Judges 15. Our brooding, impulsive hero, Samson, has run away from his own wedding after this bride betrayed him

Transcription

1 Judges 15 Our brding, impulsive her, Samsn, has run away frm his wn wedding after this bride betrayed him After drinking wine (prbably fr the very first time), Samsn let the drink g t his head and he made a flish bet He bet his wedding guests they culdn t guess the riddle he psed But his guests didn t play fair They pressured Samsn s wife t get the answer, which she did And the result was a humiliatin fr Samsn In his anger, he killed 30 Philistines, taking their clthes t repay his debt and then he strms away in anger leaving his bride at the altar We understd frm the text that the Lrd was wrking behind the scenes t prevent this marriage Or at the very least, the Lrd wanted t prmpt Samsn t return t his appinted task f defeating the Philistines And s Samsn has begun t mve in that directin Still, Samsn is betrthed, and since he strmed ff withut cmpleting the wedding, he still feels an bligatin t return He prbably still has feelings fr the wman And then there is the matter f fllwing thrugh n the cvenant In that culture, persnal cmmitments, especially in cvenants, were nt t be brken S Samsn still has an bligatin t g thrugh with his cvenant despite running away Therefre, as we enter chapter 15, Samsn travels back t claim the bride he abandned 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

2 Judges 15 2 f 14 Judg. 15:1 But after a while, in the time f wheat harvest, Samsn visited his wife with a yung gat, and said, I will g in t my wife in her rm. But her father did nt let him enter. Judg. 15:2 Her father said, I really thught that yu hated her intensely; s I gave her t yur cmpanin. Is nt her yunger sister mre beautiful than she? Please let her be yurs instead. Judg. 15:3 Samsn then said t them, This time I shall be blameless in regard t the Philistines when I d them harm. Samuel writes that Samsn returned t Timnah after a while We dn t knw hw lng a while was exactly but we have a cuple f clues This return happens at the time f the wheat harvest Wheat is harvested in late Spring after a Winter planting S this is late May r early June And if we assume that Samsn entered the vineyard earlier t eat grapes against his vws Then that wuld have been in Fall since grapes are ready t eat in early Fall S perhaps this is 6-8 mnths later Samsn ges t visit his wife carrying a gat Every husband r byfriend can identify with Samsn s actins Samsn s bringing the ancient equivalent f chclate and flwers Because nthing says I m srry like a gat Samsn thinks t himself that he will g t his wife in her rm He means literally he will cnsummate his marriage as he was suppsed t d six mnths r s earlier Obviusly, he s assuming his wife has cntinued t hnr her cmmitment t the cvenant just as he is nw attempting t d 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

3 Judges 15 3 f 14 Remember, the nly way this wman culd have exited the marriage cvenant was thrugh a divrce But when Samuel arrives in Timnah and tries t gain access t the wman s rm, her father stps Samsn frm entering Samsn is cnfused fr why he culdn t g int his wife, as he shuld have been allwed t d The father begins t explain by first aplgizing He says I really thught yu hated my daughter intensely The Hebrew sentence is interesting in that there are n wrds fr really and fr intensely Instead, Hebrew simply repeats the wrds thught and hate S literally, I thught thught yu hate hate my daughter The pint being the man is trying t emphasize t Samsn is hw surprising and cnvincing Samsn s departure had been Samsn shwed great disrespect t his future wife dishnring her in prbably the greatest way pssible S n ne expected him t make gd n his cvenant S the family did the next best thing, r s they thught The father said he gave his daughter t Samsn s cmpanin In a sense, it seems like dad was trying t emply sme versin f the levirate marriage principle But in the prcess, he caused his daughter t cmmit an act f infidelity She brke her cvenant by marrying anther And she has nw brught an even dishnr against Samsn Even the father s ffer f his ther (prettier) daughter desn t change the fact that Samsn s bride was stlen and his cvenant brken Once again, Samsn is angry and mved t taking revenge Interestingly, he remarks that when he takes revenge against the Philistines this time, he will be justified in his actins 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

