The title of this Bible Study is “¬¬¬¬¬We serve under the authority of King Jesus” which is to get you thinking about how we fight and commit ourselves to battle underneath King Jesus. We are united and not divided. When you reject God’s authority, you’re rejecting God which is what those who follow the devil do. If you do not surrender your heart to King Jesus, you’ll make a deal with the devil. He wants you to make a deal with him. He’s a tacticianist. So he will allow you to look okay. He will allow you to seem like you’re having victory until that day when he just wants to put out both of your eyes. And the way to be strong and the way to be waiting, and the way to be ready is to be standing in Christ’s victory.
We are reading 1 Samuel 11:1-15 from the Old Testament.
If you have a bible, find 1 Samuel 11, and if you want, you can look ahead and find these additional verses which we will also be referring to. They are:
1 Samuel 10:24, Judges 21:25, Luke 10:16, 1 Samuel 10:25-27, 1 Samuel 8:11 -18, John 10:10, Judges 19:12-30, 1 John 5:19, James 2:17, Proverbs 16:3, Matthew 6:24, Joshua 24:15, Genesis 19:30-38, Galatians 2:20, Luke 11:33-34, Philippians 4:6-7, Romans 10:17, Colossians 3:2, Luke 24:27, Revelation 22:18, Acts 1:8, Ezekiel 38
Pastor Greg is reading this chapter using the New King James by Tyndale House Publisher version.
1 Samuel 11:1-15
1 Samuel chapter 11. We’re going to kind of dovetail in from chapter 10. If you were with us in our last lesson, we closed in 10. And what happened? We have seen the first inauguration of the king. We’ve seen Saul the Benjamite, become king and all the people yelled in verse 24, “Long live the king!” If you remember, Samuel was the prophet, and he was getting old. His sons began to take over judging Israel, but they were evil, and they didn’t do as Samuel did. So the people became disgruntled, I guess you could call it. We’re kind of in the days of judges where there was no king, so everyone did what was right in their own eyes. And they said, “Make us a king!” And Samuel got a little upset about it. And God said, “Samuel, do what they say. They’re not rejecting you. They’re rejecting me.”
Anytime you want something else to run your life other than God and His instruction – Listen! Anytime you let anything else run your life, you’re rejecting God and His authority. And that’s Satan’s plan. Satan wants us to reject the authority of our creator. That’s what he was getting Eve to do in the garden. That’s what he’s continuing to do in life. When we serve our self, when we make up our own ways of living, when we follow the schools of higher learning and their lies, we are rejecting the word of God that gives us clear instruction to keep us in the path that we’re supposed to be on.
And they yelled for the first time, “Long live the King!” And then it says in 1 Samuel 10:25 -27, “Samuel explained to the people the behavior of royalty and wrote it in a book and laid it up before the Lord as a testimony and Samuel sent all the people away, every man to his house. And Saul also went home to Gibeah, and valiant men went with him whose hearts God had touched, but some rebels said, “How can this man save us?” So they despised him and brought him no presents, but he held his peace.”
Prayer: Father bless our time in your word and bless both Your word and this instruction that we have. May we let it be deeply implanted in our heart that it might grow up and produce a crop 30, 60, 100 fold for the saving of our souls. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
So again, we see that he explained to the people what royalty would do, and we had seen that, I don’t know, in 1 Samuel 8:11 -18, He said, “This will be the behavior of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and place them for himself in his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. ” His horsemen. Again, he’s going to make them run before is chariots. “He will appoint captains over his thousands, captains over his fifties. He’s going to set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest. He had some to work for the king. Some to make his weapons of war and his equipment for chariots. You will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks and bakers.” Notice this, verse 14, “He will take the best of your fields, your vineyard and your olive groves and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain, your vineyards, and give it to his officers and his servants. He will take your male servants and your female servants, your finest young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a 10th of your sheep and you will be his servants and when you cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourself, the Lord will not hear you in that day.”
Notice though, and this is what I like to see in this, is what the king, an earthly king, will take. He will keep taking. An earthly government keeps taking. They keep taking. They keep wanting more. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely until they are corrupt completely. So the king, even though he was chosen by the people, he’s going to take your things, and it’s very important to understand that because if we don’t let Jesus be King, and Jesus gives His life away. Jesus gave us His life. He gave us His inheritance. Then we are joint heirs with Him, but the world takes. The devil who is running the world and underneath the sway of the wicked one is going to take from you. He continues to take your life and lead you astray into the path of death, but Christ has always given us life and that more abundantly.
So we want him to be King in our lives, not anything else, not anyone else. And notice in 1 Samuel 10:26 that “Saul also went to Gibeah.” I like that. I looked up Gibeah which means hill or little hill. See, because here he is in Gibeah, listen to me, this is where Saul’s life is going to be lived. It is in Gibeah. He’s going to rise and fall in Gibeah. I believe he builds a statute to himself in Gibeah.
Do you remember Gibeah when we went through Judges? And a man was traveling through there and he stopped and they wanted to know him carnally. He had given his concubine and they all slept with her until she died. And it happened in Israel. It happened with a Benjamite man. And then what happened? He took her home and cut it into pieces and sent her to all of the land and people freaked out and there was a great big war and they came and attacked Benjamin because Benjamin wouldn’t repent of that.
