Judges 12 – 16
The reading starts with Jephthah’s conflict with Ephraim. This is one of those internal squabbles which cost the lives of 42,000 of their brothers. I am not sure I understand why this happened, as in verse 12:3 where Jephthah questions them also:
And when I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my hand and crossed over against the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?”
Here men of Israel are fighting because of pride mostly. There may have been treaties that were violated, but either way this is an odd story.
Starting in chapter 13 we start the story of Samson. In verses 13:3 – 5 an angel of the Lord came to Samson’s mother and told her what would happen:
3 And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
The story goes on and becomes strong and powerful. He does as he was promised and frees the people from the Philistines. Throughout they give example after example of his strength and wisdom, yet after all this his secret is lost to a woman in 16:15 after three failed attempts:
And 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 you have not told me where your great strength lies.”
I don’t understand men, logic and love. Here Samson is lied to three times, where he tells her the wrong secret to his strength. Each time Delilah does what he said would remove his strength and sets him up for an ambush. He breaks free and defeats the ambush. The only saying “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me,” comes to mind here. But Samson gets fooled four times, not just one other time.
Samson with his strength gone gets captured and his eyes are gouged out. He was brought before the Philistines and ridiculed. In one final move he was brought to the middle of the structure and prayed to the Lord in verse 16:30:
And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.
In a final sacrifice he destroys the building and all who were in it, fulfilling his “destiny” to free Israel from the Philistines. What do you get from these stories? Live in harmony with your brothers and don’t trust a woman. Kidding on the woman comment!! Really the story of Samson shows us the power of God channeled through one person. Also, it shows how one can so easily throw logic and their faith out the window because of earthly love. We need to protect ourselves from that problem at all times. I am seeing it in our house now, where our spiritual lives are being radically changed by someone we love and are adopting. Our “normal” worship is being interrupted by problems that arise and need to be addressed at that moment.