I often argue for the wartime mentality of the Christian life. Numerous New Testament passages deal with the themes of making war against our ancient enemies, Satan, Sin, and Death through the power of Jesus who is our crucified, risen, and returning Savior.

We are often called to fight against the forces of this present darkness (Eph. 6) in the strength of the Spirit, with weapons that are not of this world (2 Cor. 6; 10), from the position of being redeemed sons and daughters of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

My concern is that not every one of you will agree with the idea that the moment we surrender to Jesus is the moment that we enlist in his army. One commentator echoes this concern when he says:

“[We] go to sell a product, not fight a battle. We are marketers, not soldiers. We have merchandise, not weapons. We face potential customers, not an enemy. We are out to expand our market share and increase our customer base, not to capture, defeat, and destroy a foe. We form a business plan, not a battle plan. The conflict we face arises from the competition in the marketplace of ideas where our product is not the only one offered, rather than the hostile wiles of an enemy. The language of war, weapons, and battle is too extreme for the way we think about evangelism [and the Christian life in general in my opinion] [because] we are more like advertisers than fighters”2

The bottom line is this, making war against the enemy does not seem to be on the minds of most Christians when our feet hit the comforts of the carpet on our floors each morning when we wake up from our sleep. Could this be one of the major reasons why professing believers live in the darkness of Satan, Sin, and Death so often?

Why do we hear of so many Christian leaders disqualifying themselves with one egregious sin after the next? Why are so many believers so slow to confess legitimate sin to one another? Why do so many professing believers bounce from one church to the next every few years because their felt needs are not being met in this church or that church? Does it not seem that our old enemies are having a hay day with God’s church today?

Just like I asked a few weeks ago, would believers move out of the dark shadows of Good Friday and into the light of Resurrection Sunday if we began to see the Christian life like a war? What if every believer saw each morning as a fresh opportunity to make war against the enemy – against Satan, Sin, and Death – in the power of our victorious, crucified, risen, and returning Savior?

Let those questions resonate as we look to our passage for this morning. The passage we are studying today describes a war between Israel and one of her mortal enemies known as the Ammonites. The history of Israel’s conflicts with the Ammonites dates all the way back to one of the sons of Lot (whom we remember is Abraham’s nephew) in Genesis 19.

The conflict continues throughout the writings of the prophets (Isa. 11:14; Jer. 9:25-26; 25:21; 27:3; 49:1-6; Ezekiel 25:1-7; Dan. 11:41; Amos 1:13-15; Zeph. 2:8-9), and then pops up again in Deuteronomy 23 as Israel travels to the Promised Land, and then just a few years before today’s passage, we see them fighting each other in the book of Judges (3:13; 10:7-9, 17, 18, 11:1-33) where one of the judges leads Israel to defeat the Ammonites in a bloody battle.3

Suffice it to say, the Ammonites were one of Israel’s historic mortal enemies. This enemy had been a thorn in Israel’s side for more than a few decades and they were relentless in their attacks against God’s people. It is also important to remember that Israel’s spiritual condition was at an all-time low at this point as she had just been indicted for her rejection of the Lord in her lust for an earthly king so she that could be just like the surrounding nations (1 Sam. 8; 10:17-19).

So, just to set the stage here for the opening lines of our passage, Israel’s mortal enemy is poised to attack God’s people at the very moment when she has rejected God as her Savior and has given herself over to an earthly king who appears to have returned home (a place that has been overrun by another enemy known as the Philistines) and has yet to raise a finger of deliverance against any of their enemies.

So, to belabor the point here, Israel has at least two enemies on the doorstep (if not living inside the house) that she has not dealt with yet, she has rejected the only true Savior she has ever known, the earthly king she demanded does not seem to possess the ability or the desire to make war against her enemies. This is a pitiful place for God’s people to be.

If I was Israel’s enemy, this would seem to be the perfect time to launch an all-out war against an already majorly compromised opponent. That is exactly what the Ammonites do in verses 1 – 3 where we find one of Israel’s cities being besieged by the enemy. Look at the passage with me…

1Then 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.” 2But 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.” 3The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers through the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.” 4When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud. 5Now 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. 6And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. 7He 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. 8When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9And 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. 10Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow, we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” 11And 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.

#1: JABESH IS BESIEGED BY THE ENEMY (VV. 1 – 3)

Samuel tells us in verse one that “Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead” (one of the Israelite cities within the region of the tribe of Manasseh) “and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, ‘Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.’” The fact that Jabesh is willing to surrender and make a treaty with her enemy seems to illustrate Israel’s demoralized spiritual condition because they do not even appear to cry out for God to save them, they are basically ready to lay down in surrender with the enemy. Makes me wonder what spiritual enemies I have surrendered to lately.

