Scripture Reading: Judges 15

Turn in your Bibles to the book of Judges, Judges chapter 15. This morning I mentioned there was a parallel between Samson and our Lord Jesus Christ. In both instances, one man was given up by his countrymen to appease a foreign invader, an oppressor. We see that in the Lord Jesus.

They want to put Jesus to death so that the Romans don't come and destroy their place and nation. We see the same thing here in Judges 15 when Judah gives up Samson because they don't want to buck the system with reference to the Philistines. It's an actually sad chapter in terms of the covenant people, but a very encouraging chapter in terms of God's deliverer of those people. So I want to read Judges 15 beginning in 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. Then 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. 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 En-Hakur, which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Amen. Well, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for the period of the judges and the way that they typify the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that this book is about deliverance from on high, and we praise You for that. We ask now that the Holy Spirit would guide us and direct us as we consider the truth as we find it here in Scripture.

And again, may our hearts be encouraged and drawn out to worship, and to praise, and to adoration of our great God, even Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Forgive us now, we pray, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Well,

Introduction

as I've often explained when we come to the book of Judges, there is this misconception concerning Samson, that he was a man that just kind of bumbled along, governed by his lusts. But there is nothing further from the truth than that. What we find in Samson is four occasions where we see that the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him. The narrative with reference to Samson begins in Judges 13.

So you've got the birth of Samson in chapter 13, his marriage in Timnah in chapter 14, his victory at Jawbone Height here in chapter 15, and then his victory in Gaza in chapter 16. If you look back to chapter 13, you see an announcement concerning his birth that is much parallel with Matthew 1.21. Our brother read that this morning. In our scripture reading, you shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins.

Look at chapter 13 in verse 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 shall save his people from the hand of the Philistines.

And then look at chapter 13 at verse 25. And the spirit of the Lord began to move upon him. When he takes this woman from the Philistines, this was of God, because God wanted Samson to be the means by which he would bring destruction to the Philistines. So that was ordained by God.

You see that in the beginning of chapter 14. Notice in chapter 14 at verse 6, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat. And then again in chapter 14 at verse 19, Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father's house." It's not that he killed the Philistines in anger.

He killed the Philistines by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit of God. The anger comes subsequent to that because he's a little bit teed off at his wife who gave him up to the Philistines. If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would have never got my riddle. So the father of this bride takes her back to his house and that brings us to chapter 15 and why Samson goes to find her.

But as well, we find in 1514, when the Philistines come shouting against him, the Spirit of the Lord comes mightily upon him. So he dispatches these thousand Philistines by the power of the Holy Spirit. So four times in a brief narrative section in Holy Scripture, we see the Spirit of the Lord on a man. Now, when we look at the rest of the Bible, that's pretty unique.

How many times do we find a man in Scripture where four times it is said of him that the Spirit of God comes upon him? I would suggest that Jesus is certainly one of them, but beyond that, there's not a lot of others. So the Holy Spirit empowers Samson for this work of freeing Israel from Philistine oppression. So

Betrayal by His Father-in-Law

I want to look first at the betrayal by his father-in-law in verses 1 to 8, the treachery of his countrymen in verses 9 to 13, and then finally the triumph over his enemies. I used to call this the victory over his enemies, but triumph seems a bit more fitting when you're able to kill a thousand men in one exchange. So he triumphed over these wretches. But notice the betrayal by his father-in-law in verses 1 to 8.

Samson's Desire and the Philistine Response

The time is indicated. Notice, after a while, in the time of wheat harvest. This comes into play later in the narrative when he burns their fields. As well, you need to understand that they serve the god Dagon.

Dagon was the god of grain. So this was not only economically impactful upon their society, but it was a religious assault as well. When Samson brings reproach upon Dagon, that hits them at their religious level. So it's the time of wheat harvest, and then notice what Samson desires.

He desires his wife. He's not a man who holds a grudge. As I said, his wife betrays him with reference to his riddle. He wants to go back to her now.

