Friday, February 26, 2010
The Baby and the Bathwater
(I Samuel 15:1-6)
I Samuel 15 records Saul’s Amalekite war. The Amalekites were longstanding enemies of Israel, dating back to their resistance of Moses’ entry into the Sinai Peninsula (Exodus 17). They were apparently gaining in strength, residing to the South of Israel; and, apparently, they posed a threat to Israel’s national security. Samuel told Saul to wage war against the Amalekites and to “utterly destroy” them. The words “utterly destroy” meant nothing less than total destruction—what we today call a “scorched earth” policy.
It was Saul’s initial intention to obey Samuel’s instructions explicitly. Saul, however, met with an exceptional case in the tribe of Kenites who were living among the Amalekites. Rather than execute the innocent with the guilty, Saul warned the Kenites to depart from the Amalekites before the battle began (6). In other words, Saul didn’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Who were the Kenites? History records that Moses’ father-in-law Jethro was a Kenite (Judges 1:16). He had advised Moses to divide his governing responsibilities among able men (Exodus 18). In addition, Jethro’s son had been helpful to Moses and the fledgling nation (Num. 10:29-32). All in all, the Kenites were good, salt-of-the-earth kind of folks. Scripture always records them as allied with God’s people. In fact, when later faced with the same conundrum, David also spared the Kenites, whose only mistake appears to be neighboring with the Amalekites (I Sam. 27:8-10; 30:29). Like Saul, David didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Obedience presupposes discernment. Learn to condemn evil and spare good. Ask God to give you the wisdom to discern between the two.
