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Judges chapter 15. I want to 
make two qualifications before we actually begin. The first, 
regarding the use of the word ass. If I use that word, it is 
in its significance in terms of the King James Bible. Donkey, 
obviously, is the meaning there. So, that's the first thing I 
want to mention. The second is remember that this 
whole situation is under the control and under the auspices 
of Deuteronomy 7. In Deuteronomy chapter 7, the 
children of Israel were given a mandate by the God of Israel 
to go into the land of Canaan and to dispossess the land. The 
way they were to dispossess the land was not through written 
invitation, it was not through social media, but rather it was 
through destroying them, killing them, having no social interaction 
with them, having no political alliances with them, and certainly 
having no religious talk with them. Rather, the children of 
Israel were to take take the land as it had been promised 
to Abraham. And so what we find in the period 
of the judges is an imperfect conquest on the part of the children 
of Israel. But nevertheless they are rallying 
under various deliverers or human judges so that they may deal 
with the Canaanite threat and they may in fact gain refuge 
in the land. Of course Samson is the one that 
we're focusing on this morning. He was the human deliverer, the 
God-chosen agent the ordained agent to bring at least partial 
deliverance from Philistine oppression. So I'll just begin reading in 
Judges 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. And 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. Then 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 
Anhakur, which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel 
20 years in the days of the Philistines." Amen. Well, let us pray. Our gracious God and our Holy 
Father, we come before you now, and we pray that you would forgive 
us for all of our sins and iniquities, We pray that you would wash us 
afresh in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you 
would help us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 
that we would receive with glad hearts the word of the living 
and true God. We pray for the ministry of your 
spirit, that he would illumine our minds and our hearts, that 
he would teach us, that he would guide us, that he would lead 
us. That you would help us to take from this passage several 
lessons concerning your glory and your majesty, and your graciousness 
and your mercy. We ask our Father that as we 
consider the scriptures, we would be more and more conformed unto 
those paths of righteousness, and that we would be transformed 
by the renewing of our minds. Give us grace in these things, 
we pray, and we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, 
Samson has gotten the most attention in the book of Judges, in terms 
of the human deliverers. Remember, in Judges 13 was the 
call narrative, or the birth of Samson. Chapter 14, as we 
studied last week, he went down to Timnah, and there he took 
a wife from among the daughters of the Philistines. And here, 
in Chapter 15, we still remain in Timnah, and then in Chapter 
16, which we'll look at, God willing, in two weeks' time, 
he goes to Gaza. but he is the servant that the 
Lord God raised up to begin to deliver his people from oppression. That's what chapter 13 and verse 
5 indicates concerning Samson. So let's just look at this section, 
this narrative, chapter 15, under three considerations. First, 
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 thirdly, 
the defeat of his enemies in verses 14 to 20. Let's note first 
the betrayal by his father-in-law. When we last left Timna, everything 
seemed to be quiet. all was settled, all was calm, 
he had gone, he had killed those 30 men in Ashkelon, he brought 
those garments back, and he paid off the particular debt that 
he had given. And then we see in verse 20, in Samson's wife, 
I'm sorry, in verse 19, his anger was aroused, He went back up 
to his father's house, and then Samson's wife was given to his 
companion, who had been his best man. Verse 1 of chapter 15 indicates 
that all does not remain quiet in Timnah. Samson comes back. Samson wants his wife. He comes to the house of the 
Timnite man whose daughter he took in marriage. He has a goat 
under his arm. Now before we chuckle or grin, 
this would be akin to a box of chocolates and a bouquet of roses. This is how you went a-fetching 
your woman in this particular day and age. You wouldn't bring 
flowers. and chocolate. She'd bring a nice live goat 
in order to have a meal before you went into her room. We need 
to notice that Samson doesn't hold grudges, does he? I mean, 
he is betrayed by this woman into the hands of the Philistines. 
She was the heifer that they had plowed with in order to get 
his riddle, according to chapter 14. But he doesn't hold grudges. He's not opposed to her. He doesn't 
hate her. He doesn't despise her. he doesn't 
disdain her. Rather, he comes a-calling with 
goat under his arm. And note the response of her 
father. He assumed that Samson wouldn't be as benevolent. The 
father didn't think he would be as gracious and as forgiving. The father of the woman assumed 
that Samson would have held a grudge and that he would despise her 
and hate her because of her activities in chapter 14. So the father 
says, I have given her to another man. I have given her to your 
best man." He says in verse 2, 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. Something 
we've noticed as we studied the book of Judges on Wednesday night, 
women don't do well in a pagan culture. Women are not treated 
with equality and dignity in a pagan culture. Here he takes 
the woman that Samson was married to and gives her, doesn't say 
anything about her consent, gives her to the best man. And then 
even before he checks with the younger daughter, he says, I 
have another daughter, I want you to take her so that you'll 
be happy and you'll be at peace and you won't want to do nasty 
and mean things to me. Note again the self-control and 
the restraint of Samson. We have been sold a false bill 
of goods concerning this man, that he's this big, bumbling 
man that is governed by his passions, carnality and lusts, And that 
is precisely not the case. In two weeks time, when we're 
in chapter 16, I will argue that when he went to the harlot's 
house in Gaza, it was similar in nature to the spies who went 
to Rahab the harlot's house in Joshua 2. No one ever thinks 
or no one ever believes that those spies in Joshua 2 actually 
had relations with Rahab the harlot. They went there as an 
act of strategy. They went there as an act of 
subterfuge. They went there on a covert mission 
to bring destruction to the city of Jericho. Samson does the same 
thing in Judges 16. Put it out of your mind that 
this is a man we ought not to imitate. This is a man we ought 
not to model our lives after. That this is somehow a man who 
in spite of all of his evil and wickedness and depravity, the 
Lord nevertheless used. He was not a perfect man, he 
was not a blemish-free man, he was not a sinless man, but he 
was a faithful man, doing the will of the Father who had sent 
him to begin to deliver Israel from their oppression. So her 
father responds in this particular manner, and then notice what 
we find in verse 3. Samson said to them, this time 
I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them. 
