The Prologue to St. John’s Gospel
The Twenty-Fourth Day of Lent examines that which gives us direction—the prophet Samuel directs King Saul to kill the King Agag of the Amalekites, with the words that as he had made women childless, so would his mother be made childless.
We already learned that King Saul failed to destroy the animals and then tried to cover it up and shift blame from himself. This disobedience cost Saul the Kingdom. I used to wonder why God stressed that some should be wiped out—man, woman, child and beast. A small reading of history explains the importance of annihilating an enemy that is particularly grievous. Saul’s leniency resulted in the rise of Agag’s heir, Haman, we read about in Esther. He was bent on revenge against all Jews.
Additionally, science teaches us that animals carry diseases. Think of the bird flu, mad cow disease and salmonella in chicken, trichinosis from pork etc. The Jews lived by specific laws that seemed to strengthen their health and keep them distinct from the non-Jews around them. The sheep might have seemed fine, to Saul’s non-scientific assessment, but God would have known if these animals carried diseases that could have undermined the Kingdom of Israel.
We learn how diseases carried from culture to culture results in annihilation of whole communities. The Maya died from illness more than Spanish soldiers fighting.
So we must trust that God’s telling the prophet to annihilate a culture/community had more to it than a whimsical off-with-their-heads attitude of some queens in history.
God promises to watch over us, to guide us in the right ways, if we obey. The New Testament lesson affirms that in the Gospel of John. In the beginning of time God already existed (hence we say God is outside of space and time)…and the Word was with God (the voice of God that orders the Big Bang and separates galaxies and sends the elements spinning into suns/stars and separates the light and darkness; the waters and the land…forming the billions of solar systems (some like ours) and organizing them into systems that can produce life with planets that protect that life system from the showers of space debris. A study of science expands the greatness of God considerably. Before 14 billion years ago, God existed with the Word and the Word WAS God. Now we have the two parts of the Trinity.
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