and let's look tonight to chapter
11, 1 Samuel chapter 11. Last week in chapter 10, we saw
that Samuel anointed Saul to be king, And as Saul made his
way back home, there were several signs that the Lord appointed
to confirm the fact that he had anointed him, called him to be
the king. Tonight in this chapter, we see
Saul taking the reins as a king to lead the nation of Israel. So as we go through the chapter,
I have several things I want to point out to us. First, An
old enemy. An old enemy. Look in verse one. Then Nahash the Ammonite came
up and encamped against Jabesh-Gilead. An old enemy. The Ammonites,
who were these people? Who were the Ammonites? We know
that they were the descendants of Lot by his incest with his
youngest daughter. Remember when Lot was delivered
from Sodom, his wife, of course, came out, but then she looked
back and was turned into a pillar of salt. And Lot and his two
youngest daughters ended up in a cave. And he had sons by both
of his daughters. He was in a drunken state. If
for no other reason, People should guard against drunkenness. Should
guard against drunkenness. When you see what this man, this
believer, this child of God, what he ended up doing. No doubt
he would never have done that had he not been intoxicated. But anyway, he had two sons. The first son was named Moab. And of course he was the father
of the Moabites. And then the second son was named
Ben-Ammi, Ben-Ammi. And he became the father of the
Ammonites. Now this is one of several times
in Israel's history when these people, this nation came against
Israel. This time they came against the
city of Jabesh in Gilead. Now, remember when they came
after 40 years, the nation of Israel, after they came to Kadesh
Barnea and were going to cross over the Jordan and go into the
land of promise. After 40 years wandering in the
wilderness, that two and a half of the tribes came to Moses,
that is the leaders of those two and a half tribes, Reuben,
Manasseh, and Gad, and they asked Moses if they could remain on
that side of Jordan. They were tribes that had a lot
of cattle, and there was good pasture land on that side of
Jordan. So Moses allowed them to stay
there. They had to cross over before
the other tribes, the men of war did at least, and fight to
capture the land of Palestine. But when the land was secured,
then they went back to their families on the other side of
Jordan. So the River Jordan acted as
a dividing line. Two and a half tribes on one
side of Jordan, and the other tribes on the other side. and
the half-tribe of Manasseh. That's where Jabesh-Gilead was,
this city, Jabesh-in-Gilead. That was the area there known
as Gilead. Well, as I said, this wasn't
the first time that these people had given the Israelites problems. I want you to look at a verse
with me in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 23. And we read here in this law of Moses
concerning both the Moabites and these Ammonites. Deuteronomy
chapter 23 and verse three. An Ammonite or Moabite shall
not enter into the congregation of the Lord. even to their 10th
generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the
Lord forever. Because, now here's the reason
Moses said they could not, any descendants of these two nations
could not come into the congregation of Israel, the congregation of
the Lord to the 10th generation. And the reason was because they
met you not with bread and with water in the way. when you came
forth out of Egypt. And because, here it is, because
they are the ones who hired Balaam, remember Balaam, that false prophet. And they hired Balaam to come
and to curse, to curse the nation of Israel. And while Balaam was
not allowed, God would not allow him to curse that nation. He
was a false prophet. And yet he said some of the most
remarkable things about God, wonderful things about God. He
spoke about God's immutability, about his truthfulness. You know,
sometimes people think a false prophet, a false preacher will
just only speak lies. No, he's going to speak enough
truth to deceive people. And many times, it's what he
never says. It's not so much what he says,
it's what he never says that identifies him as a false prophet. You will never hear him, for
the most part, speak about God's sovereign grace, because he doesn't
believe in God's sovereign grace. He believes in man's free will
in the sense that God is dependent upon man to let him save him. How ridiculous. False prophets,
that's what Balaam was. And these two nations, the Ammonites
and the Moabites, they hired Balaam to come and to curse Israel. That's a message in itself if
you look at what Balaam was allowed to say. But anyway, as I said,
this isn't the first time these people had come up against the
nation of Israel. In the history, if you look in
the book of Judges, in the history in the book of Judges, the Ammonites
at one time vexed the nation of Israel for 18 years. In other words, they were servants
to these Ammonites. The nation of Israel was here
in Judges chapter 10. Judges chapter 10 and verse 8. And that year they vexed Well,
let's go back to verse seven. And the anger of the Lord was
hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines
and into the hands of the children of Ammon. And that year they
vexed and oppressed the children of Israel 18 years. 18 years. All the children of Israel that
were in the other side, Jordan, in the land of the Amorites,
which is in Gilead. Moreover, the children of Ammon
passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin,
and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sore distressed."
