Judges 15-16

Thursday Evening Bible Study

November 3, 2011

Introduction

Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision

As we look at the life of Samson, there are some things to keep in mind. First, God considered him one of the heroes of faith –

(Heb 11:32 NKJV) And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:

Samson was a “Nazirite”. This means a person who has a special dedication to God. Samson was dedicated to the Lord by his parents, even before he was born. A Nazarite demonstrated his dedication to God by

1. No grapes

2. No haircuts

3. No dead bodies (no zombies at Halloween)

Samson wasn’t a perfect man. He had serious flaws. He seemed to like to be like the moth that liked to fly close to the flame.

His main weakness had to do with women.

Last week we saw him demand that his parents arrange a marriage for him with a Philistine girl (not an Israelite girl).

When Samson made a bet with the Philistine wedding guests about a brain-twisting riddle, they persuaded his soon-to-be wife to get the answer from him.

Samson left the wedding party a very, very angry man.

15:1-20 Samson and Jawbone

:1 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.

:1 in the time of wheat harvest

Late April or early May. The mention of the wheat harvest plays into what follows next. The fields are ready to be harvested.

:2 Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”

:2 I really thought that

God is going to use this misunderstanding of the father-in-law, but there is a principle we could learn by as well.

Lesson

Silence isn’t always golden

Sometimes it is appropriate to keep your mouth shut

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” – Mark Twain

(Pr 17:28 NKJV) Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive.

But sometimes when we keep silent about things we should have talked about, people can misunderstand what we’re thinking.

(Pr 18:13 NKJV) He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.

It’s wise not to make a judgment on something before you’ve heard the entire case. But not everyone is going to hold back on judging something before they hear the final word.

Illustration

At the urging of his doctor, Bill moved to Texas for the healthier climate. After settling in, he met a neighbor who was also an older man. “Say, is this really a healthy place?” “It sure is,” the man replied. “When I first arrived here I couldn’t say one word. I had hardly any hair on my head. I didn’t have the strength to walk across a room and I had to be lifted out of bed.” “That’s wonderful!” said Bill. “How long have you been here?” “I was born here.”

It’s the way many jokes work, making you think of something before you get to the end of the joke, and they you realize you guessed the wrong conclusion.

The lesson for us is to not be surprised if people misunderstand our silence.

:3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!”

:4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

:5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

:5 he let the foxes go

It would have taken a little bit of time and planning to capture 300 foxes.

When the foxes were tied tail to tail with a burning torch on their tails, they would have run crazy, setting everything on fire.

Samson is a very clever man.

:6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

:7 Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.”

:8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

:8 attacked them hip and thigh

This is a metaphor from the world of wrestling. You know what that means. It speaks of a vicious, ferocious attack. And it’s real. Honest.

:9 Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi.

:8 rock of Etam – ‘Eytam – “lair of wild beasts”

Play Etam map clip. It’s located in the tribe of Judah, two miles south of Bethlehem.

:8 Lehi (“jaw”)

We think it’s nearby Etam.

:10 And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.”

:11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”

:11 What is this you have done to us?

The men of Judah are upset with Samson because he is stirring up trouble for them with the Philistines.

Lesson

Don’t stop short

Every Israelite wanted to be free from the tyranny of the Philistines.

But not every Israelite understood what the cost was of freedom.

The men of Judah were too short-sighted to see that Samson was being used by God to bring deliverance.

All they cared about was that Samson stop rocking their boat.

You see the same principle at work when Moses was sent by God to deliver the Israelites from the slavery of Pharaoh in Egypt.

When Moses showed up in Egypt, initially things got worse for the Israelites instead of getting better. Pharaoh made their work harder instead of easier. When Moses reminded the people that God was going to deliver them …

(Ex 6:9 NKJV) So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.

They didn’t want to hear it. They wanted to quit.

Over the years I have seen people delivered from all kinds of things.

For a few, the deliverance seems to come pretty easy.

For most, things get harder before they get better.

Don’t give up.

