Okay, Judges 15, we continue with Samson. Remember last time, or the last few weeks, we saw Judges 13, the call narrative or the birth of Samson. And then in Chapter 14, he goes down to Timnah and he sees a woman there, one of the daughters of the Philistines. He wants to marry her.
This does not make his parents happy. They try to dissuade him. 14.4, however, tells us, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord, that he was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. So we see that same sort of pattern continue in Timnah here in chapter 15. And I just want to begin reading in chapter 15 at verse 1.
After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, let me go into my wife, into her room. But her father would not permit him to go in. Her father said, I really thought that you thoroughly hated her.
Therefore, I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead. And Samson said to them, this time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them.
Then Samson went and caught 300 foxes, and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. And the Philistines said, who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.
So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you. And after that, I will cease. So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter.
Then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the Rock of Edom. Now the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and deployed themselves against Lehi. And the men of Judah said, why have you come up against us? So they answered, we have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.
Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the Rock of Edom and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us? And he said to them, as they did to me, so I have done to them. But they said to him, we have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.
Then Samson said to them, swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves. So they spoke to him, saying, no, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand, but we will surely not kill you. And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.
And the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. And Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have slain a thousand men. And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called that place Ramath-Lehi.
Then he became very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, you have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, he called its name An-Hakor, which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines." Amen.
Introduction: Reading Samson Rightly
We continue with this dear brother, Samson, as we continue through the book of Judges. I texted a brother today and said that some of the commentators treat Samson more harshly than the Philistines did. When you read some of these men and see their comments concerning Samson, I wonder if we're reading about the same sort of a fellow. They just picture this meandering brute that's governed by his passions going from event to event to event causing as much trial and trouble as he can possibly do.
What I interpret or how I see it is the spirit of the Lord is moving this particular man to break the back of Philistine oppression so that the people of Israel can be freed from their bondage. Now, of course, Samson is not without sin. No man, save the Lord Jesus Christ, is without sin. But all in all, he is, as the Apostle describes him in Hebrews chapter 11, a great man of faith.
And we'll see that as we move on in the passage tonight. What is really alarming and really shocking is that when we consider certain judges in this particular book, if we look at Samson in this narrative, he sort of stands out. We see him doing these sorts of things, killing or slaughtering men, hip and thigh. And we see him with this jawbone of the donkey.
And we miss the really treacherous people in the chapter itself. The problem in Judges 15 is not Samson. The problem in Judges 15 is the tribe of Judah. And we'll see that tonight as we move through the passage.
We'll break it down into three sections. First,
Betrayal by His Father-in-Law
the betrayal by his father-in-law in verses 1 to 8. Secondly, the treachery of his countrymen in verses 9 to 13. And then the defeat of his enemies in verses 14 to 20. So let's just pick up with the betrayal by his father-in-law in verses 1 to 8.
Samson returns to Timnah to get his wife. He comes with a young goat under his arms. That would be akin to you showing up at your lovely bride's home with a box of chocolates. It is a peace offering, it is a gift, it is designed to woo your beloved.
If there's one thing we ought to observe is that Samson does not bear grudges. As we move through the passage, again, I think there's many appreciable traits about this particular brother. Remember in the last chapter, we saw that when he kills the lion with his bare hand, he doesn't even tell his father and mother. I mean, if he lived today, he would have that lion mounted and he'd put it over his fireplace and he'd take pictures of it so he could brag all over the known world about what he had done.
Well, he doesn't brag about killing this particular lion. He doesn't bear a grudge against the woman who betrayed him to the Timnites. He goes happy-go-lucky as it were with his goat knocks on the door he wants to see his wife he wants to spend time with her and that's the gist of what we find in verse 1 after a while in the time of wheat harvest that's an important time reference because when he burns Philistine's property we understand why the narrator wants to tell us that it was wheat harvest. He really put it to them when he sent these foxes along the countryside to destroy their crops.
I mean this was an act of war and aggression. Remember, we've defined war as breaking things and killing people. Well, that is precisely what Samson does in terms of the Philistines. But it's the time of wheat harvest.