4 Judges 15 4 f 14 He is acknwledging that his earlier actins were the result f his wn mistake in prpsing the bet in the first place This time, Samsn is truly the inncent party The Philistine family has brken a slemn cvenant and dishnred their wrd S Samsn is justified in seeking justice And the justice required in the breaking f a marriage cvenant was tw fld First, Samsn himself is n lnger bligated t marry this wman As Jesus explains in the Gspels, if a wman engages in sex during the betrthal perid, she is cmmitting infidelity And the husband is permitted t end the betrthal because f he has nt yet cnsummated the marriage His wife is n lnger available t him Secndly, Samsn culd expect t exact a price frm the father s family Cvenants were life-lng cmmitments that culd nly be ended by the death f the ne wh made it As Paul says in Rmans 7 Rm. 7:2 Fr the married wman is bund by law t her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released frm the law cncerning the husband. Rm. 7:3 S then, if while her husband is living she is jined t anther man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free frm the law, s that she is nt an adulteress thugh she is jined t anther man. Yu may remember in the stry f Mary and Jseph that wen Jseph fund Mary pregnant befre they married, he determined t divrce her quietly He was saving Mary frm ptentially being stned t death fr breaking her cvenant Samsn isn t s generus, as his wrds indicate he s preparing t take his revenge, justifiably this time 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

5 Judges 15 5 f 14 Judg. 15:4 Samsn went and caught three hundred fxes, and tk trches, and turned the fxes tail t tail and put ne trch in the middle between tw tails. Judg. 15:5 When he had set fire t the trches, he released the fxes int the standing grain f the Philistines, thus burning up bth the shcks and the standing grain, alng with the vineyards and grves. As usual Samsn s stry has unexpected details He decides t destry the Philistines wheat fields just as they are ready t be harvested This represents a serius lss The fd supply and financial security f this village was dependent n this harvest S Samsn decides t destry it But since he s nly ne persn, he devises a creative way t get help with his plan The text says he catches 300 fxes, but this seems very unlikely Nt because Samsn culdn t capture a wild animal, but because fxes are slitary animals It wuld highly imprbably that 300 fxes wuld have been in the same vicinity But the Hebrew wrd fr fx can be translated as jackal, which is a small wild dg Like all canines, jackals run in packs, and are much easier t catch than a fx Still, we must assume that Samsn s ability t capture 300 jackals was still a reflectin f the Lrd s special aninting f Samsn As he caught the jackals, he lit their bushy tails n fire and set them lse in the stranding grain fields If Samsn had simply walked thrugh the field lighting fires, the Philistines culd have quickly rushed t stp the flames But with 300 jackals running lse with burning tails, there wuld be n way t stp the spread f the flames 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

6 Judges 15 6 f 14 Sure enugh the fire spreads fast It burns up the stacked grain that had been already been reaped And the standing grain still in the fields Eventually, it spread t the vineyards and fruit grves This is a devastating lss When the village sees the devastatin and learns the cause, they t take actin Judg. 15:6 Then the Philistines said, Wh did this? And they said, Samsn, the sn-inlaw f the Timnite, because he tk his wife and gave her t his cmpanin. S the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. The inquiry leads the villagers back t the huse f Samsn s wife When they learn that this family brke a marriage cvenant, they realize that Samsn s actins were justified t a degree The true blame fr the episde rested with the family that vilated their cvenant with Samsn S they brught justice t the family, burning the bride and her father At this pint, we re all a little uncmfrtable with all the vilence, and we shuld be All that s happened has been a cascading f sin Beginning with Samsn s decisin t pursue the Philistine wife T his behavir at the wedding T his carnal reasns t attack the Philistines T his abandnment f his wife And then the Philistines have cmmitted their wn ffenses In betraying Samsn s hnr in cheating n the wager And then breaking the marriage cvenant N ne is inncent here 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

7 Judges 15 7 f 14 But step back fr a mment and cnsider what yu knw abut the sciety f these days Men are ding what is right in their wn eyes They aren t guided by Gd s law s much as by their wn desires, They fllw hearts that are drifting farther and farther frm the Lrd And even the men appinted by Gd t lead them are grwing less gdly by each generatin And f curse the Philistines aren t gdly in the least, s it s nly natural t expect them t act in vengeful ways And seeing it all we re drawn t ne, unavidable cnclusin: the evil f the human heart is an incurable disease Israel had the cvenants, the prphets, the judges, the tabernacle and n and n And all f it culdn t bring men t live and act in righteus ways When Gd stepped in frcefully as He did after the Exdus r under Jshua, the peple wuld tw the line briefly But withut fail, they returned t their sinning ways And f curse the Gentile natins were even farther frm the truth and righteusness They lived withut the revelatin f the Lrd nr His directin r representatives Clearly we need smething mre than law and human judges We need the pwer f Gd t vercme ur very nature The Lrd knew this already, but He s using the time and experiences f Judges t demnstrate that truth t us That s why we preach the Gspel f Jesus Christ t a fallen wrld Because we t live in a time when everyne is ding what is right in their wn eyes And ur judges are ruling accrding whims and selfish desires 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

