“Then
came the word of the Lord to Samuel saying, It repenteth me that I
have set up Saul to be king.”
The
High Priest, Samuel, and king Saul met by appointment deep in a
forest. Although at the time Saul was leading his Nation in a war, he
came to the meeting with no sword; and not wearing soldier's armor.
Samuel,
I am here, your Holiness. Ishbin, your altar assistant, gave me your
directions. Your Holiness, why the secrecy? I could have provided
perfect privacy in the Palace.
Ask
God, your majesty. God said I should meet you where nobody would see
us.
Bad
news, your Holiness?
Extremely
bad news, your majesty. I am sorry to be the one to bring it to you.
I
am Benjamite. Before you anointed me king, on God's orders, I had to
cope with bad news every day, without God's help. Bad news God
himself could have prevented, but chose not to. Bad news that must
have been of God's own making since we Benjamites are part of God's
chosen people. So, this extremely bad news you have, your Holiness,
will not be that bad to a Benjamite.
That
is good to hear, your majesty, because it pains me to be the
messenger of such bad news. But, before we go there, I ask you, your
majesty, did Ishbin tell you that you were to meet me, unarmed?
Yes,
your Holiness. That is why I have no sword, and I am not wearing my
armor.
But,
under your tunic you wear a dagger, your majesty.
A
king's ceremonial dagger, your Holiness. It is not a weapon. It is
drawn only when an honor is to be conferred on a soldier in the
field, for extraordinary valor. Most times, that soldier will die of
his wounds, within seconds after the honor has been bestowed.
Your
majesty, I apologize for my ignorance. That extremely bad news I
have, your majesty, is that God has withdrawn his support of you as
king of the Israelites, his people.
There,
your Holiness. Just another consequence of being Benjamite. All
Benjamites know all our curses come from God. This is just one more.
I accept God's will. I will not return to the Palace.
God
withdrawing his support has nothing to do with you being Benjamite,
your majesty. It is because you have blatantly disobeyed God's will.
Disobeyed?
In what way?
God
sanctioned this war against the Amalekites. God assured you of
victory, your majesty.
And
we are winning, your Holiness. I have taken prisoner, Agag, their
king. Within days the war will be over. There will be no more
Amalekites, forever.
That
is not true, your majesty. Agag still lives. God's clear instruction
was that Agag was to be killed when captured. You have imprisoned
him, and treated him with kindness.
Agag
is a king. Surely, it is honourable to allow the respect due to
royalty.
The
Amalekites have been slaughtering Israelites from before Agag’s
reign. Agag lustily carried on that slaughter. Jehovah God almighty
is a God of merciless revenge. ‘To me belongeth vengeance,
saith the Lord.’ God gave you the honour of being the first
leader of Israelites to defeat the Amalekites, and to behead their
king in the mud of the battlefield. You have failed God, your
majesty.
Only
in that I chose to act honorably. Honour before revenge. Surely.
Jehovah God almighty can yet have his revenge. I will have Agag
executed immediately when I return to the Palace.
That
honor has been denied you, by God.
I
accept God's will. I submit to God's will. How and when and by whose
hand shall Agag die?
It
has been done already. God removed Agag from your custody, and Agag
has been hewed in pieces before God in the City of Gigal. His body
has been fed to wild dogs and vultures.
Amen
to the will of God, your holiness.
Your
disobedience lives on in the other Amalekites you have spared. When I
brought news to you that God ordered you to lead the Israelites in
war against the Amalekites, I said to you God's will is that you
would slay both men and women, infants and sucklings. God gave you
the victory, as God promised, your majesty, but you did not carry out
God's will, as you promised you would, your majesty.
Your
Holiness, infants and sucklings? Is not sparing such innocents always
righteous?
A
higher righteousness than obeying God's
will, your majesty?
I
do not understand, your Holiness. Can God's will be separated from
God's righteousness; and one be different from the other, your
Holiness?
I
am here as a messenger from God, your majesty, to inform you of God's
will. I am not here to engage with you in the meanings of reality.
Your majesty, obedience is what God wants. Only, and above all,
obedience. Almightiness makes righteousness and evil equal choices,
and equally irrelevant. Almighty God can make infants and sucklings
any minute from stones under our feet. Stones, your majesty, that are
evil-righteous neutral, from forever into eternity.
Yes,
your Holiness, he made Adam from the dust on the ground. But the soul
Adam got was from the breath of God. And that divinity entitles us to
equality with all Gods. The righteousness of God is within us,
inherited from God himself by His deliberate will. I speak in utmost
humility, your Holiness, when I pronounce that Gods, by the terms of
their godliness in us, may not, in all fairness to them and us,
arbitrarily override our righteous choices. Almighty God Himself
said, I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the
most High.
Your
majesty, God ordered you to kill all the Amalekite domestic animals.
You didn’t, your majesty. God did not give you permission to
kill to eat the animals of the Amalekites, your majesty. But, you
did. Your majesty.
Your
Holiness, the soldiers were starving. They killed the animals and
cooked the meat and ate it. All the other animals the soldiers killed
and left for the vultures and the hyaenas and the worms, in
obedience to the word of God. I did not eat any of the meat the
soldiers killed. Your Holiness.
You
are king. You allowed your soldiers to break God’s instructions
to you. You have removed yourself from the presence of God, who made
you king in order to raise the stature of the Benjamite tribe which,
from forever, has been the least among the Israelites.
I
am Benjamite. I am proud to be Benjamite. Being not in the presence
of their God almighty, Jehovah, is normal in the life of a Benjamite.
Your Holiness.
Your
majesty, it is God’s will that I never meet with you again.
King
Saul left. Samuel, High Priest of Almighty God, Jehovah, remained in
that dark jungle, in silence, and in near-suicidal remorse for the
Israelites, God’s Chosen People.
Contact
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