Make a treaty with us and we will serve you.
Nahash the Yemenite replied, I'll make one with you on this condition that I gouge out everyone's right eye and humiliate all of Israel.
Don't do anything else to us for seven days.
The elders of Gavis said to him and let us send messengers throughout the territory of Israel.
If no one saves us, we will surrender to you.
When the messengers came to Gibeah, Saul's hometown, and told the terms of the people, all wept aloud.
Just then, Saul was coming from the field behind his oxen.
What's the matter with the people? Why are they weeping? Saul inquired.
And they repeated to him the words of the men from Jabesh.
When Saul heard these words, the Spirit of God suddenly came powerfully on him, and his anger burned furiously.
He took a team of oxen, cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout the territory of Israel by messengers who said,
This is what will be done to the ox of anyone who doesn't march behind Saul and Samuel.
As a result, the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they went out united.
Saul counted them at Basek.
There were 300,000 Israelites and 30,000 men from Judah.
He told the messengers who had come, Tell this to the men of Jabesh-Gilead.
Deliverance will be yours tomorrow by the time the sun is hot.
So the messengers told the men of Jabesh and rejoiced.
Then the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, Tomorrow we will come out, and you can do whatever you want with us.
The next day Saul organized the troops into three divisions.
During the morning watch, they invaded the Ammonite camp and slaughtered them until the heat of the day.
There were survivors, but they were so scattered that no two of them were left together.
Afterwards, the people said to Samuel, Who said that Samuel should not reign over us?
Give us those men so we can kill them.
But Saul ordered, No one will be executed this day, for today the Lord has provided deliverance in Israel.
Then Samuel said to the people, Come, let's go to Gilgal, so we can renew the kingship there.
So all the people went to Gilgal, and there in the Lord's presence they made Saul king.
There they sacrificed fellowship offerings in the Lord's presence, and Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.
The word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks, John.
Isaiah 40 tells us that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.
In Luke 1, no word from God shall be void of power.
Would you pray with me?
Amen.
O Lord God of hosts, you're a God who saves.
You are the great deliverer.
You're the Lord of armies.
Please give us eyes of faith to see our need for your great salvation right now.
And for us as a church, as your army on earth, to trust you and follow you as our king.
We ask this for Christ's sake.
Amen.
Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, the message for you and for me today from this passage is this.
God offers the very thing that we need most and deserve least.
We see in this people.
I hope to bring a little bit of context.
They are a people who least deserve salvation.
And who most need it this very hour.
You and I are this people.
And I hope you'll see today God, the savior, the deliverer, the king over his people.
Three times in this passage, the word save or deliver is used and about that many more.
It's used in reference, if not directly.
What you and I need most and deserve least is the salvation of God through Jesus Christ, our king.
Amen.
This is a difficult passage, but I'd love to walk through it with you.
I'll do my best.
Let me say one disclaimer now, one qualifier up front so I don't get annoying repeating this over and over that.
On passages like this, we do our best to analyze it, to read it with the church over the centuries and offer a proposition to you as a congregation,
trusting that you'll also do the work of Bereans.
So I'll offer some commentary, some cross references, some lights.
And where the Lord has left his word shadowy and unclear, we need to be content leaving it that way as well, not peeking behind.
At the same time, I hope that you will receive, you know, from me who's charged to proclaim Christ, that you'll just give me that, you know, that understanding.
That's my attempt here in working through this difficult passage is to show how this will glorify the final salvation that God has given his people through his son.
So here's the first observation.
Salvation is needed most by those who deserve it least.
Let me make the case for why it's needed most right here.
Look at verse one, please.
First Samuel chapter 11, verse one.
We're told Nahash, the Ammonite, came up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead.
We really need to work through each of those words to appreciate why salvation was needed most in this case.
What he does is encamp against this people.
To encamp against is to besiege them, to lay siege around a fortified city.
A besieging of a city could last for months or sometimes years, but in any case, it would be very costly.
The goal of sieging a city is to surround it and cut off all the supply lines in or out of the city.
And so it would require a lot of supplies being brought and given to this Ammonite army as they've surrounded this fortified city.
And all the people have fled inside the walls.
There's no war.
There's no bloodshed right now.
But their supplies inside the city walls are dwindling.
And it seems like they will be weaker and thirstier and hungry by the hour.
Salvation is most needed because they're under siege.
