And Nahash the Ammonite came up and encamped against Jabesh-Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee.
Saul has just become king. His first crisis comes from outside Israel: an Ammonite army camps against a town east of the Jordan, and the townsmen's opening move is not to fight but to bargain.
The attacker's name carries a meaning, and the timing of his invasion matters too.
Nahash the Ammonite besieged Jabesh-gilead. Nahash means "the serpent." This invasion took place before Saul became king. From chapter 12:12 we learn that it was in fact the reason Israel demanded a king. In despair the people of Jabesh-gilead offered to make a covenant with this old enemy of Israel, whom Jephthah had fought so successfully.
The same word also means reading omens, and that shapes what writers see in Ammon.
The Ammonites attack Israel here once more, under their king Nahash, whose name means "divination, augury." … The nations claimed their divination read out a divine answer, though it came through material signs. What it really was shows in the word itself, which is the same as the common word for "serpent." The spirit of all doctrinal heresy, which the Ammonite pictures, is Satanic indeed.
Ammon descended from Lot, Abraham's nephew. Family ties did not soften the attack — writers say they sharpened it.
As for Ammon, the attacking power: he was a descendant of Lot, so by natural descent he was related to the very people he now wanted to overthrow. That tie made no bond of affection at all. It was in fact the cause of a special hatred, as the history will show. … We have learned to dread anything that can claim a kind of kinship with the things of God without truly being His.
Nahash picked this town for a reason. Its past and its very name explain why.
Nahash attacks the weakest part of Israel, not the strongest. Jabesh-gilead sent no soldiers to Israel's war against the tribe of Benjamin, and united Israel destroyed the town without mercy at that time. It had recovered since then, but here it has little strength of faith to resist the enemy. Gilead, "the heap of witness," speaks of memory that should be fruitful… but Jabesh, "dry," often "dried up, withered," speaks of the opposite. Where the truth is not productive — where decline has begun in the soul — the attacks of error succeed most easily.
That old wound may explain why the town dealt with the invader alone.
After that, the men left in Jabesh Gilead must have felt cut off from the rest of the nation. This may be why they were willing to give in to Nahash and hand their city over to him. They may have reasoned: We have no friendship or fellowship with the rest of Israel. Why should we suffer to hold this outpost for the nation? Better to yield to the enemy and be at peace.
The townsmen ask for terms before a blow is struck. What they get back is contempt.
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead offer the enemy an alliance and their own servitude in exchange. Nahash answers the offer with nothing but scorn. That is all we ever gain from weak concessions to the world and from our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh never even think of the deliverer God had just given them. The people had accepted Saul only for the qualities the flesh values: good looks and natural gifts.
Nahash's confidence is itself a verdict on the nation's state.
Nahash the Ammonite seems to have had the deepest contempt for the people of God. He gave the town seven days to look for help, if they could find any. Clearly he thought the nation was powerless. Israel's unfaithfulness had brought them to this in the eyes of their neighbours.
One writer adds a caution. Ammon was not the enemy God had marked out for Israel's king.
But remember: dealing with the Ammonite was not the object God had in view, either for man's king or for God's king. The Philistine was not the Ammonite. In fact the law plainly told Israel to spare the Ammonite and not destroy him. This did not mean the Ammonites could attack the people of God and go unpunished. But bringing the Ammonites under Israel's yoke was not part of God's direct plan.
- Dryness invites attack. Nahash strikes the weakest point — a town whose name means "dry," where "the truth is not productive" and decline had already set in.
- Isolation breeds surrender. Cut off from the nation since the Benjamite war, Jabesh reasoned it was "better to yield to the enemy and be at peace."
- Compromise buys scorn. The offer to serve gains nothing. Nahash answers weak concessions with scorn.
- Kinship is no safeguard. Ammon was Israel's relative by blood, yet that nearness fed the hatred. Dread whatever claims kinship with the things of God without being His.
- The real enemy was elsewhere. God had marked out the Philistine, not the Ammonite, as the king's task. A real victory can still not be the appointed one.
And Nahash the Ammonite said to them, On this [condition] will I treat with you, that I thrust out all your right eyes, and lay it for a reproach upon all Israel.
An invading army surrounds Jabesh-Gilead, and the city offers to surrender and serve. Nahash refuses normal terms and demands every man's right eye — a price aimed at shaming the whole nation, not just the city.
The men of Jabesh try to buy peace by offering to serve.
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead offer to serve the enemy if he will make a treaty with them. Nahash answers this offer with nothing but scorn. That is all we can gain from our weak concessions to the world and from our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh do not even think of the deliverer whom God had just given them.
Commentators find part of the lesson in the names themselves.
Nahash means "serpent" and Ammon means "peoplish." This word "peoplish" reminds us of humanism, which makes everything of man and leaves God out. The "serpent" is its king, so that Ammon stands for those today who are marked by gross Satanic doctrine. They camp against Jabesh-Gilead, a name that means "dry heap of witness." When the witness of believers begins to dry up, Satan finds them open to attack.
Nahash went after the most precious thing his victims had.