18 years at this particular time. Now, it's pointed out to us,
isn't it? The reason they were able to
do that is because of Israel's sin. It says the anger of the
Lord was hot against Israel, against his people because of
their sin. And then I want you to look in
chapter 11 there in Judges. God raised up this judge by the
name of Jephthah. Now, he's probably best known
for the vow that he took. Remember when he left his house,
he vowed that if God would deliver the Ammonites into his hand that
the first thing he saw when he came back, he would offer in
sacrifice. Well, the first thing he saw
come out of his house when he came back was his daughter. Well,
let's read here in Judges chapter 11, look in verse 27. These are the words of Jephthah.
Wherefore, I have not sinned against thee, that is, the Ammonites
accused Jephthah and the Israelites for sinning against them. Wherefore,
I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war
against me. The Lord the judge be judged
this day between the children of Israel and the children of
Ammon. Albeit the king of the children
of Ammon hearken not unto the words of Jephthah, which he sent
him. And then look down to verse 32.
So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight
against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he smote
them from Aror, even till thou come to Menneth, even twenty
cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards with a very great
slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were
subdued before the children of Israel." So at this time, they
come back again in our text. Here they come again, the Ammonites. And as I said, this is an old
enemy to the children of Israel, an old enemy. The second point I would make
to us, a disappointing surrender. A disappointing surrender. In the next part of verse one,
and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, make a covenant
with us and we will serve thee. A disappointing surrender. Here
these Ammonites came and encamped against Jabesh and they were
willing to surrender, to surrender to them. Without any fight, without
any resistance, they were willing to make a, they wanted to make
a covenant with them and that they would become their servants.
Now, this is a people of God. These people that live, these
Israelites and Jabesh-Gilead, and here come these godless people
from a godless nation, the Ammonites, and they encamp against them,
and they're willing immediately to make a surrender to them to
become their servants. This is one of the things that
sin will do to a people. It weakens a people. And we see
their weakness here. It's very obvious. Without any
fight, without any protest, they agreed to submit themselves to
this godless nation, this godless people. Have they forgotten? Have they forgotten who their
God was? Have they forgotten It was their
God who had given them that land. You see, the Ammonites wanted
to take that land. The land in the beginning was
the land of the Amorites. The Amorites. Remember, God told
Abraham the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. But when it
was full, God brought Israel out of Egypt. He was destroying
those nations. Look with me in Numbers, Numbers
21. Numbers 21. We read there were two kings. that evidently were powerful
kings. This is one of them, the king
of the Amorites. There was a king by the name
of Og, O-G, and this king named Sion. And I say they were powerful
kings, powerful armies, because even David in the Psalms, one
of the Psalms, maybe more than one Psalms, mentions the fact
of God's power and destroying these two kings and conquering
these two kings. Israel was not trained in war. You know, they came out as servants,
out of that nation of Egypt as servants, as slaves. They'd never
been trained to battle. But notice here, it says in verse
21, and Israel sent messengers unto Sihon, king of the Amorites,
saying, let me pass through thy land. Now this is a petition,
and they're not threatening. They offer to buy. Let me pass
through thy land. We will not turn into the fields
or into the vineyards. We will not drink of the waters
of the well, but we will go along by the king's highway until we
be past thy borders. And Sion would not suffer Israel
to pass through his border. But Sion gathered all his people
together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. And
he came to Jahaz and fought against Israel. And Israel smote him
with the edge of the sword. Now notice this, and possessed
his land. Israel possessed his land, which
was the land of the Amorites, even unto the children of Ammon. In other words, They took the
land of the Amorites, which bordered to the land of the Ammonites.
And now it's the Ammonites who are coming in to the land that
God had given to the nation of Israel to conquer them and to
take control over that part of the world. But my thought is
it's a disappointing surrender. I mean, they just offered to
become their servants. Make a covenant with us and we'll
serve you." Had they forgotten who their God was? Had they forgotten
what their God had done? You know, it's easy to forget,
isn't it? It's easy. Many times in the
scriptures we are admonished to remember, remember. Our minds are are like sieves
that things just flow through, don't they? That's the reason
it's so important to be faithful in the services and hear the
preaching of the gospel and read the word of God, because we so
quickly forget. We need to remember, and these
people, they should have remembered who their God was, what he had
done, how he had opened the Red Sea. Surely these people would have
been no match for God. They're God, but they just surrender. And when I was preparing these
notes, I thought about a story I've heard before. One day, Martin
Luther, he saw his wife dressed in mourning clothes. And he asked
her, he said, who, who died? And she said, well, I thought
that your God had died by the way you're acting. What a rebuke. I thought your God had died.
