How To Win a Battle
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Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel.” The elders of Jabesh said to him, “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.” When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud.
Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. 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. He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “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. And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you 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. Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch 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.
Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in 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.
About 15 years ago, it was very en vogue in Christian circles to talk about God’s calling on our lives to make extreme changes and do amazing things for the kingdom. Books like “Do Hard Things”, “Radical”, and “Crazy Love” flew off of bookshelves, encouraging Christians to take radical steps in their lives to serve God.
And I think we all have that desire to do great things for God - to do something “radical” so God can work through us.
But when we look in the Bible, is that what we see? I think we see quite the opposite. I think we see a call for us to be instruments in God’s hands right where He already has us, through the lives we’re already living.
We see a call for people to love God and neighbor right where they are, through the things they already do, for the most part, so that God can do radical things through them.
It isn;t what we do, it’s what God does through people who are faithful in the little things.
Because it is God that does radical things, and He chooses to do them through our very ordinary things. God uses ordinary people to accomplish great things.
I think the call on Christians today should not be to do radical things, but to do the ordinary things God calls us to so we can see Him do mighty works through us. To be - right where we are - the ordinary means of God’s crazy love and radical power.
Like in our passage today. We see ordinary people - weak, fearful, even sinful people - used by God for amazing things. Used by God to work His power in the world and salvation for His people.
And God wants to do just that through us.
Let’s see what He did for Israel here:
Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.”
Nahash was the king of the Ammonites - we’ll find that out in the next chapter. Now why would the king of the Ammonites siege Jabesh-gilead?
Jabesh-gilead was on the east side of the Jordan - in the tribal inheritance of Eastern Manasseh - the tribe that was split: half on the east of the Jordan and half on the western side of the Jordan. That means that eastern Manasseh is in the land that Israel took from the Amorites and from Bashan, but which originally belonged to Ammon.
But notice what is going on here. We talked about the political turmoil already going on in Israel. We have seen that Samuel was the judge over Israel, and he also had other local judges, including his sons, that ran other cities.
But every city named as places the judges were, in the book so far, have been cities on the western side of the Jordan.
And add to that the fact that a single city, like Jabesh-gilead, felt it was within their rights to make a treaty with a foreign king and come under his rule tells us how bad the situation was. It would appear that the three eastern tribes were being pretty much ignored.
And we have already seen the heart of Israel in their rejecting YHWH as king because they wanted a king like the nations around them. Well, here were Israelites that were literally willing to bow to one of those kings of the nations around them.
This is even worse. As we have seen, any earthly king that the Israelites followed had to be an Israelite. So these tribes in the east were even further from God’s will than most of Israel.
And realize, Jabesh-gilead - though in the eastern tribes - was not on the eastern side of those territories. It was pretty close to the Jordan. It was relatively deep into Israelite territory.
In other words, not only were the western tribes being ignored, but Israel was starting to lose the land that God gave them.
And here, they are willing to lose more.
Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel.”
Now, this gouging out the eye thing sounds so very brutal to 21st century ears. And it is. But there are a few things going on here.
First, the Dead Sea scrolls tell us that Nahash had made similar treaties with cities in Gad and Reuben - the other two Israelite tribes that lived on the eastern side of the Jordan.
So that means that this has been going on for a while. Israel has been losing ground to Ammon, and have been consenting to this condition of their surrender. This may be why the men of Jabesh-gilead react the way they do - they were probably expecting this condition of the treaty that they were all too ready to make.
Second, this kind of thing was not uncommon in the Ancient Near East in these circumstances. Not only would boring or cutting the right eyes of the men be a sign of their humility before their new ruler, but it would be a major hindrance to them ever rebelling against him.
If you have ever shot a gun, and if you are right handed, you know that you need your right eye to aim. The same would be true for shooting a bow. This would essentially disable the warriors of the city being taken.
But third, the word here translated “treaty” is the word that is translated almost 98% of the time in the Old Testament as “covenant.” Like when God made a covenant with Abraham or with Israel.
And the word that is always translated “make” when someone “makes” a covenant in the Old Testament - and not just in the Old Testament, but elsewhere in the writings of the Ancient Near East - the word used is not the verb “make”, but the verb “cut.”
Literally, covenants were not made, they were cut. Because there would be cutting involved in ratifying a covenant. There would always be blood.
Sometimes, animals were cut, like when Abraham cut the animals in two for God to pass through when He made a covenant with him.