On top of that, it's by whom?
It's by Nahash, the great king of this expanding empire called the Ammonites.
The Bible speaks of the Ammonites.
Where did they come from?
In Genesis chapter 19, the very end of that chapter, verses 36 through 38, we read that the Ammonites were from the line of Lot.
Do you remember Lot, the younger man who went with Abraham and saw the promised land and took the best portion for himself?
Well, his family became very worldly.
His wife turned into a pillar of salt and his two daughters had to go with him into a cave and be in hiding.
We have children with us, which is wonderful.
So I'm going to say this, that using wine, the people of this line of the Ammonites came from one of the daughters of Saul in this sinful act.
What was his motive?
We get some insight into this Ammonite kingdom, even centuries later, different time period.
But the book of Amos chapter 1 verse 13 speaks of their cruelty and their motive.
The Ammonites, they wanted to expand their borders to enlarge their kingdom.
They used violence and fear tactics.
This was their mode of operation.
And they would threaten punishment on anyone who would not surrender to them readily.
In the book of Amos, it says that they ripped open pregnant women in this very city of Gilead.
In the book of Amos, the Lord says that their transgression will not be forgotten.
Yahweh will not revoke his punishment on them.
So this is a great foe.
Now, where is this people?
Where are these Ammonites?
Because where we left off last in 1 Samuel, we're way over on the Mediterranean coast, the western border of Israel.
But the Ammonites are on the other side, the eastern border of Israel.
It's called the Transjordan region.
And that's where the Ammonites are.
So now the people of Israel have a threat from the Philistines in the west and the Ammonites from the east.
And what will the Lord do?
Now, who is it that needs the salvation the most?
Well, their target in this case is the people inside the city, Jabesh Gilead.
This is a city that was part of God's promised land, even though it was on the eastern side of the Jordan River.
It was visible, a visible part of the kingdom of God.
It was part of the promised land, but it was not on the western side of the Jordan River.
So the great celebration of crossing the Jordan and entering the promised land,
they were the ones still back on the Transjordan region.
So they're more vulnerable.
They didn't have this natural border and barrier.
Where else have we heard of this people of Jabesh Gilead?
We get the backstory in Judges chapter 20 and 21.
The men of the city of Gibeah of Benjamin.
This is the city from which Saul comes.
They commit a horrible act in Judges chapter 20 and 21.
One of the darkest stories in all of the Bible.
And again, for our audience, we'll summarize it by saying these men acted like the men of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And these are Israelites acting this way.
And so this Levi, this man of God, sends out a message through through pieces of flesh to all Israel.
All Israel comes and fights the Benjamites.
A great civil war.
All but the people from one city.
Jabesh Gilead.
So when the war is over and Benjamin's been punished by the rest of Israel,
Israel had already in their anger against Benjamin made a vow that we will not let our daughters marry men from Benjamin.
So the tribe of Benjamin is at risk of going extinct.
And as a punishment to the people of Jabesh Gilead who didn't come and help discipline Benjamin for their acting as Sodomites.
They are now forced to give up 400 of their young ones, their young ladies to come and be the wives of the men of Benjamin.
You see this complex backstory.
But we know Saul is from this very city in Benjamin.
He's from Gibeah that committed this horrible act.
This is not an accident.
This is no surprise.
The Lord working through the wicked sin of men is orchestrated in such a way that we're to catch all these details as we study his word together.
And we're to reflect on what this means about the people in need of salvation and the only God who can save.
What would Saul's family tree be like?
Well, we can take an estimate of the generations, but it's safe to say that Saul's grandmother or great grandmother would have been from Jabesh Gilead.
He's a Benjaminite.
And he would know family and people that were brought over as those young women who became the wives.
And that's how he got to continue living.
In this story from Judges chapter 20 and 21, many of the themes will repeat themselves in our passage today.
With this horrible civil war and this horrible act of violence, all the tribes of Israel weep.
This shows that the Lord and his people are not to put up with sin within the people in the promised land of God.
The kingdom of God on earth is to be kept holy.
And this is an example of discipline carried out in the most violent way.
Well, now these Ammonites are threatening this eastern border.
They're threatening this people who least deserve salvation.
What a shameful past.
They are already disgraced in the history of Israel.
Let me just pause here and point out how the Lord loves to save those who need it most and deserve it least.
We are these people of Jabesh Gilead.