That’s where Saul is from. He’s a Benjamite and that’s how he came from the smallest tribe and the least of them and God chose him from there even though this has happened. And we see some humility of some sort in Saul, but we’re also going to see that humility quickly gets painted away when he begins to do things with the Spirit of God for the glory of God. He begins to well up in pride and act as if he did. He hid. He didn’t even want to be seen when they went to inauguration. He was hiding in the equipment. If you remember he was like embarrassed, and then he’s going to end up being killed by God because he would not bow down to God.
So it says that he went to Gibeah to this little hill and valiant men went with him whose hearts God had touched. Do you see that? God doesn’t call you to do something and then not touch men’s hearts to come alongside you. God is the one that provides. I want you to see this because God wants us to follow authority. God wants us to respect authority because what’s going on in this planet is that we are rejecting God’s authority. We’re rejecting authority. There’s no king in the land so everyone does what’s right in their own eyes. But there are clear instructions from the word of God, how we should thus live because we’re the children of God. And so here he is. He doesn’t just call Saul and make him king. He doesn’t just give the people what they want. If you remember, He gave him the desires of their heart, but He brought leanness to their soul, but He also provides men to come alongside Him. And then you’re going to see here in a few minutes that He puts the spirit of God upon Saul, and it gives him victory and He makes him a king. He could have been a great king.
So what did we see from that? That God gives us everything we need for life in godliness. He provides it, and it’s our choice whether we will listen and follow and obey and humble ourselves and let Him use us for His glory. Saul had everything handed to him. He’s never going to be able to get to the throne and go, “God, why did you have me killed? Why did you let the Amalekites kill me? I was doing everything for You.” He’s never going to be able to come and bring any wisdom or counsel against what God’s judgment was on his life because God provides for every person on the planet, everything that they need for life in godliness through His son, Jesus Christ.
Old Testament Saints? They look forward to it. New Testament? We looked back up on the finished work of the cross, but God has always provided perfectly for every person ever born. Perfectly. Practically. He gives power. He gives everything needed to live their life. He gives a mustard seed of faith, and then it’s up to us what we do with it, and He died for whomsoever. And Saul was given every chance, even when he was blowing it God said, “Okay. ” And we’re going to see that in chapter 15.
He’s like, okay, here’s another chance. Just go and obey me. Go and do what I called you to do, but Saul just continue to do what he wanted to do and ignore the spirit of God and being led by the spirit of God. He had some men that God touched their hearts to follow Him. But then in 1 Samuel 10:27 it says, “but some rebels said…” The King James version says “but the children or Belial said…” They were children of the devil. They were children of Satan. They weren’t going to follow anybody no matter what. No matter who God made king, no matter who Samuel was, these kids were following the devil and they were only there to be rebellious. And they weren’t going to do anything right. And they said, “….How can this man save us? So they despised him and brought him no presents, but he held his peace.”
Now listen again, children of the devil say things like the devil does. They said partially true things, but their actions were totally wrong. How can this man save us? No man can save us, but Saul was called by God, anointed by God and God set him up to be king over them. So they were supposed to come underneath the authority of what God had called them to do. And when you reject God’s authority, you’re rejecting God and God has put authority in the universe. It’s so important that we understand that.
Yet in our culture, that’s what you see the spirit of the age, the spirit of the devil, because 1 John 5:19 says, “I know you’re of God, but the whole world lies underneath the sway of the wicked one.” The spirit of this world which is run by Satan is rejecting every boundary that God has set up and teaching us in our schools and in our colleges. Teaching us in our literature, in our music, in everything. To reject God’s authority, to reject God’s word, to reject God’s family. To reject marriage, to reject God’s authority. And it’s being sewn into the fabric of our hearts, and that’s why it’s so important that you don’t listen to the world, but you have eyes and ears to hear what God would say to the church through the spirit, through His word. Because this is what we need to hear. This is what will help us to stay in instruction, to stay in the path, to stay following God. But as we listened to every other voice, it moves us into the area of ignoring, rejecting authority. And we’d become and stay children of Belial. We stay children of the devil. Because really it doesn’t matter how many times you say, “I believe in Jesus.” If your heart is still following everything except for Jesus, His word, then you’re not a child of God. And at the end of the day that’s what God wants. He wants our heart.
He wants us to come and obey. And part of obeying is just confessing when we’re not. We’re not saved by works, but if we’re saved, we’re going to do works. James says, saving faith produces works, and when we commit our works unto the Lord, our thoughts are established for us, but we have to commit our lives completely. Everything that we do has to become for God because He bought us with the precious blood of His son. The devil doesn’t want us to do that. The devil wants us to say a prayer and say, I’m okay now. I can go on doing anything I want to do.” But that does not make you a child of God.
So these rebels, they were pointing at the man, but they’re not pointing at the one who provided the man. See they’re looking at the man. And that’s what’s going on in the church today. Instead of looking at God’s provision, we’re looking at men, and we walk away from churches and we run to and fro. We go to all kinds of places instead of looking at God’s provision. God’s provision is the precious blood of Jesus. God’s provision is the institution of the church. God’s provision is the institution of the marriage. And God’s provision is for us to be the body of Christ and work together and follow the instruction of this word. That is what we should be doing, and if we’re not, then we’re still being rebels or children of Belial. So we have people that God touched their hearts and we have people that let the devil touch their hearts.
