Judges 15
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.
2 “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
We see that some time has passed. It is now time for the wheat harvest. In this culture, it is customary for the husband to bring a goat to the wife. So Samson, assuming all is good with his marriage, comes to visit his bride. Instead, he realizes that she has been given to another. Again, Samson’s pride is hurt. But the deeper message here is of relationship. He didn’t pour anything into this relationship. He just assumed he had it. This is the same mistake he makes with God. He has the power of God, which shows up when enacting God’s Will, but he doesn’t have the relationship. To this point in the story, has Samson called out to God at all?
3 Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.”
Is it really the fault of the Philistines? Remember, the only reason this situation came about was because Samson was in a place he shouldn’t have been, lusting after a woman he shouldn’t be involved with. He breaks his vow twice and proposes a bet that backfires on him. But the blame is not on him but the Philistines.
4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
Whether this really happened or hyperbole, the deeper message is this: Samson systematically, brutally and cruelly set to work attacking the Philistines by burning the fields. Did you catch which fields he burned? Grain, vineyards and olive groves. These are the building blocks of societies. For a hurt ego, Samson attacks the Philistines at their foundations. We see a deep anger in Samson that is not in alignment with God.
6 When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Samson’s vengeance has consequences. The very people he was once committed to are now the focus of revenge by his perceived enemy. We see Samson in full revenge mode. Is he acting within the parameters of Godliness, holiness, the Nazarite Vow? Or is he acting completely by the flesh? We can get an answer by the following verses: 1 Peter 3:9, 1 Thess 5:15, Deuteronomy 32:35. You’ll see that revenge is meant for God alone.
9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”
“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”
The Philistines, Israel’s oppressors, have tracked Samson to the Rock of Etam, located in Judah. We see that Judah is more interested in pleasing their oppressors than harboring Samson, which tells us a little bit about how much the Israelites had tumbled under this oppression.
He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
Samson still sees himself as the victim, instead of the single person who started the whole problem.
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
13 “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
Here we see that Samson is still mulling over revenge. He wants another chance at them.
14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.
This is one of the keystone stories in the Samson chronicles. We see Samson being walked toward the throng of Philistines. But they begin shouting (charging) and we see God’s miraculous intervention again. He is using Samson despite his sin, not because of it. Samson picks up a jawbone and kills another thousand men at Ramath Lehi (Jawbone Hill).
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
This is the first time we hear Samson calling out to God. We can note two things here. 1. Samson does have faith in God. He believes that this battle is something God helped him to accomplish. 2. God is merciful. Samson hasn’t had the need to call out to God anywhere else in the story. Here he realizes he is mortal and needs God and God therefore helps him, based on mercy and the fact that Samson is still needed.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.
2 “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
We see that some time has passed. It is now time for the wheat harvest. In this culture, it is customary for the husband to bring a goat to the wife. So Samson, assuming all is good with his marriage, comes to visit his bride. Instead, he realizes that she has been given to another. Again, Samson’s pride is hurt. But the deeper message here is of relationship. He didn’t pour anything into this relationship. He just assumed he had it. This is the same mistake he makes with God. He has the power of God, which shows up when enacting God’s Will, but he doesn’t have the relationship. To this point in the story, has Samson called out to God at all?
3 Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.”
Is it really the fault of the Philistines? Remember, the only reason this situation came about was because Samson was in a place he shouldn’t have been, lusting after a woman he shouldn’t be involved with. He breaks his vow twice and proposes a bet that backfires on him. But the blame is not on him but the Philistines.
4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
Whether this really happened or hyperbole, the deeper message is this: Samson systematically, brutally and cruelly set to work attacking the Philistines by burning the fields. Did you catch which fields he burned? Grain, vineyards and olive groves. These are the building blocks of societies. For a hurt ego, Samson attacks the Philistines at their foundations. We see a deep anger in Samson that is not in alignment with God.
6 When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Samson’s vengeance has consequences. The very people he was once committed to are now the focus of revenge by his perceived enemy. We see Samson in full revenge mode. Is he acting within the parameters of Godliness, holiness, the Nazarite Vow? Or is he acting completely by the flesh? We can get an answer by the following verses: 1 Peter 3:9, 1 Thess 5:15, Deuteronomy 32:35. You’ll see that revenge is meant for God alone.
9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”
“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”
11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”
The Philistines, Israel’s oppressors, have tracked Samson to the Rock of Etam, located in Judah. We see that Judah is more interested in pleasing their oppressors than harboring Samson, which tells us a little bit about how much the Israelites had tumbled under this oppression.
He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
Samson still sees himself as the victim, instead of the single person who started the whole problem.
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
13 “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
Here we see that Samson is still mulling over revenge. He wants another chance at them.
14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.
This is one of the keystone stories in the Samson chronicles. We see Samson being walked toward the throng of Philistines. But they begin shouting (charging) and we see God’s miraculous intervention again. He is using Samson despite his sin, not because of it. Samson picks up a jawbone and kills another thousand men at Ramath Lehi (Jawbone Hill).
18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
This is the first time we hear Samson calling out to God. We can note two things here. 1. Samson does have faith in God. He believes that this battle is something God helped him to accomplish. 2. God is merciful. Samson hasn’t had the need to call out to God anywhere else in the story. Here he realizes he is mortal and needs God and God therefore helps him, based on mercy and the fact that Samson is still needed.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.