By Leon Hyatt, Jr., retired Pastor, Pineville, La.
My thanks go to Rob Phillips (Baptist Message, Oct. 24) and Kenny Crump (Baptist Message, Nov. 7) for having the courage to produce writings on the sticky subject of God’s curse on the Amalekites.
Though their views seem to be somewhat contradictory, I actually agree with both of them. I offer a few thoughts to add to their excellent discussions, which may help to reconcile their two views.
God put a curse on the Amalekites (Ex. 17:14). He also put a curse on the Canaanites (Gen. 9:24-27). Both curses called for total annihilation. However, God also gave some definite directions about how the curses were to be executed.
In Deuteronomy 20:1-19, God gave instructions to the Israelites about warfare against an enemy city that was obstructing Israel’s effort to settle in the land of Canaan. Those instructions included:
(1) “Before you attack the city, seek to arrange a peace treaty” (v. 10).
(2) “If the city makes peace, let them work for you” (v. 11).
God put no limitations on those instructions. They applied to Canaanites just as much as to any other nation. God provided a way for Canaanites to be accepted among the Israelites and share their blessings, if only they would make peace and accept God’s way.
God had introduced that way to Abraham when He first called him and said, “and all the nations of the earth may be blessed in you” (Gen. 12:3b). How would they be blessed in Abraham? By accepting the same covenant God had offered to Abraham.
(3) “If they refuse to make peace and they are not Canaanites, execute the men but include the women and children in your nation” (vs. 12-15).
The execution of the men was because of their refusal to make peace with God and His people. The penalty was the same as that described in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death.”
(4) I “If they refuse to make peace and they are Canaanites, execute all the people and destroy all their property, because they are so committed to wickedness and to their false gods that even their property will influence you to desert Me” (vs. 16-18).
Those extreme instructions applied to implacable enemies in six specific tribes of the Canaanites, who hated Jehovah God and sought to deny God’s people a place to live.
In Deuteronomy 7:1-26, God gave broader instructions about how the Canaanites, including the Amalekites, were to be annihilated. The Israelites were to accomplish it in four distinct phases:
Phase 1: “When I deliver a Canaanite city into your hands, destroy all the people and all their possessions” (vs. 1-5). Those directions are the same as the instructions God gave in Deuteronomy 20:16-18..
Phase 2: “When you gain the right to settle in the Land, live holy lives as a testimony to others so that they may be blessed in you” (vs. 6-16).
The second phase of God’s plan was life-style evangelism. It was to be carried out by living holy lives every day. For the Israelites, it especially meant evangelism of the Canaanites, because the Canaanites were the people among whom they were going to live.
The same God who decreed eventual annihilation for the Canaanites, planned first for the Canaanites to have many years of opportunity to see the benefits of faith in God through the holy living of Abraham’s descendants in the hope that they would believe and be delivered.
Phase 2 of God’s plan has had little success, both because the Canaanites still remain (under different names) and still are so resistant to the true God and because the Israelites have been too much like the Canaanites themselves.
Phase 3: “I will drive out the remaining Canaanites little by little” (vs. 17-22). The third phase of God’s plan was to give the Canaanites time to learn that their sinful ways would bring about their steady decline.
By that means, the Canaanites would decrease in numbers and decline in influence, while believing Israelites would increase in success and power. Unfortunately, to date they have not learned, and their steady decline continues.
Phase 4: “But, I shall throw them into great confusion, deliver them into your hands, and you shall wipe out their names from under heaven. Then you will burn up all the idols because you will abhor them” (vs. 23-26).
When all else has failed, God shall wipe out the name of the Canaanites from under heaven. He shall annihilate them. The fourth phase of God’s plan has not yet come.
God is delaying the annihilation of the Amalekites, the Canaanites, and all evil nations out of His mercy and love, but the day must come when God’s promises and curses will be fulfilled. That day will be End Time.
Then verses 25-26 tell of how the Israelites will respond to the annihilation of their enemies. At last, they will rid themselves of their idols, because they will have come to abhor them.
They will stop their wavering and will begin to truly obey. They will turn at last to genuine faith in God and in His Son Jesus Christ and to willing obedience to Jehovah God.
When we take time to consider the directions that God gave to go along with His curse on the Amalekites and on other Canaanites, we see that His curses were warnings. They were warnings given in hope that the Canaanites will even yet believe and be delivered before it is too late.
For that very reason, Christians have missionaries among them today, knowing full well that if we are not successful their doom is sure.
God’s curses against the Amalekites and against all of the Canaanites reveal two essential attributes of His nature: justice and grace. Grace and mercy come first. Justice and judgment will come only after all hope of repentance is gone.