GOD GAVE SAMSON THE WILL TO FIGHT

Judges 15:1-20                                                                                          Lesson 17

Key Verse 15:14                                                                                       Kevin E. Jesmer 3-18-20

^“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.”

In this passage we see Samson changed by God to be the leader of his people. But that change was very difficult. Samson returned to get his wife and discovered she was given away. He was furious and used his God given strength to retaliate. Vengeance breeds more vengeance. It is hard to see God’s purpose in all of this, but we can say that God was bringing everything to a head. Samson was pressed to limit, to the point where he cried out to the Lord and gave credit to God. It was then that he was made the leader of Israel for twenty years.  We can also learn some of the good qualities in Samson that God chose to work through. He maintained a fighting spirit and was not willing to acquiesce. He was hard-pressed and eventually changed to be the one who would lead Israel for twenty years.  Through a study of this passage may God also help us to curb our retaliatory tendencies and learn to forgive and pray for our enemies instead. May we personally maintain a “fighting” spirit in our hearts as we serve God. But mostly let us trust in God, because he will strengthen us by his spirit and he really knows what he is doing.

Part l:  Vengeance Breeds Vengeance (1-8)

Let’s have a short review to get us caught up to this passage. The Israelites were oppressed by the Philistines. They were rulers over God’s people. (9) Samson was an Israelite and wanted to marry a Philistine girl from a nearby town. Tricked at his own wedding feast, he went to Ashkelon, one of the capitals of the Philistines, and killed some Philistine men and stole their clothes to pay off a debt he had incurred because of a bet he had made. He was becoming very odious to the Philistines. Though all of this chaos was caused by Samson’s poor choices, it was all part of God’s plan to establish Samson as a judge for Israel and to resist the Philistine shackles that were around God’s people. They were not able to stand up for themselves as God’s people and so God was going to do it for them. Part of God’s plan was to establish Samson and cause strife with the Philistines.  But God’s plan was only beginning to unfold.  It would include some suffering on the Philistine’s part as well as for Samson. But in the end, Samson would become a leader for Israel for twenty years. And so, here we are going into chapter 15.

After paying off his debt with stolen Philistine clothing, Samson went back to his hometown and lived with his parents. One day, things cooled off sufficiently that Samson decided that he was going to return to the nearby village and bring his new Philistine wife back home. Look at verse 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.”  Samson brought a goat as a gift to his father-in-law. They might eat it and have a celebration and make amends for the calamity that occurred. Samson was willing to forgive his wife for betraying him. Maybe he could have been the kind of guy that didn’t care if he was betrayed by a woman. She was beautiful and her was going to take her home with him no matter what she did. Whatever the case he was there with his goat and an open heart to start their new married life. But when he got there he was very surprised.

His wife was no longer his. Look what the woman’s father said in verse 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.’”  She was given away by her father to one of Samson’s friends and her younger sister was offered in her stead. It was not that the father-in-law was mean spirited. It was because he was convinced that Samson was out of the picture, and that after all he went through, he would never come back for his wife. The father was only thinking of his daughter’s future security. It seems strange from our point of view, doesn’t it? We would have to file for divorce first and then be free to marry another. But not so in Samson’s time.

Samson didn’t know what to think. He was so upset. Who wouldn’t be? He just lost his wife to his friend. He felt the pangs of betrayal and could not control his anger. Samson blamed the Philistines. Look what he did to retaliate in verses 3-5, “3 Samson said to them, ‘This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.’ 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.” He let lose one hundred and fifty pairs of scared foxes that erratically dragged fire sticks though the fields. The fields were set ablaze. A huge amount of damage was inflicted on the what would hurt the Philistines the most, their storehouses of grain.

There was further retaliation from both sides. Look at verse 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.” They committed an unthinkable crime. This raised the ire of Samson. Look at verses 7-8a,“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….” Now keep in mind, this is only Samson inflicting punishment on the Philistines. It is not him and Israelite armies. The rest of the Israelites are looking at what is happening and remaining as observers.

    And where did all of this retaliation get Samson? Look at verse 8b, “…Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.”  His vengeance left dozens of dead people, and his own countrymen worried if there was going to be war. Samson was alone and isolated in the cave. The cause of all this…Samson’s reply to the Israelite elders in 15:11 tells it all, “I merely did to them what they did to me.” He was living by the principle of “an eye for an eye” or retaliation.

     Revenge is an uncontrollable monster. Each act of retaliation brings on another. It is a boomerang that cannot be thrown without a cost to the thrower. Others suffer and we become isolated when we are vengeful. We cause more suffering on ourselves. In this way we can be our worst enemy.

