“For rebellion is like the sin of divination,
and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has rejected you as king.”
-1 Samuel 15:23
Welcome to Part 2 of our mini-study series on 1 Samuel 15 and how it connects to Deuteronomy 25 and its commands to utterly annihilate the Amalekites from the face of the earth.
Yesterday’s post ended with the question of…
…why did King Saul earn such a harsh judgement from the Lord just because he took some of the healthy remaining livestock after he destroyed the Amalekites?
Well, the answer to that question is connected to the following question:
WHO ORDERED THE WAR AGAINST THE AMALEKITES?
Answer: HASHEM.
Do you know what this answer means?
It means we’re dealing with a bonafide HOLY war here folks.
And do you know the incredible implications of that?
It means God’s established holiness protocols have to be applied before, during, and AFTER the battle.
Let me clarify exactly what I mean when I say “Holy War”.
Understand that a true Holy War is only a war directly ordered by God Himself.
Men who start wars in the name of the Lord (such as the Crusades or Islamic Jihad) are absolutely NOT holy wars.
Although some battles started by men throughout history may have been necessary and the right thing to do and the Lord may very well have been on their side in some of those cases so to speak, I reiterate that per the Torah, those are NOT holy wars.
Here’s the truth.
Since the close of the Scriptures, there have been no holy wars AND…
…there will be no holy wars until the Messiah returns to lead what is typically referred to as the “Battle of Armageddon”.
Are you getting this?
I really hope you are.
For example, our fight against radical Islam, while justified, is NOT a real holy war per the Biblical definition.
And just because HASHEM may have aided Israel in the several wars they have had since returning to the Holy Land also doesn’t mean those conflicts were holy wars.
Again, a true holy war per the Biblical definition is a battle DIRECTLY ORDERED BY THE ALMIGHTY HIMSELF and…
…the battle against the Amalekites is a perfect case in point.
Moving on, I also just mentioned in a true Biblical Holy War, there are certain non-negotiable holiness protocols in place and if these are disobeyed, dire consequences will result.
One of those holiness protocols is what is known as the Law of Herem.
If you can comprehend what I’m about to tell you, you can rest assured you’ll understand more about God, His Holiness, and Holy War than probably 99.9% (heck, maybe even 100%) of gentile Bible teachers, Pastors, or preachers anywhere in the world today…practically guaranteed.
I’m not even kidding man.
Heck, what I just said just might be an understatement.
I’m totally serious.
So what exactly is this Law of Herem?
First of all, the word HEREM is a Hebrew word that literally means “ban”.
In other words, something that is strictly off-limits.
So contextually speaking in Scripture, the Law of Herem as applied to holy war is referring to the fact that…
…the spoils of war belong exclusively to the Lord and ONLY to the Lord!
In a true holy holy war, it is forbidden for the soldiers who participated in the battle to seize the spoils of war following the conclusion of the conflict.
Here’s another thing you’ve got to understand.
Remember God is Spirit.
And because He is Spirit, He doesn’t have any need for captured animals, human slaves or even gold and silver nor even the towns and cities of the enemy.
He has zero need for any of the things earthly men lust and drool over like little kids wandering through the candy section of a grocery store.
Therefore, per the Law of Herem, the spoils of war are to ALL to be handed over to the Lord unless He makes a special exception and specifies otherwise.
Are you getting this?
This is true Torah man!
This is REAL Scriptural truth that you’re getting here.
Let me say it again for doggone good measure so it sticks.
In a true holy war, all the spoils by their very nature are now God’s holy property and are not to be tampered with.
To tamper with them would be to trample on God’s holiness and boy are there serious consequences for doing that.
In normal non-holy war situations, items classified as holy property such as Levitical sacrifices comprised of grains, fruit, wine and meat are turned over to the priesthood for their God-authorized means of support and some of the offerings are burned up on the bronze altar.
However, in a holy war, holified items are not turned over to the priests, they are turned over to the Lord.
Yet, the Lord has no use for earthly or physical items, so what to do with them?
The answer is they are completely and utterly destroyed.
The destruction of the spoils from a holy war represents a return of these items to their basic elements and thus is a symbolic way of giving them to HASHEM.
In addition, as difficult as this may be to stomach, everything I’ve just explained also applies to the captured people.
ALL the captured people, that is.
“Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”-1 Samuel 15:3
It is the Lord’s sole prerogative concerning what happens to the captured people at the conclusion of a holy war.
In some cases, He may order that only the men be executed and the women and children be spared and grafted into Israel as servants whose offspring will eventually become fully assimilated into the Hebrew nation.
But this was not to be the case with the Amalekites.
In this case, all the men, women, children and babies were to be executed per the Law of Herem.
So with this understanding, let’s shift our attention back to King Saul.
He was unfortunately a weak and selfish king and in the battle he led against the Amalekites, he paid little heed to God’s holy war protocol.
Here’s the thing and there’s a huge takeaway here folks.
Saul decided to things a little bit God’s way and a little bit his way.
Sound kind of familiar?
Saul obeyed the Lord’s command to attack the Amalekites even when they were not a menace or threatening Israel at this time.
And per the Lord’s command, he did exterminate all of the people.
BUT…and this is a whopping huge “but”, Saul did NOT kill the King of Amalek and he took for himself and also allowed the soldiers under his command to help themselves to some of the spoils of war.
This was a big no-no.
Remember what I said earlier.
When you tamper with the spoils of war in a holy war, you are trampling on God’s holiness.
What Saul did was so serious that the Lord’s chosen prophet Samuel was forced to completely and permanently separate himself from King Saul.
A prophet of God could no longer be involved with a man who had been KARET (cut off) from the Lord.
One final point and then I’ll close.
In Scripture, Saul is normally considered to be a prototype of the person whom we will call the anti-Christ.
Did you notice what the chief characteristic of an anti-Christ is?
It is a person who has a belittling attitude and doesn’t pay heed to God’s Law.
If you want to successfully be able to identify who the anti-Christ is or want to know if a particular congregation is infested with the spirit of the anti-Christ, ask yourself this question.
What is their attitude towards God’s Law?
Do they teach and preach that HASHEM’s Law has been done away with or is no longer valid?
If so, you can be 100% confident, you are dealing with the spirit of the anti-Christ.
Anyone who sets him or herself up as an authority over God’s Torah as King Saul did, is to be rejected 100%.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way,
for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs
and the man of lawlessness is revealed,
the man doomed to destruction.
He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything
that is called God or is worshiped,
so that he sets himself up in God’s temple,
proclaiming himself to be God.”
-2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
Notice also that the anti-Christ proclaims himself to be God in human flesh.
“On that Day, many will say to me,
‘Lord, Lord!
Didn’t we prophesy in your name?
Didn’t we expel demons in your name?
Didn’t we perform many miracles in your name?’
Then I will tell them to their faces,
‘I never knew you! Get away from me,
you workers of lawlessness!’”
-Matthew 7:22-23
“Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them.”
-Matthew 5:17
We also see this with the king who exalts himself above all gods and the God of gods (Daniel 11:36-45) and I am sure Daniel gives further reference to this type.