HEBREW WORD STUDY – AMALEK – עלמק
Deuteronomy 25:17 “Remember what Amalek did unto you by the way, when you came forth out of Egypt;”
What Amalek did was take advantage of the vulnerabilities and weakness of the Hebrews after years of slavery and lack of experience in warefare and they literally slaughtered the most innocent, the elderly, sickly and children. And this by blood relatives as Amalek is believed to the grandson of Esau the brother of Jacob. Hamon the villain in the story of Esther was an Amalekite and was noted for his hatred of the Hebrew people and his plot to exterminate them. Stealing a birthright really runs deep. Not only that, this attack came right after the victory from crossing the Red Sea.
What is baffling is that God seems to be telling the people of Israel to not forget the evil things that the Amalekites did to them. That is like asking Israel to not forget the crimes of Hitler and the Nazis, like do they really need God to command them to do this? What about the idea of love and forgiveness? Isn’t that what God is all about? Now we seem to have an angry God who is telling Israel to remember these dirty little varmints and once you have your act together, go get ‘em.
There are many rabbis who think God is not commanding Israel to remember the crimes of the Amalekites but the lessons of the Amalekites. That lessons are found in the word Amalekite itself. The word Amalekite comes from the root word Amalak which means to travail, vexation and sorrow. In others words when the Amalekites attack don’t let them destroy your faith.
Scripture say to remember Amalek and not the Amalekites? Perhaps the sages understood some of the finer points of Scripture that we as Christians fail to understand. If you look at the numerical value of the word Amalek (Ayin=70, Mem=40, Lamed=30, Qop=100) you find it totals 240. The word safeq (Samek=60, Pei=80, Qop=100) also has a value of 240. Safeq is the Hebrew word for doubt. This is the crime of Amalek that the Children of Israel was to remember, not the deeds. The Children of Israel had no problem remembering this and God’s command to forgive never changed, but what He did command Israel to remember is how the Amalekites were able to cast doubt on their faith.
The command to remember Amalek applies to all of us. Do you have an Amalek in your life; maybe it is a member of your own family or is it a member of the family of God who will attack from behind, when you least expect it? We are to always remember that no matter how great our victory in God, how strong our faith is in God, the stronger our faith, the greater the Amalek will be that the enemy will raise up to destroy that faith. We must always remember that the enemy is out to destroy our faith and he will rise up an Amalek, sometimes after our greatest victory in faith to destroy that newly strengthened faith.
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