The Malice of Amalek and the Memory of God Text: Deuteronomy 25:17-19
Introduction: A Hard Saying for a Soft Age
We live in a soft and sentimental age. Our generation has been catechized by a gospel of niceness, a therapeutic deism where God is a celestial grandfather who wants everyone to be happy, tolerant, and well-adjusted. Consequently, when we come to a text like this one, it grates on our modern sensibilities. It sounds harsh, vindictive, and frankly, genocidal. The command to "blot out the memory of Amalek" seems to belong to a primitive, unenlightened past that we have thankfully evolved beyond. We want to either ignore such passages, allegorize them into a bland spiritual lesson about overcoming our "inner Amalekites," or apologize for them as an unfortunate remnant of Israel's immature, pre-Christ faith.
But we must do none of these things. The Word of God is a lion; we do not need to defend it, we simply need to let it out of its cage. This command is not an embarrassment to be explained away, but rather a profound revelation of the holiness of God, the nature of evil, and the logic of covenant history. To understand this passage is to understand something essential about the war we are in. For the war against Amalek is not over; it has simply changed fronts. The spirit of Amalek is alive and well, and it continues to attack the faint and weary among the people of God.
This command is given to Israel on the plains of Moab, just before they enter the Promised Land. It is a piece of unfinished business. It is a long-term assignment, a standing order that will not be fulfilled for centuries. And it is bookended by two commands concerning memory: "Remember what Amalek did," and "you must not forget" to blot out his memory. This is not about personal vengeance. This is about historical justice and covenantal faithfulness. God has a long memory, and He requires His people to share it. What Amalek did was not simply an attack on a wandering tribe; it was a defiant assault on the redemptive plan of God. And for that, there must be a reckoning.
So let us set aside our modern squeamishness and ask what the Holy Spirit intends to teach us through this hard saying. What was the sin of Amalek? Why was the punishment so severe? And what does it mean for us, the Israel of God, to remember Amalek today?
The Text
"Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it will be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget."
(Deuteronomy 25:17-19 LSB)
The Covenantal Imperative to Remember (v. 17)
The instruction begins with a command that is central to the book of Deuteronomy: "Remember."
"Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt," (Deuteronomy 25:17)
Biblical faith is not an abstract philosophy; it is rooted in history. God acts in time and space, and He commands His people to remember those acts. Forgetting is a cardinal sin in Deuteronomy. To forget God's deliverance is to become ungrateful. To forget His law is to become disobedient. And to forget the malice of His enemies is to become naive and foolish. This is not a call to nurse a grudge. It is a call to maintain a worldview. It is a command to understand the nature of the long war you are in.
Notice the context: "along the way when you came out from Egypt." This was not just any journey. This was the great redemptive exodus. God had just crushed the greatest empire on earth with ten plagues, parted the Red Sea, and was leading His people to Sinai to establish His covenant. Israel was God's firstborn son, newly delivered from bondage. And it was at this precise moment, at Rephidim (Exodus 17), that Amalek attacked. This was not a random border skirmish. This was a theological statement. Amalek saw what God was doing and decided to oppose it. They were, in effect, shaking their fist at Heaven. They were attacking God by attacking His vulnerable people.
This establishes a permanent principle. The enemies of God's people are the enemies of God. When Saul of Tarsus was persecuting the church, Jesus did not ask him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting them?" He asked, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" (Acts 9:4). To strike the bride is to strike the Bridegroom. Amalek's attack on Israel was an attack on Yahweh, and Yahweh took it personally.
The Character of Malice (v. 18)
Verse 18 describes the particular wickedness of Amalek's strategy. It reveals their character.
"how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear, but you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God." (Deuteronomy 25:18 LSB)
This was not an honorable battle between two armies. This was predatory, cowardly, and cruel. Amalek did not meet Israel face-to-face on the field of battle. They waited. They watched. And they picked off the weak. They attacked "all the stragglers at your rear." Who are the stragglers in a massive migration through the desert? They are the elderly, the pregnant women, the mothers with young children, the sick, the exhausted. Amalek specialized in attacking the most vulnerable. They were cosmic bullies.
The text emphasizes Israel's condition: "you were faint and weary." They had just come out of Egypt, they were exhausted from their journey, and they were thirsty. Amalek's attack was opportunistic and parasitic. This is the nature of true evil. It does not fight fair. It preys on weakness. It despises the helpless. This is the spirit of the dragon, who seeks to devour the woman and her child (Revelation 12).
