Speakers: Pastor Neil Lindwall

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Truth of Human History: Sad Pattern

Command, Compromise & Consequences.

Command

NIV Deuteronomy 25:17-19 Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. 18 When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and attacked all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. 19 When the Lord your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land he is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

NIV 1 Samuel 15:1-3 Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. 2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. 3 Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” 

Compromise

NIV 1 Samuel 15:7-9 Then Saul attacked the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt. 8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and all his people he totally destroyed with the sword. 9 But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.  

NIV 1 Samuel 15:19 Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?” 

Consequences  

NIV 1 Samuel 15:26 But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”  

NIV 2 Chronicles 36:15-17 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. 16 But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy. 17 He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men or young women, the elderly or the infirm. God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.

NIV 2 Chronicles 36:20 He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power.  

Spiritual Principles.

Understand! We’re in a Spiritual Battle. Good & Evil exist & the Battle Rages On! We Cannot Play Around w/ or Contain the Fire of Evil.

NIV Esther 2:5-7 Now there was in the citadel of Susa a Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, named Mordecai son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, 6 who had been carried into exile from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, among those taken captive with Jehoiachin king of Judah. 7 Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.  

NIV Esther 3:1-2 After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. 2 All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.  

The Midrash, (ancient Jewish commentary), says Haman wore an idolatrous image embroidered on his garments or engraved on a medallion over his heart. Some sources suggest Haman even "fancied himself a god". If Mordecai had bowed, he would have broken #’s 1, 2, & 3 of the Ten Commandments!  

What did Haman worship? Some think he was Zoroastrian. Others think he worshipped Mithra, ancient Indo-Persian sun deity which could explain his astrology & casting lots (purim) to determine the day for his genocide.

Theologically, we can describe Haman's "religion" as the "Spirit of Amalek". In gematria, the numerical value of the word “Amalek” (Haman's ancestor) is 240, the same as the Hebrew word safek ("doubt"), Haman is seen as worshipping a rebellious philosophy of existential doubt & human supremacy, (“Did God really say”…).

NIV Esther 3:5-7 When Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged. 6 Yet having learned who Mordecai’s people were, he scorned the idea of killing only Mordecai. Instead Haman looked for a way to destroy all Mordecai’s people, the Jews, throughout the whole kingdom of Xerxes.

7 In the twelfth year of King Xerxes, in the first month, the month of Nisan, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in the presence of Haman to select a day and month. And the lot fell on the twelfth month, the month of Adar. 8 Then Haman said to King Xerxes, “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate. Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them. 9 If it pleases the king, let a decree be issued to destroy them, and I will give ten thousand talents of silver to the king’s administrators for the royal treasury.” 10 So the king took his signet ring from his finger and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews. 11 “Keep the money,” the king said to Haman, “and do with the people as you please.”  

Haman’s wicked goal was not merely to punish Mordecai, but the annihilation of the entire Jewish people which is war against God Himself!  

NIV Esther 3:13-14 Dispatches were sent by couriers to all the king’s provinces with the order to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews—young and old, women and children—on a single day, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, and to plunder their goods. 14 A copy of the text of the edict was to be issued as law in every province and made known to the people of every nationality so they would be ready for that day.. 

The 1988 Hamas Charter (Covenant)

The founding document of Hamas contains several direct calls for violence and the elimination of Israel: 

• Destruction of Israel: The preamble states, "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it".
• Religious War: Article 7 quotes a hadith (saying attributed to the Prophet Muhammad) that "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews)," describing a future where rocks and trees will call out for Muslims to kill Jews hiding behind them.
• Antisemitic Rhetoric: The document blames Jews for global events like the French and Communist revolutions, as well as both World Wars, citing the fraudulent Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
• Rejection of Peace: Article 13 declares that "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad" and dismisses international peace conferences as a "waste of time".

Despite the 2017 revisions, Hamas leaders have continued to use rhetoric consistent with the original charter. Following the October 7, 2023, attacks, senior Hamas officials vowed to repeat such actions "time and again" until Israel is annihilated. The group's core mission remains the armed destruction of the Israeli state.

Key Tenet of the 1985 Hezbollah Charter:

• Opposition to Israel: The manifesto demanded the complete removal of Israel from Lebanon as a "prelude to its final obliteration from existence". It stated that the struggle against Israel was a historical, doctrinal necessity and rejected any mediation.

Sovereign Promise 

NIV Deuteronomy 4:30-31 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. 31 For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath

NIV Leviticus 26:44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.  

NIV Jeremiah 31:35-36 This is what the Lord says, he who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord Almighty is his name: 36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares the Lord, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” 

NIV Esther 4:14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?”  

NIV Esther 9:1-10 On the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, the month of Adar, the edict commanded by the king was to be carried out. On this day the enemies of the Jews had hoped to overpower them, but now the tables were turned and the Jews got the upper hand over those who hated them. 2 The Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Xerxes to attack those determined to destroy them. No one could stand against them, because the people of all the other nationalities were afraid of them. 3 And all the nobles of the provinces, the satraps, the governors and the king’s administrators helped the Jews, because fear of Mordecai had seized them. 4 Mordecai was prominent in the palace; his reputation spread throughout the provinces, and he became more and more powerful. 5 The Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, killing and destroying them, and they did what they pleased to those who hated them. 6 In the citadel of Susa, the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7 They also killed Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha, 8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha, 9 Parmashta, Arisai, Aridai and Vaizatha, 10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay their hands on the plunder. 11 The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day. 12 The king said to Queen Esther, “The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman in the citadel of Susa. What have they done in the rest of the king’s provinces? Now what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? It will also be granted.” 13 “If it pleases the king,” Esther answered, “give the Jews in Susa permission to carry out this day’s edict tomorrow also, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on poles.”

The Parashat’s, (assigned readings) for Shabbat Zachor

• Regular Weekly Parasha, (Torah Portion), Terumah: Exodus 25:1–27:19, details the construction of the Tabernacle.
• Maftir (Parashat Zachor): Deuteronomy 25:17–19. "remember what Amalek did to you" (launching a surprise attack on the weak), and to "blot out the name of Amalek".
• Haftarah: 1 Samuel 15:2–34, recounts King Saul’s battle against the Amalekites, & the command to spare none of them, which he failed to do.

Israel initially planned to strike Iran in mid-2026, but developments inside the Islamic republic and shifting regional dynamics brought the timetable forward to February, AFP reports, citing claims by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz.

“An operation was planned for the middle of the year with the same target set,” Katz claimed in an address to military intelligence officials, according to a statement issued by his office. “But due to developments and circumstances — mainly what happened inside Iran, the position of the US president and the possibility of creating a combined operation — it became necessary to move everything up to February.” – DAWN E-PAPER. 

The strike fell on Shabbat Zachor

The Shabbat preceding Purim, when Jews read the biblical injunction to remember Amalek - the archetype, in Jewish memory, of an enemy that seeks destruction without compromise. In synagogues across Israel, that text was read as events unfolded in Iran. Geopolitics is not a biblical metaphor. Yet Israelis are not only citizens of a state; as Jews, they carry an ancient memory. Even coincidental timing can shape how a moment is experienced. Jews remember Purim. Israel will forever remember October 7.

Purim teaches that when an existential threat emerges, silence and passivity carry their own danger. October 7 teaches that threats allowed to mature do not remain theoretical. The lesson of both lies in agency. For people who desire life, waiting indefinitely is not a strategy. On Saturday, Israel chose action - and it did not do so in isolation. – The Jerusalem Post.

Love God, Resist Evil, Reach Others.