Saul is told to destroy the Amalekites. They are purportedly descendants of Esau, the
brother of Jacob/Israel, and they inherited his enmity towards his
brother. Rabbinic literature says that
they were the first attackers of the people after they left Egypt. Remember the words, "Jacob I have loved,
Esau I have hated"? They are a
danger to the nation and if they are not wiped out entirely they will continue
to plague the nation. Their sin is, in
part, their hatred of the people whom God loves. Other sources connect them with the Kenites,
descendants of Cain who survived the flood because one of them married Noah. Many balk at this passage as it seems
horrible for the Lord to command genocide but there is a parallel between this
and God's judgment in the end. Those who
oppose the Lord's beloved will not live eternally. Saul acted as Aaron had done with the golden
calf, disobeyed the voice of the Lord and obeyed both his own desires and the
voice of the people, it says that Saul and the people kept the best and
destroyed the rest. Saul, however, when
confronted by Samuel, throws the people under the bus for this breach of the
commandment. His sin, like Adam's, is
disobedience to the voice of the Lord.
Is there anything the Lord has told you to do that you aren't obeying?
What was it about Jesus' death that witnessed the truth to
the centurion? What did he see and what
did he hear that convinced him about Jesus?
It could be His prayer for those who tormented Him in this hour, it
could be that in His suffering He continued to look beyond physical pain,
suffering and even death. Whatever it
was, the centurion came to astonishing conclusion about the man suffering and
dying on the cross that day. Up to the
last moment of His life Jesus was still bearing witness, through His suffering,
to the glory of the Father. The mockers
knew also that they had done something terrible, sinful, so they go home
beating their breasts. Joseph of
Arimathea, a good and righteous man, a member of the council, the Sanhedrin,
retrieves the body of Jesus in an act of faith.
His alignment with Jesus in His death will cost him dearly, will mean he
is no longer on the council for association with this accursed man. He too recognized the truth and his alignment
with truth was more important than position.
No one knows what to make of the conversion of Saul. He immediately begins disputing successfully
with the Jews in Damascus and proving that Jesus is indeed the Christ. The questions sound like some of the questions
that surrounded Jesus, that should accompany our conversion, isn't this the man
who… Saul was a fire-breathing
persecutor of the church, a man who hated Jesus and all who believed in
Him. When he escapes Damascus he goes to
Jerusalem and attempts to join the apostolic band but they are sure that this
is a trick, that association with him will likely mean suffering and death, but
then comes this incredible man, Barnabas, who vouches for the truth of Saul's
conversion experience and on his surety they receive him and Paul disputes not
only with the Jerusalem establishment but with the Hellenists, the Jews who are
more accommodating to the Greek system of thought. He is a man of diverse abilities and can
easily move in these Jewish circles. The
Lord, however, has a plan for his mission that doesn't involve the Jews. The Good News is that Jesus' witness to the
Father and His ability to make Him known to people didn't end at the cross, it
goes on today!
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