Amalekites Among Us, Part 1

Praise the Lord and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Otz thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I'm excited to bring you today's program, Amalekites Among Us, Tracing God's Arch Enemy.

I really hope that you will open up your heart and also put on your thinking caps. And start exercising your index finger because we're going to go very quickly through thousands of years of history that bear upon today. Because just this week passed, the Jews celebrated their most joyous holiday on their calendar. And that is the festival of Purim.

We don't talk about it much, we don't think about it much. You know, we're aware of Passover and Hanukkah and Rosh Hashanah, but Purim is their most joyful festival. It's a two-day festival and they have feasting and dancing and they send one another gifts and presents.

It's a beautiful time of celebration and what they are celebrating is the Jews' victory over Haman. Remember Haman that wanted to kill them? And how that he had convinced the king of Persia to sign an edict that went throughout the 127 provinces of the kingdom of Persia that on the 13th day of the month of Adar all the Jews were to be killed. So we're going to talk about that because that just happened this week.

It was Tuesday and Wednesday I believe. But the one thing that Haman did not realize when he sent out that edict, he didn't know and even the king did not know, Asa Hawaris didn't know, that their new queen Esther was actually a Jewess named Hadassah. And God was going to use her to turn the tables around. But before we get there, this conflict is much deeper than what appears on the surface. And so we need to go back to my favorite book, the book of Genesis, and there we're going to discover that in the two stories of sibling rivalry, that would be Isaac and Ishmael and Jacob and Esau, we find there that stemming from these two stories we have this modern conflict.

Now we're all aware of the fact that the Jews enemy, I should say enemies, are the 22 Arab nations around them that want to annihilate them. And we get the connection between Isaac and Ishmael. We all, especially at Faith Tabernacle, are very well acquainted with the story of Sarah and Abraham and Hagar and how that Ishmael was born to Hagar, the bond woman. But then how God said, no, no, no, that you did that on your own.

That wasn't my plan. I said, Sarah will have kings come out of her. And so when she was 90 years old and Abraham was 100, they finally had their child of promise, Isaac. And then as they were growing up together, the boys, Sarah began to pick up with her motherly instinct that Ishmael and Hagar were mocking her son. And she realized that her and Abraham were old and they would be going pretty soon. And she knew that once they were not there, that Hagar and Ishmael would rise up and overpower Isaac. And she said, they got to go. And Abraham didn't want him to go. That was his boy. And he loved him.

He was grieved. And God said, listen to your wife in this. She's right.

You have to send them away. And so we know then that we have this conflict that grew out of that. I'm sure that you know about Isaac grew up and got married to Rebecca. And she was pregnant with twin boys. And she had this pregnancy where she had all of this moving. And it was, you know, a very difficult pregnancy.

It was so bad. She went to God and said, you know, I don't know what's going on here. And God told her, you have two nations, not two kids, but two nations in your womb. And the elder is going to serve the younger. And so we know that Esau was the elder. He was born and then Jacob was born and they grew up and they were, they couldn't be more opposite than night and day.

And let's speed ahead now then. They're grown men and Isaac's getting old and Rebecca realizes he could die at any time. And she wants Jacob to have the birthright. And so she convinced Jacob to deceive his father because Isaac was blind and he didn't know that Jake came in there and put on the hair on his arms to make him think it was Esau. And how doing that, they managed to steal the birthright for Jacob.

Amen. And of course Esau was enraged and he swore in his heart, when my father's dead, I will kill my brother. And so Jacob fled and went to, I forget how far away it is now, and I don't want to misquote, but it's a long journey to where his mother was originally from. He went to her family. Now, we all assume that the reason why Jacob fled was because he thought Esau was going to kill him.

And that is true. Esau said he would kill him when his father died. But did you understand that the reason why Jacob went is because his father told him to go? And told him to go and find a wife in the home of his mother. And that is because Esau had already married two Canaanite women and they grieved and vexed the soul of Rebecca.

Now, we're going to take the story up there. Let's turn to Genesis 27. And I'm paraphrasing a lot, but we will read a verse here and there because sometimes you just cannot improve on reading it straight out of the scripture. So chapter 27, verse 46, it's the last verse and it says, And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are the daughters of the land, what good shall be my life? She said, if my son Jacob ends up marrying a Canaanite woman, too, my life is not where it's over.

