The Bible tells the story of God and the story of humankind-each enfolded into the other, inseparably bound in a single volume.
In the pages of scripture, the human and divine bleed into each other. What will I do in God’s name? Do I want to read scripture as warrant to punish people, as permission to make someone else’s life vile? What if we stay for a while with these ancient readers, lingering instead of turning away? Perhaps we would discover that our discomfort comes from God creating space for us to see ourselves here-our own vengeful desires, our own fears mirrored in the text. Did Samuel’s call of wrath upon babies, innocent of the crimes of their forebearers, give these communities pause? Early Jewish communities turned to this story as they rummaged through the rubble of their burnt-out homes, searched for the bodies of their murdered loved ones, and sorted through their longing for vengeance. When Samuel declares God’s word of judgment against Amalek, the Israelites receive the command as a reassurance that God has taken their side. We can imagine, if we try, what it must have been like to read that God was for you: for your life in the face of powerful enemies who ruthlessly sought out the lives of you and your children.
Their world was blood and retribution, rape and slaughter. Many of us read the Bible without any experience having the kinds of enemies that ancient communities knew. “All that was despised and worthless they utterly destroyed” (15:9). Saul carries out the command-though he preserves everything of economic value, along with the Amalekite king, Agag. “Utterly destroy all that they have do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Sam. “Go and attack Amalek,” Samuel tells Saul, speaking for God. One of the most difficult Amalek passages is in 1 Samuel.
#Enemies of god how to#
Earlier readers, our foremothers and fathers, show us how to live within the broad reach of the Bible. It’s one response to terror among the internal tensions of stories, prophecies, and teachings of compassion and forgiveness that directly contradict more violent commands. For ancient Jewish readers, Amalek is swept into the long story of God’s faithfulness to Israel, the complicated choosing of a king, and the protection of God’s people from their enemies. A reading practice of cutting and stitching back together will not serve us well in our encounter with the story of the Amalekites.
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