1S15-14: The God Of Israel Could Care Less About The United Nation’s Rules Of War

^“Sha’ul said to the Keni, Go away, withdraw, leave your homes there with the ‘Amaleki. Otherwise, I might destroy you along with them, even though you were kind to all the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt.’ So the Keni went away from among the ‘Amaleki.”-1 Samuel 15:6

So Saul tells a tribe of people called the Kenites living near the city of the Amalekites to hightail it out of the area lest they become collateral damage once Israel launches her offensive.

The part where it says the Kenites had been “kind” to Israel really doesn’t do justice to the original meaning of the word.

The Hebrew word here is CHESED or חֶסֶד.

It is a very special word in the Hebrew language that refers to a strong kindness or love between people.

The point is the Kenites were considered by both God and the Hebrews to be righteous gentile friends of Israel.

But so there’s no misunderstanding, don’t think just because the Kenites were friendly towards Israel that meant they were a saved people.

Being friendly towards Israel is NOT the same as being part of or grafted into Israel.

They were not Hebrews, which means they were not part of the redeemed nation of God.

While it’s fine to show mercy and charity to the people of Israel…

And you will be blessed as a result…

The way to salvation is to completely surrender yourself to the God of Israel.

Now that I’ve got that point off of my chest, let’s move on.

Understand that Saul wasn’t threatening the Kenites.

He sincerely didn’t want them to get hurt which would’ve been highly likely during a war situation when it’s practically impossible to tell the difference between friend and foe in the heat of battle.

But more importantly, this was a holy war that was about to commence.

It wasn’t your average secular war where two nations battle each other over resources like oil or fight to accomplish some political goal.

Saul had been given divine instructions to exterminate the entire population of Amalek down to every last man, woman, child, and baby.

That’s right.

There was to be no distinction made between soldiers and civilians.

That’s another reason why Saul was telling the Kenites to pack up their bags and flee the area.

Once the Kenites left, Saul’s men launched their offensive at a place called Havilah. that continued all the way to Shur, at the border of Egypt.

Most scholars think Havilah was located by a river called the WADI of Egypt.

Recall a WADI is a dry river bed.

In this case, it served as the natural boundary line that divided the Holy Land from Egypt.

Alright, let’s switch over to today’s takeaway.

I just told you that Saul’s war against the Amalekites was to be the complete destruction of an entire people.

In other words, there would be no careful targeting of soldiers so as not to harm civilians.

God’s clear command was to KILL everyone including as I’ve already said many times even the women, children, and babies.

There’s no way around the fact this was a divine command to commit genocide per the Law of Herem which means ALL the spoils of war were to be devoted to destruction.

Remember that phrase “devoted to destruction”, because that’s actually an excellent way to translate HEREM into English, especially when compared to how many other English Bibles usually render it.

Now, this is probably gonna be the most politically incorrect thing you’ll hear this year…or ever for that matter.

Since this is such a sensitive topic, instead of presenting things in a dogmatic fashion…

Let me attempt to gently broach the topic by closing with a couple of questions for you.

Was Israel’s war to take Canaan a Holy War?

If the answer is “yes”, then…

Doesn’t that mean the chief Godly principle governing Holy War known as HEREM applies?

Again, this means ALL the spoils of war, including the entire human population are to be “devoted to destruction”?

Now, fast forward to Israel’s current war with Hamas (I’d say a modern version of the Amalekites) in response to the atrocities that were committed against them on October 7th, 2023.

We’re told the Israeli military has been doing its darn best to distinguish between the Hamas terrorists and “innocent” civilians in their attacks (almost impossible if you ask me given that Hamas hides themselves purposely in civilian areas).

Now here’s the difficult question.

Given the Scriptural law of Herem, is it really necessary for Israel to have to make a distinction between soldiers and civilians including women, children, and babies?

Remember, the Gaza Strip area according to Scripture belongs to Israel.

God does not and will not approve of some two-state solution.

So given that this is Promised Land territory, is this not a Holy War?

And if this is a Holy War, would not the Holy War protocol of Herem apply in this case?  

Let me know your thoughts.