The Men of Jabesh

Recently someone asked me how New Covenant believers should apply the Old Testament. I showed him two similar NT verses. "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope." ( Romans 15:4 ESV) "Now these things ( the people of Israel during the exodus) took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did." ( 1 Corinthians 10:6 ESV) Yesterday I was reading in 1 Samuel 11 in a Portuguese language Bible. This is my fifth time reading the OT in that language plus many more times in English. Yet God showed me something that I had never connected before. Nahash, a pagan king, beseiges the city of Jabesh- Gilead. They try to negotiate with Nahash who says he will gouge out every man's right eye. The people send for help, and Saul, king of Israel responds and defeats Nahash's army. This takes place at the beginning of a reign that will last forty years. At the end of his days, Saul is slain with his sons and his army defeated by the Philistines. They take his body, sever the head, and fasten it to the wall of Beth-shan in their land. "But when the inhabitants of Jabesh- Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and they came to Jabesh and burned them there." ( 1 Samuel 31:11-12) Think about this. The two incidents are about forty years apart, which means that many of those rescued from Nahash were no longer living or too infirm to join the valiant men. The Philistines had just defeated the entire army of all Israel. Yet the men of Jabesh, one city, traveled all night to recover the body of the man who had saved them. The debt of honor is repaid. This is a powerful example of one generation honoring the memory of an older generation. It also serves of how one individual can honor the memory of another.