Judges Lesson 8 - Chapters 15-16
The first 2 chapters of Samson’s story are kind of fun and exciting. These last 2 chapters about his life are just hard to digest. The time between Judges 14:20 and Judges 15:1 is at least a few months and some believe it was up to a whole year. His wedding feast occurred during the barley harvest which is in the early spring around March/April and coincided with Passover. He returned for his bride at the wheat harvest which is mid-May to mid-June. So, it truly could have been a few months or it could have been a whole year. Sometimes in reading through Scripture, we assume that everything happens in close proximity, but that is not always the case.
1.Read Judges 15:1. What were Samson’s intentions when he went back for his wife with a dozen roses (I mean a young goat)?
He was a real romancer! I really wonder what he expected. He had abandoned her basically at the altar on the last night of the marriage feast. Can you imagine being left at the altar and your fiance stomping back home angrily to live again with mommy and daddy? There’s no telling what she thought or what her family thought. I can generally settle myself down within 24 hours of getting really mad or hurt about something. Samson had some “settling down” issues. Adding to his other fine traits, we can say he also had a terribly hot temper and that he could not cool down in a manageable period of time. Today, he’d be sent to counseling for anger issues! But God used that hot temper of Samson’s to accomplish His will.
2.What did her father do when Samson got to her house and wanted to go see her?
3.Read Judges 15:2-8. What kind of a compromise did her father offer to Samson?
4.Was he able to take his wife home with him?
5.Why do you think he felt like he was blameless in leaving his wife and then going back to fetch her and take her back to his home?
6.How many foxes did Samson catch?
This sounds like an absurdly large number of foxes to me! And before we assume that he caught them all at once or even on the same day, the text does not say this. He could have trapped them over a long period of time. The Hebrew word for fox and jackal is the same word. Foxes are more solitary animals than jackals are, but both can travel in large packs of up to 200. This means that if he was able to locate a den or feeding area, he could have secured a lot of them at the same time. We just don’t know and because we don’t know, we don’t want to impose something upon the Scripture that isn’t there. He could have also employed additional helpers or even used traps. However, we never read that he had any additional people assisting him.
I live out near Warrior’s Path State Park. We have a huge pest out here in our neck of the woods and that is deer. Sometimes as I’m driving down the road, I count as many as a dozen in another yard. They drive me nuts! Sorry! They are destructive and they need thinning out. Part of my shrubbery is destroyed because of deer. To be able to capture (not kill) 300 foxes tells me that they may also have been a problem in Samson’s neck of the woods.
7.What did he do with those foxes?
I have a hard time picturing exactly how this might have worked, but the picture below might lend a little understanding to that.
We surely can’t say that Samson was not creative! Who’d a thunk it?!!!! He did! He pondered it and he carried this out. It takes someone with a high IQ to be as creative and industrial as Samson appears to be.
Remember, the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, so these “crazy” notions about rounding up 300 foxes and tying their tails together and putting a torch in between each one was likely a thought that had been placed there by the Holy Spirit. God was looking for a moment to exact His wrath against the Philistines and He used the natural creativity in Samson’s own mind to do that. Just imagine being a fox whose tail is tied to another fox and there is fire between the two of you. These foxes would have been trying to get away from one another and doing so would have caused them to zig-zag through the fields setting everything on fire. Another interesting thing about Samson is that unlike all the other judges who requested help from various tribes, he never did. Although Samson apparently felt jilted with the loss of his wife, he also knew that he was the mouthpiece for the entire nation and thus, the Philistines would have to pay for what they had put all of Israel through. I have no doubt that this would have taken a little while to implement. I wouldn’t think the foxes would have been agreeable to having their tails tied together. Because this happened at the time of the wheat harvest, the wheat would have been dry and would have quickly ignited. I want you to consider something else, the pagan god Dagon, was associated with fertility, agriculture, and grain. To kill the corn, the vineyards, and the olive trees was to say, “In your face Dagon! Where’s your god now?!!!”.
8.After he lit the torches in between the foxes, where did he send them?
In 1 fail swoop, he wiped out the grain used for making bread, the vineyards used for making wine, and the groves used for olives and olive oil. That would have been a tremendous amount of commerce and food right there.
9.What did the Philistines do when they discovered that it was Samson who did this?