But very often, there would be cuts made to the lesser party entering into covenant. Like with Abraham when he entered into covenant with God, and like the whole nation of Israel when they entered into covenant with God. They were the lesser party in those covenants, so the men would all be cut when the covenant sign of circumcision was taken. They would have to bleed to enter into the covenant.
So here, the lesser party - the men of Jabesh-gilead - would need to be cut - would need to bleed - to ratify the covenant between them and their new ruler.
Now think again about the brutality of that. And then think about what Christ did to ratify the New Covenant. When He took the cup of wine at the Last Supper and told His disciples to drink - to partake of the wine - He said that it represented the blood of the covenant. There would - as always - have to be blood spilled in order to ratify that covenant.
And there was. And it was His blood.
Think about the humility of Christ. When we want to point to the humility of Jesus, we tend to think of how He got on His knees to wash the feet of the disciples. But He humbled Himself even more. He took the role of the lesser party in the New Covenant. He placed Himself not just a little lower than the angels, but those He came to save in order to establish the covenant made for many for the forgiveness of sins.
In other words, He took on our sin - the Bible tells us He became our sin - and made Himself the lower party in the covenant, so that we could rule over sin.
And He ratified the covenant by bleeding on the cross for us. And when compared with the brutality of God taking on flesh, then humbling Himself to the point of death on a cross - the gouging or cutting of an eye doesn’t seem so brutal after all.
And when we look at the situation in Israel and in Jabesh-gilead, and in the whole territory east of the Jordan and the turmoil even on the western side of the Jordan where the people rejected God for an earthly king, we might be tempted to ask: Why?
Why did God let this happen?
And that is usually what we ask when bad things happen to us or someone we love or our lives are thrown into turmoil or we are being oppressed from without. Why did God let this happen? And we want a reason - we want to understand why, in the hopes that it will help us endure the trial. We want to know there is a purpose and that it will end up for good.
But you know what bothers and sister? We already know that. We already know that God - regardless of our earthly circumstances - will work His good and gracious will for us.
Israel should have known that, too. The men of Jabesh-gilead should have known that. They all knew what God had already done.
None of this was out of God’s sovereign control.
And God would use all of these circumstances to place David on the throne and bring Israel peace and prosperity.
And ultimately He used every circumstance to place Christ on the throne and bring us peace and prosperity.
And we can be sure that He still does and always will use every circumstance to further His plan until Christ comes and physically reigns over the creation and we see with our own eyes that God used it all for good.
And the men of Jabesh-gilead - and all of Israel - were about to see God use far less than perfect circumstances for the benefit of His people. He would use ordinary people to accomplish great things.
Now remember: Israel was in political turmoil. They were losing the land. The enemy was making progress and moving further into Israel. Another city was about to fall. They were ready to make a covenant and serve Ammon, they were ready to bleed to make it happen.
Things were about to turn very bad.
Unless they could find a savior.
The elders of Jabesh said to him, “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.”
Now, this may seem like a silly thing for Nahash to agree to. But it really isn’t. The men of Jabesh-gilead are saying, “let us see if the rest of Israel still wants us - if they’ll fight for us. If not, we’re yours.”
And this would be saving Nahash a host of trouble. If he took the city and it turned out Israel did want them and did fight for them and all of Israel came against him, he’d be in trouble - as we’ll see.
This was diplomacy at work in the hopes of avoiding all-out war.
So the men send messengers throughout Israel, and eventually they get to Gibeah where Saul is from. Remember, we left off last week with everyone going home after Saul is named king, including Saul.
As I said, God uses all circumstances.
When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud.
Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh.
First, note that the people hear, and they weep. They don’t say, “no way are we gonna let this happen!” They don’t take up arms to defend Jabesh-gilead. They don’t do what they really should: fall to their knees and pray to the God that has helped them already defeat all their enemies. They weep over the fact that Jabesh-gilead is in such a position.
So Saul comes along and asks what’s going on.
Now note how God is working all things out. First, Saul was named king, and goes back home, and is out working in the fields. Remember, he was not officially the king until he leads Israel in battle and is victorious.
Second, he’s out in the field. He just so happens to be coming in from the field when the men from Jabesh-gilead are here telling everyone what’s going on.
God is working all of this out.
And now God is going to work.
And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.
You know, there are many critics that will say that the concept of the Trinity is absent from the Old Testament. Some say that there may be some implicit references to a second YHWH figure that appears in physical form, and maybe one or two possible references to the Holy Spirit.