There is only one way to stop the vicious cycle of vengeance. It is forgiveness. You need to forgive and be forgiven and then the cycle of hatred will stop. Think about our own relationship with God. Before meeting Jesus we were enemies of God. We were prone to cursing and blaming God whenever we faced some kind suffering or hardship. This would never stop until we faced the Judgement Seat. When we could not stop the enmity, Jesus stopped it for us. He came to this world as the Lamb of God. He befriended all kinds of sinners. Though he was holy, pure and innocent, he laid down his life on the cross. While dying on the cross, sinners were mocking and scorning him. They were retaliating against God. What did Jesus say? He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34). Through his holy blood he secured our complete forgiveness of sins, through faith in Christ. We are totally forgiven. God is not just putting up with us, he completely forgives us and he delights in us as he precious sons and daughters. The enmity between God and believers has completely disappeared. Praise the Lord for his abundant grace of forgiveness.

Jesus commands his disciples to forgive also. Why? Because it is a reflection of what we have received personally from God. When we forgive others, especially our enemies, it advertises to the world our Savior who has for us through his death on the cross. We glorify Jesus when we practice forgiveness.

Jesus teaches us that forgiveness is so important that we should even postpone our worship if we hold a grudge against our brother. (Matt 5:24) Paul echoes the same thing in Colossians 3:13. “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (NIV). Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek. (Matt 5:38-39)   Samson needed to know the immeasurable grace of God, revealed through his forgiveness. Maybe he wouldn’t have left a trail of blood and be isolated all alone in a cave.

Part 2: Samson Had The Spirit to Fight. (9-20)

Despite of Samson’s and the Philistine retaliation, God’s plan could not be thwarted. His purposes would prevail because the fulfillment of his will does not depend on the frailty of humanity. I know it is hard to see the Lord in the midst of all of this. But God was bringing everything to a head and establishing Samson. Let’s see how. Look at verse 9-11a, “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 were serious. They sent over a thousand soldiers to arrest Samson at the cave he was holed up in. The men of Judah interpreted this as a prelude to war. And it probably was. The Philistines wanted Samson handed over to them to take as prisoner.

These men of Judah were faced with a choice. The choice is, do they stand up against the Philistines with Samson or do they acquiesce and hand over Samson to his pursuers. We find out that they actually gave in to their oppressors. Look at verses 12-13, “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.” They obviously made a pact with the Philistines to hand Sampson over. They did not care about Samson and they did not care about seeking the will of the Lord. They did not want to have someone in their midst who would disturb their relative peace. Instead of hailing Samson as a deliverer, they treated him as an enemy. They were ready to hand Samson over to suffer a cruel death in order to maintain their so-called peace. They were in a state of spiritual degradation. We talk about Samson’s sins and weaknesses, but these leaders of Israel were in a much more degraded condition than Samson. They sought only to appease those who were oppressing them.

Think about it, maybe if they sided with Samson at this time, they could rise up under his leadership and defeat that Philistines right then and there. There was three thousand of them with Samson as their leader and just over one thousand Philistines. It could have been God’s opportunity.

These men of Judah became prisoners of fear. They were afraid of what Samson’s acts of revenge were having on their relationship with the ruling Philistines. They saw the inevitable coming, that is war. They would not fight. They were powerless. They were content to live under the oppression. How pathetic! What they did not see is that it was God who was incrementally guiding this whole situation. God was still at work despite of the political intrigue.

Living under Philistine rulers was not the way God wanted his people to live. Giving into the enemy like that, they could never experience the life of God for them fully. How often are we content to live under the yoke of sin and Satan, thinking that it is not that bad? We don’t want anything, even the Gospel with its message of the cross to disturb us. We live in our fears. We live in our oppression from sin and we do not want to fight to get out of it. All the while we lose life. God has life for us and some people never experience the life of God due to fear and a lack of “fighting spirit” to follow Jesus. God will help us to fight when we choose to stand up with Jesus, for Jesus’ names sake.

Samson possessed a quality that was given him by God. Samson was made great because he maintained a fighting spirit and was not willing to acquiesce. In verses 12-13, we find that Samson was not afraid of being handed over. He was afraid of being killed by his own countrymen and not having a chance to fight against the Philistine. They agreed to his wishes and handed him over. His fearlessness, and determination was given to him by God’s Spirit. It is all about God fulfilling his will.