:12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

:13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

:14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.

:15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

:16 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!”

:16 Heaps upon heaps

What we don’t realize in English is that Samson has composed a rhyme.

It’s based on the similarity between the sounds of the Hebrew words hamor (“donkey”) and homer (“heap”).

James Moffatt renders it: “With the jawbone of an ass I have piled them in a mass. With the jawbone of an ass I have assailed assailants.”

We’ve got news footage of the battle. Play “Samson and Jawbone” clip.

:16 the jawbone of a donkey

The victory wasn’t because of the superiority of his weapons

In the old King James, the phrase is, “the jawbone of an ass”

Think of the humiliation of the Philistines with all their superior weapons, how they were defeated by a single man armed with the jawbone of an ass.

For Samson, it was a great feat to defeat the Philistines with nothing but a donkey’s jawbone. It had to be God.

For the Philistines, it was total humiliation.

:17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.

:17 Ramath Lehi – Ramath Lechiy – “height of a jawbone”; or, “Jawbone Hill” (NLT)

:18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”

:18 now shall I die of thirst

I don’t know about you, but this sounds a little “whiny” to me.

Lesson

Post Battle Letdown

It might seem that after a great battle, that the God follower ought to be happy and rejoice.

Usually it’s just the opposite.

You shouldn’t be surprised if after the greatest victories that you find yourself depressed or struggling.

Elijah challenged the priests of Baal and won the contest of calling down fire from heaven – and then he ran with fear into the wilderness, afraid of Queen Jezebel, and said that he wanted to die.

Paul might have experienced the ecstasy of seeing heaven, but afterward he found that he had to live with a “thorn in the flesh” to keep him from being proud.

:19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

:20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

:19 En Hakkore – ‘Eyn haq-Qowre’ – “spring of One calling”

:20 judged Israel twenty years

We saw last week that the Philistines ruled over the Israelites for forty years (Judg 13:1)

(Jdg 13:1 NKJV) Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

The end of the Philistine rule won’t take place until the time of Samuel (1Sam. 7:13)

(1 Sa 7:13 NKJV) —13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

This places Samson’s life very close to the time of the kings.

16:1-22 Samson and Delilah

:1 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.

:1 Gaza

Play Map to Gaza clip. Samson heads south. The same “Gaza” as today.

:1 saw a harlot

What is a man “dedicated to God” (Nazirite) doing with a prostitute?

Samson is again flying too close to the flame.

:2 When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.”

:3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

:3 the hill that faces Hebron

Play Hebron Hill map clip.

Hebron is 40 miles away from Gaza.

It might be that he just took it to the top of a hill that was on the way to Hebron, some have suggested a hill that’s a forty-five minute walk from Gaza.

:3 put them on his shoulders

Samson turns what might have been a “close call” into a joke.

Lesson

Don’t mistake patience with approval

Samson has gotten away with all kinds of things in his life. And he still continued to be used by God. He still had his amazing strength.

There are times in our lives where we kind of have this idea that we’re doing the wrong thing. In fact, we KNOW we’re doing the wrong thing. But we never seem to get caught or suffer too badly for our sin. And sometimes we can even fall into the trap of thinking that it’s no big deal that we continue in sin.

God doesn’t always punish our sin right away. Sometimes He’s patient.

His patience is meant to give us a chance to turn around.

(Ro 2:4 NKJV) Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

Don’t mistake the fact that you’ve gotten away with things to think that God doesn’t mind that you do them. God is simply being patient with you.

(2 Pe 3:9 NLT) The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

:4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.

:4 Sorek – Sowreq – “choice vines”

See Map to Sorek video. This area is north of Samson’s home stomping grounds.

:4 Delilah –“feeble” or “devotee”

Some see her name reflecting that she made Samson “feeble”. She may have been a temple prostitute for the Philistine god Dagon.

She is now the third woman Samson has been involved with.

