DBG - March 25 - Judges 14-17

In this chapter we have Samon’s failed wedding and riddle.

vs. 1-4 – Timnath was a city of Judah that was held at this time by the Philistines.  Here Samson find a woman he wishes to have as wife.  In vs. 4 we see that God was moving through this enter episode in order to cause Samson to turn against the Philistines. 

vs. 5-9 – Samson breaks the first of the three major restrictions he was under by touching a dead body (13:14).  He had killed a lion with his bare hands and later returns to see that bees have made a hive in its carcass.  Not only does he eat the honey, but he also gives it to his parents. 

vs. 10-11 – This is the wedding feast of ancient times.  An agreement has been made between the parents for the marriage and payment made for the bride.  The groom comes to claim his bride and a celebration ensues, here for 7 days.  The Philistines supply 30 attendants, a rather large number that may signal the wealth or status of Manoah and his family.  I think this could be an instance where Samson breaks the second major restriction and consumes alcohol.  Such an occasion among pagan peoples would be filled with drunken debauchery.

vs. 12-18 – Samson poses a riddle to the attendants amidst the revelry, promising a handsome prize of 30 shirts and 30 robes.  The numbers here matching the number of attendants is no accident.   Samson thinks himself clever by asking a riddle only he would know, referring to the honey in the lion carcass.  The greedy attendants pressure the bride to get the answer from her husband and threaten her family if she does not comply.  On the seventh day of the feast, he divulges his secret to her and she tells her people.  Samson is enraged at her unfaithfulness. 

vs. 19-20 – Samson goes to one of the chief Philistine cities, Askelon, kills 30 men and uses their cloths to pay the debt from the answered riddle.  His wife is given in marriage to one of the wedding attendants.    

In this chapter we have beginnings of Samson’s judgeship with his victory using a donkey’s jawbone.

vs. 1-8 – Samson seeks to reunite with his wife, even bringing the gift of a goat.  The father reveals that she has been given to another, offering her younger sister instead.  Samson gets his revenge for the slight against him by burning the fields of the Philistines that were ready for harvest, using foxes with burning sticks tied to their tails.  When the Philistines realize who had done this and why, they execute Samson’s former bride and her father.  Samson is further enraged, attacking and killing many Philistines before retreating a mountaintop called Etam (“lair of wild beasts”).

vs. 9-13 – The Philistines raise their army to seek out and capture Samson.  A force of men from Judah confronts Samson and he agrees to be taken the Philistines.

vs. 14-17 – When the Philistines see Samson they being to shout and Samson bursts from his bonds.  He again breaks the first restriction against him by touching a dead thing by taking up as a weapon the jawbone of a donkey.  With this strange weapon he slays 1,000 Philistines.  The place is called Lehi (“jawbone”) or Ramothlehi (“hill of the jawbone”).

vs. 18-20 – After the battle Samson prays one of two recorded prayers by him.  He believes himself on the brink of death after his exertion and practically demands God supply him with water.  God miraculously supplies for His weary warrior.  There is some confusion about how this happens.  The classic interpretation is that the water came from the jawbone, but more modern interpretations say that is from a spring at Lehi, which of course means “jawbone”.  The problem with that modern interpretation is that it assumes the place was called Lehi before this event.  If that is the case, then Samson killed used a jawbone in Jawbone, which seems a little too on the nose.  The Bible often calls places by names years ahead of when they are named such.  I think that is what is happening here.  The writer is saying ,“at Lehi, Samson killed 1,000 men,” not because it was called Lehi when Samson did so, but because that is what it was called as he was writing it.  The place this occurs is named by Samson Enhakkore (“the fountain of him that was calling”).

