1 Samuel 11 The Spirit of Victory

1 Samuel 11 and the Arrogant Opposition of Nahash

Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsex preaches from his series in 1 Samuel, Timely Prophet, Tragic King. Let's listen in. We're going to see that the first two verses are the arrogant opposition.

We're going to be introduced to this arrogant opposition. Verses 3 through 5 are the desperate plea. Verses 7 through 9 are the Spirit's response to that plea, or the Spirit's response. Verses 10 through 11, the victory granted, and verses 12 through 15, the kingdom renewed.

So let me read those again. The arrogant opposition, the desperate plea, the Spirit's response, the victory granted, and the kingdom renewed. And so verse 1 starts off by introducing us to the arrogant opposition right off the bat.

It's embodying a man that we haven't met. It's mentioned several times in Scripture, not only in this passage. Probably most of you remember your Sunday school stories about Nahash, right? You probably don't, because we don't really talk about this one.

The whole plucking out the eye thing is a little gruesome. So we don't really... that doesn't work good with flammable crap, but.

You know what I'm talking about.

So we chose to leave that one out. We're pretty choosy about our kids' stories. It is still Scripture, and it is beneficial to all of us. But his name is Nahash the Ammonite, and he's obviously a brutal, gruesome leader.

Through outside sources, by the way, I'm mentioning that he's king. The text doesn't say the king of the Ammonites. It doesn't say that here, but outside sources, Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered in 1946 that demonstrate that this dude was indeed the king of the Ammonites.

He was their strongman. He was the guy who the Israelites wanted, and remember that they had said, we want a king like the nations. We want a strongman to lead us just like everybody else around us. Well, Nahash was an example of one of those kings.

He was a strongman who would bully other nations, and would push them around, and would seek to subjugate and conquer territories, and so that's what we have when we encounter Nahash. In the Dead Sea Scrolls, would you believe that this picture rolled out as they were there uncovering those scrolls, and there was Nahash, a picture of him, right there, so we've got that for you here.

You know, amazing archaeology, doesn't it?

Doesn't it have to bless your soul?

Or maybe that's just something from the internet. I don't know. I don't even know who that is. But yeah, so you remember that the people of Israel said, we want a king just like the nations, and this is the model.

This is the example of what they were looking at when they said, God, we reject you, and we really want a king for ourselves, like these other kings around us. So the first mention of the Ammonites, who are these people?

I think it's kind of important that we understand where they come from a little bit. The first mention of the Ammonites is found in a really sordid, you know, kind of account at the end of Genesis chapter 19.

Genesis 19 is most known as the Sodom and Gomorrah passage, but Lot was the character that fled with his wife and his family. His wife, obviously, was killed in that process, and so he flees with his two daughters and escapes, and then the father of the Ammonites was a dude named Ammon, who was born of an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter, and so that's Genesis 19.

That's where the Ammonites come from, and the Ammonites plagued the Israelites and set war against them all down through the ages up until this event here. So there's been other attacks, other pressing need by the Ammonites to try to conquer Israel, an animosity that was age-old between the Israelites and the Ammonites.

So when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1946, and I mentioned some light was shed on this very passage, 1 Samuel 11 came alive in 1946 for us in a way that it didn't before that, and again archaeology really does help.

When we uncover some of these old scrolls, they reveal things to us, and it spoke directly about Nahash in those scrolls. He had been taking war to the tribes of Gad and Reuben, which, you know, probably doesn't mean a whole lot to you unless you get bored with my messages and look over those maps in the back from time to time in your Bibles,.

But that's what I did when I was a kid anyways.

But you'll notice that Gad and Reuben are east, the two, only two tribes east of the Jordan River in Israel, and it was Gad and Reuben, and he was constantly pushing in against them and fighting against them because.

They were kind of out there on their own, these two tribes.

All the rest were kind of densely packed in west between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. And so he was picking at them, conquering most of the Israelite territory during this era east of the Jordan River.

As he conquered, he would.

Incapacitate the men. This is in the Dead Sea Scrolls, this type of detail. He would.