It happens that Samson visits his wife with a young goat. He's probably, you know, slicking back his hair and making sure everything looks good, blowing on his hand to make sure his breath is okay. He says to the father, let me go into my wife, into her room. But her father would not permit him to go in.
That's the prohibition by her father. He makes this statement. No, you're not going in. And then he gives us the reason to, hey, I really thought that you thoroughly hated her.
Yet it seems to follow, doesn't it? She betrayed him into the hands of these Timnites. She sold him out. She whined, she nagged, she cried.
He told her the answer to the riddle. And then she goes and tells the people of Timna. And so the father says, I really thought that you thoroughly hated her. Therefore, I gave her to your companion.
Now, this is not legit. And note the way the Philistines treat their women. Did she consent to this? She just is now given to another man.
And then notice how he treats the younger daughter at the end of verse 2. And again, I think we see something admirable about Samson. He's not a man simply governed by his passions. He's not just meandering about seeking to satisfy his carnal lusts.
At the end of verse two, is not her younger sister better than she? Probably better looking, more attractive. Doesn't she please you? Just like when you walked into Timnah and you set your eyes upon my older daughter, weren't you pleased with her?
This man is now trying to appease Samson because he's realizing that Samson wants what was his. but the father-in-law has given her away and so now he offers the younger daughter. Please take her instead. Again, this is the type of treatment you get in a Philistine society. There's no respect, there's no concern, there's no love for daughters.
We simply want to appease angry men so that they don't do vicious things to us. That was this father's interpretation of this particular event. Again, Samson doesn't take her. He's not out to satisfy his lust.
He's not out simply for his own carnal pleasures. Note the result in verse 3. Samson said to them, this time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them. There is just cause.
This is wrong. This is vicious. And so he takes this private situation and uses it as a public occasion to bring judgment to bear upon the Philistines. And again, I think we need to understand that everything that happens in this particular chapter, and it's verified and confirmed at the end of the chapter, when the Spirit of the Lord rushes mightily on him, this is of God.
Samson is not acting in a renegade fashion. He is not a law unto himself. And when we go through the chapter and we notice that he engages the enemy all alone, again, it's not because he's proud and he has a maverick spirit, but it's because the Judahites want to sell him out, let alone go into battle with him. So he's living in a debauched age among a debauched people and he is God's choice of deliverer to bring judgment to bear upon these people.
So we need to see that God is sovereign behind the scenes orchestrating these particular events so that he can bring these Philistines or at least begin the process of bringing them under subjection to Israel rather than vice versa.
Destruction of Philistine Property
Now notice the destruction of Philistine property in verses four to six. Verse four, then Samson went and caught 300 foxes. Now one of the commentators says foxes and jackals, it's the same Hebrew word. Foxes are solitary, jackals are more pack animals.
So he was persuaded that it would be jackals. Either way, he takes these 300 foxes He takes torches, he turns the fox's tail to tail. Why doesn't he double the amount of torches and just tie one torch to the tail of one fox? Probably because the one fox would try to find cover in a hole.
Two foxes together couldn't do that. So he does this with a rope. How the logistics work is very difficult, at least for me to picture, but we see the end game. He takes torches, he turns the foxes tail to tail, he puts a torch between each pair of tails.
He sets the torches on fire. He lets the foxes go. And here's the point, into the standing grain of the Philistines. And he burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
Bloch says, how Samson accomplished this is a great mystery. But this is something we need to appreciate. He says, but it fits into the picture of a man who kills a lion single-handedly. We're not dealing with a typical fellow here.
I imagine he was a big fellow. You notice how many people from Judah go to confront Samson? If I had a problem with one of you, I wouldn't take 3,000 men. I don't think you're that strong.
I don't think you could take me. I think you could take me, but I would take three or four people. I would take 3,000. Judah takes an army to confront Samson.
We're not talking about your typical guy. He's not 90 pounds soaking wet. We need to remember that. It fits into the picture of a man who kills a lion single-handedly, kills 30 Philistines, breaks brand new ropes that bind him, slays 1,000 Philistines with a jawbone, and brings a house down over thousands of reveling Philistines.
