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From Eternity Past
Leaving Samuel to administer the government as formerly, Saul
returned to Gibeah. He made no attempt to maintain by force his
right to the throne. He quietly occupied himself in the duties of a
husbandman, leaving the establishment of his authority entirely to
God.
Soon after, the Ammonites invaded the territory east of Jordan and
threatened the city of Jabesh-gilead. The inhabitants tried to secure
peace by offering to become tributary to the Ammonites. The cruel
king would not consent but on condition that he put out the right eye
of everyone.
Messengers were at once dispatched to seek help from the tribes
west of Jordan. Saul, returning at night from following the oxen in
the field, heard the loud wail that told of some great calamity. When
the shameful story was repeated, all his dormant powers were roused.
“The Spirit of God came upon Saul, ... and he took a yoke of oxen, and
hewed them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the coasts of Israel
by the hands of messengers, saying, Whosoever cometh not forth after
Saul and after Samuel, so shall it be done unto his oxen.”
Three hundred and thirty thousand men gathered under the com-
mand of Saul. By a rapid night march, Saul and his army crossed the
Jordan and arrived before Jabesh in “the morning watch.” Dividing his
force into three companies, he fell upon the Ammonite camp at that
early hour, when, not suspecting danger, they were least secure. In
the panic that followed, they were routed with great slaughter. “They
which remained were scattered, so that two of them were not left
together.”
The promptness and bravery of Saul, as well as his generalship,
were qualities which the people of Israel desired in a monarch, that they
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might cope with other nations. They now greeted him as their king,
attributing the honor of the victory to human agencies and forgetting
that without God’s special blessing all their efforts would have been
in vain. Some proposed to put to death those who had at first refused
to acknowledge the authority of Saul. But the king interfered, saying,
“There shall not a man be put to death this day: for today the Lord
hath wrought salvation in Israel.” Instead of taking honor to himself,
he gave the glory to God. Instead of showing revenge, he manifested
forgiveness. This is unmistakable evidence that the grace of God
dwells in the heart.