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Judges 13-16
Samson: Faith
in the Belly of Failure
Psalm 37:12-33 Keep the Law in Your Heart, Get Blessed
12.“The wicked plots against the just, and gnashes at him with his teeth.13.The Lord will laugh at him, for he sees that his day is coming.14.The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright in the way.15.Their sword shall enter into their own heart. Their bows shall be broken.16.Better is a little that the righteous has, than the abundance of many wicked.17.For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but Yahweh upholds the righteous.18.Yahweh knows the days of the perfect. Their inheritance shall be forever.19.They shall not be disappointed in the time of evil. In the days of famine they shall be satisfied.20.But the wicked shall perish. The enemies of Yahweh shall be like the beauty of the fields. They will vanish— vanish like smoke.21.The wicked borrow, and don’t pay back, but the righteous give generously.22.For such as are blessed by him shall inherit the land. Those who are cursed by him shall be cut off.23.A man’s goings are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way.24.Though he stumble, he shall not fall, for Yahweh holds him up with his hand.25.I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his children begging for bread.26.All day long he deals graciously, and lends. His seed is blessed.27.Depart from evil, and do good. Live securely forever.28.For Yahweh loves justice, and doesn’t forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.29.The righteous shall inherit the land, and live in it forever.30.The mouth of the righteous talks of wisdom. His tongue speaks justice.31.The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.32.The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to kill him.33.Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged."
Observation
37:12-33.The wicked hate the righteous and seek to destroy and kill them, but God protects those who are upright in heart, who have the law written in their heart. They will be protected and prospered/blessed. The children of the righteous will also be blessed, and not cut off from blessing as will those of the wicked. Remember the wicked are those who take God's law on their lips, but don't obey it (Ps 50). The righteous have internalized the law of God, so they victoriously follow it, and get blessed with blessings that endure.
Application
How are you getting and keeping God's law in your heart?
Prayer
God, thanks that You not only protect those who seek to be right in Your sight, but You bless them and their kids as well. Amen.
Proverbs 10:22-30 Delighting In What's Right
22.“Yahweh’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.23.It is a fool’s pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding’s pleasure.24.What the wicked fear, will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.25.When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous stand firm forever.26.As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.27.The fear of Yahweh prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.28.The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hope of the wicked will perish.29.The way of Yahweh is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.30.The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.“
Observation
10:22-30.Yahweh blesses the righteous, those who fear Him (and do what's right in His sight) with riches, pleasure, joy, protection, permanence/peace in the land, and a long life. The wicked can experience all but the last two temporarily, because God will bring sudden judgment upon them for their folly and wickedness.
Application
In what do you find pleasure? Those who delight in what's right and wise, will live to enjoy the fruit of their ways. Those who delight in what's not good are goners.
Prayer
Lord, help me crave what is good and right in Your sight, so that You are pleased to grant my desires, and I may rejoice in Your provision. Thanks. Amen.
Judges 13-16 Samson: Faith in the Belly of Failure
Judges 13 A Nazarite is Promised and Delivered
1.The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh; and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.2.There was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and didn’t bear.3.The angel of Yahweh appeared to the woman, and said to her, "See now, you are barren, and don’t bear; but you shall conceive, and bear a son.4.Now therefore please beware and drink no wine nor strong drink, and don’t eat any unclean thing:5.for, behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb: and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."6.Then the woman came and told her husband, saying, "A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of the angel of God, very awesome; and I didn’t ask him where he was from, neither did he tell me his name:7.but he said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive, and bear a son; and now drink no wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing; for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.’"8.Then Manoah entreated Yahweh, and said, "Oh, Lord, please let the man of God whom you did send come again to us, and teach us what we shall do to the child who shall be born."9.God listened to the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah, her husband, wasn’t with her.10.The woman made haste, and ran, and told her husband, and said to him, "Behold, the man has appeared to me, who came to me that day."11.Manoah arose, and went after his wife, and came to the man, and said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to the woman?" He said, "I am."12.Manoah said, "Now let your words happen. What shall the child’s way of life and mission be?"13.The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Of all that I said to the woman let her beware.14.She may not eat of anything that comes of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing; all that I commanded her let her observe."15.Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "Please, let us detain you, that we may make a young goat ready for you."
