CRYSTALLIZATION-STUDY OF 1&2 SAMUEL
Message Five
War with the Amalekites
Scripture Reading: 1 Sam. 15; Exo. 17:8-13; Gal. 5:16-17, 24
I. First Samuel 15 is a record of Saul's disobedience in his conquest of the Amalekites:
A. He conquered the enemy, yet he was altogether disobedient to God—vv. 7-9.
B. Here Saul was absolutely and thoroughly exposed, and then he was given up by God and also by Samuel—vv. 14-26.
C. This chapter contains an important lesson for us today.
II. In typology, the Amalekites signify the flesh—the fallen man—Exo. 17:8-16:
A. Amalek, the flesh, is the leading enemy in frustrating us from going on with the Lord—v. 8; Deut. 25:17-18:
1. The name Amalek means "warlike," indicating that the flesh is warlike, destructive, and disturbing.
2. The greatest destroyer of the Christian life is the flesh—1 Pet. 2:11.
3. The fact that God has a continual war with Amalek reveals that God hates the flesh and desires to exterminate it—Exo. 17:16; Gal. 5:17.
B. The flesh denotes the totality of the fallen old man, our entire fallen being—Gen. 6:3; Rom. 7:18a; Gal. 2:16:
1. The flesh is the living out and the expression of the old man—Rom. 6:6.
2. The flesh is enmity against God, the flesh is not subject to God's law, and the flesh is not able to subject itself to God's law—8:7.
C. The flesh is the camp of God's enemy and the largest base for his work—Gal. 5:19-21:
1. In the entire universe God's unique enemy, in a practical sense, is not Satan but the flesh—Rom. 8:7.
2. The flesh, the fallen man, is absolutely one with Satan and is used by Satan to fight against God—Matt. 16:23; Gal. 5:17.
3. The flesh is the first among our enemies, taking the lead over sin, the world, and Satan to fight against us—Rom. 8:3.
4. God hates the flesh in the same manner that He hates Satan, and He wants to destroy the flesh in the same manner that He wants to destroy Satan—Exo. 17:16; Deut. 25:17-19; 1 Sam. 15:2-3.
D. With Amalek there is a hand against the throne of the Lord—Exo. 17:16; 1 Sam. 15:22-23:
1. Amalek tried to overthrow God's throne, just as Satan once tried to do—Exo. 17:8, 16.
2. Like Satan himself, the flesh is against God's authority—Isa. 14:12-14:
a. The flesh is in rebellion against God and against His throne.
b. Whatever God does governmentally, the flesh opposes it.
3. Our flesh is an enemy of God's authority and is in rebellion against God's governmental administration:
a. The flesh is most ugly because it is against the throne, the administration, and the plan of God—Rev. 4:2; 5:6; Eph. 3:11.
b. Every aspect of our flesh, whether good or evil, is an enemy of God's authority.
c. Whatever is of the flesh is against God's throne; it will be used by Satan, the subtle one, the enemy of God, to hinder God's purpose—2 Cor. 2:11.
E. The flesh is versus kingship:
1. Where the flesh is, there can be no kingdom of God.
2. For this reason, the flesh must be thoroughly dealt with before the kingdom of God can come.
III. In 1 Samuel 15:2 Jehovah declared that He would punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they fought against Israel:
A. Amalek fought against the children of Israel as they were journeying to attain to God's goal—Exo. 17:8-16; 1 Sam. 15:2-3:
1. In the war with Amalek described in Exodus 17:8-16, Moses stood on the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hand, and Joshua went out with chosen men to fight against, and to defeat, Amalek.
2. While Joshua was fighting, Moses was praying.
3. After Joshua defeated Amalek, God declared that He would "have war with Amalek from generation to generation" (v. 16); this shows how seriously God regarded the frustration caused by the Amalekites.