Samuel continues in verse two with Nahash’s response to pitiful Jabesh when he says, “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.” Commentators are quick to explain that the gouging out of the right eye is not only a viscous act of brutality, but it would also render Jabesh’s men ineffective as warriors because they carried their shields on their left side covering their left eyes so they could aim their weapons with their right eyes – they would effectively be blind in battle and unable to see the enemy coming if Nahash gouged out their right eyes – but they would still make effective one-eyed slaves who would be forced to do the bidding of their slave owner.4 Again, this makes me wonder what spiritual enemies I have been blinded by and enslaved to.

This is what ruthless enemies do: they relentlessly attack until their opponent gives up and then they humiliate them, torture them, render them ineffective to fight back, and then enslave them to a life of forced service to the slave master’s evil desires.

What would you do if you had an enemy that was this relentless, this brutal, and this vindictive? Well Samuel tells us in verse three, that “The elders of Jabesh said to him [Nahash], ‘Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers through the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.’”

Notice here that the elders of Jabesh still do not call upon the Lord for salvation. It does not even appear that they are going to call upon their newly appointed human king to save them. Ironically, they seem to agree with the worthless fellows of chapter 10 who ask, “can this guy Saul save us?” This is not mention that they do not even appear to believe God can or will save them; it is almost as though they are playing human games, trying to avoid the inevitable torture and enslavement that lies ahead.

So, Jabesh is besieged by the enemy, nearly beaten, ready to surrender, totally rejecting God as her Savior, has no hope in her newly appointed earthly king that she demanded, and is now trying to prolong the inevitable by sending messengers throughout all Israel. 

What spiritual enemies have you surrendered to that you have been blinded by and enslaved to? What spiritual enemy has been besieging your heart lately? This could be as simple as something like greed or lust or anger or pride or bitterness or covetousness or any other thing that you are prone to struggle with.

The bottom line is that Israel in our passage – just like us on a daily basis – needs someone to deliver here from her enemy. Israel desperately needs someone to rally the troops to come and deliver her from her enemy before she becomes completely enslaved. That is exactly what happens in verses 4 – 7 of our passage where Saul rallies the troops.

#2: SAUL RALLIES THE TROOPS (VV. 4 – 7)

Samuel tells us in verse four, that after the messengers go throughout all Israel, they come “to Gibeah of Saul [and], they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud.” Obviously, the bad news that was brought by the messengers caused much weeping among the people of Gibeah as they tried to cope with the horror that was befalling their friends and family in Jabesh.

But why did the messengers not bring the report to Saul the newly appointed king – the one whom all Israel (except a few worthless fellows) thought would be their new savior? Is it because Saul had proven himself to be an absolute coward who had not even driven out the enemy from his own hometown?

Whatever the reason, Samuel seems to tell us that Saul had returned to working on the family farm when he says in verse five, “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.” The question in my mind if I am standing there among the crowd is, “Will Saul do anything to help? Is he even capable of helping? Is he just going to go hide in the baggage again?”

We must notice that Saul takes no initiative of his own here other than to ask a question in reaction to the weeping among his people. He is no man of valor; he is not the courageous savior/leader that Israel had demanded, and he takes no initiative on his own. Instead, Samuel tells us that it is God himself who takes the initiative in verse 6 where we read that “the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled.”

Saul is not a Spirit led, sanctified, follower of God like Moses or Abraham or Joshua, he is an unregenerate, unbelieving leader who was demanded by Israel and chosen by God to discipline his rebellion children. But that does not mean that God will not use Saul to deliver Israel for his own purposes.

In fact, God does choose to use Saul in this instance as his Spirit settles on Saul and gives him the supernatural ability to overcome his cowardly character with a newfound courage that manifests as righteous anger against Israel’s enemies.

Aided by his newfound, God-given courage, Saul chops up some oxen and sends the pieces out to the rest of Israel with a threat that the same fate will happen to anyone’s oxen who does not come out to follow Saul and Samuel into war against the enemy and the beauty of this episode is that Samuel tells us in the end of verse seven that “the dread of the LORD fell upon the people, and they came out as one man.”

This makes me wonder about what motivates me to make war against the sin in my life or the condemning words of Satan or the taunts of death that harass me on a daily basis. How often am I motivated to make war based upon some kind of threat? Or what would it look like for me to be motivated by the assurance that in Christ, I will be victorious? Making war from a place of promised victory is far more stable than being motivated by threats.

