“Thus saith the LORD of hosts...Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not...But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly...But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD [their] God...And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
From this story in 1 Samuel, chapter fifteen, we find, “Our best is not good enough.” God had plainly specified everything was to be destroyed utterly, not just the vile and refuse. When the Lord condemns the whole, we are not to spare a part. When our Sovereign says, “All must go,” we are not at liberty to keep back what we deem exceptions to His rule.
Crucifixion of self is not partial but complete. Any portion of the flesh that is not “nailed down,” I guarantee, will destroy you in the end. You kill it, or it will end up killing you. Interestingly, when David received news that Saul had been killed, and asked who was responsible for his final demise, the young man answered, “I was.”
And just exactly who was this young man in particular? Let his own words answer this question, “I AM AN AMALEKITE!”
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