How does Samson do it? God is with him. God has equipped this man for this particular action. Again, Block commenting on the action itself in terms of the destruction of the property.
He says, from his actions in verses 4 and 5, the reader learns why the narrator had mentioned the time of Samson's return to Timnah in verse 1 as the wheat harvest. Philistia was grain country. That was what they were about. And with his actions, Samson strikes at the heart of the Philistine economy.
Now when we consider that Dagon was the god of grain, he is probably striking at the heart of the religious system that is intrinsic to the Philistine community. So by this one action of dispatching these 300 foxes into this grain he has obliterated them economically. He has also sent them a message concerning their god Dagon. When we get to chapter 16 we see Dagon is ultimately brought down.
Later he will be dealt with again. But these are idolaters, and Samson hits them where it hurts." Verse 6, the Philistines said, who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
Remember, that was the thing they threatened the girl with, and that's why she gave up Samson's riddle. Ironically, this is what has come to be her portion and her lot, according to the narrative. Again, note the barbarism of Philistine society. Their beef is with Samson.
But they know they can't just march in and burn up Samson. They've got to deploy. They've got to be tactical. They've got to be strategic.
But in their enmity and in their rage, what do they do to Mrs. Samson? They torture her and her father. This is despicable.
See, I think the narrator wants you to understand that even though Israel doesn't realize it, the people that they're willingly subject to is a barbaric, idolatrous, wicked, and a cursed nation that deserves everything that the Lord is going to bring upon them through his servant, Samson. When Samson picks up that fresh jawbone of a donkey. Note the narrator. It's a fresh jawbone.
It's not an old, dried, brittle thing that once you crack somebody in the skull it falls apart. It's fresh. The teeth are intact. This becomes a great weapon and tool in the hand. of Samson.
We ought not to say, wow, that's strange that a man is killing people with the jawbone of a donkey. We ought to say, praise God, that he raised up Samson to bring destruction upon these people who would go burn a woman and her father's house and who would engage in the sorts of things that they have engaged in throughout this particular narrative. The surprise that we have at times over Samson is really misplaced. And the narrator wants to make sure that we put it in its proper perspective.
So they determine that Samson is responsible. They destroy his wife and his father-in-law. And then notice in verses 7 and 8, you see there's an action and a reaction. That's the way the narrative is structured.
Action and reaction. Action and reaction. Philistines and Samson are both operating according to the Golden Rule as well. Isn't this what the Philistines say?
Verse 10, we have come up to arrest Samson to do to him as he has done to us. That's the Golden Rule Philistine style. The Golden Rule Samson style is the glory of God and the subjugation of the enemies of Christ's kingdom. So notice, after Samson gets wind of the fact that they burned his father-in-law and they burned his wife.
He doesn't say, well, that serves that man because he sent her away and tried to offer me his younger daughter. No, that's not what Samson says. He obviously had affection for this particular woman. Now remember, when we get to chapter 16, I'm going to argue Samson did not have relations with the harlot in Gaza.
And it says he loved Delilah. It doesn't say anything other than that. Samson in terms of his sexual fidelity is not the man that we have been led to believe he is. If his wife by legality has died in a fire than other than the Philistine thing.
And again, we can't justify that. But he's not as despicable as we're often made to believe. He's not a bad guy. And we shouldn't see him in that particular light.
He is a hero, a man of valor that God the Lord has used to bring judgment upon the enemies of Israel. So notice, verse 7, Samson said to them, Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease. So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. Then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etah." This idea of hip and thigh, Kyle and Dalit say, the smiting or smiting hip and thigh is a proverbial expression for unsparing slaughter.
It's an idiom. It's a figure of speech. It's to communicate that he really brought it to them. Daniel Bloch, he literally struck them leg upon thigh with a great striking.
Bloch says the NIVs viciously offers a tolerable interpretation of the idiom, though it puts Samson almost in a negative light. When we want a man out there engaged in combat for us, we hope that he engages viciously. We hope that he takes no prisoners. We hope that he decimates the enemy.