What I would say to you is, “Who are you letting control your heart? Is it the spirit of God? Is God touching your heart to follow authority, to follow what’s supposed to be going on for the children of God in the Church of God, the House of God?” Or are you continuing to just say, “Ah, no big deal to me.” You see because God’s authority and God’s calling is upon all of our lives and we either reject it or we follow it. You can’t have both. “You can’t serve God and mammon. You’ll love the one and hate the other.” “So as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. “
Now here’s something that could seem like a strange story, but it takes off in chapter 11. I love this. It’s an amazing story. They’ve chosen a king. Keep that in mind. They’ve got a king now, but the king goes back to his own home. He goes back to this hill, and what happens immediately? Here comes the enemy. Nahash. 1 Samuel 11:1-3, “Then Nahash the Ammonite came up, and encamped against Jabeshgilead: and all the men of Jabesh said unto Nahash, ‘Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you. ‘ And Nahash the Ammonite answered them, ‘On this condition will I make a deal with you, that I may put out your right eyes, and bring it for a reproach upon all Israel. ‘ And the elders of Jabesh said unto him, ‘Hold off for seven days’ that we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel: and then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you.’ ” Isn’t that an amazing story!? It’s amazing on both sides. I’m blown away by it when I read it.
Now listen to me. There’s some important stuff that you need to know. Nahash means serpent or snake. See because as soon as you make a king for your life, the devil attacks. The serpent comes to attack – to come against the authority of their king. And as soon as King Jesus comes into your life, He allows the devil to attack, to see if you’re really going to follow and be a child of God or if you want to keep following your own life. Now, the Ammonites, they’re enemies of God’s. The Ammonites and the Moabites are from Genesis 19. From the incestual relationship with Lot and his daughters up in a cave. You have the Moabites that came from Moab and then ben ammi is where the Ammonites come from.
And they come up instantly to attack. And who did they attack? Jabeshgilead. Now Jabesh was, if you remember the whole story, I’m like, oh my goodness, all these people are involved, because they’re all from Israel, but Jabesh is where they stole the brides from because they didn’t come out to fight against the Benjamites. Remember they made the covenant that they were going to kill off all the Benjamites, and there were very few of them left. And then all of a sudden they made this other vow that we won’t give them any wives so they could never repopulate. So they let him steal some brides and it was Jabeshgilead because they didn’t go out to fight with them. So here we got these same players and you’ve got the serpent. This snake comes up to attack them and they say, “Make a covenant with us and we will serve you.”
So what’s the deal? That’s what the devil wants to do. We’re supposed to be crucified with Christ. Our flesh is supposed to be in the grave. We’re supposed to now be walking in the spirit so we don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. We’re supposed to be letting the word of God and the spirit of God wash us and cleanse us and make us more like the Son of God. But the enemy and the world wants us to make a covenant with them. To make a deal with them and not to do what God said because we have a new king and please don’t strain out the fact that Saul gets killed by God and strain it out that I’m using him as a type of Christ. I am not, but he is in this situation going to be their savior. God’s going to use him to confirm his anointing as king and he has every chance right now to be a good king. Although we know the story ended in a bad way because he didn’t obey God. He ceased listening to instruction. And he went astray.
So here comes the serpent, the snake. He’s from Amon, the Amonites. They say, “We’ll make a covenant. We will serve you” Have you ever made a covenant with the devil? Have you ever made a covenant with a snake? Listen, they’re talking to him the same way Eve did. You should not be talking with the enemy. You don’t want to talk with the enemy, and that’s what’s going on here. There going,”Let’s make a deal.” Listen, when the enemy attacks, cry out to Jesus. Look for His provision. Someone said, “If the devil comes knocking on the door, don’t be afraid. Just let Jesus answer the door.” It’s that simple.
And here comes the enemy, and guess what they didn’t do? They didn’t go to their king. Saul was anointed king. They all knew that he was anointed king. I don’t think he knows he’s acting kingly. He isn’t acting kingly. We’re going to see in verse 5 that he comes from the field. He’s out farming. He’s not being king, but the spirit of God is going to come upon him, and he’s going to begin to act like a king that protects his people. He going to begin to lead, but it’s going to be because of the spirit of God.
But they said, “Make a covenant. Make a deal with us and we will serve you.” Listen. If you do not surrender your heart to King Jesus, you’ll make a deal with your flesh and you will begin to compromise the Gospel. And you will begin to say, ‘”Well, as long as I don’t go past this mark, I’ll be okay.” And then when you pass that mark, you’ll make another deal saying, “If I don’t go past this mark. I’m still going to be ok.” What you have to do is recognize sin and the sin nature for what it is. It always leads to death. And we always want to cry out to Jesus and appropriate the blood of the covenant that we’ve made with Jesus. There is no other deal coming. Any other deal will lead you back to death. So when the enemy comes, cry out to Jesus. The Ammonite actually answered them in 11:2, “Oh, I got one condition and I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll make a covenant with you that I may put out all your right eyes and bring reproach on all of Israel.” Bring reproach means to bring shame. The covenant means a deal, a compact, come in league with. But listen, he wants to put out the right eyes. It was something that was common.