He's not holding a grudge. He brings a young goat. This would be akin to flowers and chocolates. He wants his bride back.

He wants to cohabit with her. He wants to carry on in that married state. He's not governed by lust. Even in chapter 16, when he goes into the harlot at Gaza, it doesn't mean sexually.

He goes in there in the manner that the spies went to rehab the harlot. Samson is a man of God. He is a deliverer of Israel. He is freeing his people from Philistine oppression.

So he goes to desire. He wants to go to his wife. He says that in verse two, let me go to my wife or into my wife into a room. But her father would not permit her to go in.

And then notice the reason that he gives. Her father said, I really thought that you thoroughly hated her. She did betray you. She did give up your riddle.

She did dime you out. Again, most men or many men might hold a grudge as a result of this. There was probably anger. There was anger at the end of chapter 14.

That anger is quenched now. He just wants his bride. So the father-in-law says, 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. Look at the godlessness of Philistine culture. This man gives his wife to another man, his companion, no less, and then he's willing to give his daughter, his younger daughter, to Samson. There's not a lot of women's rights in this particular society.

So what we see is that Samson says, according to verse 3, this time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them. So we notice now the destruction of Philistine property. Verse 4 is a difficult passage to understand, conceptually and logistically. How does he carry this out?

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. Again, the logistics of it may escape us, but the fact is that he brought great devastation upon the Philistine economy. But not only on the Philistine economy, but on their religious structure. If Dagon is the god of grain, he should be able to protect that.

But he doesn't protect it from these foxes and their torches. One commentator, Daniel Block, says, How Samson accomplished this is a great mystery, or greater 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. That makes sense.

We may not be able to logistically explain everything, but the fact that the Spirit of the Lord has come upon him in these several instances, it enables him and empowers him to do the work of deliverance, to do the work of salvation, to do the work that typifies the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Samson will free his people from Philistine oppression. Jesus saves his people from their sins. The book of Judges is about salvation.

The book of Judges is about Yahweh saving. The book of Judges is about deliverance. There are several cycles. You will see it.

The people sin against God. Then there are oppressors furnished by God to bring judgment upon them. They then repent, and it's not usually from their sin. They simply cry out because they're in pain.

They're in calamity. and then God delivers them. That's the purpose for the judges. It wasn't like the circuit judge banging his hammer and rendering a verdict in simple cases. Judges here are more like kings.

Judges here are more like that sort of a monarchy that will come later in Israel's history. Now notice, with reference to the result of the action, it says 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. That was devastating. Brethren, when you destroyed an enemy's food supply, you rendered them unable to continue on.

It has been well noted in the history of military experience that an army runs on its stomach. If you can starve a people, you can win those people. It is simply that simple. And so, Samson knows what he's doing.

Again, he's not just sort of bumbling along, duh, what shall I do now? He is a strategist. He is a deliverer. He is a savior.

He is one who has wisdom furnished from on high for the act, or for the task rather, of delivering his people from Philistine oppression. And then notice the Philistine response. Do you think they liked this? Do you think they were happy about this?

Do you think they wanted to see their crops burn? Verse 6, Then 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.

This is what they had threatened to do previously in chapter 14 at verse 15. Notice, but it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband that he may explain the riddle to us or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours? Is that not so?

So they threatened. Now they carry out that threat and they burn her and her father. Now

Destruction of Philistine Lives

notice the destruction of Philistine lives. This is the response of Samson in verses 7 and 8. It's a tit for tat. It's a battle.

It's warfare. Samson is not backing down. Samson is not giving up. Samson is going to use each and every occasion to move the ball of victory down the field.

He's going to eventually spike that ball in their end zone when he renders death to a thousand of them with the jawbone of an ass. So notice the response of Samson according to verse seven. 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 Eta." Lots of different conceptions of what it means to attack them, hip and thigh with a great slaughter.

I think the NIV gets it well, if not the literal translation, the sense of it. The NIV renders it, he attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. See, in warfare, brethren, it's not a nice sort of an exchange. It's not, you know, I'm gonna do this in the kindest possible way to end your life.

