Refusing To Take Responsibility

Angry that his Philistines groomsmen had cheated to win his bet, Samson had killed thirty Philistines and taken their clothes to pay his debt, then went back to his parent’s house pouting.   Assuming Samson no longer wanted to be married to her for having told his secret, her father gave her to the best man to be his wife.  A couple of months later, Samson got over being mad and decided he still loved her.  Since she was now married to the best man, her father refused to let him have her, as Judges 15:1-2.  “But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in.

And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.”  Samson’s storming out had convinced her father Samson didn’t really love her, but since he had paid for the wedding, he offered her younger sister instead.   

He felt insulted that they thought he didn’t really love her and decided to get even with them, in Judges 15:3-5.  “And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure.  And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.  And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives.” 

Trying to get away from the burning bundles of stuff tied to their tails, the foxes scattered into the fields and orchards, setting  hundreds of thousands of acres of crops on fire.  The Philistines got angry at the destruction of their crops and were looking for someone to punish in Judges 15:6.  “Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son in law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.”

The entire episode is Samson’s fault.  If he had obeyed God, he would not have been hanging out with the Philistines or decided to marry a Philistine woman.   If he had kept his Nazarite vow, he would not have eaten the honey from the lion’s carcase.  If he had not tried to cheat the Philistines he would not have made the bet he made.  If he had not been such a sore loser, his wife would not have been married to someone else.  Getting even didn’t make Samson feel abetter, and unwilling to admit his guilt he decided to punish the Philistines some more, in Judges 15:7-8.  “And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.  And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Etam.”

The Philistines were ruling over Israel, and Samson’s unprovoked attack angered them, as Judges 15:9-10 tells us.  “Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.  And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us?

And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.”  They wanted to arrest him and punish him for murdering so many Philistines. 

Fearing retribution, the Jews asked Samson to voluntarily surrender, in Judges 15:11-13.  “Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us?

And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.

And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines.

And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.

And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.”

Samson blamed everything on the Philistines, but agreed to surrender if the Jews would not get involved.  God had chosen Samson to free Israel from Philistine domination, and when Samson wouldn’t do it for God’s or Israel’s sake, God used his selfish and rebellious attitude to make him mad enough to fight them.  When the Philistine s accused him of murder, he got mad again, and the Holy spirit empowered him to fight, as Judges 15:14- 16 tells us.  “And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.  And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.  And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.” 

Samson didn’t even credit God with giving him the power to defeat the Philistines.  Instead he got mad and accused god of not caring because he felt thirsty, in Judges 15:17-19.  “And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.  And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?  But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.”