Surely The Bitterness Of Death Is Past

GOD ORDERS A MASSACRE

The orders from God through Samuel to King Saul were crystal clear in I Samuel 15:3. You will see what I mean when you read them in just a second. God could not have been plainer or more emphatic. It was RUN SAUL RUN, GO GET THE BALL first grade reader stuff, except in this case it was RUN SAUL RUN, KILL ALL THE AMALEKITES.” Now then, what part of that don’t you understand King Saul? God commanded King Saul,

“Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all

that he has, and do not spare him; but put to

death both man and woman, child and

infant, ox and sheep, camel

and donkey.”

When orders come down from “Heaven’s Command Central,” they are not open to discussion or negotiation. When God commands us to jump, the very most we may say is, “Yes Lord, and how high?” On second thought, I wouldn’t even advise asking that much, but instead simply jump for all we’re worth.

The orders we explicit and beyond any misunderstanding. In short, leave nothing and no one alive in the city of Amalek. Total annihilation! No humans, cats or dogs were to be left roaming the neighborhoods. Leave not one trace of life. Got it Saul? When your done there, God does not want to hear one man talking, one sheep bleating, one child crying, one cat meowing, or one dog barking. Complete death and desolation! The words to King Saul from God were,

“UTTERLY DESTROY.”

God was obviously more than a little ticked off! The Amalekites without provocation had opposed and attacked the Israelites after their deliverance from Egypt. It so infuriated God that He declared a state of war against the Amalekites forever, as we read in Exodus 17:16,

“…The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against

Amalek from generation to generation.”

Zero tolerance! You sure don’t want to get on the wrong side of God. When enemies attack and harass God’s people, He takes it personally and feels more than a little violated.

In any event, God has had enough, and He is not advising a little neighborhood vandalism here, like throwing rocks through Amalekite windows or painting Amalekite camel tails red. God is not simply encouraging annoyance or mischievousness, but instead MASSACRE, EXTINCTION, and TOTAL ERADICATION. No survivors allowed! No mercy is to be shown! We have our own way of putting it:

“SHOW NO MERCY!”

Not one ounce of good-heartedness or kindness or respect. This would not be a battle victory by the narrowest of margins, or even by unanimous decision. No! All or nothing! That is the only way God thinks at times. 

I have the very strong feeling that God has made up His mind, and will not settle for anything less than the destruction of all life forms in Amalek. King Saul has received His orders.

*******

KING SAUL AND KING AGAG

This would require a totally submissive and obedient spirit, as well as great mental toughness on the part of King Saul. He is not simply going to war, and may the best man win. No, rather, he is going on a mission to erase a specific civilization. A most uncivil thing to do! One of the worse things I had ever done as kid was to smash pumpkins. King Saul is on his way to smash every Amalekite head. This makes Mischief Night before Halloween look like a worship service.

Just thinking about getting psyched up for this blood bath is damaging my psyche. That sounds like something I don’t want to even see, let alone participate in. Anybody for a game of water pistols on a hot summer day instead? Or at most, a game of cap-guns and make-believe assassins! I wonder if at some point King Saul himself might take a more sentimental turn.

God knew that King Saul would find a cornucopia of rich booty in Amalek. It would be a Divinely designed test as to whether King Saul would prefer real obedience to God, or whether he would prefer preserving life and leaving with the loot. Of course as it most often is in the heat of battle and life’s crunch moments, King Saul was not spiritually savvy to what was really going on. The real issue, although unknown to Saul, was this:

“WOULD KING SAUL DESTROY AMALEK OR

DESTROY HIMSELF.”

As it turned out, we read something that has big trouble for King Saul written all over it, as it shockingly states in I Samuel 15:9,

“But Saul and the people spared Agag (King of the

Amalekites) and the best of the sheep, the oxen,

the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good,

and were not willing to destroy them utterly;

but everything despised and worthless, that

they utterly destroyed.”