God's not dead. And God wasn't dead at this time. But they just immediately surrender. The third thing I see here is
a very cruel condition. These were cruel, barbarous people,
the Ammonites. And they answered. Verse two,
and Nahash the Ammonite answered them on this condition, will
I make a covenant with you. Here's a condition, that I'll
make a covenant with you, we will not destroy you, but you
will be our servants. Here's a condition, that I may
thrust out all your right eyes. And this will lay a reproach
upon all Israel. That's a very cruel requirement,
to lose their right eyes. You know, it's pointed out that
men in battle, they had a shield, and with the shield, with their
left hand rather, they held their shield, and they protected their
left eye, but it was their right eye with which they aimed and
did battle. And so what they're asking is
that They put out their right eyes so that they would never
be a threat. They would never be a threat
to rise up in rebellion and fight and regain or try at least to
regain their liberty. And I want you to notice that
the Ammonites said this will be a reproach upon all Israel. Not just going to be a reproach
upon Jabesh, the city of Jabesh, this is going to be a reproach
on all the nation of Israel. It would show that the nation,
it would testify that the nation did not have the ability, was
not strong enough to protect their own people. It would be
a reproach upon the nation. The fourth thing, in verse four,
I see a very sad message. Well, let me read verse three.
And the elders of Jabesh said unto them, give us seven days'
respite, that we may send messengers unto all the coast of Israel.
And then, if there be no man to save us, we will come out
to thee. Then came the messengers to Gebeah. of Saul, and told
the tidings in the ears of the people, and all the people lifted
up their voices and wept." A sad, sad message was sent out through
the nation of Israel, and they went into the city where Saul,
this was his place of residence, in the tribe of Benjamin. They
crossed over Jordan and came into the tribe of Benjamin to
Gibeah. a very sad message. And the people,
they saw no hope. They saw no deliverer. And they
began to weep. And they no doubt thought, if
that's the condition that the Ammonites are placing upon that
city, it's just a matter of time. If they surrender, they're going
to be on this side of the river, and we're going to be their servants.
They began to weep. But then fifth, a deliverer was
provided. And behold, Saul came after the
herd out of the field. You see, he's gone back to where
he had lived and where he had worked, and he's working as we
saw, and I pointed out last week, he had been trained to be a herdsman
or farmer, something like that. He'd not been educated or trained
to be a king. And he goes back to, his home,
and he's out working in the field, and he comes in from the field,
following the herd, and Saul said, what aileth the people
that they weep? He said, all the people, they're
weeping. What's the cause of this? Why are the people weeping?
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." Isn't it amazing that we read
that the Spirit of God came upon him and he got angry? He got
angry. The Apostle Paul reminds us in
the New Testament, be angry and sin not. I've said this before,
there are some things that we should be angry about. There's
some things that we see and some things that we hear that should
cause us anger. We should be angry. We shouldn't
be able to see certain things and just be indifferent, indifferent
to things, cruelties, and people taking advantage of other people
and things like that. It should make us angry to see
these things. But be angry and sin not. And
when the Spirit of God came upon this man Saul, first thing we
read, he became angry. He had been anointed king and
now he shows, yes, God had anointed him, that he is qualified to
be the king. He became angry, no doubt he
was angry, first of all, at the Ammonites. Who do these people
think they are, invading our country, trying to take advantage and
put into subjection the citizens of our nation? Who are they?