10.Do you think they blamed his father-in-law for what happened to them when Samson set their fields and groves on fire? Why or why not?
The ironic and sad thing about this story is that the very thing his bride was trying to avoid is the very thing that actually happened.
He considered what they did as evil. Not sure he considered any of his own actions as evil. I keep going back to the fact that God had been looking for an occasion to seek vengeance against the wicked Philistines. When he found out what they’d done, he slaughtered a bunch of them.
11.After this, where did Samson go to live?
There’s some people you don’t want to tick off! I think Samson is one of them! In Judges 15:8, the terminology used here, “and he smote them hip and thigh” is only used here in this verse. We find it nowhere else in the Bible. What did he do? Did he hamstring them? Did he kill them? There is an ancient writing called the Targum. It is an Aramaic translation and paraphrase of the Hebrew Bible. The Targum says that this whole “hip and thigh” thing was referring to the men fleeing on foot and those fleeing on horseback and that mortal wounds were inflicted. Hip and thigh is an idiom for a complete massacre. He not only killed them, but he ripped them apart. This 1-man army sounds very much like an earlier judge we studied about, Shamgar. Although there was undoubtedly revenge here on Samson’s part for what the Philistines had done to his wife, he was administering justice on behalf of God. The Contemporary English Version of the Bible says of v. 8 that he “started hacking them to pieces with his sword”. There would have been heads and arms and legs and chests all separated from the bodies they were once attached to. One commentary writer said it was the Old Testament version of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre!
12.In lesson 2, you were introduced to the cycle of sin. I want to introduce you to another cycle here, it is the cycle of vengeance.
And as with any cycle, the intensity gets worse the more the cycle goes around. That is the way vengeance works. And yet, God used Samson’s anger to exact His own vengeance. However for Samson, the vengefulness was never on behalf of God, it was his own personal revenge.
13.What did Samson say that he would do after he exacted his vengeance against them in Judges 15:7?
Doesn’t sound like he was interested in keeping this vengeance cycle rolling, and yet, we will soon discover that it did indeed continue. To think that an escalating cycle of revenge could be cut off with one final act of revenge was just not realistic.
14.After this hip and thigh battle, where did Samson go?
The Jewish historian, Flavious Josephus said that “Samson, having slain many in the fields of the Philistines, went and dwelt at Etam, a strong rock in the tribe of Judah”.
15.Read 2 Chron. 11:6. Where does this city appear to be in the vicinity of?
Samson apparently knew how the hip and thigh slaughter would affect the Philistines, so he goes to this cave and hides out like an animal. With all of his feats up til this point, I’m not sure why he did this. Yes, he had to know they’d come looking for him, but he also already knew what he was capable of doing with the Lord’s Spirit upon him.
16.Read Judges 15:9-17. What were the Philistines doing in these verses? 17.Who did they approach?
This is the first time in our story of Samson that a military presence has been utilized. They basically sent a whole army to fetch Samson and he was an army of 1. If God be for you, it doesn’t matter who is against you.
18.The Philistines go into the territory of Judah and they spread out across what area?
We don’t know if this is a specific city or not. It could be that this is the author of the book’s way of letting us know what is soon to occur. The name Lehi means jawbone.
19.Keep in mind that the Lord had raised Samson up to be the deliverer of Israel and instead of joining him in this conquest, what do the men of Judah ask Samson?
20.How many men from the tribe of Judah are gathered and for what reason do they gather?
21.Once the Israelite men reach Samson, what do they tell him they’re going to do to him?
Hey, can’t we all just get along?!! While they might have considered their current situation with the Philistines as peaceful coexistence, it was anything but that. The Israelites were forced to pay tributes or money to these people just to be able to keep their lives. This is not peaceful coexistence! They viewed Samson as a troublemaker instead of a deliverer. Unfortunately, it reminds me too much of what is going on today in Gaza and Judea and Samaria. Israel has always been willing to give up land for peace, but the Palestinians have never reciprocated that. I have no doubt that the Philistine men thought that since the moment Samson laid his eyes on his bride there had been a consistent series of unfortunate events. He had burned their crops, killed their men, stolen clothing off the backs of other men that he murdered, and messed with their minds by posing riddles.
Samson appears to share the same moral virtue (or lack of it) that his enemy had. Regardless of what happened, it is shameful that the men of Judah sold out their own.
22.What does Samson make these men promise?
