Bible Passage:  1 Samuel 11

This chapter began with the first fruit of Saul’s government, in which he rescued Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites. At first, the Ammonites offered the Israelites an ultimatum (1 Samuel 11:2): “Fight and be conquered, or yield to us and forfeit your right eye”.  Now this is ugly! This was not a fair game, to say the least. The enemy still has an upper hand even when the people of Israel negotiated for a surrender of their city (1 Samuel 11:1-2). Moreover, the enemy had come for revenge and so that could mean they were very determined to conquer everything that stood in their way once the gate was opened.

This account was similar to how satan, our spiritual enemy, attacks us. Satan cannot do anything to us unless we allow him to, and for that to happen, all we need to do is to surrender. However, to serve and yield to satan always requires a condition. That condition is put forth as a mean solely to humiliate us and bring reproach to God’s people, so that satan could show the world that he had been glorified and succeeded in bringing God’s people to their knees. Satan, the enemy, isn’t interested in taking care of us, but he just wanted to exalt himself. To do so, he aims to blind us and intimidate us into submission such that we stray away from God’s love.

The elders, however, were wise enough to hold out for seven days (1 Samuel 11:3). Perhaps, this could have allowed them to buy some time to seek for help. The people in the city knew that they needed a saviour to rescue them from their desperate situation. In a way, this is better than making a rash decision to allow the enemy (or satan) to conquer us without even putting up a fight of resistance.  On the contrary, knowing that one needs to be saved is far better than proudly insisting that one does not need to be saved at all.

Finally, when King Saul appeared and heard about the dire situation at Jabesh-gilead from the messengers, he was angry. In a way, Saul’s anger was a good anger because he knew he had to serve his people and take charge of the situation because he was anointed king over Israel (1 Samuel 11:4-6). Verse 6 to 11 mentioned that the Spirit of God filled Saul and in his anger, he gather his men and led them to battle against the Ammonites. In the end, Saul was victorious (1 Samuel 11:6-11).

Similarly, this was how God look after us by delivering us from the enemy whenever we call out to Him. If Saul was victorious and a great king at that point in time, how much more is our Lord in His greatness? He is King of all Kings, and the Lord and Saviour. There is nothing that He cannot do.