So don't let that word viciously throw you off. He says, the NIV viciously offers a tolerable interpretation of the idiom, leg upon thigh, presumably a wrestling idiom for total victory. That's the point. When this happens to his ex-wife now and to his father-in-law, Samson goes and uses this occasion to bring judgment upon the Philistines.
So that's the betrayal by his father-in-law. Action. Reaction. Action.
Reaction. Action. Reaction. And the end game is that God brings judgment to bear upon the Philistines through his servant.
Now note,
Treachery of His Countrymen
secondly, the treachery of his countrymen, verses 9 to 13. Go back for just a moment to chapter 13, because we need to remind ourselves of the historical occasion. Notice in Judges 13.1, again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. As we had cause to notice at 13.1, this is a formula that's employed throughout the book of Judges.
They sin against God, God raises up an agent of oppression, and that person, or rather that nation, holds the children of Israel down. Typically, in all of the other cycles, the children of Israel cry out, not in repentance, not to forsake their sin, but they cry out because of their distress. They don't like the oppression, they don't like the Midianites, they don't like the harsh treatment that they are receiving. Now note in this cycle, according to chapter 13, they don't cry out.
There's no distress. They're not upset with the current situation. They've made peace with the reality that the Philistines are over them. They do not realize just how bad things have gotten and they could care less about defeating their enemies.
We drew two implications out of that situation for life today in the Church of Jesus Christ. The first is there is a danger of assimilating culture in such a manner as to no longer be concerned with the violation of God's law. sucking in the culture around us to such a point that we no longer are concerned with the violation of God's law. Let's take one real relevant example, homosexual marriage. There are some today within the professing church that are saying we ought not to have a big problem with this.
That's assimilating culture to such a degree that we no longer have a problem with a violation of God's law. And then a second implication is the necessity that we must have of an uncompromising allegiance to Christ in the midst of a compromised culture. So while we live in a situation that is in rebellion against the Lord God, we are in the world but we're not supposed to be of it. We are supposed to be countercultural.
We're supposed to march in lockstep with the law and the prophets. We're not supposed to succumb to the prevailing notions around us. We are to maintain fidelity to the living and true God. So that's the cultural context in which Samson found himself.
Go back to chapter 15, and in verses 9 to 13, we see the treachery of his countrymen. Now notice verses 9 and 10, the Philistines and Judah. Now the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and deployed themselves against Lehi. And the men of Judah said, why have you come up against us?
We don't want any problems. We don't want to go toe to toe with the Philistines. You can almost hear them panicking at this particular point. Why are you here?
What's the problem? What's the issue? We don't want any challenges. So they answered, we have come up to arrest Samson to do to him as he has done to us.
Now. We have the abundance of cowardice on display in verses 11 to 13. And I think this is very instructive for us as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to make sure that our conduct in the 21st century in a compromised culture does not look like the Judahite conduct in this particular culture.
Judah's Cowardice Enumerated
Notice first, they send an army against Samson and not the Philistines. Verse 11, then 3,000 men of Judah. Again, that's a huge number for one man. There was a fear of Samson in the land.
And these Judahites took a delegation of 3,000 men to go confront him. What should they have done? They should have stood behind him and rushed against the Philistines. So now we've got Philistines and Judahites as allies against God's deliverer.
Notice secondly, they embrace subjection to the Philistines. Notice in verse 11, then the 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the Rock of Edom and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? They've embraced it. They've welcomed it.
They've made peace with it. They like it. They don't want to upset the apple cart. Dale Ralph Davis says here, sad, sad words.
Here is a people who have acquiesced to bondage, who can no longer imagine anything beyond the status quo, who see deliverance as a threat to peace, who look upon Yahweh's enemies as their rightful lords. Israel is a people who can forsake Yahweh instantly. Haven't we seen that? They can turn on God in a moment, on a dime.
Immediately they can reject and resist the Lord. He says, Israel is a people who can forsake Yahweh instantly, but who would not think of being faithless to the Philistines. What a pitiful question is verse 11. I'm sorry, verse 10.
Verse 11, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Now note, thirdly, they identify themselves with the Philistines. What is this you have done to us? You poor pathetic babies.
