Sabbath Keepers Fellowship & Prison Ministry
Ovadyah Ben Yisrael
More on Amaleq...
While Qorach is the type of those who rise up from within the people of Yisrael to ruin or destroy them through rebellion and division, Amaleq is the type of Yisrael's continual external foe, those who rise up to destroy YHWH's people in every generation. They do so through subterfuge, guile and deceit, attacking from the rear or in Yisrael's weakest spots or moments.
Amaleq is also equated with our “Yetzir Ra – our evil or fleshly inclination. Here is an excellent example of this idea in an article written by Dr. Daniel Botkin:
Smiting Amaleq
“And YHWH said to Moshe, ‘Write this for a remembrance in the book and recite it in the hearing of Yehoshua, that I shall completely blot out the remembrance of Amaleq from under the heavens.’ And Moshe built an altar and called its name, YHWH Nissi, for he said, ‘Because a hand is on the throne of Yah, YHWH is to fight against Amaleq from generation to generation.’”
Through the Prophet Shmuel, YHWH told King Shaul to "smite Amaleq, and utterly destroy ail that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” In a spiritual sense, the commandment to smite Amaleq is a commandment for all Yisrael, past and present.
Shaul was a king and ruled a kingdom. You are a little king (or queen) and rule over your own "kingdom," i.e., your personal life. YHWH gives you free will and you decide what choices to make for your life. You can choose to obey YHWH's commandments and do things His way, or you can choose to disobey His commandments and do things your own way. Concerning Amaleq, YHWH's commandment is to smite him, to utterly destroy him, and to show him no mercy. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," Paul wrote, but there is a spiritual Amaleq that we must smite and utterly destroy. What does Amaleq represent in the spiritual realm?
Amaleq was a descendant of Esau, the carnal man who sold his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup. Esau is a picture of the man who values his fleshly appetites more than he values the things of the spirit. Amaleq was the fruit of Esau; therefore our Amaleq is the "old man," the sinful, fleshly nature that places more importance on the things of the flesh than on the things of the spirit. Amaleq represents the flesh in the ongoing internal struggle between the flesh and the spirit. This conflict goes all the way back to the womb of Rivka, where Esau, the forefather of Amaleq, and Ya’kov, the forefather of Yisrael, "struggled together within her". What Rivka experienced in a physical sense, we experience in a spiritual sense. Our desire to sin and our desire to do excellent play tug-of-war inside us. Paul, in Galatians, describes it this way: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
Our carnal desire to sin is very strong and very persistent. Amaleq tugs at our heart constantly, using whatever means he can to tempt us. What should we do about the Amaleq who lives inside us? Reform him? Educate him? Try to improve his self-esteem? No, none of these things, because Amaleq cannot be changed; he is incorrigible. The only way to deal with Amaleq is to smite him and utterly destroy him. YHWH's solution for the problem of the old sinful nature is to kill it, not reform it. In B’rith Chadasha terminology, "They that are Yeshua's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." To provide some context for the above verse, Paul first contrasts the works of the flesh to the fruit of the Spirit:
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murder, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of YHWH. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffer ing, gentleness, excellence, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Yeshua's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts."
This contrast between the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit describes the difference between Amaleq, the old sinful desires of the flesh, and Yisrael, the new holy desires of the spirit. The only way to end the struggle between Amaleq and Yisrael is to smite Amaleq. Those who truly belong to the Messiah do this very thing, for "they that are Yeshua's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." If you have not yet crucified your flesh with its illicit affections and lusts, then you do not really belong to the Messiah. You only think you do, because "they that belong to Yeshua have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." The degree to which you have crucified your flesh reveals the degree to which you belong to the Messiah.