The eye is the light of the body. We can rightly call it the "mirror of the soul." And the Bible often describes the right eye as something very precious. The right eye and the right hand are symbols of attitudes and actions, and at the same time of the precious and important things in human life.
Read as a picture, the demand shows what it costs to follow man instead of God.
He must thrust out all their right eyes, and lay it as a reproach against Israel. Read spiritually, it is a reproach indeed, if we understand the right eye as the eye of faith. Reason and faith are in fact the double witness in man. Where the soul is right with God, they agree in one image, like the sight of two eyes. But following man is what all heresy is at heart, and so it must put out the eye of faith. For that eye sees God and not man.
Nahash names his own aim: a reproach on all Israel. Even the week he allowed them to find help shows what he thought of the nation.
Nahash the Ammonite seems to have had the deepest contempt for the people of God. He proposed to put out the right eyes of the people of Jabesh-Gilead and to lay it as a reproach on all Israel. He even gave them seven days to look for help, if they could find any. Clearly he thought the nation was completely powerless. Israel's unfaithfulness had brought them to this in the eyes of their neighbours.
Nahash wanted more than the city. He wanted to expose Israel's boast of being one nation — and it backfired.
The Ammonite intended not only to dominate their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel. He seemed determined to expose their divided condition. It had been their boast that they were one nation with one God... He would prove all of it false. He would show that they were no better than other nations, but worse. So his terms of peace were that every man in the threatened city should lose his right eye. He overreached himself. The Lord would not permit His people to suffer such a reproach, but His way was to unite the people under one leader.
Subduing the city was not enough for him. Commentators see an old pattern in that.
The demands Nahash makes on the men of Jabesh-Gilead are insolent enough to wake any sleeping manhood in them. But even that seems impossible. He is not satisfied with subduing them. He will rob them of their eyesight and lay it as a reproach on the whole nation of Israel. So we see a pride that is not satisfied with a local triumph. It would set itself against the whole body of God's people. And it is just in these ways that Satan overreaches himself. With all his experience and all his cunning, he seems never to have learned to control that malice. After all, malice is the strongest feature of his character.
- Compromise. Jabesh offered to serve in order to buy peace. They forgot the deliverer God had just given them. Scorn is all such weak concessions ever gain.
- Condition. The price was the right eye, which Scripture treats as something most precious. Read spiritually, it is the eye of faith — the sight that looks at God and not at man.
- Reproach. Nahash aimed past the city at the whole nation. He meant to show Israel as divided and powerless — a name their own unfaithfulness had earned.
- Overreach. Pride that is not content with a local win attacks all of God's people, and so defeats itself. Satan's malice is the strongest thing about him, and he has never learned to control it.
- Answer. God would not let that reproach stand, and His remedy for a scattered people was to gather them under one leader.
And the elders of Jabesh said to him, Allow us seven days, and we will send messengers into all the districts of Israel; and if there be no man to deliver us, we will come out to thee.
A besieged town asks its enemy for a week to find a rescuer, and the enemy agrees. Why did Israel look so weak to a foreign king — and why did Jabesh not think of the king God had just given them?
The seven days were a last appeal, not a trick to buy time. These men had little hope left, but they would not give in quietly.
The men of Jabesh seem to have little hope. But they are not ready to accept this loss and disgrace without at least appealing to the one God had pointed out as their leader and deliverer. So they ask for a seven days' respite, and send for help to Saul.
An enemy with any sense of danger would have refused. Nahash granted the delay because he could not imagine anyone coming.
But even the men of Jabesh ask for a seven days' respite, to see whether there is still a deliverer in Israel. In his arrogance Nahash grants it, for he does not dream of any rescue. So the messengers of the hard-pressed city come at once to Gibeah, Saul's city, with the news of these conditions.
He allowed the week to put Israel's weakness on display. That confidence was his mistake.
It appears that Nahash was so confident of himself that he allowed this just to expose the pathetic condition of all Israel. He did not consider the obvious fact that if evil is to gain an advantage it must strike quickly. The Pharisees knew this when they pressed for the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus without delay (Mark 15:11-14).
Nahash's contempt was a verdict on Israel's spiritual state, not just on one town's weakness.
Nahash the Ammonite apparently had the deepest contempt for the people of God. He proposed to put out the right eyes of the people of Jabesh-Gilead, and to lay that as a reproach on all Israel. He then granted them seven days' respite to seek help if they could get it. Clearly he considered the nation completely powerless. Israel's unfaithfulness had reduced them to this condition in the eyes of their neighbours. How good it is to read the contrast in the record of the early Church — "None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem" (Acts 5:13). The clear presence and power of God working among the saints produced this effect.
Their messengers went out to search all Israel, though God had just given them a king. Rossier traces this to how little the nation had accepted Saul.
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead propose an alliance with the enemy in exchange for their servitude. Nahash answers this proposal only with scorn. That is all we can gain from our weak concessions to the world and from our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh do not even think of the deliverer God had just given them. That is because the people had accepted Saul only for the qualities the flesh values: outward beauty and natural gifts.
Commentators read the demand behind these seven days as a picture. To lose the right eye is to lose sight of God.
