Welcome once more to Bud Hancock who has researched the connection between the Amalekites and the “palestinians” of today. The spirit lives on it seems!

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

Amalek/Esau, Israel/Jacob, and America/USA

Bu Bud Hancock

Decisions Have Consequences

Thousands of years ago, decisions were made in the Middle East, when it was more commonly called “the World”, long before there was a USA or any other nation or group of nations now known as “the West”. These ancient decisions are now affecting the entire World, but especially the United States of America. Long before any man knew there would even BE an America, God was aware of the effects they would have, here and now, in “our time”.

Some of those decisions were made by Almighty God, as a right of His sovereignty; others were made by men, either in reaction, or response, to the decisions made by God. Men are still making decisions today, some in obedience to the commands contained in God’s decisions (response), some in SPITE of God’s decisions (reaction). In either case, the will of man to decide his own future, for good or bad, positive or negative has been reserved to him by a merciful and just God, Who will neither be mocked as unjust, nor blamed as unrighteous for the incorrect decisions of men. But in the end, He is STILL the one True and Only God and there is no other.

God’s Decisions

One of the thorniest questions for many people, especially Christians is: “Why and how does God make certain decisions”? While many Christians might try to answer that thorny question, in order to find any truth in any answer, they first MUST concede that, because God IS who He says He is, He has the right to decide things His way, just because He is God. He is sovereign over all the Earth and therefore He has the right to decide in any and all matters that affect or determine the outcome of issues where His will is involved.

In no event was that sovereignty more important than in deciding who would be used to produce the body of the Messiah, the saviour of the world in order that His promise made to the serpent in Genesis could be fulfilled. God is eternal, with no beginning and no ending, so He knew what His decision would be before the foundation of the world, but He chose to keep it under wraps until His timing was right.

The writer of the Book of Genesis details the selection of Abraham to be God’s choice for the fulfillment of His purpose, to fulfill His promises. Read Genesis through the first eleven chapters to get a sound understanding of the world events that led up to the introduction of Abram, later named Abraham, by God. In His timing, God made His will known to Abram that he must separate himself from his earthy family and journey from Ur of the Chaldees to a place he would be shown, later revealed as Canaan. In (partial) obedience to God’s command, Abraham’s life from that moment on would be historic. I say partial because Abraham made the decision to allow his earthly nephew, Lot, the son of his father’s brother, to accompany him on his journey. This is another decision that would affect the life of Abraham. God’s plans that either allow, or require, man’s decisions are never without difficulty when man’s will is involved. Amazingly, God always seems to have a “workaround” plan that still allows His will to be done even if means harm to those who made wrong decisions.

Sarah’s Decision Leads to Ishmael

HAGAR AND ISHMAEL

As Abraham attempted to continue in obedience to God, He still made several seriously bad decisions. His wife, Sarai, desperately wanted children, but was barren and, in an attempt to “help God” she persuaded Abram to take her handmaiden, an Egyptian servant woman named Hagar, and have sex with her in order to produce offspring. Abraham listened to Sarai and the result was a son named Ishmael, so the decision seems to have produced results, at least in Abram and Sarai’s eyes, but were the results good?.

Ishmael was neither God’s plan nor His decision. The line of the Messiah was to come through the bloodline of Abraham and the body of Sarah. In His mercy, and at HIS appointed time, God allowed Sarah’s womb to open and she and Abraham brought forth Isaac, the promised son. Sarah, realizing her serious error, made Abraham send Ishmael away along with his mother, Hagar. Because Abraham loved Ishamel, he suffered much grief due to his decision to obey Sarah.

The promised son, Isaac, grew in stature and when he was nearing forty years of age and needing a wife, Abraham sent a servant to his former land, there to find a wife of his kinfolk, not desiring to have Isaac wed to a Canaanite woman. As a result, God selected Rebekkah to be the wife of Isaac.

Rebekkah, who after her marriage to Isaac, had been barren for many years, was blessed by God, and in answer to the prayer of Isaac, conceived twins, and thus became the mother of Esau and Jacob, when Isaac was sixty years old.

JACOB AND ESAY REUNITED

Rebekkah experienced a pregnancy that was difficult and conflicted. She felt the twins struggle within her womb, so she asked the Lord why this was happening to her. The Lord replied, “Two nations are in your womb,and two peoples from within you shall be divided;the one shall be stronger than the other,the older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:22-23 ESV). The nature of the struggles between her unborn sons indicated they would have a life of conflict after birth. I doubt anyone could have foreseen just how contentious their lives would become; however, God knew and for His own reasons (possibly related to the sold birthright), He chose Jacob the younger son to be the line from whom the Messiah would come.

When Esau and Jacob, twin brothers, sons of Isaac and grandsons of Abraham, were born with Esau emerging first from the womb, Jacob, whose name means “heel-grabber” and “cheater”, had the heel of Esau in his hand, indicating in him a character trait that would cause him to gain the family blessing through deceit and treachery. But through this seeming character flaw, God saw in Jacob the properties that no human could see, and he chose Jacob because of those properties.