23.What do these men do with Samson?
Read Judges 15:14-20. Can you imagine this scene? Here is the man who has caused so much pain and anguish to the Philistines coming towards them bound up with new rope and they are thrilled and rejoicing to see him subdued.
24.What (or Who) rushed upon Samson when he was marched into the Philistine camp?
The literal Hebrew says that the ropes melted off his hands. 25.What did Samson find after his ropes dropped off his hands?
There are 2 reasons for informing the reader that this was a fresh jawbone:
1. It was another violation of his Nazarite vow. If this was a fresh corpse, then he was coming into contact with a dead body.
2. Because the corpse was fresh, it would have been harder than if it had been sitting there for a while, in which case, it would have been brittle.
26.After he swings that jawbone around for a while, what is the result?
27.Read Joshua 23:10. What was said in Joshua’s day about what would happen in the future?
28.In our story thus far, Samson has not called out to God for help. Why does he then call out in v. 18?
The Jewish historian, Flavious Josephus, commented in his book that Samson was rendered thirsty because he took all the credit for the killing of 1000 men back in v. 16. I don’t know. I guess that is possible. I tend to just think that it takes a lot out of a guy to kill 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey. It just so happened that he was nowhere close to water and his fatigue was so great that he might not have made it safely to a place where he could drink.
I find it interesting that Samson performed an incredible feat and it caused him to thirst. I find it interesting that our Savior emptied Himself out on the cross in the greatest sacrifice of history and it caused Him to thirst. God provided Samson a refreshing drink. But, He only allowed a bitter, nonrefreshing taste of gall to His only Son. Think about this, Christ was denied so that you could be filled and nourished. This is one of the greatest paradoxes in Scripture!
29.How did God answer Samson’s plea for water?
I want you to notice something here, Samson had to get to a desperate place before he acknowledged God and cried out for help. I’m not sure that we want to follow that pattern. Acknowledge God in the everyday, mundane things for He is there in the simple and in the extraordinary events of our lives. Once Samson acknowledges God, he does something in his plea that I think is worth recognizing, he reminds God (really he reminds himself) of what God had done for him in the past. There are many notations in my Bible where I have prayed a particular prayer for a family member and I’ve tied it to the promises of God. Sometimes when I come across those notations, I also see a note of reference about how God answered that prayer, with a date of when it was answered, it is a faith builder. And I sometimes, just like Samson, pray “Father, I remember when You did ________________, can you please do this again for __________________?”.
Echoing back to God the things He has done for us and the things He has promised us is a good thing. It’s not that we’re reminding Him to remember, for He needs no reminders. Those reminders are for us! It helps us to remember the faithfulness of the One who called us. Remembering is important to God.
30.Look at the verses below and note how remembrance plays a role in the prayer:
Exodus 32:11-13 Neh. 1:8-10
1 Cor. 11:24 Psalm 77:11-14 Luke 17:11-19
That last one really gets me. Here’s the lesson, the faithful always return. Only 1 out of 10 men who were healed returned with gratitude to the Lord. Always return. Always be grateful.
31.In v. 19, where did the water come from?
This does not mean that the water came forth from the actual jawbone that Samson used to kill those 1000 men. Remember, this place named Lehi, literally means jawbone in Hebrew. Isn’t it fascinating that in the place calledJawbone, Samson takes an actual jawbone of a donkey and slays 1000 men?!!! Samson names the area where God provided the water, Enhakkore, which means “the spring of the caller” or “the caller’s spring” in Hebrew. He did this to remember how God answered his call for water due to his thirst. Renaming a place to reflect what God had done in that place was a common practice for the Jews.
32.Read the verses below and note what place was renamed or why it was called to be remembered:
Gen. 22:14 Gen. 28:18-19 Gen. 32:30 Joshua 4:19-24 1 Sam. 7:12
What do you get when you cry out to God and you remind Him of His faithfulness and you tell Him your needs and He answers your prayer? You get relief. You get refreshment. This is what we learn in Judges 15:19. While we may not be asking for water, water is only an analogy to whatever our particular need may be. The refreshment of God’s water is available to all of His children.
33.In Judges 15:20, how long did Samson judge Israel?
The 20 years that he judged must have allowed him to experience the respect that a judge called by God should have been given. While Samson was the judge in Israel, the victory over the Philistines was only partial. It would not be until King David’s time that they were squashed. With Deborah, Gideon, and Jephthah, the victory was complete.