But we have already seen, the Word of God has already appeared in the book of Samuel. Very clearly God in physical form. And we saw that the Gospel of John points to that figure as the eternal Son of God.
Here, we have the Spirit of God rushing upon Saul. This is the Holy Spirit.
Now, I will try to keep this short, but realize I just had to do a word study for school on the Hebrew word for Spirit and had to look at all 375 occurrences in the Old Testament, so forgive me for going all word-nerd for a minute.
Like in the Greek, the Hebrew word for Spirit - רוּחַ - can be translated spirit, wind, or breath. And the Bible plays with those options metaphorically. Like in Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, where the word רוּחַ is translated in most English Bibles four different ways - spirit, Spirit, wind, and breath.
The New Testament does the same thing with the Greek word, like in John chapter 3, where Jesus speaks to Nicodemus about the Spirit and uses the wind - they’re the same word - as a metaphor for the spirit.
And sometimes, there is some play on the words between the two Testaments. Like, Jesus has the Ezekiel prophecy very much in view in His discussion with Nicodemus.
Or like here, where the Spirit of God is said to rush upon Saul, just like when the Spirit comes on Pentecost and there is the sound of a rushing wind when the Spirit falls.
So what is being pictured here is the Holy Spirit coming upon God’s people to do the work that man cannot do. This is a picture of the day of Pentecost.
The Spirit here comes and rushes on Saul, so Saul can win victory for God’s people against the nations, and he was going to take back what the nations took. Like, the Spirit empowers the church to win victory for God’s elect by taking back the nations for Christ.
But understand, before Pentecost, the Spirit did not permanently indwell people, necessarily. We will see that the Spirit is taken from Saul later in the book. But what is very clearly pictured here is the work of the third Person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit that works in and through ordinary people so God can achieve His purposes.
And whereas man sees his troublesome situation and just weeps, God inspires Saul to take action. The Spirit works through Saul, and Saul gets angry.
But Saul is not angry with the king of Ammon. He’s angry with the people of Israel.
He is angry with them for their inaction. He’s angry at the men of Jabesh-gilead who were ready to roll over when opposition came. He’s angry at the men in his own town for not stepping up and joining their brothers in fighting their battle.
So Saul - in the Spirit - motivates God’s people to do what’s right:
He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “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.
Clearly, Saul’s anger is directed towards Israel here. And he gives them a wake up call.
And note, that the dread of YHWH falls upon the people. The Spirit worked through Saul, and his actions brought all of Israel back to God. They aren’t afraid of Ammon anymore. When one has a proper fear of the Lord, the fear of worldly opposition disappears.
And in this fear of the Lord - at the prompting of the Spirit inspired Saul - the people of God are united. They came out as one man. They are together and ready to take on the opposition to God and His kingdom.
They are united including Saul and Samuel. Saul says they will both lead this battle - the people are to come out after them. The king, and the prophet who is also the priest. So God’s people are led to victory by the prophet/priest, and king.
God is working. Through fear of YHWH. Through the Holy Spirit. Through types of Christ. God is doing amazing thing trough ordinary people.
And here, that means, none of His people would have to bleed to make any covenant. Instead, God would fight the battle and provide salvation.
When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you 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.
And they give their answer to Nahash:
Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.”
There is another play on words happening here. What they say to Nahash is actually purposefully ambiguous.
It may seem as if they are trying to fool Nahash and lure him into battle.
But, the verb translated “we will give ourselves up” here, is a verb that is most often translated in the Old Testament as “go out”. And it is the verb used to speak of going out to war. It is the same verb used back in chapter 8 where we read the people insist on a king, saying:
1 Samuel 8:19–20 (ESV)
“No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”
This “go out” is the word the men of Jabesh-gilead use here:
Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.”
So they are telling Nahash that they have made their determination. Remember what they said to him:
The elders of Jabesh said to him, “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.”
Here is the same word, but they are talking about coming out to surrender here. They say if there is no one to save them, they will surrender.
But the point is that there is One Who will save them. God will do it. And He will do it through His people:
1 Samuel 11:10 (ESV)
“Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.”
Or:
“Tomorrow, King Nahash, we will go out against you in battle, and you do what you think you need to do. You can fight, or you can surrender.”
And literally, this says: “tomorrow we will go out against you, and you do to us all as is good in your eyes.”