Spiritually read, it is a reproach indeed, if we take the right eye as the eye of faith. Reason and faith are the double witness in man. Where the soul is right with God, they agree in one image, like the sight of two eyes. But following man — and that is what all heresy is at heart — must put out the eye of faith, for faith sees God and not man.
Jabesh had reason to feel alone, since Israel had nearly wiped the town out long before. Nahash aimed his insult at the whole nation, and that is where it failed.
After that, the men left in Jabesh-Gilead must have felt cut off from the rest of the nation. This may be why they were willing to yield to Nahash and hand their city over to him. But the Ammonite intended not only to dominate their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel. He seemed determined to expose their divided condition... He overreached himself. The Lord would not allow His people to suffer such a reproach, but His way was to unite the people under one leader. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul and the people came out with one consent to deliver their brothers whom they had once almost destroyed.
- Extremity. Jabesh asked for seven days with little hope. The plea came from helplessness, not confidence.
- Contempt. Nahash granted the delay because he saw no rescuer coming. Israel's unfaithfulness had made them look powerless to their neighbours.
- Blindness. They searched all Israel for a deliverer without thinking of the one God had already given them.
- Reproach. Commentators take the right eye as the eye of faith. The enemy aimed to shame the whole people, not just one city.
- Reversal. Nahash overreached. The week he granted became the week God united Israel under one leader and saved them.
And the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told these words in the ears of the people. And all the people lifted up their voice and wept.
Messengers from a besieged town reach Gibeah with news of Nahash's brutal terms, and the whole town bursts into tears. But what were those tears worth? The question is whether Israel's grief over the enemy held any faith in God.
The seven days the men of Jabesh begged for were not a pause but a search.
Even the men of Jabesh ask for seven days' delay. They want to see whether there is still any deliverer in Israel. Nahash is arrogant enough to grant it, for he does not dream of any rescue. So the messengers of the hard-pressed city come at once to Gibeah, Saul's city, with news of these conditions.
The people's response is real feeling, but it stops there. One writer notes what is missing in it, and contrasts the people with the man who came in from the field.
The humiliating story of Nahash's threat produces in the people at least sorrow, and perhaps indignation. But there are no stirrings of faith. There is only a helpless lamenting that such things should be possible. It is different, however, when Saul returns from his labour in the field. He asks the cause of their grief, and they tell him the shameful story. He does not weep. Instead there is the righteous indignation of God by His Spirit against the insolence of the enemy.
Israel had wept like this before. Another writer explains where such tears come from.
What else could you expect from a people who had nothing before their eyes but mighty giants, high walls, and great cities? What but tears and sighs could come from a congregation who saw themselves as grasshoppers in front of such impossible difficulties? They had no sense of the divine power that could carry them through it all in victory. They were thinking about themselves and their difficulties instead of about God and His resources. What else, then, could they do but lift up the voice of weeping and lamentation?
A single city had to send out messengers because Israel no longer acted as one people. Nahash aimed his terms at that division.
Nahash intended not only to dominate their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel. He seemed determined to expose their divided condition. It had been their boast that they were one nation with one God... He would give the lie to it all and show that they were no better, but rather worse, than other nations. He over-reached himself. The Lord would not permit His people to suffer such a reproach, but His way was to unite the people under one leader.
The same writer adds that the men who marched to rescue Jabesh were rescuing "their brothers, whom they had once nearly destroyed."
The siege is also behind Israel's demand for a king. One writer explains what the people were really after.
Yes, the Ammonites had a king. The people saw the Ammonite king lay siege to Jabesh-gilead, and in their unbelief they want a king too — one they could see, who would lead their army. God was their king, true, but He was out of sight, and He made their conduct the condition of His delivering them. This was not at all to their liking. They wanted a protector their eyes could see. They did not have faith, so they could only look at "the things that are seen."
Tears did not raise the army. Even Saul's summons, one writer notes, worked on fear rather than faith.
We see clearly that there is no energy in the people, and the energy in Saul is not of the highest kind. He leans on Samuel, and puts Samuel's name forward, though after his own, to enforce obedience. He appeals to their fear as the most successful argument — and indeed not without cause. In fact it is the fear of the Lord that falls upon the people, so that they come out in a mass.
- Tears — The town weeps, and that is all it does. Sorrow over the enemy is not the same as faith in God.
- Sight — They wanted a king they could see because God was out of sight. Fear of a visible enemy had already produced a visible saviour.
- Division — Nahash aimed his cruelty at the whole nation's good name. It exposed a people too scattered to defend one of its own cities.
- Mercy — God overruled the insult He allowed. The threat meant to shame Israel became the means of uniting them under one leader.
- Power — Not weeping but the fear of the Lord brought Israel out as one. What the people lacked in energy, God supplied.
And behold, Saul came after the oxen from the field; and Saul said, What [aileth] the people that they weep? And they related to him the words of the men of Jabesh.
Israel's new king comes in from the field behind his oxen and finds his town in tears. What he asks, and how he takes the news, says much about Saul — and about a people who wept instead of trusting God.
Nothing here looks royal. The messengers reach Gibeah, and the nation's new king is out with the cattle.
