After firing Israel’s first king, Samuel became head of the 12 tribes…
Which means he had to clean up the mess Saul left.
So the first order of business was to execute Agag, the king of the Amalekites.
Saul committed a horrible wrong by letting Agag live.
Now, what’s interesting is that depending on your Bible version, Agag appears to be saying two different things in response to being brought to Samuel.
The King James version has Agag saying…
“Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
The Complete Jewish Bible says…
“Without doubt, mine will be a bitter death.”
One statement implies Agag was NOT expecting to be executed and that he would be allowed to live.
The other statement has Agag expressing his grief and misery that he’s about to meet his Maker.
So which one is it?
I’m not going to be dogmatic about this but I think given the oriental mindset back in those days, Agag wouldn’t have been completely off the mark to assume he would be given special treatment because he was royalty.
The fact he was brought to Samuel, Israel’s respected prophet, would have served to underscore this assumption.
He probably thought “Wow, I’m being protected and honored by being brought to Samuel”.
Unfortunately, he was in for a rude awakening.
Agag was going to pay for his sins according to God’s Laws (in this case, holy war protocol) irrespective of worldly traditions.
And that’s your takeaway for today.
The Holy One of Israel has His own agenda that is often at odds with the world’s ideas of morality.
In the book of Genesis, we’ve seen how God often reversed the first-born blessing by giving it to the youngest instead of the oldest son.
We’ve seen how He ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the child who for many years seemed like he would never be born despite God’s promise.
We’ve seen how God ordered the extermination of entire populations of people down to every man, woman, child, and baby.
The harsh reality we have to face about God is He doesn’t play by our rules or our notions of right and wrong.
He operates according to His standard of justice which is difficult for mere mortals to comprehend.
That’s why it takes faith to stick with God especially when His decisions seem irrational and nonsensical.
I’ve shared these verses before, and I’ll share them again because they express a truth mankind needs to come to terms with if they’re ever going to enter into peace with their Creator.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
-Isaiah 55:8-9
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