Samson’s desires were fulfilled. He was handed over to his enemies. The Philistines thought that they could handle him with their own strength, but they were very much deluded. Look at verses 14-15, “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.” The Lord’s strength came upon Samson. Miraculously, his binding fell off. Up against the stones, he reached down and found the strong jaw bone from a donkey’s skull. With all of his might he started swinging and striking at the Philistine soldiers. They never expected this! Samson managed to kill one thousand of them and drive them away.

With God’s Spirit strengthening him, Samson could win this battle, even without the help of his countrymen. It was a complete victory given to him by God. This is the mightiest achievement up to now in Samson’s life. The rest of Israel should have helped him out. If they did, they might have cast off the Philistine yoke at that moment.  But the men were probably standing at a distance, their mouths agape in awe of what Samson accomplished with God’s help.

Samson was eager to give himself the praise. He was giving credit to himself. Look at his victory song in verses 16-17, “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.” The Spirit of the Lord had come upon Samson, bringing about this victory, but he was proud and only boasted about his own strength. Pride can cause us to take credit for work we have accomplished only because of God’s strength. In doing so we are actually robbing God of his glory.

     God gives his people power to decide to make a stand on the side of the truth, on the side of Christ. We will be granted strength, not to cause a war, but to engage in an inner spiritual battle, that overflows with victorious Gospel centered feats, born out of faith and the love of God and our neighbors. If we fix our eyes on Christ and follow his leading, he will lead us into many victories. But whatever Jesus empowers us to accomplish, do so in his name and give him glory, for these victories represent the Lord overcoming every enemy, all on our behalf.

God protected his people from idol worship. Look at verse 17, “¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.” “Ramath Lehi.”, literally means, “The casting away of the jawbone.” The jawbone had no special qualities. It was used in the hand of Samson, whom God chose to empower and work through at the time. The jaw bone was nothing. Samson had his sins and weakness. God is the one who brings about the victories. It is a good thing Samson threw it away because his people may have worshipped it. Samson did not know it, but God was protecting his people from idol worship.

Despite his prideful victory song, God was still listening to and blessing Samson. Look at verse 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?’”  Samson was emotionally and physically exhausted. He was demanding to get things quickly. After a great personal victory, his attitude declined quickly into self-pity. “Must I now die of thirst?” Emotionally, people are most vulnerable after great excursion. We are faced with real physical needs. Depression often follows great achievements.

But one thing is important to note that in the midst of his thirst and desperate cries, he gave credit to God for granting the victory. We never saw this in Samson before. That is what it took, betrayal by his father-in-law, as well as his own countrymen, isolation, exhaustion from battle, and extreme thirst, and deep sense of helplessness to be made humble enough to give glory to God. His heart was being changed through his suffering.

Samson asked for help and God provided. Look at verse 19, “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.”  “En Hakkore” means, “The fountain if him that called or prayed”. God is very generous. God hears our desperate cries. God provides for us in our time of need when we pray. The more God gives the more he encourages us to ask. Let’s determine to depend on God in humble prayer.

During these times of vulnerability, avoid the temptation to think that God owes you for your efforts. Always remember that it was his strength that gave you victory. Concentrate on keeping your attitudes, actions, and your words focused on God instead of yourself. But never forget God’s grace. We can ask for God’s help, provision, strength and power and depend on him. He will come through as we humbly pray.

God established Samson as the leader of the Israelites. Look at verse 20, “Samson led  Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.” Apparently, Samson was appointed Israel’s judge after this victorious battle with the Philistines. The times was still called, “The Days of the Philistines”. They were still ruling and oppressing their neighbors. But God used Samson for twenty years in the role of leader over his own people, living under Philistine oppression. God needed a man who could serve with a fighting spirit, with decisiveness and courage. Samson was the man of the hour. Though Samson had many faults, God chose to work through him by his grace to keep his people together in unsettling times.

In this passage we learned that God is the sovereign Lord. He was working in the life of Samson to establish him as a leader of the people of Israel. But first Samson had to go through so much. At the end of it all he was exhausted. He was at a point where he could not depend on his own strength. He cried out to God for help and gave glory to God for the amazing victory. Though Samson is full of sins and weaknesses, he was made ready to be the leader of his people. Praise God for his faithful love for his people and also for his love for Samson. Let us also pray that we can overcome the spirit of vengeance within by remembering Jesus who forgave our sins through his death on the cross. Let us turn the other cheek instead of picking up a donkey’s jawbone. May God also grant us a fighting spirit to serve God’s purpose in our lives. Though we are weak; he is strong and he will grant us his strength to serve his holy purpose. Amen.