“Here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘I remember what ‘Amalek did to Israel, how they fought against Israel when they were coming up from Egypt. Now go and attack ‘Amalek, and completely destroy everything they have. Don’t spare them, but kill men and women, children and babies, cows and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”-1 Samuel 15:2-3
If you’ve been following me over the past couple of days, you should by now possess a strong understanding of the pattern and prophetic nature of Amalek and how this group represents Gentiles who oppose God and Israel.
Although the pattern and principle of Amalek were established thousands of years ago in the Scriptures, the evil they represent transcends time, borders, and national origins.
So with that understanding, let’s get back to 1st Samuel Chapter 15 concerning the historical reason why God is now ordering Saul to extract vengeance from the Amalekites.
If you recall, after Israel had escaped Egypt, Amalek had viciously attacked Israel while they were still a group of helpless wanderers out in the desert wilderness.
God’s judgment toward this action was both severe and final.
Here’s what He said straight from His Torah.
“ADONAI said to Moshe,
‘Write this in a book to be
remembered, and tell it to Y’hoshua:
I will completely blot out
any memory of ‘Amalek
from under heaven.'”
-Exodus 17:14
And we have this one:
“And as Israel neared
the end of their 40-year journey
and approached Canaan,
the Lord again said:
Remember what ‘Amalek did
to you on the road as you were
coming out of Egypt, how he met
you by the road, attacked those
in the rear, those who were
exhausted and straggling behind
when you were tired and weary.
He did not fear God. Therefore,
when ADONAI your God has given
you rest from all your surrounding
enemies in the land ADONAI your
God is giving you as your inheritance
to possess, you are to blot out all
memory of ‘Amalek from under
heaven. Don’t forget!”
-Deuteronomy 25:17-19
I like how God says “Don’t forget!”.
He’s basically saying “There’s no way in hell I’m gonna let Amalek get away with what they’ve done”.
Now the operative phrase that explains why God is so steadfast in His determination to utterly wipe Amalek off the face of the earth is the part where it says…
“He did not fear God”.
Think about what that means for a second.
The only reason why Amalek (the embodiment of all gentiles who oppose God) attacked Israel is that they could’ve cared less about the divine consequences.
They did NOT honor and accept God.
Obviously, those who oppose God and Israel don’t fear Him.
“The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the
Holy One is understanding.”
-Proverbs 9:10
This leads to a really important takeaway.
There are a lot of folks who think they can stand with the God of Israel while at the same time opposing the people of Israel.
There are even a lot of Christian churches that hold to this position out of some ridiculous political or philosophical belief that is totally out of whack with what Scripture says.
If this is you…
If you think you can somehow stand with God while being against His Chosen People Israel, I think it’s time to rethink your theology homie.
Because standing against Israel means standing against God.
When you do this, you are counted as Amalek.
All of those pro-Hamas protesters you see on college campuses and out on the streets all over the world…
Trust me…
They have been counted as Amalek.
Now, don’t get me wrong.
I ain’t saying you have to agree with or endorse every action the Israeli government takes…
Or side with the opinion of every Jew (probably impossible because as they say “two Jews, three opinions”).
But what I am saying is…
If you truly are a believer in the God of Israel…
If you truly have accepted the Jewish Messiah as your “Lord and Savior”…
If you truly consider yourself grafted into the commonwealth of Israel…
Then, the natural result of that should be a divine and Holy Spirit-directed love for His People.
Personally, I feel that way…
I don’t have to make an effort to feel that way…
I don’t have to exercise any willpower to muster up some superficial love for Israel because that’s what the Scriptures say I should feel…
Pouring forth out of the deepest inclinations of my heart…
I LOVE Israel…
I LOVE the people of Israel…
I even LOVE the food of Israel (the best food on the planet in my opinion)...
I LOVE the land of Israel (I broke out into tears once I knew the plane I was flying in entered Holy Land air space according to the TV monitor in front of me on that Korean Air flight I was on about five years ago)…
Some of my best and closest friends are Jewish…
My heart broke when I saw what happened on October 7th (which is considered to be the second holocaust)…
Heck, I’ve been faithfully blogging through the Hebrew Bible for ten years now and counting and I ain’t got no plans to stop (Lord please continue to give me the power to do this).
That just doesn’t happen without an undying love for God and His People.
Ya feel me?
I’m going to leave you today with two quotes that are very relevant to everything I said today.
One quote is from the Book of Ruth and the other is from a Messianic Jewish preacher named Art Katz (now deceased).
Here’s the one from the Book of Ruth:
“But Ruth replied,
‘Don’t urge me to leave you
or to turn back from you.
Where you go I will go,
and where you stay I will stay.
Your people will be my people
and your God my God.'”
-Ruth 1:16
And here’s the quote from Art Katz:
“They (the Jews), are a kind of barometer of the spiritual condition of the Gentile people. I have only to know how a Gentile believer regards the Jew to understand where he is spiritually. When you meet an anti-Semite, you know exactly where he is spiritually. He is a despiser and hater of God, no matter what religious vocabulary he employs. A man’s real regard for the Jewish people is the most sensitive indication of where he is in his relationship with God. And my experience in my eight years of walking with the Lord is this, those Gentiles who have the highest regard for the Jewish people are the most spiritual people.”
I don’t hate the Jews, in fact I don’t hate anyone race or ethnicity. But I have seen Jews do terrible things, they spit at Christians, they mock Jesus Christ, and for some reason the pervert Hollywood is dominated by Jews, of course these are not all Jews, what I am trying to say is that I don’t look at Jews any different than I look at other ethnicities, I decide my views on each people no matter their race individually, I don’t have any superficial hate or superficial favouritism towards any one race , sure I am grateful to Jews because their forefathers made a covenant with God through which God provides salvation for us all. I seem to notice that people have no balance or discernment and have an inclination to just group and generalise whatever they have an opinion on for example if a woman has a bad experience with a man or even a few they start to generalise all men are bad etc.
Thanks for your comment.
Sure, I understand and actually agree with what you say…
There are people who do terrible things in any nationality…
I think you have taken a fair and balanced perspective…
There is no perfect or sinless race or nation…
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness because, in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Yeshua.”-Romans 3:23-26
That’s why we all need a Savior…
Be blessed.