And this is an acknowledgment of the reality of God's sovereignty. We see behind the scenes, every 
step of the way, in the book of Judges, that the Lord is in 
action. The Lord is operating. The Lord 
is working through these human affairs and human situations 
to bring about the accomplishment of His perfect plan and His perfect 
will. In this particular instance, 
it is to break the back of Philistine oppression. So let's look then 
at the destruction of Philistine property, verses 4 to 6, an amazing 
passage. The big question comes up, how 
did he do this? How does he catch 300 foxes and 
turn them tail to tail, put a torch there, and then send them around 
the countryside? I don't know. Imagine he used 
rope Daniel Bloch makes this comment. He says, how Samson accomplished 
this, the whole fox thing, or jackals, is a great mystery. But 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. This isn't a surprising narrative 
or account when we take into consideration 13 to 16. Samson 
is the man of God, sent by the Spirit of God to do the will 
of God, and he's able to accomplish that will, probably supernaturally 
aided by God Himself. And what is intriguing is that 
we now have the significance of chapter 15 and verse 1. Why 
does the author tell us, not only after a while, but at the 
time of wheat harvest? Now we see the ingenuity of Samson, 
don't we? How do you really bring it to 
a people? Economics. How do you really 
hurt a people? Food. How do you really bring 
judgment upon your enemies? Stop the supply of sustenance. We see this in the Gideon narratives. When the Midianites oppressed 
Israel, what did they do? They would make these sweeps 
through the land and they would utterly decimate the agricultural 
intake of the Israelites. They were basically and essentially 
starving them for the seven years that they maintained supremacy 
over Israel. Well, Samson does the very same 
thing. He hits them economically. When 
he sends those 300 foxes on their way, he burns up their produce. He is burning up their livelihood. He is burning up their sustenance. And the text indicates that in 
verse 5. 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. What a wise way to deal a blow. What a means by which he could 
bring judgment to bear upon the Philistines. So there's an economic 
element, but Dagon was the god of the Philistines. You know 
what Dagon's specialty was? Remember the heathen, the pagans, 
the polytheists had a god for everything? You had Baal, who 
was the storm god. You had Asherah, who was the 
god of her particular locale or region. And then you had Dagon. He was the god of grain. So Samson 
not only deals a blow to them economically, but religiously 
as well. Dagon's not able to save their 
grain. Dagon's not able to save their 
livelihood. Dagon is not able to confront 
and to deal with this Israelite threat. And then notice the response 
of the Philistines in 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. Now, please let that sink 
in. When we get to Samson and his 
jawbone of the ass killing a thousand men, we are not to assume that 
these are innocent, godly persons that just wanted to mind their 
own business. They oppressed Israel. They burned 
down houses of their own people in order to try and flush out 
Samson. This was the very threat that 
they had given to this Timnite woman back in chapter 14. Tell 
us his riddle or we'll burn down your father's house. Remember, 
she tells the riddle in an event or in an attempt to evade this 
particular penalty and here it is meted out upon them anyway. 
So the Philistines are a brutal people. The Philistines are an 
oppressing people. The Philistines are not an innocent 
people, minding their own business in Canaan. And God, the Lord 
of Israel, has just said, I want you to get rid of all these people 
arbitrarily. Know the conquest, the holy war, 
Israel's mission to take possession of the land of Canaan, One of 
the reasons for it, obviously not the chief reason, but one 
of the reasons is because the Canaanites were ungodly. They were unholy. They were unrighteous. They were wicked. Deuteronomy 
9, Leviticus 18. The Lord highlights and underscores 
this for the children of Israel. And so we need to understand 
and appreciate that as well. And so what then does Samson 
do in verses 7 to 8? He is doing what God purposed 
for him to do. Just go back for a moment to 
13.5. 13.5, I fear that humanism has so affected 
us and infected us in the church that we read such things and 
we say, heavens no Samson, you can't do that. That's carnal 
rage, that's anger, you can't do that. Did you just hear what 
Pastor Cam read in 2 Thessalonians 1? What will Jesus do when he 
comes in the glory of his father with all of his holy angels? 
He doesn't do a social media blast to call people and tell 
them, I love you and I have a wonderful plan for your life. He comes 
and he takes vengeance on them who knew not God and on them 
who do not obey the gospel. Prior to that, the Apostle says 
it is a righteous thing for God to afflict or repay with tribulation 
those who afflict you. When you see Samson engaged in 
this activity, this is God the Lord delivering his people from 
oppression. That is precisely how you are 
to read the book of Judges, not like a humanist, but as a Christian 
theist, one who sees the vengeance and the anger and the majesty 
of God poured out upon the enemies of Yahweh. 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." 
