Today Our Daily Bread 1 Sam 11

1 Samuel 11: 1 - 15
1 About a month later, F36 King Nahash of Ammon led his army against the Israelite city of Jabesh-gilead. But the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. "Make a treaty with us, and we will be your servants," they pleaded. 2 "All right," Nahash said, "but only on one condition. I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!" 3 "Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel!" replied the leaders of Jabesh. "If none of our relatives will come to save us, we will agree to your terms." 4 When the messengers came to Gibeah, Saul's hometown, and told the people about their plight, everyone broke into tears.
5 Saul was plowing in the field, and when he returned to town, he asked, "What's the matter? Why is everyone crying?" So they told him about the message from Jabesh. 6 Then the Spirit of God came mightily upon Saul, and he became very angry. 7 He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent the messengers to carry them throughout Israel with this message: "This is what will happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel into battle!" And the LORD made the people afraid of Saul's anger, and all of them came out together as one. 8 When Saul mobilized them at Bezek, he found that there were 300,000 men of Israel, in addition to 30,000 F37 from Judah. 9 So Saul sent the messengers back to Jabesh-gilead to say, "We will rescue you by noontime tomorrow!" What joy there was throughout the city when that message arrived! 10 The men of Jabesh then told their enemies, "Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you can do to us as you wish." 11 But before dawn the next morning, Saul arrived, having divided his army into three detachments. He launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them the whole morning. The remnant of their army was so badly scattered that no two of them were left together.
12 Then the people exclaimed to Samuel, "Now where are those men who said Saul shouldn't rule over us? Bring them here, and we will kill them!" 13 But Saul replied, "No one will be executed today, for today the LORD has rescued Israel!" 14 Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us all go to Gilgal to reaffirm Saul's kingship." 15 So they went to Gilgal, and in a solemn ceremony before the LORD they crowned him king. Then they offered peace offerings to the LORD, and Saul and all the Israelites were very happy.
FOOTNOTES:F36: As in Greek version; Hebrew lacks About a month later. F37: Dead Sea Scrolls and Greek version read 70,000.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation,copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
~Lena's Comments~
Saul’s first assignment as king, to face the enemies of God and His people. That’s what kings do, and how can they do this alone without God? This is an overwhelming situation for any mind and any king, BUT a great one to show that God set kings to be led by Him, protected by Him, ruled by Him, because He wants to demonstrate His mighty power through mere kings in earth (that’s you and me, we all rule in some shape or form).If we trust and look to God, He will show Himself to us, If we rely on ourselves, we may find a certain measure of success, but that measure is a measure, it has an end. God’s successes are endless.
Saul was in the field. He was not set in as king over God’s people yet, the manifestation of the "promise" had not yet arrived, yet he was called and labeled. It is the same with us, and sometimes God is showing us what we could do or be, by offering the suggestion to us and prophesying over us, What we do with the words are totally up to us and have everything to do with where our hearts are at. We can cause the words God has told us to come to pass or not come to pass. God said- Go into ALLthe world. If we never Go, the word will never happen for us. The first demonstration of faith in the word was express so well by saying, Saul’s anger arose against God’s enemies and the enemies of His people. That action of even emotion was from the heart. If he had no real inward care or concern for God’s people, whom he’d been called to "Go" to how could he go and stay faithful to the work he was called to. It begins in the heart. When the heart starts to express the heart that God already has, Whew that is the beginnings of the fulfillment of a great call. Strategy is another sign. He not only felt the need to cat upon his concern ( good intention), He also began to plan out how it could and should and would be done. Planning and strategizing is also from the heart of God. He planned the whole earth’s scheme, set the sun to rise each day and set each night. He planned to save us and followed through with that plan, He also had, made, and persued a plan to save you then found some people with a heart, with a vision, and with a strategy . These people were willing to participate in and execute a strategy to show His love towards you, to win you -His prize and special treasure. He went all out to defeat all of your enemies and His against you at the cross.
Saul mobilized the people with the vision he felt. This is a great sign of a person who has a heart. Once they see God’s true desires and those desires become their own desires they cannot help but tell others. I believed therefore I spoke. God said God saw. It’s creative power at work. If we do not speak the vision to others, how will they be won also? How will God’s enemies be defeated? By a people who are one in vision and strategy, and in work. Notice how the enemy wanted to take the vision out of the people, or at least ½ of the vision. We have to be all in, we cannot be half-sighted or maybe we’ll be half-hearted and do half as much as we were designed and called by God to do. How would we feel if later in our eternal perspective we see that we took half as many people out of the grip of the enemy’s hand, than we had the potential to do and it was all based on our lack of willingness to do it? I guarantee you, in that time we will see so clearly, and there will be not one excuse valid enough to justify that. Praise God we have time Right HERE and Right NOW!
The enemy’s name 1st verse means "serpent"!
Notice all of this heart, strategy, and action was prior to the actual "setting in" of Saul as king! He was who we was in God, and then called who he was in identification by those around them. Kind of like Christians at Antioch. They were already behaving like-Christ and those around them saw it and mentioned it to others as identifying comments with those they observed things with. Many of us wait, thinking someone will call us a leader and then we will be a leader and act like one. No, we are one 1st and then we are called one.
The city of Jabesh-gilead was a city of those who were called by His name. The name means "mountain". They were at a large obstacle and needed the Lord’s intervention. We will all come to that place in our walks. Only in the assemly of the called to fight against that which is against God will we find the victory and be able to get that mountain to come down for us. Notice when we go up and over the mountain, things are all down hill from there.
What an awesome way to celebrate the victory of the one who sees, heeds, and presses through the call. He gives glory to God. He is not lifted up in His own glory, because he’s filled with pride in that he was obedient to God, He gives that glory to God, by making another "sacrifice", one of peace. When we heed and join in with God’s strategies that’s when we will see true peace, meaning wholeness and completeness.