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A commentary on the seventh speech of Moses in Deuteronomy 24-26. The book of Deuteronomy is a series of 12 speeches that Moses gave just before his death at the end of Israel's wilderness journey.
Category - Bible Commentaries
After setting forth the law of equal weights and measures, Moses continues the same theme with a very important illustration in the story of Amalek. He says,
17 Remember what Amalek did to you along the way when you came out from Egypt, 18 and how he met you along the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God. 19 Therefore it shall come about when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you must not forget.
This is a reference to Exodus 17:8-16, where the Amalekites attacked Israel in order to steal the wealth that they had gotten from Egypt. At that time, God gave Israel the victory as long as Moses held up his arms to picture a cross—the balances of justice.
We know that Moses was a type of Christ (Acts 3:22) leading Israel out of the house of bondage at the feast of Passover. So here we see the sign of the cross upon Moses, which prophesies that the cross of Christ overcomes Amalek and all which that nation represents.
The cross also represents the balances of justice, for on the cross Jesus satisfied the justice of God regarding the sin of the world. It is no coincidence, then, that Moses speaks of Amalek after dealing with just balances, weights, and measures in the previous verses. The spirit of Amalek coveted wealth, and the antidote to this is to have just weights and measures.
In those days money (i.e., silver) was weighed, and sometimes men tried to cheat others by having unjust weights and balances. This understanding is important, because we face the same problem today in the financial world, where the value of money continually changes—usually becoming less valuable over time—thus robbing people of their wealth through unjust measures.
It is often called the Inflation Tax.
The modern banking system is empowered by the same spirit of Amalek that Moses fought in his day. Therefore, if we understand this story and God’s instructions, we will know the solution to the modern banking system.
The resulting revelation that came out of this war with Amalek is seen in Exodus 17:14-16, which says,
14 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” 15 And Moses built an altar, and named it Yahweh Nissi, The Lord is My Banner; 16 and he said, “The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”
Banners usually fly on the front lines of a battlefield to give troops a focal point, hope, and encouragement. Banners also identify which side the troops are on, and the cause for which they are fighting. In this case the banner is the cross, for it is by the cross of Christ that we engage in spiritual warfare. The New Covenant has shifted the battleground from the earth to the heavens, for as Paul says in Eph. 6:12, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” Hence, we no longer fight Amalekites, but the spirit of Amalek.
Knowing the divine law also gives us specific direction in this struggle. We see that this war has emerged largely as a financial conflict, but unless Christians understand the law of just weights and measures, they are unlikely to know how to fight the war today. Many are able to see the war in terms of the love of money being the root of all evil, which afflicts all flesh, but they are unable to see how the warfare must be fought in the specific area of banking and finance.
This ignorance has allowed wicked men (modern Amalekites) to enslave and rob the people through the banking system which has created money that steadily decreases in value.
Amalek, the father of the Amalekites, was the grandson of Esau and the son of Eliphaz. Genesis 36:12 reads,
12 And Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz.
Eliphaz means “my god is fine gold,” because Eli means “my god” and phaz means “fine gold.” Hence, the nature of the spirit of Amalek is revealed in the name of his father Eliphaz.
We note also that Amalek was essentially an Edomite tribe, for Esau is Edom (Gen. 36:1). For this reason, the prophecies regarding Amalek are closely related to those of his grandfather, Esau-Edom, and cannot be fully understood separately.
God said that He would be at war with Amalek “from generation to generation” and that in the end He would “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” This is clearly a long-range plan. It was not something that was to be accomplished in the days of Moses, nor even in the days of Israel during their sojourn in Canaan.
When Balaam was hired to curse Israel on behalf of the king of Moab, he admitted that Amalek was the first to come against Israel. He prophesied in Num. 24:20,
20 And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations [to try to destroy Israel], but his end shall be destruction.
In Judges 3:13 we see Amalek among the mercenaries hired by Eglon, king of Moab, when God sold Israel into their hands. This was their second captivity, which lasted 18 years. When Israel repented, God raised up Ehud, the second Judge, to set them free. Likewise, Amalek seems to have been a factor in the next captivity to Jabin, king of Canaan, for he is mentioned in the song of Deborah in Judges 5:14.
In the biblical record there were no wars specifically between Israel and Amalek until the time of King Saul. In 1 Sam. 15:1-3 we read,
1 Then Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.’ 3 Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
It appears that God waited until Israel had its first king before administering divine justice upon Amalek. Samuel makes it clear that Saul was specifically called as God’s judge to fulfill the sentence of the law pronounced on Amalek in Exodus 17.
Here is where the factor of Cursed Time can be seen. Cursed Time is a period of 414 years between the sentence of the law and its execution. Cursed Time is actually a grace period, where a nation that has come under the curse of the law is given time to repent and receive forgiveness for the original offense.
In chapter 6 of my book, Secrets of Time, I show how the divine curse upon Amalek was followed by a 414-year time of grace until the 18th year of King Saul. This story is recorded in 1 Sam. 15, when God called King Saul to execute judgment upon Amalek.
The most important biblical date is found in 1 Kings 6:1, where we learn that the 4th year of Solomon was 480 years from the Exodus. Amalek attacked Israel just a few weeks later, so the attack is dated in the same year as the Exodus—2448 years after Adam.
