SCRIPTURE: 1 Samuel 15
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. [1Samuel 15:3] Let’s be honest, isn’t this ethnic cleansing? A whole people group wiped out? Were they were such terrible sinners? It makes me think of the conversation Jesus had with His disciples: Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. [Luke 13:1-3]

What I hear Jesus saying is that death (perishing) is an unavoidable reality that we all face [Genesis 2:16-17, Romans 6:23]. Our sin unleashed a fury of sin, death and hell. Sooner or later we all experience it: cancer, alzheimers, car accidents, murder, aging, heart attacks, natural disaster, freak accidents, etc. God did not decide to make death part of this world, but He does not direct it’s timing and purpose. He now uses the sin and death we unleashed in this world for His purpose. Believe it or not, its better than it would be if God did not restrain it. God restrains death, otherwise this world and our experience of it would be worse. I suspect the planet (and us) would not even be here anymore.

We are born on a conveyer belt that leads through sin, to death and hell. This is not God’s idea, its ours. Every time someone suffers, or dies, it is a reminder that we all need to repent. Another thought, just because all these people died, does not mean that they all went to hell. That they died here does not mean they were all “worse sinners”. They were all caught in the tidal wave of sin, but God knows which one’s in their hearts were open to Him, and which ones were closed to Him. Yes, I believe that among the Amelekites there were ‘believers’ who died – just as I believe that there are believers who die tragically as well.

Yes, this is a hard passage. May God never ask me to do something like this. I would fail too. Thankfully Jesus has advanced God’s purpose beyond these OT realities, that grace and love for enemies trumps executing justice for God. Which raises the question for me today – God is not calling me to kill my enemies, but to love them. Am I obeying him here, or am I disobeying like Saul did? Am I failing to follow through on God’s mission for me?

PRAYER:
Lord, neither killing nor loving my enemies is easy for me. Yet I must obey You today, as Saul should have then. Forgive me and help me.