He does that in chapter 14 with these 30 men at Ashkelon and 
he does that now in 7 and 8 when he goes and he attacks them hip 
and thigh with a great slaughter. Literally, he struck them leg 
upon thigh with a great striking. The NIV's viciously offers a 
tolerable interpretation. We hear the word vicious and 
we think only bad. But when a good man strikes viciously, 
that's a good thing. If I've come to protect you or 
defend you, you don't want me to limp-wristedly go into the 
fray. You want me to assume a posture 
of viciousness so I can deal with your enemies. He says, Bloch 
again, says, the NIV's viciously offers a tolerable interpretation 
of the idiom, leg upon thigh, presumably a wrestling idiom 
for total victory. That's what's highlighted here. 
So you see the progression, you see the steps, you see the betrayal 
of his father-in-law leads to the destruction of Philistines. Now note, secondly, in terms 
of the larger context of the text. Verses 9 to 13, we have 
the treachery of his countrymen. This part's really difficult. 
You expect Philistines to do the kinds of things that Philistines 
do. You don't expect Israelites to 
do the kinds of things that Philistines do. Note what goes on in this 
particular passage. The Philistines come to Judah. Verse 9, 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. So you see what's happening here. 
Samson has gone to Judahite territory. The Philistines want Samson. 
They want to arrest him. They want to bring harm upon 
Samson. You see the anger that is building? 
Philistines do not have hero worship with reference to Samson. 
In the Philistine post office there are wanted posters for 
Samson. Samson is public enemy number 
one. If there was a Philistines most 
wanted TV show, Samson would be the star. They hate him. They want to destroy him. They 
despise him. So what do they do? They chase 
him down into Judah. Now note the response of the 
Judahites. Verse 11, Then three thousand 
men of Judah went down to the cleft of the Rock of Etah. Where 
is the cleft of the Rock of Edom? It is where Samson has holed 
up. It is where Samson exists. Notice 
it's not 3,000 men of the Philistines. It's not the oppressor. It's 
not the enemy agent. It's not the ones whom God raised 
up to be a scourge to His sinning people. But rather it's the Judahites 
that assemble 3,000 men. I've alluded to this in the past 
messages on Samson. If I was holed up in my home, 
you'd probably pick three or four of the biggest guys in the 
church and say, go get him. I'm just not that much of a threat. 
Right? If you sent 3,000 men to pick 
me up, what does that indicate? It indicates that whoever's holed 
up is someone to be afraid of. You don't send three guys to 
get Samson. You don't send five 90-pound 
dudes to fetch Samson. You send a military arsenal against 
this particular man. But that is Judah. That it's 
the very tribe that in the beginning of Judges in chapter 1 verses 
1 to 20, it's Judah that engages upon the conquest successfully. It is Judah from which our Lord 
will ultimately come in terms of tribal alignment. We expect 
more out of Judah, don't we? We expect the royal tribe is 
to have some royal manhood and resist the Philistines and side 
with the Deliverer whom God the Lord had raised up. Judahites 
and Philistines are both allied now against Yahweh's chosen leader. You see, there's something very 
bad going on in Judges 15. You say, what does this have 
to do with us today? I think in many respects the 
church at times, and I don't want to confess every church 
and every body's sin, but at times we imbibe the ethic of 
the Judahites. We're more afraid of the earthly 
oppressors than we are of the living and true God. We'll side 
with the enemies of Jehovah rather than the deliverers that He provides. Look at the narrative, verse 
11, Then three thousand 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're chiding Samson. They're 
outbraining Samson. They're angry with Samson. They're 
not happy in this current situation. Not that they are being ruled 
over by the Philistines, but by the fact that Samson is causing 
a rift in that. You see, as long as we do what 
the humanists tell us, everything is okay. When somebody comes 
along and says, you ought not to do what the humanists tell 
you, you ought to do what the Word of the Living God says to 
you, we say, oh no, we can't do that. We can't upset the apple 
cart. We can't resign our tax-exempt 
status. We can't give up all of the freedoms 
and the liberties that we have. Does this sound akin to what 
we might say? We don't want to mess with the status quo. This 
is what they're saying here. Davis, with reference to this 
statement, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? 
Davis says sad, sad words. Maybe you've read Judges 15 before 
and haven't stopped to think about this. Maybe you've read 
Judges 15 before and absolutely missed this section of the treachery 
of his own countrymen. We need to take it to heart. 
