The Judges. Day 53, Samson's Vengeance, Part Two

Samson set the crops of the Philistines on fire after he found out his Philistine father-in-law gave his wife to another man. In retaliation, the Philistines burned his wife and father-in-law to death. To avenge his wife's death he attacked and slaughtered "many of them", according to yesterday's passage. Now he's hiding in a cave at Etom (which lay within the borders of Judah) waiting to see what will happen next.

"The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The people of Judah asked, 'Why have you come to fight us?' 'We have come to take Samson prisoner,' they answered, 'to do to him as he did to us.'" (Judges 15:9-10) The men of Judah suppose these soldiers have come out to make war with them. Since they have no doubt been paying their assigned tribute to their Philistine oppressors, they ask, "What do you have against us? Why have you come out to fight us?" And the Philistines say something like, "Our dispute isn't with you. It's with Samson. He slaughtered many of our men and we've come out to find him and arrest him. Then we will execute him."

It is apparently known by many in Judah that Samson is hiding at Etom. Perhaps the Judahites were willing to give him sanctuary until now when it appears as if doing so will bring the wrath of the Philistines down upon them. "Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, 'Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?' He answered, 'I merely did to them what they did to me.'" (Judges 15:11) I believe Samson knows what the angel of the Lord said to his mother before his birth: that he would lead his people in the fight against the Philistines. But his fellow countrymen either don't know or don't believe the prophecy regarding his calling. They are willing to continue submitting to the Philistines, probably out of fear of the Philistines' more advanced weaponry and the enormous number of soldiers at their disposal. They would rather turn Samson in than fight the enemy. "They said to him, 'We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.'" (Judges 15:12a) 

We have to keep in mind that these men have lived in subjection to the Philistines for forty years, according to Judges 13:1. This means that many of the three thousand men who've come out to capture Samson (or perhaps all of them) aren't old enough to have been alive, or were too young to remember, a time when Israel wasn't subject to this dreadful enemy. Their reluctance to rise up and fight off the yoke of oppression is understandable from a human viewpoint. From a spiritual viewpoint their fear is less defensible, for the Lord is stronger than any enemy. I think that, although Samson hasn't exactly set a phenomenal example of godliness, he understands something these men don't: no enemy can stand before them if they will put aside every form of idolatry in their midst. If they will commit themselves to the Lord and do what He says, they can't lose.

Because Samson knows this, he is willing to allow the men to hand him over to the Philistines. "Samson said, 'Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves.'" (Judges 15:12b) Samson is a very physically powerful man. He knows the Judahite soldiers might fear him enough to not want to deliver him alive to the enemy; they might choose instead to kill him and hand his dead body over. But if they deliver him to the Philistines alive, he believes the Lord will enable him to strike a major blow against the enemy. He says something like, "I'll surrender to you peacefully and go with you without causing any trouble. Just don't let me be struck down by a fellow Israelite. If I must die, let it be at the hands of the enemy." They agree to his terms. "'Agreed,' they answered. 'We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We won't kill you.'" (Judges 15:13a)

"So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. Then Samson said, 'With a donkey's jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone I have killed a thousand men.' When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi." (Judges 15:13b-17) His victorious one-man fight against the Philistines was so amazing and so famous that the area was named "Jawbone Hill" to commemorate the battle. 

It must have taken quite some time and a lot of physical effort to fight and slay a thousand men. Samson is exhausted and dehydrated. There is no visible source of water in the area but he thinks surely the Lord didn't bring him all this way and give him this great victory only to allow him to perish from thirst. "Because he was very thirsty, he cried to the Lord, 'You have given Your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?'" (Judges 15:18) 

It was an ancient custom to desecrate the dead body of a powerful enemy. A body might be hung on a pole, for everyone to see, until it rotted and fell apart. Samson does not especially want to die, but if he does die, he does not want the godless Philistines having access to his earthly remains. The Lord answers his prayer with a miracle. "Then God opened up a hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines." (Judges 15:19-20) To commemorate this miracle, the spring became known as "the well of him who cried".

Samson has done valiantly in today's passage. He has done valiantly because he placed his faith in the Lord. As a result, the Lord gave him superhuman strength in his fight with the Philistines and the Lord miraculously supplied water to meet his needs. But in tomorrow's study, as often happens following a spiritual high, a spiritual low follows. This is why we must be on guard at all times against the wiles of the devil because he doesn't always choose to kick us when we're down. Sometimes he's more successful in leading us astray right after the Lord has done great things for us. That's because we may let our guard down in the aftermath of an enormous victory. Join us tomorrow as we begin our story of one of the most unwise love connections in the Bible: the story of Samson and Delilah.