Whatever could be said regarding Saul’s approach to leadership – as he calls the people to war with threats rather than the proclamation of the vision of their faithful God who will provide the victory – it is significant to note that Israel is rallied and ready to go to war against an enemy who is about to get decimated and scattered like dust in the wind in verses 8 – 11.

#3: SCATTERING THE ENEMY (VV. 8 – 11)

In these final verses (vv. 8 – 11) Samuel describes the sheer size of Israel’s army (there are about three hundred and thirty thousand soldiers) that Saul splits into three special forces to attack the enemy from three different sides. He also sends word to Jabesh that their salvation will be completed by noon the following day.

Jabesh, in an act of momentary genius, deceives the enemy into thinking they will have their full surrender the next day which probably causes the enemy to sleep well and to not keep watch. Then, Israel, under Saul’s leadership, absolutely decimates the enemy and leaves them scattered in the wind.

The point here is that God supernaturally enables Saul to quit acting the coward and then uses him to lead Israel to defeat her enemies in war. God is still Israel’s Savior even though Israel has rejected him. The enemy does not have a fighting chance against the God who saves the most undeserving of us!

This is the story of our salvation from our enemies – Satan, Sin, and Death – illustrated through the story of Israel making war against their age-old enemy, the Ammonites. The bottom line is that God cannot be stopped from saving and delivering whom he decides to save. God will use whatever means necessary to deliver you from your enemies and the war has already been won in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ Jesus, then the victory has been promised to you!

APPLICATION…

By way of application, I do not know what battles you are facing today. Maybe you woke up thinking that you do not really have any battles to fight; the Christian life has become mundane to you. Or maybe you have been wavering between fighting and full surrender for so long that you are worn out and have ceased calling upon the One True God to save you and to set you free from the effects of Satan, Sin, and Death.

I believe that if every one of us could catch the image of Jesus going to the cross on our behalf when we were acting like his enemies so that by faith we could become his family, and then if we could visualize the empty tomb where Jesus secured an eternal victory over our enemies, that we too will experience when we walk out of our graves one day, and then if we could catch a glimpse of the hope we have in the promise of Heaven for all who have surrendered to Jesus, then maybe we would be empowered to get our butts out of bed every morning ready to jump into the fight and make war against an enemy who is already defeated.

If Satan, Sin, and Death have not already gouged out your ability to see and be effective in this war – and I pray that the Lord gives you the supernatural ability to see the power of the bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of heaven right now – then my hope is that just as Saul sent three battalions to destroy the enemy, maybe I can give you three weapons to wage war with on a daily basis.

WEAPON #1 – PRAYER: Prayer is absolutely vital to our ability in making war against the enemy. I offer this weapon in response to the fact that Israel did not pause to pray for God’s saving help in our passage. Imagine what would have happened if Jabesh had paused to pray before offering surrender. Maybe God would have answered and annihilated the enemy through the men in that city alone without the extra help of three hundred and thirty thousand soldiers. If we are not praying, then we are fighting in our own strength against enemies that are far superior to us.

Jesus often withdrew to quiet and private places to spend time in prayer with God the Father. All of Paul’s letters to the churches are full of prayers for the saints. At the end of the armor of God passage in Ephesians six, Paul says that we fight this war by praying on all occasions.

What stops you from praying? What could you do to prioritize prayer in your daily walk with the Lord? Could it be that the lack of prayer is the reason that you keep surrendering to the enemy?

I have begun using an app called “Lectio 365” which prompts me to pray intentionally, three times per day. I also believe it is important to be in an attitude of prayer like communication with God throughout the day for every circumstance and every decision and every difficulty and every blessing that comes my way. I would like to challenge you to make prayer a regular part of the way you wage war against the enemy on a daily basis.

WEAPON #2 – SCRIPTURE: Once again, I offer this weapon as a response to the negative example set by all of Isarael in our passage. Neither the people of Jabesh nor King Saul turn to God’s Word and the stories of his saving power throughout the ages. They rely on their own strength apparently unaware that it is God who gives the victory in battle (which is something that King Saul does recognize after the battle is over in 11:13).

Suffice it to say, if we are to make war on the enemy – Satan who condemns, Sin who tempts, and Death who mocks – then we must be a people who have the ink stains of the Scriptures on our noses from studying the Bible so often. Jesus quoted Scripture from memory when tempted by Satan. Scripture is called the Sword of the Spirit in the armor of God passage in Ephesians six. Paul encourages believers all throughout his writings to take up the Scriptures as an offensive weapon against Satan, Sin, and Death.