I am always hesitant to dive into chapter 16, because I know what is coming. Chapter 15 ended on a high note. Chapter 16 also ends on a high note, but getting to that note is painful. Verse 1 starts out this part of Samson’s story with a bang!
34.What did he do?
Are you blushing yet? I told you this book was rated R! If taking a Philistine wife was not bad enough, now he is with a harlot, a prostitute, and a Philistine one at that!
35.Where did this happen?
Gaza was the center of the Philistine rule and power. After what happened at Tinmath, I don’t really think too many people would have been willing to restrict him from doing as he pleased. Remember, this is 1 of the 5 cities that the Philistines lived in. If you are reading the King James Version of Judges 15:1-3, you will see the terminology, “come thither”. I cannot help but smile when I read those words.
36.Where did Samson’s sin begin?
I can tell you this, it began a long time before the actual act of sex. Sometimes when I’m working with children, I will take a piece of paper and fold it into 6 or 8 sections and I’ll have them retell the story while I illustrate it in the paper sections with stick figures.
Let me demonstrate below. Let’s say that I have a little fella who gets his lunchbox stolen from him by another kid and he ends up getting so mad at this other kid that he hits the other kid and hurts him. This act causes him to get in trouble with the teacher and he has to sit in timeout for the rest of the day. It might look something like this:
If I asked the kid which box caused him to get into trouble, almost always the kid will say #4. That is the box where he actually hit the other kid. But in actuality, the trouble started when he thought about hitting the other kid, not when he actually hit him. The problems started in box #3. Now, let’s transfer this over to Samson. His trouble didn’t start when he slept with the harlot.
His trouble started with his eyes, when he saw her and he lusted after her. Sin often begins with our eyes and then it goes into our minds. Our eyes are a gateway to our brain. Such is the lesson of Samson’s sin.
37.Read Judges 16:2-3. Who ratted Samson out to the magistrates?
My guess (and it is just a guess) is that the harlot did.
38.What did the magistrates do that they thought would contain him?
39.What did he do to counter this?
We don’t know what caused him to awaken at midnight. Perhaps it was a dream or some other way that God got his attention. I really want to picture this in my mind. Here he is at midnight taking the gates of the city off their hinges, bars and all and instead of just laying them down, for some reason, he carried them several miles on his shoulders all the way to Hebron! Friends, that is about 37-40 miles!!!!
Whenever something in Scripture seems completely nuts, we must stop and investigate the “whys” of it all. Why in the world would he carry those heavy gates nearly 40 miles? Why in the world would he carry them up to an exposed hilltop? Here’s some possibilities:
To leave the heavy doors, posts, and bars upon a hilltop where everyone could see them would have been humiliating to the Philistines. It would have exposed their inability to keep Samson imprisoned in their city.
In the Ancient Near East, city gates represented the strength of the city by highlighting their security. Stealing them meant that he had stolen their defenses.
He could have just busted them down and walked out. But taking those gates uphill so far away would have proven to them that he could have his way with them.
ThisactaloneprovedthattheGodofIsraelhadHishandonSamsonfor it seemed that he could go wherever he wanted to go and do whatever he wanted to do and there was nothing they could do about it.
I want to also point out here that going to a foreign city to have sex with a prostitute was ungodly. We haven’t seen a whole lot of godliness in Samson and yet, the writer of Hebrews says that he was a hero of faith who lived by God’s promises. As we examine his life, we must hold these 2 truths together.
40.Read Judges 16:4-17. Who was the detestable woman that Samson loved and where was she from?
41.What does King Solomon say about a whorish woman in Prov. 7:26 and Prov. 6:26?
42.Was Samson married to Delilah?
We actually don’t even know if she was an Israelite or a Philistine although I highly suspect she was a Philistine. The Philistines knew that there was some supernatural power that Samson had. They feared that power and how it could afflict them, but even more than that, they hated the fact that he had humiliated them and their gods time after time after time.
43.In Judges 16:5, they ask Deliah 3 questions. What are they?
________________ him.
See where his ____________________ lies.
Find out how we can ______________________ against him so that we can
______________________ him.
44.What was to be her payoff for this discovery?
