Judges 15:1-16:31, God does not give up on Samson, but God has another who will respond differently to his call

Judges 14:20-15:8 (NIV) And Samson's wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding.


15:1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in.


2 "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead."


3 Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." 4 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, 5 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.


6 When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend."


So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.


• It is strange that Samson's wife is given away, after all, it was only a bet
• It was a bet that the Philistines could not lose. They threatened to burn her (the wife) and her Father
• Samson kills (muders?) thirty Philistines to pay off his part of the debt
• Who was Samson was very angry at? Probably his wife since he went home to cool off
• Some time later, after his anger had subsided, Samson goes to visit his wife with a gift
• Not flowers or candy, but a goat (that they can both eat together)
• Samson rarely ever thinks of someone else, but always includes his interests in the equation
• Apparently the word for foxes could also mean jackals. Constable writes that they travel in packs and are relatively easy to capture
• Burning of standing corn was a common method of retaliation in the ancient world (Constable)
• What motivates Samson's actions against the Philistines? Who he is serving?
• Himself
• He only sees life through the lens of what is good for him
• In the end, Samson's wife faces the same death she tried to avoid. As a result, how does Samson respond
• Revenge
• Viciously attacks and slaughters many
• What is the controlling factor in Samson's life? Revenge
• What is revenge?
• Revenge is ultimately selfish
• Revenge is making something right in one person's eyes by harming the other person (justice or retributive punishment)
• Ultimately, it is really "all about the person" and not about justice
• APPLICATION: Where is an area of my life, a hurt that someone may have done to me (purposefully) that I just need to let go? Assumption it is not a believer, it is not something that has already been discussed, and it is not something the other person would have no idea about ...


Judges 15:20-16:20 (NIV) Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.


16:1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."


3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.


4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."


6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."


7 Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man."


8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.


10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied."


11 He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man."


12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.


13 Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied."


He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric [on the loom] and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and tightened it with the pin.


Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.


15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.


17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."


18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.


20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!"


He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him.


• We skipped the story of how his countrymen turn him into the Philistines. The Judahites were compromisers who preferred slavery to freedom. Many Christians are just like that -- we prefer slavery to some sin then freedom from it
• In this section we see a driving purpose in Samson's life, what is it?
• To feed his flesh
• He sees something and then must have it (vs 1)
• The second time it says "he fell in love" although the love does not appear to be reciprocal. The woman is not threatened but rather enticed with gold
• The name "Delilah" has a Semitic root for "devotee." She could be Jewish, in which case she would be a Philistine sympathizer. She could be a temple prostitute, but last time it said when the girl was a prostitute. She could be a Philistine, but previously it had also pointed out that fact
• If she was Jewish, she and her family evidently prefer living with the Philistines than associating with the people of God
• Samson has two weaknesses, what are they?
• Nagging women
• Hair cut
• Actually, is it really the hair that gives him strength? Why or why not?
• Other verses have made it clear that it is the Holy Spirit
• Also, if the Nazirite vow was the reason, the touching of dead carcasses would have disqualified him much earlier
• The fact that Samson thought it was his hair shows a real misunderstanding
• Verse 20 says that he did not know that the Lord had left him
• Why does God leave Samson?
• The better question is why did God stay so long with Samson
• Samson was deserving of discipline
• Samson was wrong in his actions
• Samson was guilty of sin
• … And God was very patient with Samson (but even God's patience with sin has a stopping place)
•  APPLICATION: We may get away with sin for a time, but if you are a child of God, He will, for your own good, call you to account. Deal with it now, don't wait


Judges 16:21-31 (NIV) Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.


23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands."


24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,


"Our god has delivered our enemy
into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
and multiplied our slain."


25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.


When they stood him among the pillars, 26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, "Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them." 27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. 28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, "O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." 29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, 30 Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.


31 Then his brothers and his father's whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.


• Why the eyes?
• Because the eyes have been the source of his problem from the beginning
• He could not control his eyes or his lust
• What was his job in prison?
• To mill grain
• Which would get to the other issue of his appetite
• Samson has really only prayed once before and that was a very selfish cry, if it even was a prayer, for water. What is different this time about Samson? What is not different?
• His prayer is humble
• He recognizes his insignificance compared to God
• He really does believe
• (Same) He still has a desire for revenge
• The epitaph of his life is that he killed more in his death than in his living
• In essence, he was more effective for God dead than he had been alive
• And what is the result of his 20 years of judging?
• Nothing changed
• The Philistines still rule over the people
• The people have still not cried out to God for deliverance
• Still, no one is teaching the word of God
• All is not lost, for there is a young man alive, just two years younger than Samson and his name is Samuel
• APPLICATION: If God can't use us or we are not willing to serve him, he will find someone else
• APPLICATION: God will ultimately discipline us just as a Father loves his children