Incapacitate men of military age by gouging out the right eye. What does that do? Well, it reduces their depth perception, makes them less accurate with a sling and a stone and that kind of thing, and so it also is humiliating, obviously.

We'll get to that in a moment, but he was seeking to make them useless in battle and also to humiliate all the people. So according to the scrolls that we found, about 7 ,000 men had retreated prior to chapter 11 here.

7 ,000 able-bodied, both-eyed men from Israel had retreated to this stronghold in Jabesh Gilead, the last holdout on the eastern side of the Jordan River, the last city to be conquered, and that would explain where we come to in verse 1, the siege.

Why in the world does Nahash, did he just take a dart, throw it at a map, and go, Jabesh Gilead, I'm going for that today. It was actually because this was an ongoing skirmish, an ongoing battle that had been going on, and now it's the last ditch effort for Gad and Reuben to actually have a, you know, one final stand.

So that's exactly what's going on, at least according to some of these historical documents. Whether they're accurate or not, we can argue and debate about that, but that's the picture that we're given here about why in the world Nahash, the mutilator, is besieging Jabesh Gilead.

And the men of that city, they retreat, they're there, they watch the siege come in and roll around the city. Not many of us are very familiar with sieges. Fortunately, our town has never been sieged, and so we have probably some small notion of like, oh, I can't get out and get food or something like that.

But this would be claustrophobic for many of us. This would be trapped. You can't leave. You can't go out to your fields. You're trapped in the city, and you're going, how much food do I have left? And those are the kind of thoughts that you're having, and how many of them are there versus how many of us are there?

How can we break through this thing and get to freedom? We have to sacrifice everything that we have just to get through and maybe hope that our skin is safe. And so that's what's going on here. There's a siege, and you can imagine that they were ready to give up pretty quick when they saw the massive armies of Nahash out there.

And so they're done. Israelites are saying, we can't fight against you, so they offer to be his servants in exchange for their lives. They must have sent some contingent out to his army and said, listen, we're, our goose is cooked.

We recognize that this is all done for us. What are your terms of surrender, and we'll be your servants? Just that surrender and saying, we'll be your servants is not enough for Nahash. He says, servitude isn't enough for me.

I also want all of your right eyes. And his reason given in verse 2 is not merely to make them useless for military service. He wants to disgrace and humiliate all of Israel. He's not satisfied with Gad and Urim, he's not satisfied with east of the river.

He says, I want to shame all of you. Why would somebody say that? Because he has animosity toward the people of God. He has it out for God's people. He wants them to be humiliated. And ultimately, I believe that this is the voice of evil saying, I want your God to be shamed.

He can't defend you, he can't protect you. Look how powerful I am, and I will do this to you, and I will do whatever I want to you, because I'm more powerful than you. Yes, I'm more powerful than your country.

Yes, I am even more powerful than your God. So he's intentionally trying to disgrace them. I want to point out that in this introduction of the arrogant opposition here, this first point, Nahash serves as a reminder in the text that the people of God, down through the ages, have always had real enemies.

Sometimes for no other reason than simply that we are seeking to honor God, people would rise up in opposition to us. Nahash is a reminder that there really are evil people who oppose God and his people.

There's a genuine battle. Nahash wanted to humiliate and mutilate God's people. He was arrogant and even considered himself overwhelmingly powerful. Any of you ever met somebody who was overwhelmingly powerful in their own estimation?

Many of us know somebody like that, right? Hopefully it's not you.

But you recognize that all the strength, anything that you have good in you, anything that you have that has any power, comes from the hand of God, and that you would be humble in that. Let me say that we need to avoid the notion that this cruelty in our text is a remnant of some ancient barbaric age, as if this would only be an ancient leader who would say something like this or do something like this.

And surely in Old Testament times, I mean, this was ancient, ancient, ancient, so they were barbaric back then and all of this. But listen to this quote, a guy who died 60 years ago, but this is a quote from him to show his cruelty with intention.

