The animosity of Amalek against Israel involved something devilish, it was a form of the enmity against the woman and her seed, spoken of in the beginning of the Bible (Genesis 3:15). We must look in a spiritual direction when looking at Israel’s war against Amalek. The order from God: attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything that belongs to them, does not encourage belligerence but rather, despite and over the clash of swords, we must hear what Paul says to the Ephesians: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). The fight against evil is spiritual by nature. And the armour that we need for that, is that of God (Ephesians 6:13).

We must see it in this light, that total destruction was to be meted out to Amalek on God’s order, whereby nothing should be left alive. However strange this may sound, the reason for this destruction was that God took the war against Amalek out of Israel’s hands. The total destruction of a nation meant that God himself was fighting against them. It was a holy war then, not to be profaned by human hate or a desire for spoils. Such a holy, terrible war evoked the sphere of the last judgment, as it were.