11 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.

² “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!”

³ “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.”

⁴ When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the people about their plight, everyone broke into tears. ⁵ 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.

⁶ Then the Spirit of God came powerfully upon Saul, and he became very angry. ⁷ 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. ⁸ When Saul mobilized them at Bezek, he found that there were 300,000 men from Israel and 30,000^[b] men from Judah.

⁹ 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!

¹⁰ The men of Jabesh then told their enemies, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you can do to us whatever you wish.” ¹¹ But before dawn the next morning, Saul arrived, having divided his army into three detachments. He launched a surprise attack against the Ammonites and slaughtered them the whole morning. The remnant of their army was so badly scattered that no two of them were left together.

¹² Then the people exclaimed to Samuel, “Now where are those men who said, ‘Why should Saul rule over us?’ Bring them here, and we will kill them!”

¹³ But Saul replied, “No one will be executed today, for today the Lord has rescued Israel!”

¹⁴ Then Samuel said to the people, “Come, let us all go to Gilgal to renew the kingdom.” ¹⁵ So they all went to Gilgal, and in a solemn ceremony before the Lord they made Saul king. Then they offered peace offerings to the Lord, and Saul and all the Israelites were filled with joy.

1 Samuel 11

Dear God, I like this story because it shows Saul growing in a good way. We get so many negative stories about Saul, it’s good to see a good one. In this case, there were a lot of people who doubted him as their leader, and he wasn’t giving them much reason to change their mind. Then, when he heard about Jabesh and the people there, your power came upon him and he turned into a leader. A leader that not only the people could believe in, but also a leader that he could believe in. I don’t think he thought that much more of himself as a leader than his doubters did. In fact, he probably had mercy on them because he could see where they were coming from.

I talked a couple of nights ago at the Bible study I was leading about “imposter’s syndrome.” I get it all the time. In fact, right now, I’m feeling a little overwhelmed by a particular challenge at work. It’s hard to figure out how to solve. What will I do? I thought I had at least an initial solution yesterday, and I started to not only celebrate, but also think about how it seemed like you were providing for us. Then the rug got pulled out from under me, and I was back at square one. What to do. I’ve been in this job 20 years, and I’ve earned a lot of credibility with the people I work with and the community. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still get really insecure about who I am and what I’m capable or not capable of doing.

Father, Saul’s biggest problem was that he took this glory and started to cling to it as his own. I do not want to do that. I do not want glory of power for myself. I have someone who is about to start working for us who seems to be content just being a behind-the-scenes worker at this stage of his life. No glory needed. I want to be that way too. I can’t help but be the face of our organization, but I want to decrease as much as possible so that you might increase through me and into the world. For your glory, and your glory alone, oh, Lord!

I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,

Amen