:5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

:5 Entice – pathah – (Piel) to persuade, seduce; to deceive

:5 eleven hundred pieces of silver

There were five lords of the Philistines, one for each of the major Philistine cities. This means that Delilah would receive 5500 pieces of silver. That’s a LOT of money.

:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”

:6 tell me where

She isn’t very subtle, is she?

Lesson

Pride and Fall

Why would Samson even give the time of day to someone who seems interested in finding out how to destroy him?

It seems he thinks he’s invincible.

When you think you’re invincible, watch out.

In the James Bond movie “Golden Eye”, there’s a character named Boris who has convinced himself that he can’t be hurt because he survives every difficulty. He thinks he’s “invincible”, right up until the end.

Play “I am Invincible” clip

The Bible says,

(Pr 16:18 NKJV) Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.

(1 Co 10:12 NKJV) Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

:7 And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

:8 So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them.

:9 Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he broke the bowstrings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known.

:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”

:9 men were lying in wait

Does Samson know they’re in the house with him???

:10 you have mocked me

Lesson:

Temptation makes you stupid

There’s no other way to put it.

There is kind of a high that comes from getting close to temptation. But you run away at the last minute and are okay. Until you want to fill the thrill of that high again.

It’s like a moth and a flame. It flies closer and closer until it’s burned.

Earlier with Samson’s fiancé, she kept pleading and crying until he gave in and told her what she wanted to know – and it got everyone into trouble.

:11 So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

:12 Therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And men were lying in wait, staying in the room. But he broke them off his arms like a thread.

:13 Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

:14 So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom, and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep, and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom.

:13 seven locks – this gives us an idea of what Samson did with all that hair. He wore his hair in “locks” or “braids”.

(Jdg 16:13 NLT) …Samson replied, “If you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I would become as weak as anyone else.”

He’s starting to get a little closer to the truth. His answers are now about his hair.

I would hope he can see that she’s not going to be satisfied until he gets a little closer to the flame.

Lesson:

Progressing

They say that this is what happens with drugs. It starts with something small like marijuana, but it never seems to end there. You need a stronger high, and move on to the next step.

We ought to be progressing, but progressing toward the Lord.

(1 Jn 2:3–6 NKJV) —3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

:15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength lies.”

:15 How can you say, ‘I love you’

Lesson

Mr. or Mrs. Right?

If you’re looking to get married, and you hear your date challenge your love because you won’t do a bad thing, take note.

Delilah is definitely not the person Samson should be with.

The net effect of her presence in his life is to destroy him, not to build him up. She is only out for what she can get from Samson, not what she can give to him. She is continually tempting him to sin, not encouraging him towards God.

Husbands and wives, be careful of manipulating your spouse like this.

:16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death,

:16 she pestered him daily

This is exactly what happened earlier with his Philistine fiancé –

(Jdg 14:17 NKJV) Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed him so much. Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people.

Lesson:

Flee Temptation.

Samson seems to be a good runner when it comes to temptation, but he always seems to be running the wrong way. Samson tends to run TO temptation rather than away from it.

The Bible says,

(1 Co 6:18 NKJV) Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

:17 that he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

:17 I have been a Nazirite to God

We often make the mistake of thinking that Samson’s strength was in his hair.

His hair only showed his commitment to God (as flawed as that was).

:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.

:19 Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.

:19 she began to torment him – ‘anah – to humble, mishandle, afflict; to humble

Perhaps this is her way of testing him to see if his strength is still there.

This is not a woman who loves Samson. She is using him.

:20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

:20 he did not know that the Lord had departed

It seems that when Samson’s hair was cut, God decided that Samson had gone far enough. God left him.

To me, this is one of the most tragic verses in Scripture.

Lesson:

The work of the Spirit isn’t always so obvious.

And that’s why when it left, Samson couldn’t tell.

Sometimes we think that the Holy Spirit is always going to send electrical charges down our spines and make our hair stand up straight. We think that someone speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit has to have some kind of weird, altered voice.

When we think of Samson, we think of huge feats of supernatural strength. But in reality, Samson’s strength apparently came in such a natural, subtle way, that Samson was totally unaware when it had left him.