In this chapter we see Samson’s fall to Delilah’s wiles and his dramatic death.  The timing of these events is probably around the same time as the Battle of Mizpeh in I Samuel 7 in 1101 B.C., roughly six years before Saul is crowned king.

vs. 1-3 – Once again Samson’s attraction to Philistine women causes problems.  Here is caught in Gaza, another of their capital cities.  He carries the gates of the city twenty miles to Hebron.

vs. 4-22 – We finally come to the infamous Delilah (“languishing”).  The Philistine leaders exploit Samson’s attraction to her to set traps for his capture.  They press her to learn how to weaken Samson.  Three times she pressed him, and he lied three times about things that would weaken him.  Green cords, new ropes, and weaving his hair are all tried and each fail.  Finally, he gives away the secret, that third and final unbroken requirement of the Nazarite vow: cutting his hair.  After his head is shaved his downfall is completed and God’s supernatural strength leaves him.  He is taken prisoner to Gaza, where his eyes are put out and he is made to work a mill like an ox.

vs. 23-31 – The Philistines bring Samson into the temple of Dagon, the half-fish half-man god.  There God strengthens him one last time and he pushed the central support columns away and caused the temple to collapse.  He dies in the act and thousands of Philistines perish.  A different Philistine temple was unearthed in the 1970’s north of Tel Aviv that featured two central pillars, proving the Bible’s description as true - https://biblearchaeology.org/research/judges-united-monarchy/3800-between-the-pillars-revisiting-samson-and-the-house-of-dagon

In this chapter we have the story of Micah and the Levite.  This exemplifies the self-willed worship of the era.  This event and the chapters that follow are not chronologically after Samson but rather are exemplary or important events from the Judges era.  Reese’s Chronological Bible puts this chapter 1420 B.C., shortly after the death of Joshua. 

vs. 1-5 – We meet Micah (“who is like Jehovah?”), who lived in Mount Ephraim, a place that will later become Samaria.  It is a bizarre tale.  Someone stole 1,100 shekels of silver (~$31.000) from his mother, a considerable sum.  He confesses to the crime (the Fifth and Eighth Commandments), and the mother blesses her thieving son!  After he returns the money, she tells him she has dedicated it to the Lord to make idols (the Second Commandment).  An artisan is paid 200 shekels to make two idols from the remaining 900 shekels, making the two roughly 11 pounds each in weight.  With this beginning, they establish their own sanctuary for their idols.  You will note the blending of the true God Jehovah and pagan worship.  This is called syncretism.  It does not seem that they are attempting to worship Baal, Ashtaroth, or any other false god, but they are worshipping the true god through pagan means. 

vs. 6 – This is the key statement of the book.  Israel is in confusion spiritually and politically.

vs. 7-13 – Micah meats a Levite that had been dwelling in Bethlehem (“house of bread”) but seeking a new home and employment.  Micah hires him to be their personal priest in their shrine.  The Levite should have known better than to do this and also should have admitted that he was not qualified for the priesthood to begin with.  Money changes minds, especially those not firmly settled in truth.  The chapter closes with Micah assuming that he is really doing something great and that God is with him in these actions.  How said to see the truth so lost and compromised!

Samson’s life intrigues me.  He is mentioned in the great listing of heroes of faith in Hebrews 11.  He accomplished a few remarkable deeds and victories.  There must be more to his story that we do not know, because we know remarkably little for a judgeship of 20 years.  My main source of astonishment is that God used such a man who proved unfaithful to he call on his life and continually flirted with the enemy.  Of course, we should also apply the same question to us.  How often do we fail the Lord?  We must remember that it is not about us.  Personally, I do not think Samson looked like a bodybuilder.  I think God supernaturally provided his strength.  So it is with us.  We are nothing without Him.  We ought to take courage in that God is gracious and uses we faulty humans in His work!

Our hymn today is “A Present God is All Our Strength” by Phillip Doddridge.  It warns us to not be like Samson and take God’s blessing and empowerment for granted. 

A present God is all our strength,
And all our joy and hope;
When he withdraws, our comforts die,
And every grace must droop.

But flattering trifles charm our hearts
To court their false embrace,
Till justly this neglected friend
Averts his angry face.

He leaves us and we miss him not;
But go presumptuous on,
Till baffled, wounded, and enslav'd,
We learn that God is gone.

And what, my soul, can then remain
One ray of light to give?
Sever'd from him, their better life,
How can his children live?

Hence, all ye painted forms of joy,
And leave my heart to mourn:
I would devote these eyes to tears,
Till chear'd by his return.

Look back, my Lord, and own the place,
Where once thy temple stood;
For lo, its ruins bear the mark
Of rich atoning blood.