As if Sampson is supposed to say, well, I'm sorry I've brought this calamity on you. I'm sorry I've angered the Philistines. I'm sorry I've brought them to confront you. I'm sorry for the inconvenience that is facing you now.
Look at what they are doing. They are identifying with the Philistines. They have made peace with Philistine rule. They have identified with the Philistines themselves.
They have embraced the culture. they have drank in the culture, they have resisted the God of heaven and earth, and they have resisted and rejected the Deliverer whom God raised up to bring them out of this very situation. It is absolutely terrible. Samson says, verse 11, as they did to me, so I have done to them. Amen, Samson, because they deserved it, because they're the enemies of Yahweh and because you're the faithful one in Israel.
Now notice fourthly, they express their desire to arrest him and deliver him to death. Are you getting this? Who's the problem in Judges 15? The man who goes after Philistines and takes a jawbone of a donkey and cuts down 1,000 men?
Or a tribe of Judahites who have turned against one of their own and are going to arrest him and deliver him up to be executed? They know good and well the Philistines aren't going to put him in some cushy prison. He's not going to get three hots and a cot. He's not going to be a ward of the state.
He's not going to live into old age, but rather he is going to be executed and destroyed. So they expressed their desire to arrest him and deliver him to death. They said, we have come down to arrest you that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. Again, Davis captures it well.
Oh no, Samson, we don't want to kill you. We only want to bind you and give you to the Philistines so they can kill you. Now note what he says. The tribe that had formerly waded into battle after battle, chapter 1, verses 1 to 20, the very first tribe in Judges that goes on the war path is Judah.
He says, has become a collection of spineless wimps. They regard the Philistines as their rulers and Samson as their enemy. They don't even want to be always free people. They don't even see that as a possibility.
Notice fifth, they assure him of their innocence. Samson says to them, verse 12, Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves." So they spoke to him saying, no, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hands. But we will surely not kill you. Now, I don't know if that was supposed to alleviate the brother and make him feel happy and whole and comfortable, but it surely tells us something about these derelicts.
They are so degraded, they do not see what is going on. They deliver the deliverer. Fast forward in the New Covenant era. Don't we see that?
The deliverer is delivered in order to bring deliverance. The same sort of motif and pattern that you see in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lots of types going on. Read Gil.
He'll show you some types you never thought existed. But this is their situation. And then six, they betray their utter spiritual degradation. we will surely not kill you." The end of verse 13, they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. Kyle and Dalich said, instead of recognizing in Samson a deliverer whom the Lord had raised up for them and crowding around him that they might smite their oppressors with his help and drive them out of the land, the men of Judah were so degraded that they cast this reproach at Samson.
They should have seen in him a victory. They should have seen in him a champion. They should have seen in him, we will follow you to the death. We will battle behind you, Samson.
You're going to lead the way, because after all, you're Samson. But we will happily be behind you, and whatever Philistines you might happen to miss with the jawbone of the donkey, we'll be there, and we'll take them out. But that's not what happens. You see, this is absolutely wretched when internal corruption threatens the covenant community.
It's bad enough when we have the external problems of the Philistines. It is doubly bad when we have the internal problems within the community itself. You see, we're in a culture that says you must allow and you must tolerate and you must do. The church as a whole should resist that and hold fast and not betray her Lord and His word.
But what happens is that there is internal corruption. Some within the body of Christ. Some professing believers say, well, wait a minute. We don't want to do that.
We shouldn't rock the apple cart. We shouldn't challenge anything. We should just lay down and take whatever it is they have for us. This is what's happening today, the internal corruption within the church.
We've got big problems in terms of Philistine oppression. What's the church doing? Entertaining the masses, bilking them for money. doing everything and anything save preaching Christ and Him crucified. The very thing that is demanded from us and the very thing that God will bless for us is the very thing that in many places the church will have nothing to do with.
We just want to conduct ourselves, we just want to be unmolested, we don't want to rock the boat, we don't want to have any issues or any challenges or any problems whatsoever. Perhaps you've heard this quote from Edmund Burke, a British political philosopher who said,
Application: The Church and Cultural Compromise
all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Right? You probably all heard that. That's what's going on right there.
