God Empowers Samson

After forty years of ruling over Israel, the Philistines could not afford to ignore Samson’s having killed so many Philistine people.  They invaded Israel in an effort to capture him, terrifying the people of Judah, as Judges 15:9-10 describes.  “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.”

 

In an effort to placate the Philistines so they didn’t attack them, the Men of Judah tried to get Samson to 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.’

 

When the men of Judah promised they would not attack, Samson agreed to surrender.  When the Philistines began cheering at his capture, Samson broke off the ropes he was bound with and grabbed the first thing he found to use as a weapon, in Judges 15:14-17.  “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.  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.”

 

It was the power of the Spirit that enabled Samson to destroy a thousand Philistines, but instead of thanking God for his power, Samson bragged about what he had done.  A few minutes later, realizing he was thirsty, He was blaming God for letting him die of thirst or be captured by the Philistines, in Judges 15:18.  “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?” Samson obviously understood that his victory came from God, but he was carnal and did not really appreciate what God had done.  As a result, when something was not just the way he wanted it, his guilty conscience led him to assume God was punishing him.  It is a common reaction among carnal Christians.    

 

Samson’s attitude was blasphemous, accusing God of not caring about him.  As Judges 15:19-20 makes very clear, God did care about him, miraculously supplying water from the jawbone.  “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.  And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.”

 

While Samson did not completely free Israel from Philistine domination, they would hesitate to push too hard for the next twenty years.  Though he never wholly followed the Lord, God continued to use him.