I don't even want to be around here. Amen. So let's read on chapter 28. So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said unto him, Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padaneram, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. To his mother's brother, not his brother, his mother Rebecca's brother. And God Almighty bless thee and make thee fruitful and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seed with thee, that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham. And Isaac sent away Jacob, and he went to Padaneram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the mother, the brother of Rebecca, Jacob's and Esau's mother. So they sent him away. You see this clearly because they did not want him to marry a Canaanite woman.

Amen. Let's read on. So when Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padaneram to take him a wife from thence, and that as he blessed him he gave him a charge saying, Thou shall not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan, and that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother and was going to Pandaneram, and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan please not Isaac his father, then went Esau unto Ishmael, and Ishmael was his father's brother. See, God sent Jacob to his mother's brother, but Esau saw that his father and his mother did not like his Canaanite wives, and unto the wives which he had he took Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister, and of course it doesn't matter the sisters. So you see what happened here. He saw that his father was unhappy and he knew his mother was unhappy. Obviously when you got mother-in-law trouble you know it. And so he thought, ah, I'll please my dad.

I will go to his brother and I will marry a daughter, which turned out of course to be his cousin as well. So here do you see we have the joining folks of Ishmael and Esau. And the Arab enemies of Israel are not just Ishmael, but they're Ishmael and Esau. And we're going to see that coming out of them is a people that as soon as you read the name you will know it's one of those ites.

You know all those ites that always were giving them a hard time? So let's turn to Genesis 36 and let's look at a few verses there. Verse 15, 36, 15. Now Esau has children and we're going to get his lineage in these verses. We're interested in right away the very first son and grandson. These were the dukes of the sons of Esau, the sons of Eliphaz, the firstborn of Esau. So Esau's firstborn son was Eliphaz. Duke Timon, Duke Omar, Duke Zepho, Duke Kenaz, Duke Korah, Duke Gautam, and Duke Amalek. Somebody say Amalek. You ever heard of the Amalekites before? We know they keep showing up and they're nothing but trouble with a capital T. And Amalek, these are the dukes that came to Eliphaz in the land of Edom, these were the sons of Ada.

I said that Amalek was the firstborn, actually he was the last. So we have Esau, Eliphaz, and his baby boy is Amalek. Amen. And so here we have the bitter enemies of Israel and we see that both Ishmael's descendants and Esau's descendants occupy the same territory.

Amen. And you say, well, how do we know this? Well, I didn't tell you to turn there, but in chapter 25, there is a verse that says, actually it's 25, 18, and it's talking about where Ishmael's people settled in, where Ishmael's people settled in, and it says, and they dwelt from Havilah unto shore, that is before Syria. From Havilah, say Havilah, to shore. This is where Ishmael's people settled. But we're going to find out that this is also where the Amalekites are settled.

And why should we be surprised to find that out? Ishmael and Esau are joined now. Amen. When Esau married the daughter of Ishmael, those two lines are joined, so we shouldn't be surprised that they end up living in the same area. Now, we know the Amalekites are bitter enemies of Israel, and here's when it all began. Turn in Exodus, the 17th chapter. This is where the saga of this conflict and this bitter conflict that grew from that point on really took place. Now, you know, the Book of Exodus obviously tells us that Israel is in the wilderness. Amen.

The nation has grown now to several million. They've come out of Egypt. They're on their exodus to the Promised Land, and on their way they met up with some bad guys. Exodus 17, 8. Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, choose us out men and go out and fight with Amalek tomorrow, and I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and he fought with Amalek, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up on the top of the hill. And it came to pass that when Moses held up his hand with that rod, Israel prevailed. But when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they were tired, so they took a stone, they put it under him, he sat there on, and Aaron and Hur stayed up to his hands, the one on one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. Wow, we know this message.

We'll get off track if we stay here. And Joshua disconfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord, now here this is important, and the Lord said unto Moses, write this for a memorial in a book and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

I think God means business. And Moses built an altar and called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord my victory, my banner of victory. Verse 16, important, for he said, because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

It all began right here. God said, I swear I'm going to utterly destroy them and wipe out the remembrance from them under heaven. But we get the idea that it's not going to happen right away because he said God swears that from generation to generation, he's going to be at war. He's going to be at war with Amalek. And I want to tell you, he's still at war with Amalek today.