Thankfully, God the Lord is not going to allow it to happen. Thankfully, Philistines and cowards are no match for the living and true God. But there is a lesson here, I think, for the church today. It is faithfulness to God and to his means that is absolutely crucial.
We mustn't betray either, because the culture around us doesn't like what we have to say. Again, Davis makes this perceptive comment. Whether it is the evil and sin within us or some form of it outside us, God does not call us to negotiate with sin and evil, but to wage war on them, to nurse a holy hatred toward them in all their multicolored forms. We are near hopeless when we begin to adopt Judah's slogan.
It has always been this way. How can we expect to change anything? Well, with the preaching of the gospel and the power of God's word and the ministry of his Holy Spirit, that is enough to affect the change that God Most High wants to affect. Our task, our calling, is simply to be faithful.
Isn't this what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4? Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful, not accommodating, not culture loving, not culture assimilating, but rather those who stand upon the word of God and with Luther say, here I stand, I can do no other. Doesn't matter what hell itself says against us, we need to hold fast to the word of truth. I think, in many respects, the church is in Judges 15 a lot more conspicuously than we would like to think.
Now notice, finally,
Defeat of His Enemies
verses 14 to 20, the defeat of his enemies. So at the end of verse 13, they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. He's now in a position of disadvantage.
His own countrymen have delivered him up. The betrayers have delivered the deliverer. to the oppressor. It is absolutely backwards in the way it ought not to be. Again, this underscores the sovereignty and the majesty and the glory of God.
Even when the Philistines come shouting at Him, and even when the Judahites are rooting for the Philistines, the Spirit of the Lord rushes mightily upon Samson and brings a decisive victory in this exchange. But the Philistines come shouting against him. It's probably a battle cry. It's a war cry.
They're ready to take him down. He has hurt them. Remember? 30 men in Ashkelon, the economic devastation that he has wrought with his band of merry foxes, the many killed after his wife and his father-in-law were killed. I mean, as far as they're concerned, Samson needs to go, and he needs to go immediately.
So when they see this big man handcuffed, as it were, They rush upon him. They're screaming at him. They're ready to take him out. Look at the contrast.
It's so glorious. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. It's almost as if God is saying, bring your best.
Bring it on, Philistines. Sit there and scoff, you coward as Judahites. You are now battling against the Spirit of the Lord God Almighty. The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire and his bonds broke loose from his hands.
Imagine the Philistine and Judahite reaction. We just put fresh ropes on him. They shouldn't be that brittle. No man should be able to snap those kinds of ropes.
Do you think things were fundamentally different then as it is now? If you wrap my arms with ropes, I can't snap them. That's the whole point. He snaps that.
Probably for that moment, the Philistines and the Judahites thought, uh-oh, what's going to happen now? You've unleashed this man filled with the power of the Spirit. not just brute strength, not just a well-seasoned warrior, but a man with the spirit of the Lord God Most High penetrating him. He breaks the bonds loose from his hands and then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it. That is impressive.
And then Samson is the punster, isn't he? Isn't he a great guy? He likes the riddle in chapter 14. And after he smashes a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey, the last thing I'm going to do is compose a pun.
He's mocking the enemies of God. What does it say in the second psalm? When the men rise up in mutiny against God and against his Christ, the Lord mocks them. Samson knows something of the God of Israel.
And he composes this pun. With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have slain 1,000 men. It rhymes in Hebrew. Moffat captures it this way in English.
With the jawbone of an ass, I have piled them in a mass, is what he says. With the jawbone of an ass, I have piled them in a mass. 1,000 dead, bloodied Philistines are lying there because the Spirit of the Lord came upon this man who was sent to begin the deliverance from Philistine oppression. And then notice, he names the place Jawbone Hill. And so it was, verse 17, when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called that place Ramath-Lehi.
The margin says jawbone height, or we could say jawbone hill. There was a famous hill in the Vietnam War that took on the name Hamburger Hill. It was the place of a great battle there. So Samson does something akin to that.
