2 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (1 Samuel 15:2-3)
These passages are indeed very difficult and I would like to address them as some assert on the basis of passages such as these that God is morally depraved. So what gives God the right to order the wholesale destruction of an entire people? Well, let me explain. In democratic countries we have judicial systems that require that any person that is tried in a court of law be presumed innocent until proven guilty. This is a good system because Police, Judges and Juries are not omniscient. By themselves they are not aware of the whole picture and so a hearing is called to determine said persons guilt. God on the other hand is omniscient, and is therefore the only being qualified to make a judgment on an entire people without a hearing that could warrant their complete destruction as he knew the hearts and minds of every individual in this society. Let’s take note of Abrahams request to God concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:
24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:24,25)
Abraham deliberated with God about the number of righteous souls that might be there and that God should not destroy the city if so many righteous were in it and he whittled God all the way down to ten righteous souls. To which God replied:
…I will not destroy it for ten's sake. (Genesis 18:32)
So here we clearly see Gods willingness to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. The fact that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed only serves to suggest there were indeed no righteous souls whatsoever in that place (Save lot and his family who were called to leave that place). Such I suspect was the condition of the Amalekites themselves being beyond redemption, excluding of course the infants and suckling’s, which issue I shall deal with presently. God being all knowing, not only knew the conditions of the hearts of the Amalekites at that time, he also knew their alternative future as well. He knew what they would become as a nation had they been allowed to continue. He also knew what would have become of the infants had they grown up, whether being amongst their own people or else assimilated into Israel. These children did not have a chance to grow up and reject God thereby damning their own precious souls.
So then what about the contradictory nature of making the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, and then ordering the wholesale slaughter of an entire people. But this command, as does every scripture, needs to be taken into context. It should be first understood that this command was Gods judicial decree as he is the supreme judge of all mankind. The command, Thou shalt not kill, could not have been in reference to judicial judgment since the death penalty existed under that same Old-Testament law.
Now it will be noted however that despite the wickedness of these people God is all-loving. Surely this command could not have come from this so called loving God. After all does the Bible not say that God is not willing that any should perish? But it must be understood that God is just and he cannot change his own internal attributes, for example in Titus 1:2 it says that God cannot lie and again in James 1:13 that he cannot be tempted with evil. ‘But,’ you ask, ‘I thought God was omnipotent.’ Again you must understand the importance of context in understanding these things. God is all powerful in the sense that he has absolute power over the universe. But not in the context of being able to change his own internal attribute of perfect justice or any other of his inborn attributes. It's not that he does not posses the power to do it, it's that such an ability is entirely absent from his character. If he could change his just nature he would not have had to send his son to pay for our sins by his death on the cross. He could have simply saved everybody regardless of their willingness to repent.
3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. (1 Samuel 15:2-3)
These passages are indeed very difficult and I would like to address them as some assert on the basis of passages such as these that God is morally depraved. So what gives God the right to order the wholesale destruction of an entire people? Well, let me explain. In democratic countries we have judicial systems that require that any person that is tried in a court of law be presumed innocent until proven guilty. This is a good system because Police, Judges and Juries are not omniscient. By themselves they are not aware of the whole picture and so a hearing is called to determine said persons guilt. God on the other hand is omniscient, and is therefore the only being qualified to make a judgment on an entire people without a hearing that could warrant their complete destruction as he knew the hearts and minds of every individual in this society. Let’s take note of Abrahams request to God concerning the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:
24 Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? (Genesis 18:24,25)
Abraham deliberated with God about the number of righteous souls that might be there and that God should not destroy the city if so many righteous were in it and he whittled God all the way down to ten righteous souls. To which God replied:
…I will not destroy it for ten's sake. (Genesis 18:32)
So here we clearly see Gods willingness to spare the wicked for the sake of the righteous. The fact that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed only serves to suggest there were indeed no righteous souls whatsoever in that place (Save lot and his family who were called to leave that place). Such I suspect was the condition of the Amalekites themselves being beyond redemption, excluding of course the infants and suckling’s, which issue I shall deal with presently. God being all knowing, not only knew the conditions of the hearts of the Amalekites at that time, he also knew their alternative future as well. He knew what they would become as a nation had they been allowed to continue. He also knew what would have become of the infants had they grown up, whether being amongst their own people or else assimilated into Israel. These children did not have a chance to grow up and reject God thereby damning their own precious souls.
So then what about the contradictory nature of making the commandment, Thou shalt not kill, and then ordering the wholesale slaughter of an entire people. But this command, as does every scripture, needs to be taken into context. It should be first understood that this command was Gods judicial decree as he is the supreme judge of all mankind. The command, Thou shalt not kill, could not have been in reference to judicial judgment since the death penalty existed under that same Old-Testament law.
Now it will be noted however that despite the wickedness of these people God is all-loving. Surely this command could not have come from this so called loving God. After all does the Bible not say that God is not willing that any should perish? But it must be understood that God is just and he cannot change his own internal attributes, for example in Titus 1:2 it says that God cannot lie and again in James 1:13 that he cannot be tempted with evil. ‘But,’ you ask, ‘I thought God was omnipotent.’ Again you must understand the importance of context in understanding these things. God is all powerful in the sense that he has absolute power over the universe. But not in the context of being able to change his own internal attribute of perfect justice or any other of his inborn attributes. It's not that he does not posses the power to do it, it's that such an ability is entirely absent from his character. If he could change his just nature he would not have had to send his son to pay for our sins by his death on the cross. He could have simply saved everybody regardless of their willingness to repent.