No, Samson is battling for the glory of God and for the good of God's people. So that's the betrayal by his father-in-law, and now

Treachery of His Countrymen

that sets us up for the treachery of his countrymen. He is definitely not treated well by them.

Judah's Lack of Distress

The first thing we need to notice about Judah is the lack of their present distress. The lack of their present distress. Throughout the book of Judges, as I mentioned, there are cycles. Sin, oppressor, repentance, and deliverance.

The repentance, again, usually isn't, God, we've sinned, please forgive us and restore us to your favor. The repentance is more like, God, this hurts. We don't like what's happening to us. Please vindicate us.

Please rescue us. Well, that happened several times in several of the cycles. In fact, turn back to chapter 3 in verse 9. Chapter 3 in verse 9, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

This is after the Lord had given him over to Cushan Rishetham, the king of Mesopotamia. So they sinned, God raises up an oppressor to bring chastisement or judgment upon them, they cry out in their distress, and then God raises up, in this instance, Othniel. So verse 9, when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them. Drop down to chapter 3 at verse 15.

But when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer for them, Ehud, the son of Gerah, the Benjamite, a left-handed man. Look at chapter 4 and verse 3, same sort of an emphasis. And the children of Israel cried out to the Lord, for Jabin had 900 chariots of iron, and for 20 years he had harshly oppressed the children of Israel. Look at chapter 6, the Gideon cycle, specifically at verse 7.

And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried out to the Lord because of the Midianites. And then again in chapter 10 at verse 10. Chapter 10 at verse 10. See, the same sort of an emphasis.

And the children of Israel cried out. Here they actually do confess sin. They cried out to the Lord saying, we have sinned against you because we have both forsaken our God and served the Baals. You'll notice an absence of that when we come to this narrative in terms of Samson and the Philistine oppression.

Look at chapter 13. Chapter 13, specifically at verse 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. They don't cry out for deliverance.

They don't cry out for rescue. They don't cry out for vindication. Notice as well specifically in chapter 14 at verse 4 what we find in terms of the arrangement. So chapter 14 verse 4, But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord that he was seeking a woman from the Philistines, 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 get now to this Samson narrative. We get now to these Philistines who want to come and arrest Samson. And that's pretty obvious.

I mean, he's rendered great damage to their economy. He's taken a shot at their religious system. And he's also dispatched or killed several of them. So they want revenge.

They want him back at their place so that they can bring him to justice in terms of Philistine justice. So there's no cry for deliverance. There's no sort of anguish concerning their situation, but rather they identify with and they embrace Philistine culture. And I think

The Danger of Cultural Assimilation

there is a problem here. It is the danger of assimilating the culture around us. We're not supposed to be freak shows. We're not supposed to be so separate and wear completely different clothes and wear special hats and look completely different from everybody around us.

I'm not suggesting that. But I am suggesting that we ought not to assimilate the culture in which we live. And I don't mean if burritos happen to be the food, we don't eat burritos. I mean the wickedness in their culture.

You've probably heard that phrase bandied about a lot recently called cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation has been meant to, or it is used to say that somebody that likes Chinese food or somebody that wears a sweater that originates in Africa is somehow wrong. They're racists. But the cultural appropriation that I'm denouncing is the kind of sin you see in the church, where we're not really bothered by abortion.

We're not really bothered by euthanasia. We're not really bothered by the gay pride parades that are going on ad nauseum all throughout this month. I mean, if you've seen any of the imagery, these are naked men walking down the streets of Seattle today, and they're doing things that are wretched. The church needs to denounce that.

We're not supposed to assimilate that. We're not supposed to be respecters of those kinds of sins, of those kinds of perversions. There is a breach of God's holy law, and the church is prone to assimilate that particular culture. There is a necessity for uncompromising allegiance on the part of God's people, on the part of God's church.

