Judges Part 15

XV. Judges 15. A. vs. 1-2. 1. Samson showed a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation to the wife who had betrayed him. c/w ACT 2:36-40. 2. What woman would not be impressed with a young goat for a gift? Mind that a kid represented a good meal that even God might accept, or future milk. JDG 6:19; PRO 27:27. 3. The unjust remarriage of Samson’s wife is an example of worldly, presumptive folly. a. Where was the sense of probity in the woman and her father? Was Samson’s absence a justification for breaking covenant? c/w EXO 32:1; MAT 24:48; HEB 10:37-39; 2PE 3:3-4. b. Here is a warning against acting upon faulty premises/assumptions. Compare “I verily thought” (v. 2) with ACT 26:9. c. The offering of the younger sister (“She’s better-looking anyway”) may not have made points with his own family. d. The Philistine wife is not much unlike the weak church member who looks for the first seemingly reasonable excuse to abandon the faith for a substitute. 4. This account should remind us that the marriage covenant is not something to be dispensed with upon flimsy premises; that hurts, anger and temporary distance may well happen in marriage, and that family should be very cautious about interfering in the relationship. 5. “Matrimonial cases have been numerous, and sometimes intricate and perplexed; made so not by the law of God, but by the lusts and follies of men; and often in these cases people resolve, before they ask, what they will do.” (Matthew Henry) B. vs. 3-5. Though he had presented himself as a forgiving reconciler, his overtures had been insulted and rejected. So Samson took vengeance. 1. Though betrayed unto death by the nation to Whom He had been born, Christ gave Israel a chance of pardon through repentance and faith, but the bulk of the nation rejected Him still. Only a remnant were saved. 2. What happened in 70 A.D. was the vengeance of God, and Christ in parable even referred to Rome’s military as His armies. LUK 21:22; MAT 22:7. 3. Though PETA would have had a meltdown, Samson used three hundred foxes (not three hundred Fox News employees) to accomplish his purpose. C. vs. 6-8. 1. Somehow, the Philistines had correctly deduced the reason for the carnage (perhaps from Samson’s speech itself, v. 3) and took out their frustrations on Samson’s wife and father-in-law. 2. These brutish fools did not pursue or attack mighty Samson, but chose to destroy his weak family members. This was not justice but cowardice. a. Compare this with the way persecutors (even Saul) went against the church  of Christ. b. Let us be wary of taking ugly vengeance on the associates of our own sinful exercises, as David seemed to do with the citizens of Rabbah. 2SAM 11:1, 17 c/w 2SAM 12:29-31. c. Samson’s wife, who sought to save her life, lost it. c/w LUK 9:24. 3. Samson retaliated with what sounds like a full “Chuck Norris” treatment, hobbling them and trampling upon them in his fury. c/w ISA 63:3. D. vs. 9-13. 1. In spite of Samson’s great victory over dark forces of the enemy, his countrymen nevertheless folded as easily as his wife did to Philistine pressure. c/w JOH 10:32. 2. One could argue that they were being prudent, and counting the cost of resisting an opposing force, per LUK 14:31-32. a. Sacrificing one of your own to the wicked demands of the enemies of righteousness is not being prudent; it is being cowardly and self-loving. c/w 2TI 3:2. b. What they did is not unlike what Judas and the Jewish leaders did to Christ, or what churches have sometimes done in capitulating to the excesses of civil authority under color of civil obedience, echoing, “...We have no king but Caesar” (JOH 19:15). c. Samson was being betrayed again but this time it was not by Philistines. Philistines will be Philistines but better should be expected of Judah. 3. Samson, being still under the Spirit’s care and power, submitted to their demands, knowing that it would not be his undoing. c/w JOH 10:17-18; ACT 2:23-24. E. vs. 14-17. 1. The Philistines shouted jubilantly at the coming of a bound Samson. But the triumphing of the wicked is short. JOB 20:5. 2. They were numerically a flood compared to one Samson, but see ISA 59:19. 3. The Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him and his bands were loosed. v. 14. a. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2CO 3:17. b. The resurrection of Christ “...according to the spirit of holiness...” (ROM 1:4) was the loosing of “...the pains of death...” (ACT 2:24). c. Our deliverance from the bondage of the flesh is owing to our walking in the Spirit. GAL 5:16. 4. Samson didn’t just chase a thousand, he chastised a thousand. c/w JOS 23:10. 5. His weapon was the jawbone of an ass, for God exalts His power through insignificant or despised things. 1CO 1:27-29. 6. Samson forgot 1CO 1:29 but at least he threw away the jawbone and didn’t make a relic out of it. v. 17. F. vs. 18-20. 1. Samson gave God the glory after he was humbled and in trouble. We do well to give God the glory before, during, and after any victory we might enjoy in Christ. 2CO 2:14; ROM 8:37; PHIL 2:12-13. 2. Samson’s close encounter under God’s power was followed by a humbling, as was the case with Jacob and Paul. GEN 32:31; 2CO 12:7. 3. Samson wisely called upon the LORD for deliverance. c/w ROM 10:13.