If there are sins that we have an inclination to, it is being 
overly passive. It is being spineless. It is 
being wimps. Church in many respects has been 
so feminized that we could never imagine praying Psalm 58 against 
the enemies of God. Certainly, that's a throwback 
to a far more barbaric time. Do you know that the Psalter 
ultimately is the prayers of Christ? There's a demarcation between 
the righteous and the godless in the Psalter. Things are black 
and white when you come to righteousness and godlessness in the Psalter. Davis says, concerning this statement, 
do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Notice what they 
go on to say before I read the Davis quote. What is this you 
have done to us? They haven't identified with 
the God of Israel. They haven't identified with 
Samson, the one whom the God of Israel has raised up to deliver 
them. They have identified with the 
Philistines. They have identified with Dagon-worshipping 
idolaters. They have identified with the 
enemies of God Most High. And they're upset with Samson. Do you not know that the Philistines 
rule over us? What is this you have done to 
us? Sad, sad words. Here's Davis. 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, but who would not think of being faithless 
to the Philistines. Isn't that the case of the book 
of Judges? As soon as God's Deliverer dies, 
what happens to the people? They revert and they engage in 
more corruption than they had before that Deliverer. You see 
what Davis says? They can turn their backs upon 
the God of Israel at will, at whim, several times throughout 
the book. And yet, we cannot turn against 
these Philistines who rule over us. What is this that you've 
done to us? Davis says, what a pitiful question. Notice, they expressed their 
desire to arrest him and deliver him to death. They knew what the Philistines 
wanted Samson for. But we didn't know. We didn't 
have any idea. So why did you send a delegation 
of 3,000 men Why are you so afraid at what 
the Philistines are going to think concerning you? Look at 
what the text tells us. He said to them, this is Samson's 
golden rule in action, 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. Again, note the lack of rage, 
lust, governance by his passions in this man Samson. If he's able 
to deal with the entirety of the Philistine nation, these 
3,000 spineless Judahites would not have been a problem for him 
whatsoever. Talk about self-restraint. Talk 
about self-control. Talk about a man who manages 
and governs over his passions. He is the exact opposite of what 
I think at times people have been told concerning this hero, 
this champion. Maybe you haven't heard this. 
I remember several years ago, I used to work at Northrop Grumman, 
and I worked in a particular place where I always had a workmate, 
always had a partner, and there was the blessed opportunity to 
be able to speak to them concerning the things of God. And I'll never 
forget this one day, it was a Friday afternoon, I remember it like 
it was yesterday, or two days ago, because it was Friday two 
days ago. This man came to work, a man that we had talked many 
times concerning scripture and doctrine and all things God and 
sovereignty and all of that. He came and he had seen some 
show. It was a documentary on one of the cable channels. I 
mean, he was loaded for bear. He was like a Samson himself 
coming at me with the jawbone of the ass. He comes in and he 
says, I just watched this thing concerning Samson. What a wretch! And you Christians think he's 
a hero? Now, I sort of expect that from people outside the 
church. But when saying we're going to 
study Samson, if it rises up in your heart to roll your eyes 
or to say, what do we have to do with this big brute that likes 
to kill Philistines like drinking water? There is very practical 
lesson in this passage for us, which we will conclude with in 
a few minutes. But suffice it to say right now, talk about 
a man of governance. Talk about a man of self-possession. If 3,000 Judahites came to deliver 
me up to the oppressor, I believe I would have grabbed for that 
jawbone a lot sooner. And I probably would have employed 
it against them. Because at that time, they're acting like Philistines. 
They're acting like Canaanites. They've no longer got the right 
to call themselves the covenant community. But not Samson. Samson says to them, swear to 
me that you will not kill me yourselves. We have come down to arrest you, 
they say, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. 
We're not going to kill you, Samson. We don't want to hurt 
you. We don't want to mess with you, 
Samson. We just want to deliver you over 
to the Philistines who are going to do all manner of evil and 
wickedness and unspeakable things to you. But as for us, we're 
innocent. You see, this is another evidence 
of their spinelessness. At least man up and say, look, 
we like the way things are going. You're ruining that. We're going 
to deliver you into their hands so that they can take care of 
business. No. We're just the pious. We're the holy. This is what I think is more 
offensive when we engage in this spineless cowardice, is that 
when we do it under the guise of being holy. Oh no, we can't 
pray imprecatory psalms against the enemies of God, because then 
we wouldn't be holy. Are you kidding me? David was 
a man after God's own heart who says, I want you to break their 
fangs out of their mouths. Paul was the apostle of Christ. We might argue one of the chief 
and most eminent ones, or one of the most useful ones, who 
says it's just and it's right for God to afflict with affliction 
those who afflict you, or to pay with tribulation those who 
trial you. Paul it is, in 1 Corinthians 
chapter 16, who makes an imprecation such that King David of Israel 
would have said, Amen! What does Paul say in 1 Corinthians 
16.22? If anyone does not love the Lord 
Jesus Christ, send them an email! No? Give him a cake. No. Lie to him about the absolute 
universal love of God. No. If anyone does not love the 
Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. You see, it's not holy 
to be spineless and cowardice. Davis, again, with reference 
to the Judahite response, 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. The tribe 
that had formerly waded into battle after battle, chapter 
1, 1 to 20, 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. Matthew Henry, in his usual perceptive 
way, summarizes it in two brief sentences. He says, cowardly, 
unthankful wretches fond of their fetters and in love with their 
servitude." You see, at times, brethren, there's something more 
valuable and more important and more satisfying than the status 
quo. Righteousness, godliness, the 
eradication of those things that we take for granted in our own 
day and age. Perhaps when the church starts 
to take seriously the imprecations, when the church actually starts 
to pray those things back to God Most High, who delights to 
hear His Word prayed to Him, perhaps then God will indeed 
crush the oppressors of His people." You say, well, that doesn't sound 
very Christian. That doesn't sound very holy. 
