Vengeance Belongs to the Lord

The Need for Facts and Biblical Clarity in the Iran War

Amalek is listed as a grandson of Esau in the book of Genesis. The Amalekites were first noted in the book of Exodus for their unprovoked ambushes and attacks against the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt. The first century Roman general and Jewish scholar and historian Josephus refers to Amalek as one born of an incestuous or forbidden relationship. The Amalekites were a semi-nomadic people located on the southern edge of Canaan in an area called Kadesh near the Negeb Desert and the Sinai Peninsula. They became the perennial enemy of Israel, and because they declared constant war against Israel became an enemy of God. They became to Israel a symbol of the very essence of evil.  

I have written at least 60 articles on Islam and the Middle East. The doctrinal standards of Islam—the Quran and the teachings and actions of Muhammad—are filled with Jihad and enmity against all non-Muslims, especially Jews and Christians resisting Islam. Iran is not Amalek, and many Muslims have become secularized and not inclined to Jihad, but because of the ongoing devotion to Islamic doctrines in Iran, Israel has a legitimate concern with Iran having possession of nuclear weapons. I would say, however, that despite his frequent demonization by Western intelligence agencies, Ali Khamenei showed a moderate side of Shia Islam in his prohibition of nuclear and chemical weapons. But he is gone now.

Readers of the Bible may recall in Exodus 17:8-16, the Amalekites ambushed the Israelites encamped at Rephidim but were defeated. Moses ordered Joshua to lead the Israelites into battle  while Moses, Aaron, and Hur watched from a nearby hill. When Moses’s hands holding his staff were raised, the Israelites prevailed, but when his hands were lowered, the Israelites faltered. Aaron and Hur held up Moses’s hands until sunset, securing the Israelite victory.  

In Deuteronomy 25:16-19 the Israelites were specifically commanded to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,” when Israel had had completed its possession of the Promised Land. This was the judgement of God, not Israel.

The next passages from 1 Samuel 15, centuries later,  are alarming, painful, and difficult to deal with because we are normally focused on God’s love, goodness and mercy. But we tend to forget that God is very serious in his abhorrence of sin and disobedience. He has provided the remedy by grace through faith in Christ’s suffering for our sin, but we must also remember that God is absolutely righteous and all-wise beyond our understanding.

From 1 Samuel 15; 1-3, we read: “And Samuel said to Saul, ‘The Lord [previously] sent me to appoint you, king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts; I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt.”

“Now go and strike Amalek and devote them to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

R.C. Sproul’s footnote in the Reformation Study Bible reminds us that this kind of execution and total destruction of life can only be decreed by God.

Saul, however, did not complete God’s command and spared the better sheep and cattle and even the Amalekite king, Agag. For this Saul was rejected as king and was soon followed by David. The detail can be found in the balance of 1 Samuel 15.

Deuteronomy 32:35 ESV states:

“Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.”

We are probably more familiar with Paul’s words in Romans 12:19:

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Romans 12:19-21 is a short sermon on the topic and the Marks of a True Christian.

Over 100 Bible verses have the theme of Vengeance belongs to the Lord, but I will give you just two more.

“Do not say, “I will repay evil;” wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.”—Proverbs 20:22

“The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; the Lord has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.”—Nahum 1:3.

1 Samuel 15:3 is by no means the only or largest record of God’s judgement of evil. Genesis describes a great flood that destroyed most of mankind and only spared Noah and his family.  

The Holman Christian Bible summarized Matthew 24:39:

“They didn’t know until the flood came and swept them all away. So this is the way the coming of the Son of Man will be:”

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah begins in Genesis 18, but is summarized by 2 Peter 2:6”

“Later,  by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly;”

1 Samuel 2:6-10 reminds us of the absolute sovereignty of God in life, death, justice, and God’s Providence for us.

“The Lord brings death and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust of the earth and lifts the needy from the ash heap; He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; upon them He has set the world. He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the Lord will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of the anointed.”

So why have I spent so many words and Bible Verses to emphasize that: 

VENGEANCE BELONGS TO THE LORD.

This is because a small but influential faction of political and military leaders in the U.S. are telling their subordinates and the public that Iran’s leaders and millions of the Iranian people are totally evil and comparable to the Amalekites, and therefore we can ignore all moral, ethical, and international law and pre-emptively attack them and wipe them out, justified by Biblical accounts of God’s judgement, including 1 Samuel 15:3. They are also saying that attacking Iran is justified in order to bring about Armageddon and the coming of Christ. This is heretical nonsense.