We're supposed to preach the gospel for salvation to needy sinners. But how do sinners know their need? By preaching the law. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, how do you know your sin and misery?

I know it from the law of God. So if we don't preach the law of God, if we baptize the perversion in our own generation, if we just say, well, that's just the way things are, then sinners in our culture will never see their need for the saving grace of God most high. In other words, it is to renege on our responsibility as the Church of Jesus Christ to preach the law and the gospel. So there is this danger of assimilating culture, and there is this necessity of uncompromising allegiance to the Word of God Most High.

Judah assimilated the culture, and Judah reneged on their responsibility to hold fast to the Word of God. Now, if you know anything about the Book of Judges, it was Judah that starts in the conquest. We read that passage in Numbers 30-34 about the division of the land. Well, they could only divide what they had conquered and obtained.

It was absolutely requisite that in that wilderness wandering, when they're being told what the land would look like in terms of tribal allotment, that they first go into Canaan and dispossess the land of the Canaanites, killing them, vacating them, and then taking everything that Yahweh had promised. Now, for those who say, well, that doesn't seem fair. The Canaanites were wretched. They were vile.

They were monstrous sinners. They engaged in all manner of wickedness. And when Israel does take the land and Israel then apes the Canaanites or imitates the Canaanites, the same judgment comes upon them. They get vomited out of the land.

The Assyrians come and render decimation to the northern tribes. The Babylonians come and render decimation to the southern tribes. God's not arbitrary. God's not capricious.

There is a particular standard operative in this situation. And when the Israelites reneged, then they would be judged as well. So now to the text. Notice what we have.

Judah's Cowardice and Subjection

The abundance of cowardice in verses 9 to 13. So the Philistines in Judah. Notice in verses 9 and 10. 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? In other words, they're questioning this declaration of war. This isn't, you know, a friendly visit. This isn't, hey, we want to have tea.

They understand, the Judahites know all too well what's happening here. And so they go out there to meet the threat and to say, what's happening? What have we done? How have we violated our particular arrangement?

So notice, the Philistines in Judah, verse 9, and then in verse 10, 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. Again, fair enough from the Philistine perspective. I get it.

Samson would have gotten it. But the Judahites' response is miserable. The Judahites' response is terrible. The Judahites' response with reference to Samson shows their assimilation of godless culture, shows their compromise relative to the law of God and their allegiance to their covenant Lord.

They are more concerned with their place and their nation, even though they're under Philistine oppression, than they are with freedom and rendering a death blow to these enemies of God Almighty. So notice what happens. They send an army against Samson, not the Philistines. Look at verse 11.

Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etah. You messed up. You should have sent those 3,000 men to withstand those Philistines and to throw down with them. Don't send them against Samson and really 3,000 men?

They obviously knew Samson pretty well. If he's able in one exchange to get rid of 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, yeah, we better send 3,000 men to try to barter or broker some peace with Samson. But this is a wretched response on their part. And then notice, they embrace subjection to the Philistines.

They embrace it, they welcome it, they love it, they own it. Not only is there no cry of distress in their current situation, they're actually identifying with their oppressors. So verse 11, then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the Rock of Etah and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?

You have jeopardized us. You've put us in an uncomfortable situation, just like Caiaphas prophesying this morning. We need to do something that's expedient for us, not something that's lawful, not something that's right, not something that's just, not something that's legitimate. But we just want some temporal freedom from the problem of the Philistines.

You see what they say? They have completely abandoned the God of heaven and earth. God set Samson over them as a deliverer. They should be rallying behind him, following him into battle against the Philistines, not delivering him up to that enemy oppressor.

So they embrace subjection to the Philistines. Davis, in his commentary, which I highly command on the book of Judges, he says, 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, but who would not think of being faithless to the Philistines.

What a pitiful question! You see that through the book. They don't want to abandon the Philistines, but they'll abandon God like that every step of the way. Now brethren, as we read through narrative like this, we ought to imagine that this is somewhat indicative of the hearts of men.