It wasn’t that King Saul was a pacifist. No, for he had utterly destroyed all of the other Amalekites and non-superior animals with the edge of the sword. (I Samuel 15:8)

In short, King Saul listened to another king – Burger King who says, “You can have it your way.” That is the King that also reigns in the modern world and church. Saul was really conquered by man’s old nemesis – covetousness, and put honor among kings above honoring God. King Saul and King Agag became some kind of strange KING MATES – SOUL MATES, like they were both members of some sort of International Council of Kings. To quote Warden Norton from Shawshank Redemption with a bit of a different twist:

“YOU ARE AS THICK AS KINGS YOU ARE.”

This disobedience was not due to some kind of head wound that Saul had sustained in battle so that he had momentary amnesia and forgot his orders from the prophet Samuel. This was a blatant disregard for God and the explicit demands that He had placed upon King Saul. This was an “IN YOUR FACE GOD” on Kind Saul’s part, nothing more, and nothing less.

So not only is there the fattest of the Amalekite sheep and oxen, called “The Fatlings” in I Samuel 15:9, walking around in the Israelite camp. But there is also the FAT AND PLUMP KING AGAG of the Amalekites, as the Vulgate Latin Translation puts it, waddling around in the Israelite camp as well. Two kings who both in their lives had dethroned the God of Israel in their minds and their actions. King Saul is now in fellowship with King Agag, and out of fellowship with the King of kings – God.  

There was no formal inquiry on God’s part. No follow-up investigation was needed. Everyone, including God, could hear the Amalekite sheep and the oxen bleating and bellowing in the background. And so it was, that because King Saul had taken a dissenting opinion and refused to turn King Fatty and his fatlings into buzzard bait, God sends His prophet Samuel to King Saul who tried to blame his fellow warriors for taking the booty. Not only that, but he said to Samuel that the people took the fat flocks and herds to sacrifice them as offerings to the Lord. The Prophet of God, not one to be conned by King Saul’s smooth lies, reminds him that God prefers real obedience to pretended sacrifice in the famous words of I Samuel 15:22,

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to

heed the fat of rams.”

This is a life lesson that we had better learn early, and certainly learn again!

No hard bargaining with God in this case. Nothing that Saul said would even slightly take the edge off from God’s fury. It didn’t work as Samuel informs King Saul of the fact that he has been impeached, as we read in I Samuel 15:26,

“…for you have rejected the Word of the Lord, and the

Lord has rejected you from being

king over Israel.”

As to those rulers who defy the Lord God, guess who always gets dethroned in the end.

THE PROPHET SAMUEL AND KING AGAG

Now what happens between “Heaven’s Prophet” and an “Earthly Potentate” is both powerfully instructive and punitively shocking. You don’t have to read on if you don’t want to, but at the same time I must say to you that you will be missing the best/worst part. However, I must warn you that at the end of this real-battle drama, you won’t need a stretcher, but you will need a shovel and rather large plastic bags for body parts. You may have to cap this whole thing off with an Alka Seltzer chaser. It won’t be pretty.

Samuel the Prophet of God tells the deposed King Saul to get King Agag and bring him to Samuel. So we read in I Samuel 15:32,

“Then Samuel said, ‘Bring me Agag, the king of the

Amalekites.’ And Agag came to him cheerfully.

And Agag said, ‘Surely the bitterness of

death is past.’”

So here comes King Agag into Samuel’s presence, and he does so with a careless and carefree happy spirit. Sounds like he just had his first undisturbed, good night of sleep since he got there. Why not? And it all seemed right that he carry himself with joyful buoyancy and total peace of mind. First of all, he had been spared by King Saul who when he wanted to be could be a fierce warrior. Second, he obviously at this point had nothing to fear from this prophet who did not have the sword of justice or punishment hanging on his side. King Agag is now celebrating life and has no fear of death and so he says to the prophet,

“SURELY THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH IS PAST.”