Do you realize that there's a city currently in Iraq where 20,000 
people are probably going to die? They're crying. to profess Christ. You see, it is easy for us to 
say, oh, it's not Christian to speak about righteousness and 
justice and God smashing the fangs of his enemies. It's easy 
for us when we're all going to go from here right now. We're 
going to have a nice meal. We're going to be able to turn 
on the water tap. We're going to probably have a nap. We're 
going to get to come back here tonight. There's not going to 
be ends painted on our house identifying us as people that 
either must convert to Islam, leave the city, or die. Imagine 
that for an option this afternoon. As I said, most of us are going 
to go home, have a bowl of soup, and perhaps some sleep. Imagine 
if your option when you got home was, oh, they've marked my home. 
I can either A, convert to Islam, I can B, leave the city, or I 
can C, die. What would it mean to leave the 
city for you? It would mean to leave your house. It would mean 
to leave your livelihood. It would mean to leave all of 
your possessions. Well, we shouldn't love that 
stuff anyway. Yeah, but we do. It's hard. It's difficult. We've grown accustomed to running 
water. These are things that we quite 
enjoy. Imagine having to leave that 
because of your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. 
You see, when we see black and white and righteousness and ungodliness, 
perhaps we'll start cheering for Samson. instead of being 
like the Judahites. He says, swear to me that you 
will not kill me yourself. 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. Boy, that's just comforting, 
isn't it? I'm sure Samson thought, oh, that's great. Thank you. 
Thank you, man. I just appreciate your kindness 
and your benevolence and your love. You see, it's like the author 
wants us to have this response. He wants us to see how bad Israel 
has become. That's one of the purposes of 
the book. So that when you get to the later 
prophets, and Israel is being cast out of the land, you don't 
say, why? What's happened? You know what's 
happened. They've become like the Canaanites, 
that they themselves were supposed to dispossess from the land. 
Because they took on those characteristics, they've opened themselves up 
to the curses of the covenant specified in Deuteronomy 28, 
And that means exile from the land. The land will vomit you 
out of its mouth. The land will be done with you. 
You say again, well this doesn't sound Christian. Jesus threatens 
the very same thing with reference to the church. He will take the 
lampstand away from them. He tells the Laodiceans, because 
you're neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. In Old Covenant Israel, it was 
the lamb that vomited out the inhabitants. In New Covenant 
Israel, it's the Lord Christ who vomits out the inhabitants. 
When a church is faithless, when a church betrays her trust, when 
a church does not preach the word, when a church gathers together 
more in a humanistic way instead of to worship the true and living 
God, Christ says, I'll spit you right out of my mouth. So don't 
say there's no lessons in this passage for us. They betray their 
utter spiritual degradation. Kyle and Dalich say it this way. 
Instead of recognizing in Samson a deliverer whom the Lord had 
raised up for them, and crowding round 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." You see, the big crime in Judges 
15 is not Samson with his jaw bowed. The big crime in Judges 
15 isn't the Philistines. I mean, they're doing what Philistines 
do, right? The author wants you to see that 
the big crime in Judges 15 is that the covenant people have 
become wimps. Now notice thirdly and finally, 
the defeat of his enemies, verses 14 to 20. Verse 14, when he came to Lehi, 
the Philistines came shouting against him. It's an interesting 
turn of phrase, isn't it? It's not like, hey you, that 
sort of a shout. It's a battle cry. It's the scream 
of the warrior. I mean, when you run into battle, 
not that I have done this, but I suppose that if you were going 
to do this, you let everything go. You just scream and hope 
that your sword finds flesh. You scream and you hope that 
your armor takes the sword instead of your heart. You run with a 
viciousness that is necessary for fighting a battle. And this 
is what the Philistines do with Samson, one man. One man has 
become such a threat! One man has caused such chaos! One man, who killing the 30 in 
Ashkelon, who burning up their standing grain along with their 
olive groves, this one man who killed a bunch of them, hip and 
slaughtered, this one man has proven to be a great threat! 
One remembers Queen Mary of Scotland who said, I fear the prayers 
of John Knox more than an entire army. Where are those men today? Where is a man who goes to the 
throne of grace in such a way that the enemies of the Lord 
are afraid? Samson is that man. Samson is 
the figure. Samson is the one whom God raised 
up. And notice what the Lord does when these Philistines come 
shouting against Him. Verse 14, Then the Spirit of 
the Lord came mightily upon him. You see God's plan? You see God's 
purpose? You see God's government of this 
entire situation? It is for this hour. It is for 
this purpose. It is for this reason, because 
Samson is the man tasked with beginning to deliver his people 
from a Philistine oppression. The Spirit of the Lord comes 
mightily upon him. The Spirit rushes upon him, literally. Notice that the Philistines cannot 
withstand God. The Judahites cannot withstand 
God. It's one of the scary implications 
of this particular passage. Say for a moment that you happen 
to participate or side with the Philistines in your situation. 
You say, I don't want you to rock the boat. I don't want you 
to preach that sermon. I don't want you to witness that 
testimony to someone else. I don't want you to tell that 
person what God really thinks. You side with the Philistines 
for a moment. This much you can be assured 
of. God always vindicates His elect. What do you do on the 
other side of that? The text is pretty silent when 
the narrative ends. Do the Judahites apologize to 
Samson? They see him covered in Philistine 
blood. They see him victorious over 
the threat. Possibly it wells up in their 
hearts to think that he might now come after us. Samson, we 
really didn't mean it that way. Samson, we really didn't mean 
to betray you. Samson, we really weren't as 
much in love with our comfort and ease as it sounded like, 
perhaps, you might have interpreted. See, what do you do when you 
betray the living God and His truth? And when the living God 
and His truth are vindicated, what do you do? But if you betray 
a godly Christian brother or a sister who takes a stand in 
a particular instance or situation, you discourage that. You tell 
them, no, I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to 
think that. I don't want you to cause problems for yourself. 
