Ep. 65 - Samson (Part 2)

In the last episode, we were talking about the story of Samson…Israel’s 12^th and final judge. Samson, had been born to a small family on the border between Israel and the Philistines (the Philistines having oppressed Israel for 40 years). Now Samson was no ordinary kid. Through a Nazirite vow, God had given Samson super-human strength so that he could “begin to deliver the Israelites”. But as Samson grew up, and began to get stronger and stronger, instead of fighting the Philistines, it seems that he made friends with the Philistines…even going as far as marrying a Philistine wife. But the marriage feast did not go very well. During the feast, Samson made a bet that if the Philistines could solve a riddle, then he would give them 30 outfits. But if they couldn’t solve the riddle, then the Philistines would give Samson 30 outfits. After some time, the Philistines found that they couldn’t solve the riddle. So they convinced Samson’s bride to get the answer out of Samson…which, at the threat of being burned alive, she did. Of course, Samson got super angry…and waltzed down to one of the big Philistine cities, killed 30 men, took their outfits, and gave them to the Philistines to cover the bet. Then, feeling cheated by his Philistine friends and betrayed by his Philistine wife, Samson stormed off to his parent's home to cool off. Now that his Philistine “friends” had shown their true colours, would Samson finally start fighting them like he was born to do? Or would he still try to be friends with the Philistines? Well, let’s find out.

After some time being home with his parents, Samson’s anger eventually wound down. And that’s when his weakness for pretty Philistine girls reared its ugly head again. Because, despite everything that had happened, even though the Philistines had treated him really badly, and even though he’d killed all those men, Samson decided to go back to Timnah to get his wife. But when he got there and spoke to the girl’s father, he got some devastating news. And the girl’s father said to Samson, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. ” (Judges 15:2) So, after Samson had killed 30 men just for their outfits, and after Samson had stormed off in a rage, for whatever reason, this guy decided…ya know what would be a great idea…I think I’ll go ahead and marry off this man’s wife to some other guy…I’m sure that won’t come back to bite me later! Lol. If the Philistines thought that Samson had been angry before, well they hadn’t seen anything yet. And Samson replied to the father, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” (15:3) And Samson went off to get his revenge.

So, what did Samson do? Well, Samson found a way of causing the greatest amount of damage with the least amount of effort. And the Bible says that 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. 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.” (15:4-5) Now how Samson managed to catch 300 foxes, we have no idea. I don’t know what foxes are like where you kidzos live…but around here you hardly ever see foxes…never mind catching them. But somehow Samson managed it. Two at a time, Samson tied their tails together with a torch in between. And Samson took these 300 foxes, went around all the Philistine farms, lit the torches on fire, and released the foxes into the super dry grain fields that were just about ready for harvest.

Now, I don’t know if you kidzos have ever tried tying two animals together, but what ends up happening is that the two animals end up kinda tugging against each other. And because neither of them understands what is going on, they both try to run away from each other…which only causes more tugging…which only causes them to get more scared…which only causes more running… And before you know it, the two animals are running off this way and that…each animal tugging harder and harder…with neither animal really in control of where they are going. (Which, btw kidzos, don’t try this at home…it really not that nice for the animals!) But by doing this with the foxes, Samson made it so that that the foxes didn’t just run in a straight-line home after he released them…but that they went all over the countryside with the lit torches following behind them…which made sure that fires started in as many places as possible. And this seemed to have worked quite well. Because not only did all the grain fields catch on fire, but all the vineyards, and olive groves too.

Now when the Philistines came out of their homes and saw all of their fields ablaze (can you kidzos imagine what that would have looked like?), they were pretty upset. And of course, the first thing they wondered was, “Who has done this?” (15:6) And somehow, someone told them the whole story - that there was a guy named Samson, that he’d married a Philistine girl in Timnah, that her father gave Samson’s wife away to some other guy, and that this was Samson’s revenge. So, what did the Philistines do? Well, they were out for blood and the brutal Philistines figured that the best way to get Samson to show his face again…was to kill Samson’s Philistine wife. Which they did…by burning her and her father to death. Yah…horrible. (Boy kidzos that poor woman…just trying to stay alive…) Well, if the Philistines were trying to get Samson’s attention, they succeeded. And when Samson found the people who’d murdered his wife and father-in-law, he said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you… (15:17) This time there would be no more playing around with foxes. And the Bible says that Samson, “attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter;” (15:8) “Attacked them hip and thigh” is an old expression meaning Samson just went all out on them…he didn’t hold anything back. And even though the Philistines were probably waiting for Samson with a whole ton of men, Samson went directly at them and with his super-human strength, and he killed them all.

After Samson had had his revenge, instead of going back home, he decided that he needed to go somewhere a bit safer…a bit farther away from the Philistines. And Samson went and found a cave close to a place called “the rock of Etam”, which was a long way south in the center of Israel…in the tribe of Judah close to a place called Lehi. Of course, the Philistines were still determined to get Samson. And this time, realizing that they were dealing with something extraordinary, the Philistines called up their army. And the Philistine army, one of the best armies in the world at that time, marched right into Judah, and formed themselves into battle array close to where Samson was holed up. And there they waited for Samson to come out.

