CHAPTER 15

(1141 B.C.)

REVENGE

¹But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest (late May or early June), that Samson visited his wife with a kid (a small lamb); and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

²And her father said, I verily thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray you, instead of her. (Life is usually marked by folly, when self-will is the spring of action. To the contrary, when Gods Will governs the life, prudence and prosperity result. Accordingly, Samson foolishly returned to the woman who so basely betrayed him.)

³And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure (my revenge will be a just one).

⁴And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes (should have been translated jackals), and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.

⁵And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn (wheat) of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives (considerable damage!).

THE PHILISTINES

⁶Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire (as stated, they little knew, so to speak, as to exactly whom they were fooling with).

A GREAT SLAUGHTER

⁷And Samson said unto them, Though you have done this (killed his wife and her father), yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease (in essence, If this is the way you treat me, be sure that I will not cease until I have had my full revenge).

⁸And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam. (The Believer may wonder how the Lord could be in all of these things. However, it must be understood that Israel was at an extremely low state at this particular time. In fact, I think it can be said that Samson, for all of his weaknesses, was the best of the lot.

In a sense, Samson was a Type of Christ, at least as it regards his victories. These victories represent the Lord overcoming every enemy, all on our behalf.)

⁹Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi (they prepared for war against Israel).

¹⁰And the men of Judah said, Why are you come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he has done to us.

THE SLAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND PHILISTINES

¹¹Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Know you not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that you have done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. (The language of these cowardly men portrays the fact as to how completely the Philistine yoke was fastened upon the necks of Judah. The opposition of the world is bitter to the Nazarite Christian, but the opposition of the Church is more bitter. The Philistines ruled over Israel, and Israel was content to have it so. They did not wish to have a Nazarite in their midst who would disturb their peace and excite the world against them. They were quite ready to hand Samson over to a cruel death in order to maintain their so-called peace. This condition of spiritual degradation marks, and has marked, the history of the Christian Church. Instead of hailing Samson as a deliverer, the Israelites treated him as an enemy.

Believers are very quick to talk about the foibles of Samson, but very seldom mention the leaders of Israel, who were in far worse spiritual condition.)

¹²And they said unto him, We are come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that you will not fall upon me yourselves (evidently, they had agreed with the Philistines that if they could deliver Samson to them, the Philistines would not start the war; the truth is, they didnt care about Samson, and neither did they care about the Will of the Lord; they sought only to appease the world, which is the attitude of most of the modern Church).

¹³And they spoke unto him, saying, No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand: but surely we will not kill you. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock (they thought they had their problem solved).

¹⁴And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.

¹⁵And he found a new jawbone of an ass (the skeleton), and put forth his hand, and took it, and killed a thousand men therewith. (By far, this was his mightiest achievement to date. As stated, Israel should have helped him, and, in fact, had they done so, they would have been delivered from the Philistine yoke at that moment. But they were so far away from God that they were quite satisfied with that yoke. They reasoned that their situation was not nearly so bad as it had been under other conquerors. So, they would live with this problem, and they didnt want Samson rocking the boat.

How so like far too many modern Believers. They are quite satisfied to live under the dominion of Satan, providing it doesnt get too bad. So, when they hear the Message of the Cross, which is the only means of deliverance, they by and large shrug it off, thinking that such is not necessary for them. They know of others who desperately need the Message of the Cross, but they never put themselves in the same category. At best, such Christians are of no use to the Kingdom of God, and, at worst, they lose their souls.)

¹⁶And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men (a song of sorts).

¹⁷And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-lehi (meaning the casting away of the jawbone, referring to the fact that the jawbone had no special qualities at all, but rather that this was carried out by the Spirit of God; had he not thrown away this item, Israel would have probably worshipped the thing; such is the human heart).

¹⁸And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, You have given this great deliverance into the hand of Your servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? (We may note from this that the more God gives, the more He encourages us to ask.)

¹⁹But God clave an hollow place (possibly even in a rock) that was in the jaw (where he had thrown the jawbone), and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day (means the well of him who called, or, cried [Ps. 34:6]).

²⁰And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.