ILLUSTRATION

Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov was an atheist. A man of great wit and intelligence, Asimov was brought up in the Jewish faith, but like many other Jews, maintained some of the trappings of his faith while rejecting its central focus on God.

Once on national television, Asimov was asked point blank by interviewer David Frost about his views on God. Asimov was reluctant to admit his atheism to a large television audience, and so he stalled by asking, “Whose God?” Frost would not be put off, and said, “I mean the Judeo-Christian God of Western tradition. You know very well, Dr. Asimov.” Whereupon Asimov stalled again and said, “I haven’t given it much thought.”

Then David Frost with even more confrontiveness said to him, “I don’t believe that! I’m sure a person of your wide knowledge and attainments would have sought to find God.” Whereupon Asimov saw his chance and seized it. He said, “God is smarter than I am. Let  Him try to find me.” Then laughter followed and the subject was dropped. Frost challenged him no further. Which is how most godless people handle the subjects of God, death, judgment, and  eternity, as they cover over their uneasiness with shallow laughter, somehow trying to convince themselves that surely the bitterness of death and judgment has passed.

This wretched and blood thirsty King Agag is now wearing the FUN BADGE, for he has already been exposed to high, dangerous, and lethal levels of PERMISSIVENESS. I mean, who has to fear punishment and death when sin is ignored if not condoned by King Saul? I am sure that King Agag had been playing in his mind over and over the game, “Saul Loves Me – Saul Loves Me Not.” And the longer time went on he was enabled to come to the conclusion, “SAUL LOVES ME.”

***

Then what happens when the sinner is spared and his sin uncensored is this:

“THE TRANSGRESSOR IS CONFIRMED IN AND

ENCOURAGED TO CONTINUE AND EVEN

ENLARGE HIS TRANSGRESSION.”

I am immediately reminded of the words of Ecclesiastes 8:11,

“Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed

quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men

among them are given to fully do evil.”

Agag wasn’t even the slightest bit nervous. I have seen homes like that, where the kids are animals, running roughshod over everything and everyone living or now dead. Why? Because we have gobs of homes today which operate by the false premise:

“THE REWARD SYSTEM ALWAYS WORKS MUCH

BETTER THAN THE PUNISHMENT SYSTEM.”

Almost always these are parents who practice the no-spank policy – parental pacificism. When I am in such a zoo, I have to fight down the strong urge to take the parents, not the children, over my knee and whale the living daylights out of them. Always, and I mean always in these permissive and passive domestic environments, the children are selfish, conceited, arrogant, and incorrigible. So little Johnny and Susie cheerfully and peacefully write with crayons all over the walls, and throw toys into the toilet. Why not?

“FOR THE BITTER THREAT OF DEATH IS PAST.”

Dear Lord, the words of King Agag are not only pedagogically potent, they are spiritually and morally devastating. We are living in a day the likes of which I would have never dreamed that I would see if I lived to be a thousand years old. But now we are living a nightmare in  much of the modern day church. In short, it has come to this:

“THE APOSTATE CHURCH IS CAUSING THE SPIRIT OF

WICKED AGAG TO LIVE IN THE CHURCH, AND

THEREBY CAUSING APPROVED SINNERS TO

DIE IN THE CHURCH AND IN

HELL FOREVER.”

What are we talking about? Church governing hierarchies galore today are disallowing the sins of abortion, homosexuality, common-law marriages, adultery, fornication, divorce, witchcraft etc., to be preached against, let alone anymore being specified as sins. And certainly not to be punished with any form of church censure or chruch discipline! As a matter of fact, sin is no longer even being called sin. Romans 6:23 states:

“For the wages of sin is death….”

No it is not, for Romans 6:23 has been replaced by Agag in I Samuel 15:32,

“The bitterness of death is past.”

If you will:

“IT’S PARTY TIME FOR EVERYONE IN THE MODERN

CHURCH – HERE’S TO ONE AND ALL – CHEERS!!!”

