The Rise of Saul

For those of you who don’t know, my name is Josh and I’m one of the members of this church. And today, I get to serve you by preaching through this next section of 1 Samuel. If you haven’t been with us for the past few weeks, we’ve been tracking the story of a man named Saul (chs. 9-10).

Saul was just a tall, good-looking farmer’s kid in ancient Israel who looked after his dad’s cattle, but God chose him out of the tribe of Benjamin to be king over all of Israel. This was a very unlikely choice for many reasons, but this was God’s way of giving Israel over to their desire to become like the other nations. In rejecting YHWH as the king who delivered them from their enemies, God gives them a clueless nobody to lead them in their battles.

And it’s no surprise that—even after Samuel, the current judge of Israel, publicly crowned Saul as king of Israel at the end of chapter 10—some people still doubted and criticized Saul: “But some worthless fellows said, ‘How can this man save us?’ And they despised him and brought him no present” (10:27).

It’s as if they were saying, “Who does this farm kid think he is?” Imagine a 30-something farmer’s kid from the Prairies with zero background in politics suddenly being elected as Prime Minister of Canada—I imagine our responses wouldn’t be too far off from these skeptical Israelites.

So verse 27 is the cliffhanger question that leaves us in anticipation: Will Saul rise up to the challenge and prove his doubters wrong? (Notice that Saul holds his peace in the face of criticism, which is an admirable trait.) But will Saul eventually show these worthless men his worth as king and that he can actually save Israel from their enemies?

These are exactly the questions that the author wants us to be asking as we turn to the next chapter, which begins by introducing one of Israel’s enemies.

Nahash: The Serpent King (11:1-4)

“Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead” (11:1a).

At this point in the Bible, the Ammonites being an enemy of Israel is not a surprise—but Nahash (likely their king at the time) is a new character who’s worth noting. This is one of those times when the original language of the Bible is really helpful because we can easily miss the connection in our English translations. In Hebrew, Nahash literally means “serpent.”

And as the biblical authors typically do, this is meant to remind us of the last time we heard about a serpent being hostile against God’s people. The last time was in Egypt, when Pharaoh’s magicians used serpents to oppose Moses (Ex. 7:11-12). But the root of this hostility traces back to the first time we hear about a serpent opposing God’s people in Genesis 3, when God pronounces that there will be enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).

So, whenever we hear about the seed of the woman (namely, Israel in 1 Samuel 11) being opposed by anyone throughout the Bible, it is important to connect it back to the conflict in Genesis 3. Meaning, Nahash—the “serpent” king—is a seed of the serpent (along with the Ammonites).

Geographically, it also makes sense as to why Nahash and the Ammonites would attack Jabesh-gilead, since Ammon was located east of Israel and the Jordan River, and Jabesh-gilead was just northwest of Ammon. So Jabesh-gilead was simply exposed to the Ammonites’ western attack towards Israel. And the rest of verse 1 tells us that Jabesh-gilead was waving the white flag.

“And all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, ‘Make a treaty [or cut a covenant] with us, and we will serve you” (11:1b).

Now, cutting a covenant was a common practice in the ancient near East, where an animal is cut in half and those who make a covenant walk down the middle as a symbol of what will happen to anyone who breaks that covenant (we see this in Genesis 15 with God’s covenant with Abram). And Nahash himself was familiar with this practice.

“But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, ‘On this condition I will make a treaty [or cut a covenant] with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel’” (11:2).

Not exactly the result that you want to see (pun intended) coming out of a diplomatic discussion with your invader… especially at the point of surrendering as slaves. Essentially, Nahash says: “I’ll cut a covenant with you, sure. But instead of cutting an animal in half, I’ll cut half of your eyes.”

Now, there’s some historical evidence that this was an already ongoing conquest and that Nahash had already conquered and cut out the right eyes of surrounding nations—including some of the Israelite tribes south of Jabesh-gilead. Likely, some of these Israelites escaped north, which explains the northern Ammonite attack towards Jabesh-gilead.

