Saul went back to his hometown after he was
made king and the ceremony was over. God
moved several fighting men to go with him.
Others laughed at the thought of him being their
king. They showed their disgust by refusing to
give him a gift. Saul ignored this and went back
to work on the family farm.
At that same time, the Ammonite army went
to fight against a city in Israel. The leaders of the
city said to the Ammonite king, “We’re willing to
surrender to you. What are your terms?”
The king said, “Here are my terms. I’m going
to use you to insult all of Israel. I’ll do this by
gouging out the right eye of everyone who lives
in your city.”
The leaders of the city sent back a message.
“Give us seven days to consider your demands.
We’ll use that time to see if anyone in Israel is
able to help us. If not, we’ll submit to your terms.”
The city leaders sent messengers to all of
Israel. When the news of this came to Saul’s
town, the people began to moan and cry. Saul
came in to town with his oxen after finishing a
day’s work in the field. He looked around and
said, “Why is everyone crying?”
They told him the terms of the Ammonite king.
Anger burned within Saul when he heard these
words, and the Spirit of God took control of his
spirit. He turned and killed his own oxen. He
cut them into pieces and sent them throughout
Israel with this message. “Look at this piece of
meat. This is what your ox will look like if you
don’t come immediately and fight. Every man is
to march behind Saul and Samuel. There are no
exceptions.”
As soon as people heard this message, the
fear of the Lord filled them. 330,000 men united
to follow Saul into battle.
He sent a message to the city that was under
the threat of the Ammonites. “We’re bringing
an army to defend you. We’ll be there before
midmorning.”
The people of the city were overjoyed. They
send a message to the Ammonite king and said,
“We’ll come out to you tomorrow. You can then
do whatever you want with us.”
Before sunrise, Saul’s army attacked the
Ammonite camp. The Israelites kept killing
Ammonites all morning and into the afternoon.
Only a few escaped.
After this great victory, the people said
to Samuel, “Who are those men who were
disgusted about Saul being our king? Give us
their names and we’ll kill them.”
Saul spoke up, “No! Don’t kill them! Today is a
special day. Today, the Lord delivered Israel.”
Samuel said, “I have a better idea. Let’s unite
together and once again make Saul our king.” So
the people united together and rejoiced as they
made Saul their king.
© God Child