IBS Application for 1 Samuel 11:11-13

“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. 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.’ But Saul said, ‘Not a man shall be put to death this day, for today the Lord has worked salvation in Israel.’”

Saul, although he became quite the wicked man in his later years, still did what was right in the eyes of the Lord at this point. Because of his faith in the Lord, the Lord gave the Ammonites into the hands of Saul and Israel. But what is particularly striking about this passage is the self-control he demonstrated when his men confronted Samuel asking for permission to put those to death who were mocking Saul and saying that they wouldn’t be led by him.

When his men asked this, he didn’t respond as he might have in his later years, with wrath and hatred. He instead declared that no one would be put to death, because the glory of that victory belonged to the Lord. I imagine that this would have taken a good deal of discipline. The men who had scorned him for being made king had now been proven wrong in their assessment of him, and even Saul’s own men wanted to get back at them. But Saul held his peace and kept his cool.

I think the lesson here is quite clear. Even when those around us scorn and mock us, the Lord would have us be merciful, and rejoice in our service to Him, as Saul did. This reflects the way that Jesus lived His life. He did not act rashly in response to the false accusations leveled at Him, but exercised discernment in these situations, with responses that sometimes appeared harsh or coldly aloof, but in reality were all out of love for every person, that they might turn to Him for salvation.

In the same way, we need to exercise self-control and discipline ourselves to not act on sinful impulse when we feel as though we’ve been wronged. God was willing to have mercy on us, so we should have mercy on others. We just have to be careful to not let our flesh get in the way of that.


My application for this IBS will be to pray specifically today and the next two days that God would grant me the patience and self-control I need to love my teammates well, as well as the consciousness needed to realize when I fail to do this, that I might seek forgiveness from God, seeing as how all of us are going to be working at MudMan for the rest of the week, and it has admittedly been difficult to not be frustrated with them at times.

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