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Judges Chapter Fifteen（ESV）

1 After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. 2 And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” 4 So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards….

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. 16 And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,

heaps upon heaps,

with the jawbone of a donkey

have I struck down a thousand men.”

 

REFLECTION

1. When Samson learned that his bride has been given to someone else, he took revenge and said: “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines”. Escalation followed each time with the same kind of thinking that Samson uttered above.  It seems that Samson gave no thought to the oppression experienced by the people he led.  His vendetta with the Philistines was personal.  He hated the Philistines not for what they had done to his people but for what they had done to him personally.
2. God used Samson’s selfishness to “begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines” (13:5). But Samson himself is revealed to be a shallow person, without the spiritual depth or concern for the special calling from God of the deliverance of his suffering people.

 

PRAYER

Lord, You fulfill Your plans through varied and unexpected means and people, even selfish Samson.  “Praise be to the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds.”(Ps 72:18)