And the verse gives us the theological root of this behavior: "and he did not fear God." This is the key that unlocks the entire passage. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, which means the absence of the fear of God is the beginning of profound and monstrous folly. Amalek had heard what God did to the Egyptians. The whole world was trembling (Exodus 15:14-16). But Amalek was not impressed. They looked at the mighty acts of Yahweh and shrugged. Their actions demonstrated a contempt for God's power, a disdain for His people, and a complete lack of moral accountability to a higher power. This is the essence of practical atheism. It is not an intellectual position; it is a moral one. It is the decision to live as though God does not matter. And when men do not fear God, they become capable of anything.
The Sentence of Herem (v. 19)
Because of this God-defying cruelty, a sentence is passed. It is a sentence of herem, or utter destruction.
"Therefore it will be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget." (Deuteronomy 25:19 LSB)
The sentence is to be carried out after God has given Israel "rest from all your surrounding enemies." This is important. This is not a command for immediate, hot-blooded revenge. It is a command for calculated, judicial execution, to be carried out in a time of peace and stability. This is not vigilante justice; it is the formal execution of a divine sentence. God Himself had already declared this verdict centuries earlier, right after the attack occurred. He told Moses, "Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven" (Exodus 17:14). God says He will do it, and here He deputizes Israel to be His instrument of judgment.
What does it mean to "blot out the memory of Amalek"? It means their name, their people, their culture, and their influence were to be utterly eradicated from the earth. This is the sentence of herem. It is reserved for those things that are so polluted by evil that they are devoted to God for destruction. This is what happened to Jericho. It is what was supposed to happen to the Canaanites. And it is the sentence passed on Amalek. King Saul would later be tasked with this duty, and his sentimental, partial obedience would cost him his kingdom (1 Samuel 15). He spared King Agag and the best of the livestock, thinking he knew better than God. He tried to be more compassionate than the Judge of all the earth. But this was not compassion; it was rebellion. It was a failure to take God's hatred of evil seriously.
The final phrase drives the point home with a hammer blow: "you must not forget." Do not forget their crime, and do not forget their sentence. Do not forget to carry it out. This is a perpetual obligation. Why? Because Amalek represents a principle. Amalek is the seed of the serpent, a people wholly given over to a God-hating, predatory wickedness that preys on the weak. As long as they exist, they are a threat to the people of God and a defiant insult to the holiness of God.
Amalek in the New Covenant
So what are we to do with this? We are not ancient Israel. We are not a geo-political nation-state with a sword. The Lord Jesus has told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Has the spirit of Amalek been granted amnesty under the new covenant?
Not at all. The principle of herem has not been abolished; it has been transferred. The war has not ended; it has moved inward. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age (Ephesians 6:12). And the most treacherous enemy is not "out there," but "in here."
The New Testament equivalent of Amalek is what the apostle Paul calls "the flesh," or what we often call indwelling sin. Think about it. How does our flesh operate? It attacks us when we are "faint and weary." It strikes at our weakest point, ambushing us from the rear. It is cowardly, opportunistic, and cruel. It has no fear of God. It is that rebellious principle within us that, like Amalek, sees what God is doing and wants to oppose it. It is the law of sin and death warring against the law of God in our minds (Romans 7:23).
And what is God's command to us regarding this internal Amalek? It is a command of absolute, total, ruthless herem. "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5). "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires" (Galatians 5:24). Jesus said that if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out (Matthew 5:29-30). This is the language of herem.
We are not to negotiate with our sin. We are not to domesticate it or manage it. We are not to be like Saul, sparing the best of the sheep and our pet sin, King Agag. We are to blot out its memory. We are to put it to death, without sentimentality and without compromise. We are to remember what it has done to us, how it has preyed on us in our weakness, and we are not to forget the divine sentence that has been passed upon it.
The good news of the gospel is not that God has made peace with Amalek, but that in Christ, He has given us the victory over him. The cross was the ultimate execution of herem on our sin. And now, by the power of the Spirit, we are called to enforce that verdict in our lives, day by day. We must remember the malice of our flesh, and we must not forget to put it to death, until that day when God gives us final rest from all our enemies, and we inherit the new heavens and the new earth.