No Treaty

 DEVOTION

1^ST SAMUEL

NO TREATY

1 Samuel 11:1-8

11:1 Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh Gilead. And all the men of Jabesh said to him, "Make a treaty with us, and we will be subject to you." 2 But Nahash the Ammonite replied, "I will make a treaty with you only on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel." 3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Give us seven days so we can send messengers throughout Israel; if no one comes to rescue us, we will surrender to you." 4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and reported these terms to the people, they all wept aloud. 5 Just then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, "What is wrong with the people? Why are they weeping?" Then they repeated to him what the men of Jabesh had said. 6 When Saul heard their words, the Spirit of God came upon him in power, and he burned with anger. 7 He took a pair of oxen, cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel, proclaiming, "This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone who does not follow Saul and Samuel." Then the terror of the LORD fell on the people, and they turned out as one man. 8 When Saul mustered them at Bezek, the men of Israel numbered three hundred thousand and the men of Judah thirty thousand.

The rest of this chapter will show us that all the men of Israel will affirm Saul as their king, but there is a story in this first portion of the narrative that we should ponder. Because the army of Nahash was greater than those in the city of Jabesh Gilead, they overpowered them. However, the men of Jabesh wanted to make a treaty to save their lives. The problem was that Nahash wanted to gouge out one eye of every man in Jabesh as a condition for a treaty. This is a great parable for believers to live in an unbelieving world. What can the righteous have in common with the unrighteous? How can we make any treaty with ungodly people? The Hebrew word translated as treaty has a deeper meaning of making a covenant, an alliance, a pledge between man to man. Of course, we are to love everyone, which includes the ungodly, as God loves them, and sent his Son to die on the cross so that whosoever believes will be saved. But what is posed before us is the difference between loving them, wanting them to hear the gospel and be saved, and making a covenant with the ungodly. We do not have a common ground with people who reject Jesus or want to live however they desire. We live in two completely different worlds. However, it also seems that we are under siege by the unbelieving world. They want to discredit our faith in God mainly because they love the darkness and do not want the light of the Lord shining anywhere on them. They have taken prayer to God from the schools, but teach unholy things. They want and have taken action to keep anything about God from the public square, while giving way to unholy symbols being displayed. We can have no treaty, no covenant with the world with its hatred for God. We think the only way they would make a treaty with us would be to gouge out one of our eyes, metaphorically, and make us subject to their way of life. Although we cannot do the same things Saul did, we also know that we should and can live with the Spirit of the Lord upon us. We have the Spirit living within us, and his power is available to us if we but open our hearts, allowing him to work within. It is a fine line to live in this world and not be of this world, not taking on the principles of this world, being in covenant, or agreement with the world’s system. Of course, we need the basic services the world provides, water, electricity, gas, food, clothing, transportation, technology, and many creature comforts, but that does not mean we are subject to the world’s principles or even agree with the ungodly world. Let us love them, but no treaty.