Not just the men of Judah in this particular context. There might be something of this in us. We're ready to acquiesce to the enemy. We're ready to acquiesce to the oppressor.

We're ready to give up the deliverer just so we can maintain the status quo. They actually identify with the Philistines. Matthew Henry says, cowardly, unthankful wretches, fond of their fetters and in love with their servitude. Notice back in the text, Samson invokes the golden rule, end of verse 11, as they did to me, so I have done to them.

And then in verse 12, they said to him, we have come down to arrest you. that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines." They want to deliver him up to death. Again, Davis says, the tribe that had formerly waded into battle after battle 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. See, brethren, that is troublesome. It's like that scene in Numbers 13 and 14. Remember in Numbers 13 and 14, Moses is told to send spies into the promised land.

Go investigate it. See what the land looks like. See what the threat is. Go and assess it.

Recon mission, bring back the report. Well, we know the story. The 12 spies go. They come back.

They say it's a great land, good land, good fruit, but there's these pesky giants in the land. And then they revise their report, the 10 of them, and they say, big land, bigger threat, or bad land, bigger threat, no hope. Well, of course, the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, say, let's go at once. But brethren, this doesn't happen in a vacuum.

It starts in Genesis chapter 12, when God promises to give the land to Abraham, and then he ratifies or continues that covenant promise to Isaac, and then to Jacob, and then he calls the people of Israel from the wilderness to go into the land and conquer the land. He's already given it to them, and yet they say, no, the threat is too much. We need to be a Joshua or a Caleb. Caleb says, let's go at once and dispossess the land of the Canaanites.

Well, they're in Numbers 14. Guess who the congregation listens to? They don't listen to Joshua and Caleb. They listen to the ten whiners and they say, oh, yeah, we can't do it.

We're never going to be able to do it. We'll never be able to conquer it. So God brings judgment to bear upon them. It's never right, brethren, to side against God.

It is never right to compromise our allegiance to God. It is never right to betray our God and His promises. As long as we are standing fast, we are in a good place. Notice, as well, Samson asks at the end of verse 12, he says to them, swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.

Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves. And of course, they're right there with their quick answer. So they spoke to him saying, no, we're not going to kill you, Samson. That's not how bad we actually are.

We're just going to tie you up, and then we're going to hand you to the people that are going to kill you. But we're perfectly innocent here. We don't have any ill intent against you at all. It's laughable, brethren.

And I think that the author wants us to see the ludicrousness, the lunacy of this kind of a mindset on the part of the professing people of God. We have nothing to fear if God has promised. We have nothing to fear when God provides the deliverer. We have nothing to fear.

What can man do if God is for us? So verse 13, they spoke to him saying, 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." They betray their utter spiritual degradation at this point. Kyle and Dalich make the observation, 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. This is not a happy occasion in the life of the covenant people.

This is not their high point. This is not their finest hour. In fact, this is miserable. This is wretched, and this does evidence their absolute degradation before God Most High and the means that He had appointed to free them from their Philistine captors.

They identify with the Philistines. They don't want to rock the boat with the Philistines. They don't want anything to go wrong with the Philistines. They'll continue as subject.

They'll continue as vassal. They'll continue in that subordinate position. Thank you very much. Samson, we're going to get rid of you.

We want nothing to do with any chance of resistance against our enemies. And

Triumph Over His Enemies

that brings us finally to the triumph over his enemies in verses 14 to 20. Notice, the Judahites deliver the deliverer, according to 13b. And then in 14, we see the Philistines come against him. The Philistines came shouting against him.

That means they're ready to battle. That means they're ready to throw down. These, again, they're not there for tea and cookies. They don't want to negotiate.

This isn't diplomacy. Let's talk this through, Samson. Let's have an encounter session. Let's do some therapy.

Let's do some exercises. Let's engage in some sort of self-help here. No, they come shouting against him. Why?

Because they want to destroy him. They have witnessed him single-handedly ruin their economy, mock their God, and devastate their own countrymen. They have vengeance in their hearts and minds, and they want to spend that on this man, Samson. But then notice, he's empowered by the Spirit.

