a. Encamped against Jabesh Gilead: The Ammonite enemy surrounded this Israelite city, and simply by doing so they made their demands clear. The Israelite city must either surrender or be conquered.
b. Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you: The men of Jabesh Gilead felt this was their only hope of survival. Either they must surrender to Nahash (we will serve you) under agreed terms (make a covenant with us), or they would simply be killed and plundered.
i. “Instead of humbling themselves before God and confessing the sins that had brought them into trouble, they put God altogether aside, and basely offered to become the servants of the Ammonites... We see here the sad effect of sin and careless living in lowering men’s spirits, sapping courage, and discouraging noble effort. Oh, it is pitiable to see men tamely submitting to a vile master! Yet how often is the sight repeated! How often do men virtually say to the devil, ‘Make a covenant with us, and we will serve thee’!” (Blaikie)
c. That I may put out all your right eyes: When the men of Jabesh Gilead asked Nahash for a covenant, he agreed to settle peacefully with them – if all the men of the city had their right eyesgouged out. Certainly, Nahash was a serious man.
i. Nahash made this demand for many reasons. First, it was to glorify himself by humiliating the men of this city and all of Israel. Half-blinding the men of this city would bring reproach on all Israel by making Israel look weak and unable to prevent such an atrocity. Second, it would make the men of Jabesh Gilead unable to fight effectively in battle. In hand-to-hand combat the man with one eye has less depth perception and is at a disadvantage to a man with two eyes.
ii. “He who opposes his shield to the enemy with his left hand, thereby hides his left eye, and looks at his enemy with his right eye; he therefore who plucks out that right eye makes men useless in war.” (Theodoret, cited in Clarke)
iii. We can see in this account a similarity between Satan, our spiritual enemy, and Nahash, the enemy of Israel.
· Satan attacks us but cannot do anything against us without our agreement. He asks for and requires our surrender.
· Satan wants us to serve him and will attempt to intimidate us into giving in to him.
· Satan wants to humiliate us and exalt himself over us. Through humiliating one saint, Satan wants tobring reproach on all God’s people.
· Satan wants to take away our ability to effectively fight against him.
· Satan wants to blind us and if he cannot blind us completely, he will blind us partially.
· The name Nahash means serpent or snake. (Guzik)
Reminds me of a song!
Gotta Serve Somebody
Bob Dylan
“You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the Devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody”
It comes down to surrender, who will we surrender to, the Lord or to the devil?
”Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.“
James 4:7 NKJV
May we all have the courage to submit to God, confess our sins and resist the devil!
Blessings
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