You have this fear today, what if we do this and they throw 
us in jail? What if they do this and we get 
thrown in jail? Hasn't God's people prospered 
in the prisons before? Is this the only day and age 
where the Christians are so delicate and so sensitive we can't deal 
with a little hardship and persecution? Has it really become that bad 
that everything we do is governed by this idea that we don't want 
to upset the status quo? What are you going to do when 
God vindicates His elect and you've sided with His enemies? 
The Spirit rushes upon him." Notice, "...the ropes that were 
on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and 
his bonds broke loose from his hands." You see what you're witnessing 
here? You're witnessing God's man with 
God's Spirit, empowered for God's battle. Sure that when he broke 
these ropes, the people were probably thinking, uh-oh, We 
know this man. We know what he's capable of. 
I can't imagine meeting somebody who can catch 300 foxes, pen 
them up long enough to gather enough, tie them tail to tail, 
put a torch in them, and then send them out to burn fields. 
I can't imagine a man who just wanders over to Ashkelon, finds 
30 men, and kills them, and takes their underwear and 30 suits 
from them. So when Samson breaks these bonds, 
people are starting to fret and wonder and are somewhat curious. Notice what the text then says. 
Verse 15, he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey. That's attention 
to detail. It was a fresh jawbone. We don't 
get a dry, brittle one because as soon as it makes impact with 
the human skull, it breaks. Samson can't have that. God, 
in His kindness and His provision, made sure there's a fresh jawbone 
there. It's not brittle, it doesn't 
break, it's going to withstand Philistines. And what does Samson 
do? He reached out his hand and took 
it and killed a thousand men with it. Again, that's a passage 
we can read that quickly, but we don't stop to ponder. A thousand 
men? Close in combat? I prefer the 
long sword. I don't want to get that close 
to my enemies. I'd actually prefer the gun, not even the handgun. I want the AR-15. Put me in a 
clock tower and let me deal with my enemies that way. He's close 
in. He's got the jawbone of an ass. 
And he is cutting and killing and cleaving Philistines. He 
is close enough to hear their groans. He is close enough to 
see them die. He is close enough to get their 
blood on him. He is a warrior filled with the 
Spirit of Almighty God doing what the Lord raised him up to 
do. Instead of us in the church today rolling our eyes and saying, 
oh, how barbaric, say, praise God, from whom all Samson's flow. Moffat captures his little pun. Samson tells riddles, doesn't 
he? Samson's a fun-loving man. I gotta tell you, after killing 
a thousand Philistines, the last thing that I think I would do 
would be to compose a little pun. That's what he does. I was corrected well by someone 
a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned that when Samson 
was finished with this particular activity, he would have gone 
home, he would have taken a shower, and then he would have posted 
his status update on Facebook or Twitter. The man reminded 
me, no, he would have taken a selfie first with all the blood all 
over him, and then posted his status update. I just finished 
God's work. Before he showers, before he 
selfies, before he does anything, he composes a pun. Don't you 
love this man? Don't you want to meet this man? Don't you want to sit with this 
man, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Moffat captures the rhyme. With the jawbone of an ass, I 
have piled them in a mass. With the jawbone of an ass, I 
have piled them in a mass." A mass of bodies. Philistines. A thousand of them. And so it 
was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from 
his hand. Matthew Henry said, this is a 
day when relics weren't treasured. Talk about a relic, something 
to be idolized. It would be Samson's jawbone. 
He just chucks it down on the earth. He doesn't save it. He 
doesn't take it to the pawn shop. He doesn't go along like so many 
of us would say, look at my accomplishment. The job is done. He throws the 
jawbone down. Now notice. Verse 17, so it was 
when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from 
his hand and called the place Ramath-Lehi. That means jawbone 
height. That's what it means, jawbone 
height. Whatever Samson would recall 
this event, he would think, or he would tell his successors, 
it was at jawbone height that the Spirit of the Lord came upon 
me. I found this fresh jawbone and I took it to a thousand men. 
Now notice the acknowledgement of the servant in verses 18 and 
following. His physical distress, verse 
18, then he became very thirsty. That makes sense, doesn't it? 
Doesn't it? It's probably a hot summer day. Killing Philistines close in 
with a jawbone would be thirsty work. The author is leading us by the 
hand. He's showing us something in this particular instance. 
He is showing us not the arrogance of Samson, but the dependence 
of Samson. Look at what it says in verse 
18. 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. Again, not an arrogant man, not 
a proud man, not a man governed by his passions and his lusts. 
Not a man just bumbling from event to event to event, but 
a man filled with the Spirit of the Lord, who knows that consciously 
he's been filled with the Spirit of the Lord, because men apart 
from the Spirit of the Lord don't kill a thousand enemies of the 
Lord with the jawbone of a donkey. He acknowledges the deliverance 
comes from the hand of God. He doesn't have a status update 
saying, what did I do? Rather, he says, what did God 
do? He underscores and highlights 
that for us in this acknowledgment of the Lord's victory. Notice 
he acknowledges his dependence upon Him. He says, and now shall 
I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. 
