Chris Anderson tells the story of a man who went out to the desert to find God.[1] He fasted. He prayed. He longed to throw himself into the arms of God.
One day he was walking and he fell off a cliff. He would have fallen to his death if he hadn’t grabbed a branch partway down the cliff. As he swung there, grasping the branch, high above the river and the jagged rocks, he cried out, “Lord, Lord! Are you there? Help me! Tell me what to do!”
Eventually, the voice of the Lord came, calmly and quietly. “Let go,” the voice said.
Seconds passed.
The man cried out again: “Anyone else out there?”
Sometimes God works in ways we just don’t like. Sometimes we’d like to know if there’s anyone else out there.
1 Samuel 7 and 11 present two different ways God works.
In 1 Samuel 7 we see one way God works. Sometimes God works through his miracles. That is, sometimes, it seems like it’s all up to God. Sometimes, it seems like we’re supposed to let go and let God. It can be a scary thing to do. But sometimes that’s all we can do. Sometimes we don’t have anything else to do but let God work through his miracles.
It’s that way in 1 Samuel 7:
7 Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8 And the people of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. 10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” (1 Sam. 7:7-12 ESV)
We looked at this text last Sunday, and its invitation to set up Ebenezers, records of how God has helped us. I want to note this morning more pointedly the way in which God works in this text.
Notice the problem faced by the people. The people face a formidable foe. In this case the foe is the Philistine army. They are afraid of this foe.
What’s the solution to the problem? They leave the solution entirely up to God. They don’t believe they can contribute to the solution. They ask Samuel to pray to God for them. Samuel does this.
And God answers the prayer in a powerful way. God thunders with a mighty sound. There’s some mopping up which some of the Israelites do, according to v. 11. But for the most part, God’s miraculous work, his mighty thunder alone, does the trick.
Sometimes, God works through his miracles. Sometimes it’s all up to God.
But sometimes, it seems like it’s all up to us. Sometimes God works through our might. In 1 Sam. 11 we read a similar story, but a very different story.
Then Nahash the Ammonite went up and besieged Jabesh-gilead, and all the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, “Make a treaty with us, and we will serve you.” 2 But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, “On this condition I will make a treaty with you, that I gouge out all your right eyes, and thus bring disgrace on all Israel.” 3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, “Give us seven days’ respite that we may send messengers through all the territory of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will give ourselves up to you.” 4 When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, and all the people wept aloud. (1 Sam. 11:1-4 ESV)
Notice the problem. It’s very much the same problem as the one in 1 Samuel 7. The people face a formidable foe. In chapter 7 the foe was the Philistine army. Now the foe is a man named Nahash and the Ammonites. The people are afraid of this foe.
What’s the solution? It turns out to be quite different. Before, the solution was to leave it all up to God. Let go and let God. That’s not the case here. Instead of turning to prayer and miracles, the people turn to their own ingenuity and might.
Under the superior military strength of Nahash the Ammonite, the Israelites at Jabesh offer terms of surrender. Nahash, who seems arrogant, will only accept their terms of surrender if he can gouge out their right eyes. Their right eye is the one they use to take aim in battle–thus making them ineffective for the rest of their lives in battle.[2] Nahash not only wants their surrender. He wants their humiliation. He is so arrogant, and so confident in his military strength that he then even agrees to give them a week to find someone who might save them from him!
And it turns out that Saul is that savior:
5 Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. 6 And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. 7 He took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, “Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out as one man. 8 When he mustered them at Bezek, the people of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand. 9 And they said to the messengers who had come, “Thus shall you say to the men of Jabesh-gilead: ‘Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you shall have salvation.’” When the messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, they were glad. 10 Therefore the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will give ourselves up to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.” 11 And the next day Saul put the people in three companies. And they came into the midst of the camp in the morning watch and struck down the Ammonites until the heat of the day. And those who survived were scattered, so that no two of them were left together. 12 Then the people said to Samuel, “Who is it that said, ‘Shall Saul reign over us?’ Bring the men, that we may put them to death.” 13 But Saul said, “Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel.” (1 Sam. 11:5-13 ESV)
There’s no prayer to God. No thunder from heaven. No miracle. Instead, there’s Saul, and a lot of work, effort and might on his part.
Notice all the effort Saul goes through.
First, Saul takes a yoke of oxen, cuts them into pieces, and has those pieces distributed throughout the land with the message, ““Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” That is, first, Saul has to muster his troops. He has to do it quickly. There’s a very short timeline. And Saul, as a new king, has very little real authority. He’s the first king Israel’s ever had. So Saul takes a page from the book of Judges where something similar is done with the cutting up of an animal (Judg. 19:29-30). You do something drastic like this to create a sense of national urgency and to gather as many troops as fast as you can. This was how you communicate to your troops, “You’d better get here as quick as you can, or your livestock, your livelihood, will die!” It was Saul’s way of telling them that mustering for battle was more important than their jobs as farmers and ranchers.
Second, Saul has to create a battle plan. So he divides his troops into three companies, just as Gideon did in Judges 7 and Abimelech did in Judges 9. This same strategy will also be employed by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 13. It’s a military strategy that permits a move of surprise. His attack happens during the morning watch, between 2 and 6 AM, providing another level of surprise.
