"Samuel hacks Agag into pieces", illustration from Figures de la Bible (1728).
This was a difficult chapter to read on many levels:
- just hearing God say to Saul, "I regret that I have made Saul king", stabbed my soul. I can't imaging those words being uttered.
- furthermore, just what does God mean when he regrets his decision? Did God make a bad decision? Does God change his mind?
- with difficulty, I imagine Samuel's pain as he sees God's word disobeyed, and God requires that he confront Saul. Samuel cries all night before the confrontation. Sorrow for God, sorrow for Israel, sorrow for himself, sorrow for Saul, all of the above?
- the natural mind is going to have great difficulty with God's "ethnic cleansing" displayed here.
- further, what horror as we view Samuel chopping Agag into pieces.
- and finally, Samuel and Saul were never to see each other alive again.
I suppose this narrative should compel us to be thankful that we live in the era of the church, and that the regenerate have the righteousness of Christ covering them.
For clearly here is a most vivid display of God's hatred of evil. When evil stands in front of God, evil is swiftly, and severely dealt with.
The post-modern mind greatly struggles with a God who is both completely loving, and completely just. Further, the post-modern mind, rather than running to God for understanding, seeking with all of their cells to gain some semblance of apprehension, rejects this God as barbaric, and dream dreams of a God of their own making.
How does the finite expect to understand the Infinite? How does the clay remonstrate against the Potter?
Frankly, I don't have answers to the myriad of questions that come to my view. I believe in God, and I will continue my journey to understand, knowing full well that some things, like it or not, I am not going to understand.
Frustrating? You bet! But wasn't it David who proclaimed, "who can know the depths of your mind, O LORD?"
Note: I found the notes in my ESV Study Bible a big help in at least better understanding the questions.
