11:1
We now have a third declaration of Saul as the king of Israel. First of all we had Samuel's private anointing of Saul. Then we had the public declaration following the casting of lots. Now Saul will be declared king on the basis of a military victory. The threat comes from Nahash the Ammonite. It may be significant that this is an Ammonite, not a Canaanite. The promise over Saul was that he would deliver them from the Canaanites. Nahash mean serpent, and some see an allusion to Gen 3:15. Anyway Nahash lays siege against Jabesh-gilead, and the people of this town are all too ready to surrender and serve the Ammonites.
11:2
We now see what a violent man Nahash was, and the nature of the times in which they lived. He agreed to make a treaty with them, but only on condition that they let him gouge out everyone's right eye, and so humiliate Israel. This was not only barbaric, but when we read of Israel defeating various peoples, we are not reading of them defeating nice quaint villages. To put this in a modern context, we may rightly be appalled at the death and destruction in Gaza, but we must also put in the context of what a barbarous mob Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists are.
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