God’s Judgments

Originally Posted at This Week @ Great Peace Academy
February 23, 2012

In I Samuel 15:2&3 we see Samuel tell King Saul that God wants him to utterly destroy the nation of Amalek. He says to destroy every man, woman, child and infant. He tells him to destroy the cattle as well. They were not to leave anything nor anyone. As humans we often wonder why God would be so harsh in His judgemnet against Amalek, but contextually He has told us when we look at the bigger picture of scripture. This nation of people was a nation of BULLIES! They attacked the Israelites from behind cutting down the weak. They came and destroyed the crops and animals of the Israelites which the Israelites had worked to build up. They ran like cowards when comfronted by Gideon. Here again in I Samuel 14:48 that the Amalekites were one of the nations who had been plundering the Israelites. They did this from generation to generation, it was a learned behavior that was being passed down within the family of Amalek. So Saul goes out to battle the Amalekites, yet he chooses to allow King Agag to live. He also chose to take the plunder of the land including the best of the sheep, cattle and food. When Samuel confronted Saul about his sin, he claimed that he was doing so for an offering to God. But God knows the hearts of men and Saul without doubt disobeyed the Lords command in not destroying this evil nation. Samuel took a sword and killed King Agag.

You would think that would be the end. But we see that because Saul failed to follow God’s command there were some remaining Amalekites. Moving ahead in the text we see David on the run, hiding from King Saul. For a time Saul loved David, he gave him his daughter for a wife although even that was with trickery. We know that David loved Saul. Eventually though Saul becomes jealous and entertains a heart of murdering David. David runs, but as he runs he builds an army for himself. He and his army join forces with the Philistines. At first we might wonder why David would freely work with the enemy of his home nation. But soon we see he uses the opportunity to destroy other enemy nations as well as thwart attempts against Israel. While David and his army are working with Philistia, they leave their wives and children at an encampment in Ziklag. Focus in on your scripture and read I Samuel 30. Here they are again. The Amalekites come while the men are away and burn, plunder and carry off the women and children. When the men return and find their families gone, they become angry at David and even attempt to stone him. I Samuel 30:6 tells us “But David took strength in the LORD his God.” David went after the Amalekites. We are told that he found them with the help of an Egyptian who was their slave. When he found the, they were drinking and revelling in their plunder. So David attacked them from morning until the next evening! We are told in 30:17 that he destroyed them all except for 400 men who escaped on camels and fled.

Then we see Saul, who by this point is filled with terror, seek out a medium to attempt to call the spirit of Samuel who had died from the dead. Samuel appears but I assure you it wasn’t by the mediums power but rather God’s. He had a message for Saul. He told him his doom.The next day in chapter 31 we read that while on the battlefield out of complete despair and loss of hope, Saul falls on his own sword and dies. Moving on into II Samuel, David finds out about Saul’s death from none other than a young Amalekite man. Now this young man must have assumed that David ould be delighted by Saul’s death, for he claimed thatnit was by his hand that Saul died after he found him wounded on the battlefield. But rather than delight David he grieved David and thus David ordered his death.

I Chronicles 4:41-43 tells us what happened to the rest of the Amalekites they were finally destroyed by the Simeonites. There is some speculation concerning when this took place, but none the less, they were destroyed just as God had said.

When we look from a perspective that takes in the scope of hundreds of years we see that these Amalekites who were also descendants of Abraham were cruel bullies who cared only for themselves. They oppressed God’s people not from a militaristic standpoint, but fom a cowardly self seeking standpoint that sought out the weakest of the Israelite nation. From God’s perspective they brought much pain to His chosen people. It was through them that all nations would be blessed. And we being Gentiles are blessed, through Jesus Christ descended from the line of Jacob (Israel), we can have salvation if we obey His will. God’s judgments are right. Do you seek to obey the LORD’s commands or are you self-seeking like the Amalekites? Do you heed His will or do you follow your own desires like Saul? These are questions we must each ask ourselves. But, God is righteous and He always does what He says He will do. Are you ready to answer Him?