Amen. Now, it was so important that before Moses died and was turning over the reigns to Joshua and the other leaders, he made sure that he did what God said and rehearsed it in the ears of Joshua. Turn to Deuteronomy 25, verse 17, Moses has given his final testament and he says, Remember what Amalek did unto you by the way, when you were come forth out of Egypt, how he met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of thee, even all, this is pathetic, even all that were feeble behind thee when thou was faint and weary and he feared not God. They didn't just attack Israel. They attacked them when they were weary and faint and came up behind and got the weakest ones, the weakest of the people that, you know, through all the arduous journey that they had been through.

And now they're weakened and the weak ones that were straggling in the back. What a coward. How evil. And here's the thing, because he did not fear God. And so he said, Therefore it shall be when the Lord thy God hath given the rest from all thine enemies round about in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven and thou shall not forget it. So Moses obeyed God and he rehearsed it in Joshua's ears and reminded him and he said, Don't forget it.

God has sworn that you're to wipe out Amalek. Now, hundreds of years are going on, going on. We get through the whole time of Joshua. We get through the whole time of Judges, which was about 350 years of the time of Judges. And Joshua, he I think he lived to be like 120.

So we're about at least 400 years down the road. And finally, God is going to give Israel against God's better judgment. He's going to give them the desire of their heart, a king, because they wanted to be like other nations. Not a good idea. It's not a good idea to want to be like the world.

Young people, it's not a good idea to want to be like everyone you see in the music world, in the sports world and all of these things. And so reluctantly, God gave them what they asked for. He gave them a king. And the king's name, as you know, was Saul the first king. And the people were quite pleased with him because he was head and shoulders above everybody.

He looked so valiant and they could look up to him literally. But we find out that he had a deceitful heart as time went on. Now, you all know probably very well the whole story of Saul.

We're not going to do the whole story, but we're going to get to the part that deals with the Amalekites. So turn to First Samuel 15. First Samuel 15. Now, when Samuel anointed Saul to be king, let's see one of the things that he told him. Now, even though this story takes place after Saul has been king for a while, the story we're about ready to read. Looking back, Samuel is looking back to what he told Saul when he anointed him king.

And that's what we're going to read here in chapter 15. Samuel also said unto Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel. Now, therefore, hearken now unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts. I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid weight for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now, go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not, but slay them both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. God said, do not let one survive.

And you may think that this sounds terrible, babies and sucklings. We're going to find out in a minute why that was important. God said, do not let any get away. I want to blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. Amen.

So let's read on. And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telahim, 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to a city of Amalek and laid weight in the valley. And Saul said unto the Kenites, go depart and get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them, for you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. Now, see here, this is what Israel still does today, but the news isn't going to report it.

Did you see what I just read here? Saul said the Kenites lived within intermingled with the Amalekites. And Saul said to the Kenites, listen, we don't have a problem with you guys. You treated us well when we came out of Egypt, but God has sent us to destroy the Amalekites. We don't want you to be caught up in the destruction.

And we're telling you now, need get out of town. And so they did. And this is what Israel does today before they will bomb in Gaza. They drop leaflets down saying, get out of here. We're going to bomb this building. We're going to bomb this area.

You need to go. Amen. Because they were only going after their particular enemy. OK, so verse seven. And Saul smote the Amalekites from from what? From Havilah unto you come to?

Sure. Remember, I told you, Ishmael's people were in Havilah to shore. And now the Amalekites are in Havilah to shore because they joined that union, that marriage, caused the people to intermingle. Amen. And the Amalekites came out of them.

And now they're in the same area. Verse eight. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive.

And utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword, except for the king. Verse nine. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy, but everything that was vile and refuse that they destroyed utterly. So this is a blatant disobedience of what God said. He couldn't have been any clearer.

There was no ambiguity about what God said. He said, do not let anybody survive, not even a donkey. Amen. But what did they do? They spared the king and the best of all the animals and all such. They spared the best. Amen.

So let's read on. Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, it repents me that I have set up Saul to be king and he is turned back from following me and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel. And he cried unto the Lord all night. All night long, he cried unto the Lord. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. Somebody say in the morning.

I'm going to tell you in a minute why that's important. It was told, Samuel saying, Saul came to Carmel and behold, he set him up a place and he's going about and he's passed on and going down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandments of the Lord. A liar on top of everything.