Moreover, they have stirred up critical opponents of any religious influence in the Armed Forces. We have seen some of this type of secularism under the Obama Administration, where chaplains were not allowed to mention Christ or salvation through Christ. This was a time when Muslim chaplains became sacred cows and Christian and Jewish chaplains were pressured into silence or leaving the services.

In addition to these heretical and secularist extremes, the new Department of War seems to be drifting toward a morally lawless code of military operations. 

I am an Air Force combat veteran of the Vietnam War. I had to endure Lyndon Johnson’s “Operation Rolling Thunder,” in which the rules of engagement were structured to limit North Vietnamese damage by severely limiting our ability to strike important targets. Johnson’s “Operation Rolling Thunder” was an exercise of the timid gradualism theory of warfare applied to air warfare. We lost 922 aircraft over North Vietnam  making highly restricted attacks against non-strategic, mostly lower priority targets. We lost 398 of the 833 F-105s ever made playing what Admiral U. S. Sharp called “Powder-Puff” Air warfare. More than 2,000 aircraft were lost in Southeast Asia playing this timid and handicapped game, while North Vietnam built its air defenses around Hanoi and Haiphong from almost nothing in 1965 to 5,795 AA guns, most with radar, 250 SAM sites, and 101 fighter aircraft. My own 606^th A-26 Air Commando Squadron lost 40 percent of its aircraft and a third of its crews KIA in this frustrating environment.  In addition, President Johnson declared 16 bombing halts, which the North Vietnamese used with doubled energy to reinforce and resupply their forces. Anti-aircraft fire tended to make new highs after bombing halts.

I certainly sympathize with eliminating the kind of stupid counter-productive operational rules we endured in Operation Rolling thunder from 1965 through 1968. I am not a West Pointer, but it seems like we are also dropping some of the moral and ethical rules that we should keep in living up to the West Point Motto: Duty, Honor, Country. There are Christian and International Rules of War that we must keep for our own honor and our country’s honor.  

I realize that deception is an important part of warfare, but we should not propagandize our own people to promote war or hatred. Honor and truth are bound together in proper domestic politics and foreign policy and diplomacy.

I reported in my March 1 article, Political and Economic Impact of Attack on Iran,  on the deadly U.S. airstrike February 28 on the Shajere Tayyebe Girl’s School in Minab in southern Iran. The Girl’s school was next to an IRGC Naval barracks and facilities. At least 175 people were killed, mostly girls from 6 to 12 years old. It is now fairly certain that it took precision Tomahawk missile hits. I do not believe this was our intention, but some negligence was involved. The target report had not been updated to show that it had been a girl’s school for several years. President Trump and Secretary of War Hegseth at first denied it was our fault and tried to blame it on the Iranians, who Hegseth assured us did this kind of thing while we did not. This was callous nonsense and gave the impression the U.S. was more interested in shifting blame than expressing genuine regret or sympathy for the families. It got little attention in the U.S. media, but we are developing a credibility gap in humanitarian concerns and foreign policy.

Trump’s Rasmussen Daily approval dropped to 44 percent on Friday, March 12, with 54 percent disapproval. The Iran War could wind up producing an overwhelming—1974 size— victory for the Democrats, destroying and reversing Trump’s immigration and economic accomplishments. The 1974 “Watergate” election resulted in a net gain of 4 Democrats in the Senate and 49 in the House. Trump is getting slanted CIA intelligence and advice from Senate war-cheerleaders that need to be discarded and replaced. The need is urgent.  

The New Iranian Supreme leader is Mojtaba Khamenei, 56. His father, Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28.  In addition to losing his father, Mojtaba Khamenei lost his mother, his wife, and allegedly a son and granddaughter. He himself was wounded the same day. The 88-member Committee of Experts probably elected him because of IRGC support. He should be a much harder line Ayatollah and Supreme Leader than his father. As a martyr, Ali Khamenei’s death solidified support for Shia and Iranian nationalism. Ninety-two percent of Iran’s 93 million people are Shia Muslim, but there are a total of 300 million Shia Muslims in the world. So far, the U.S. and Israeli regime change plans have resulted in  stronger resistance to the U.S. and Israel and little chance for peaceful resolutions.

Military victory or defeat hinges largely on the offensive missile and drone strength of Iran versus the defensive missile strength of Israel’s “Iron Dome.” Economic victory or defeat depends on controlling the Persian Gulf. Somewhere between 20 to 25 percent of seaborne oil and gas comes through the Persian Gulf. Moreover better than 35 percent of nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture comes through the Persian Gulf. Europe, Japan, and South Korea are in the most serious economic danger. We are close to crushing economic conditions and catastrophic war.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.”—Psalm 127:1.