Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 116
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
1S
| 10:23–11:9
And the Lord replied, “He is hiding among the baggage.” So they found
him and brought him out, and he stood head and shoulders above anyone else.
Then Samuel said to all the people, “This is the man the Lord has chosen as your king. No one in all Israel is like him!”
And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
Then Samue l told the people what the rights and duties of a king were.
He wrote them down on a scroll and placed it before the Lord. Then
Samuel sent the people home again.
When Saul returned to his home at Gibeah, a group of men whose
hearts God had touched went with him. But there were some scoundrels
who complained, “How can this man save us?” And they scorned him and
refused to bring him gifts. But Saul ignored them.
[Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the
people of Gad and Reuben who lived east of the Jordan River. He gouged
out the right eye of each of the Israelites living there, and he didn’t allow
anyone to come and rescue them. In fact, of all the Israelites east of the
Jordan, there wasn’t a single one whose right eye Nahash had not gouged
out. But there were 7,000 men who had escaped from the Ammonites, and
they had settled in Jabesh-gilead.]
About a month later, King Nahash of Ammon led his army against the
Israelite town of Jabesh-gilead. But all the citizens of Jabesh asked for
peace. “Make a treaty with us, and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.
“All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition. I will gouge out the
right eye of every one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!”
“Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel!” replied the
elders of Jabesh. “If no one comes to save us, we will agree to your terms.”
When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the people about
their plight, everyone broke into tears. Saul had been plowing a field with
his oxen, and when he returned to town, he asked, “What’s the matter?
Why is everyone crying?” So they told him about the message from Jabesh.
Then the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul, and he became very
angry. He took two oxen and cut them into pieces and sent the messengers to carry them throughout Israel with this message: “This is what will
happen to the oxen of anyone who refuses to follow Saul and Samuel into
battle!” And the Lord made the people afraid of Saul’s anger, and all of
them came out together as one. When Saul mobilized them at Bezek, he
found that there were 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000 men from Judah.
So Saul sent the messengers back to Jabesh-gilead to say, “We will rescue
you by noontime tomorrow!” There was great joy throughout the town
when that message arrived!