So they come shouting against him, and then according to 14b, then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. The author does not want us to forget that everything that is happening is of God. Everything that is taking place here is of God.

Not a bumbling oaf, not a lust-filled man, not a crazed glutton that's just wandering around, you know, killing Philistines and burning down fields. There is a reason for this. There is a rationale. God raises up Samson to free his people from Philistine oppression.

So notice, the spirit comes upon him, and then he throws down. It says, 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. That's a bit of good narration there.

You'd want a fresh jawbone. If it wasn't a fresh jawbone, it would be brittle. The moment you buried it or attempted to bury it into a Philistine skull, it might just shatter. So the fact that it was a fresh jawbone meant that it had some usefulness.

It meant that it could get the job done. It meant that Samson was armed and ready to go. And that's precisely what we find. So he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it." Talk about a succinct piece of narration there.

Wouldn't you like description? Wouldn't you like about 10, 20, 30 more verses on what that looked like? one man against a thousand men, armed with the jawbone of a donkey, and he kills them, one after another, and all that that entails, the blood splatter, the smell, everything that was going on in that instance. We have a brief narration of the situation. He killed a thousand men with it.

But just consider, from verses 14 to 17, he breaks the ropes, he finds the fresh jawbone, he kills a thousand men, and then he composes a pun. Isn't he a wonderful fellow? Don't you just love Samson? Isn't he awesome?

Don't you just find this to be gratifying at many, many levels? Brethren, I wouldn't compose a pun on the best of days. Too bad Isaac's not here tonight. He'd probably be giggling out of his seat.

But this man kills Philistines and then composes a pun. 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 then he names the place and he calls it Jawbone Height, verse 17, a fitting and appropriate name. And so it was when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called that place Ramath-Lehi, Jawbone Height.

And then finally we see this acknowledgement by the servant of his absolute and utter dependence upon his God. He didn't render this because he was macho. I mean, I get the impression that he was quite strong. He was probably quite built.

He was probably quite a menacing looking figure in terms of an enemy. But it was by the power of the Lord. And he understood that. His dependence was always upon Yahweh.

He doesn't do this independently. He doesn't do this on his own. He does this by the Spirit of the Lord. And that's what this last bit underscores.

Notice his physical distress in 18a. Then he became very thirsty. You don't need any explanation for that verse, do you? I mean, I'm thirsty just preaching about it.

He's thirsty because he's just slaughtered a thousand Philistines. I doubt it, like, 588. He said, hey, can we just take a moment so I can have a bit of water? This was a constant battle for the entirety of the time.

While there were Philistines, there was the jawbone of the donkey being wielded by this man into them. So there was no water break. So 18a doesn't need any explanation, though I just explained it. 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. He acknowledges the Lord's hand in the victory. You have to see that, brethren. He stood for God.

He was not a compromiser like the Judahites. He didn't abandon his responsibility and his calling. He didn't assimilate the Philistine culture. He didn't negate or neglect his responsibility to hold fast the word of truth.

So as God is faithful, we see that here. And he acknowledges that. You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant." Again, 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 he's failed to register, we surely cannot miss the picture. Samson is anything but self-sufficient. That's the gist in verse 18. But then notice he gives this response with reference to the Lord in terms of provision.

He says, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? Some people hear that and they say, that sounds a bit arrogant. It seems a bit presumptuous. That's your argument?

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? It's a greater to lesser argument, brethren. It's a typically wonderful way to argue. You've preserved me in the midst of a thousand shouting Philistines.

You're gonna let me die now with lack of water? Notice who doesn't think this is arrogant. Notice who doesn't think this is presumptuous. Notice who doesn't think that this is untoward in the way that he asks.