Some of us have really dark pasts.
It's shameful to admit the, you know, generations back that the things that are, you know, our line have done.
I don't know if I've shared with you all, but my my grandpa's grandpa was I think they're Welsh immigrants, very poor, and he was the town drunk.
They would mock him.
And so my great grandpa was put into an orphanage and his son, my grandpa, was the first Christian.
That's how my dad became a believer and was raised in a Christian home.
We don't have to go too far back in all of our stories to see we are a people who most need the salvation, aren't we?
The reason that God's kingdom on earth is always under attack is because this is part of God's plan.
There is an adversary opposing the redemption that our Lord Jesus brings us.
This is really the necessary part of the gospel that even God's garden temple of Eden was invaded by the violent adversary.
In John 8, 44, he's called a murderer from the beginning.
And as the serpent slithers in, what was Adam to do?
He was to guard and to keep Eden, this garden temple, and protect his bride.
Well, let's see the tactics of this same serpent working through this man, Nahash, now.
What are the tactics of the enemy?
I've noticed five or six in the next few verses here.
Number one, the enemy gets close to God's people.
See, he encamped near them.
The name Nahash means snake or serpent.
And the sound Nahash, it even sounds like the hissing of a snake.
The scholars of Hebrew tell me that the root of that word also is associated with, like, the occult and divination.
You know, speaking with demons and with Satan himself.
This gives us some insights into the Ammonites, into their king, Nahash.
His parents, this people that he's from, this is what they want their son to be about.
He's going to be a tool of that old serpent.
The serpent slithers in to the land God has given his people.
The people of Jabesh Gilead are to drive him out, to guard and to keep this land that God has given them.
He's gotten close.
That's one of his tactics.
And as the serpent gets close, what will they do?
Well, another tactic is, we see in verse one,
The serpent demands the loyalty of God's people.
Stealing loyalty from God and demanding loyalty for himself.
In verse one, we read,
Like Adam, instead of guarding and keeping their city,
All the men of Nabesh say to Nahash,
We will make a covenant with you.
You make a covenant with us and we will serve you.
To make a covenant or cut a covenant,
That was common in the ancient Near East.
A more powerful king,
The great king, as he would be called,
Would come and demand your loyalty.
And then you would make yourself subservient to him,
Pay tribute to him.
And you're in covenant,
And he'll protect you from any other, more mighty foes.
And the people of Jabesh Gilead are very happy
To enter into a subservient covenant with the serpent.
Number three, what does the enemy do?
He makes you think that you're getting a deal.
Look at verse two.
Nahash the Amorite answered,
On this condition, I will make a covenant with you.
Let me give you a deal.
You already recognize I'm so much more powerful.
You don't stand a chance.
Let me give you something that will be good for you.
Number four, he aims to make God's people powerless.
Here's what I'll do in this covenant.
I'll not slay all of you.
I'll let you live.
But I will have to put out your right eye first.
I don't know.
I was thought about this probably too long.
Did they like heat up metal and shove it into one eye?
Or did they have a scoop?
You know, this is where my mind goes.
I don't know how they did this,
But why the right eye?
Well, we have a few lefties in our congregation.
But if you're a soldier,
You're going to need to use your sword in your right hand,
Your dominant hand,
Which means what goes in the left hand in battle.
Your shield will go in the left hand,
And you're hiding behind the shield.
But if your right eye is out,
You're not going to have any ability to see or even fight.
As someone quipped,
It was,
You can't fight what you can't sight.
You know?
So you're hiding behind the left eye only.
All you can see is the back of your shield.
Not to mention depth perception.
See, the tactic of the enemy is to make God's people powerless.
You can live a miserable, subservient existence,
And a subservient covenant to me,
The great serpent,
But you'll be powerless.
What a deal I'm giving you.
Number five,
Here's another tactic.
The enemy loves to disgrace God's people.
Loves to put God's people to shame.
I'll put out your right eye.
Look at verse two,
And bring reproach to all of Israel.
When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered,
There were ancient manuscripts that are not scripture,
But it confirms that this was the pattern in this Transjordanian area,
The Amorites,
As they marched around,
This is what they did to every people they conquered.
They made these covenants,
Made them subservient,
And put out the right eye of all the men,
So they couldn't fight back.
But now,
They're taking it a step further,
And invading Israel.
