Skip to main content

Deuteronomy 25:17 - "Remember the Amalekites" - Day 171

Good afternoon,

Today's passage highlights one of the realities of the fall.  Nations typically don't get along with their neighbors even if they are related.  All of history is full of conflict and remembering what "your people" did to "my people".   For example, "Remember the Maine" was the justification for the Spanish-American War.  European powers were constantly at war with each other for centuries.  Hope for "world peace" and "co-exist" are misplaced because man is fallen.  The only place we find all nations, tongues and tribes at peace is in heaven.

Blessings,

Jeff

Exodus 17:8-16 tells the story of the battle between Israel and Amalekites.  Joshua led the army, but it was Moses holding up the staff of God with the aid of Aaron and Hur that enabled the victory.  This occurred before Israel reached Mt Sinai.  So God is reminding Israel just before the enter the Promised Land.

From Complete Word Study Bible

Amalek was the son of Esau’s son Eliphaz and his concubine Timnah. Hence, he was a grandson of Esau’s wife Adah who was Canaanite and Hittite (Gen. 36:2, 10-12). His descendants became the Amalekites according to the biblical record. They were hostile toward Israel after the Exodus and threatened God’s people through guerrilla warfare (Deut. 25:17-19). God placed a curse on them to exterminate them for attacking His people (Ex. 17:8-16). They ranged far and wide, but the Negev was a central location for them (Num. 13:29). God confirmed His intent to destroy them through Balaam’s prophecy (24:20).  They teamed up with the Ammonites to attack Israel (Judg. 3:13) and with others (Judg. 7:12; Ps. 83:7[8]). Saul defeated them but failed to destroy them (1 Sam. 14:48; 15:1-32; 28:18). David removed them as a national threat (1 Sam. 30:1-12; 2 Sam. 8:12).

If you remember, Esau's marriage to Canaanite women was the excuse the Rebekah used to send Jacob back to her family (after the theft of the birthright).  We are not told why Amalekites were so hostile to Israel.  Esau had taken his family out of Canaan after Jacob returned.  So maybe this grandson was hoping to move back into Canaan someday and wanted to keep Israel out.  However, it has been almost 500 years and the Amalekites were still outside of Canaan.  Maybe they were just angry with God - He loved Jacob but hated Esau.

In any case, these distant relatives had no love for Israel.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Leviticus 18:21 - Partial restoration of creation order

Dear Friends, Some times we forget that Moses wrote Genesis.  Obviously, he did not have first hand knowledge of the events of creation.  But God did and revealed them to Moses.  The "story arc" is clear to Moses despite the millenia of history between Genesis and Leviticus.  The plan for ultimate restoration is hazy, but God is at work repairing some of the damage. Blessings, Jeff What is the prohibition on child sacrifice doing in the list of prohibited sexual relations? Be fruitful and multiply - First commandment in Genesis.  God made the world to be inhabited.   Having children is how this  was to happen.  So child sacrifice was a direct violation of this first command to Adam and Eve. Marriage is one man and one woman is the creation order. Seems simple enough.  I can imagine men thinking, Yeah but God didn't say which woman.  I will do the one woman thing if she is my sister, or aunt or …..  So God gives all these examples of unlawful unions.  To this day, man stil
Post a Comment
Read more

1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends, Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles. Blessings, Jeff We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned. But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeat
Post a Comment
Read more

Revelation 22:3-5 Final and eternal restoration - Day 365

Dear saints in the Lord, Congratulations!  You made it.  We have been through much turmoil in the last year ('20-'21).  But God is faithful to His promises.  I trust that you have been blessed in your reading and have drawn closer to God.   Since we didn't get the blog up and running at the beginning of the challenge, I am going to go back and post entries to cover that first month or so.   Blessings, Jeff Nothing accursed in the city of God, the new Jerusalem.  The presence of sin will be gone.  I am working on memorizing Westminster Shorter Catechism and currently on question 82.  Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments of God? No mere man since the fall is able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God but does daily break them in thought, word and deed. I think our passage today points to the truth of this question.  Do you notice how this answer is not exactly the same as the question. "Any man" becomes "no mere man since the fall
Post a Comment
Read more