God, because God answers and God provides because Samson expresses his need for God's provision vis-a-vis water so that he doesn't die and he can continue on to do the work of deliverance. So the Lord answers and gives him drink. 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 En-Hakur, which is in Lehi to this day, and he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines. It is a wonderful and a blessed description of God's faithfulness to God's servant to bring about the deliverance of unfaithful people in His covenant. And

Application

there are a few lessons I want to draw out. First, the enemies of Samson. We see the external enemy. The external enemy is the Philistines.

But there's an internal enemy as well, and I think at times it's the internal enemy that's harder to deal with than the external. We get why the Philistines want to conquer Samson. We get why the Philistines want to take him back to their place and do untold horrors to him. That makes sense.

But why Judah wants to deliver him up? It's the internal enemies. It's the problems from within. It's the compromise amongst the covenant people.

It's the assimilation of godless culture amongst the covenant people. It's the reneging on the uncompromising allegiance to God amongst the covenant people. There have been men in the history of the world that have recognized this. Cicero was a Roman politician and lawyer, 106-43 BC.

He said there are two kinds of injustice. The first is found in those who do an injury, in this case Philistines. The second in those who fail to protect another from injury when they can. In this case, the Judahites.

Then there was Edmund Burke. He was a British political philosopher. He made this observation. All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

That's Judah, right? And not only did they do nothing, they positively delivered up Samson into the hands of their enemies. So brethren, if we survey the scene in our own situation, we ought to pray for courage amongst the people of God. We ought to pray for steadfastness amongst the people of God.

We ought to pray for this resistance against assimilation of godless culture. And we ought to pray for uncompromising allegiance on the part of the people of God. We ought to pray for pastors that they would lead in such a way as to produce or provide that example of uncompromising allegiance to the Word of God. We ought to pray for our church plants.

We ought to pray for any future church plans. We ought to pray for brothers like we met yesterday, who are in very difficult situations, that they would not kowtow to the commies, but they would be faithful in preaching Christ and Him crucified. In the midst of that, that godless state, do you know what is happening? There are churches being built.

There are churches going forward. On that island, there is great things happening in terms of Christ and Him crucified and resurrected. Disciples are being made, pastors are being trained, churches are being planted, all in the midst of a godless, wretched, horrible situation. We hear the reports about China, an atheistic, communistic country.

Is there a church there? Absolutely, positively, there is a church there. Is it the case that Jesus' words are true? I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it?

Absolutely! All it takes on the part of God's people is to believe that, and to walk by faith, to know that God's word is sure, and to know that His word is true. Second, we see the faithfulness of Samson. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and God used his means.

In this case, a man who wasn't assimilating culture and a man who was uncompromising with reference to his allegiance to God. The Philistines opposed him. The Judahites opposed him. If you remember the Nicene controversy in terms of the identity of the second person of the Trinity, whether he's like the father or whether he has the same substance of the father, there was a man by the name of Athanasius. who contended for the truth, and Athanasius would be exiled for his commitment to that truth.

There was one time where he said, Athanasius contra Munda. That means Athanasius against the world. In other words, if all the world denies the truth of God's holy word, Athanasius will stand fast. If everybody in Judah, if everybody in Israel, if everybody among the covenant people will kowtow to the Philistines, you've got Samson and he's not going to do it.

He is going to die trying to resist those godless heathen. The deliverer functioned as God called him to. Hebrews chapter 11 is the great hall of faith. Guess who's in there?

Samson. Samson was a man of faith. He was activated, actuated by his faith and trust in the living and true God. And the deliverer ascribed deliverance to God, verse 18.

Now I'm not gonna say that Samson wasn't a colorful figure. There certainly were things that he did that were, you know, questionable in terms of sin and whatnot, but nevertheless God used him. And there's one quote, it's a lengthy quote, but I think it's a helpful one relative to this study. It's from Davis in his commentary.

It's about a particular war, the Civil War. I'm not taking aside either way with reference to that. I'm not taking aside with reference to the North or the South of the characters that are in this illustration, but I think you'll get it. Davis asks the question, and Davis disagrees with me a little bit.