I never knew that until I began to study this text. It was common in those days that when you would surrender or make a deal, they would put out your eye. Why? So that you could not be a warrior later. See, because this would keep you from having your balance. It would make you useless as a soldier. It would make you keep from being able to rise up against them after they have made the deal. They wouldn’t have to guard you as well. You’ve got no peripheral. You can’t see good. You’re off balance. There’s no way they’re going to have to worry about you rising up. You got one eye. A two eye person can defeat you.
“In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.” I read that one someplace. That was profound. Stupid, but true. When you have one eye out, then your right eye, which the “right side”, is always the side of power. Then someone with two eyes is stronger than you. They don’t have to watch you as close or have to worry about you rising up to defeat them. So he says, “I’ll make a deal with you if I can put out your right eye.” Well listen, that’s what the devil wants to do to you. He wants to put out your eye. He wants to put out your light. He wants to put out your witness.
Look at Luke 11. Jesus talks about this. Give me a little liberty here. I want to move this a little bit and see how it looks as we straighten it out. Jesus is speaking here in Luke 11:33, “No one when he has lighted a lamp, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a lampstand that those who come in may see the light.” Listen to me. When Jesus pours out His Spirit upon us, when He gives us life, He sealed us with the holy spirit of promise. And He puts oil on us, and we become that lamp. We don’t call for King Saul, but when the enemy comes, we let them know that we’re serving Jesus. There’s a new strong man in our house. He’s standing guard, and no one can take over our house. We don’t hide our light. You know “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine.” Even in little kids sing this song. The Christian should know that we are to walk this out, to obey Christ, to let our lamp shine so that the serpent knows we’re serving Jesus and He is on the throne of our lives. The lamp of the body. Look, what’s our lamp? The lamp of the body is the eye.
Luke 11:34, “Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light, but when your eye is bad, your body also has full of darkness. Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness. If your whole body is full of light, having, no part dark, the whole body will be full of light. And when the bright shining of the lamp gives you light.” Listen, Christ positionally has made us fully light. Fully bright. But practically he’s wanting to work out these desires and He’s teaching us. He’s instructing us. He doesn’t want us making a deal with the devil, with a serpent to put out our eye, to put out our lives.
And that’s what’s wrong with most of the church. Their light is not shining because they’re still pursuing the desires of the world. They’re not committed fully all of their works to the Lord so that their thoughts will be established. They’re doing half and half. “Oh, I said a prayer, so I’m okay. Oh, I go to church on Sunday. So things are fine. ” But the Lord wants us to fully be committed not to just justification but to sanctification. Letting Him continue to fill us with His oil. Continue to pour out His Spirit upon us. Continue to clean up our hearts until we have a light that shines so bright that others see that we can see clearly. It’s our understanding that is being opened up. It’s our eyes that are being opened up and we want to tell people about Jesus so that their eyes will be opened up.
Yes, we still in some ways have darkness because we’re not completely sanctified. Positionally, we’re completely sanctified. We’re just like Christ. We are the light of the world right now because Christ is living in us. He is the big light. We are the little lights. We’re reflecting Him. And the enemy wants to put out your eye. He wants to put out your understanding. He wants to put out your witness. He wants you to make a covenant and make a deal, and he’s a tacticianist so he will allow you to look okay. He will allow you to seem like you’re having victory until that day when he just wants to put out both of your eyes. And he comes up and he attacks you and he tries to destroy you and the way to be strong and the way to be waiting, and the way to be ready is to be standing in Christ’s victory. To be standing in the word of God, in the will of God and doing what you’re supposed to be doing by confessing your sin. By being in the word, prayer and fellowship. By allowing God to put light and oil into your life, to keep burning. Don’t let the enemy come up to you and make some lying deal that he can’t keep in the first place because there’s a King on the throne. And He’s standing guard over your house and if you will just trust Him then the enemy can do nothing. The enemy can actually do absolutely nothing.
The Bible tells us to “be anxious for nothing but in all things through prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, make your request known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind through Christ Jesus.” That’s the guard that you have. Is Jesus guarding your heart? There’s a centurion standing at your heart’s door. He’s guarding the light. He’s guarding your heart, and he is there. But you have to commit to Him. You have to commit and understand and let Him shine His light through you. Don’t make a deal that you’re only gonna go so far. He’s going to provide. He’ll turn people’s hearts with you and there’ll be unity in the assembly, in the wilderness, and then you can go out. You don’t have to have your right eye of understanding put out. You don’t have to be ashamed. There’s no shame in Christ. He’s taken away all condemnation.
And listen, these are the elders. These are not just some people the in field. Listen to me. Verse 3, “the elders of Jabesh said to him,” listen to me. These are the people who are ruling and governing in Jabesh. They say, “Give us about seven days and check and see if anyone else can save us.”
The crazy thing is that they listened. It’s bad enough that they go, “that sounds pretty good. If they take out one eye, we can still see.” That’s probably how most of the churches settle up today. “Well, I said a prayer and I go to church and I’m pretty good. I got fire insurance.” That’s the beginning of the race. We are supposed to run the race to win. Not just to get into heaven. We’re running to win. We are shining our light. We’re casting hope to other people. We’re telling them about Jesus. We’re called to be witnesses who make disciples so that other people will be in the body of Christ and they won’t have their eyes put out completely. They’ll be completely blind. And that’s what they are. They’re spiritually blind, and they need their eyes opened to the love of Christ. These elders in Jabesh said, “….hold off for seven days and we may send messengers to all the territory of Israel and then if there’s no one to save us will come out to you.” Do you understand what they’re saying? They just anointed a king. They didn’t just go, “Well, hang on a minute. We’re going to go get King Saul.”
