being king. We want to be like all the other
nations. We want Saul to reign over us.
And so at this time, they're giving Saul the credit for their
victory. And at the end of chapter 10, where some sons of Belial,
some wicked men say, we're not going to have this man as our
king. All the children of Israel say, now look what he's done
for us. You bring these men out and let's kill them. Let's put
them to death for making any objections to our king. And then Saul acted very wisely
at this time. Verse 13, and he spoke befittingly. And Saul said, there shall not
a man be put to death this day, for today the Lord hath wrought
salvation in Israel. Isn't that everything we believe?
Well, how could Saul say that? Well, he did. He had the Spirit
of God come on. Remember, he prophesied. And
when he prophesied, we saw that from last week, he told the truth.
And this is a statement regarding everything that we believe salvation
is of the Lord. Now, this conduct was both generous
and becoming on Saul's part. And what a glorious statement
today. The Lord hath wrought salvation
in Israel. Now, today, today, salvation
was wrought. I like that word wrought, don't
you? It's God's works. It's God's work. Today, salvation
was wrought in a day when our Lord hung on Calvary's tree and
accomplished salvation. Salvation was wrought for Israel.
And I love the way it says for Israel. Israel. Who's Israel? Israel's Jacob.
You remember Jacob. I just read about his history
this week. I just read over it thinking about Jacob. Jacob was
a conniving, sinful, deceitful, manipulative man. I mean you
couldn't say anything commendable about the man's character. And
yet, God changed His name. Remember when the Lord wrestled
with Him and changed His name? He said, what's your name? Making Him confess who He was.
Jacob, heel, cheat, supplanter, deceiver. He said, you're not
that anymore. You're Israel because as a prince
you have power with God and you've prevailed. Now that can only
be understood in light of union with the Lord Jesus Christ because
Jacob in and of himself was no prince. but united to the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's a prince with God. Jacob
is this same man that I was describing. He's a prince with God and he
has power with God and prevails. Every believer has power with
God. And that's because of them being
united to the Lord Jesus Christ. So when I come into God's presence,
I actually have power with God. And look what he says in verse
13. Today the Lord hath wrought salvation
in Israel. I just love to think of the Lord
wroughting, working. Every aspect of salvation is
the Lord's work. It's Him working in my behalf. It's Him doing something for
me. Salvation is not an offer. What if God offered you salvation?
What good would that do you? If he offered you salvation,
you and I both would be damned. It wouldn't do us any good at
all. And if someone says, well, I
would just take it. Well, you just, you don't know
yourself. You don't know yourself at all. If you knew yourself,
you'd know better than that. Salvation is what God does. And
I think of every aspect of salvation being Him working and rotting.
Turn with me for a moment to the book of Numbers chapter 23.
This is when Balak was wanting Balaam to curse
Israel. And he refused to do it, and
here's why, verse 19. God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Why would he
need to repent? Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it." You're
wanting me to curse Israel. It can't be done because he's
blessed them. Now look at this, verse 21. He hath not beheld
iniquity in Jacob. I can see all kinds of iniquity
in Jacob, can't you? And I can see all kinds of iniquity
in myself. But it says, he hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob. In every son of Jacob, when God
looks at him, he sees no sin. You know why he sees no sin?
Because there's none there. That's why. Christ put it away. Matthew 121, thou shalt call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And
he did it. The reason God beholds no iniquity
is not because he's playing mind games and mental gymnastics and
pretending it's not there. It's because there's nothing
there to behold. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is
with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God has brought
them out of Egypt. He hath, as it were, the strength
of a unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment
against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to this time, it shall
be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought? Now concerning every one of God's
people, you know, when God elected you before time began, you were
saved. God wrought salvation for you. If He chose you to be saved,
you are saved. You can't be anything but saved.
What hath God wrought? What hath God worked? When Christ
became flesh, God's Christ, the Son of God. When God was manifest
in the flesh, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
and His name is called Emmanuel, God with us, not God against
us, God with us. When Christ Jesus became flesh,
God wrought salvation. He worked it. I just love that
language. What hath God wrought? When Christ
Jesus kept the law, God wrought salvation for His people. He
worked out a perfect righteousness for me, so I stand before God
without guilt. When Christ was nailed to a cross. Oh, how God wrought salvation
when my sin actually became His sin, so that He became guilty
of it, and died under the wrath of God, and His righteousness
became mine, so that God said, He's justified. He's without
guilt. He's without sin. Is that not
God's works? What hath God wrought? You know, when I was regenerated,
when God gave me life, when he said, live, and I lived, oh,
that's God's work. That's no cooperative effort
between man and God. What hath God wrought? salvation wrought in a day. You
know, the fact that I've been preserved, the fact that I haven't
fallen away, the fact that I'm continuing in the faith, that's
a mighty testament to what God hath wrought. And when Christ
comes again and I'm made just like Him, perfectly conformed
to His image, there's only one thing that can be said, what
hath God wrought? This is God's work, and what
a glorious work it is. Saul, claimed everything that
every believer believes at this time. What hath God wrought? Salvation is of the Lord. Verse
14, Then said Samuel to the people, now Samuel speaking, 1 Samuel
chapter 11, Then said Samuel to the people, Come and let us
go to Gilgal and renew the kingdom there. Now, the word renew means
cause to be new. God gives us a new history. I love thinking about that. God
gives us a new history. A history without guilt. It's
called justification. Without sin. Let's renew the
kingdom. And aren't you glad for the renewal
of God's grace? It's always a renewal and a new
history. It's always powerful. It's always
there. It's always real. Let's renew
the kingdom there. Verse 15, And all the people
went to Gilgal, where they made Saul king before the Lord in
Gilgal. Now they're acknowledging the
Lord in all this. And there they sacrificed sacrifices
of peace offerings before the Lord. And there Saul and all
the men of Israel rejoiced greatly. They made Saul king before the
Lord. And whenever that's done, there
will be an acknowledgement of the sacrifice of Christ as our
only peace. They offered sacrifices of peace
offerings. And what is it that gives me
peace? The sacrifice of Christ. Anything
else? Nope. Do I need anything else?
No. Is there any, what else would
I want? Oh, the sacrifice of Christ that gives me this new
history, that gives me this justification. And in doing that, we'll rejoice
greatly. And I bet the men of Jabash Gilead must have said
to themselves, what got into us to make a covenant with Nahash
the Ammonite? What in the world got into us
to do something that silly? It's God before us. who can be
against us. Amen.