Judges 15 Bible Study / Podcast

This morning we're continuing our series on the life and ministry of Samson.

Samson was a judge in Israel. He's actually the last judge the book addresses.

So this will be part two of the life and ministry of Samson from Judges chapter 15.

So if you have a Bible on hand, go ahead and turn to Judges chapter 15. Next week,

Lord willing, we'll be finishing up our study of Samson with the infamous, famous or infamous, however you want to look at it, the story that everybody knows about Samson.

That's the story of Samson and Delilah. And just to bring us up to speed from last week, last time in chapter 14 we saw that Samson had married a

Philistine woman. You know, women seem to be Samson's weakness, and of course with Delilah, it'll be his downfall.

But last week we saw in chapter 14, Samson had married a Philistine. His parents tried to discourage him from doing this, but Samson, you know,

I just think he views himself as almost invincible. If anything goes wrong,

Samson figures, hey, I can handle it. He'll fix it. Because after all, he's anointed by God.

The Spirit of the Lord has come upon him many times to give him supernatural strength.

For goodness sakes, he was attacked by a lion. And he killed the lion, the

Bible says, with his bare hands. So I don't really think Samson is worried about anything. If something's a bad decision, you know, he'll manage.

So I think that's sort of the attitude that he has. He's going to do what he's going to do.

And, yeah, last time he married a Philistine woman. And the Philistines, of course, were the enemies of God's people.

They were the enemy of Israel. They were oppressing the children of Israel at this time.

And the Lord, what He was doing, because God is always in the background at work.

You read about the things that people do and the things that people say. But God takes all of that and He uses it to His honor and glory.

And for the good of His people, even if it doesn't look like that at the moment. So the Lord was using this as an occasion to fight against.

He's using Samson as like a tool to fight against the enemy of His people,

Israel. So the Lord's going to use Samson in a mighty way. So when Samson married the

Philistine woman, it may have looked on the surface like this event. Actually, in Israel, because kings did this.

They would try to make peace with other nations through marrying a woman from that nation. So it could have looked on the surface that Samson, maybe he's trying to make peace with the

Philistines. He's marrying a Philistine woman. Of course, that didn't happen. The Philistine men, the 30 men, convince

Samson's wife to turn on him. So Samson is sort of double -crossed by his wife.

He realizes that the Philistines had kind of forced her into that. So he takes revenge on a

Philistine city. Word is going to get out. So he can't really go back to his Philistine in -laws until things cool off.

So he goes home. At the end of chapter 14, it tells us that while he was away, Samson's father -in -law gave his wife away to his best man at the wedding.

So you can just imagine how Samson is going to react. So let's pick up our study and start reading.

In Judges chapter 15, beginning in verse 1, it says,

And after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat.

So he's taking a goat along basically as a gift. It's like a peace offering for the family.

And he said to her father, Let me go in to 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 took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails.

And 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, and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock at Edom.

Okay, so verse 1 tells us that some time has passed. Samson, he waits until the time of the wheat harvest to return to the

Philistine city to his wife and her family. Why does he wait?

Well, again, probably waiting until things cool off from the last city that he attacked.

But the fact that he returns during the wheat harvest, he probably did this. Most people think that he did it because most of the men would be out working in the field, so there would be less chance of a confrontation.

Again, not that Samson would be worried about that, but this would be an opportune time because he's not really looking for a conflict, right?

He's coming in peace. That's why he brings the young goat. So he offers them a gift, and then he asks his father -in -law, you know, can

I go in and see my wife? But the answer that he gets is, you know, a hard no.

And to add insult to injury, this is probably when he finds out, I don't think he,

I know it says this at the end of 14, but I think he finds out now that his wife has been given to another guy.

And to make matters worse, she's given to his best man.

So that's not a normal thing. So you have to think that her father, is he doing this to just kind of poke at Samson?

Who knows? You can't know their motivation, I suppose. But this obviously would make anyone angry. So then he further insults

Samson, the father -in -law, by offering the young sister. You say, well, maybe that's his peace offering.

Well, no, that's a forbidden practice according to the law of Moses. The book of Leviticus strictly forbids such a thing.