Now notice.
Samson's Prayer and God's Provision
The acknowledgment of the Lord's servant, verses 18 to 19. Then he became very thirsty. That follows, doesn't it? I doubt killing 1,000 men happens in five minutes.
I mean, the carnage involved in that. The strength involved in that, a thousand men, with the jawbone of a donkey. He's not got guns blazing. He's not even got a sword that he's swinging around.
He doesn't have that distance. That's what's good about a sword. It keeps a little bit of distance between you and the enemy. The jawbone of a donkey doesn't afford that.
You're going to get blood splattered from the Philistines all over you so that when you're done, you're going to be thirsty. And this is what we find. Verse 18. Then he became very thirsty and now notice.
So he cried out to the Lord and said, you have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant. Samson's not proud. Samson's not arrogant. Again, Samson's not perfect.
He's got his issues, but he understands from whence his help comes. He doesn't take the credit for this victory. He doesn't say, look what I've done. He says, you have given this great deliverance.
Literally, you have given this great salvation. by the hand of your servant. Then he says, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. He acknowledges his dependence upon God. The Spirit of the Lord empowers him for battle.
He needs God the Lord to provide water for him so that he doesn't fall prey to these uncircumcised. What is at stake here? Preserve your servant so that I can preserve your people. sustain me with water so that I can sustain your people. As wayward as they are, as cowardice as they are, they need my help under your gracious hand and under your mercy." Davis again, with reference to his acknowledgment of his dependence upon the Lord.
Davis says, here is Samson dependent on Yahweh. Here is the Savior confessing that he needs saved. We have repeatedly heard that Samson's power comes from Yahweh's spirit. But in case these failed to register, we surely cannot miss this picture.
Samson is anything but self-sufficient. What does he do? He humbles himself under the mighty hand of God and he says, you have given this by your servant. Please give me water so that I may continue in the track that you have set me in, in order to provide deliverance for your people.
Far from being arrogant, far from being cheeky, God says, here's your water. In language reminiscent of Exodus 17, language reminiscent of Numbers 20, just as when Moses was there, the rock split and water flowed out in order to provide provision to the children of Israel, such is the case for this man. Verse 19, so God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out and he drank, and his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore he called its name Anakor, which is in Lehi to this day.
Spring of the color, or it might be deemed the place where God answers prayer. Samson prayed. God answers. Samson says, let's remember this.
Let's have it written for posterity that it was in this place that God brought deliverance through his servant, and God brought deliverance to his servant when he cried out in prayer for this nourishing water. And then verse 20 is a summary such as we find in other places in the book, and he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines. Now the absence of the land having rest, the presence of the fact that it's still the days of the Philistines don't bode well, doesn't indicate that everything is hunky-dory in Israel. but there was at least some destruction to the Philistines in accordance with what was prophesied concerning him in 13.5. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head.
For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. What he begins here ultimately I believe King David finishes with reference to the Philistines. If we want to go even further in terms of the typical significance, the Lord Jesus ultimately brings the deliverance that man stands in need of. So that's Judges 15.
We have seen the betrayal by his father-in-law, the treachery of his countrymen, and the defeat of his enemies. Again, God working behind the scenes God working through this particular man, God empowering him with the Spirit of the Lord so that he can bring destruction to these Philistines and hopefully bring the people of Israel to a place where instead of embracing this objection, they want to throw it off and they want to get back to where the Lord God had called them. Well, let us close in prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for your grace and mercy that you would raise up a man like Samson to begin the deliverance in Israel. We pray, Father, that you would help us to take away the lessons that we ought to see in a passage like this. Yes, your amazing grace, but as well the amazing cowardice of your people, quivering and afraid and subject to the Philistines and wanting it to be that way. God, help us to be faithful to you.
Help us to be faithful to your word. Help us to be faithful to those things you've ordained for your church. I pray that you would go with us now, that you would watch over us in the remainder of this week. Again, be with our brothers and sisters who are challenged physically.
Be with all of us, God, who are challenged spiritually. And bring us together on the Sabbath day that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. And we ask these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.