We can take that as almost a presumptuous quip, almost as an arrogant statement, 
but it's not. God raised him up to begin to 
deliver his people from Philistine oppression. If he dies of thirst, 
he will not be able to combat Philistines. He will not be able 
to decimate the uncircumcised. This is an acknowledgment of 
God's deliverance. It is an acknowledgment of Samson's 
dependence. And obviously, the prayer didn't 
strike God as presumptuous. It didn't strike God as rude. 
It didn't strike God is intemperate because God answers the prayer 
and gives his servant water. That is precisely what the narrative 
tells us. Samson is dependent, or rather, 
David says, here is Samson dependent on Yahweh. Here is the Savior 
confessing that he needs saved. You see, killing a thousand men 
by the power of the Spirit still does not satisfy the body's need 
for water. The Savior needs saved, and it's 
water that He has to have. We have repeatedly heard that 
Samson's power comes from Yahweh's Spirit, but in case these fail 
to register, we surely cannot miss the picture. Samson is anything 
but self-sufficient. It's not arrogance. We don't 
say, oh, Samson, you need to be nicer to God in prayer. God 
doesn't say he needed to be nicer. God doesn't disapprove. God doesn't 
tell him to read A.W. Pink on prayer or whoever else 
on prayer. God says, here's your water, 
Samson. God's going to sustain His servant, 
killing Philistines, He's going to sustain him, giving him water. Because He wants Samson to carry 
out this task, and that moves us to chapter 16, when he goes 
to Gaza, to finish the mission that the Lord God Most High had 
given to him. After he drinks water, he calls 
the place, or he changes the name, to the Spring of the Collar. Therefore he called its name 
Anhakor, which is in Lehi, to this day, and he judged Israel 
twenty years in the days of the Philistines." Well, let's summarize 
and conclude with a couple of lessons I've already begun to 
bring out. First, let us be reminded of 
the wickedness of the oppressing enemy. God is sovereign. He raised 
up the Philistines to oppress the nation of Israel because 
of Israel's sin. Nevertheless, the Philistines 
were sinful. The Philistines were corrupt. 
The Philistines were wicked. The Philistines deserve the judgment 
of God Most High. Secondly, and we spent the most 
time on this one, but let me just try and remind us with reference 
to the cowardice of the Covenant people. I'm sure you've all seen, 
if you're on social media, I'm sure you've all seen, if you 
haven't been hiding at the Rock of Eton for the last 20 years, 
there is a statement that Edmund Burke said, I think he was a 
political philosopher, a British political philosopher who said 
this, all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men 
to do nothing. All that is necessary for evil 
to triumph is for good men to do nothing, right? Yes, we're 
awake, we're going to go home and have soup and a nap, certainly 
we can give it five or ten more minutes to learn some lessons 
that might help us to live in this world. Isn't this the case? All you need for evil to triumph 
is for good men to do nothing. To stand idly by. Or worse yet, 
to go and collect Samson, and bind him with ropes, and hand 
him over to the Philistines. You know, one of the big debates 
today, or one of the things that the church is caving in on, is 
homosexual marriage. What's the big deal? God the 
Lord has spoken. That's what the big deal is. 
God the Lord has mandated. That's what the big deal is. 
We are not to make peace with the Philistines. We are not to 
walk arm-in-arm with them. We certainly ought not to rail 
against people within our own camp that are being faithful. 
We ought not to try and persuade them to say, you know, you really 
shouldn't upset things. You shouldn't really focus on 
this, because after all, who really knows for sure? God has 
spoken in His Word, and if His Church doesn't know for sure, 
then who does? Right? Davis, again, I think very perceptively 
makes this statement concerning the cowardice of the covenant 
people. Whether it is the evil and sin 
within us, or some form of it outside us, God does not negotiate 
with sin, or God does not call us to negotiate with sin and 
evil, but to wage war on them. If any of you use McShane's calendar, 
you were in 1st Samuel 15 yesterday. What happens in 1st Samuel 15? 
Saul is supposed to go in and utterly destroy Agag and all 
his people. But that's not what Saul does. 
Saul spares Agag. Saul collects the loot, the booty, 
and the spoil from those people. Samuel comes to him and says, 
what is this lowing of the oxen that I hear? What is this bleeding 
of the sheep that I hear? And Saul says, well, they brought 
all the best things to us so that we can engage and enjoy 
these things. Does Samuel say, well, that's a good move on your 
part, Saul. Good on you. No. He condemns 
him for this action. And then we read in the text, 
again something very indelicate and something very insensitive 
to us modern readers, that Samuel takes out a sword and he hacks 
Agag into pieces. This is how God calls you to 
deal with your sin. Remember, the mandate of holy 
war in the Old Covenant is different for them than us. God does not say, go get a sword 
and go hack Agag to pieces in terms of physical human beings. 
With reference to your own sin and evil, Davis is right. 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? the cowardice of the covenant 
people. This is God's world. This is 
God's truth. This is God's mandate that we 
be faithful to Him, come whatever may. Thirdly, we need to appreciate, 
and if I haven't made this obvious, I'm going to make it obvious, 
we need to appreciate Samson. Philistines opposed him. Judahites 
opposed him. If you've ever read any in church 
history, you'll have come across the phrase or the statement, 
Athanasius contra Munda. Athanasius against the world. Well, here we have a Samson against 
the world. Philistines can't stand him. 