So Samson is angry, he's insulted. And Samson, he almost takes this as a declaration of war.

Look at verse 3. He says, this time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them.

Which I think Samson has every intention to do that. Now you might think that the anger should be directed, why is he angry with the

Philistines? Shouldn't he be angry with his father -in -law? But Samson understands that his wife, the whole reason this happened, the whole reason his wife betrayed him in the first place is because of the

Philistine men. The 30 Philistine men basically threatened her, if you don't do this, we're going to kill you and your father.

Going back to the last chapter, the only reason the wedding feast went bad is because they did that, they threatened her.

So while this doesn't excuse her betrayal of Samson, the point is they were pressured into doing it.

So Samson realizes that she probably wouldn't have done this on her own.

The father, I'm sure he's angry, but the real enemy is the

Philistines. The men of the Philistines, that's who Samson is going to take revenge on, and rightfully so, okay, rightfully so.

Now this sort of raises another dilemma. The book of Judges will do this, it mentions these men of God doing things that, you know, if the man of God did this today, people would be horrified, right?

So is it right for Samson to seek revenge? I mean, doesn't the

Bible say, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, that we're not supposed to seek revenge on our enemies?

Well, yeah, Jesus did teach that we should love our enemies. So how do you reconcile these two things?

Well, some would just say, well, this is one of the differences between Old and New Testaments. You're back in the

Old Testament, this thing was okay. Under the New Covenant, it's not okay. So that's one common answer.

I think, though, it's a completely different situation.

It's a completely different context. You really can't compare ancient

Israel, which was a physical nation, to the way Christians are supposed to react today on a personal, one -on -one level.

Samson was the judge of Israel. He was the leader of the nation. So this is more akin to warfare, rather than murder or seeking personal revenge.

Besides that, the Philistines, it's not that they were the enemies of Samson personally, that they just had some personality conflict.

No, the Philistines were the enemies of God. So I don't think this is actually in conflict with the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus did say, love your enemies. Because why? We want to try to win them over.

We want what God wants, that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. So if we have a personal enemy, we want to win them over.

We want to win them to Christ. That's the biblical teaching. So if somebody hates you personally, you don't have the right to, well, they hate me, so I can get them back if they do something to me.

No, Jesus does say, turn the other cheek. But this, again, this is warfare. This isn't a personal offense.

This isn't self -defense. The Philistines are the enemies of the Lord. They are oppressing

God's chosen nation, Israel. So it's simply not the same thing. Besides, the

Lord told Israel to drive them out in the first place. And they failed. So you could argue, if Samson did wipe out all of the

Philistines, which he doesn't, but even if he did, you could argue that that would just be obeying

God's original commandment to Joshua in the first place. One last thing, though.

In general, it is important to remember, you know, whatever the correct,

I think that is the correct response, but whatever the way you look at it is, remember, we talked about this before in prior chapters, the difference between Scripture that is descriptive and prescriptive.

We can't make too many assumptions when reading the Old Testament, especially Old Testament stories like this.

Oftentimes, the Bible is just telling us what happened. It's not saying that it's good or bad, right or wrong.

A passage that is descriptive, which I think this passage is, it's just telling you the facts.

Now, when the narrator of the Bible comments on it, or if God commanded

Samson to do this, then we would see it as prescriptive. But right now,

I think a lot of the Book of Judges is only descriptive. So, just because you read something, bottom line, it doesn't necessarily mean it's right or wrong or that God approves or disproves.

Hating your personal enemies is wrong. Hating God's enemies or calling upon God to punish those who oppress

His people, that's not necessarily a sin. You know, if you don't believe me, just do a study on the imprecatory psalms.

But either way, let's go back to the text here. Samson is going to take revenge.

And since the Holy Spirit of God comes upon him, once again, to empower him, to give him the victory, yeah,

I think God approves. God is with him. God is enabling him to do this.

So, you're on thin ice saying that God thinks it's wrong if the Spirit comes upon him.

Okay, so what happens? Samson catches these foxes and he sends them out to burn the

Philistines' grain field or their grain fields, plural. So, what's he doing?

He's destroying their food supply. If you think about it, if two nations were at war today or if two nations were approaching warfare, this is something that would happen.