Now remember, the options for the men of Jabesh-gilead were to surrender and lose all their right eyes, or to find a Savior to fight their battle. And here, there is another play on the words from their original exchange. Instead of surrendering and giving up their eyes, they will go out to fight and he can do what is good in his eyes.
And notice: the people of God came together as one. The Spirit worked in Saul. The people chose to fear YHWH instead of their enemies. And they were together as one.
And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch 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.
Also note that Saul came up with a strategy. This was going to be done in God’s power - it was God doing this - but Saul, the one who received the Holy Spirit - he still had to take responsibility for what God called him to do.
Because when we have both - when we have the power of God working, and when we take responsibility to work as God calls us to - brothers and sisters: we can’t lose.
Israel came together as one - with each other - and with their God - and they won the battle. The enemy was scattered. No two of them were left together.
And as Saul promised in the Spirit, by the time the sun was hot - by the heat of the day - salvation had come to God’s people.
God worked it all out, and He used His people - ordinary people - to do it.
Because that’s how God works.
And note: God used horrible circumstances for the good of His people. When they united together in Him, working together with the Holy Spirit, fearing God instead of man, they saw His glorious salvation worked, and the nations be overcome for His glory.
Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.”
So realize, now Saul is the king. He went out to battle and he won.
So the people want to know where those worthless fellows we saw last week are. Remember how chapter 10 ended:
But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace.
And we see here in chapter 11, this man - Saul - in the power of the Holy Spirit, did save them. On his own, he couldn’t. But with the Spirit of God at work in and through Him, he couldn’t fail. And now that he has won the battle, and now that he is the king for realsies:
Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.”
“Now that Saul has saved us, let’s get rid of all opposition to him.”
Man, imagine living in a society where you are hated that much just for disagreeing politically.
But Saul, in the power of the Spirit, is going to work salvtion instead:
But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel.”
So we have this salvation language again.
The men of Jabesh-gilead needed a savior.
Saul hears about it, the Spirit rushes upon him and he says they will have salvation.
And they receive salvation.
And those men that asked of Saul: “how can this man save us?” are themselves saved by Saul.
And then Saul tells everyone Who has really done the saving.
“Today, YHWH has worked salvation in Israel.”
Through His Spirit. Through those who follow the prophet/priest and king. YHWH God worked His salvation for His people.
Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us go to Gilgal and there renew the kingdom.”
Now Samuel calls for God’s people to renew the kingdom. The word can mean renew, repair, or restore. And commentators are split on this: is Samuel telling Israel to renew Saul’s kingship?
He had already been anointed and king. He had already been announced as king. So now that he has won his military victory and it was official, it would be proper to renew his kingship. For the people to renew their allegiance to him who is now officially the king.
Or, based on the fact that Saul said YHWH has worked salvation - in other words, this was YHWH’s victory, not his own - is Samuel calling for Israel to renew or restore the kingdom to YHWH, the true King?
I mean, Samuel was against the whole earthly king idea to begin with. And since it was YHWH Who won the victory in battle, then He has rightfully earned the allegiance of the people to Him as King.
So who is Samuel saying is king? Saul, or YHWH? Is it Saul’s kingdom, or YHWH’s kingdom being renewed?
Yes.
Listen, nobody knows how to make the best of a bad situation like our God. We’re terrible at it, to be honest. But God does it time and time again.
His people had gotten their eyes off of Him. They looked around instead of up, and that got them in trouble. They saw the world and wanted to be like the world instead of like their God. They wanted to conform to the world instead of the calling of YHWH.
So they ask for an earthly king. And they get one, and there is even further division because of it. Some wanted Saul, some didn’t, as we saw last week.
Then, we see this week that the situation is even worse than that. This isn’t just about wanting to be like the nations around them, we see that some of Israel had actually joined themselves to the nations around them.
And here, there were more of them willing to do just that. And the only way they weren’t going to, was if there was a Savior willing to save them.
And there was. And there still is. And YHWH is that Savior.
Here, He sends His Holy Spirit to fill Saul, and Saul leads the mission of God.
And God wins a decisive victory.
God worked something amazing through the ordinary people that follow Him.
So here, Samuel is calling the people of Israel to recognize Saul as king, but to remember that YHWH is really the King.
He wants them to see how God works. They put themselves - in so many ways - in a very bad situation. And God acted. They chose to have an earthly king, a bad choice and a bad situation, and God acted even through it.
They put themselves in a bad situation in Jabesh-gilead, and God acted through it.