Messengers bring the appeal to Gibeah, which was near Jerusalem, and it made the people weep. Saul, though anointed king, was still busy with his normal work, caring for the herd. The news had an immediate effect on him. The Spirit of God worked in power and stirred him to great anger against the cruelty of the Ammonites.
The whole town is crying. Saul walks in from a day's labour and is the only one who asks a question rather than joining the noise.
After his public recognition, Saul had gone back to the privacy of his daily work, and here the messengers from Jabesh Gilead find him. Nahash's humiliating threat produces at least sorrow in the people, and perhaps anger. But there is no stirring of faith. They can only grieve helplessly that such a thing is possible. It is different when Saul returns from his work in the field. He asks why they are grieving, and they tell him the shameful story. He does not weep. Instead, God by His Spirit works in him a righteous anger against the enemy's insolence.
The messengers reported more than a siege. Nahash had attached a condition to peace.
The Ammonite intended not only to dominate their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel. He seemed determined to expose their divided condition. They had boasted that they were one nation with one God. They had often sung the song of Moses with delight: "Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD?" Nahash would prove it all false. He would show that they were no better than other nations, but worse. So his terms of peace were that every man in the threatened city should lose his right eye. He overreached himself. The LORD would not allow His people to suffer such a reproach, but His way was to unite the people under one leader.
Ridout sees more in that demand than cruelty:
Nahash's challenge, then, is that faith must be sacrificed. Wherever faith is forced to close its eyes, it is a shame on the people of God throughout the world.
The men of Jabesh had a king, newly anointed. Yet their first move was to bargain with the enemy.
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead offer the enemy an alliance in exchange for slavery. Nahash answers this offer only with scorn — that is all we can gain from our weak concessions to the world and from our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh do not even think of the deliverer God had just given them. This is because the people had accepted Saul only for the qualities the flesh values: good looks and natural gifts.
Saul's anger is real, and the Spirit of God is behind it. Rossier warns what that power does not prove.
"And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled" (v. 6). This is a very serious thing to weigh. Without a work in the conscience, the Spirit of God, acting in power, does not save a man. Under the Spirit's influence Saul had "another heart" and was "turned into another man." Later he is rebuked, when the true depths of his natural heart come out. All these natural qualities, and even the gift of prophecy given by the Spirit of God, did not make him a man of God!
Saul rose to this crisis. Kelly asks whether Ammon was the enemy God had in view.
When the Ammonite comes up and camps against Jabesh-gilead, Saul was equal to the occasion... But remember that dealing with the Ammonite was not the object before God, either for man's king or God's king. The Philistine was not the Ammonite. Under the law the Ammonite was expressly to be spared, not destroyed. This did not mean the Ammonites could attack the people of God and go unpunished. But putting the Ammonites under Israel's yoke was not part of God's direct plan.
- Field. The anointed king is still behind his oxen; the crown had not pulled him from ordinary work.
- News. Nahash aimed past one town at the whole nation. He meant to shame a people who called the LORD their Saviour.
- Tears. The people wept without faith; not one of them thought of the deliverer God had just provided.
- Spirit. The Spirit's power fell on Saul and stirred real anger at the enemy. But power on a man is not the same as work in his conscience.
- Test. He met the Ammonite and won. The Philistine, the enemy God raised him up to face, was still ahead.
And the Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard those words, and his anger was kindled greatly.
Messengers find Israel's new king behind his oxen, with news that a town across the Jordan can only surrender on cruel terms. The verse credits Saul's answer to the Spirit of God, not to his temper — how can the Spirit come on a man who ends as Saul ends?
Jabesh-gilead had tried to buy peace. The town offered to serve Nahash the Ammonite and got only contempt back. One writer sees what that bargain reveals:
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead offer the enemy an alliance: they will become his servants. Nahash answers the offer with nothing but scorn. That is all we ever gain by weak concessions to the world and by our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh do not even think of the deliverer God had just given them.
The people who heard the news wept. Saul did not, and one writer explains why:
The humiliating news of Nahash's threat leaves the people sorrowful, and perhaps angry, but faith does not stir at all. They only wail helplessly that such things can happen. It is different when Saul comes back from his work in the field. He asks why they are grieving, and they tell him the shameful story. He does not weep. What rises in him is the righteous indignation of God, by His Spirit, against the insolence of the enemy.
This was no passing mood. One writer takes the verse as a sample case of the Spirit at work:
I have selected this passage as one of many showing the work of the Spirit in leading to definite action. Throughout the book of Judges it happens often, when God was about to deliver His people... But there can be no question that the Spirit made use of king Saul to conquer the enemies of the Lord. Who are the mightiest foes when the Spirit of God takes hold of one?
The same writer finds no proof that Saul was ever converted. Saul had huge opportunity. Yet he turned from God, hunted God's servant, consulted a medium, and died by his own hand. Another writer states the principle behind that end:
This is a very serious thing to consider: without a work of the conscience, the Spirit of God, acting in power, does not save man. Under the Spirit's influence Saul had "another heart" and was "turned into another man." Yet he is later rebuked, when he shows the true depths of his natural heart. All these natural qualities, and even the gift of prophecy given by the Spirit of God, did not make him a man of God!
