Real People- Real Problems
A study of 1 Samuel
Part 8
“Going along to get along”
Two times in the movie lonesome dove we see very adverse reactions to rude behavior
The first is Gus whacking a surly bartender with his big walker colt
For disrespecting he and Capt Call
And for bad service
“I believe we will require a little respect.
I’m Capt. Augustus McCrae, and this is Capt. Woodrow F. Call.
Now if you look over there, you can see us in earlier days when the people around here wanted to make us senators.
Now the one thing we didn't put up with is doddling service. And as You can See, We still DON'T put Up With It.”
And then again by Captain Call
When the Old Army scout is trying to take Dishe’s horse and Newt tries to stop him
And is taking a beating from the old grizzled Scout
Call rides down the street on Gus’s horse
Knocks the old scout down and really gives him a beating
When he gathers himself back up
He turns to the crowd
And says
“I hate rude behavior in a man
I won’t tolerate it”
Now listen
I am in no way advocating violence of any type
But both of these scenes are a good visual illustration of
Not going along in order to get along
Gus could have just let the surliness pass
Call could have looked the other way on the rude behavior
But neither did
They drew a line and refused to cross that line
Jake Spoon on the other hand as we have seen in several other sermons
Went along with lots of things he did not agree with
In order to get along with the Suggs brothers
He crossed the line
Maybe he never drew a line
Or saw the line
But it cost him plenty
He ended up sitting on a horse with a noose around his neck
Being hung with the very type of men he had once rode to fight against
He lowered his guard
Went along to get along
And it did not turn out well for him
Call, Gus and Jake are good cowboy examples of going along to get along
Or
Not going along
In today’s sermon
We are going to look at an extreme example of wiliness to go along
And then take a hard look at how sometimes we as Christians
Ignore the line
Cross the line
Or sometimes how we never drew a line to begin with
Please open your bibles to chapter 10 and 11 of 1 Samuel
Today we are continuing our series titled real people – real problems
And today’s problem is making deals with the enemy
1 Samuel 10:27
[Nahash, king of the Ammonites, had been grievously oppressing the people of Gad and Reuben who lived east of the Jordan River. He gouged out the right eye of each of the Israelites living there, and he didn’t allow anyone to come and rescue them. In fact, of all the Israelites east of the Jordan, there wasn’t a single one whose right eye Nahash had not gouged out. But there were 7,000 men who had escaped from the Ammonites, and they had settled in Jabesh-gilead.]
If you are reading from the NLT bible you will notice that this verse is in parentheses
If you are reading from the King James or a few other versions
It may be missing completely
This information was found in manuscripts which predate the manuscripts that the King James Bible was translated into English from
It is important to clarify that the addition or omission of this verse does not change God’s word
Nor does it affect the events or even the outcome
It simply gives us a bit more background information about the verses that follow in chapter 11
The Ammonites were the descendants of Lot and his wicked daughters
So we are looking at this verse today as History
If you will remember from our study of Genesis some time back
Lots daughters after God’s wrath was poured out on Sodom and Gomorra
Got their father drunk and while he was passed out
Had sex with him and became pregnant
Their sons were Ben-am-mi father of the Ammonites and Moab father of the Moabites
And their descendants became mortal enemies of the Israelites
And had been waging war on them for years
Their current King- Nahash whose name means “The hiss of the snake”
Was an extremely wicked and brutal king
He had attacked the tribes of Israel that had remained on the east side “Gad and Ruben” of the Jordan when the rest of Israel moved into the Promised Land
And made them his slaves
He had gouged out the right eye of every person of those tribes
Except for about 7000 who escaped to Jabesh-gilead.
And now
-- Nahash---
Wanted to conquer them as well
That brings us to chapter 11
And the topic for today’s sermon
1 Samuel 11:1-3
About a month later,[a] King Nahash of Ammon led his army against the Israelite town of Jabesh-gilead. But all the citizens of Jabesh asked for peace. “Make a treaty with us, and we will be your servants,” they pleaded.
2 “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition. I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!”
3 “Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If no one comes to save us, we will agree to your terms.”
The about a month later is a month after Saul ignored the men of Israel who opposed him as we studied last week
Nahash- the hiss of the snake
King of the Ammonites
Was not happy that some of the people of the tribe of Gad and Ruben had escaped
So he went after them
When he got there
The Israelites asked him to make a treaty with them
And so he said
Ok
If you let me gouge out your right eyes
We can make a deal
Verse 2
2 “All right,” Nahash said, “but only on one condition. I will gouge out the right eye of every one of you as a disgrace to all Israel!”
I don’t know about you but that does not sound like a good deal at all
I don’t see all that well anymore
But I kind of like having two eyes
I did some research on why the right eye
And what I found was very interesting
Warfare in those days was primarily a hand to hand combat situation- {illustration with shield and sword}
The men would have a sword in their right hand
And a shield in their left
They would go into battle
Lifting their shield to protect themselves
And look over or around the shield with the right side of their face and their right eye
So
By removing their right eyes
Nahash was removing their ability to defend themselves effectively
And removing their ability to launch an effective attack
In short taking the fight out of them
And once they could no longer fight
He could pretty much do anything he wanted to and with them
From a spiritual level
The right eye was symbolic of the right hand which was the place of honor
Their position with God
So Nahash was taking their defenses
Their ability to fight
And their loyalty to God
All in one swipe
The people were about to surrendered before they even fought
Verse 3
3 “Give us seven days to send messengers throughout Israel!” replied the elders of Jabesh. “If no one comes to save us, we will agree to your terms.”