Each of the lords of the Philistines promised this payment. If we calculate that there were 5 Philistine territories, then that payment would have been 5x the 1100 pieces of silver making this 5500 pieces of silver which would make Delilah a rich woman. Our own Savior was sold out for 30 pieces of silver and He was done so by the kiss of one who supposedly loved Him. Samson was also sold out by the kiss of one who supposedly loved him.
45.What do you discover about money from the following verses: Ecc. 5:10
Luke 12:15
Matt. 6:24
Friends, God owns everything. He merely allows us to manage what He allows us to have. The love of money is a dangerous spiritual trap that so many people fall into. Delilah had a special love affair with wealth or the possibility of it. Greed has caused the fall of many a person.
46.What is the first question Delilah asked Samson?
Do you find this a little nuts?!!! I do! She’s like, “Hey, we know you’re Superman. Where’s your Kryptonite? We want to know so that we can destroy you”! The craziness of this question is in the obviousness of it. Villains frequently target loved ones in order to compromise the deep affection of the one they want to destroy. It happens in the movies and it happens in the Bible. The Philistines are the villains here and Delilah is the targeted, wicked loved one. I tend to think that in our own cultural vernacular, she would have said something like, “Hey Samson, you’re so big and strong! I’ll bet there’s no way that anyone could harm you because you probably don’t have any weaknesses. Am I right?”.
47.What was Samson’s response to Delilah?
48.What did Delilah then do to him?
She had apparently not heard or not remembered what happened at Etam when Samson was bound with fresh cords. That whole “jawbone” thing was surely a story that spread like wildfire through the Philistine camps and yet, here they were doing the same thing by binding him with fresh green withs. In ancient times, green withs were fresh, undried plant fibers, or moist animal gut, or pliable twigs that could be used as ropes or bowstrings. The 1st Century historian, Josephus says these were “vine shoots, but fresh vine shoots which would be ridiculously inadequate. The number seven is used as the sacred number implying perfectness; and it is one of the signs that even thus early Samson is playing about the confines of his secret”.
49.What happened to the experiment of the 7 green withs?
“So his strength was not known”. Oh how frustrated this wicked woman must have been. She was probably already on her way to the bank counting her money when he snapped those cords like a twig. Amazingly, she didn’t seem to have any fear of him. She had him captivated under her sexual spell. It always makes me a little sick when I see women who make a living off of hooking up with wealthy men and it is obvious to the world that those men have nothing going for them except their wealth. NFL coach Bill Belichick (age 74 and ugly) is dating Jordan Hudson (age 25 and beautiful). Anna Nicole Smith (beautiful model and actress) married J. Howard Marshall (old, ugly billionaire) when she was 26 and he was 89 and in a wheelchair. Crystal Harris (beautiful Playboy bunny) married Hugh Hefner (perverted founder of Playboy magazine), when she was 26 and he was 86. Do you think any of these women were motivated by true love? Not a chance! Money was the motivator. And when money is the motivator, there will never be enough of it to satisfy the receiver.
50.How did Delilah respond to Samson when she realized that he had been untruthful to her?
51.In round #2, what did Samson tell Delilah was the secret of his strength? 52.How did round #2 turn out?
53.Next comes round #3. How did that turn out?
It is hard to weigh whether Delilah was more wicked or whether Samson was more inclined to his sexual desires. This was a dangerous combination and a prescription for disaster. She was persistent in her pleas for information and she pestered him until he spilled the beans.
54.What did he finally tell her was the secret to his strength?
“His soul was vexed unto death” means that he was tormented day and night by her continuous pestering to the point of mental exhaustion, the kind that makes it mentally unbearable. Have you ever had one of your children ask you for something that you knew you would never do and their persistence wore you down to the point where you simply caved to their demands? I think most parents have been down this road with a child. It’s tough and it’s exhausting. By the time Samson got to this point, his state of mind was not good. And “he told her all that was in his heart”. Now he is in mortal danger.
Sharing one’s deepest thoughts with just anybody can often put the person sharing in a compromising situation. When I work with young people, one of the things that I often talk about with them is:
Who is safe to share personal stuff with?
How do you determine that safety?
How much information should be shared?
What degree of information needs to be kept between you and God
only?
It takes wisdom to understand these things and it also takes life experience. Samson had life experience, but he lacked the wisdom. My husband, Todd, is the person I trust most in my life to share my heart with. He is my safest person this side of heaven. But even with him, there are certain things that are only between me and God. Those are the deepest things.
