God Against My Enemy
By Rev. William Dohle
This past year I had the privilege of studying with a group of God's faithful here at St. Paul Lutheran Church, where I serve.
Our class began last August and finished up this July. In addition to reading four spiritual books, we each read through the whole Bible, writing in a journal as we read. When we arrived in the middle of our study, when the verses took us back to the Hebrew Bible, we heard a common refrain: "These passages are just so bloody and violent! How could God allow them to do that?! Why are these stories in our Bible?"
I've heard it before when people discover how human the Bible truly is. Passages where God commands the Israelites to slaughter every man, woman, child, and animal surprise many people. They want God to be loving toward everyone. They see a difference, as the ancient Marcian did, between the New Testament and the Old and they want to isolate the New Testament from the writings they feel portray God too tribal.
But, what if you were persecuted, struck down, chased from place to place, hated, abandoned, and wandering? What if you were former slaves facing down a group of slavers? What would you want God to do? Love them? Or would you want God to stand up to them because you can't?
The Amalekites, sworn enemies of God's people Israel, are as ancient as they are. Abraham himself is said to have fought against them. Throughout the years, as Israel grew stronger and larger, these two people became hostile toward each other. Wars against the Amalekites started in Genesis continued to rage for centuries to come.
So...what makes them so different from the Israelites? Why were they fought against each other? No one really knows. What is known is that the Amalekites become the devils and demons of their day. They are, in the biblical writers view, the enemies of God! They are remembered to be those who disobeyed God and who hunted down God's people. In Deuteronomy we read:
“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget."
So what do we make of this today? Well, contrary to what we might think of our "peaceable" New Testament, God is still raging against our enemies even there. Only difference is that our enemies are not people of flesh and blood, but things of the spirit. In the New Testament, God rages against... sin! It is said that God will defeat death! God will trample down the devil and his minions. In the New Testament, we are told that nothing can separate us from God. Not any enemy that we can think of. Nothing!
This is the same message, I think, we ought to take from this story in Exodus. God doesn't give up! He never stops fighting for our cause. God will never stop fighting cancer or depression. He will not give up the war against despair and heartache. God wrestles down to the ground the forces of selfishness. He wipes away the scars brought about by injustice.
These are our Amalekites. These are our enemies!
I take great hope in knowing that God doesn't abandon his people. He didn't abandon them in the desert to the Amalekites who hunted them down. He didn't abandon them to exile or to the sinfulness of their ways. And he won't abandon us too.
That's comfort for the ages...right there!
Good God, though we are separated by centuries from your people and their wars against the Amalekites, we struggle with enemies ourselves. Open our eyes that we might see you fighting beside us on our behalf. Amen.
About the photo: "Davidster" (Star of David) by Dick Stins is a World War II memorial in The Hague. The text at the side (in Dutch and Hebrew) is from Deuteronomy 25:17,19 - "Remember what Amalek has done to you...do not forget."
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