Now they're going to mess with God's people,
Make God's people defaced,
And disgraced,
Like the rest of the world,
That they had conquered.
A pastor named Brian Voss commented,
This serpent was not content with striking the heel only,
But he has to go for the head.
He's not offering them a deal,
Or a covenant of grace.
He even admits it.
It's a covenant of disgrace.
In verse three,
They buy themselves some time,
Let us send messengers to all the territory of Israel,
And then,
And if there is no one to save or to deliver us,
We will come out to you.
There's that word,
The theme of the passage,
If there's no one to save us,
Who will save?
Who will deliver?
Is there anyone in all of Israel,
That God will raise up to do this?
Some have observed,
It seems to think they,
They don't assume that Saul,
The newly appointed king,
Could do this.
Nahash,
For one reason or the other,
Agrees with them.
He's willing to do this.
Why?
So,
Nahash is not being compassionate,
By waiting and giving them time.
Someone pointed out,
This is a snake,
Playing with its prey,
Before devouring it.
Have you seen that?
Some people have a pet constrictor,
And you see it get the mouse by the tail,
And just play with it a little bit,
Before squeezing it and eating it.
That's what Nahash is doing,
To this people.
They're looking all over Israel,
For anyone who could save them.
And yet God has made it very clear,
Over and over again,
As we've seen in this book of 1 Samuel,
God is their great king.
God is the one who can save them.
They don't need a subservient covenant,
Of disgrace.
God is already in covenant with them,
And it's a covenant of grace.
He is the one who will fight for them,
He is the one who will protect his bride,
He will deliver them,
But why don't they come to God?
They want to be like all the other nations.
Well church,
The enemy gets close to you and me too,
And he wants to demand our loyalty.
He wants to make God's people,
Powerless to fight.
And he thinks he can do that to us.
And he can't,
If the Holy Spirit dwells in you.
He can't.
But his accusation,
His tactic is this,
Get God's people to sin,
Then hold their sin against them.
And then they're powerless,
They think they can't pray.
And now before you know it,
They're cut off from their source of power,
Which is God,
Their gracious Lord.
And the reality is,
If you're in covenant with God,
Through Jesus Christ,
You can't be cut off.
You can't be made powerless.
It's the Holy Spirit,
Who dwells in you.
And you need Jesus to,
Preach truth over you again,
Through his word,
By his spirit.
You are forgiven.
You must continue to pray,
I am your great king,
I'll never let you go.
Keep running to me.
You can't be accused any longer.
With this gospel promise,
God's people will not be disgraced on earth.
Instead, we'll bring glory to God's name.
We'll let him be the one who fights,
And gets all the glory,
For every victory.
That's why the language in scripture,
Is military language.
James 4, 7.
Resist the devil.
Don't compromise.
Don't negotiate.
Don't try to make a deal with Satan.
Resist the devil,
And he will flee from you.
Specifically,
For us as a gathered church,
As a congregation,
1 Peter 5, 2,
There's a special charge,
To elders,
Shepherd the flock of God,
Among you as overseers.
Shepherds,
Know the sheep,
Care for God's people,
Feed them,
Protect them.
And the strong warning in Acts 20, 28,
Take heed,
Pay careful attention,
To yourselves,
And to all the flock,
Among you,
Over which the Holy Spirit,
Has made you overseers.
Shepherd the church of God,
Which he purchased,
With his own blood.
See,
The tactics of the enemy,
Should be part of the focus of a church.
And we win,
Because Christ has already crushed the serpent's head.
Well, here's the third observation.
God always acts,
And records how he acted,
In a way,
That will magnify his glory,
As the only savior,
Of his people.
What is the Bible?
That's what the Bible is.
It's how God has acted.
And,
It's a record,
Breathed out by the Holy Spirit,
Interpreting,
How God has acted.
So,
God always acts,
And records how he acted,
In a way,
That magnify his glory.
See,
His glory is there all along.
It just needs his spirit,
To cause us to behold his glory.
And he does this in a way,
That shows he is the only savior,
Of his people.
Why?
Because that's who God is.
And God is the one who loves,
To save those who deserve it least,
And who need it most.
So let's enjoy this story,
In light of that.
How has God acted?
And how has he recorded this?
Let's start with verse four.
So the messengers,
That's the first time we hear of them,
But they keep coming up in this passage,
They had quite a few weeks,
Or months of work here,
These messengers.
