Read 1 Samuel 15:1-11
Have you ever seen a “Beware of Dog” sign on someone’s home? The owner hopes to keeps thieves, or worse, from entering and doing real harm. The Church, the people of God, also has a sign on it – “Beware of God”. The truth is that if someone does harm to God’s covenant people there will be a price to pay. We learn this as early as Genesis 12:1-3. In Genesis 12:3 God said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.” When God said, “him who dishonors you I will curse” it was the same as hanging a “Beware of God” sign upon Abraham’s people. The Church is the offspring of Abraham because we share the faith of Abraham. Paul writes, “if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (Gal 3:29). Therefore, the “Beware of God” sign still hangs upon us sinners whom Christ has saved.
In Exodus 17:8-16 we learn that the Amalekites dishonored God and Israel (Abraham’s offspring) as they made their way to the Promised Land. They attacked Israel’s weakest and most vulnerable (Deuteronomy 25:18). “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:14). In 1 Samuel 15 the time has come for the Amalekites to be destroyed. They are to be destroyed completely – man, woman, child, and animal. This is a heavy blow, and it is completely just. No one comes into this world deserving of life. As Paul states in Romans 5 we are all born guilty and deserving of death because of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:12). We have also contracted the heart disease of sin from Adam leading to more rebellion against God. The truth is that God is justified in taking life – the life that he freely gave as a gift – at any time. It is not his greatest delight, but it is his prerogative and it is right.
Today there is a lot of talk about mental and emotional health. There are several good ideas about how to develop such health. Things like journaling, breathing exercises, counseling, exercise, and sleep hygiene can all be positive contributors. Yet, there is something, someone, that our secular neighbors do not have which is critical to mental health: God and his covenant promise of ultimate justice and protection. Knowing that our God is the biggest, strongest, most powerful, and all-knowing one is the most significant element to human mental and emotional health. As we look to the future we know that God will deal justly deal with every wrong that has ever been done to us. Paul writes, “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed” (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10). We know that he will do that because he was faithful to send his only Son to become man and die in our place for our sins. If he would do that for you, what would he not do?
– What would change in your life if you had greater faith that God’s got your back?
– If vengeance is God’s to mete out, how might that actually change the way you relate to people who wrong you?
