June 14, 2010 (Judges 10-15)

This section has a very weird passage - it talks of Jephthah, who makes a vow to the Lord and says "If you give me victory over the Ammonites, I will give You the first thing coming out of my house to greet me when I return in triumph." I can only imagine that he thought it would be his wife and he didn't like her, so that was his way to be rid of her. But what happened was his daughter - his only child - came out to greet him, playing on a tambourine and dancing for joy! So, she convinced him to let her go into the hills with her friends and weep for two months because she would die a virgin. So that's what happened. Very, very strange.....

Chapter 13 begins with the story of Samson - an angel of the Lord came to Manoah's wife (her name is never mentioned) who was unable to have children and told her she would give birth to a son who was to be dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth. She told her husband who prayed and asked for the angel to return to give more instructions, and God answered his prayer. So in a land where the Israelites were again doing evil, it seems as if this couple believed in God. So Samsom was born and 'God blessed him as he grew up'.

Chapter 14 is a good example of us not really being able to look at current circumstances and knowing with certainty what God is up to. What I mean is, sometimes God is 'in' the things that seem contrary to His word. Samson saw a Philistine woman that he wanted to marry and told his parents about it. They were furious, and asked him why he couldn't marry someone within the Israelites but had to go to the pagan Philistines. But Samson said "Get her for me. She is the one I want". And then here's the verse -

^14:4 His father and mother didn’t realize the Lordwas at work in this, creating an opportunity to disrupt the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.

It seems Samson was somewhat of a spoiled brat - bossing his parents around and then paying people back for what they did to him.

³ Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.” ⁴ Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. ⁵ Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.

⁶ “Who did this?” the Philistines demanded.

“Samson,” was the reply, “because his father-in-law from Timnah gave Samson’s wife to be married to his best man.” So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death.

⁷ “Because you did this,” Samson vowed, “I won’t rest until I take my revenge on you!” ⁸ So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.

And then here is how this story and chapter ends:

⁹ The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehi. ¹⁰ The men of Judah asked the Philistines, “Why are you attacking us?”

The Philistines replied, “We’ve come to capture Samson. We’ve come to pay him back for what he did to us.”

¹¹ So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?”

But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”

¹² But the men of Judah told him, “We have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

“All right,” Samson said. “But promise that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

¹³ “We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines,” they replied. “We won’t kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

¹⁴ As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. ¹⁵ Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it. ¹⁶ Then Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
I’ve piled them in heaps!
With the jawbone of a donkey,
I’ve killed a thousand men!”

¹⁷ When he finished his boasting, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was named Jawbone Hill.

And finally we see that God truly was with him, to the point of doing a miracle for him. I guess it shows that God will fulfill His purposes through whomever He chooses.

¹⁸ Samson was now very thirsty, and he cried out to the Lord, “You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagans?” ¹⁹ So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place “The Spring of the One Who Cried Out,” and it is still in Lehi to this day.

²⁰ Samson judged Israel for twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land.