8 Judges 15 8 f 14 And even the peple f Gd are ften weak, untaught and unwilling t discipline their flesh t the restraint f Gd s law What will address this prblem? Nt law, nt judges, nt kings Only the Spirit living inside us Wh cmes as we submit t the truth f Jesus as Lrd The Philistine s decisin t take revenge against Samsn s wife gives Samsn ne mre chance t retaliate Judg. 15:7 Samsn said t them, Since yu act like this, I will surely take revenge n yu, but after that I will quit. Judg. 15:8 He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went dwn and lived in the cleft f the rck f Etam. It wuld seem that Samsn had true lve fr his Philistine bride, since he s willing t carry the war ne step further He vws t avenge his wife s death with ne mre act against the Philistines Interestingly, he s declaring that this will be the end fr him Of curse that s easy t prmise when yu re assuming yu re ging t be the last ne t act In any case, Samsn ges back int the territry f the Philistines and cnducts a great slaughter against them Once again, we re nt verlking the chain f sinful events that brught us t this pint But we must als remember that the Lrd declared at the beginning f chapter 14 that these events were part f Gd s plan He s wrking t bring Samsn t the pint where he will fulfill his missin t cnduct war against the Philistines And Samsn s sinful chice t pursue a Philistine wife left the Lrd with little chice but t disrupt thse plans And in the prcess, the Lrd drve Samsn int a battle that suppsed t happen a whle different way 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

9 Judges 15 9 f 14 I can t stress enugh that Gd always gets His way in ur lives and in the larger events f the wrld arund us And when we re stubbrn in refusing t fllwing Him in an bedient way, then we leave Him with n chice but t drive us frm behind We have the stries in Judges s we might ntice the Lrd s ways and determine fr urselves nt t test Him in the way these peple did Dn t frce Gd s hand, because yu wn t like the result Like Jnah, yu re ging t Nineveh ne way r anther: either by first class r fish class After Samsn fights, he has t retreat smewhere t hide frm the Philistines respnse S he ends up in Etam, which is an area f caves near Timnah Samsn s hiding ut waiting fr the Philistines t give up lking fr him But he s stirred up a hrnet s nest, and he s Hebrew brthers aren t happy But in the Lrd s wisdm, He has a plan fr this as well Judg. 15:9 Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread ut in Lehi. Judg. 15:10 The men f Judah said, Why have yu cme up against us? And they said, We have cme up t bind Samsn in rder t d t him as he did t us. Judg. 15:11 Then 3,000 men f Judah went dwn t the cleft f the rck f Etam and said t Samsn, D yu nt knw that the Philistines are rulers ver us? What then is this that yu have dne t us? And he said t them, As they did t me, s I have dne t them. Judg. 15:12 They said t him, We have cme dwn t bind yu s that we may give yu int the hands f the Philistines. And Samsn said t them, Swear t me that yu will nt kill me. Judg. 15:13 S they said t him, N, but we will bind yu fast and give yu int their hands; yet surely we will nt kill yu. Then they bund him with tw new rpes and brught him up frm the rck. Judg. 15:14 When he came t Lehi, the Philistines shuted as they met him. And the Spirit f the Lrd came upn him mightily s that the rpes that were n his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bnds drpped frm his hands Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

10 Judges f 14 Judg. 15:15 He fund a fresh jawbne f a dnkey, s he reached ut and tk it and killed a thusand men with it. Judg. 15:16 Then Samsn said, With the jawbne f a dnkey, Heaps upn heaps, With the jawbne f a dnkey I have killed a thusand men. Judg. 15:17 When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbne frm his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi. In respnse t Samsn s brutal actins, the Philistines mve up int Judah and spread ut in an area called Lehi, a lcatin unknwn tday Obviusly, this game f tit-fr-tat is grwing ut f cntrl quickly What began as a family dispute sn engulfed a village And nw it threatens t bring tw natins f peple against ne anther But remember the Philistines essentially ruled ver Israel in these days Like Rme ruling Israel in Jesus day, the Philistines culd impse their will n the Jews virtually with impunity S when a Jew steps int a Philistines village and kills man men, the Philistines are ging t exact revenge S Samsn s wn peple cme lking fr him t hand him ver t the Philistines Samsn explains why he did what he did, but they will hear nthing f it They wuld rather turn in a brther t have peace with their enemy than risk their lives in the warfare that resistance required But this is why the Lrd raised up Samsn in the first place He was t break the strnghld f the Philistines n the Jews He was t free his peple Samsn s reluctance t bey led t the Lrd bringing it abut in this dd fashin 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

