“Closer Look” is a weekly blog meant to encourage Christians by providing biblical answers to questions we have regarding theology, biblical passages, ethics, and more. The goal is that God would be glorified, the saints edified, and that the world would bear witness to the sufficiency of Scripture!

Why would a good God do this?

(Published: December 6, 2024)

Q: Why did God tell Saul to “strike Amalek” and to put to death “both man and woman, child and infant” (1 Sam. 15:2-3)?

A: God is a holy God who does not lie and who is sovereign over all creation. God, as Judge overall creation, determined that the wages of sin is death, which includes physical, spiritual, and eternal death. A judicial sentence that every person, in all history, is under. God would be just to fully execute His judgment on any of us at any time. Yet, every second of life we are given is a testimony to God’s great love, mercy, and grace, for every person. Every second is an opportunity to respond in faith to God’s offer of salvation. These extraordinary events in Old Testament history cause us to examine the depths of our own sinfulness (everyone of us) and most importantly, to come face to face with the beauty and richness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

First, to the immediate question, some clarification and context is necessary. God is not telling Saul to destroy Amalek but the descendants of Amalek. Amalek was the grandson of Esau who, along with his army, attacked Israel in the wilderness at a place called Rephidim after Israel's redemption from Egypt. After leading Moses and the people to a military victory, the LORD made a promise, stating: “I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Ex. 17:14).[1] Israel, under Saul and later David’s leadership, would be the human agents through whom God would execute His judgment on the remnant of the Amalekites as promised to Moses (1 Sam. 30:17).[2] Three observations before we get to the bigger, overarching question: (i) God, who is perfect, does not change His mind, and is sovereign over all creation, made a promise to punish the unprovoked violence of Amalek during the time of Moses; (ii) God fulfilled this promise over time despite His people’s failure and/or disobedience; and (iii) though the military actions were carried out by Israel it was God who fought before them and through them. However, there is a bigger question that comes to the surface in this passage (1 Sam. 15). One that is often asked by those reading narratives such as 1 Samuel 15.

The big question that needs to be addressed is how could a good God ordain the mass destruction of the people of Amalek and Canaan, including men, women, and children? To be clear, God’s promise in Exodus 17 to “utterly blot out the memory of Amalek” (v.14) was not the only such promise made by the LORD in the Bible, nor was it the only such promise fulfilled.

The LORD told Abram that his descendants would be oppressed and enslaved for four hundred years only to return to the land of promise (Canaan) “for the iniquity of the Amorite [the Canaanites] is not yet complete” (Gen. 15:13-21). The “iniquity” of these nations is further described in Leviticus: “Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am driving out before you have become unclean, 25 and the land became unclean, so that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants . . . (for the people of the land, who were before you [Canannites], did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), ” (Lev. 18:24-25, 27) (in part). Therefore, it was the sinfulness of the people of the land that resulted in the LORD judging these nations. Consequently, in the conquest of the land we read of many examples of many nations being utterly destroyed (See Joshua 8:19-24). Yet, again, evidence of God following through on His promise to punish sin.

First, what the Bible is not doing: the Bible is not promoting violence in God’s people. The Church is a temple of the Holy Spirit, meant to bear the fruit of the Spirit, being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. In being made into Christ image, we are to be a people who bless those who persecute us, “repay[ing] no one evil for evil” and “[i]f possible, so far as it depends on [us], liv[ing] peaceably with all” never avenging ourselves, but conversely, blessing those who we perceive as opposing, oppressing, or doing us harm (Rom. 12:14-21). These extraordinary examples of judgment in Old Testament history are meant to teach us something about the nature of God and the promises of God. These accounts are pointing us backward and forward in redemptive history.

In order to make sense of these passages we need to go all the way back to the beginning, the book of Genesis. Prior to Adam’s sin, God made a promise that if Adam violated God’s command to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would “surely die.” (Gen. 2:17). In other words, if Adam sinned, which is disobeying God, God promised to punish Adam’s sin with death. Later, we learn that Adam did violate the command sinning against God (Gen. 3:6). God fulfilled His promise to punish sin with death: death now (spiritual death or separation from God); and the pending death later (physical death and eternal death (eternal and complete separation from God or hell). So, death has always been the punishment for sin. The penalty for Adam’s sin, which we inherit from him as Adam’s descendants, and the penalty for our own sins, and we all are guilty of committing sins against God. Simply, death is God’s promised judgment for sin (Rom. 6:23) (asserting that “the wages of sin is death”).

Ultimately, in Revelation, we learn of the sobering, and terrifying, final execution of this sentence of punishment upon all unrepentant humanity. It’s a lengthy quote, but it's too important not to cite in its entirety, and it’s too important for the reader to gloss over carelessly. I hope the reader will give this passage a closer look:

“11 Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. 13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:11-15).

Here, John reveals total, indiscriminate, eternal death for all those whose “name was not found written in the book of life” (v. 15). Not one nation, like the judgment of the Amalekites or Canaanites mentioned above, but every person, in all history, whose name is not in “the book of life.” This judgment is carried out by God Himself, on the throne of divine, final judgment.

God’s disposition and response toward sin is consistent from the beginning of history. In other words, the way He viewed Adam’s sin (deserving death) is the same way He viewed the sin of all the inhabitants of Canaan (deserving death). More importantly, the same way He viewed Adam’s sin and the sins of the people of Canaan is the way He views my sin . . . and yours– deserving death. God would be completely justified to render full and unfettered judgment on us at any time. Every breath we take is a testament to the unsearchable depth of His mercy and grace toward us, His enemies. Every second is another second He gives us to respond to His gospel whereas Jesus Christ, the Son of God bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” 1 Pet. 2:24). He died the death that we deserve that we might be alive to God and enjoy Him eternally and fully!

Every second is an opportunity for condemned sinners to be rescued from final judgment and to enter eternal life. In fact, the same God who promises eternal death for sin is the same God “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). What mercy and grace from a Holy God!

When we read of the judgment of the people of Canaan and the Amalekites (physical death) we should quickly be reminded that these judgments in history are but drops in the ocean of the final judgment that awaits unrepentant sinners, which is eternal death. Both of these accounts in the Old Testament should not cave us (the Church) into quiet timidity, shying away from these passages and what God is communicating to sinners like us. Intead, in light of the beauty of salvation offered in Christ, these passages should not cave us in but propel us out to share the gospel in our spheres of influence in our communities.

For, while “the wages of sin is death” the “free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23) who absorbed –the wrath of God– on our behalf on the Cross (3:25). And “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (10:13). Today is the day of salvation.

ENDNOTES:

[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical citations are cited from the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016).

[2] For further discussion on the LORD fulfilling this promise against the Amalekites, see T. Desmond Alexander, Exodus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017), 213-14; Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus vol. 2 (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2006), 344-45.