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Bob Westbrook is a Titusville, Florida based professional
photographer, writer, and consultant. He writes commentaries
from a Christian Zionist perspective, endeavoring to encourage Christian support for Israel. He is the Bible Prophecy moderator for the website and the author of .
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By Bob Westbrook
September 13, 2003
Shmuel was such a sweet, sweet baby. Everyone could see that he was an extraordinary child, a child of promise.
Shmuel was truly a gift from the Lord to his parents. His mother Hannah would gaze wistfully on her child, knowing the time would soon come when she would be required to give him back to the Lord.
Her son was to become a great prophet, a man of extraordinary courage and character, and the one who would be the forerunner for Israel's great king, anointing David as ruler.
* * *
Shmuel was such a sweet, sweet baby. Everyone could see that he was an extraordinary child, a child of promise.
Shmuel was truly a gift from the Lord to his parents. His mother Goldie would gaze wistfully on her child, not knowing the time would soon come when she would be required to give him back to the Lord.
What her son would become will never be known, because that sweet child's body was shattered into lifelessness by an Islamic terrorist. Shmuel's mother would also lose her life in that same attack.
* * *
As tears flowed down his face, the grief-stricken father, Moishe, expressed his feelings about his young son: "He was like sugar because he was so sweet," he said, his voice breaking with emotion. "He had such a nice face. He was so cute. Anytime I was having a bad day at work I would hold him in my arms and everything would be great again."
Though it was an imam from Hebron, a Muslim cleric, who presumably looked in the face of adorable baby Shmuel before he triggered his bomb, the ultimate responsibility lies with Yasser Arafat.
Arafat is the modern day Agag, King of the Amalekites. The Amalekites were Israel's notoriously savage enemies, intent on their demise. They distinguished themselves so in their violent intent that none other than God Himself singled them out for special treatment.
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." Moses built an altar and called it The LORD is my Banner. He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation." (Exodus 17:14-16)
It was not until the days of King Saul when the opportune time came to carry out these instructions. Yet Saul, choosing to be a politician rather than a leader, wanting to retain popular support for himself, decided not to fully carry out God's instructions regarding Amalek. He left Agag alive.
This is where the story of the two Shmuels converges once again. For you see, Shmuel, prophet of God, was the one who executed justice against Agag, when Saul would not.
Shmuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." So Shmuel hacked Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
Agag, like Arafat, had been smirky and smug, saying "surely the bitterness of death is past." Yet Arafat is worse than Agag because he continues the attacks while saying it. Both arrogantly supposed that Israel would just gloss over the many, many acts of terrorism against Israel's citizens.
This is the attitude of Arafat and his accomplices in the Oslo process, who outrageously continue to talk about "peace" at the same time when Jewish babies are being slaughtered by modern Agags.
Notice the small phrase "before the Lord", not just a casual insertion: "So Shmuel hacked Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal." Shmuel's act was an act of divinely authorized justice, just as God authorizes governments today to use just force in the maintenance of law and order in civil society. While Israel may not be inclined to hack Arafat to death before the Lord, surely they can come up with some form of appropriate execution.
Shmuel Taubenfeld will never grow up to be a prophet, or anything else. His life was cut short by the modern version of Agag and the Amalekites. Shmuel's ancient namesake understood what needed to be done to effectively eliminate the threat and equitably avenge the bloodshed. Some people in Israel have belatedly come to understand this. Hopefully they will not give in to pressure from others, the way Saul did.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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