Two of the posts from last week got me thinking. First of all, the Bible writers wanted King Saul dead so badly that they actually killed him three times: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=26298&site=3#335437. The second post commented that Witnesses seem very susceptible to unusual syndromes - chronic fatige, fibromyalgia, etc.
Well, when you think about it, like JW's, many of the Bible characters also suffered from an unusual malady - Multiple Death Syndrome (MDS).
King Saul wasn't the only one. Consider this example:
The Amalekites - Three Time Losers
The Amalekites caught the brunt of God’s anger several times. Their first death was recorded in 1 Samuel 15:7,8: “And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is East of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.”
So, no more Amalekites, right? Wrong! Shortly after, while Saul was still King and David was a military leader, they return. Not bad for a tribe that was utterly destroyed. 1 Samuel 27:8,9 says: “Now David and his men went up, and made raids upon the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites, for these were the inhabitants of the land from of old, as far as Shur, to the land of Egypt. And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive...”
Well, that should just about finish them off. They were “utterly destroyed”, followed by a good smiting. Since neither man nor woman was left alive, that should pretty much do it for the Amalekites.
Not quite. In 1 Samuel 30:1, they’re back, and stronger than ever: “Now when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid upon the Negeb, and upon Ziklag.” They seem pretty feisty for a group that has just been killed twice. What’s a righteous king to do with people like this? You guessed it, kill them again.
1 Samuel 30:17: “And David smote them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped, except four hundred young men who mounted camels and fled. David recovered all that the Amalekites had taken, and David rescued his two wives.”
Smiting is apparently rather time consuming. I also find it amusing that “not a man of them escaped”, except for four hundred men.
Well, that pretty well wraps it up for the Amalekites. But wait. In Esther 3:1, a reference is made to “Haman, the Agagite.” If you look in 1 Samuel 15:7,8, which is quoted above, you will find that Agag was the King of Amalek. So, when the events recorded in Esther took place, around 484 B.C., there were still Amalekites alive and well.
God certainly had it in for the Amalekites. Not only did he entirely wipe them out three times, but he even intended to destroy the memory of them. Exodus 17:14 says: “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”
Now, that’s good thinking. If God wanted to blot out the memory of Amalek, why would he set up a memorial in the most widely published book in history? Apparently he didn’t do a very good job of blotting out Amalek. Not only can we still read about him, but his ancestors survived for about another 800 years. For all we know, there might still be some around...