Be A Kenite

# 205 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 15:4-6, “So Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand foot soldiers and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. Saul readies his troops for the battle with the Amalekites, but there's a problem. Some of the Kenites were living with the Amalekites at the time and since Saul's orders were to destroy everything the Kenites would be destroyed too. So he warns them to get out of town before the battle starts. There is not a lot said about the Kenites in Scripture, but we do know that Moses father-in-law was a Kenite, and we also know that he had a special connection with the Israelites and their God. Ex 18:12 says, “Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and other sacrifices to offer to God. And Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.” It wouldn't do to “put these God-fearing Kenites to the ban” and so they were warned to leave before the total destruction began. Although we aren't told of any specific act of kindness, the word “kindness” here means “merciful love.” Somewhere along the line, these people prompted by their faith in God, demonstrated the God-like quality of unmerited love among the Israelites. We should go and do likewise, and we should also heed the warning to remove ourselves from the things of this world that are doomed to destruction just as Lot and his family heeded their warning before Sodom and Gomorrah were put to the ban. Re 18:4,5 says, “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. 5 "For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Beloved, be a Kenite. Be loving and merciful, but never a partaker of sinful lifestyle of the world. As the saying goes, “Be in the world, but not of the world.”