He said, to choose the victim, to prepare the blow with care, to slake an implacable vengeance, and then go to bed? There is nothing sweeter in the world, said Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin, this thing about that quote, to choose the victim, to prepare the blow with care, to slake an implacable vengeance, the evil that resides in the human heart and were it not for grace, that could be attributed to me or you or any one of us.

The spirit of Nahash is alive and well today, and Nahash loved to see the people of God disgraced, cornered, and humiliated.

He was in his high point there.

The Desperate Plea for Help and the Call to Unity

And that leads to the second point, this desperate plea that comes out from the people of Jabesh Gilead. Nahash, by the way, was so arrogant that when the people of God in Jabesh Gilead suggested that he have mercy on them he allowed it.

Okay, I want to just point out that this is not routine military protocol. This is not some ancient code of battle or something like that. No, when you get a chance to go for the jugular, you kill. That's the nature of warfare.

So it's not like he's appealing to some deeper code or something like that that was alive then. Nahash is not a good guy. He would take advantage of people if he could, and there's no image of that. So what we have here is, I mean, you picture this in a modern-day battle situation or scenario.

I mean, some of you are World War II history buffs, and you can remember the Battle of the Bulge or something like that. So the Germans have an offensive pinch off the Americans. They're trapped in the middle of this pocket without reinforcements.

Can you imagine the American troops going to the Germans, putting up a little white flag saying,.

Could you give us seven days for reinforcements?

Could you give us seven days so that we can kind of see if we can get some more Americans up in here and more of our forces? And then we'll come back to battle?

Just give us time out? Do you call time out, and do you know what I'm talking about? Time out, we need reinforcements. Okay, everybody, we got our hands up. We're good.

Just give us some time. That's what's going on here. What we're looking at here, then, is you're going, what's going on? This is how arrogant Nahash was. This is demonstrating something to us of the arrogance of this foreign king, the eminence.

How strong he really thought he was. He was confident that he could humiliate and conquer whatever the Israelites could muster to battle. You see, I think that part of that has to do with the reputation of Israel during this time.

It says that at the end of Judges, they had no king, and everybody did what was right in their own eyes. They couldn't come to unity on anything. There was all kind of civil war going on in Israel, and so they had a reputation among the nations for a lack of unity.

They had nobody to bring them all together, so Nahash counted on Israel being the same as they always are. They won't be able to muster forces against me. So the desperate plea went out. Let me ask you, when we have an enemy besieging us, do we cry out for help?

Do we send out a desperate plea? Or do we seek to go it alone, in our own strength? Or even worse yet, do we just quickly fold and let sin and evil take from us? Whatever it will, just don't hurt me. Whatever it takes, just don't kill me.

Think about your own battle with sin. Think about whatever it is that's besieging you in your life. In our text, the people of Jehosh Gilead said, we can't do this.

And they're right.

We can't defeat Nahash on our own.

We're toast.

So the way we look at it is we've got two options.

We can either give in to the enemy, or we can cry out for help. And I suggest to you that's the reality at some point in your life for everybody in this room. Everybody in this room will come up against something that you can't face alone.

And the question is, what are you going to do when that happens? Or what have you done when that has already happened to you? In our text, the people sent out a desperate plea. And the messengers from Jabesh come to Gibeah where Saul lives.

I think that's probably intentional. I think they went there first, and we'll see why here. The people in Gibeah weep over the plight. And you might go, would that have happened in any city? Any city that the messengers went to?

Was there just weeping over this? I mean, what's the scoop there? But it's very interesting that they mention this relationship between Jabesh and Gibeah. There's actually a familial relationship going on here.

Many of the daughters of Jabesh in this weird, strange, gruesome account at the end of Judges. Judges 19 -21 tells this gruesome, grotesque account of this scenario that happened at Gibeah. Jabesh did not come out and attack Gibeah as they were supposed to.

A civil war that was transpiring there. An internal war in the book of Judges. And so many of the daughters of Jabesh were married into Gilead because they didn't have anybody to marry there. So Gibeah and Jabesh were connected through familial relationships.

So it's understandable why there would have been weeping. And there would have been this emotional, intense response to finding out that Jabesh had been besieged. But as the people are weeping for Jabesh, Saul comes in from the field behind his team of oxen.