Now he's lying. Amen. I love this verse. And Samuel said, what meaneth them this bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear. Oh, you destroyed everything. How come I'm here? And moo.

How come I'm hearing this in my ears? And Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites for the people spared the best of the sheep in the oxen. And get this, the reason why they spared them was to sacrifice them unto the Lord God, the best. We saved the best to give to God.

That's what we did. We first of all put it all on the people when we read and saw and the people and then he said and they spared the best to give to God. And we destroyed the rest. And then Samuel said unto Saul, day and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said unto him, well say on. And Samuel said, when thou was little in thine own sight, was thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until they are consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?

In other words, you went after all the best there and saved them. And Saul said unto Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, the sheep, the ox and the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken to God's voice is better than to offer him the fattest of the rams. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is iniquity and idolatry and because thou has rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.

Wow. Now, when usually when we preach this message, we and rightfully so, we stay on the points about Saul. And those that is a great message unto itself because it's one of the greatest illustrations to show you that God demands obedience.

Amen. Now, let's turn to the very last part of this chapter and let's reverse two little verses. Verse 32.

I'm skip a whole lot of other things and go down here. Then said Samuel, bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites and Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past.

In other words, Agag is thinking, I got by. Saul didn't kill me. I made it.

I survived. It's all going to be good from here on out. I mean, you know, what is this little prophet going to do? You know, the king spared my life.

I'm not worried about this little prophet preacher guy. But let's read on the next verse. And Samuel said, speaking to Agag, as thy sword hath made women childless, so thy mother will be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord and Gilgal. Now, I'm sure that Samuel didn't walk around carrying the sword. He was a preacher. He was a prophet. I don't know if he did it or not.

I saw it in the movies. He reached over and grabbed Saul's sword. But wherever he got the sword, right then and there, he said, you think the bitterness of death is past? Well, you think again, brother. Because of you, there are many motherless Israelites.

But right now, your mama's going to be motherless. And hewed him. Didn't just stab him once, people. Hewed before the Lord. Amen. So finally, folks, finally, the last Amalek kite is dead. And God's word has been fulfilled. And he's wiped out the memory of him from off the face of the earth because the servant of God now has slew the final Amalek kite, King Agag.

Not according to Jewish history. That night. Now, here's why I wanted you to say in the morning. So you would understand that from the time that they finished the battle and brought Agag in as a prisoner of war, instead of killing him, there was a night. There was an overnight because Samuel came what?

In the morning. And Jewish history says that overnight, while Agag was in the prison being held, they sent a servant girl to him with his dinner and he raped her. And she became pregnant with his child. Now, this is not in the Bible, but this is in the writings of the Jews. Amen. And therefore was born unto Agag, though he was dead, there was born to him another Amalek kite. And it's true because the Amalek kite show up again in Israel's history 500 years later. Amen.

I hope you're enjoying this intriguing teaching. Amalek kites among us tracing God's archenemy. The Amalek kites are the descendants of Ishmael, Jacob's uncle, and Esau, his twin brother, who married Ishmael's daughter.

These have proven to be Israel's worst enemies to this very day. But Amalek is also God's enemy. When Israel came out of Egypt and journeyed through the wilderness on their way to their promised land, the Amalek kites not only attacked them, but went after the weakest and frailest of the people. God swore that he would be at war with Amalek through all generations. In fact, centuries later, when Saul became king of Israel, God told him to utterly slay the Amalek kites. But Saul disobeyed and spared their king, Agag. The prophet Samuel later killed him with a sword. But yet his descendant Haman the Agagite turned up centuries later when Israel was in exile in Persia. He devised a plot to kill all the Jews in the provinces of the kingdom, and he would have gotten away with it. But God orchestrated a beauty pageant, an assassination plot, and two banquets given by Queen Esther, the secret Jewess who risked all to save her people. The trail of intrigue that followed the Amalek kites' hatred of the Jews leads straight to the White House and the political arena where Israel is still fighting for her survival.

But if God is for you, he is more than all who can come against you. Amalek Kites Among Us Tracing God's Arch Enemy is available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK178, Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org where you can also order on MP3. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. And request SK178. Until next time, this is Sharon Ott singing Maranatha.