This brings us to today’s lesson
Making deals
Going along to get along
The people of Jabesh-gilead
Were willing to give up lots to keep the peace
They were willing to give up their freedom
God had delivered their ancestors from slavery
And here they were about to place themselves back into slavery without even fighting
God had told their ancestors to be still and I will fight for you
But here they were saying
--Well if no one comes to save us ----
We will surrender
Nahash would not only take their freedom
But would demand their loyalty
I guess they forgot about the law that Moses brought from God on the stone tablets
That said you shall have no other God before me
Nahash wanted to be their God
And they were about to go along with it
You would have thought they would have learned that you can’t make deals with a snake
But I guess they had not
Listen
The right eye of the human body makes up a very small part of the body
But as we have seen it is a very important part
It may seem unreal to us to even think of allowing someone to gouge out our eye
But we as believer
Often make similar deals
We Cross the line
Ignore the line
Or never even draw a line
And this going along to get along can have disastrous consequences in our physical and spiritual lives
I want to concentrate on the spiritual side today
I have to ask each of us here
What are you willing to go along with in order to get along?
What are you willing to look the other way on?
Participate in?
Or allow someone to gouge out?
In order to not rock the boat?
Let’s start out with --Honesty
Would you be willing to give up your honesty in order to get along?
We all can agree that lying is wrong
But we often disagree on exactly what constitutes a lie
Some will even claim that there are some lies that are justified
The bible says
Don’t lie
It does not say don’t tell big lies
God says don’t lie
And Yes I know there are a few places in the bible where people lied
But it is simply recorded in God’s word
Not embraced
Listen
Bending the facts is lying
Leaving out key parts of a story is lying
Manipulating the truth is lying
White lies are still lies
Little lies and still lies
All of these are lying
And when we do it
We are making a deal with the Snake- Old slick
And he is taking away our Honesty
Most people would balk on telling big lies
Like false testimony in a court room under oath and such
But a small little lie is just as dangerous
It Gives Satan an open door to get you to tell another and another
Is it worth your honesty?
How about integrity
Would you give up your integrity to get along?
Looking the other way while a coworker cheats the company
Or steals from the company
Cheating or stealing yourself
Padding the bid
Cheating the time clock
Slacking off on the job
Charging to much
Crooked dealing
These things can destroy a person’s integrity
But many times we go along to get along
Sometimes out of fear of losing the job
Or the promotion or position
Sometimes we don’t want to be labeled as a bible thumper
A Jesus freak
We don’t want to be known as that guy or that girl
Other times greed is simply the motive
So we cross the line
Or ignore the line
And make a deal
And we allow our integrity to be gouged out
How about or morality
Would you allow your morality to be gouged out in order to get along?
What do you mean preacher
The bible says we are to flee from the very appearance of sin
But how often do we look the other way when the nasty stuff comes on TV
Or change the channel
How about the movies, books and magazines
We laugh at the dirty jokes
Even tell one ourselves once and again
Listen to
And sometimes even engage in profane and vulgar language and activities
Trying to fit in
Trying not stick out
And in doing so we are allowing our morals to be gouged out
Listen we make deals with the Snake
That can affect our reputations and our witness
Saying one thing and doing another
Acting one way at church and another at home or on the job
We make deals in the name of political correctness
Turning a blind eye to abortion- the murder of unborn children
Embracing alternative lifestyles
Accepting same sex marriage as just another form of marriage
Not taking a stand on the bathroom issues
Let’s get real
How many of you are really comfortable with a man
I don’t care if he is dressed like a woman or identifies himself as one’
Using the same shower as your daughters, grand daughters
Your wife- Not me
But we don’t want to rock the boat
So
So we make deals
Sometimes we just don’t want to be involved
Other times we don’t want the fight
Just a few loud voices removed prayer from our schools
And now it is often hard to find God there
And that has trickled down to our homes as well
Just a few more took down the Ten Commandments in courthouses all over the world
A small percentage of Americans support the new Gay laws
But we as Believers
Said ---well---
We just want to get along
Jesus is love
So we must
Tolerate
Accept and even embrace wickedness
In order to get along
My Lord said
Enough is enough when the people were disrespecting the temple
And he made a whip and ran them off
Listen
I am not advocating violence
But I am saying we must stop making deals with the devil
When Nahash took the peoples eyes
He took their freedom
Their pride
Their identify
Their loyalty to God
And he was just the hiss of the snake
The real snake
The serpent
Old Slick
Wants to take your honesty
He wants to take your morality
He wants to take your integrity
He wants to take your loyalty to God
He wants to make you cold or unconcerned about the evils of this world
He wants to isolate you and then he can take your freedom as well
He can gouge out these things
And make you defenseless
He can start with just an eye
Just one small part
And if we let him
If we go along to get along
He will end up with all of us
So how do we defend against this?
The apostle Paul wrote
A letter to a group of people who lived in a very wicked society
A city called Ephesus
The Believers there were in danger of making deals
Going along to get along
Many had already done so
They were followers of Christ
But No one could tell them from the lost in the city
And he gives them and us in the process
A good plan to stop us from making deals
Ephesians 6:10-18
0 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we[d] are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
13 Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. 14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. 15 For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared.[e] 16 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.[f] 17 Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
We must remember who we are fighting
And what he wants
And use the armor that God gave us to fight against him
Close from the heart
Pray