They’re still looking for a savior. What does that tell us? Their whole story about, “Hey, we need a king because your son’s aint ruling us Samuel was an untruth. They just did not want to listen to anybody. They wanted no authority, and then here comes a guy that they’re willing to put out their right eye as long as he doesn’t bother him. “Put out my right eye as long as you don’t bother me.” If they would have believed that Saul was king, they would’ve went straight to Saul. And if Saul was acting like he was king then he would have already been there. But he wasn’t acting like a king. Who is your king? Are you still looking for somebody to rule your life? Are you still looking for light? Are you still looking for hope? Or is Jesus your King?
And if Jesus is your king when the serpent, the state, or any enemy comes, just cry out to Jesus. You can trust Him. But the greatest way to do that is don’t wait for the enemy to come, but commit your life completely to him right now, commit your works unto to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. Your purposes will be established. Your ways will be established. and you’ll be able to stand when you fully commit to Him. Understand that he loves you with a never-ending love. And he died so that you can live. He paid for your sin nature. And He gives you an inheritance in the heavenlies with Him.
Nice elder they got there. “Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul,” This is at little hill. Notice now it’s not being called Gibeah. Look, we’re starting to get a different name there. It’s Gibeah of Saul. Earlier it was Gibeah. Now since Saul lives there, and he’s the first king, we’re going to call it Gibeah of Saul. That’s going to be our namesake, “…..and told the news in the hearing of the people…” What news should they be telling? We should be telling good news in the hearing of the people because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” “… and all the people…” because they have no hope- I just added that,”… lifted up their voices and wept. ” Oh no. The serpent is here, and he wants to poke out all of our eyes and bring shame and reproach upon us. And there’s no one to help us because we forget about the King Jesus who already died. He’s already given His blood to set us free from the sin nature. He’s taking the power and the penalty. And now He wants to take the practice. We don’t want to make a covenant with the enemy. We want to cry out to Jesus. There’s no reason to weep over anything. Only thing you should weep over is your sin. Mourn over it, and cry out to Jesus, and ask Him to help you to obey Him.
“And now Saul…” in verse 5. This is the verse I was telling you about. Here is Saul. “coming behind the herd from the field.” See that! He’s not acting kingly. He was anointed king. He’s hiding, but now he’s made king, and he goes back to the field.
Isn’t that what we do? We become children of God and we go right back and live like children of the devil. Like children of Belial. We don’t go and search out and let our eyes be full of these riches that we’ve been given and this truth that we’ve had and tell others about it. See Saul never owned it. Remember that his uncle said, “What did the man God say?” Ah, the donkeys have been found. He never owned the fact that he was anointed king, so he went home, and he didn’t live like a king. We have become children of God. Don’t go home and live like children of the devil. Go home and walk out your inheritance. Set your minds on things that are above. Don’t let somebody poke your eyes and take your spiritual understanding. You want to hear what the spirit says. You want to see what God is doing, and you want to be involved in it. No reason for us to weep except for weeping over our sin and weeping over others who do not know Jesus. That’s really what the church should be weeping over. Our last chances of sharing. Our lost churches that don’t know the word of God.
There is such a famine for the word of God. If you listen to some of the sermons that people are talking about, it has nothing to do with the word of God. There is such deception going on in the churches today. We’re talking about it in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy Chapter two on Sunday. These people are weeping because they have no hope. They thought their hope was in this earthly king and then they appointed him, and then they wouldn’t even listen to him or go get him. Our hope is in King Jesus and no man can say this, but Jesus has saved us. All we have to do is surrender to Him.
Here’s Saul not living like a king, and he’s back out in the field. He coming in behind the herd, and he said, “What trouble the people that they weep?” So he’s got a little bit of a concern now for the people. Why are the people weeping? “… and they told him the word to the men of Jabesh.” They shared with him the lies of the devil, the lies of the serpent, of the covenant that the people wanted to make instead of coming to the king for help.
Listen to me, I don’t know if you’ve been listening to some of the things that are going on in the world, but one of my favorite preachers, Charles Stanley’s son, just announced in a Sunday sermon that Christians just need to get rid of the old testament because it’s just a Jewish book anyway. We don’t need it for salvation. This is insanity! This is the attack on the word of God. The attack on Israel, if you want to know the truth, because it’s an age old attack, there is only one testament. We commonly refer to the Old Testament and New Testament, but there’s only ONE testament. This is ONE book. There’s 66 books made into one book. There’s more covenants than one, but there’s only one testimony of God of what he’s doing on the planet. That’s what the testament is about.
In the Old Testament God was alive, right? And we look forward to his death when He would take away the sins of the world. In the New Testament, because with the will and testament somebody has die, Jesus came and died and now since He died, we can inherit all the promises of the Old Testament. We can inherit the Kingdom of God. We can become children of God. And the Holy Spirit is handing out the inheritance according to the testament, according to the will and testament of God. But somebody had to die in order for the will to become effective. It has to be effective. If you’re alive, you’re testament is not affected.