The results are killingly pandemic:

First of all:

“SINNERS AND REBELS IN THE CHURCH ARE

ACQUITTING THEMSELVES AS SANCTIFIED

AND JUSTIFIED, BECAUSE THE BITTER

THREAT OF DEATH IS PAST.”

Second:

“BECAUSE THE MODERN CHURCH ACQUITS AND

APPROVES THEM, THEY NOT ONLY SELF-

APPROVE AND SELF-ACQUIT, BUT THEY

BELIEVE THAT GOD ACQUITS

THEM TOO.”

“THEREFORE THEY CAN CHEERFULLY GO ON

SINNING  BECAUSE THE BITTER  THREAT

OF DEATH IS PAST.”

Third:

“NOW THOUSANDS IN THE CHURCH ARE SINGING

AGAG’S REQUIEM TO THEMSELVES AND TO

EACH OTHER.”

Fourth:

“THE CHURCH IN MANY PLACES ACROSS THE EARTH IS

GROWING WITH PEOPLE HAVING A FALSE

ASSURANCE WHILE THEY SING

BLESSED ASSURANCE.”

ILLUSTRATIONS

There are too many examples today to count, but let me briefly highlight one. Willow Creek Church pastored by Bill Hybels is the latest to ease sinners into a false peace. Writes Chris Norton of Christianity Today, “Willow Creek Community Church’s formal relationship with Exodus International has ended. While the decision to part ways dates back to 2009, news that the South Barrington mega-church had cut ties with Exodus, the world’s largest ministry addressing homosexuality, did not surface until late June. Scott Vaudrey of the elder response team said in writing that Willow Creek’s decision was not intended as a social or political statement, but rather an indication of ‘A season of reviewing and clarifying some of our affiliations with outside organizations.’ “

Alan Chambers, president of Exodus, disagrees, “The choice to end our partnership is definitely something that shines a light on a disappointing trend within parts of the Christian community,” he said, “which is that there are Christians who believe like one another who aren’t willing to stand with one another, simply because they’re afraid of the backlash people will direct their way if they are seen with somebody who might not be politically correct.”

Chambers said he sympathizes with Christian organizations that deal with social, political, and financial backlash, but added, “Biblical truth is unpopular, and when you’re supporting unpopular truth, you are unpopular too; which means, some days, getting upwards of 10,000 phone calls and emails, and it can be overwhelming.”

Of course, it can also mean that you stop getting phone calls altogether from your former acquaintances.

We really do love you Agag, you fat, jolly good little devil you! Because:

“IN TODAY’S CHURCHES, AGAG, YOU HAVE BECOME THE

MOST APPRECIATED BUFFER BETWEEN

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.”

And because of your spirit:

“SINNERS CAN EAT BREAD, DRINK WINE, AND ROLL

AROUND IN DIRT AT THE LORD’S SUPPER.”

If you will:

“NOW IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, WE CAN HAVE

OUR CAKE AND EAT IT TOO.”

*******

KING AGAG COMES APART

It is Pastor Saul and Evangelist Saul and Seminary Professor Saul who are making sinners feel not only safe in his or her own thoughts, and in the thoughts of others about him, but even in the thoughts of God about them too. But before you get too comfy Agag, you had better look carefully into the eyes of God burning through the eyes of His true prophet. For we read next in I Samuel 15:33 the prophet Samuel’s words to and actions against Agag,

“BUT Samuel said, ‘As your sword has made women

childless, so shall your mother be childless

among women.’ And Samuel hewed (cut)

Agag to pieces before the Lord.”

You and I know the truth contained in Psalm 75:7 for sure. We have seen it illustrated throughout own lifetimes, and as recently as the overthrow of the Dictator Mubarak in Egypt who as I write this was carried into court on a stretcher for crimes against humanity. The words of the Psalmist are well known:

“But God is the Judge; He puts down one

and exalts another.”

And again in Daniel 2:21,

“And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He

removes kings and establishes kings, for wisdom

and power belong to Him.”

