It is likely that tension and threats from Nahash existed quite some time before his eventual attack on Jabesh-gilead.1 With their request for a king, the people of Israel specified the method in which future help should come to them. They put their confidence in a specific form of government rather than the Lord.2 In this they violated the terms of the old covenant since they did not believe in the Lord in the radical countercultural manner that he expected from them.3
12 Puis, voyant que Nachasch, roi des fils d'Ammon, marchait contre vous, vous m'avez dit: Non! mais un roi régnera sur nous. Et cependant l'Eternel, votre Dieu, était votre roi.