16.The angel of Yahweh said to Manoah, "Though you detain me, I won’t eat of your bread; and if you will prepare a burnt offering, you must offer it to Yahweh." For Manoah didn’t know that he was the angel of Yahweh.17.Manoah said to the angel of Yahweh, "What is your name, that when your words happen, we may honor you?"18.The angel of Yahweh said to him, "Why do you ask about my name, since it is wonderful?"19.So Manoah took the young goat with the meal offering, and offered it on the rock to Yahweh. Then the angel did a wonderful thing as Manoah and his wife looked on.20.For it happened, when the flame went up toward the sky from off the altar, that the angel of Yahweh ascended in the flame of the altar: and Manoah and his wife looked on; and they fell on their faces to the ground.21.But the angel of Yahweh didn’t appear to Manoah or to his wife any more. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of Yahweh.22.Manoah said to his wife, "We shall surely die, because we have seen God."23.But his wife said to him, "If Yahweh were pleased to kill us, he wouldn’t have received a burnt offering and a meal offering at our hand, neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told such things as these."24.The woman bore a son, and named him Samson: and the child grew, and Yahweh blessed him.25.The Spirit of Yahweh began to move him in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Observations
13:1-5.After 40 years of suffering consequences for their sin, God raised up the next deliverer, Samson. Unlike other judges, he is to adhere to a higher standard of holiness as a Nazarite (See comments on Numbers 6).
13:6-25.
Nothing necessary to the story is added after 13:6, just confirmation of God's promise, perhaps to get Manoah on board, and the revelation of the name of the angel as incomprehensible/secret/wonderful.
Application
When God promises, He delivers.
Prayer
God, I trust You to fulfill all Your promises to me. Amen.
Judges 14 Samson Gets and Loses a Wife
1.Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.2.He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as wife."3.Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?" Samson said to his father, "Get her for me; for she pleases me well."4.But his father and his mother didn’t know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel.5.Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold, a young lion roared against him6.The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn’t tell his father or his mother what he had done.7.He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.8.After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.9.He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but he didn’t tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.10.His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.11.It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.12.Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing;13.but if you can’t declare it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing." They said to him, "Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it."14.He said to them, "Out of the eater came forth food. Out of the strong came forth sweetness." They couldn’t in three days declare the riddle.15.It happened on the seventh day, that they said to Samson’s wife, "Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you called us to impoverish us? Is it not so?"16.Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, "You just hate me, and don’t love me. You have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and haven’t told it me." He said to her, "Behold, I haven’t told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?"17.She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people.18.The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" He said to them, "If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have found out my riddle."19.The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of clothing to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.20.But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.Observations
14:1.Samson seems to suffer from the same lack of self-control that plagued the children of the patriarchs. He sees, wants, and demands, regardless of what God has said.
14:4.
God is again orchestrating the deliverance of His people though nefarious means, although there is no specific mention of Israel's repentance and crying out to His as upon other occasions.
14:6-19.
Twice in this chapter, the Spirit of Yahweh comes upon Samson to accomplish God's purposes.
14:15.
The Philistines weren't a nice people, which is one of the reasons God planned to judge them.
14:16-17.
Not a good start to a relationship of lifelong bliss.
14:20.
Samson left burning in anger, and makes the situation worse: he loses his wife and she gets burned (literally - see next verses in 15:1-6). Acting in the passion of anger is never wise, yet God uses Samson's failures for His ultimate purposes and glory. But Samson suffered loss as the consequence of his anger and actions.
Application
Like Cain, if we don't master our passions, they will master us.
Prayer
Lord, may I add to my faith, self-control. Amen.
Judges 15 Two Burns and a Bone
1.But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a young goat; and he said, "I will go in to my wife into the room." But her father wouldn’t allow him to go in.2.Her father said, "I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead."3.Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I harm them."4.Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between every two tails.5.When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.6.Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" They said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion." The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.7.Samson said to them, "If you behave like this, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease."8.He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.9.Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.10.The men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" They said, "We have come up to bind 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, "Don’t you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" He said to them, "As they did to me, so have I done to them."12.They said to him, "We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves."13.They spoke to him, saying, "No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand; but surely we will not kill you." They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.14.When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands.15.He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith.16.Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men."17.It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi.18.He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"19.But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day.20.He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.Observations
15:4.Samson considered himself to be justly paying back the Philistines for their unjust treatment of him. It looks like God was helping him; ever try to catch a fox?
15:11-13.
The Israelites would rather live under oppression than risk God's deliverance. Samson trusted that God would empower him to escape.
15:14-20.