55.Did the secret of his strength really lie in his hair or was it something else?
Let’s revisit his Nazarite vow. He was set aside by his parents initially to be in a holy relationship with God. He was to never cut his hair. He was to never come into contact with a dead body. He was to never drink of the vine. There would have been wine flowing and available at his first wedding feast. We are never told that he drank, but I think there is a very good possibility that he did. He violated coming into contact with dead bodies because in addition to the dead animals, he slaughtered numerous people. But the hair, well.....it appears that his hair had not been touched. This was the only one of these 3 requirements that had been followed. There was nothing magical about Samson’s hair. It was an outward symbol of his oath to God. His power lie in the fact that the Spirit of God came upon him at times when he needed it. That power was represented in part by his hair.
56.Read Judges 16:18-21. This is the part of Samson’s story that makes me cry and cringe. Did Delilah get her money?
57.What did she do to get his head shaven?
Josephus commented in his history book, The Antiquities of the Jews, that she gave him some intoxicating liquor so that he was in a drunken-like stupor. This would have also been a violation of his Nazarite vow.
There was a movie that came out in 1991 starring Julia Roberts that was called, Sleeping with the Enemy. It was one of the most unsettling movies I’ve ever seen. She was married to a controlling and abusive husband and she ended up faking her own death and relocating to another state with a new identity. He eventually tracked her down. Yes, she was sleeping with the enemy. Samson was sleeping with the enemy. And here’s the thing, while you sleep, your enemy does not. Samson’s enemies were many and they were plotting while he was asleep physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
58.When he woke up, what did he intend on doing?
59.What did he fail to realize?
This is perhaps one of the most frightening things in Scripture. We have no idea just how blessed we are to have the continuous indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we receive that blessing upon our conversion. It was not like this in the Old Testament. The Holy Spirit would come upon some people and He would leave some of them.
60.What happened to King Saul in 1 Sam. 16:14? 61.Read Ezekiel 10:18-19. What happened here?
Prior to the destruction of the 1st Jewish temple in 586 BC, the glory of God left. In this vision, the prophet Ezekiel was taken back to Jerusalem to the Temple Mount and he witnessed God’s presence leaving in incremental stages. This happened because of the idolatry of the people. The visible manifestation of the glory of God was gone from their midst and they didn’t even know it! The power and glory of God upon King Saul was removed and he did not even know it. The glorious power of God’s Spirit upon Samson which allowed him to exact God’s vengeance upon God’s enemies was gone and he did not even know it. How many churches across our great land are void of God’s presence and those within its walls do not even know it? Oh what a frightening picture this paints and yet, countless churches meet each week believing they are involving themselves in true worship and what they are doing is a counterfeit of the real thing.
I pray that we are constantly reminded of God’s presence within us and that we never ever take that for granted. What a generous gift we have been given and what an incredible promise we have that He will never leave us nor forsake us.
I find it very interesting that the path Jesus took prior to His ascension into heaven was the same path that the Spirit of God took in the book of Ezekiel. This is pretty fascinating.
These 2 departures are very similar and yet, very different. The Spirit of God leaving in Ezekiel’s vision seems to do so with reluctance but also to show His people that His glory will not coexist with unrepented sin. This left the temple completely open and vulnerable to the destruction that later came in 586 BC. When Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives, it signaled that His redemptive work was complete. Ezekiel’s vision ends with the hope implanted that one day, the glory of God would return (Ezek. 43:1-4). When Jesus ascended, the angels told the disciples that He “will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). This directly links Jesus Christ’s return to the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s vision.
And now here with Samson, the Spirit of God left him temporarily, only to return with glory in his final moments of breath on this earth. And just like the glory of God departed back into heaven and Jesus ascended into heaven, Samson was escorted through the gates of heavenly glory to live forever in the presence of the living God. Oh my goodness, how rich this story is!
62.When the Philistines did get their hands on the shaven Samson, what did they do to him?
Sin is enslaving. Those who live in it are prisoners. Samson was a prisoner to his lusts and now he is a physical prisoner to the Philistines. He was blinded by his desires and now he is physically blinded. It is hard to miss the clear analogies in his story. This time Samson was not bound with cords or with green withs, he was bound with brass. The Philistines upped their game.