So when Nahash says that he wants bring disgrace on all Israel, he’s saying that he’s on a mission to make one-eyed Israelite slaves everywhere—starting with these Israelite tribes east of the Jordan. Not only to make his mark on all of Israel, but also to keep them permanently disabled in case they fight back one day (since their left eyes would be covered by the shield in battle).

So, in seeing clearly the potential outcome, “The elders of Jabesh said to [Nahash], “Give us seven days' respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you’” (11:3).

Now, either these Jabesh-gileadites were in panic mode and pulling out their last card—or they were clever diplomats who knew what they were dealing and weren’t even batting an eye. Essentially, they say to Nahash: “You want to make your mark on all of Israel? Then give us a few days to talk to all of Israel and see if we can find a saviour. If not, then we’ll be your slaves.”

Did the Jabesh-gileadites not know that they actually have a saviour? Did they not know that Israel just crowned a king who will fight their battles? Their lack of knowledge here tells us that these territories of Israel were doing their own thing apart from the whole of Israel.

It’s as if the elders of these Israelite communities were acting like disconnected mayors of self-sustaining cities as opposed to MPs who meet at Parliament Hill to represent their ridings on a federal or national level.

But we need to remember that this event happened during the era of the judges, when “there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Jdg. 21:25). Each territory did their own thing. And even though Saul was publicly crowned at Mizpah, not all of Israel knew because of how these loose Israelite tribes were functioning.

In fact, Judges 21 was the last time that a “national” assembly of Israel happened at Mizpah, to which Jabesh-gilead did not show up—resulting in bad blood (Jdg. 21:1-12). Jabesh-gilead specifically didn’t want anything to do with the rest of Israel (it’s as if Jabesh-gilead was the Quebec of Israel). Israel was more of a confederation than a nation at this point.

So keep in mind that these events in 1 Samuel 11 are happening during the transition point between the judges of Israel and the kings of Israel. And this is why Jabesh-gilead asked Nahash for a 7-day pause—because they needed that much time just to ask for help throughout all of Israel! It probably took a few days before the message got to Gibeah where Saul was (scholars say it’s about 65 kms away, so that’s like walking from Nipawin to Smeaton).

“When the messengers [finally] came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud” (11:4).

And what’s crazy about this is that obviously Nahash agreed to the 7-day pause! I’m sure he knew that the daily news of his one-eyed conquests would do what verse 4 describes—strike fear upon all of Israel. But did Nahash just have a massive ego in maybe thinking that there was no one in all of Israel who could match up to him? Or did he think that somehow this approach could bring even more “disgrace on all Israel” after he defeats their saviour?

Yet, this is also a pattern that we see a few chapters later when another nation’s champion, Goliath, taunts Israel and gives them time to send out a champion to fight on behalf of their nation—in which the victor’s nation would capture the defeated nation as slaves (1 Sam. 17:8-10). So this “battle of the champions” between battling nations was not a new pattern in those days.

But what’s ironic in chapter 11 is that Nahash’s over-confidence with the 7-day postponement and certainty in blinding all of Israel would turn out to be his own major blindspot—he could not see or envision the threat of Israel’s Saviour, the Lord of hosts, who would use an ordinary Hebrew farm kid named Saul to be the saviour and king who delivers Israel from their enemies. And this is exactly what we see in the next few verses.

Saul: The Saviour King (11:5-15)

“Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen” (11:5a).

Notice that Saul, even though he was crowned king, was still living like a regular citizen and working his normal day job as a farmer. Has it still not clicked yet for Saul? No wonder why people doubted him. To be fair, he has zero knowledge or background in royalty (even Israel for that matter).

Yet, Saul came short of doing what his hands needed to do in chapter 10, which was to save Israel from their enemies—and not even the Ammonites, but the Philistines (1 Sam. 9:16). Had he defeated the garrison of the Philistines that was right in his hometown (1 Sam. 10:5), the people of Israel would’ve recognized him as king sooner.

