“The Spirit of God fell on Sha’ul when he heard this; blazing furiously with anger, he seized a pair of oxen and cut them in pieces; then he sent them throughout the territory of Israel with messengers saying, ‘Anyone who doesn’t come and follow Sha’ul and Sh’mu’el, this is what will be done to his oxen!’ The fear of Adonai fell on the people, and they came out with united hearts.”-1 Samuel 11:6-7
Following on the heels of yesterday’s post, we find Saul out plowing his fields when messengers arrive from Gibeah.
Upon hearing the tragic news of Yavesh-Gilead, all the people in the city began crying and weeping.
When Saul got wind of the news, we’re told the Spirit of God fell upon him and he was filled with a blazing anger.
This makes sense because as I explained yesterday, aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends connected to his own family were now under attack and in serious danger at Yavesh-Gilead.
It’s also inspiring to see that Saul was suddenly empowered with the divine capability to lead his men in battle when up until now, there had been no evidence to suggest he possessed any leadership ability whatsoever let alone military experience.
You too will be blessed with these kinds of supernatural gifts at the perfect time when you surrender to God and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Onward.
What Saul did next seems mysterious and strange.
Actually, let me rephrase that.
His actions are only strange if you’re like 99.9% of the population who does NOT properly read the Bible in sequential order as it was meant to be read.
So we’re told Saul got a hold of a pair of oxen, chopped them up into pieces, and sent them off to the other tribes with a message to prepare to go to war against Nachash.
He also made it clear that if anyone refused, their oxen would also end up being chopped up…
And no doubt, this message contained a strong implication that any dissenters would also suffer a similar fate.
Now the question that arises is what gave Saul the idea to do what he did?
Well, recall yesterday how we revisited that gruesome story from the Book of Judges about how the Levite’s concubine was abused to death by a gang of rapists at Gibeah?
Do you remember what happened afterward?
Let’s see for ourselves by reading the following verses:
“When her husband got up, opened the doors
of the house, and went out to go on his way,
he saw the woman lying there with her hands
stretched out toward the door. He said to her,
“Get up! Let’s go!” But there was no answer.
So he loaded her body on the donkey and
began his trip home. On arrival at his house,
he got a knife, took hold of his concubine’s body,
cut her up into twelve pieces, and sent them
to all the regions of Israel. Everyone who saw
it said, “From the day the people of Israel came
up from Egypt until now, never has such a thing
happened or been seen. What are we going to
do about it? Talk it over and decide.”
-Judges 19:25-30
Well, there you have it homies.
The takeaway here is simple and it’s something I’ve been harping on for the longest time.
When trying to comprehend events in Scripture, don’t ask the question “why”?
That’s a gentile or Greek mental construct and doesn’t work when trying to understand the Bible.
Instead, ask WHAT PATTERN as in where have I seen this pattern before?
Remember, none of the Bible stories occurred in a vacuum.
They’re all interconnected and they’re reasons behind why people did what they did.
Now, before I close, I do have to point out that Saul’s action to chop up the oxen and ship off the body pieces to different parts of Israel wasn’t necessarily a wise decision on his part.
Think about it for a second.
He was patterning his actions after one of the most disgusting things to have ever happened in Israel’s history: the dismembering of a woman’s body followed by the body parts being sent all over Israel.
While Saul doing the same thing with a pair of oxen wasn’t on the same level of gruesomeness, it certainly wasn’t edifying.
But no doubt, the people of Israel understood perfectly what was being communicated.
On top of that, this was occurring in the very same city where the concubine incident occurred and between the very same parties of Benjamin and Yavesh-Gilead.
As I said, always be on the lookout for the Biblical patterns folks!
I was in the US Navy for several years. Have been to the Philippines more times than I can count. Was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, and we had numerous Filipino’s working on the ship I was stationed on. Many were cooks.
I remember walking through the ship to go from one space to another, and most times, we had to walk through the mess decks to get to where we needed to go. The Filipino’s would be doing paperwork at the tables, or on a break, speaking their native Tagolog. I could get the jist of what they were talking about, just by the English words they used from time to time while speaking in their native tongue. Apparently, for some English words, there is not a Tagolog word for it. Language is interesting.
However, I HATE, with a passion, when English is a FIRST LANGUAGE, and ONLY LANGUAGE to many, that we read an article, or a blog about the Bible…IN ENGLISH, mind you, then we get the Hebrew words for names included.
In my tongue, we say JESUS, not YESHUA HaMashiach. Jesus ate a ham sandwich? I wish I had a Hammock! In Spanish it’s HEYZUSE, SPELLED WITH A “J”. We call this TRANSLITERATION.
It’s OK to speak English to English people! Just sayin!
My grandmother wore a SHAUL. But it’s funny you didn’t do that with BENJAMIN, which, in Hebrew is BENYAMIN, or SON OF THE RIGHT HAND. I think he’s related with STANDS WITH FIST! If you didn’t see the movie, you wouldn’t get it!
Ed Chapman
Thanks