Judahites are bothered by him. So the Judahites deliver him 
up to the Philistines so that they can dispatch him. The deliverer 
functioned as God called him to. Samson does in the narrative 
what Samson was supposed to do. Beware of that sort of an approach 
that I told you my buddy took at Northrop Grumman those several 
years ago. How can you Christians think 
that Samson is a hero? Hebrews 11.32, he was a man of 
faith. and the Deliverer ascribed this 
deliverance to God according to verse 18. So we see something 
of the wickedness of the oppressing enemy, the cowardice of the covenant 
people, the faithfulness of the nation's Deliverer. Fourthly, 
we ought to appreciate the graciousness of Israel's God. The graciousness 
of Israel's God. This is precisely His plan to 
save His people from their oppression. Samson's the man of the hour. 
13.5 reads like Matthew 1.21. You shall call His name Jesus, 
for it is He who will save His people from their sins. God in 
His grace and in His mercy is operating through this human 
agent, Samson, to bring the oppressors to elevate His covenant people, 
to rescue them in their trials and travails and difficulties 
and distress. Secondly, we see that grace manifested 
in the fact that He sustains His servant. I think we can at 
least pull this particular lesson. If God's going to call you to 
do something, He's going to equip you to do it. I'm always mindful 
of that quip in Spurgeon's lectures to my students with reference 
to what men ought to preach. He says, if a man can't preach, 
he ought not to pursue that particular function or office. You say, 
well, that's a no-brainer. There's guys out there that can't 
preach that preach. Let me just remind you. Spurgeon says, if God wants Leviathan 
to fly, he'll put wings on him. If he wants Samson to deal with 
Philistines, he will make Samson accordingly. Thirdly. The Lord answered his servant's 
petition for water and thus sustained his life for further exploits. And the graciousness of our God 
perhaps is most conspicuous in this. The Lord delivers his people 
even when they don't see the need for deliverance. There was 
no distress in Israel. We saw that in chapter 13. The 
typical cycle in the book of Judges is the people sin, God 
raises up an oppressor, the children of Israel cry out for deliverance, 
and then the Lord intervenes. Not in the Samson cycle. They 
sin against God, He raises up the Philistines as the oppressor, 
But they never cry out. They've made peace with their 
distress. They have made peace with their Philistine captors. 
They have rebelled in their bonds. They have delighted in their 
fetters. And they have delivered up the 
very champion that God sent to deliver them from this mess. 
And nevertheless, note the relentlessness of God's grace. It ought to bother 
you, it ought to bug you, it ought to really cause you to 
have a bit of alarm and concern when somebody says, Oh, that 
Old Testament Bible is so full of wrath and anger and judgment 
and fury. I mean, that the pagans say that 
isn't surprising, but that evangelicals or reforms suggest such things 
is absolutely mind-blowing. The Old Testament is a revelation 
of God's graciousness, of His mercy, of His kindness, of His 
goodness. In every act of judgment upon 
the oppressor, that is an act of deliverance for the oppressed. And then the last lesson that 
we ought to cultivate or we ought to imbibe before we depart from 
this chapter is this. Samson typifies Jesus. Samson points us to Christ. Isn't it intriguing? Think with 
me for just one more moment. Samson is delivered up by his 
own country to a foreign oppressor. Jesus is delivered up by the 
nation of Israel. He is handed over to the foreign 
oppressor, the Roman government. Now Samson, in his life, in this 
episode, was able to deal the death blow to a thousand men. Christ, when he is delivered 
up by the Israelites into the hands of the Romans, and he is 
ultimately crucified, he delivers far more than a thousand Israelites. Yeah, he delivers more than a 
thousand. The Lord Jesus Christ through 
his death, which the next chapter will typify even as well, the 
Lord Christ through his death accomplished more of a victory 
than what Samson accomplished here in Timnah. The Lord Christ 
is the champion, the holy, harmless, spotless One, the One who never 
sinned, the One who never broke God's law, the One who never 
broke His commandments, the One who ultimately was delivered 
up to be crucified in the place of His people, who died as a 
sacrifice, who died as a substitute, so that He might satisfy divine 
justice. Samson and Christ, both delivered 
up. Samson takes the jawbone of an 
ass and piles them in a mass. When Jesus is delivered up, He 
goes like a sheep to its slaughter. He dies in the place of His people. 
He goes to the tomb. He rises on the third day. He 
ascends on high. He leads captivity captive, and 
He gives gifts to men. Samson points us to Christ. Let 
us never, ever speak ill. of a man who will do that for 
us because we need pointing to Christ always. Well may God take 
his word and seal it to our hearts and help us to learn the lessons 
of Judges 15 and not to be a spineless people but to be a people who 
look to serve and please our God the way that Samson did. 
Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for your 
grace, and we thank you for what these passages in the book of 
Judges teach us concerning you, concerning your people, concerning 
your deliverance. I pray that you would help us 
to take these things to heart, help us to pray these lessons 
in, and help us, God, to be shaped and moved and governed and ruled 
by the Holy Word of God. We ask that you would go with 
us now Watch over your people here. We pray that you would 
save those who are outside of Christ, that you would manifest 
your grace and mercy and save through a message on Judges 15. 
Demonstrate your sovereignty over the hearts of men. Demonstrate 
your power and ability to save those who by grace come to know 
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And we pray these things in His 
most blessed name. Amen.