Yet, God gives Saul a second chance by giving him a lower-hanging fruit to grab a hold of—the eastern threat of the Ammonites—which is evidenced by the fact that the Spirit of God rushes upon him a second time.

“And Saul said, ‘What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?’ So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled” (11:5b-6).

Was Saul just curious? Or was he genuinely concerned about the people? Either way, once he heard about Nahash’s threat to cut out the eyes of all Israel, the Spirit of God rushes upon Saul—in the same way that the Spirit of God rushed upon him before he prophesied in chapter 10 (1 Sam. 10:6, 10).

Now, the Spirit of God rushing upon individuals in the Old Testament was a temporary empowerment for a specific purpose as opposed to the permanent, indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in the New Covenant (important distinction here). And usually, this divine experience was empowering an individual to accomplish a divine purpose that they couldn’t otherwise achieve unless the Spirit of God rushes upon them.

We see this throughout the book of Judges when men were empowered for the purpose of delivering God’s people from their enemies. So, note that the era of the judges is transitioning out as the Spirit of God now begins to empower kings to deliver Israel from their enemies (as David will experience in chapter 16 after the Spirit of God departs from Saul).

And in 1 Samuel, we see that this divine purpose was for Saul to “be turned into another man” (10:6). He who once was a farmer will become a saviour and king. He will go from leading oxen in the fields to leading men in the battlefield.

But what’s interesting is that the first act of “new Saul”—who just had the Spirit of God rush upon him—was being angry. Does that check out? Someone having the Spirit of God and being angry at the same time? Yet, notice that Saul responds in anger upon hearing the threat of Nahash to his people. Saul was concerned about his people and was angry about the fact that innocent and vulnerable civilians were getting threatened.

In our day, think about the increased rates of abortion and human trafficking happening around the world (as we speak). Innocent lives are being taken without remorse, and the vulnerable are being taken advantage of (and some Christians dare to even enjoy watching this on their screens)—these are things worth being angry about (thankful for Christian organizations that focus their missional efforts into stopping these atrocities).

Ephesians 4:26 tells us, “Be angry and do not sin.” This is possible, but very difficult, to apply. Sometimes, we can be angry at the right things (like sin or injustice) but still respond the wrong way—which usually involves sin. But notice how Saul gets angry about the right things and responds rightly—by taking initiative in doing something to protect the innocent and vulnerable.

Saul responds by taking out his anger on innocent oxen (just kidding). But he does hack his oxen into pieces to send a message to all of Israel that Nahash’s threats are unacceptable, in hopes of uniting Israel together against the Ammonites.

“He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of messengers” (11:7a).

Again, the author really wants us to connect the dots with the book of Judges. Saul cuts up the oxen in pieces and “sent them throughout all the territory of Israel,” in the same way that the Levite in Judges 19 cut up his concubine into pieces and “sent her throughout all the territory of Israel” (Jdg. 19:29).

And the interesting connection here is that the cutting up of the concubine in Judges 19 and Saul’s cutting up of the oxen here both happened at Gibeah—which clues us in on the fact that Saul was likely aware of what happened in his hometown years ago and is intentionally trying to send a similar message to all of Israel.

“‘Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!’ Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand” (11:7b-8).

Message sent, message received. In Judges 19, the Levite’s message with the cut-up concubine summoned a civil war between Israelite tribes that resulted in the destruction of Jabesh-gilead (Jdg. 21:8-11). This time, in 1 Samuel 11, Saul’s message with the cut-up oxen summons all of Israel’s tribes together as one man against an enemy nation in order to rescue Jabesh-gilead!

What’s significant about this? These loose tribes of Israel who have existed and functioned apart from each other are now coming together as one nation under the kingship of Saul. Though Saul had to include Samuel’s name in the message to authenticate it (since some people didn’t recognize him as king yet), this was the beginning of the transition from the last judge to the first king who will save Israel from their enemies.