The ESV says the Spirit "rushed upon" Saul; older translations read "came upon," which is the wording the writer below weighs. This was not the first such visit:
In the next chapter the Holy Spirit visits Saul again... Old Testament Scripture never suggests the thought of the Holy Spirit staying. It was only His coming upon a man in the character of power, and especially with a view to prophesying. God, as sovereign, used any mouth He liked. That only made the history and the eternal future of those men more terrible. They came so near the channel of grace: God's Holy Spirit came upon them, they were His mouthpiece, and yet they missed the real knowledge of God's heart, His grace, His love, and His nature.
The people had brought this trouble on themselves. That is what makes the rescue striking:
But God is always merciful to His own, whatever sorrows and tangles we bring on ourselves by our folly. So the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and the call went out to all Israel to come out after Saul and Samuel. God granted so complete a victory that those who survived scattered, and no two of them were left together. Oh, the goodness of our faithful God! Whatever the fickleness and evil of His people, He never forgets them in their hour of need.
- Crisis — Jabesh bargained with the enemy and forgot the deliverer God had just given them. Weak concessions win only scorn.
- Coming — the Spirit came upon Saul, and the Old Testament never speaks of the Spirit staying, only of His coming in power.
- Contrast — everyone around him wept, while his kindled anger was the righteous indignation of God against the enemy's insolence.
- Conquest — the Spirit leads to definite action. God used Saul to defeat the Ammonites and rescue a people who had brought the trouble on themselves.
- Caution — power on a man is not salvation in him. Without a work of conscience, even prophecy and a changed heart left Saul short of being a man of God.
And he took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent throughout the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers, saying, Whoever comes not forth after Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen! And the fear of Jehovah fell on the people, and they came out as one man.
Israel's new king is at work behind his oxen when news comes that the city of Jabesh-Gilead is under attack. He cuts up his plough-team, sends the pieces through every tribe with a threat, and the whole nation turns out at once.
Saul acts here under the Spirit of God. Writers warn against reading that power as proof that Saul himself was saved.
"The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled" (v. 6). This is very serious to consider. The Spirit of God may act in power, and still not save a man where there has been no work of the conscience. Under the influence of the Spirit, Saul had "another heart" and was "turned into another man." Later he comes under rebuke, when he shows the true depths of his natural heart. All these natural qualities, and even the gift of prophecy that the Spirit of God gave him, have not made him a man of God!
The message Saul attaches to the oxen is not an appeal. It warns each man what will happen to his own oxen if he stays home. Writers see a weakness in that choice of method.
The threat against the people, with its bloody message in the oxen cut in pieces, does not have the dignity of faith, and faith alone endures. Threats may produce faithfulness for a while, and courage in fits and starts. But only the inward abiding brings lasting results for God. We also see that Saul is still leaning on an arm other than God's — even though it is the arm of Samuel, the Lord's faithful servant.
The tool Saul cut up carries its own weight in Scripture — slavery at one end, the yoke Jesus offers at the other.
A yoke is the harness that fastens an animal to a cart or plough. It is also the beam that joins two animals together for work of any kind. The word can even stand for the number two, as in "a yoke of oxen." 1 Sam. 11:7. It is used as a symbol of servitude and slavery… The Lord Jesus invites the believer to take His yoke and to learn from Him. That means giving up self-will, submitting to the will of God, and being content with the lowest place. Those who do will find rest for their souls. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. Matt. 11:29-30.
The verse credits the turnout not to Saul's threat but to something that fell on the people. The place where they gathered has a telling name too.
He leans on Samuel, and puts Samuel's name forward, though after his own, to enforce obedience. He appeals to their fear as the most successful argument, and not without cause. In fact it is the fear of Jehovah that falls on the people, so that they all come out together. They gather (significantly) in Bezek, the place of the "fetter" — under constraint, not willingly.
The people did come out as one — "with one consent," in the older wording one writer uses. He weighs what drove them against what draws God's people together now.
God used this, however, as the fear of the Lord fell on the people, so that they responded well. This was of course working by fear, the usual method that man in the flesh uses in such cases. How much higher is the character of Christianity: "faith… working through love" (Galatians 5:6). Still, the people came out "with one consent." In Acts we read similar words many times, "with one accord." But there the saints of God moved by the powerful energy of love toward the name of the Lord Jesus.
The people moved under pressure, and their king ruled by threat. The last word in the story still belongs to God's mercy.
But God is always merciful to His own, whatever sorrows and troubles our folly brings on us. So the Spirit of God came upon Saul, and the call went out to all Israel to go "after Saul and Samuel." God granted such a complete victory that the survivors scattered, and no two of them were left together. Oh, the goodness of our faithful God! However fickle and evil His people are, He never forgets them in their hour of need!
- Power — The Spirit came on Saul in force. But power without a work of the conscience does not save, and Saul later showed the real depths of his natural heart.
- Pressure — He gathered the people by threat, not by faith. Threats buy courage in fits and starts, never the inward abiding that lasts.