B. Exodus 17:8-13 shows us how to fight against Amalek:
1. We fight against Amalek by the interceding Christ and the fighting Spirit—Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25; Gal. 5:17:
a. Moses lifting up his hand on the mountaintop typifies the ascended Christ interceding in the heavens—Exo. 17:9, 11.
b. Joshua fighting against Amalek typifies the indwelling Spirit fighting against the flesh—vv. 9, 13.
c. We need to be in union with the interceding Christ in order to cooperate with the fighting Spirit—Col. 3:1-3, 5; Rom. 8:34, 13; Gal. 5:24, 17.
2. In the battle against Amalek, we need to cooperate with the Lord by praying and by putting the flesh to death—Luke 18:1; 1 Thes. 5:17; Rom. 8:13; Gal. 5:24:
a. When we pray, we are one with the interceding Christ—Rom. 8:34.
b. When we put the flesh to death, we are one with the fighting Spirit—Gal. 5:17.
c. On the one hand, we must pray with Christ; on the other hand, we must slay the flesh by the fighting Spirit—v. 24.
d. Crucifying the old man was God's responsibility; crucifying the flesh is our responsibility—Rom. 6:6; 8:13; Gal. 5:24.
IV. God commanded Saul to "strike the Amalekites" and to "utterly destroy all that they have" and not spare them, but he did not obey Jehovah's command—1 Sam. 15:3-9:
A. Saul killed the Amalekites, but he spared Agag the king and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good—vv. 7-9.
B. Saul and the people's sparing the best part of the things that they should have utterly destroyed portrays the fact that, experientially, we treasure the good aspects of our flesh, our natural life, and do not wish to destroy them:
1. Whatever we do apart from God's grace and apart from depending on Him and trusting in Him is of the flesh—Phil. 3:3-4.
2. Every aspect of the flesh, whether good or evil, is in opposition to grace and God's kingdom and keeps us from enjoying Christ; therefore, we must hate every aspect of the flesh and be absolute in destroying the flesh—Rom. 8:13; Gal. 3:3; 5:2-4.
C. God did not want Saul to use the best of the cattle as a sacrifice to Him—1 Sam. 15:15:
1. Anything presented and sacrificed to God that has its source in the flesh is evil in His sight—v. 19.
2. To offer something to God according to our own will is presumptuous and is sinful—Gen. 4:5; Matt. 7:22-23.
V. Doing good according to our own will is actually an act of rebellion against God's throne and His economy—1 Sam. 15:22-23; Exo. 17:16:
A. Saul's disobedience exposed him as being a rebel against God and an enemy of God—1 Sam. 22:17.
B. Saul was utterly rebellious toward God; he had no subordination to God, nor did he take God as his King and Head.
C. He was constituted with rebellion, which is as evil as the worship of idols—15:23.
D. What Saul did was as evil as contacting an evil spirit for the purpose of carrying out the intention of that spirit, not God's intention—v. 23.
E. All rebellion is a matter of presumption, a matter of daring to do things without God.
VI. Saul lost his kingship because he did not utterly destroy Amalek—vv. 26, 28:
A. If we are not absolute in dealing with our flesh, we, like Saul, will lose our kingship—1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10.
B. The account of Saul's disobedience is a warning, indicating that we should not do anything in the kingdom of God by our flesh; in everything we must crucify our flesh and faithfully exercise our spirit to follow the Lord, who is the life-giving, consummated Spirit indwelling our spirit and who is one with us—1 Cor. 15:45; 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; Gal. 5:16, 25.
C. When Amalek is dealt with, the kingdom of God immediately comes in—Exo. 18:1-26:
1. The kingdom of God denotes the authority of God by which all things are made subject to God—Mark 1:15; John 3:3, 5; Rev. 11:15; 12:10; Dan. 2:44.
2. Because the flesh is versus the kingship, the flesh must be thoroughly dealt with before the kingdom of God can come in—1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:5.
D. If we follow the Lord's word to utterly destroy the flesh and live and walk according to the spirit, we will have the kingship and will be in God's kingdom—Rom. 8:4; 14:17; Gal. 5:19-21; 2 Pet. 1:5-11.