Well, what's going on here?

I mean, isn't he supposed to be on a throne? Isn't he king? The farm boy, king, is still in his heart of armor. He's been anointed. He's been called. He's been assured. He's been equipped. He's been selected as king.

But he still has not yet come into his rule yet. He doesn't even know what to do as a king. He hasn't been given any marching orders from God.

He doesn't know, what's my next step?

What does a king do when you've never had a king before? And so we come to the third movement here, and that is the Spirit's response to the desperate plea.

In verse 6,.

And this movement is the central movement of the text, by the way. This is not merely one of five points in the text. You know, you can kind of look at, well, do I want to take point one? Do I want to take point two, or three, or four, or five?

I'm giving you the outline, but the pivotal bullseye, the central bullseye of all of this text, is this central point about the Spirit's response. You see, what could happen in this situation is the text could tell us, Saul got all riled up and went to victory.

That's not what the text says. You could read it that way. You could think that that's what's going on, and wow, Saul, and even the people that experienced these events were ready to really exonerate Saul.

I think I said Paul effectively, but Saul. They were really ready to just say, he's our leader, he's our king. Isn't he awesome? You see, it's the Spirit of God that's rushing on Saul to accomplish what he desires to accomplish here in Israel on this day.

Saul got all worked up on his own and run off to do something on his own, but the text makes it plain and clear that the Spirit came on him with power and with authority. And notice how the Spirit's presence manifests himself in the life of Saul.

This is fundamental for us to understand, folks. This is something that is so counter-cultural here in America today.

He gets angry.

The Spirit comes on Saul, and the result is anger. Can you imagine that? I mean, not my Jesus. Not my God. My God would never produce anger in the heart of a man. Think about that for just a moment. Don't rush past this one quickly.

Can we accept that sometimes the work of the Spirit in a person's life looks like a holy and righteous anger?

You okay with that?

You okay with God pushing against our culture on that one? How many of you know that that's a push against our culture? Did you know that? Do you feel that? I mean, I'm kind of taking it for granted, but do you feel like that's the case?

Raise your hand if you think that is a push back against our culture that would say God would never work anger into a person's life. Only love and kindness and meekness and gentleness. Maybe we bought into the lie that God only works in terms of love and peace.

Does your God ever express wrath and anger towards sin? If not, then you're not talking about the God of this book. You're not talking about the Spirit that came on Saul. You're talking about something else because the Spirit that came on Saul produced a righteous anger in his heart.

Would God ever move in a person to bring war to the enemy?

Would God ever move in a person to bring war?

That was in her text. I want to point out our God is the same from the beginning of this book to the end of this book. He is completely righteous. He is fully loving. He is unwavering in his justice. He is consistent in his wrath against all sin.

Consistent in his wrath against all sin. He's also consistent in his wrath toward those who oppose him. We see that against Nahash. The working of a righteous anger in Saul is to oppose the enemy of God.

Now, his consistency in his wrath towards sin. Do you realize how much grace we live off of?

How many of you have sinned this week?

Just be honest. I'll give you a second. Keep your hands up.

How many of you have sinned this week?

All of us? I think that should account for all of us. Did I not just say that God is consistent in his wrath toward all sin? Was I lying when I just said that? If you sinned this week, where is his wrath in your life?

Can I tell you where his wrath is in your life?

It's right there.

It's right there.

It's on the cross. That's the only basis upon which we have any hope to live and honor him. That's why the cross needs to be the center of what we do. It needs to be the center of our thinking. It needs to be the start of our day, and in the middle of our day, and at the end of our day.

That's why I want to see communion with everybody here every week. I need that reminder of his body broken for me, and his blood shed for me. That his love is shown to me in that act every week. Ultimately, that act 2 ,000 years ago on the cross, we remember each week.

He is consistent, consistent, consistent in his wrath. Praise God that his wrath, or our sin, has been taken for us on the cross. Saul's anger comes, by the way, with the Spirit's presence. It's pretty clear.

In the Spirit, Saul invents the Omaha State Company. Really delicious steak shipped out to you at budget costs.