“And they [Saul and all of Israel] said to the messengers who had come [from Jabesh-gilead], ‘Thus shall you [go back and] say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.’ When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad” (11:9).

Could you imagine the scene when the messengers arrived at Jabesh-gilead? People on the brink of destruction, probably giving up hope (if they haven’t already), who suddenly hear about the good news of a coming saviour—Saul the king of Israel—who will save their lives? Could you imagine the screams and tears of joy throughout the whole city upon hearing this, knowing that they’ll see the sun rise with both eyes the next day? They. Were. Glad!

“Therefore the men of Jabesh said [to Nahash], ‘Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you [or we will go up to you], and you may do to us whatever seems good to you’” (11:10).

Earlier, I wondered if the Jabesh-gileadites were either in panic mode or if they’re clever diplomats—I think this confirms the latter. What a sneaky strategy to keep the Ammonites’ guards down, and to make them think that their captives are walking into their camp in total surrender the next day.

“And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch [likely between 2-4am] and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together” (11:11).

Here, Saul takes a page off of Gideon’s playbook (Jdg. 7:16) and coordinates a simultaneous, three-way strike on the Ammonite camp to prevent anyone from escaping—and to ensure that anyone who survived was scattered. The destruction of the Ammonites secures the salvation of the Jabesh-gileadites. Saul, the saviour king, defeats Nahash, the serpent king.

Now, just imagine Saul’s imposing height coming back to the Israelite camp after this massive victory. Imagine the loud cheering of the Israelite soldiers and civilians. If Saul still had any doubters or critics, they would be silenced (literally).

“Then the people said to Samuel, “‘Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men [worthless fellows in 10:27], that we may put them to death’” (11:12).

This would be the prime time for Saul to strut his stuff. It’s like that basketball player who’s been getting trashed all game by his defender who finally gets his moment and absolutely dunks on his defender—to prove a point and humiliate him. Most guys in this kind of situation would take revenge.

But Saul, at this point, was not like most guys. Before we infer all the bad traits we know about Saul, chapter 11 tells us that the early point of Saul’s life and career was his high point. He earlier held his peace instead of defending himself against his critics (1 Sam. 10:27), and he was angry about the right things (and took initiative to protect the innocent and vulnerable).

And now, even when he is presented with the perfect time and position to unleash his wrath on his opponents, Saul instead unleashes his best character trait yet in verse 13: “But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel’” (11:12-13).

What Saul does here is extraordinary. Even though the public majority called for their heads (so it wouldn’t be a bad look for Saul even if he approved of their capital punishment), he instead refuses to take his critics’ comments personally and overlooks their offense by pardoning them.

Why? Saul’s rationale is this: If the Lord saved lives in Israel that day, why should he do the opposite and destroy anyone’s lives that day? Now, could the language of “this day” hint that the next day or another day being a more fitting time for judgment on those men? We’re not sure if these men got executed by Saul eventually—but here, Saul acts like a saviour.

There are some major implications here for Christians today. If we were in Saul’s shoes and found the perfect time and place to exact justifiable revenge on those who have slandered us, unjustly criticized us, or regularly made off-handed remarks at us—do we choose to hold our peace and save those people from our murderous anger? This is not the kind of thing that Saul (at this point) chose to vent his anger on, and we’d do well to follow suit.

In fact, the likely reason that Saul is able to not take his critics’ comments personally is because he focuses on the Lord’s agenda instead of his own. Saul gives all glory to the real Saviour (capital S) who saved Israel that day.

Even though he could enjoy all the cheers and applause of Israel (who were likely awestruck by Saul at this point), Saul took zero credits for himself and publicly redirected the attention towards the Lord.

More implications for Christians here: When we accomplish good things for God—do we proactively and publicly give all the glory to God like Saul did, without taking some for our own enjoyment or self-affirmation?

