Ignorance Is Not Bliss

One day Samuel said to Saul, “It was the LORD who told me to anoint you as king of his people, Israel. Now listen to this message from the LORD! This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt. [1 Samuel 15.1-2] 

As random as this instruction from God may seem, it reveals truth we need to understand today. To fully understand this truth however, we must dig deeper...

In Exodus 17 we find the history of Amalek opposing Israel:

While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle. After the victory, the LORD instructed Moses, “Write this down on a scroll as a permanent reminder, and read it aloud to Joshua: I will erase the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Moses built an altar there and named it Yahweh-Nissi (which means “the LORD is my banner”). He said, “They have raised their fist against the LORD’s throne, so now the LORD will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.” [Exodus 17.8-16] 

Who was Amalek?

Timna, the concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, gave birth to a son named Amalek. These are the descendants of Esau’s wife Adah. [Genesis 36.12] 

Who was Esau?

Isaac pleaded with the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. The LORD answered Isaac’s prayer, and Rebekah became pregnant with twins. But the two children struggled with each other in her womb. So she went to ask the LORD about it. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked. And the LORD told her, “The sons in your womb will become two nations. From the very beginning, the two nations will be rivals. One nation will be stronger than the other; and your older son will serve your younger son.” And when the time came to give birth, Rebekah discovered that she did indeed have twins! The first one was very red at birth and covered with thick hair like a fur coat. So they named him Esau. Then the other twin was born with his hand grasping Esau’s heel. So they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when the twins were born. [Genesis 25.21-26] 

What was Esau's deal?

“I have always loved you,” says the LORD. But you retort, “Really? How have you loved us?” And the LORD replies, “This is how I showed my love for you: I loved your ancestor Jacob, but I rejected his brother, Esau, and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau’s inheritance into a desert for jackals.” Esau’s descendants in Edom may say, “We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins.” But the LORD of Heaven’s Armies replies, “They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again. Their country will be known as ‘The Land of Wickedness,’ and their people will be called ‘The People with Whom the Lord Is Forever Angry.’ [Malachi 1.2-4] 

Why did God reject Esau? 

Now, we are getting somewhere... 

God's recorded disdain for Esau is not random and it is not a mystery. Esau is well-known for selling his birthright for a bowl of soup (Genesis 25.27-34). As the Bible documents, this action showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn. The rights as the firstborn he held in contempt were rights assigned by God. Esau placed his hunger above God's way (birthright) thus making a god of himself and thereby ignoring the 1st Commandment. But that's not the end of it...

Later, Esau married local Canaanite women showing further contempt for God Who had already addressed that very subject:

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you. When the LORD your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. You must not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and he will quickly destroy you. This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. For you are a holy people, who belong to the LORD your God. Of all the people on earth, the LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. [Deuteronomy 7.1-6]

So, the bottom line is this: God will not overlook idolatry. Amalek's treatment of Israel went deeper than just the encounter at Rephidim. The people of Amalek were descendants of Esau who blatantly embraced idolatry, first, by placing his own hunger above God's established birthright order and secondly, by marrying into idolatry.

As Jacob (Israel) foreshadows the Church and Esau foreshadows the world, we should not be so quick to dismiss idolatry as only an "Old Testament" problem. Yes, the 1st Commandment lays down hard law:

“I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from the land of Egypt, the place of your slavery. “You must not have any other god but me. [Exodus 20.2-3]

But Exodus 20.2-3 is no less demanding than Jesus' words:

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [Matthew 16.24 (also, Mark 8.34 & Luke 9.23)]

God's delayed decision to settle accounts with Amalek (subject passage of this article above) should come as no surprise because of wording found in the 2nd Commandment:

“You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children; the entire family is affected—even children in the third and fourth generations of those who reject me. But I lavish unfailing love for a thousand generations on those who love me and obey my commands. [Exodus 20.4-6]

If God lavishes love for a thousand generations on those who love Him, what might be expected by the generations of those who do not love Him (understanding that the context of "love" in Exodus 20.2-4 is not having idols). Would not the opposite of lavishing love be damning hatred? And, would not damning hatred play out in curses rather than blessings? And would that not explain then why curses continue passing from generation to generation today? And would that not indict the Church of idolatry as it experiences curses just like the world?

Jesus' demand to give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Him was not a "New Testament" thing. It was very much a continuation of the "Old Testament" demand "You must not have any other god but me."

Esau's rationale that the birthright would be no good to him if he died of hunger is no different than Saul's rationale that the sheep and goats could be used for sacrifices to God. The key word in the previous sentence is "rationale." Rationale does not change God's demand for exclusive trust in Him alone. Our rationale today gives us no right to defensively claim that God uses our own creations to provide what God specifically said He alone would provide.

As the 1st Commandment serves as the flagship of the entire Old Testament, so Jesus's demand that we give up our own way, take up our cross, and follow Him is the flagship of the New Testament. Both demands are one and the same. Idolatry is the antithesis of both.

This is not new teaching but rather the teaching that has been lying overlooked in the pages of the entire Bible all along. God's people have grown woefully ignorant through their overwhelming neglect of God's Word, willfully indoctrinated by their "cherry-picking" only passages that support their predispositions, and therefore wrongly instructed in the true Biblical ways of God. Not ironically, the popular religion that allows such Bible-less-ness is wickedly intent on the destruction of God's true Church by their digression into commonplace worldly idolatry:

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me... [Hosea 4.6]

To prove I am not "cherry-picking" here myself, let's just read more of the context of Hosea's well-known passage above:

My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children. The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols. [Hosea 4.6-7] 

God's demand for total annihilation of Amalek was not random. The curses that even God's people experience today are not random. It can all be Biblically traced back to idolatry. Ignorance is not bliss.

Father in heaven, may Your people get serious with Your written Word, and, in so doing with Your Living Word, Jesus. May we comprehend that giving up our own way is indeed giving up on self-preservation (idolatry) so that the undeniable, indisputable resurrection power of the cross might be seen in us. Help us. So be it.