Expert: Sal - 8/25/2008

Question
An Atheist asked me if your God Jesus is love and love us then why He command Saul to killed every one including women and infant of Amalek ?

1 Samuel Chapter 15
15:2 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.

15:3 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.


Answer
Dear Nick:

Atheists do not understand a good many things. They do not understand that God is both mercy and justice. If one rejects His gift of mercy then only His just judgment remains. The ensuing judgment may seem harsh to us, but that is because we view things from our limited human perspective and therein lies our problem. God sees things from the “Big Picture” and we are incapable of such insight because we lack His knowledge. The Atheist tries to picture God as simply a man. As we know this way of seeing God is flawed. He knows all things past, present, and future. We cannot completely understand His ways because our minds are limited to the earthly perspective. Only God can truly see the “Big Picture.” We have faith in His inscrutable ways.

Of course the Atheist has no such faith; therefore, let’s look at the example he presented:  1 Samuel chapter 15 verses 2 & 3. “This is what the Lord of hosts has to say: ‘I will punish what Amalek did to Israel when he barred his way as he was coming out of Egypt. Go, now, attack Amalek and deal with him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and assess’.” The first thing to notice is that amalek was deserving of punishment. It was not an arbitrary act of God. The Amalekites had attempted to halt Israel’s progress in the desert (see Exodus 17:8). They also preyed upon stragglers who fell behind the main body of Israelites. They would massacre these helpless small groups (see Deuteronomy 25:17-18). They destroyed Israel’s crops in an attempt to slowly starve the Israelites to death (see Judges 6:3-4). The Amalekites burned down whole cities taking the inhabitants captive (see 1 Samuel 30:1-5). They routinely plundered Israel (see 1 Samuel 14:48). They mistreated their own servants (1 Samuel 30:11-13). The Amalekites plagued the Israelites constantly (see Judges 3:13; 6:3-4, 33; 7:12; 10:11-12). These were no innocent people. The Amalekites were an aggressive and savage bunch.

If God can be accused of anything it should not be of being unloving and harsh. It should be of being loving and too patient. God allowed the Amalekites to harass Israel for centuries. He gave them many chances to change their violent, murderous ways, but they refused His offers of mercy again and again. If one continually refuses God’s offer of mercy then only Hid just judgment remains. The responsibility for the death of the Amalekites was not God’s or Saul’s, but the Amalekites themselves. They bore the responsibility for their own deaths because of their persistent actions. God gives all people free will and the Amalekites misused theirs to their own destruction. God simply let the consequences of their actions befall them. St. Paul wrote about this principle of consequences in Romans 1:18-32, for example. It has been said that the worst thing that could happen to one is for God to let one have his way. Then one will receive the consequences of their actions. Consequences that your loving God was trying to spare you from, but in your ignorance you rejected His mercy. That is what happened to the Amalekites. It is worth noting that God did convince some of the Amalekites to change their ways. Some of those Amalekites immigrated to Israel. God only used Saul to destroy the most violent and hard-hearted of the Amalekites.  

God Bless You,
Sal