They came to Gibeah of Saul.
Yes,
We did read how the messengers,
Were sent all over Israel.
This is part of it.
And they told the news,
And the hearing of the people.
Some have commented,
It's not necessarily,
Because Saul was there.
Up to this point,
Saul was announced,
As the king,
And they said,
Long live the king,
But he went back to his home,
And back to work.
He's not,
Taken action,
Or not followed,
The next steps,
Toward actually establishing,
A kingdom.
And all the people,
Lifted up their voice,
When they heard this horrible news,
This horrible threat,
By the Ammonites,
And they wept.
See,
When they hear this news,
It's not to go get Saul right away,
And rally the troops,
And make a plan,
It's to weep.
The assumption is,
This is going to happen.
This is horrible.
Not even his neighbors,
Necessarily went out,
To look for Saul right away.
We're told in verse 5,
Now,
There was Saul,
Coming behind the herd,
From the field.
So he's coming back from work,
In verse 5,
We're told that,
Saul is,
You know,
Gone back to doing,
What he knows to do,
Which is to be a farmer.
This is,
A herd,
So we don't know,
What types of animals,
But later he uses the two oxen,
To slay them.
Some have pointed out,
Again,
This is for you to evaluate,
That Saul is driving,
The herd from behind,
Perhaps there's a foreshadowing,
Of the type of king he will be,
In contrast to the good shepherd,
Who's out in front,
Leading the sheep,
Toward the green pastures.
In verse,
5 we read that,
They told Saul,
The words of the men,
Of Jabesh,
When he asked,
Why is everybody weeping?
In verse 6,
The spirit of God,
Then,
Comes upon Saul.
Now some have observed,
This is not,
The spirit of the Lord most high,
As other times,
It's described of other men,
But it's more the generic name,
It's the spirit of Elohim,
And when that was used,
It was,
When the spirit,
Caused Balaam's donkey,
To speak.
In verse 7,
Saul took a yoke of oxen,
Cut them to pieces,
And sent them,
Throughout all the territory of Israel,
By the hands of messengers,
Saying,
Whoever does not go out,
With Saul and Samuel to battle,
So it shall be done,
To his oxen.
The message is that Israel,
Still remains divided,
Like all these pieces of the oxen,
The way that this unfolds to us,
Right before the deliverance,
That the Lord brings,
Is sending a very strong message,
Benjamin,
Deserves no glory,
They're a disgraced tribe,
And that's where Saul comes from,
Saul,
Up to this point,
In verse 7,
Deserves no glory,
He's done nothing,
Israel,
As a nation,
Divided,
No standing army,
No ability to defend itself,
Deserves no glory,
So here's our fourth observation,
The Holy Spirit orchestrates,
Every detail,
In both history,
And scripture,
To prepare God's people,
For the Messiah,
And that's what I think happens,
Next,
The way that God does deliver,
Is to,
He's already removed the objection,
Like no one else can claim any glory here,
And how does he do it?
He does it in a way that is,
Sole Deo Gloria,
For God's glory alone,
As we just saw in verse 6,
The Spirit of God came upon Saul,
Up before that he can do nothing,
And I want you to see next,
How God does three things,
First of all,
He causes this appointed king,
To serve as a judge,
The language used to describe,
What Saul does next,
Is like an accumulation,
Of the descriptions,
Of the various judges,
Which is the book,
Right before 1 Samuel,
The book of judges,
So it's like,
The king of Israel,
Is going to be a super judge,
In verse 6,
When it says,
The Spirit of God came upon Saul,
The word is rushed upon Saul,
In the midst of bad news,
And the weeping,
The Spirit of God rushes,
To minister,
And that verb,
To rush upon,
It's only used,
Of one other person,
In all the Bible,
Samson,
One of the judges,
So there's Saul now,
Taking on some of the traits,
Of one of the great judges,
In verse 11 then,
Saul divided the soldiers,
Into three companies,
Do you think of a judge,
Who did that?
That's the story of Gideon,
Divided the troops up,
In three different groups,
And they attack,
In the dark of night,
In verse 11 we read,
So it was the next day,
That Saul put the people,
In the three companies,
And they came in the midst,
Of the camp,
In the morning watch,
Between 2 or 3 a.m.
And 6 a.m.