Esau’s Decision to Sell His Birthright

Normally, the first-born son receives the greater blessing from his father to be the main heir to the father’s estate, as well as the one responsible for the entire tribe. This is a very big deal in cultures who place much stock in the birthright as did the Semitic tribes from which Abraham came. Based on that fact, Esau would normally have received the blessing that named him the head of the tribe. However, long before the imminent death of Isaac, when the blessing would have been given, Esau returned from a hunt, tired and very hungry, and found his brother, Jacob, in the house preparing a meal of red pottage (red lentil stew) and asked Jacob to give him some to relieve his hunger. Jacob agreed to feed Esau if he would sell him his birthright. Being a man of poor character, and deeming the birthright not a thing to be highly desired, Esau agreed and thus the birthright passed to Jacob (Genesis 25:30-34).

The birthright was to be valued above all else when considering the passing down of the leadership within a tribe or clan or family. That Esau so lowly valued the birthright placed him in a precarious position with God because the birthright was instituted by God to establish positions of leadership and power in order to continue the flourishing of families and tribes within a culture.

Sometime later, closer to the time of his death, Isaac, who loved Esau his firstborn son, asked Esau to go hunting, kill a deer and provide a meal of the savory meat that he loved so much, and bring it to Isaac so that he could enjoy the meal and then give the blessing to Esau.

Rebekkah, who dearly loved Jacob, having heard Isaac tell Esau to go and hunt and bring meat, prepared as he loves it, to feed him before giving him the blessing, formed a plan to have Jacob receive the blessing in place of Esau; she instructed Jacob to quickly bring the meat of two goats to her so that she could prepare it for Isaac. She also helped Jacob cover parts of his body with the skin of goats to simulate the hairiness of Esau in order to deceive Isaac. Isaac, convinced that he was blessing Esau, gave the blessing to Jacob

ISAAC AND REBEKKAH

Esau, who was an accomplished outdoorsman and hunter did as Isaac commanded. He prepared the deer meat and brought it to Isaac in order to receive the expected blessing.

After discovering that the blessing had been given to Jacob, Esau wept bitterly and hated his brother from that moment on. As stated at the beginning of this article, decisions have consequences and it seems Esau had forgotten his hasty decision to sell the birthright to his brother.

Once Isaac gave the greater blessing to Jacob, there was no taking it back, it was a done deal. Isaac did bless Esau, but it was not same blessing, the blessing of Abraham, given to and received by Jacob. Esau continued his life, somewhat in defiance of his father and mother, marrying Canaanitic women which distressed both Isaac and Rebekah greatly. Isaac, not wanting to see Jacob married to a local Canaanitic woman, told Jacob to go to the land where Abraham had lived before obeying God’s command to go to Canaan, and to choose a wife from among his brethren there.

Jacob spent more than twenty years in that area, serving his relative, Laban, for his two daughters, Leah and Rachel, both of whom became his wives. He then returned to the land of his father, Isaac, and made amends with his brother Esau. You might think that this action would have ended any bad blood between brothers, but, as time passed, Esau’s descendants who became known as the Edomites, allowed the jealousy of, and hatred for, Jacob and his descendants to fester and periodically, to erupt.

The Transfer of Esau’s Hatred to Amalek

A man named Amalek, son of Eliphaz and grandson of Esau, was born to Timna, a member of a royal Canaanitic family. Because of the honor given to the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Timna had tried to convert to Judaism but was rejected by the Judaic leaders. In reaction to the rejection, she became the concubine of Eliphaz, one of the sons of Esau. Her desire to become Jewish was not to be a part of a Godly family, but to improve her own station in life, which she did by following the ungodly path of the offspring of Esau.

According to Jewish history, Amalek grew up in the house of Esau and was trained and taught the pathological hatred for Jacob because he had received the Abrahamic blessing instead of Esau. This sounds eerily familiar to the teaching of Palestinian children today.

As a grown man, Amalek settled in the southern area of Israel known as the Negev Desert, the northern part of which coincided with the Gaza Strip (Numbers 13:29) The largest city of that area was Beersheba, but Khan Yunis, having recently made the news as a Hamas stronghold in the Gaza Strip, is only a short distance from there. This is the area from which the Amalekites attacked the Jewish people on their journey from Egyptian slavery to the Land of Canaan. That cowardly action so provoked God that His word describes what must be done to the Amalekites:

• Exodus 17:8-16—(esp. verses 14-16): “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. ”And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The Lord Is My Banner,saying, “A hand upon the throneof the Lord! The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
• Deuteronomy 25:16-19— “For all who do such things, all who act dishonestly, are an abomination to the Lord your God.*“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”. ( *These were the words of Moses to the Jews to remember the command of God to combat Amalek as they prepared to enter the Promised Land)
• Numbers 24:20—”Then he looked on Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first among the nations,but its end is utter destruction”.

After the Israelites had established themselves in Canaan, in total disrespect for God’s loving care for them, they had implored God to give them a king to rule over them, and Saul was made the first King of the Jews, anointed by the Prophet Samuel. After being anointed king, Saul was given this command from God through Samuel: “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord.Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey” (1 Samuel 15:1-3).

