Show A scriptural PROBLEM A correspondent writes as follows to the christian union kindly answer for me a few ques eions on I 1 sam xv 2 3 did god give the command there recorded it if he did did be not command to do a cruel and wicked deed from revengeful motives if he did not and and samuel and the writer of the book of samuel supposed that he did is not their mistake about the character and dealings of god so serious as to render them untrustworthy teachers of religious truth M E C the passage which troubles IM M E C 11 is as follows th us saith the lord of hos hosts ts I 1 remember that which amalea did to israel how he laid wait valt tor for him in the way when he came up from egypt now go and smite amalea and utterly destroy all that they have and spare I 1 them hem not but slay both man and woman infant and suckling ox and sheep camel and ass here is the reply of the christian union the passage evidently enjoins retaliation tal lation for hostilities four hundred hund jerl years past the war on banditt was probably justifiable the motive appealed to revenge was not the phrase thus saith the lord does not necessarily denote a direct divine command compare 11 II sam xvi 10 it often means no more than it is right or it ought to be tn any case it shows as here used a defective moral judgment and that samuels teachings like those of all the other bible saints must be brought before the judgment dat of christ for revision and correction it is only fair to notice other occasions on which samuel taught moral truths that are quite up to the principles of christ chri 8 t the assumption that god ordered the destruction of the Arua Ama lekites at the hands bands of saul because of what 7 their ancestors had done four hundred years previously which is the basis of am M E C s questions and of the christian Ghr idian unions reply is unjustifiable true the lord says he i remembers the crime of the race committed four centuries before but he does not say nor intimate that it is to expiate that crime that the children of the twelfth generation allowing three generations to the century are to be slain Is it not true that the enmity of amalea towards israel begun treacherously four hundred years before had been manifested almost continuously since Is it not presumable that the lord purposed the total destruction of a race who for four hundred years had sought to destroy his people does not profane history teach that the Ama lekites had for generations practiced the crimes of sodom and gomorrah and that they had become a hopelessly corrupt and depraved race wholly incorrigible and utterly unyielding to the influence of morality and civilization four hundred years is a long time to wait for a nation to repent and jf if at the end of such an extended probation it is found to have sunk deeper into wickedness and filth than when that probation began it may well be asked if wisdom anti and justice do not demand that its perpetuity shall cease the two verses quoted from samuel go do not purport to give all of the reasons why the lord had de ter mined upon the destruction of p the Ama lekites but they do contain a plain intimation that the wickedness of that race dated back at least four hundred years only aasum a summary of the reasons why the lord sent the deluge and why he rained down fire upon the cities of the plain are to be found in the bible but if the whole truth were known it would be understood that the f doomed races had sunk so low in wickedness and had so long res resisted isted every appeal of repentance that the justice wisdom and holiness of god all combined to demand their extinction from the earth that it might 1 no longer be corrupted by their presence and abominations according to the prophetic scriptures the lord will yet use for the purification of this earth means similar to those ho he resorted to in IP ancient times viz the destruction r of wicked nations |