Judges 14
Notes
Transcript
Prequel to Saviors that fail: When: Israel was in slavery for 400
years. Then Moses led the Exodus into the desert. His successor,
Joshua, let them into the promised land. The 12 tribes of Israel
came from Jacob’s (aka Israel) 12 sons. The “Judges” didn’t judge
in a courtroom. They were “deliverers” or “saviors”.
The Canaanites were the people living in the promised land when
the 12 tribes of Israel got there. The various “-ites” (like Perizzites
or Midianites) can be thought of as sub-tribes of Canaanites.
Last week on Saviors that fail: We met Samson’s parents, who
had some knowledge of God but were quickly becoming just like the
Philistines who were oppressing them. Assimilation, not invasion, is
the greatest threat to a people. Samson (“Sunny”) grew up with
the blessing of the Lord.
This week on Saviors that fail: God picks a fight. Samson breaks
almost all the rules. It’s cool, though, cause like, he’s a strong poet.
Application →Impulsive, proud, compromising, a
loner, unteachable→ don’t be like Samson. ....
And will
someone finally tell Spain about the Light of the world???
Judges 12:8-13:25 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
Judges 14 (CSB)
Samson’s
Riddle
14 Samson went
down to Timnah and saw a young Philistine woman
there. 2 He went back and told his father and his
mother: “I have seen a young Philistine woman in
Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.”
3 But
his father and mother said to him, “Can’t you find a
young woman among your relatives or among any of
our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines
for a wife?”
But Samson told his father, “Get her for me. She’s the
right one for me.” 4 Now his father and mother did not
know this was from the LORD, who wanted the Philistines
to provide an opportunity for a confrontation. At that
time, the Philistines were ruling Israel.
5 Samson
went down to Timnah with his father and
mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Suddenly
a young lion came roaring at him, 6 the
Spirit of the LORD came powerfully
The Philistine Menace: buccaneers, beer, bacon, & barbarism
Despite our modern pejorative use of “Philistine”, the Philistines invaded from
the Mediterranean Sea, probably from Crete and other islands, and settled on
the western coast of the Promised Land. They used iron weapons, battle
formations, and two-story houses when Israel was basically hanging out with
sheep. They were known for beer (seriously) and pork, which was unclean. They
were cruel and they tortured whole cities. Legit bad guys with weird hair.
on him, and he tore the lion apart with
his bare hands as he might have torn
a young goat. But he did not tell his
father or mother what he had
done. 7 Then he went and spoke to
the woman, because she seemed
right to Samson.
8 After
some time, when he returned to marry her, he
left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and there was a
swarm of bees with honey in the carcass. 9 He scooped
some honey into his hands and ate it as he went along.
When he came to his father and mother, he gave some
to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he
had scooped the honey from the lion’s carcass.
10 His
father went to visit the woman, and Samson
prepared a feast there, as young men
were accustomed to do.
11 When
the
Philistines saw him, they brought
thirty men to accompany him.
12 “Let
me tell you a
riddle,” Samson said to them. “If
you can explain it to me during the seven days of the
feast and figure it out, I will give you thirty linen
garments and thirty changes of clothes. 13 But if
you can’t explain it to me, you must give
me thirty linen garments and thirty changes
of clothes.”
“Tell us your riddle,” they replied. “Let’s hear it.”
14 So
he said to them:
Out of the eater came something to eat,
and out of the strong came something sweet.
After three days, they were unable to explain the
riddle. 15 On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife,
“Persuade your husband to explain the riddle to us, or
we will burn you and your father’s family to death. Did
you invite us here to rob us?”
16 So
Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said,
“You hate me and don’t love me! You told my people the
riddle, but haven’t explained it to me.”
“Look,” he said, “I haven’t even explained it to my
father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”
17 She
wept the whole seven days of the feast, and at
last, on the seventh day, he explained it to her, because
she had nagged him so much. Then she explained it to
her people. 18 On the seventh day, before sunset, the
men of the city said to him:
What is sweeter than honey?love
What is stronger than a lion?Samson
So he said to them:
If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow,
you wouldn’t know my riddle now!
19 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on him, and he
went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of their men. He
stripped them and gave their clothes to those who had
explained the riddle. In a rage, Samson returned to his
father’s house, 20 and his wife was given to one of the
men who had accompanied him.
Samson’s Revenge
15 Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a
young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go
to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would
not let him enter.
2
“I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave
her to one of the men who accompanied you. Isn’t her
younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take
her instead?”
Samson said to them, “This time I will be
blameless when I harm the Philistines.” 4 So he went out
and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches,
turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between
each pair of tails. 5 Then he ignited the torches and
released the foxes into the standing grain of the
Philistines. He burned the piles of grain and the standing
3
grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
6
Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?”
They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-inlaw, because he took Samson’s wife and gave her to his
companion.” So the Philistines went to her and her
father and burned them to death.
7
Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear
that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on
you.” 8 He tore them limb from limb and then went down
and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.
9
The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided
Lehi. 10 So the men of Judah said,
“Why have you attacked us?”
They replied, “We have come to tie
Samson up and pay him back for
what he did to us.”
Then three thousand men
of Judah went to the cave
11
at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you
realize that the Philistines rule us? What have you done
to us?”
“I have done to them what they did to me,” he
answered.
They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand
you over to the Philistines.”
12
Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you
yourselves won’t kill me.”
“No,” they said, “we won’t kill you, but we will tie you
up securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied
him up with two new ropes and led him away from the
13
rock.
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines
came to meet him shouting. The Spirit of
the LORD came powerfully on him, and the
ropes that were on his arms and wrists
became like burnt flax
I made a donkey out of them!
and fell off. 15 He found a
14
fresh jawbone of a
donkey, reached out his
hand, took it, and killed
a thousand men with
it. 16 Then Samson said:
Unlike other Israelites who praise God
after a battle (Moses, Miriam,
Deborah, David), Samson sings about
himself. The song is a lyrical pun. The
word “donkey” is spelled the same as
the word for “heap”. The joke is that
he made them into a heap of asses. lol
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have piled them in heaps.
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have killed a thousand men.
When he finished speaking, he threw away the
jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi. 18 He
became very thirsty and called out to the LORD: “You
have accomplished this great victory through your
servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands
of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split a hollow place in
17
the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After
Samson drank, his strength returned, and he
revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, which is
still in Lehi today. 20 And he judged Israel twenty years in
the days of the Philistines.
Questions for application
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Would you consider Samson “homeless”? Why or why not?
It is said, “remorse without repentance turns into bitterness.”
Does this apply to Samson? Has it happened to you?
How does Samson’s great feats of killing lions and Philistines
compare to Jesus’ great feats of calming storms and raising the
dead? Are there any similarities?
Samson is a one-man show . . . and it catches up with him! What
steps are you taking to stay connected, teachable, and
accountable to other Christians?