One nation would attack the supply chain or the factories or the food supply of another nation to hinder them, to hurt them, to starve them out.

So, what Samson is doing is just an ancient method of going about that.

It's a creative way of doing that. Now, I know with 300 foxes tying their tails together, you kind of imagine how this would go and some people have a hard time believing this or they wonder, how could such a thing even happen?

But I don't understand why this is hard to believe. Why do people have such a hard time believing this?

Yes, it would take a while. You know, if somebody listening is a hunter or you trap animals,

I mean, how long would it take you to trap 300 foxes? Well, in an area where there's a lot of foxes, if you had a lot of people helping you, yeah, it might take a little while but it could be done.

Here's another thing that people assume. When you read the story of Samson, you almost get the idea that he's always alone, by himself, doing everything by himself.

Well, I think that's a false assumption. Remember, Samson is the leader of the nation.

He would have had a lot of people to be there and do things for him, to support him.

So, I think Samson had a lot of help. Even today, you know, when we talk about...

But you say, well, if you read the Bible, it doesn't say that he did. It says that Samson did it. So, how can you say that he had other people helping him out?

Well, consider, even today, when we talk about the accomplishments of a nation's leader, we often speak in such a way where we say, you know, he did this when, in fact, he didn't do it.

His military did it. Or, yeah, maybe he did it with the help of a lot of others. It's just the way we talk.

So, to say that Samson did it, it doesn't necessarily mean that he did it all by himself.

So, I am almost certain that Samson had plenty of help to trap the foxes, to bring them to other locations, to set them loose with the torch, to burn down their grain fields.

I'm sure this was a group effort. And not only does he attack their food supply with the grain, or the corn, as the

King James puts it. Corn is a type of grain. They also destroyed, okay, the grain, the corn, but also the vineyards and the olive groves.

So, this would have been devastating. This would have devastated the nation of the

Philistines. And there's a lot of irony here. The Philistines, what did they do?

Remember, they threatened. This is how they turned Samson's wife against him. They threatened to burn her and her father with fire.

Well, she caves into that, betrays her husband, and that ends up happening anyways.

Because the Philistines were wicked. We don't really know the personal motivation of Samson's Philistine wife or her father.

Maybe they were good people, you know, relatively speaking. But the

Philistines in general were wicked. So, when they start asking questions, look at verse 6.

It says, after the fields and the vineyards were burned, 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.

Matthew Henry writes this. He says the Philistines threatened Samson's wife so that they would burn her and her father's house.

She, to save herself and oblige her countrymen, betrayed her own husband.

And the very thing that she feared and by sin sought to avoid came upon her.

Matthew Henry then says, the mischief, here's the application, the mischief we seek to escape by any unlawful practices we often pull down upon our own heads.

It's been said that you cannot sin your way out of sin. If you're trying to avoid something, even if it's bad and you sin to try to avoid it, it might come back on you.

And that's what happens with her and her father. And I think a lot of people would probably sympathize with, even though she is a

Philistine, they would sympathize with Samson's wife and what is done to her and her family.

And I think we can say that, yes, this was an evil thing that the

Philistines did. So, was Samson justified in taking revenge? Yes, he was.

Verse 7, Samson said to them, since you would do a thing like this, you would do this evil thing,

I will surely take revenge on you. And after that, I will cease.

Then it says in verse 8 that he attacked them hip and thigh. It's just an idiom that means he showed no mercy.

It says it was a great slaughter. And after that, Samson went down into the cleft of the rock of Edom.

Okay, so Edom is a city in Judah. So you have to understand that after he attacks the

Philistines, he then travels to the land of Judah, or the territory of Judah.

Edom was in Judah. So now, when the men of Judah hear about what Samson did and that he's coming to dwell in their territory,

I mean, they can see the handwriting on the wall. You know, the Philistines are going to seek revenge, and then they're going to come up where they're at, and that makes them really nervous because Samson, by being there, he's putting them at risk.

So, what do the men of Judah do? They put the blame on Samson. And haven't we seen this with the judges?

Remember the men of Ephraim were angry at Gideon? Or the men of Manasseh?