Despite the command from God regarding Amalek, Saul disobeyed and spared the choicest flocks of the Amalekites and also allowed the Amalekite king, Agag, to live. Upon learning of Saul’s disobedience, Samuel was livid with Saul and the kingship was taken from him; Samuel himself then killed Agag. But before he died, Agag produced a child that would keep the lineage of Amalek alive. 500 years later, one of this child’s descendants was Haman, the Agagite (Esther 3:1), who became a wicked and important ruler in Persia under the Persian king, Ahasuerus. That same Haman is the Amalek descendant who plotted to have all the Jews in Persia killed. A hatred such as that of Esau and Amalek does not soon die and as long as it lives, it wreaks havoc on all toward whom it is directed. In the case of Haman, through Esther, the Jewish queen of Persia, the plot of Haman was turned against him and he perished on the gallows he had planned to have Mordecai, Esther’s uncle, hanged (Esther 7:9-10).

God was very serious about the responsibility of the Jewish people to obey this command and utterly wipe out the name of Amalek from under heaven.

From the Chabad.org website:https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3942715/jewish/Who-Were-Amalek-and-the-Amalekites.htm

To Remember and Destroy

The Torah lists two mitzvahs (divine commandments) regarding Amalek:

1. To obliterate the nation of Amalek (timcheh et zecher Amalek)
2. To never forget the evil deeds Amalek did (zechor al tishkach)

To Wipe Out Amalek

The mitzvah to destroy Amalek implies that NO trace of Amalek’s existence could be left. “Nothing,” explain the sages, “could serve as a reminder of Amalek’s name—not even an animal about which it could be said: ‘This animal belonged to Amalek’.”

To Remember—Parshat Zachor

Parshat Zachor

The Torah commands the Jewish people to always remember what Amalek did. The sages understand from this that once a year they must read the verses of the Torah where Moses reminds the Jews of Amalek’s actions.

Indeed, each year on the Shabbat before the holiday of Purim we read the section of the Torah in Deuteronomy recounting Amalek’s action. On Purim the Jews were saved from the evil designs of the wicked Haman, a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag—a perfect time to celebrate the destruction of Amalek.

The Current Hatred of Amalek Directed at the Jewish People

Even though many experts believe the line of Amalek died out long ago, the events of October 7, 2023, clearly displayed the fact that the hatred of the current people called “the Palestinians” is the living hatred of Esau/Amalek for Jacob/Israel.

The current leader of the Israeli nation and the Jewish people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seems determined to accomplish, finally, what so many former Jewish leaders did not: the utter destruction of the descendants of Amalek: Hamas. In his quest to finally obey and complete the commandment of God, many foolish people around the World are now openly acting against the wishes of the Jewish leader and the Jewish people to destroy Hamas. But, more importantly, they are openly acting against the God of the Jewish people.

In the 32^nd chapter of Deuteronomy, the Bible describes how God feels about the offspring of the man He chose to start the family that would produce the body of Messiah: Abraham. In the 10^th verse, he states that God kept Jacob/Israel “as the apple of His eye”. So many still display a bright shiny red apple when they utter these words as though Jacob was the object of God’s word of warning when He spoke of Jacob, that Jacob possesses some righteousness and holiness making him that precious to God, but the truth is that, when the Bible was written, there was no word to describe the most sensitive part of the human eye, the iris. Since it was round like an apple, men called that sensitive part, “the apple” of the eye. But the real reason God used those words, speaking of Jacob/Irael is not due to any wonderful attributes of Jacob, but is due to God’s own Magnificence, His Greatness, His Righteousness and His Holiness, and most importantly, His Word, which includes all the attributes that ARE God (Colossians 2:9). He guards His word and watches over it to perform it. To attack those whom God has chosen is akin to attacking His Word and that is, indeed, a very foolish act.

His choice of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the covenants that were given to them are backed by, guaranteed by, and assured by, the Word of God. When anyone foolishly attacks that which He has sworn to protect, God compares that act to sticking one’s finger into “the apple of God’s eye”, causing great irritation and discomfort. No, God cannot be harmed by any act of man, but the irritation He feels against those who act so foolishly can bring terrible consequences to, and harm of, those who commit such foolish acts.

As I have watched the events of October 7, 2023, and those that have unfolded since then, especially the acts that openly defy God And offer aid and comfort to God’s enemies (who also happen to be the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people), I have wondered how long God will wait to avenge Himself against them. If the leaders of all the foolish nations could understand the dangers they are now in due to their hatred of Jacob/Israel, they could change their minds and repent to God. But, unfortunately, they are blind to the truth and will likely only realize the dangers to which they have subjected their nations and their people when it is too late. I fear that America has now become one of those foolish nations, and those who are not under the saving blood of Jesus Christ, may soon realize their errors, but it may be too late. The decisions now being made by those foolish nation WILL bring consequences too terrible to comprehend.

I am reminded of the words of Paul, written in Galatians 6:7, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.

Blessings and Maranatha!

budaroo@twc.com