The truth is that the Spirit likes to work in a quiet, natural way!

Lesson:

Stop pushing the limit

It seems that there can be a point where you can go too far.

David prayed,

(Ps 51:11 NKJV) Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

Am I saying a person can lose their salvation? Maybe.

Paul writes,

(Ga 5:19–21 NLT) —19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

It’s those who make a way of life, who “practice” these things that are in serious danger.

“Have I lost my salvation?”

Whether or not you have it not really the issue. The issue is to repent from your sin and stay close to Jesus!

If your life looks too much like the things Paul describes, I would take this VERY seriously.

:21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.

:21 a grinder in the prison

In the movies Samson is chained to a large grinding mill.

It may have been a simple hand mill for grinding wheat – doing a woman’s job

Lesson

Sin’s results

We don’t often think about this when we’re in that exciting moment of temptation with Delilah teasing us or letting us sleep on her lap.

I think it wouldn’t hurt to think of the consequences of our actions.

Have you thought about who would be hurt by your sin? Try making a list of who will be affected if you keep doing this.

Where is your sin leading you? What is its ultimate result?

Sin blinds us, binds us, and grinds us.

:22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.

:22 the hair of his head began to grow

This is kind of an obvious statement. Of course his hair began to grow. But I think the point is that Samson didn’t have it cut anymore. He let it grow. It would seem that he renewed his Nazarite vow.

Lesson

God’s second chances

There would continue to be horrendous consequences to Samson’s sin. He was still a slave to the Philistines. He was still blind.

But God began to work again in his life.

This is grace.

16:23-31 Samson’s Death

:23 Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said: “Our god has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy!”

:23 Dagon – a grain god adopted by the Philistines from the Amorites

Dagon’s upper body was human and the lower body was that of a fish. Sounds something like a mermaid or a merman.

:24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, And the one who multiplied our dead.”

:25 So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may perform for us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars.

:25 he performed – tsachaq – to sport, play, make sport, toy with, make a toy of

I have two theories of what this might have looked like.

Cecille B. DeMille had him being mocked and made fun of by the Philistines:

Play Samson Performing clip.

My other idea is that maybe they made him audition for their hit TV show “Philistia Has Talent”. I’ve got a clip …

Play clip of Sylvester Stallone singing

:26 Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.”

:27 Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there—about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed.

:28 Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

:29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.

:30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

:31 And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.

:30 the dead that he killed at his death

Samson had killed 30 Philistines in the matter of the riddle/game that went bad. Samson had killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey when they tried to capture him. This time he kills 3,000 when he pulls the temple down on himself and them.

Play “Samson Destroys Temple” clip

Lesson

Finish well

Samson did have a victory of sorts at the end of his life, but I’m not sure his is the example we want to follow.

(1 Co 9:24–27 NLT) —24 Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! 25 All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. 26 So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. 27 I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.

In the end, Samson’s life wasn’t nearly as effective as it could have been because he did not exercise self-control.

Illustration

Lord Joseph Duveen, American head of the art firm that bore his name, planned in 1915 to send one of his experts to England to examine some ancient pottery. He booked passage on the Lusitania. Then the German Embassy issued a warning that the liner might be torpedoed. Duveen wanted to call off the trip.

“I can’t take the risk of your being killed,” he said to his young employee. “Don’t worry,” said the man, “I’m a strong swimmer, and when I read what was happening in the Atlantic, I began hardening myself by spending time every day in a tub of ice water. At first I could sit only a few minutes, but this morning, I stayed in that tub nearly two hours.”

Naturally, Duveen laughed. It sounded preposterous. But his expert sailed, and the Lusitania was torpedoed. The young man was rescued after nearly five hours in the chilly ocean, still in excellent condition. Just as this young man did, so Christians should condition themselves by practicing devotional discipline, behavioral discipline, and discipline in doing good.

-- Cited in Christianity Today, February 1979, p. 25.