There’s only one testament. There’s many covenants. And I know we have used those words interchangeably, but that was created to keep the Jews out of the church. Early on in the church they did that to try to separate Jews from Christianity, and it’s become a stumbling block. There’s one testament, there’s one testimony. There’s one Lord. There’s one God. There’s one Spirit. We do need the Old Testament. It’s the foundation. Think about this. I just read in Luke. If you are on the Bible reading plan for the year, you would be reading it too. Jesus was meeting the boys on the road to Emmaus. He began to reason from the old testament with them. To show them everything that had been said. That he had fulfilled it.
It’s just so crazy to try to get rid of the Old Testament. Why would we need the New Testament if the Old Testament isn’t there? The Old Testament reveals the sin nature of man. The Old Testament shows us creation and its origin. It shows us that Eve rejected the authority of God and listened to the lie of the devil. And now we need a Savior because we have a sin nature. Those things would all be lost if we got rid of the Old Testament, all the promises of what God was going to do when He was going to come and what the Messiah would look like, the anointed of God. They’re all in the Old Testament and yet we have preachers today saying, “We just gotta get rid of it.” All I’m saying is the Bible says, if you take away or add to, God will add to him the curses in this book. And we need all of it.
Most churches won’t even teach the Old Testament and you see the relevance. When you start looking at the Old Testament, the New Testament is hidden within it. It’s everywhere. Even here the serpent is attacking after they get a new king. Even here the devil is attacking. But you know what? God allows it to unite us. What do we do when we received the attack in the flesh? It divides us. You’re going to see here at the end of this chapter when the enemy attacks that God uses it to unite them all underneath this same king. The enemy attacks the church because we are in a spiritual battle. He is attacking the church. He is attacking Israel right now with great attack that the bible said would happen 2,500 years ago in the book of Ezekiel. And it’s going to happen. And the people of Israel are the people of God. Israel was the first born nation of God. Our Messiah comes from the tribe of Judah, from Israel. And when the devil attacks Israel, he’s attacking the church because he’s attacking us. It’s our own family.
Yet much of the Church teaches that God is finished with Israel and then they teach some stuff called “replacement theology” where the church takes all of the promises that are for Israel. All of that is from the devil. That’s for the people that have their eyes poked out in a covenant with a liar, and they can’t see clearly the things of God. We need to see clearly the dangers of God by turning our hearts clearly to Him, our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then get into the word and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us. Ask God to give us eyes to see and ears to hear what He would say. Ask God to help us understand how to walk away from the sin nature and walk in power.
Look what King Saul says in 11:5, “…what troubles you? Why are they weeping? And he told them the word of the messengers that came” Well, because the serpent is come up. Nahash, he’s an Ammonite. And he says he will make a covenant and he won’t kill everybody if we can put out the right eye and put us to shame. What happened? Verse 6, “Then the spirit of God came upon Saul when you heard this news and his anger was greatly aroused” See his righteous indignation? And where did he come from? He didn’t come out from the field. He came from the spirit of God. He came from God coming upon this man who was called to be king.
Because in the Old Testament the spirit of God would come upon men for specific service. Specific offices just like this, and the spirit comes upon him with power and his anger is aroused. Listen, now the Holy Spirit can come upon us.
In Acts 1:8 Jesus told the boys, quit worrying about times and seasons and go about and do my work. Go and make disciples. He said, “but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you to be witnesses for me throughout Jerusalem, Judea and Sumeria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” We are supposed to be witnesses and the enemy is lying. The enemy is poking out the eyes of people. The enemy is attacking the word of God. The enemy is attacking Israel who is the firstborn of God. The firstborn nation. The enemy is attacking everywhere and we should have some indignation and anger about that, and we should allow the Spirit of God to use us and give us uncion so that we would share the truth of the word of God and not sit around and be hiding as the Church of God.
So what does he do? Verse 7. That is strange, but it is something that they would do in those days. “He took the yoke of oxen, cut them into pieces…” That yoke would probably be two “…and sent them throughout the territory of Israel, by the hand of the messengers saying, ‘Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen….’ ” So he is attacking their wealth. He says, “Look, here’s some blood. It’s been spilled. Do you see this? Blood is going to be spilled. “I’m going to come and kill all of your oxen if you don’t rise up and get ready for battle.” Sometimes people ask, “Why do I have nothing? Why can’t I afford anything? Then why don’t I get this? What’s going on?” Listen, if we don’t let the spirit of God come upon us and use us to go out and fight the battles of the Lord, commit our works unto the Lord, then our purse is always going to be empty.
They see the blood. It’s a little bit of indignation, but notice what he does here. There’s kind of a mantle being passed. And he doesn’t just say, “Go out with me,” because he knows some people don’t accept him. But he puts Samuel’s name with it. Do you see that? Samuel is still alive. He’s old. He said, “Samuel is going to be with me. The word of God is going to be with me. God’s going to be with me. I’m going to do it according to the prophet. I’m going to do it according to the word of God.” That’s how the word of God would come back then. They all respected Samuel. Saul says, “I’m going out. I’m leading it ,and Samuel is going to battle with us, and if you do not go, you’re oxen are going to be done just like this. Cut up.”