Actually, it's pretty pricey.

He probably didn't use the big styrofoam containers with the dry ice or anything. Some of you, actually, are laughing, so you know what I'm talking about. He cut up his oxen right there on the spot in his anger, in his God-given anger.

He butchered the meat and threatened, as he sent it out to all of the nation. In parts, he threatened that this was what would happen to the cattle of anyone who refused to come to his call and support him and the prophet Samuel in the battle that was about to take place.

The people of Israel needed a radical call to muster the troops.

They needed a radical call to unity.

That's what's going on here.

They had not been unified prior to this. They had not had a king. Each person was doing what they thought right in their own eyes. And some would be like, eh, they can deal with that down in Jabesh.

Don't worry about that.

Some people would be like, well, I'll come and stand up on the hill and see what's going on. And some people might go, yeah, let's get some swords and let's go do this thing. And so you have all different kinds of opinions and thoughts here.

But the king says, no, I'm going to bring you all together.

We're all going to get together on this one.

Okay, it's time for unity here, folks. We are going to defend our brothers and sisters. Think about the way that this ought to look in our church. How this ought to look among the people of God today.

When a brother or sister is being threatened by suffering, by pain, by illness, by sin, or whatever form the enemy might take in a person's life, we rally to the call. We unite together in prayer. We unite together in assisting and bringing help.

We respond to the call of the hurting among us. We rise up to protect those who are being oppressed. That's what it means to be a church. That's what it means to be the people of God. That's what it means that we are united in Christ.

Look at what the Spirit produces in the people of God. It says, the dread of the Lord fell upon them, and they mustered in a radical and even supernatural unity, as if the call had gone to one person and they showed up.

Well, they everybody showed up.

They came out in reverence and awe of God. It says, they mustered on the basis of the Lord, not even for fear of losing their oxen to King Saul's butchery.

That wasn't what motivated them in the end.

Respect and awe, the word dread there can be a reverent fear, a reverent awe, a higher than the word respect kind of feeling towards the Lord. And they wanted to honor Him. And God forbid that we would be a people who would ignore the call of our King to help those under threat around us.

Whether they're in the church, sure, of course, we have an obligation to them. But what about those outside? God forbid that we would refuse the call that our Lord would put on us to appease the plight, to ease the plight of those around us.

Let me just encourage everybody to a person in the room. Run to the one in need. Boldly proclaim the message of hope and boldly proclaim the message of help. And do so while providing tangible help, real help to real people.

Food for the hungry, shelter for the displaced, strength for the weak, defense for the abused, and love for those who feel unlovable. The church has gotten this really confused over the years. Either we feel like we need to provide all tangible help and don't ruin it with the gospel.

Or we need to provide the gospel and don't ruin it with tangible help.

Do you know what I'm talking about in that?

The church has just gotten this way out of whack.

It's, oh folks, I hope you can see that as clearly as I can.

At the end of the day, it's, I mean, you're going to bring the gospel.

That's vital.

And this whole notion of preach the gospel and use words if necessary. Words are necessary. You can't preach the gospel without words. Impossible. You don't get a guy on a cross without words. You can preach the good news of your good deeds by your behavior and by your actions.

That's the only thing you can communicate to people. Wow, she's really nice.

Wow, he's really good.

Without words, you're not going to get past that. But let me tell you that, boy, please don't. Please do not drag Christ through the mud with your words if you're not a good worker. If you're not kind to your coworkers.

Do you see what I'm saying?

You need both. You need both and they go hand in hand. They serve one another well. So providing for the needs of those that are crying out for help is vital for us as the people of God. And then being willing with a word to defend the hope that you have in you.

Why are you such a good worker?

Why are you such a kind person?

Why are you a good shoulder to lean on for your coworkers or your neighbors? Just a good person?

Is that all you're giving them?

Or is it because Christ has redeemed you and you were set free from the constant competition with one another based on the law and the rules and all of that kind of stuff? You've been set free by the cross of Christ.

Say it.

