1S11-4: The Hatred In Our Hearts That Cause Us To Kill Our Own Brothers And Sisters

“Then Nachash the ‘Amoni came up and set up camp to fight Yavesh-Gil‘ad. All the men of Yavesh said to Nachash, ‘If you will make a treaty with us, we will be your subjects.'”-1 Samuel 11:1

So let’s get our bearings on what exactly is going on here at the beginning of chapter 11 in 1st Samuel.

So who exactly was this Nachash fellow?

We’re told he was an Amoni or Ammonite.

The Ammonites were the descendants of Lot who was Abraham’s nephew.

So they were Semites or sons of Shem…

In other words, they were distant cousins of the Israelites.

They had made their homes in the east of Gad and Reuben territory with their capital city being RABBATH-AMMAN.

Now here’s what’s interesting.

Today RABBATH-AMMAN is called Amman and it’s the modern-day capital of the Kingdom of Jordan.

Do you think the name similarity is a coincidence?

Obviously not.

This is just another piece of evidence demonstrating the historical accuracy of the Scriptures. 

Onward.

Let’s take a look at JABESH-GILEAD.

This city was located on the eastern side of the Jordan River and was well-equipped with various defensive structures and measures to protect it from potential attacks or threats.

So what apparently happened is the survivors of the combined armies of Gad and Reuben escaped to Yavesh-Gilead hoping it would be a safe haven.

Unfortunately, it turned out no such thing.

In short order, Nachash arrived with his Ammonite forces and quickly set up a siege.

A blockade was put in place whereby the remaining soldiers of Gad and Reuben were completely surrounded and cut off from outside help or supplies.

This meant if they didn’t surrender, they would eventually starve.

Now, normally such a surrender benefited both sides.

The attacking army saved time and resources in battle, not to mention a lot of the city’s infrastructure was spared.

On top of that, the besieged were allowed to live and didn’t lose their homes.

So that was how things normally went down.

But this Nachash dude was a real bastard.

His condition for not killing every last citizen of Jabesh-Gilead was he be allowed to gouge out the right eye of every Israelite man.

And what was his reason for doing this?

Because he wanted to bring “disgrace upon Israel” is what we’re told.

What pure and crazy irrationality!!!

So I’m noticing something interesting from all of this.

Notice how I pointed out that Nachach was an Ammonite and that the Ammonites are the sons of Shem.

Again, they were distant cousins of Israel.

One takeaway I’m getting here is I’m amazed at the intense hatred that exists among people groups of like origin and ethnicity.

Consider the Arabs for example.

They too are sons of Shem, but it seems like the national policy of every Arab nation is to want to wipe the Jewish State off the map.

Or consider the hatred that exists among the Asian nations.

Generally speaking, the Japanese look down on and despise the Chinese and the Koreans…

And that hate is reciprocated.

I also find this baffling.

Because it’s so obvious that in every way possible way…

Culturally and linguistically, and in terms of the food they eat etcetera, they are so similar.

It’s only in the United States that it’s no big deal for a Japanese-American to marry a Chinese-American for instance.

So what’s the lesson here?

I think this demonstrates the depth and depravity of the evil and darkness that lies deep in our hearts…

A hatred so intense, that we would think nothing of committing acts of terrorism against our own brothers…

Or slicing the heads off of people who look just like us…

This just goes to show how the whole world is mired in sin and is in desperate need of a savior

And until the Messiah returns, the situation won’t change.

I’ll leave you with that today.

CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
neither slave nor free,
nor is there male and female,
for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.”
-Galatians 3:28