Hello Everyone!
I Samuel chapter 11.
King Nahash, the Ammonite, made it a practice to gouge out the right eye of his enemies as a message to those around him. When he came up against Israel at Gilead, the Israelites feared him and hoped that somebody would come rescue them. They knew if they fought them they would die but if they surrendered their right eye would be gouged out. King Nahash let them see if anyone from Israel would come rescue them. He let them because he was confident no one would come because of his evil reputation.
The problem is, God was present and had already prepared Saul for such a time as this. When God's Spirit came upon Saul, he was angered by King Nahash and was able to muster up 330,000 men to fight against the enemy. As a result, Israel attacked the Ammonites at their own camp and slaughtered them. As a result, Saul was finally recognized as king and he was finally able to recognize God's calling on him and was able to boldly accept it. After the victory the people of Israel celebrated before the Lord.
Some lessons I have learned from this passage are:
- No matter how many times you have felt defeated and overcome, God is still one Miracle away. Don't give up!
- Right now God is preparing each of us for a particular day, for a particular situation, where he will use us to intervene in someone's great need. Just as Saul was prepared for such a time as this… Their brothers in need! God is also preparing us for such a time as this… Someone who is in need.
- When the body of Christ comes together, there are endless accomplishments that can be made for the Lord!
- When victory comes, God deserves our Praise, Thanksgiving and Celebration.
God, use me today in bringing victory in someone's life.
I usually consider anger to be a negative emotion because of how often times the next step that an individual takes is a sinful one that will probably be regretted later on. We could go all the way back to the first two brothers on earth and see the devastating decision that Cain made to commit the first murder after he was warned not to sin in his anger. There are many other examples such as when Moses was angry and he disobeyed the Lord by striking the rock instead of speaking to it as he was instructed to do.
Here in this chapter though, we see anger in a positive way as the Spirit of God came upon Saul and in his anger he was stirred up to take action. He rallies up the people to come to the rescue. I believe that there are times when God can give us a righteous anger as He wants us to be bold and take action in certain situations. We just need to be cautious with anger to not act selfishly. For example, I don’t think that road rage would ever count as righteous anger. We can ask ourselves the following question.
Am I angry because of something that I don’t like or seems to be against me or am I angry because of something that God doesn’t like or seems to be against Him?
James 1:19 tells us “Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”