Right, and then the people from the tribe of Gad, they wanted to curse

Gideon, and Gideon then ends up fighting again against his own countrymen. So it's kind of the same thing over and over again, that the

Israelites would often turn on each other. And of course, when we make spiritual application, you know, we're talking about Israel, but then we apply this to the church, that sometimes

Christians, instead of coming together and fighting a common enemy, you know, the world, the flesh, and the devil,

Christians often will turn on each other, and that's of course sad. So, the men of Judah, they place the blame on Samson.

You know, Samson, in their eyes, Samson is just going to create problems for us. So they actually come to him, and they want to hand

Samson over to the enemy. Verse 9, it says, Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi.

And the men of Judah said to Samson, Why have you come up against us? Or excuse me, they said this to the

Philistines. Why have you come up against us? So they answered and said, We have come up to arrest

Samson, to do to him as he has done to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Edom, and they said to Samson, Do you not know that the

Philistines rule over us? What is this that you have done to us? And he said to them,

As they did to me, so I have done to them. You know, this is an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

But they said to Samson, We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the

Philistines. So this is God's own people, the children of Judah, wanting to arrest their own judge, their own leader,

Samson. And of course, in ancient Israel, during the judges, not all, not every region recognized it wasn't like the monarchy where Israel had one king and every tribe recognized him as king.

They may not have recognized Samson as judge, but he was God's anointed.

He really was. So it's a shameful thing for the men of the tribe of Judah to want to arrest

Samson and deliver him to the enemy. And you know, there's nothing new under the sun.

Some people, even today, will turn against their fellow brethren to save their own skin or even to just save face.

Believers will often turn on other believers. Just an example of this. Because I don't want to make any claim without backing it up.

Do you remember back in 2020, during the lockdowns? You remember there were pastors who refused to shut down their churches.

Now, listen, if your pastor shut down, I'm not getting down on anybody with this statement.

I'm just telling you the facts of what happened. I disagreed with churches that closed for six months.

But, you know, that's just me. Back in 2020, pastors were arrested simply for holding church services.

Okay, so a pastor, this happened in Canada, it even happened in the United States, there were several pastors who were arrested for holding church during the pandemic.

And do you remember what happened? There were believers that when these pastors were hauled off to prison and the churches shut down by the governing authorities simply for holding a worship service, there were actually a lot of Christians who sided with the government.

There were Christians and, you know, you can have your own opinion about what's best for you and your health, but when a

Christian rejoices to see a pastor arrested, and this happened,

Christians were actually saying, yeah, that pastor, bring him to prison, serves him right. And many

Christians sided with the government and they were glad the pastors were arrested.

I mean, that was just absolutely shameful and it's not totally unlike what's happening here.

So it wasn't right when Christians turned down each other during 2020 and it wasn't right when the people of Judah did it here with Samson.

So they want to bind him and deliver him over to the Philistines. Then Samson said to them, 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.

It's like, well, thanks guys for that at least. You know, but they did bind him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

Okay, so just as Samson in the last chapter was sort of toying with the

Philistines, you know, with the riddle about the lion, I think he's doing the same thing here. As shameful as this is, he's like, okay guys, yeah, yeah, go ahead and arrest me.

Tie me up. Sure. Let's do this. Now see, if they tried to kill him, Samson does not want to attack his own countrymen.

I mean, they may be willing to betray him, but Samson loves the children of Israel. He loves the nation.

He doesn't want to have to attack his own people. So guys, just don't kill me. If you want to tie me up and deliver me, you go right ahead.

Ha, ha, ha, because I think Samson knows what's going to happen. Samson is confident that the

Lord will empower him once again to get a victory over the

Philistines. And you know that's exactly what happens. Samson is confident that God will do this because he's always done it in the past.

Now that confidence, or overconfidence, is going to backfire in the next chapter because Samson starts getting in the flesh.

And God will bless his people. God will protect his people. But when his people start getting in the flesh,

God has to chastise his people. So, in the next chapter, chapter 16,

Samson, the chapter begins with him seeking out a prostitute. So, you know, he's getting carnal.

