Samson Part 3

Ah Samson, what a lad…..

‘Later on’…..when he has had time to calm down and reflect, he changes his mind.

The prerogative of all teenagers.

He takes a young goat and goes to visit his wife.

Except he can’t. She has been given to one of the companions….as her father says –

“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”  Judges 15:2

Samson is not impressed. Even with the more attractive younger sister.

“This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.  Judges 15:3-5

The Philistines retaliate by burning the girl and her father to death.

Samson retaliates by attacking the Philistines viciously and killing many of them.

They have entered an all too familiar cycle of escalating retaliation.

Samson goes to stay (shouldn’t that read ‘hide away’?) in a cave in the rock of Etam (took me back to my teenage clothes shopping days – anyone else remember Etam?).

The Philistines find him and ask the people of Judah to bring him to them. They ask Samson ‘What have you done?’ (I can hear the tone…it’s one I’ve used a few times with my teenagers over the years) and Samson replies –

“I merely did to them what they did to me.”  Judges 15:11

Which isn’t technically true but we’ll come back to that later.

Samson agrees to let them tie him up and hand him over on the condition they won’t kill him themselves – and then the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and he breaks free from the ropes and takes a donkey jawbone he sees lying around and kills a thousand men. Just like that.

How can this be OK? These are men of Judah. They trusted him. And he makes donkeys of them (his words).

Samson is then rather thirsty. Desperately thirsty. He throws a teenage strop – ‘Bring me a drink. You never do anything for me. I’m dying here. If you don’t bring me a drink right now, I will actually die. If you loved me, you’d do this little thing for me…..’ –

“You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”  Judges 15:18

God hears. God answers. God meets his need.

Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.  Judges 15:19

And the last verse of the chapter is –

Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.  Judges 15:20

Really? So God is OK with everything that Samson has done? He really believes Samson is the best choice to lead, challenge and inspire his people? Is that the best He could do?

Samson has retaliated and believed he is justified – pretty much the ‘they made me do it’ mentality that we know and love in our teenagers (not!). But his retaliation is not in proportion and equal measure – ‘an eye for an eye’ was all about restrained retaliation, remember. There was nothing restrained about the way Samson behaved. He did not get even – there was nothing ‘even’ about his revenge – each time, he took the violence to a whole new level.

It happens so often and is so wrong. Molehills soon become mountains and lasting rifts occur over the most trivial of things. Wars break out. Lives are lost. irrevocable damage is done.

How can Samson lead Israel for twenty years?

Let’s be honest. This collection of judges in this book has hardly been the most inspiring bunch of people. Most of these leaders have been less than heroic. They’ve been portrayed totally honestly with no positive spin. A motley crew of unlikely men and women with many flaws that God chose to hold Israel together. None of them are a Moses or a Joshua, but then the people are not acting like the chosen people of God either. Standards are slipping all round. I guess this is part of what makes this book my friends’ Campbell and Ruth least favourite book in the whole Bible.

But maybe what we can draw from all of this mess and violence and evil is this.

God is righteous.

God is in control.

God is patient.

God starts from where we are.

God uses all kinds of people.

Each of these individuals was flawed but did have some faith in God. Maybe even a very little faith with very little understanding is enough for God to work with. Of course it is. We’ve seen God act through the most unlikely of people. I love being surprised by God in this way.