“I’ve been reading through the Old Testament and I’m all mixed up. I read this in 1 Samuel today: ‘Go and completely destroy the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have annihilated them’ (1 Samuel 15:18). I’m struggling with all the killing done in God’s name and at His direction. Why would He command His people to kill? It doesn’t make sense!”

This is the gist of a text message I received from someone in my congregation. She had recently returned to church after a long time away, and with that return came a renewed interest in Scripture. She was working her way diligently through a Bible-in-a-Year reading plan. But as she did, she had questions. Lots of questions. Questions that could not be answered in a text message. How do you faithfully make sense of confusing texts like God’s command to completely destroy an entire people group?

Stay Curious

When people come to texts like 1 Samuel 15, they respond in various ways.

Some people deconstruct their faith over texts like this, dismissing God as angry and vengeful. Others don’t dismiss their faith entirely but do drive a wedge between the angry God of the Old Testament and the loving Jesus of the New Testament, losing the plot thread that runs through the whole of Scripture. Others take these texts as prescriptive and use them to excuse horrific acts of religious violence.

All of these responses are real, in history and in our own day, but most of us don’t go to those extremes. Most of us just ignore these texts. We shrug them off and hang out in the parts of Scripture that encourage and comfort us. We stay away from the discomfort of the questions that they raise.

Let me suggest a different way: Despite the confusion and tension 1 Samuel 15 raised, my friend sat with her question and wrestled with it. She stayed curious. This posture of curiosity is the first step toward faithfully making sense of a confusing text.

Zoom Out and See the Bigger Story

Many of the tensions a passage like 1 Samuel 15 raises ease when we zoom out and place it in the bigger story Scripture tells.

In the Exodus narrative, God reveals Himself to Moses as “The LORD—the LORD is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth . . . forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished . . .” (Exodus 34:6–7). From the beginning, God has revealed Himself as a merciful and loving God, faithful and patient with His people. But He also reveals Himself as a God of justice: He will not turn a blind eye to the evil and sin of the world but will act in judgment and do what is necessary to make things right.

In order to accomplish His purposes in the world, God calls the people of Israel to be His treasured possession. He brings them up out of Egypt so that they might be “my kingdom of priests and my holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). They are to be set apart: to be holy as He is holy (Leviticus 19:2). He does not do this for their comfort alone but so that they may be a light to the nations—so the blessing and knowledge of God might spread to every corner of the world.

Who, then, are these Amalekites who are “devoted to destruction” in 1 Samuel 15? We first meet them in Exodus 17, when they attack the Israelites in the wilderness on their way to the Promised Land (Exodus 17:8–13). They were a cruel and warlike people who attacked when the Israelites were “tired and weary.” They struck “all . . . stragglers from behind,” and they “did not fear God” (Deuteronomy 25:17–18). Because of this, God swears their memory will be blotted out from under heaven (Exodus 17:14, Deuteronomy 25:19).

So when God commands Saul to “completely destroy” the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15, the text presents this not as a senseless act of genocide but as God’s rightful exercise of justice. Theologian Fleming Rutledge writes, “The wrath of God is not an emotion that flares up from time to time, as though God had temper tantrums; it is a way of describing his absolute enmity against all wrong and his coming to set matters right.”¹ Faithful readers do differ on how to hold this text—some emphasizing the conventions of ancient war language, others the way God accommodated Himself to a particular moment in Israel’s history. But they are all reaching for the same thing: a reading in which God does not delight in violence nor contradict Himself.

God’s justice is not reserved for so-called enemies while His chosen people get a free pass. The same threat of judgment stands for the people of Israel as well. They are warned not to follow in the wicked ways of the nations around them or to worship their false gods. As they enter the Promised Land, God warns them that if they do not live up to their calling to be holy, the land itself will vomit them out, and He will cause them to be defeated before their enemies (Leviticus 20:22, Deuteronomy 28:25).

As we follow the story line through the rest of the Old Testament, we find that God’s chosen people don’t live up to their calling. Again and again, they fail. Again and again, God calls them to repentance through His prophets. (They also pronounce judgment on surrounding nations, as God did on the Amalekites.) Eventually, in His justice, God does vomit them out of the land and cause them to be defeated by their enemies—they are sent into exile.

But God’s justice isn’t the end of the story. The whole narrative of the Old Testament—the good, the bad, and the ugly—paves the way for the ultimate redemption and restoration that come with Jesus. God’s justice, mercy, and love are held together in perfect balance at the cross. At the cross, Jesus bears the weight of the judgment that is rightfully ours and opens the way of redemption and restoration for all people—Jew and Gentile alike.

Jesus’s death and resurrection free us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek when we are wronged, trusting that vengeance belongs to the Lord (Matthew 5:38–39, Romans 12:19). The Day of the Lord will come. Jesus will return in all His glory to bring ultimate justice to all that is evil and restore all that is broken (Revelation 20–21). When we look at the rampant brokenness of the world around us, we might ask, “How long, LORD?” (Psalm 13:1). Peter tells us that it is because of God’s mercy, patience, and love that He waits: “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God’s judgment is in service of His love, removing all that stands in the way of His purposes. His justice and mercy are not contradictory but held in tension. He is unfailingly who He revealed Himself to be from the beginning. This was true in the Old Testament, this is true in the New Testament, and this is true today.

First Samuel 15 is just a tiny piece of this grand narrative. It doesn’t stand alone. And we have to understand it in the context of that larger story of who God has revealed Himself to be.

Let the Answers Come Slowly

Putting together all of these pieces is no simple task. For those, like my friend, who are new to studying Scripture, it takes time to build up the layers of understanding that help us to make sense of these things. This is, in fact, the journey of a lifetime. When we encounter passages of Scripture that confuse us, we need to be patient, sit with our questions, and not expect immediate answers. As the story unfolds—drip by drip—our understanding will grow. And as our understanding grows, we will find that its riches run deeper than we can ever exhaust.

If you liked this article, check out the related resources linked below!

Notes:

1. Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion, 130.

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Author Bio

Jen Snow is part of the pastoral team at Resurrection Anglican Church in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (MA in Christian Thought, ’24) and a former missionary to Papua New Guinea and Cameroon. She is wife to Dan and a mother of three young-adult children. In all of these roles, it is her deepest desire to proclaim the excellencies of Jesus. She takes great delight in the beauty of the changing seasons, curling up with a good book, and long conversations with friends over good food and drink. You can connect with Jen and read more of her writing over at Substack (substack.com/@jen1744052).

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