And what happened? “The fear of the Lord fell on the people and they came out with one consent.” They came out to battle for the Lord. They came out in unity. They said, “Let’s go!” Would you rather have your eye poked out? Listen, if we are going to serve the Lord, we can have eyes to see. We can have discernment. We can have understanding when you have that, you want to shine your light. You don’t want to hide it. We hide when we don’t have understanding. We hide when we don’t have hope. We hide when we don’t know the truth, we hide when we don’t have a voice. We HAVE a voice. It’s King Jesus. His spirit lives in us, and he has given us answers. But the world is telling us to be quiet because they’ve got some new answers, some new lies. It’s the same old lies the devil has been telling.
The serpent doesn’t have anything new. He’s a pretender. He’s a toothless lion. He’s a fake and a fraud. He’s been defeated, and we stand in victory because Christ has already won. Verse 8, “When he numbered Bezek, the children of Israel were 300,000 and the men of Judah were 30,000.” So now he’s got an army of 330,000 men. “They said to the messengers, who came…” Remember Jabesh sent messengers to tell them that they’ve got seven days before they have to give him an answer. He said to the messenger, “… Thus you shall say to the men of Jabesh-gilead, ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot…” Noon. “Meet us at high noon.” Remember the Westerns? “… you shall have the help…”
Look where that help comes from. It comes from the Lord. Our help comes from King Jesus – from the Lord. Why is this going on? Because the Spirit of God came upon someone who was available. The Spirit of God came upon King Saul. Someone who had everything. Yet he ends up giving it all away because he wants to have a name of his own, and he tries to steal God’s glory and God leaves the building. 330,000 men. And they told him, “We’re going to be there when the sun is hot.” “…So the messengers came and reported it to the men of Jabesh and they were glad.” He has made me glad. I will rejoice for he has made me glad. Listen, when you know you have help, when you know help is on the way…. Listen! The Lord is coming soon. Monday is the 70th anniversary for the rebirth or Jerusalem. Israel is a sovereign nation. God prophesied that He would do it. He would spread them for their disobedience, and then he would bring them back. Listen to me. Listen closely. They’re also going to have a celebration where the American embassy is going to be in Jerusalem now.
It’s going to be there, and this is infuriating people. That’s why you see all the movement from the Muslim nations, but the communist Russian nation just wants all the oil. They want the gas. And we see these attacks going on. Exactly like Ezekiel 38 said it would. We’re seeing Ezekiel’s war. This is the war that we should be looking for Jesus. Listen, when you see this, we should know the signs of the time. We should know that He’s coming. This is not the time to lighten up. This is the time to tighten up. Yet everywhere I look, people are like, “Oh yeah, well my car tire has low air.” Are you kidding me? Ezekiel’s war is being fought. The Lord is getting ready to come back. And we’re worried about little simple things instead of serving God and making sure that we have the Spirit of God in us and we’re telling people about the word of God.
I mean seriously! People want hope. This is where their help is coming from. People will let their eyes be poked out as long as they’re comfortable and they got a phone and a TV. Listen to me. I was talking to a guy the other night and he clearly told me he pretty much didn’t really believe in God. “I believe in evolution.” But you don’t know how far that got him? Because he’s got no hope. I began to share the word of God with him. And he didn’t want to stop talking because I was sharing scripture with his conscience, and his conscience knows there’s a God. No matter what, the world is lying to him. No matter how much of his eyes have been poked out. When I shared scripture of what God was doing on the planet, he wanted to talk. And I even said, “Oh wow! We’re going to get in trouble anyway because you probably can’t talk like this at work. ”
And he said, “I can do what I went on my break time.” I was trying to be respectful. And I pray for his salvation even now because you cannot believe in God and evolution. It’s impossible. But the liars want you to do that because they want to poke out one of your eyes of understanding. They don’t want you to come all the way through to the truth and be effective in the Kingdom of God. But that’s what the devil wants you to do and the church to do. Make a covenant with him, and he’ll poke out one of your eyes. There’s really nobody to say, “Listen, there’s a King Jesus who will save. He has saved. All you have to do is believe it and walk in it and trust Him and have a constancy in that faith and know that He loves you with an everlasting love. As you continue to get into the word that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
He continues to strengthen you for the battle so that you can stand and tell others, and let your little light shine. But you’ve got to own it. You can’t be back out in the field when you’ve been anointed one of His children. You need to be in His field. You need to be telling people about His work on the planet. So the people were glad. There’s joy in the Lord. “Therefore the men of Jabesh said, tomorrow we will come out to you. ” This is what their answer came back to the devil. This is what their answer went back to Nahash. I think it’s pronounced “Nay’ quash.” There’s a “q” sound in the Hebrew. But it’s Nahash to us. It means serpent or snake. They’re ready to answer now aren’t they? It must have been the sixth day. Oh my goodness. Should we start talking about the segisigmal system and how we’re going to do 6,000 years, and on the seven thousandth year the Lord’s Millennium Kingdom is going to start? Look at this. This must’ve been the sixth day. It must’ve been the hour we are in right now. He gave you seven days to decide. He gave the world seven days to decide. Oh, my goodness! My brain just went way across the universe with that one. Lord.
“Tomorrow we will come out to you and you may do with us whatever seems good to you.” Ha, ha, ha,ha. I like that. I like that part. “I get to keep my eye. I can see clearly. Now there’s a savior coming. We’ve got help. Here comes an army.” Can you imagine when these guys come back and the messenger says, “Hey, hey, Saul is serious. He’s being king, and he’s got 330,000 men. Don’t tell me stuff. Just tell him we’re going to come out tomorrow and he can do whatever he feels like doing.” Can you see that? He’s not telling them the plans. Why would you tell people your plans? Why do you tell people? You don’t have to tell them. I think of Nehemiah when he’s building the walls. He kept it in his heart and he just went out and lived powerfully for the Lord.