Do we have a habit of funnelling attention away from ourselves so that God gets the credit for our good deeds (Matt. 5:16), since his Spirit in us is the one who enables us to do those good deeds in the first place?

In fact, it is freeing to give God all the glory. Because whenever any of us try to take the spotlight, we start to put weight and pressure on ourselves. And frankly, none of us can handle the pressure of success or the weight of glory. The glory that Jesus will share with us on the last day will be given to us with a new and perfected body—we can’t handle all that glory in this life and body of death today.

This is why Saul can defeat a whole nation and still ascribe all glory to God. This is why Saul can overlook an offense and not take it personally, because God’s agenda was greater than his feelings. For Saul, this was not a platform for revenge, but a cause for celebration for the new kingdom of Israel.

“Then Samuel said to the people, ‘Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.’ So all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings before the Lord, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly” (11:14-15).

Now, there’s an emphasis on the location of Gilgal here because that’s where Joshua and the people of Israel first set up camp after crossing the Jordan River from the wilderness to the Promised Land, when the Lord said to Joshua: “‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’ And so the name of that place is called Gilgal [rolled away] to this day” (Jsh. 5:9).

So, in 1 Samuel 11, Samuel suggests that they renew the kingdom at Gilgal because that’s the spiritual centre where Israel first reaffirmed their covenant with God. So off they went, celebrating how God “rolled away” the reproach of Ammon from them. But this time, it was through a king. A king who was anointed and has just proven himself to be the makings of a king.

And now, the new kingdom of Israel reaffirms Saul as their new king before the Lord. This is the beginning of the transition of Israel’s leadership structure. It’s as if the baton is being passed from Samuel as the last judge to Saul as the first king (which is why Samuel gives his farewell address in chapter 12, as we’ll hear more about next week).

This was a reason to rejoice! Why? Pretend you didn’t know anything else about Saul or his future, and put yourself in the shoes of the average Israelite on this day—Saul was good news! This was the solution to the problem posed in the book of Judges. It’s as if 1 Samuel 11 ends with a reversal of Judges 21:25: In those days, there was [finally a] king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in [the Lord’s] eyes.

A Good Start

At this point in the big story of the Bible, this was a good start for Saul, who started off as a good king. This was a good start to the beginning of the Israelite monarchy. Saul was the ideal Israelite who provided a preview of the Davidic king in Psalm 72 who delivered the needy and judged in righteousness. And based solely on this chapter, we’d expect Saul to have an eternal dynasty since he was a man after God’s own heart.

But, we know that these are characteristics of Israel’s next king—not Saul’s. From chapter 13 onwards, we see the fall of Saul to the depths. It’s as if the end of Samuel’s farewell address in the next chapter foreshadows the sweeping away of Saul: “But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king” (1 Sam. 12:25).

So if most of what we will hear about Saul in the Bible is about how bad of a king he is, then what is the author of 1 Samuel trying to communicate by dedicating a whole chapter on Saul’s peak point? Why not just start by saying that Saul was a bad king “who did evil in the sight of the Lord?”

Could it be that this chapter highlights Saul’s good start to show that a good start is nothing without a good finish? Could this be emphasizing how bad the fall of Saul will be?

While Saul holds his peace and forgives his enemies here, he will eventually display unforgiving wrath towards anyone whom he suspects of disloyalty. While Saul displays righteous anger at injustice, he eventually sins in his anger by seeking to murder people. While Saul takes zero credits for himself now, he will eventually become obsessed with protecting his crown at any cost when he feels the threat of being dethroned.

1 Samuel 11 shows us just how tragic Saul’s fall is because he could’ve kept up the good work that he started as the first king of Israel. The Spirit of God could’ve remained with him for a long time had he kept obeying the Lord.

But what this tells us is that a good start does not necessarily guarantee a good finish. And usually, bad finishes result from an inwardly premature celebration of “early victories.” Could it be that the feats that Saul accomplished in chapter 11 got to his head very quickly?

