Saul Rescues the town of Jabesh
v1 Nahash was an Ammonite. He went with his army to seize the town of Jabesh in the country of Gilead. They surrounded Jabesh. The people from Jabesh said, "Make a contract with us and we will accept you as our ruler." v2 Nahash said, "I will make a contract with you. But I will pull out the right eye of every person in your town. Then you will have shame among the people of Israel." v3 The rulers of Jabesh said to him, "Wait for 7 days. We will send a message to all the people in Israel. We will ask them to rescue us. If no-one comes to rescue us, we will let you be our ruler."
Commentary
An Ammonite was a person from the tribe or country of Ammon. The Ammonites had attacked Israel in the past. When an army attacked a town, the soldiers often killed all the people in that town. The people who came from Jabesh could not fight and win against the Ammonites. They wanted to give in and let Nahash rule them. But if Nahash pulled out their right eyes, they would not be able to fight very well. In those days, many men fought with bows and arrows. They needed two eyes so that they could aim their arrows straight. The people from Jabesh did not want to have this shame. So they asked the Israelites to help them. Nahash probably thought that his army was strong enough to fight the Israelites.
Saul Cuts Up His Oxen
v4 The men took the message to the town of Gibeah. Saul lived in this town. When they told the people the news, the people started to cry aloud. v5 Saul had been in his field. Now he was coming home with his oxen. He heard the people crying. He said, "What has happened? Why are the people crying?" They told Saul what the men from Jabesh had said.
v6 When Saul heard the news the Spirit of God took control of him in a powerful way. Saul became very angry. v7 He killed two of his oxen. He cut them into pieces. He gave the pieces to the men from Jabesh. He told the men to take the pieces to all the towns that were in Israel. The men said, "Everyone must follow Saul and Samuel into battle. Someone will cut up your oxen like this if you do not follow." The people were afraid of the Lord. So all the men came together as one group. v8 They met together with Saul at the town of Bezek. There were 300,000 men from the country of Israel. There were 30,000 men from the country of Judah.
v9 Saul spoke to the men who had brought the news from Jabesh. He told them to go back to Jabesh and tell the people this message. "Someone will rescue you. It will happen tomorrow before midday." So, the men went and told the message. All the people in Jabesh were very happy. v10 The men of Jabesh went and spoke to Nahash. They said, "Tomorrow we will come out to you. Then you can do anything that you want with us."
v11 The next day Saul divided his soldiers into three groups. At dawn, they attacked the Ammonite army. The Israelite soldiers killed and defeated them by midday. Some of the Ammonite soldiers escaped and scattered. Each man ran off by himself.
Commentary
Saul was the king of Israel now but he still worked in his fields. Saul was angry when he heard about the Ammonite attack on Jabesh. The Spirit of God gave him power to rescue the town and the people. The Spirit of God gives power to people for the special job that God gives them. Without this power, they cannot do the job. Israel did not have an army. Saul required every man in Israel to fight. He warned them to frighten them. But the people were not afraid of Saul. They were afraid of the Lord. Saul was a strong leader because God gave him the power. The men came from many different towns but they were a united group. They met at Bezek. Bezek was about 10 miles away from Jabesh.
In verse 8, a "thousand" is the name for a large group of men. The group has a maximum of 1,000 men, but there may be fewer men. So there were 300 large groups of men from Israel and 30 groups from Judah. Israel was one country during the rule of Saul, David, and Solomon. When Solomon died, Israel divided into Judah and Israel.
The people in Jabesh heard that Saul and his army would rescue them. They were very happy now. In verse 10, ‘we will come out to you’ has two meanings. Nahash thought that the people from Jabesh would give in to him. But the people meant that they would go and fight him. The Ammonites were not ready for the attack. "The next day" (verse 11) meant after sunset. The Israelite day ended at sunset. Their new day started in the evening. The Israelites defeated the Ammonites. Only a few of the Ammonite soldiers escaped.
People at Town of Gilgal
v12 The people of Israel said, "Some men said, “We do not think that this man can save us. Where are those men? Bring them to us and we will kill them." v13 Saul said, "No. The Lord rescued the people of Israel today. You must not kill these men."
v14 Samuel said, "We will all go to the town of Gilgal. Then we will declare again that Saul is our king." v15 So everyone went to Gilgal. They went to the holy place. They declared that Saul was king. They gave peace offerings to the Lord. Saul and all the Israelites had a special party because they were happy.
Commentary
In 10:27, some men did not think that Saul could save the Israelites. At Jabesh, Saul proved that he could. This proved that he was a good leader. In verse 13, Saul was not proud. He knew that God had rescued the people. Saul was wise. He did not punish those who opposed his authority. Instead, Samuel had a special meeting. Everyone declared that Saul was king. This time no-one opposed him. The Israelites were happy with God and happy with Saul. The Bible sometimes calls the ‘peace offering’ (verse 15) the ‘fellowship’ or ‘friendship’ offering. The people gave offerings to the Lord. Then they ate part of the offerings together. You can read about this offering in Leviticus 3 and 7:11-21. This was probably the same offering as in 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 9.
People declared Saul as king on three different occasions. This way, Samuel helped the people to accept Saul as king.
---- First, Samuel anointed him with oil in 10:1. This was a private time with just Saul and Samuel.
----The second time was a public event. God chose Saul from all of the Israelites (10:17-25). However, some people opposed Saul.
----The third time was in 11:14-15. This time all the Israelites went to the holy place. Everyone knew then that God gave Saul the power to be their king.
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