Campfire Scripture: Uncommon scriptures, simple truth… For pondering over a warm campfire.

Author, Date and Context:

If you didn’t already know, Moses wrote the book of Exodus. The name is the term given to the Israelites deliverance from slavery in Egypt and vividly describes their miraculous ‘exodus’ from the land of Egypt. Exodus is the second book in the Pentateuch, all authored by Moses, besides a short excerpt at the end of the last book which recounts his death. Moses wrote all of these books during Israel’s desert wanderings (1445 – 1405 B.C.).

Moses in a relatively famous story had just led the Israelites against the Amalekites and been successful. Joshua who was later to lead Israel into the promised land, most famously in the battle of Jericho, was the commander of the army against the Amalekites here. Following their victory, the Lord declared here that Amalek would forever be at odds with Him.

What I Reckon:

On the one hand, I don’t want to sound like a broken record. But on the other hand, I want to continually emphasize the obvious point, which seems to be lost on so many Christians today who either don’t read their Bible’s, or only read the nice parts.

This is one more of many examples where God; who is the same yesterday, today and forever; ordered, blessed, and orchestrated an act of war against a sinful nation or people group. In this case the passage implies that Amalek was not just at war with the Israelites, but God himself.

Our God, is a God of love, peace, patience, kindness… and war.

References

All Campfire Scripture passages are taken from the New American Standard Bible, unless otherwise stated.

John MacArthur, 2006, The MacArthur Study Bible,  New American Standard Bible (1995 edition).