- Fetter — They mustered at Bezek, a name meaning "fetter": a nation on the march under constraint, not by choice.
- Fear — The people came because the fear of the LORD fell on them. That is fear at work; the higher way of Christianity is faith working through love.
- Faithfulness — God still granted a complete victory. He never forgets His people in their hour of need, however foolish they have been.
And he numbered them in Bezek, and the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
Saul had cut up his oxen and sent the pieces through Israel as a threat. The tribes came, he counted them at Bezek, and the totals raise two questions: what moved this crowd to come, and why the record counts Judah on its own.
Bezek is known mainly as the place of this count. Its exact site is uncertain.
The place where Saul numbered the army before he killed the Ammonites. It was apparently near the centre of Palestine.
One writer reads the name of the place as a comment on the mood of the men who came.
We see clearly that there is no energy in the people, and the energy in Saul is not of the highest kind. He leans on Samuel, and puts Samuel's name forward, though after his own, to enforce obedience. He appeals to their fear as the most successful argument, and indeed not without cause. In fact it is the fear of Jehovah that falls upon the people, so that they all come out together. They gather (significantly) in Bezek, the place of the "fetter" — under constraint, not willingly.
One writer weighs Saul's method against the result. He finds the motive thin, and yet something in it that God accepts.
The threat against the people, carried by the bloody message of the oxen cut in pieces, does not have the dignity of faith. Faith alone endures. Threats may stir up faithfulness for a time, and sudden bursts of courage. Only an inward abiding can produce lasting results for God. Yet there is real earnestness for the moment, and a true purpose to deliver Israel. God recognizes this, as He always does, in whatever measure He can, when there is a turning to Himself.
Whatever brought them, they came quickly and in huge numbers.
In a very short time a formidable army of three hundred and thirty thousand comes together. Word goes to Jabesh-Gilead that they will have help on the third day. Considering a distance of over fifty miles, this was very quick work. The army must have left before evening. It marched overnight to arrive by the morning watch.
Judah's share of that army was small for the size of the tribe. One writer traces that coolness back to an old promise about who should hold the throne.
The tribe of Judah seems never to have been very keen about the raising of Saul to the throne. In the campaign against the Ammonites to relieve Jabesh-gilead, Judah supplied only 30,000 troops, while the other tribes sent 300,000. That is a very marked gap, when you remember how many men Judah had compared with the rest of Israel. Perhaps they remembered the dying prophecy of their father Jacob, who said the sceptre would not depart from Judah. So they would not have much confidence that the power of this Saul of Benjamin would last.
The Ammonite enemy aimed at more than one city. He wanted to shame the whole nation, and the gathered army answers him.
The Ammonite intended not only to dominate their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel. He seemed determined to expose their divided condition. It had been their boast that they were one nation with one God. He meant to prove that boast false and show that they were no better, and in fact worse, than other nations. So his terms of peace were that every man in the threatened city should lose his right eye. He overreached himself. The Lord would not allow His people to suffer such a reproach, but His way was to unite the people under one leader.
This army went on to beat the Ammonites. Yet that victory is not the test that will show what Saul is.
The Ammonites are only an incident in the history here. They do not give character to the condition of things in Israel, and they do not test the king of their choice. We shall see in a little while what does test him, and then how completely Saul fails. Take the spiritual meaning. Rescuing the people of God from false teaching, however necessary, does not put them right with God. That needs far more than correct doctrine, even doctrine of the strictest kind.
- Fetter — they met at Bezek, the place of the "fetter," under constraint, not out of eagerness for the battle.
- Fear — a threat can raise an army for a day, but only faith holds hearts for a lifetime.
- Numbers — 330,000 raised in a very short time, then a fifty-mile night march, because God's way was to unite the people under one leader.
- Judah apart — Judah sent only 30,000, a tribe still waiting for the sceptre promised to it, not to Benjamin.
- Limit — Israel beat the Ammonites and stood united, yet beating an outside enemy never settles what a king, or a people, really is before God.
And they said to the messengers that had come, Thus shall ye say to the men of Jabesh-Gilead To-morrow ye shall have deliverance when the sun is hot. And the messengers came and informed the men of Jabesh-Gilead; and they were glad.
A city under siege had already offered to serve its enemy, and Nahash set terms meant to shame the whole nation. Then a different word came back — help by the time the sun is hot — and it raises two questions: what power stood behind that promise, and why did so complete a rescue settle nothing?
Before any promise reached them, the men of Jabesh-gilead had tried to buy peace. They offered to serve Nahash. One writer sees in that offer what weak concessions earn, and what a lack of faith overlooks:
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead propose a deal with the enemy: they will serve him. Nahash answers this offer only with scorn. That is all we ever gain from our weak concessions to the world and from our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh do not even think of the deliverer whom God had just given them.
The promise was not vague. It named an hour. Keeping it meant a long march in the dark, while the glad city hid its news from the enemy:
In a very short time a huge army of three hundred and thirty thousand gathers, and word goes to Jabesh-Gilead that they will have help on the third day. The distance was over fifty miles, so this was very quick work. The army must have left before evening and marched overnight to arrive there by the time of the morning watch. The men of Jabesh-Gilead, however, gave the Ammonites no hint that help was coming. Instead they told them they would surrender the next day.