He became angry at the Ammonites for invading the land, thinking
that they could do such a thing and had no fear in what they
were doing. No doubt he was angry at the
weak and uncourageous spirit of those in Jabesh as well to
even consider submitting to such a thing, to have your right eyes
put out. And no doubt he was angry for
his, angry at his neighbors here. They should have been preparing
for battle instead of sitting there weeping. The Lord raised
up a deliverer. saw. The sixth thing I see here in
verses seven and eight, that a ready army was raised. He took the oxen, no doubt he
had been plowing maybe, and he took his oxen and cut them into
pieces and sent them through all the tribes of Israel on this
side of the river, sent them out. And he said, this is what's
going to happen to your oxen. If you don't come and fight,
if you don't stand up and be men and come and show yourself
men, this is what's going to happen to your oxen. And he did
this in his name and the name of Samuel. That's interesting,
but he puts his name first. He's a king. He doesn't deny
Samuel is a prophet. is a judge, but notice here in
verses seven and eight, 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 messengers saying, whosoever cometh not forth after
Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done under his oxen. And
the fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out
with one consent. And when he numbered them in
Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000, and the men of
Judah, 30,000. Just immediately, he had an army
of 330,000 men. How did that happen? The fear of the Lord. The fear
of the Lord, we're told, fell upon the people. In other words,
with his message went along the power of God. Well, the seventh thing we see
is good news was sent to this city of Jabesh in verse nine.
And he said unto the messengers that came, thus shall you say
unto the men of Jabesh, Gilead, tomorrow, by that time the sun
be hot. By the time the sun comes up,
you shall have help. And the messengers came and showed
it to the men of Jabesh, and they were glad. They were glad. Help's on the way. We don't have
to surrender. We don't have to have our eyes
pushed out. Help's on the way. They were
glad that help was coming. And then, as I thought about
that, they were glad. The gospel about that proverb,
which says there's cold waters to a thirsty soul. You ever been so thirsty? I mean,
I know we say that, oh, I'm thirsty. But I mean, have you ever been
thirsty? I've told you, I can remember
one time in my life when I was thirsty. I made it to that farmhouse,
and that lady had fixed lunch for us, and she had cold tea, iced tea with sugar
in it. And I tell you what, it was good. Oh, it was good. And I took that
glass and it was gone and she filled it up again. Oh, the gospel's
good news, isn't it? To a thirsty soul, to a man who
has no need, to a woman who has no need, they don't realize they're
sinners. Oh, I'm good. I thank thee, God,
that I'm not like these other people. I'm not like that publican. I do this and I do that. The
gospel's not good news to those people. They're not thirsty.
But oh, as cold water's to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a
far country. And this was good news. Help's
on the way. Help's gonna be there in the
morning before the sun gets up very high. gets real hot, there's
going to be help, a deliverer. And we see that victory came
in the morning, verses 10 and 11. Therefore the men of Jabez
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
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." Victory. When I was playing the piano
before anyone got here earlier, she was playing that old hymn,
Victory in Jesus. I heard an old, old story. Our
Savior came from glory. I gave His life on Calvary to
save a wretch like me. Oh, that's victory, victory. Christ, He's the victor, and
He gives victory. He saves His people. Let me just
mention a few parallels for us. Number one, believers, we also
have an old enemy, an old enemy. In fact, in the book of Revelation,
he's called that old serpent called the devil and Satan. Think of the many years that
he's had to try to trip up God's children, try to bring God's
children into reproach and ruin. Many years, the apostle Paul
wrote We're not ignorant of his devices. He's got a lot of devices. That book by, I believe it's
Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. I forget
how many remedies he's got in there. But he's got a remedy,
many of them. And Satan has many devices. And
one device I remember is He hides the hook. You know, when you
go fishing, you put that bait on that hook. You hide the hook,
don't you, from that fish. And that's the way Satan works. He baits the hook, the temptation,
but you don't see the temptation until you've taken the bait. We've got an old enemy. We've
got an old enemy. We, too, at times, we become
overwhelmed with what we see as impossibilities. I'm sure
these people at JBESH, they just felt like there's no way. We're
just at a loss of what can we do? What can we do? What can we say? We, too, at times, may become overwhelmed
with what we see as impossibilities that confront us. Number three,
the Lord has raised up a deliverer for us just like he did for them.
He raised up the fear of the Lord. The spirit of the Lord
came upon Saul. The fear of the Lord came upon
the people, raised up a great army. And good news was sent to us,
wasn't it? It is sent to us. Look with me
in Hebrews chapter six. And I'll close with this, Hebrews
chapter six. Verse 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which we have as an anchor of the soul. Who is that hope
that is set before us? And have we fled? Have we fled
to that hope? Have we and are we fleeing to
that hope always? Well, that hope, of course, is
Christ. Christ is our hope, isn't he? It's not a doctrine. You can't
trust in a doctrine. You can believe a doctrine, but
you can't trust a doctrine. He's a person. And we trust Him. We fled for refuge to Christ. And by two immutable things,
God's word and God's oath, in which it's impossible for Him
to lie, we have a strong consolation. Amen? Amen.