The fourth year of Solomon, then, brings us to the year 2928 from Adam. We know that Saul, David, and Solomon each ruled 40 years, so it is not difficult to calculate back to the 18th year of Saul when Amalek’s grace period ended. Throughout this 414-year period, Amalek showed no sign of repentance, so the time of judgment arrived.
Saul was God’s judge at the time, and so he was called to execute divine judgment in 1 Sam. 15:2, saying,
2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, “I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.
Unfortunately, Saul spared Agag, king of Amalek, along with the best of the animals. His excuse was that the animals could be useful in making sacrifices to God (1 Sam. 15:15). But God’s assessment was that he “has not carried out My commands” (1 Sam. 15:11).
Saul did not want to see all that wealth go to waste. He has a problem with the love of money, as did Amalek, so Saul was unable to execute divine judgment. Thus, the problem of Amalek has continued to this day.
Apparently Saul also spared the entire house of Agag, for later we read in Esther 3:1 about an Agagite by the name of Haman. It is of interest to note that he is not called an Amalekite, but an Agagite. This may possibly indicate that the Amalekites as a nation had been destroyed in the war with Saul, and that the only ones left were of the house of Agag himself. So Agag was the family head, having the potential to grow into a new nation.
Though Haman the Agagite and his ten sons were hanged in Esther 9:14, Haman probably had grandsons who survived to carry on the war with Israel in the future. If so, it is probable, though it cannot be proven, that the disgraced family left Persia at that time to seek a new homeland where they might again rise to a position of power.
Hence, some have identified the house of Agag also with the people of Gog of Ezekiel 38:2.
Both names employ two gimels in the Hebrew language and seem to carry the same basic meaning, although the names are spelled differently. Agag is spelled ??? (AGG) while Gog is spelled ??? (GVG).
The gimel (?) literally means a camel, but its word picture means “to be lifted up.” This can have either a positive or negative connotation, of course, depending on how it is applied. But it is clear that with Agag and Gog, it has to do with self-elevation, or PRIDE. In that both of these names have a double gimel, it points doubly to self-elevation or aggrandizement.
If the house of Agag moved north to the land of Magog after falling out of favor with the king of Persia, it would explain why Gog is not mentioned in the genealogy in Gen. 10:2, where Magog is associated with Meshech and Tubal (as we see also in Ezekiel 38:2). Perhaps Gog arrived much later and came from a different family lineage, the house of Agag.
This can hardly be proven historically, but we do see prophetic evidence of this. Not only might we expect Agagites to survive to the present time, but we ought to find them in the business of banking and finance. Further, these Agagites might be found north of the Black Sea in what is now Russia. They are not Russians, of course, but are the Khazars (or Chazars) who converted to Judaism around 760 A.D. That story is told in the Jewish Encyclopedia:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4279-chazars
This brings us to more recent history, where the rise of the banking power has become a major factor in world history and in prophecy.
In my book, The Struggle for the Birthright, chapter 15, I give a more complete account of this conversion to Judaism and how these Khazars are the Gog and Magog of Ezekiel’s prophecy. In the early 1900’s they invaded Palestine under the banner of Zionism, and some of the powerful and wealthy bankers immigrated to Europe and America to take control through the modern banking system.
In other words, the so-called “Russian invasion of Israel” is a misnomer. Ezekiel was prophesying of a Zionist invasion of the old land, primarily an immigrant movement of Jewish Khazars, known to the prophet as Gog and coming from Russia and other places such as Persia, Ethiopia, and Put (Libya). See Ezekiel 38:5. In other words, Jews have come from all parts of the world as allies in the Khazar-Zionist movement.
Perhaps the most important name in Ezekiel’s list is that of Beth-Togarmah, or the house of Togarma (Ezekiel 38:6). This name is important because in the old Khazar records, they are said to be descended from Togarma. This is stated specifically in the letter that the Joseph, king of the Khazars, wrote to Hasdai Ibn Shaprut, the Jewish doctor in the court of Cordova, Spain, dated around 960 A.D.
This Jewish doctor had heard of a Jewish Kingdom in the East, and wrote a letter of inquiry to the king. The king responded, and traced the genealogy of his people to Togarma. According to Arthur Koestler in his book, The Thirteenth Tribe, page 72, King Joseph of the Khazars…
“cannot, and does not, claim for them Semitic descent; he traces their ancestry not to Shem, but to Noah’s third son, Japheth; or more precisely to Japheth’s grandson, Togarma, the ancestor of all Turkish tribes.”
The letter states that Togarma had ten sons, the seventh of which was named Khazar.
Hence, the alliance of people who were to invade “the mountains of Israel,” foreseen by Ezekiel, includes Togarmah, which converted to Judaism 1400 years ago and is the origin of most Eastern European Jews—the so-called Ashkenazi Jews. (Note: Ashkenaz is the brother of Togarmah in Gen. 10:3.)
All of this points to the modern fulfillment of God’s war against Amalek—or more precisely, the survivors of the original nation of Amalek, known in the book of Esther as Agagites. Only by understanding the history of Amalek and Agag and its possible connection with the Gog of Ezekiel 38 may we understand Bible prophecy.