In other words, Saul puts forth a great deal of might here. There’s no letting go and letting God. There’s no just praying about it. There’s a lot of hard thinking and hard working here.
Same problem in 1 Sam. 7 and 1 Sam. 11–the people face a formidable foe. But two very different solutions. In 1 Sam. 7 we see God’s miracle. In 1 Sam. 11 we see human’s might.
But, surprisingly, notice what Saul says in v. 13:
today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel (1 Sam. 11:13 ESV)
What? The people of Jabesh searched for a savior and found it in Saul. Saul worked mightily and saved Jabesh from the Ammonites. But in the end, Saul gave God the credit: today the Lord has worked salvation.
Notice what’s going on here. Chapter 10 ended in this way right after Saul had been anointed king:
26 Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. 27 But some worthless fellows said, “How can this man save us?” And they despised him and brought him no present. But he held his peace. (1 Sam. 10:26-27 ESV)
Saul’s barely been king a few days and already he’s got critics! How can this man save us? they ask. Well, in chapter 11, once Saul has saved the people, his loyalists remember these critics. And they want to put the critics to death. After all, isn’t that the prerogative of God’s anointed? Can’t God’s anointed slay his enemies?
But notice what Saul does. He won’t overstep. Even though he’s had to take some things up for himself, he won’t go too far. He won’t take the lives of his enemies. Why? Because Saul knows that God’s still calling the shots. Even with all his effort for this day against the Ammonites, Saul knows that God’s the one who still deserves the all credit. So, he won’t kill his enemies. And he will give God the credit for this battle. That’s how big God is to Saul.
So, which is it? Is it up to us? Or is it up to God? The answer, unsurprisingly, is “Yes.”
There are times when all we can do is pray. There’s nothing we can do. There’s no action we can take. There’s no plan we can plot. All we can do is get on our knees and pray. We leave it all up to God. We let go and we let God. This is 1 Sam. 7.
It’s a lesson we must learn even today. Because far too many of us feel at times that it’s still all up to us. So we work ourselves to death. Or, we worry ourselves to death. We must learn that some things are entirely up to God so that we do not work or worry ourselves to death. Rather than work ourselves to death, rather than worry ourselves to death, there are times when all we can do, all we must do, is pray. Leave it up to God. Leave it all with God.
Jacob asked to go to South Korea this summer to do mission work. There was something really daunting about that for Kendra and I–even though he was going with my twin brother and his family. After all Jacob’s only recently learned to drive. He’s still not making his bed on the schedule we’d like. He’s never, not once, been overseas. And he wants to spend a month in South Korea! But once we saw him get on that plane, there was nothing we could do. No more preparation. No more talks. Nothing. Not even worrying was practical. We just had to leave him in God’s hands.
There are other times when it’s up to us. Times when we’re called to engage in hard and heavy and fulfilling work. I think about the immense amount of work our China Missions Team has done over the past three or four years–interviewed dozens of experts, researched endless issues, met hundreds of hours, travelled to China multiple times. All in preparation for the launch of a new work in China next summer. Sometimes it’s not as easy or hard as just letting something go into God’s hands. Sometimes we’re called to engage in tremendous effort, just like Saul.
But, and here’s the thing–even when we have to engage in mighty effort, it’s still up to God. Even when it’s up to us, it’s up to God. This seems to be Saul’s point. This is such a shining moment for Saul. Maybe his greatest moment. Because even after all his strategic and immense effort, he realizes that it was still God working through him. After all, his whole action only comes after the Holy Spirit falls upon him in v. 6. Saul seems to understand this. For a brief moment, Saul’s view of God is so big, he sees that even his own effort is just a part of the work of God in him. That’s why he can say after all that work that it was the Lord, not him, who saved the day.
- S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia, which tell the Christian story using symbols. In the chronicles, the part of God/ Jesus is played by a lion named Aslan. Lucy is one of four Penvensie children who wind up in the land of Narnia ruled by Aslan. She leaves Narnia and then returns. Upon her return, she finds that Aslan has changed:[3]
And then—oh joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him. But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not.
She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.
“Aslan, Aslan. Dear Aslan,” sobbed Lucy. “At last.”
The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into the large wise face.
“‘Welcome, child,” he said.
“AsIan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
As we grow, as our faith matures, we find God bigger. So big, in fact, that even in those areas of life where we have to work hard and labor long, we will realize that even then, God still gets the credit. In the end, it is always God who saves the day.
Notice how the story ends. Saul gathers the people together. They worship God and they rejoice greatly. That’s what happens when you are able to view even the hard work you do as something God is doing through you. You are able to give thanks. You are able to praise. When you allow God to be that big, it brings joy to your life.
Give God thanks this week for everything you do. Take joy in knowing that your skills, your physical energy, your intellect come from him. He’s the one who’s enabled you to perform well. Give him glory and credit even when it feels like it’s all up to you. Because the truth is that even then it was really all up to God.
[1] Chris Anderson, Light When it Comes, 58.
[2] Baldwin, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, 103,
[3] C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia The Chronicles of Narnia (1951, this edition Harper Collins, 1994) 141.
