Disobey Yahweh at Your Peril

Yahweh really doesn't like to be disobeyed. When he tells the Israelites to kill every man, woman, child, and farm animal of a target nation, he means literally every one -- no exceptions. The price to be paid for letting anyone or any animal live is severe. Just ask King Saul. Saul, the first king of the United Monarchy of Israel, once was Yahweh's favorite person in the whole world. But Saul was taken to the woodshed when, after being commanded to exterminate the Amalekites and their livestock, he took their king prisoner and brought back some of their livestock to sacrifice to Yahweh, who loves few things more dearly than the smell of beef on the grill. (I've got to agree with Him there.)

However, there is one thing he definitely loves more than burnt offerings: unquestioning compliance with his commands. When He saw what Saul had done, He instructed the prophet Samuel to tell the king of Israel, "To obey is better than sacrifice.... Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king." (I Samuel 15:22-23) That set the stage for David's accession to the throne.

We may wonder why Yahweh repeatedly insisted on genocide (with a few exceptions for virgin women and girls). He made his reason quite clear. If the Children of Israel let the gentiles live, even if they enslaved them (which they did), the gentiles would contaminate the Israelites with their religious-cultural beliefs when the two peoples intermarried. The gentile "will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods." (Deuteronomy 7:4)

Yahweh, being a very jealous Lord, could not tolerate that.

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