“So Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah as you go to Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed” (1 Sam 15:7-9).
Reading Scripture is a lot like figuring out the connections between the threads of a beautiful tapestry. By pulling hard on one thread, we look to see what other threads wiggle in the tapestry. Pull hard on 1 Samuel 15:7-9, the story of Saul’s sin that led to his dethronement, and Balaam’s Messianic prophecy in Numbers 24:7-9 will assuredly wiggle. “Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will be by many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. God brings him out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He will devour the nations who are his adversaries, and will crush their bones in pieces, and shatter them with his arrows. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, and cursed is everyone who curses you.”
And by pulling on the thread of Balaam’s prophecy, two other major threads wiggle. (1) Jacob’s prophecy about the Messiah King couching like a lion: “Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He couches, he lies down as a lion, and as a lion, who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples” (Gen 49:9-10); (2) God’s promise to bless all the families of the earth through the seed of Abraham: “And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen 12:3).
Given the Messianic import of this battle with Amalek (see Exod 17:14), it is small wonder God had to remove Saul from the throne. And when we pull really hard on all these literary threads in the Hebrew Bible, assuredly our eyes will be drawn to the threads in the book of Revelation which promise the coming of a mighty warrior-king upon a horse who will complete the job that Saul and David left unfinished. When he comes, he will crush the serpent and his seed under his feet!
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, ‘KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS'” (Rev 19:11-16).