63.Once they had him bound and blinded, what did they force him to do? 64.Read Judges 16:22-31. What started happening in v. 22?
The outward sign of his Nazarite vow began to be seen again. No doubt, Samson had repented of his wrongdoing against God. This was a humbling process. We should desire for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren that none of them learn the hard way. To be humbled in such a public way is humiliating and is a testament to an unteachable spirit. Although Samson’s spirit was unteachable for most of his life, in this last part of his life, he became teachable.
65.How did the people in Philistia respond to Samson’s imprisonment?
They were so proud of their false god, Dagon. Much of what has happened in this story was an affront to their gods. Therefore, when they had the opportunity to celebrate their god/s, they were thrilled and proud of them. They knew that it had been Delilah who had betrayed Samson and yet, they still attributed their momentary victory to a false god.
Think about this, if they attributed Samson’s weakening to their god, imagine how this reflected on the God of the Jews.
66.What do you learn from the following verses about the importance that God places on His own name:
Psalm 23:3 Ezekiel 36:22-23 Psalm 106:8 Ezekiel 20:9
1 Sam. 12:22
Friends, this life we lead is not about us, it is about Him who saved us. God’s namesake means that He has a reputation on the line for His honor and glory. What is getting ready to happen in this story is not about Samson, it is about God’s faithfulness and His working through human instruments to make a name for Himself in the earth. When those Philistines marched Samson out of his prison cell to make fun of him by putting him on display at their drunken feast, they were making fun of the God he represented, the God of the Jews. God does not take kindly to that.
67.How many people were at this feast?
68.What in these verses leads you to believe that these people feared nothing at this point, they especially didn’t fear Samson?
Drunkenness and debauchery couched in idolatry might seem pleasurable for the moment, but it is only for a moment. This kind of behavior has lured many a person into the false impression that life is good and safe and fun. Nothing could be further from the truth.
69.When the lad led Samson out of his prison cell and into the feast, what was Samson’s request of him?
Samson’s plea for help in this last hour of his life is one of the most pitiful yet hopeful pleas in all of Scripture. He knew his life was nearly over and seemed to be resigned to that fact. He knew the sin he had manufactured all on his own accord against his God. He knew that not only were they making fun of him, they were making fun of the God he served. His plea was heartfelt and humble and I’ve now read it probably 100x and it makes me cry every single time because I feel like I am crawling through the pages of time and witnessing this once great man who failed on so many levels reduced to the pinata at a kid’s birthday party where these evil Philistines were poking at him and knocking him around all for the fun of it.
And then I find myself so very grateful that God answered Samson’s final plea. 70.What was his plea and how did this play out?
71.Was God glorified in this final action? How?
72.When the rubble was cleared, what happened to Samson’s body?
I am so glad he was honored in his death. And to this day, he is still honored. The writer of the book of Hebrews leaves no doubt about the fact that his life started well and ended well. It was the in-between that got him in trouble.
Ah, so what is the moral to the story of Samson? There’s a few that I can think of:
Moral weakness, pride, and a lack of self-control can destroy even the greatest of God-given gifts.
God can and will still use flawed human beings to accomplish His purpose.
Sin = Consequences
4. You can have all the gifts in the world, but if you don’t have wisdom and character, you can still fall down.
5. God is a God of grace and redemption.
6. God proved to be sovereign over Samson’s sin.
To the young child, Samson might seem like a Marvel or a DC hero. Samson was physically strong but morally weak. His life was full of these kinds of ironies. And yet, the Spirit of the Lord rushed repeatedly upon him. He was spiritually weak and then he became physically weak. He was spiritually blind and then he became physically blind.
#6 above is the real clincher to this story. God worked sovereignly through Samson’s sin to accomplish His will. A little more than 1000 years after the angel appeared to Samson’s mother to announce his birth, an angel appeared to Mary saying, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus.” (Luke 1:31) Samson was given to his people to rescue them from the hands of the Philistines. Jesus was given to the whole world to save us from our sins.
The really wonderful news about Samson’s story is that if we put our hope and faith in Jesus Christ, our strength can be renewed and we can be cleansed regardless of what we’ve done. God is always in the business of restoration. I’m looking forward to seeing Samson in heaven one day and seeing a redeemed man with clear sight and restored strength!
Blessings....