However in the light of what happened to King Agag I guess we can also say:

“GOD NOT ONLY SETS UP KINGS, AND TAKES DOWN

KINGS LIKE KING SAUL, BUT HE ALSO

TEARS KINGS APART.”

And God does it through one of His prophets. If you Agag look closely into Samuel’s eyes, I think you will hear them saying:

“AGAG, I AM NOT GOING TO DEPORT YOU, I

AM GOING TO DISSECT YOU.”

And of all people, a prophet of God, Samuel by name, does the slicing and dicing of King Agag. It really doesn’t fit the image of the false fortune-teller prophets of today. And not only that Samuel, but your prophetic ministry is so negative and extreme that you would scare the gajeebies out of the modern church-goers. The would liken you to Osama bin Laden. You will get a bad name in religious circles, like, “SAMUEL – THE HACKING AND STACKING PROPHET,” or, “SAMUEL – THE KING KILLER.” You should be more concerned about your reputation Samuel, for after all, you could lose your standing with people.

Apparently, the Prophet Samuel was more concerned with his standing before God than he was with his standing before people. We read in I Samuel 15:33 that Samuel filleted King Agag BEFORE THE LORD, which is what God ordered King Saul to do in the first place. Samuel dismembered royal flesh to an audience of one – God, no matter who else might have been watching. And that God lists Samuel in Hebrews 11:32 among the heroes of faith. How does that fit into our modern popularity poles of the top ten favorite prophets of all time?

Now then, let’s get to the real point of all of this:

“JUST WHEN ARROGANT AND SELF-APPROVING

SINNERS THINK THAT GOD IS NO LONGER

HUNTING THEM, AND THAT THEIR

SCENT HAS GROWN COLD, THEN

IT IS THAT HE WILL STRIKE

WITH SUDDEN FIERCENESS.”

And so we read in Psalm 36:1-2,

“Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart;

there is no fear ofGod before their eyes.”

“For it flatters him in his own eyes, concerning the

discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.”

I much prefer the KJV rendering of Psalm 36:1-2,

“The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart,

that here is no fear of God before their eyes.”

“For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his

iniquity be found to be hateful.”

CONCLUSION

Listen to this now and let it set you free from the killing deceptions of Satan and the apostate church. Roll this around on your tongue, and suck and savor the juices of truth. It is this:

“GOD IN JESUS CHRIST WILL SAVE YOU FROM ALL SINS,

BUT THE SIN THAT NOT EVEN HE CAN SAVE YOU

FROM IS THE SIN OF ABSOLVING YOURSELF

FROM ALL SIN.”

God loves you and is not willing that anyone perish in Hell, but that all sinners come to repentance and eternal life through the blood of Jesus Christ. Don’t let Satan or the modern, apostate church scramble your brains into thinking that just because you think that you are past fear, you are also past Divine, eternal, wrath. Come to Jesus and confess your sins of lust, perversion, adultery, fornication, pornographic movies and magazines, drunkenness, Harry Potter witchcraft, hatred, gossip, divisiveness etc. Turn from your sins! Ask Jesus to cleanse you by His blood, forgive you of your sins, and set you free. He will do it all, and when He does, only then can you truly say with joy:

“THE BITTERNESS OF DEATH IS PAST.”

Finally, get out of that church which pooh poohs sins and pampers sinners. Satan is in and all over those churches. Such churches are beds of death where Satan makes sure that sinners can sleep the sleep of death soundly, and that their ecclesiastical beds are equipped with pillow-top mattresses. There Satan will spread his dark angelic wings over you, so that you will never be disturbed by guilt, shame, or conviction until it is to late, and you realize that the bitterness of death is not past.

These dormitories of the devil are many in today’s world and often are huge with thousands of dying sleepers. Get the Sam Hill out of there. Who is Sam Hill? I don’t know, and I don’t care, but get the Sam Hill out of there, and get into a church where there is the strong conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment. For there you can be assured of the presence of the true Holy Spirit of God. (John 16:8) Only there!