And they killed,
The Ammonites,
Until the heat of day,
Until noon,
So here's the appointed king,
Taking on the attributes,
Of these great judges,
The second thing the king does,
Is he unites God's people,
Without Yahweh as their king,
God's people were scattered,
But with Yahweh,
And his anointed king,
Raised up to judge,
God's people come together,
As one man,
That's how they're described,
Now think of the contrast,
At the end of this great battle,
The Ammonites,
The Ammonites who survived,
The serpent's army,
In verse 9,
They were scattered,
So that not one of them,
Were left together,
God's people,
Standing together,
As one,
The serpent's army,
Scattered,
All alone,
Each one,
The next thing that,
This anointed king,
Who was,
Taking on these attributes,
Of a judge,
Who united the people,
Does,
Is that he also,
Will show mercy,
Look at verse 12,
Then the people said to Samuel,
Who is he,
Who are those men,
Who said,
Shall Saul reign over us,
Bring them here,
That we may put them to death,
But Saul said,
In verse 13,
Not a man shall be put to death,
This way,
This day,
He shows mercy,
To men who deserve punishment,
They had not been loyal,
And after the victory,
He shows them mercy,
You still remain,
With the nation,
Well now we need to,
Reflect a bit,
Why is it that God used,
Saul,
This weak man,
This man that was like,
All the other nations,
Up to this point,
And yet he,
Made him to judge,
Made him a king,
Put his spirit on him,
Caused him to show mercy,
God proves,
Again I believe here,
That there is not,
A person too weak,
For God to use,
I believe the Lord,
Wants to use,
Each one of you,
And I believe the enemy,
Is spewing lies,
Accusing and saying,
You're too weak,
You're not qualified,
There's no way God,
Could use someone like you,
Or like me,
There's not a person,
Too weak for God,
To use,
In fact,
In our weakness,
He is made strong,
I can,
Sometimes as I'm reading this,
I want to read it like literature,
And I want to view,
Saul as the protagonist,
And I want to try to,
See you know,
The focus on him,
Look here Saul is very good,
But I think what makes,
This passage special,
Is God's own interpretation of it,
Is Saul really the main character,
Let's see how the Bible,
Interprets itself,
Look at verse 13,
How does Saul,
Interpret what just happened,
What does he confess in verse 13,
He says,
Today,
The Lord has accomplished,
Salvation in Israel,
It's the Lord who is the protagonist,
The Lord is the hero,
Not Saul,
Would you look at chapter 12,
Verse 6,
How does Samuel,
Interpret what just happened,
Samuel stands up in front of all the people,
And tells them,
Here's what just happened,
He begins in verse 6,
By giving their history,
And reminding them,
It is the Lord who raised up,
Blink,
You can start with Moses,
And Aaron,
And work our way through your history,
It's the Lord who raised them up,
And we can sometimes,
Want to create heroes,
Out of the history of redemption,
Heroes from the Bible,
Heroes from church history,
And we need to do like Samuel,
And remind each other,
Remind ourselves,
It was the Lord who did that,
Yes he used this vessel,
But it was the Lord,
All along,
He's the main character,
He's the protagonist,
It's God himself,
God reveals in 1st Samuel 11,
I believe,
A type of the Savior,
He will raise up,
In the fullness of time,
I hope you picked up on this already,
But I want to make it really clear,
Jesus Christ,
The people are told here,
And in all the scripture,
Jesus will be God's anointed,
King Jesus will be,
The mighty judge,
Greater than all the other judges,
Multiplied by one another,
It's King Jesus,
Who will be filled with the spirit,
And who will defeat the enemy,
Acts 10 verse 38,
This is the message they preach,
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth,
With the Holy Spirit,
And with power,
Who went about doing good,
And healing all who were oppressed,
By the devil,
For God was with him,
And having done this,
Having accomplished his mission,
It's Jesus,
King Jesus,
Who turns around,
And shows mercy,
To those of us,
Who betrayed him,
In Ephesians 2 verse 4,
We're reminded,
God,
Who is rich in mercy,
Because of his great love,
With which he has loved us,
Even when we were dead,
In our trespasses,
Made us alive,
Together with Christ,
And it's King Jesus,
Who unites his people,
1 Corinthians 12,
Verses 12 and 13,
For as the body is one,
All the members of that body,
One,
Being many,
Are one body,
So also is Christ,
For by one spirit,
We are all baptized,
Into one body,
Because King Jesus,
Unites his people,
Like one man,
The Holy Spirit,
Orchestrated every detail,
In history,
And scripture,
To prepare God's people,
For Messiah,
Well here's the fifth,
And final observation,
For today from this passage,
When God's people,
Behold his faithfulness,
As savior,
There is only one,
Fitting response,
When God's people,
Behold his faithfulness,
As savior,
There is only one,
Fitting response,
Look at verses 15,
And 14 with me,
Starting at 14,
Then Samuel said to the people,
Come let us go to Gilgal,
To renew,
The kingdom there,
The word renew,
Is to repair,
Or to make new,
In verse 15,
So all the people,
Went to Gilgal,
And there they made Saul king,
Before the Lord,
In Gilgal,
Gilgal,
There,
Gilgal,
It's repeated over and over,
We're supposed to pay attention,
This location is significant,
And it's Samuel who says,
Hold on,
Come with me,
We need to go somewhere,
This needs to happen in a special place,
So why Gilgal?