The Spirit of Yahweh again comes upon Samson resulting in deliverance for Israel and freedom for 20 years. God also answers him when he calls, miraculously providing water from a rock (in Hebrew = “spring of one calling”). Note that Samson has a better relationship with God than his contemporaries (and lots of folks today): trusting God, Spirit-filled/controlled/empowered, being used by Him to accomplish greater purposes of deliverance and rulership, and having God meet his needs supernaturally.
Application
How does your relationship with God compare to Samson's?
Prayer
God who delivers and meets the needs of His servants, may I be empowered by Your Spirit to accomplish Your purposes, not only in my life, but that of others. Amen.Judges 16 Faith in the Belly of Failure
1.Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her.2.The Gazites were told, "Samson is here!" They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, "Wait until morning light, then we will kill him."3.Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight, and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron.4.It came to pass afterward, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.5.The lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, "Entice him, and see in which his great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."6.Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies, and what you might be bound to afflict you."7.Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven green cords that were never dried, then shall I become weak, and be as another man."8.Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven green cords which had not been dried, and she bound him with them.9.Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room. She said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He broke the cords, as a string of tow is broken when it touches the fire. So his strength was not known.10.Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now please tell me with which you might be bound."11.He said to her, "If they only bind me with new ropes with which no work has been done, then shall I become weak, and be as another man."12.So Delilah took new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" The ambush was waiting in the inner room. 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 with what you might be bound." He said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web."14.She fastened it with the pin, and said to him, "The Philistines are on you, Samson!" He awakened out of his sleep, and plucked away the pin of the beam, and the web.15.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."16.It happened, when she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, that his soul was troubled to death.17.He told her all his heart, and said to her, "No razor has ever come on my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will become weak, and be like any other man."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 this once, for he has told me all his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and brought the money in their hand.19.She made him sleep on her knees; and she called for a man, and shaved off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him.20.She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson!" He awoke out of his sleep, and said, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But he didn’t know that Yahweh had departed from him.21.The Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he ground at the mill in the prison.22.However the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaved.23.The lords of the Philistines gathered them together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, "Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand."24.When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, "Our god has delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us, into our hand."25.It happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, "Call for Samson, that he may entertain us." They called for Samson out of the prison; and he performed before them. They set him between the pillars;26.and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, "Allow me to feel the pillars whereupon the house rests, that I may lean on them."27.Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were on the roof about three thousand men and women, who saw while Samson performed.
28.Samson called to Yahweh, and said, "Lord Yahweh, remember me, please, and strengthen me, please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."29.Samson took hold of the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and leaned on them, the one with his right hand, and the other with his left.30.Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" He bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people who were therein. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than those who he killed in his life.31.Then his brothers and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burial site of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.
Observations
16:1-4.Failure to subdue his passions was Samson's undoing.
16:16-21.
Delilah might have been pretty, but she was a world-class nag. Samson might have been super strong, but was weak-willed. When people think with anything other than their brain, they become blind to reality. You think Samson would have perceived her ploy, but he sacrificed long term service of God for temporary “peace.” What was he thinking? Oh, wait, he wasn't.
16:22-31. A bittersweet ending to a semi-tragic life. On one hand, Samson had huge potential, but lacked the discipline to harness it for the greatest good and glory. On the other hand, Samson exercised Hall of Fame Faith by calling on God in the belly of failure. As Samson put his faith into action in pushing the pillars, a plaque went up in Hebrews 11 saying “Samson Pleased God” (11:2,6). God answered in response to his call, as well as to deliver Israel and destroy Dagon. Samson ended far better than Gideon.
Heb 11:32 “What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets”
Application
It is never too late to do the right thing and trust God, calling upon Him, even if ensnared by our own stupidity. We'd do better if we avoided the stupidity part.
Prayer
God, You always answer so that You are glorified; use my life to glorify you. Amen.
Digging Deeper
God in a nutshell: God uses various means to accomplish His purposes, rarely raising up an individual from birth. God uses imperfect vessels, incorporating their foolish choices, but lets them reap the painful consequences of their sin. God answers His servants when they call, delivering in such a way as to glorify Himself and accomplish His plans.
Us in a nutshell: We often seek the low road of temporal gratification and comfort even when it results in more pain than doing the right thing. We sometimes use the gifts and abilities God has given us for our glory rather than God's. We don't have to be perfect to be used by God and be occasionally pleasing to Him, but we would have less pain and a more pleasant existence if we strove for perfection (or at least not being blooming idiots).
Where to go for more
Truthbase.netSamson: Faith in the Belly of Failure