Do you consider, do you ever think about this? There are some in your neighborhood who are being mutilated and abused by the enemy. There are some in the place where you work who are being abused and mutilated by Nash.

It's all over the place.

They're besieged.

They're surrounded. And you may just get glimpses into their life where they don't smile that day and they share something with you.

And that's their plea.

That's their cry. That's their telling you, you know what? My weekend wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be. Are we ready to bring the good news and rescue to them? That's what this text is all about.

It's about the rescue and salvation that God brings.

Bring hope.

The call of the king is crying out to all of us. Go to them. Bring hope to them.

Rescue them.

And the call isn't, by the way, just bring them to church. That's all you can do.

That's great.

And I promise to proclaim the gospel here. If you want to bring a friend, any day. I look forward to it. But that's not the call. The call is to go out to help. That's the fundamental thing that we as Christians are called to do.

And bringing them here, that's great too. And if that's all you can do. But let me encourage you to take that next step and go out to seek rescue for them. Verse 8, we see that the muster produced a huge army and the messengers reported good news to Jabesh.

Tomorrow by noon you will be saved. How many of you think that sounds great?

Just those words.

Just the terms. Just that sentence.

Tomorrow by noon.

By the time the sun gets hot, you're going to be saved.

Truly good news coming from the messengers. And we love a story that shows what I would call a mini salvation. We want mini salvation. How many of you want a big ass salvation from Christ? Like salvation from yourself.

That's the big salvation. The scripture is full and life is full of what I would call mini salvations like this. We love stories like that. We love it when the report is the cancer is gone and the doctors don't know what in the world to make of it.

A mini salvation.

The ring bearer is rescued by the eagles. Mini salvation. The flowers pop up after a cold hard winter. Anybody recognize how much that felt like a mini salvation this year? You know what I'm talking about.

God has placed a hunger in the human heart for good endings. And that's in part because the reality, that's the reality of the story arc of real history. Did you know what's heading to a good place? The media is not going to cover that.

We need each other for that. We need each other to remember that. We need community and the church and the scriptures to remind us that this is going to a good place. Because if all you do is you listen to Fox News or MSNBC or CNN.

Did you know it doesn't sound so good? This is going to a good place. Why do I say that? Why do I feel confident saying that up here?

Because I've read this and I see how it ends.

I know where it's all going.

It's leading us to the ultimate of all salvations. I hear in our text good news of salvation. It says it made their hearts glad. And good news like that always does. It makes the heart glad. The people of Jabesh are glad.

God the Spirit is on the way in his chosen leader Saul. And he will bring victory. He will break the siege of darkness surrounding Jabesh. The people of God will indeed be rescued. And that leads to the fourth movement.

Victory Granted and the Kingdom Renewed

Victory is granted in verses 10 and 11. We see that the people of Jabesh use the military ruse to accomplish their victory. They whet Nahash's appetite for destruction by telling him that he will get what's coming to him tomorrow.

You can have us.

You're going to be able to take whatever you want. The Ammonites are already counting themselves victorious. All they need in the morning is to march into Jabesh, harvest some eyes, and collect their new servants.

But early in the morning before sunrise, the Spirit-empowered Saul leads three companies of Israelites to divide and surround the encampment of Nahash. They come into the sleeping camp of the Ammonites and strike them down.

My first thought was, who wants to go to battle before they get their morning coffee? Poor Ammonites. They didn't even get up and get their coffee. They're still in their PJs. The Ammonites were decaffeinated and defeated.

They're not a good combination.

I wouldn't want to take either one of those.

The image at the end of verse 11 is intentionally strong to show how extensively victorious the Israelites were in this campaign. No two Ammonites were left together as they retreated across the countryside in their pajamas.

So, now who's disgraced? Right? Now who's disgraced?

I mean, the image there is that you've got two people. I mean, there weren't even two of them together in a foxhole as they're retreating or hiding behind a tree. They were completely spread out, running for the hills, crying for their mommies.

And so, we might be tempted to think that Saul has worked a great victory. The people of Israel were tempted to think that. The great king over Israel has proven his worth. He's coming to his own. And that's the way the people of Israel think.