2020-09-20 Judges 15
Notes
Transcript
1 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?”
3 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 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-in-law, 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.
I. Are you driven by vengeance? (1-8)
I. Are you driven by vengeance? (1-8)
Samson was driven by his emotions and desires.
Samson was driven by his emotions and desires.
1 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?
2 You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You do not have because you do not ask.
3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
God transforms the way we see injustice.
God transforms the way we see injustice.
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud; instead, associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own estimation.
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes.
18 If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19 Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.
20 But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.
21 Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
II. Are held captive to fear?
II. Are held captive to fear?
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.”
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave 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.
12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.” Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”
13 “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 rock.
Fear leads you to embrace a way of life void of the power of God.
Fear leads you to embrace a way of life void of the power of God.
1 Be gracious to me, God, for a man is trampling me; he fights and oppresses me all day long.
2 My adversaries trample me all day, for many arrogantly fight against me.
3 When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?
Fear leads to compromise.
Fear leads to compromise.
4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears.
III. God’s faithfulness is not captive to our motives.
III. God’s faithfulness is not captive to our motives.
14 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 and fell off.
15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand men with it.
16 Then Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them in heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Jawbone Hill.
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 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 Hakkore Spring, which is still in Lehi today.
20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
Neither the selfishness of Samson nor the fear of the Israelites prevented God from accomplishing his plan.
Neither the selfishness of Samson nor the fear of the Israelites prevented God from accomplishing his plan.
28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
30 And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?