There was division among God’s people. And God acted through it.
And here, Samuel realizes that God made nothing but good from it all. God made the best of man’s bad situation.
Because that’s what God does.
And so the people needed to recognize both YHWH and Saul.
They needed to recognize the Sovereign King. And they needed to recognize the means He sovereignly uses to accomplish His will: far less than perfect people.
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.
The people of Israel submitted themselves to YHWH and to Saul. They made Saul king in the presence of YHWH. They reaffirmed that God is sovereign, and they accepted the means by which He chose to work among them.
Because He provided salvation through the less-than-perfect circumstances. In fact, when we read the Bible - or live as an adult for a very short time - we realize: there are never perfect circumstances from man’s point of view.
But God uses those circumstances for our good, and to accomplish His salvation.
God just provided salvation through a far less-than-perfect Saul. Because by the power of the Holy Spirit, far less than perfect men can achieve God’s perfect will.
And God, by the power of His Spirit, is still doing this today. Remember: God has not changed.
So what does that mean for us?
Well, first, we need to realize that we who have been given the Holy Spirit are God’s means of working His will in the world. We are His means of working salvation in the world.
We, the church - full of ordinary people - the church that was born when the Holy Spirit came on God’s people like a rushing wind, are called - like Saul - to lead the charge. We are called to fight the battle before us.
And our battle is a spiritual battle. Saul had to reclaim land from the Ammonites, and God did that - that’s how He worked His salvation.
We, the church, are called to reclaim this world for God. And He is ready to work that salvation through us.
God is ready to win the victory in this world… using us.
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
The men of Jabesh-gilead had a choice - find a Savior, or give into the world and have their eyes gouged out. Well, we have a Savior.
But we still have a choice. It’s a choice we have to make every day, every moment. We can look to our Savior and be victorious over the world, or we can give in to the world and be blinded by it.
What will we choose?
Well, remember, the men of Jabesh-gilead’s choice was really this: do it on their own and fall to the world, or turn to a Savior and be set free from the world.
Realize, they were given the victory. It wasn’t a victory they won themselves. God did it for them.
Because God fights for His people. He fights for our salvation.
He is the One that wins our victory. He won it one the cross when He bled for us. He will win it still when He comes again:
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And He will do it every day, every moment that we look to Him instead of the world.
Let’s keep both of our eyes, and let’s keep them on Jesus.
And let’s see Him work amazing things through us.
Second, realize, God still fights our battles when we seek Him. He fights our battles, and He wins us the victory, but He uses means to do it.
Like He used Saul to win the victory for His people here.
He used people that He fills with His Spirit to carry out His will and win the victory for His people collectively. But like in our passage today, this only happens when we are united as one in the battle.
In other words, victory is won by God through His church when we are together. He wins His victory by overcoming the world and expanding His kingdom through us.
But He also wins the victory in each of our lives - those moment by moment choices we make - through His church. We are not just here to unite and overcome the world out there. We are here to unite and overcome the world in here.
God has placed us here, to help each other win our victories over the world.
There are those in here that are full of the Holy Spirit and faith and are ready to take on the world right now.
And there are those in here that are struggling against the world. Who have lost some battles lately - maybe are in a fierce battle right now - and maybe even feel a little helpless against the enemy.
But brothers and sisters, we are the church. We are God’s means of victory. And if we are united in our battles, then nobody is helpless.
Till now God has been our help. And He always will be. But until we see Him face to face, He will do it through His church.
help or find help this week
So if you are here and you have not surrendered yourself to Christ - if you have not placed your faith in Him - this is the day to claim that victory.
You have the same choice as the men of Jabesh-gilead in our passage today. Be overcome bu the world, or find a Savior and overcome the world.
My friend, there is a Savior.
And if you don’t know Him, God placed you here this morning so He could reveal Himself to you.
Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
Place your faith in the only Savior.
And for us who know Him, let’s remember: He took on our sin, and made Himself the lower party in the covenant, so that we could rule over sin.
God has fought for us and defeated our enemies.
And Christ has established Himself as our King.
And our King fights for us.
And now He wants to continue to fight and do radical things through us and our very ordinary - but obedient - lives.
All we need to do is come together as one in the power of the Spirit and the fear of the Lord, and no enemy can stand before us.
For our God is a God that still fights for His people!! And our God is a God that wins every battle He fights!!
He is ready to do amazing thing…through us!