Saul's promise rested on an army that fear had gathered. One writer reads even the meeting place as a sign of how they came:
We see clearly that there is no energy in the people, and the energy in Saul is not of the highest kind. He leans on Samuel and puts Samuel's name forward, after his own, to enforce obedience. He appeals to their fear as the argument most likely to work, and not without cause. In fact it is the fear of the Lord that falls on the people, so that they come out in a mass. They gather (and this is telling) at Bezek, the place of the "shackle" — under constraint, not willingly. And Saul sends word to the men of Jabesh that they will have help.
The method worked. One writer sets it beside a higher motive:
This was of course working by fear, the usual method that man in the flesh uses in such cases. How much higher is the character of Christianity: "faith... working through love" (Galatians 5:6). However, the people came out "with one consent." In Acts we read similar expressions many times, "with one accord" and so on. But the saints of God then were moved by the powerful energy of love for the name of the Lord Jesus.
The message promised salvation by the hour the sun grows hot. One writer notes when the fighting ended, and whose strength stood behind it:
The victory was complete by the heat of the day. It is important to remember that it was God who had moved Saul and kept him going, and God who enabled him to win this victory. So He showed that He was willing to back Saul up fully, if Saul would obey Him.
Saul said the same afterwards. He spared the men who had despised him, because that day the Lord had worked salvation in Israel (William Kelly).
Nahash aimed his terms past Jabesh at the whole nation. He got the opposite of what he intended:
The Ammonite intended not only to dominate their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel. He seemed determined to expose their divided condition... He overreached himself. The Lord would not permit His people to suffer such a reproach, and His way was to unite the people under one leader... Nahash learned to his sorrow that the unity of Israel he had mocked was real after all, once God moved among the people.
The rescue was real, and it still left the deeper question open. One writer points out that Ammon was not what God had in view:
But then you must remember that dealing with the Ammonite was not the object before God, either by man's king or God's king. The Philistine was not the Ammonite.
- Compromise — Jabesh offered to serve the enemy and got only scorn. They forgot the deliverer God had just given them.
- Promise — the word carried back named the hour, and it cost an overnight march of more than fifty miles to keep it.
- Power — the people came out with one consent, but fear drove them. Love is the higher motive.
- Salvation — God moved and sustained Saul, the victory was complete by the heat of the day, and Saul gave God the credit.
- Limit — God lifted the reproach from Israel, but dealing with Ammon was never His object. The Philistine was another matter.
And the men of Jabesh said, To-morrow we will come out to you, and ye may do with us according to all that is good in your sight.
Nahash the Ammonite has surrounded the city of Jabesh-gilead. Word has just come back that help is on the way. So when the men of Jabesh promise to give themselves up the next day, they speak like a beaten city — while an army marches through the night to reach them.
The promise of rescue had reached the city, yet Jabesh told the enemy outside the walls nothing about it. Their words of surrender kept Nahash where he was.
But the men of Jabesh-Gilead gave the Ammonites no hint that help was coming. Instead they told them they would surrender the next day. The Ammonites were so sure of themselves that they saw no need for spies to warn them of an Israelite attack.
These are not the first words of submission from Jabesh. Their opening move in the siege was to buy peace by offering themselves as servants.
To avoid a fight, the men of Jabesh-Gilead offer the enemy an alliance and agree to serve him. Nahash answers their offer with nothing but scorn. That is all we ever gain by giving weak ground to the world and by our lack of faith! The men of Jabesh never even think of the deliverer God had just given them.
Nahash's terms were the right eye of every man in the city. Commentators read that eye as faith — the way God's people learn truth that reasoning alone cannot reach.
To accept Satan's teaching, a man must in effect have his right eye torn out. If we want to make a treaty with the Ammonite world, they will demand that we do away with faith as the way we learn the truth. Satan knows well that this comes to rejecting God Himself. The followers of this evil may talk freely about God, yet all the while they mean someone other than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Another writer widens the loss beyond Jabesh:
Wherever faith is forced to close its eyes, it brings shame on God's people all over the world.
Their readiness to hand the city over has a history behind it. Jabesh-gilead once stayed out of a national crisis, and Israel punished the city hard for it.
All Israel, "from Dan to Beersheba, including the land of Gilead", was stirred to anger at the terrible evil that had broken out in Benjamin. The city of Jabesh Gilead alone stayed indifferent and neutral… Their conduct was bad and called for condemnation. But there are degrees of guilt, and so there are degrees of punishment. We feel that less drastic measures would have met the case and brought happier and more godly results.
That history shaped the reasoning behind their offer to Nahash:
They may have reasoned like this: we have no friendship and no fellowship with the rest of Israel, so why should we suffer trying to hold this outpost for the nation? Better to give in to the enemy and have peace.
Nahash wanted more than a captured town.