Think about people today who find early success or victories, both in general and in the good things we do for God. Just think of young people who get put into areas of leadership, whether it’s a new job or ministry role. Think about young couples who become new parents and look the part of a “good parent”—but we can’t assume that either will finish well as faithful leaders or parents.

Think about our context of students and graduates of Nipawin Bible College. While we celebrate them (like we will next week), how many NBC students and graduates have not gone on to faithful living… those who haven’t finished the race yet and instead drifted towards civilian pursuits because they—like Demas—were in love with the present world, as 2 Timothy talks about.

As older people (and yes, I can’t believe I’m putting myself in this category), we shouldn’t assume too much just because someone young has started well. We should be encouraged by this, but we need to disciple them towards the boring work of long-term faithfulness—not short moments of celebration.

Nor we can assume this with older people either. As one of our elders here have mentioned, a qualified elder doesn’t necessarily guarantee qualification lifelong—they still need to work to maintain those qualifications everyday. How many pastors have had great starts, yet even greater falls? As one preacher (JC Ryle) said, “A man who has fallen publicly has long fallen privately.”

These are some major lessons for us Christians to learn from Saul’s early success, especially for those who are in positions of Christian leadership. If you’re experiencing some “early victories” like Saul did in chapter 11, remember that these are also the “high points” of temptation—specifically in taking some, or all, of the credit for God’s victories through us.

Saul’s temptations are ours as well. In fact, it doesn’t take long for Saul to start acting like Nahash—being overconfident based on his early victories and letting his guard down. Could it be that Saul lost “the battle after the battle?”

According to the apostle Paul, our battle is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12). So we need to remember that we need a saviour who can win the real battle. And we know that this battle was won by the Saviour and King—Jesus—at the cross when he triumphed over the powers of darkness.

Jesus, Our Saviour & King

So, like the Jabesh-gileadites, we today can be glad upon hearing the good news of our coming saviour. This is good tidings of great joy—that indeed Christ our saviour did come to live a perfect life that Saul or you and I could not.

Jesus, who was full of the Spirit, did not just have a good start to his life and ministry, but a good finish as well when he committed his Spirit to his Father on the cross (like we celebrated on Good Friday). Jesus did not fall into sin like Saul eventually would, but Jesus took the fall for sinners like us by dying a death that we deserved to take our sins upon himself and triumph over his enemies.

This is Jesus’ greatest act of salvation, and there is no other saviour like him (not even Saul at his peak).

And because he was raised to life and ascended to glory, we can rejoice even more than Israel did at Saul’s kingdom renewal because this King—Jesus—will certainly come again to bring us with him to his renewed kingdom where there will be no fear of death, since the last enemy will have been destroyed.

Now, the question is this: Do you trust and believe in this Saviour and King, Jesus, who is offering you salvation? Because that same Jesus commands you to bow down and submit to his kingship and no one else’s.
If you put your hope and faith in King Jesus, you know you will be glad at his return—because by the time the skies split, you shall have salvation. This is what we will rejoice in and celebrate at the Lord’s Table afterwards, because the return of our Saviour and King is a joyful event that we’re looking forward to!

But if you haven’t put your hope and faith in him, you will not be glad at Jesus’ return. You will do the opposite of rejoicing, because you will receive the opposite of salvation. In a small sense, that’s like being a Nazi soldier on that day when Allied troops came marching in to liberate the Jews. So heed this warning, unbeliever. Don’t let this good news just be breaking news for you today—now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:1). Turn from your current king (the face you see in the mirror), and turn to King Jesus.

But if you have turned to Jesus for your salvation and are living in hope of his soon return, you can trust that the good work he started will be brought to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:6). Don’t get comfortable with your good start or your good track record. Keep running from sin and looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith (Heb. 21:1-2).

As the last song we’ll sing in response says: “Fill my life again, I give my life to follow and everything I believe in—now I surrender, my Saviour and my God who is mighty to save."