Joshua chapter 4,
Starting at verse 18,
Tells us why Gilgal,
Was such a special place,
It's because,
After God had brought his people,
Out of slavery in Egypt,
And after that first generation,
Had wandered around,
In the wilderness,
It was Joshua,
Yeshua,
Who led the people,
Through the Jordan river,
The Lord parted the waters again,
The priests with the ark,
Of the covenant of the Lord,
They came up,
From the Jordan,
And the people came up,
And they encamped first,
At Gilgal,
Samuel is telling,
This generation,
Of God's people,
Let's go back to Gilgal,
Let's go back,
Across the Jordan river,
Let's go see Joshua's,
Ebenezer there,
Those twelve stones,
That they brought,
From the bottom of the river,
Verse 24,
Joshua preaches to the people,
The reason we're setting up,
These twelve stones,
This marker,
Of God's faithfulness,
Is that all the peoples,
Of the earth,
May know the hand,
Of the Lord,
That it is mighty,
And that you may fear,
The Lord,
Your God forever,
That you will never forget,
Let's enter God's kingdom,
Again,
Samuel says,
It's a new creation theme,
Let's,
Let's go back,
To the promised possession,
And remembering,
God fights,
For us,
Remember Jericho,
That's where they go next,
After encamping at Gilgal,
You see,
The only fitting response,
Is verse 15,
Of our sermon passage,
For today,
There,
At Gilgal,
They made sacrifices,
Of peace offerings,
Before the Lord,
Peace offerings,
Are offerings,
That you enjoy,
As a feast,
You get to eat it,
In the presence,
Of the holy God,
We read,
In verse 15,
And there,
Saul,
And all the men of Israel,
Rejoiced greatly,
Oh,
Brothers and sisters,
You see,
We too were wicked people,
In need of salvation,
Tormented by sin,
Satan,
The wickedness of this world,
But remember,
From this passage,
1 Samuel 11,
No people are too evil,
For God to save,
There's no past,
Too dark,
For him to redeem,
Revelation 12,
9,
Reminds us of this great redemption,
We have,
In the finished work,
Of Jesus Christ,
So that great dragon,
Was cast out,
The serpent of old,
Called the devil,
And Satan,
Who deceives the whole world,
He was cast,
To the earth,
His angels were cast out with him,
And then I heard a loud voice,
Saying in heaven,
Salvation,
And strength,
And the kingdom of our God,
And the power of his Christ,
Have come,
For the accuser,
Of our brethren,
Who accuses them,
Before God,
Day and night,
He has been cast down,
The only fitting response,
For us,
Is to do as the,
People of Israel did,
In verse 15,
It's to gather around,
God's,
New covenant,
Peace offering,
The Lord's table,
Right here,
To celebrate,
Christ,
Our king,
New creation,
For some of us today,
God has ordained,
For this to be your,
Covenant renewal ceremony,
With God,
Right here,
At the Lord's table,
For Jesus to be the king,
A new in your life,
For the covenant of grace,
To be renewed,
From Christ,
To you,
What we most need,
And what we least deserve,
Is God,
To be our king,
And in Christ Jesus,
Alone,
He is,
And so we pray,
As we'll sing in a moment,
Be thou my battle shield,
Sword for the fight,
Be thou my dignity,
Thou my delight,
Thou my soul's shelter,
Thou my high tower,
Raise thou me heavenward,
O power of my power.