He asked me,
“Who are you?” “An Amalekite,” I answered (2 Samuel 1:8).
Remember the
Amalekites? Review this pivotal narrative in Saul’s downward spiral in 1 Samuel
15. This isn’t the first time we’ve encountered Amalek. Exodus 17 recounts how
they attacked Israel wholly unprovoked while they marched through the
wilderness. And this isn’t the last time we’ll hear the name either. We’ll
revisit this narrative of Saul and Agag when we read Esther.
Yet one more tragic
element of this account of Saul’s last battle with the Philistines is the
easily overlooked detail of who ended his life. The final chapter of 1 Samuel
ends where Saul has fallen on his own sword rather than be captured by the
enemy. The opening chapter of 2 Samuel tells the rest of the story. A young man
finds Saul mortally wounded but still alive. Saul asks him to finish the job of
which he had been unable. “But first, tell me who you are.”
“An Amalekite.”
Saul was told to
destroy King Agag and all the Amalekites. He disobeyed. Bottom line? What he
failed to destroy in turn destroyed him.
When God tells us to
get rid of something in our lives, we cannot afford to go only half way. Either
we do away with it, or it may be the very thing that does away with us. God
does not want to deprive us, but to free us.
TODAY’S MEDITATION
Reflect on this story. Is
there anything in your life that God has told you to get rid of?
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