11 Judges f 14 Still the Jewish leaders are s blind and weakened they dn t want freedm They prefer a life f quiet bndage t a life f victrius bedience t Gd Gd s peple can fall fr this pattern f cmplacency at any time...it wasn t unique t the Jewish peple One bserver f 1Samuel 15 remarked: It is a sad fact f Christian experience that if yu are a Christian cmmitted t grwing and maturing in Jesus Christ, yu will ften be hindered the mst by ther Christians wh have becme accustmed and accmmdated t an anemic, wishy-washy spiritual life. Fr the Jewish leaders, Samsn is messing up a gd thing, r s they think Nw if this pattern sunds a little familiar, it shuld, because it s anther picture f Christ Samsn pictures Christ s arrival t rescue his peple frm the ppressin f the Gentiles Unlike Samsn, Christ embraced His missin whleheartedly, f curse But like Samsn, Christ was persecuted and betrayed by His wn peple against the very enemies He came t defeat We re learning anther lessn abut the evil hearts f men and wmen We prefer ur sinful lives even with all the misery ur sin brings upn us We say n t Gd and t His redemptin We refuse t acknwledge Him much less bend ur knee Only by the supernatural wrk f the Spirit will smene cme t knw the Lrd as fllw Him Speaking f the aninting f the Spirit, Samsn sees an pprtunity t exercise his escape frm the Philistines and the Jews He asks in v.12 if they will prmise nt t kill him 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

12 Judges f 14 They agree they will nly bind him But they will nt kill him Samsn agrees then t g with them, because he knws that he has the strength t break their bnds This is prbably a high pint in Samsn s spiritual life Fr all his stumbling abut s far, we can be encuraged by his patience with his brther sin And fr his cnfidence and faith in the Lrd s faithfulness t deliver him ver his enemies He s putting himself in a very vulnerable psitin, which can nly mean he s cnfident the Lrd will be there t rescue him Here s anther picture f Christ Samsn pictures a man f Gd endwed with all pwer yet willing t submit t an unfair fate fr the gd f his peple Christ had the strength t resist any attempt t bind Him much less t kill Him But because f His bedience t the Lrd and His desire t win salvatin fr His peple, He willingly submitted t capture, trial, trture and ultimately death In Samsn s case, he wn t face death, nt yet He is brught bund befre the Philistines wh shut in anticipatin f killing this man they despise s much But Samsn breaks his bnds and begins t fight the Philistines wh were caught ff guard Of curse, the mst amazing part f this battle is the implement Samsn used t win his battle He ntices a dead dnkey that had nly just died Once again, his Nazarite vws prhibited tuch a dead bdy But he had vilated that vw already when he tuched the lin S withut a hesitatin, he reaches ut and grabs the jawbne 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

13 Judges f 14 The dentures f the dnkey prvide an interesting fcal pint fr us, but in reality the jawbne played n meaningful rle in the battle In effect, Samsn killed 1,000 men with his bare hands His supernatural strength was the tl that granted him victry After the battle, Samsn names the place Jawbne Hill in memrial t the victry And he cins anther riddle If yu want t get the full sense f the wrdplay in his riddle, yu culd restate it this way With the jawbne f an ass, I have piled them in a mass. Then why the detail f the jawbne? I believe it s anther picture f Christ Samsn is winning a great victry by means f the cheek f a dead dnkey r ass, an unclean animal even when alive Likewise, Christ wn a great victry thrugh an unclean death Scripture teaches that Jesus was smitten r struck n the cheek in His death n Calvary The phrase t strike the cheek means t treat with cntempt Furthermre, the jawbne r cheek f the dnkey was mist r fresh The wrd in Hebrew fr new literally means mist The pint is the bdy hadn t undergne decay Neither did Jesus bdy underg decay in winning ur victry And the bne was frm a dnkey because the dnkey is unclean And Jesus became unclean in the sense that He became sin n the crss He Wh knew n sin became sin s we might becme the righteusness f Gd 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.

14 Judges f 14 Finally, the jaw seems cnnected t the muth in a way that suggests that the victry will be wn by the wrd f Gd, supernaturally And at the end f the battle, he dispses f the jawbne Just as Christ will declare it is finished when the victry is wn Never again will Christ need t suffer t defeat sin All f these details in the stry remind us that Samsn is acting in ways that Gd intends t reminds us f His Sn 2016 Verse By Verse Ministry Internatinal ( May be cpied and distributed prvided the dcument is reprduced in its entirety, including this cpyright statement, and n fee is cllected fr its distributin.