You don’t have to tell people your plans. And they just said, “You know what? This is going to be so cool when our savior who lives comes. Our redeemer comes. This is so cool.” They think they’ve got us. They think they’re going to win. The serpent thinks he’s got us pinned. But he doesn’t know I’m under the blood of Jesus. They didn’t go, “Hey, our king’s coming out. Saul is going to come.” They didn’t. They held their tongue. They just said, you can do whatever you think tomorrow.
See, because that is something that’s important. We just trust the Lord. We just trust our help, our Comforter. We don’t know exactly what God’s going to do tomorrow. But we know He’s going to show up. We know it’s going to be for our good, and we know that we’re going to love it. And He’s always right, and He has already won. “So it was the next day…..” So he didn’t tell him their plans. Just remember that. No good soldier would tell him the plans. We just experienced eight years of a soldier or a liar that told you his plans every time he came to do something, And now we have somebody in the presidency that doesn’t tell any of his clients, and he’s accomplished a lot. And I’m not even going political on you. Because he could be the antichrist as far as I’m concerned, but I’m just going Biblical on you. Live for Jesus. Trust the Lord, and know that you’re soldiers in the army of the living God and go tell people what Jesus has already done and let Him handle what He’s going to do tomorrow to save them.
Verse 11, “So it was the next day, that Saul put the people in three companies and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day, and it happens that those who survived were scattered. So not two of them were left together.” Do you see that? There ain’t no power there. But it was pretty cool that they divided them into three companies. They came in while they were sleeping. They weren’t expecting it. It was out of nowhere. I mean, that’s what Jesus is going to do on the new day. He’s coming. King Jesus is coming. People are not going to expect it. Notice there’s three companies and boom! That’s a good tactic because you got three companies hitting them from three different places, so you’re going to seem bigger. It was probably three companies of 110,000 each because he had 330,000. That’s huge. And it doesn’t say that they came in there and said, “Surrender.” They came in there and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day. They killed the enemy.
Listen, the Lord wants to kill the enemy in your mind. The Lord wants to kill the snake and the serpent. But the only way is when we have eyes for His word. When we have eyes for His Kingdom. When we commit our works unto the Lord our thoughts will be established for us. When we commit completely and trust that He knows what He’s doing tomorrow then He kills the enemy in your life today. What a great victory.
Not even two were standing together. They ran so much that not two of them were not standing together anymore. And that’s exactly it. This divided kingdom will fall. Then the people said to Samuel, listen to what the people say, “Who is he who said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?” Bring the men that we may put them to death.” You hear that? Now they want to put them to death. Those people that were rebels, that were children of the devil, of Belial, they want to kill them. But look what Saul said in verse 13, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has accomplished salvation in Israel.” The deliverance and those governed by God.
Listen to me. When you understand the grace of God and the work of God and the Salvation of God and the deliverance from the sin nature that God has brought about, you will want to go out and tell the children of Belial that there’s hope. That there is a Savior. You want to go out and tell them what you know. You don’t want to kill them. You don’t want to see them dead. You want to them know the Savior whom you know. The hope you know. You want to tell people what you heard and seen about this God that you know. You don’t want to kill them because they rejected the king. And the king doesn’t want to kill us because we once rejected him. He came and laid down his life to save us, and he’s brought a mighty deliverance at the cross with His blood. And that should make us want to go tell others. We do not want to see them die, and when we don’t tell them the gospel, it’s just as if we think, “Ah, let them die.”
Verse 14 and 15, “Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Come…’ ” Here’s the word of God. Samuel the prophet that brings the word of God. “…Come, let us go to Gilgal…” That’s how they did it before and they were divided, “… and renewed the kingdom there. So all the people went to Gilgal and they made Saul King before the Lord in Gilgal. And there they made sacrifices and peace offering before the Lord and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.”
Listen to me. God brings battles to unite us, not to divide us. And when we do it God’s way and understand that He’s on the throne and He’s the one that brings salvation, He’s where our hope is and our help comes from, He’s the one we have a covenant in the blood of Jesus with. He is the new covenant, then when the battle comes, if we stand together, it unites us underneath the king. It doesn’t divide us. The enemy wants to divide us. God wants to unite us.
Who’s your king today? Are you in His kingdom and committing your works? And commit your works? Commit you’re all. Commit your life and everything about you. I don’t care what you’re doing during the day. Just do it to the Lord. Commit it to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. Your ways will be made straight. I guarantee you. If you say, “Lord, I want to renew my commitment today to Your kingdom, and I want to do what You are doing on the planet because I’m a part of Your testament and Your testimony because I’m Your child that ties me with Your spirit.” Fill us afresh and anew and help us to have righteous indignation the way that You did when people tried to make Your father’s house a den of thieves. Because people are trying to steal Your word. They’re trying to steal our inheritance. They’re trying to steal our eyes of understanding, Lord. And we cry out to you and we say, “Lord, make us soldiers that do not entangle ourselves with the affairs of this life that we might please you who called us to be soldiers. And would you say it all in Jesus’ name. – Amen