He's getting more and more carnal, and his overconfidence will come back to bite him. But as of right now, the

Lord is still with him. Verse 14, when he came up 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. And then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

So, these ropes that had bound, he just breaks them like they were nothing. And then he kills a thousand men with a jawbone of a donkey?

Obviously, this was wrought by the power of God. A miraculous judgment against the enemies of the

Lord. And time passed. God flooded the entire earth in the days of Noah.

God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. The Lord brought down the plagues against Egypt through the hands of Moses.

The Lord caused the waters of the Red Sea to fall upon Pharaoh's army.

And now the Lord is using a man, Samson, to rain down crushing blows upon the

Philistines. So, while this may not seem to be as spectacular as maybe those other events like the

Red Sea, it is still a miracle brought about by the

Spirit and power of God. Verse 16, Then Samson said,

With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have slain a thousand men.

You know, in the Bible, after God's people experience a great victory, there's often a song that follows.

And this, I think, is true here. Maybe it doesn't sound like a song to you, but it's what

God's people do. After the Red Sea, Moses and Miriam sang a song of victory.

In the book of Revelation, when the greatest battle is won, chapter 15, it says they sang the song of Moses and the song of the

Lamb. So, verse 17, after singing this song of victory, that I, remember

Samson, notice that. Samson says, I have slain a thousand men.

But this was wrought by the power of God. Samson says, I've done it. So, verse 17, we see this shift in the story.

It says, so it was, when Samson had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand and he called that place

Rameth Lehi, which basically means the lifting up or casting away of the jawbone.

But immediately, it says, he became very thirsty. So thirsty, he thought he was going to faint.

And, you know, if you're that thirsty that you faint out in the wilderness, yeah, you might die. So, Samson cries out to the

Lord and he says, 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?

Two things about this statement. Number one, despite Samson's superhuman strength,

Samson is still just a man. He's not invincible. He may feel like it at times, but he's not.

And the reason why the Lord allows him to become so faint, I think it's a reminder of that.

That Samson, I'm still God and you're still just a man. That's number one. And number two, it could also be because of this song.

Samson, I think he's getting more and more carnal, more and more in the flesh. The next chapter certainly bears that out.

Notice Samson didn't give the glory to God. He didn't give the glory to God.

He says, I have slain a thousand men. So while I can't be certain about this, just the way it looks, it seems strange that God would give him such a great victory and then immediately allow him to be brought so low.

Why? Because I think Samson is starting to rely more on his own strength than upon God's strength.

This is a danger for every believer. When things start going good, when you're experiencing success, certainly this can happen with pastors in the ministry.

Their church begins to grow and grow and grow and all of a sudden it becomes more about them and the size of the congregation and building their own empire instead of building

God's kingdom. I think that's a problem with just the average person. Things can be going so well and your business is successful, you have your health and everything's going and you just start to depend on yourself.

You start to forget about God and you start doing things that normally you wouldn't do. So I think the overconfidence with Samson mixed with the carnality that leads to his demise in the next chapter.

But still, the Lord does not utterly forsake his people. All whom the

Lord loves, the Bible says, he chastens. But the Lord still provides.

So in verse 19, God, like he did with Moses in splitting the rock, he caused water to come out of it.

Now Samson drinks and is revived. And the chapter ends really in an unusual way.

It says that Samson judged Israel for 20 years. Now the only reason that is unusual is because his story is not over.

We always see that statement and he judged Israel or achieved peace. We always see that at the end.

But Samson's story continues. And this is how the next chapter closes.

That Samson judged Israel 20 years. So why we see that statement here, we really don't know.

It is kind of a curious thing. But as we conclude chapter 15, in conclusion, we're starting to see a theme emerging.

Samson, yes, he's a man who's anointed by God. He's being used by God. But he's still just a man.

Yes, he killed a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. But in the very next moment he could have died if not for the

Lord providing water for him. It's just a good reminder. It's a good reminder for all of us.

Without God's help, Samson couldn't do anything.

And so it is with us. We need to continually depend on the grace of God.

When things are going well for you, make sure you don't forget about God. Without God's help,

Samson couldn't do a thing. And this is what Jesus said to believers in John 15, verse 5.