I mean, he thinks he was a godly man, a great man, and all that sort of thing. But I think I probably engage in a bit of what's called hagiography, which is pronouncing sainthood upon a man. Samson's just my guy, so I don't want to hide that. So we differ a little bit.

But he says, why would Yahweh use a character like Samson as his servant? I mean, ask that of any of the men that God used in the book of Judges, right? Jephthah, Gideon. Gideon gets told by God what's going to happen, but he needs a sign.

God gives him a sign. Gideon wants another one. Okay. You just look at the people that God has used in the history of the church.

You know, read through church history sometimes. There's some things that kind of make you go, huh? Really? That happened?

Apparently Calvin had a bit of a temper problem. I mean, I don't know that he threw coffee cups and that sort of thing, but he certainly had some issues that way. I mean, all of God's, everybody, there's no sterile instrument. God's not like the doctor in the operating room where he's got a sterile instruments that he can use to wield upon his, I almost said victim, his patient.

There's no sterile instruments. We all come with warts. We all come with sin. We all come with blemish.

We all come with issues, right? Look at Simon Peter in the Gospel narratives. Lord, I'll die for you. I'll die with you.

He denies Jesus three times. Not to the Roman Emperor, but to a slave girl. The Bible is filled with that. Look at David.

The man after God's own heart commits the benchmark sins of adultery and murder. How do we explain that? So let's apply that to Samson. Again, he's got a little bit less of a favorable view than I do, but back to the text, or back to the quote.

Why would Yahweh use a character like Samson as his servant? Here is a fellow who shatters all our molds, conventions, and expectations about what a servant of God is to be. During the war between the states, the story spread that General Grant had been drunk at the Battle of Shiloh. About 11 o'clock one night, President Lincoln received his friend, A.K.

McClure. McClure was on a mission. As spokesman for a number of Republicans, he pressed his argument for almost two hours on how popular opinion was against Grant, and therefore Grant should be dismissed so that Lincoln himself could retain the country's confidence. Lincoln rarely interrupted.

Then as McClure himself reported it, quote, Lincoln remained silent for what seemed a very long time. He then gathered himself up in his chair and said in a tone of earnestness that I shall never forget, I can't spare this man. He fights. He may look seedy, he may have trouble with booze, popular opinion may stand against him, but he fights.

We cannot explain Yahweh's choices, though we might vindicate his choice of Samson by a variation of Lincoln's argument. Say what you will about Samson. At least he knew who the enemy was. At least he knew Philistines were for fighting.

At least he didn't roll over and play dead in the warmth of the status quo as the mighty men of Judah did. Perhaps we will eventually get over our surprise at the kind of servants Yahweh delights to use. He fights. Why Samson?

Why not Samson? There were no others. The rest of them were kowtowing to godless pagans and willing to do whatever they subjected them to. Samson fought.

God uses means. God ordains the means. God then fills that means with the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit to enable them to bring conquest for His glory and for His honor. And all behind this is the graciousness and the kindness and the mercy and the provision of God Almighty.

Samson saw it, we see it as we muse upon it, and we recognize it in this New Covenant era. We do nothing in terms of steadfastness, in terms of courage, in terms of going forward in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit without God's grace. We are a dependent and a needy people, and it's best for us to always recognize that, to always acknowledge that, and to find great comfort in being dependent upon that rock of our salvation. Well, let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Our God and Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this account in Judges 15, for the book of Judges as a whole, and how it typifies the salvation that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you would bless us and help us to be faithful, help us to be courageous, and to be persevering, not to compromise relative to the word of God, but to hold forth that word, to shine as lights in a crooked and perverse generation. We ask that you would go with us in this coming week, grant us help and strength and grace, and do sustain us for your glory and for your honor.

And we pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.

Scripture References

• Genesis 12
• Numbers 13-14; 34:1-29
• Judges 3:9; 3:15; 4:3; 6:7; 10:10; 13:1; 13:5; 13:25; 14:4; 14:6; 14:15; 14:19; 15:1-20
• Matthew 1:21
• Hebrews 11