The men of Judah obviously couldn’t help but notice the huge Philistine army camped close by. And wondering what was going on, they asked the Philistines, “Why have you come up against us?” (15:10) And the Philistines answered, and said, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.” (15:10) That is to say, they were there to kill Samson. Now of course, this is when the men of Judah were like, great…finally someone is fighting these brutal Philistines…let’s join this Samson guy and finally get these Philistines off our backs…right? Well, no. Not only did they not join Samson’s fight against the Philistines, but they actually got on Samson’s case! And they said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?” (15:10) The men of Judah were petrified of the Philistines and would do anything to keep the Philistines happy. So they didn’t like Samson upsetting the status quo. But they didn’t stop at just criticizing Samson. They were so afraid of the Philistines…and so much in their pocket, that they were going to help the Philistines to get what they wanted. And they told Samson, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” (15:12)

Samson’s heart must have sunk into his stomach. His own people were against him. Samson was truly alone. And he was in a difficult spot…because if he didn’t surrender to the men of Judah, he’d have to fight them. And he really didn’t want to do that (never mind that God probably wouldn’t have allowed Samson to use his super-strength to kill God’s people). So, not knowing what else to do, Samson surrendered to the men of Judah. But before he did, Samson asked them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.” (15:12) And the men of Judah replied, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” (15:13) Samson reluctantly agreed to this, and they tied him up with two new ropes and then they led him up and out of the cave to give Samson to the Philistines. When Samson arrived on the plain where the Philistine army was camped, as soon as the Philistines saw him, they decided they weren’t taking any chances. And immediately the whole Philistine army charged at Samson. Enough was enough…they were going to get Samson this time.

Wow so Samson was in big trouble. There he was, all alone, all tied up and not able to move or defend himself, with the whole Philistine army bearing down on him. What was Samson going to do? Well, there wasn’t anything that Samson could do…but God wasn’t done with Samson yet. And the Bible says, “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon [Samson];” (15:14) And you kidzos know what that means…yah Samson got super duper strong! And the Bible says that “the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.” (15:14) With this newfound strength coursing through his veins, the ropes that had been binding Samson’s hands all of a sudden felt super soft…like they were nothing. So, snap…off the ropes went! Of course, the Philistine army was still rushing towards him, and Samson quickly looked around for something to defend himself with. Maybe he could find a a rock or even a sharp stick…anything! And just before the Philistines reached him, out of the corner of his eye, Samson saw something white. And the bible says that Samson, “found a jawbone of a donkey” (15:15) Well, it was better than nothing. And just in time, just as the first Philistine soldier reached him, Samson got a hold of the jawbone…and with God’s super strength, Samson began to use the jawbone to fend off the Philistines. One after another the soldiers attacked Samson, and one after another, Samson killed them with the jawbone. And the Bible doesn’t give us any other details about the fight, but as the day wore on…after continuous attacks by one of the best armies in the world…1000 Philistines were dead and Samson was still swinging.

At some point, the Philistines realized that they weren’t going to win, and that they had better stop sending soldiers into the meat grinder…or the whole army might be lost. So, the Philistine army finally pulled back. After the army began retreating, Samson threw down the jawbone and looked around. Wow…he’d killed a lot of Philistines. And all of a sudden, Samson became very weak. He was exhausted…and super thirsty. It had been hard work killing all those Philistines in the baking sun…even with God’s super-strength. But the Philistine army was still close by, and Samson was worried that they would attack him again while he was barely able to move. So, Samson cried out to God, 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?” (15:18) And God heard Samson’s prayer. And the Bible says, “So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out…” (15:19) There was a low spot in the ground close by. And God kinda did a mini version of what He’d done during the Korah rebellion (remember when God split the ground underneath the rebels and they fell into the abyss). Well God split open the ground in this low spot. And after God had done this, water came up out of the ground. And the Bible says that Samson, “drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived.” (15:19) Of course, the Philistine army saw all this. And even if they’d been thinking to attack Samson again, once they saw that God had split the ground open just because Samson had complained he was thirsty, they thought twice of it. And the Philistine army retreated…never to attack Samson again.

This was truly an Israelite victory like no other. Samson had single-handedly (or should we say single “jawbonedly”) defeated an entire army. Through just one man, God had done amazing things. Now, the Philistines were still around, and they were still oppressing God’s people. But God was definitely fighting for the Israelites. And God had even done all this through a man who was…shall we say…less than enthusiastic about fighting Israel’s enemies…at least at first. We truly serve both a powerful and merciful God…a God who does amazing things…even through less than perfect people. But what was going to happen next? Would Samson follow up his victory and single-handedly throw out all the Philistines? Or would the Israelites maybe grow a spine and join Samson in his war against Israel’s oppressor? And had Samson figured out that maybe he should steer clear of pretty Philistine girls? Well, we will find out all about it…next time.