The Ammonite meant not only to rule their city but to lay a reproach on all Israel… They had boasted that they were one nation with one God, so his terms of peace were that every man in the threatened city should lose his right eye. He overreached himself. The Lord would not let His people suffer such a reproach. His way was to unite the people under one leader… Nahash learned to his sorrow that the unity of Israel he had mocked was real after all, once God moved among the people.
Jabesh had drifted into this danger by its own choices, and the rescue came anyway.
But God is always merciful to His own, whatever sorrows and tangles we bring on ourselves by our folly… Oh, the goodness of our faithful God! However changeable and evil His people are, He never forgets them in their hour of need.
- Surrender offered. Jabesh tried to avoid a fight by offering to serve Nahash. The enemy answered with nothing but scorn.
- Surrender priced. His terms were the right eye — read as the loss of faith, the one means by which God's people see what reasoning misses.
- Surrender explained. Cut off from the rest of Israel since an old national crisis, they judged that peace with the enemy beat holding an outpost alone.
- Surrender exploited. Nahash aimed his insult past the city at the whole nation. That overreach brought God in to unite Israel under one leader.
- Surrender unneeded. Help was already on the road; God was merciful to people who had walked into the trouble themselves.
And it came to pass the next day that Saul set the people in three companies; and they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch, and smote Ammon until the heat of the day and it came to pass that they who remained were scattered, and not two of them were left together.
Saul's rescue of the town of Jabesh-gilead is his first act as king, and it looks flawless: fast, bold, and complete. Yet commentators ask more of it — who really won this battle, and were the Ammonites the enemy God sent Saul to fight?
One writer works out the timing behind the sudden dawn attack:
In a very short time an army of 330,000 gathers, and word goes to Jabesh-Gilead that help will come on the third day. Considering a distance of over fifty miles, this was remarkably quick work. The army must have left before evening and marched overnight to arrive there by the time of the morning watch. But the men of Jabesh-Gilead gave the Ammonites no hint that help was coming. Instead they told them they would surrender the next day.
The "morning watch" is not a vague word for early. It names a fixed block of the night:
From 2 A.M. till sunrise. 1 Sam. 11:11.
One writer finds real skill in how Saul set up the attack:
Saul shows skill and wisdom in disposing his army in three companies. He does not rush, which is a good sign. Rising early, before daylight, shows a fixed purpose and care in taking the first step. That always points to victory ahead.
But the same writer warns against reading the Spirit's power on Saul as proof of a changed heart:
Notice first that the Spirit of God may come on someone in whom He has never done a saving work. The Old Testament gives examples of this, notably Balaam, who spoke God's whole mind about Israel while he himself was willing to curse them, and later plotted their downfall. So we must not think the Spirit who moved Saul was more than an outward power. The Spirit of God placed it on him because of his official position.
The writers trace the win past Saul to God. One calls it a public seal on the new king, and notes what the day did not include:
God puts His seal on Saul by this victory. The Spirit of God had come on him, and the fear of Jehovah fell on the people, so his message took hold: 330,000 men come at his call. But in all this there was no test of obedience. Saul was only clay in the hand of the Potter. On this, as on other occasions when the Spirit came on him, he was turned into another man. Yet this remarkable first victory showed how God would be with him if he were obedient.
Another writer sees this rescue as mercy to people who brought the crisis on themselves:
But God is always merciful to His own, whatever sorrows and complications we may bring on ourselves by our folly... Oh, the goodness of our faithful God, who, whatever the fickleness and evil of His people, never forgets them in their hour of need!
The survivors could not even regroup in pairs. What Saul did next matters as much as the rout:
As yet all goes well with Saul; he does not take vengeance on those who oppose him... Here also Saul acts with prudence and generosity. He refuses to let the people carry out their desire for vengeance. He acknowledges the Lord for the blessing given to the people. In truth God was with them. He gave the flesh every means and help needed for walking with Him, if such a thing had been possible.
The Ammonites were not the enemy God raised Saul up to fight:
But remember: dealing with the Ammonite was not what God had in view, whether by man's king or God's king. The Philistine was not the Ammonite. In fact the law expressly exempted the Ammonite from destruction and spared him. This did not mean the Ammonites could attack God's people and go unpunished. But God's direct plan never included putting Ammon under Israel's rule.
Another writer turns that gap into a warning for us:
We may do much, and on a large scale, and still not do our first works, or the work God has called us to. Look at Saul. God raised him up to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines (1 Sam. 9:16). He slaughtered Ammon, "so that no two of them were left together" (1 Sam. 11:11); yet he failed at what God had set him to do.
- God moved. The march, the dawn attack and the rout all trace back to the Spirit coming on Saul. The victory showed how God would stand behind him if he obeyed.
- God gave. Israel's danger came from their own folly. God rescued them anyway, because He never forgets His people in their hour of need.
- God spared. The rout left no two Ammonites together, yet Saul killed none of his critics at home. He used the win with generosity, not revenge.
- God waited. This day tested nothing in Saul. He was clay in the Potter's hand, and the Spirit's power on him came with the office, not with a changed heart.
- God assigned. God raised Saul up against the Philistines, and Saul crushed Ammon instead. Great success in the wrong battle is still failure.