World Unyielding

So Agag came to him cautiously. And Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

1 Samuel 15:32

The presumptuous sigh of a king is contained here and is recorded for our instruction. For King Agag, ignorance was bliss, if only for a moment. He was unaware of the command given to his enemy. He thought that King Saul was intending to offer mercy and with good reason. Though the LORD had said to completely destroy the enemy, Saul had disobeyed. He had spared Agag and the livestock. What false assurance did Agag find in Saul’s conduct? He looked to King Saul, who was appointed by God as ruler of the people of God. Was Agag wrong to think that Saul’s conduct was useful in knowing the will of God? Yes, he was tragically mistaken.

As Agag was taken prisoner, he looked on a distant dispute. The Prophet Samuel confronted Saul. The disobedience of Saul was laid bare through the word of the LORD spoken by Samuel. Saul’s partial obedience was disobedience, and he was facing the consequences. The blessing of rulership was to be stripped away from his family. Rejected by God, Saul tore at Samuel’s robe only to have the prophecy of judgement repeated to him. And then, for one reason or another, he worshipped the LORD. Quite the spectacle for the onlooking Agag. And so, at Samuel’s command, Agag came cautiously.

Thinking himself safe from death, Agag approached with caution. Like Saul, would Samuel admire Agag’s worth also? Pride leads a man to think in such terms. The nation he had ruled over was now destroyed. He alone remained. Perhaps it seemed an apparent mercy from God that he was afforded more time. Perhaps it appeared that the fierceness of God’s anger had ceased as the heat of the battle had drawn to a close. His mind began to entertain a sense of ease. Optimism stirred within. With each step closer, was not his chance of survival increasing? He soon exhaled with deep relief, saying, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

While Agag was anticipating relief, the stores of God’s wrath were about to be released upon him into all eternity. The bitterness of death had not passed. Samuel, the faithful prophet, not only spoke the will of God; he executed it too. He killed the captive king. Agag’s optimism proved to be a delusion. Death was only the gateway through which his soul was hurled into everlasting anguish.

How could a man be so mistaken during his final moments? When Agag’s confidence spiked, his hopes of escape were dashed. He was misguided by his sense of relief. A person may have the sweetest experience of death (if there is such an experience). Palliative care may be provided. Options for euthanasia might even be on the table, promising a pain-free death. It may seem to a person that escaping the bitterness of death is doable. Do not be deceived. Reader, please know that dying without Christ always leads to a bitter and everlasting death. He himself instructed us to ‘fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’ If that is a person’s fate, how can there be anything but bitterness in death?

The time will come when some will rightly boast, saying, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” They will boast in the LORD their Redeemer, who defeated sin and death upon the cross. With renewed bodies, they will praise Him, whom death could not hold, as He rose again victorious. Believer, do you have a share in Christ Jesus’ victory? Was it achieved for you? Then join the Apostle, saying, “O Death, where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?” Though it is bitter, death has been robbed of its power. Heaven has been won for us. The gateway of death is now tempered with the sweetness of the hope set before us. For God has said, “There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”