What is the barrier between your current level of Scripture study and the next level? What might you need to give up, to study the Scriptures more often? What do you think would happen in your ability to make war on a daily basis if you upped your game in studying the Bible?

My regular rhythm of Bible study is to read through the Bible once every year using the Bible App. I also enjoy various podcasts where I listen to other guys preaching the Bible. I also utilize various books on the Christian life that rely heavily on the scriptures for instruction. The bottom line here is that you and I cannot sharpen the sword of the Scripture too much. The more you study the Bible the sharper you will be in making war against the enemy on a daily basis.

WEAPON #3 – COMMUNITY: This weapon can loosely be seen by how all of Israel comes together to fight the enemy as one united force. Satan, Sin, and Death love to divide God’s people to render us ineffective. But for one bright shining moment, Israel is united (even if she is united by the threats that have been leveled by her king).

The bottom line is that you were not meant to make war alone, outside of the community of the church. Jesus established the church to be a force to be reckoned with at the gates of hell (Matt. 16:18), and all of Paul’s letters are written to churches not individuals; they were all written to church families or better yet, military outposts in the kingdom of God.

Hear me on this… you are ineffective in war if you are missing from the ranks of your battalion, your church family. We all have things that come up in our lives where we must be missing from time to time but that is not an excuse to missing for months on end. 

A brother or sister whose back you are to be watching is left unattended when you are missing for long periods of time. Your back is not being watched by other brothers and sisters when you do not participate in the regular weekly large and small group gatherings of your spiritual fighting force.

You cannot launch a united front with other believers if you are not physically standing on the line with them. The bottom line is this, church community is a vital weapon to wield in warfare against our enemies and I pray that you receive this challenge and act on it quickly so that you may wage war against the enemy from within the ranks of the most elite fighting force hell has ever seen.

What have you been so blinded by that you would surrender and not stand alongside your brothers and sisters in battle? Could it be that you have lost sight of the sanctifying and unifying work that can only be accomplished by being in regular community with other believers?

CONCLUSION…

In conclusion, we have studied the story of how Jabesh was besieged by the enemy, how Saul, under the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, rallied Israel for war, and how God gave the victory to Israel as her enemies were scattered like dust on the wind. We also applied the story to our lives by talking about picking up the weapons of our warfare, namely by picking up the weapons of Prayer, Scripture, and Community.

My concern, still, is that some of you may not be convicted or convinced yet of the necessity of those three weapons that I outlined. My concern is that you may have surrendered to the enemy who is actively gouging out your eyes so that you do not see the necessity of regular prayer, regular scripture study, and regular Christian community.

Allow me one last shot at convincing and inviting you into the glorious calling of wielding all three of these weapons with all the energy and precision that the Spirit of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior provides. My last argument revolves around the character of God himself and the fact that when you wield these three weapons, you actually represent him to the watching world who desperately needs to see God in your life.

Think about the character of our triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit. As far as prayer is concerned, it is basically communication or communion with God. Our Triune God has full and direct access to each part of the Godhead. What the Father wills is communicated by the Spirit and then embodied by the Son. As far as Scripture is concerned, What the Father speaks is carried on the breath of the Spirit and then fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus. As far as community is concerned, The Father, Spirit, and Son are eternally connected and fully unified and have never been separated for even a millisecond.

When we spend time in prayer, we are not only communing with God, but we are representing him to the watching world. When we study and memorize Scripture, we are not only putting the words of God in our hearts and minds, but our language is transformed and the world around us sees that change. When we commit to the regular rhythms of large group and small group gatherings, we are not only gaining brothers and sisters and participating in an outpost in the kingdom of God, but we are representing the triune unity of the Godhead to the watching world.

Anything short of what I just described brings reproach on the name of the Lord and renders you ineffective as a soldier in making war against the enemy. My desire is to see an entire army of soldiers raised up who will relentlessly make war against Satan, Sin, and Death in the power of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior. The bloody cross, the empty tomb, and the promise of heaven is our war cry. The only question left is will you pick up your weapons and will you make war against the enemy on a daily basis? – Amen?!

1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).

2 John, Woodhouse, 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader, Preaching the Word Commentary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2008), 192.

3 Ibid., 194.

4 Matthew, Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, New Modern Edition, Complete and Unabridged in Six Volumes, Volume 2 (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 263.