Judges 16:4-22.  Yesterday we talked a little more about how the Israelites were content to live with the Philistines ruling over them.  They had learned to coexist.  But God was not content.  Letting sin go on forever, allowing us to be separated from Him forever, is not something God is willing for to allow.  Back in the book of Genesis when sin first entered onto the scene God pushed Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and put a guard on the entrance, a powerful angel.  God wanted to prevent mankind from eating from the Tree of Life that was in the garden thereby sealing his doomed existence forever (Genesis 3:22-24).  God had a better plan, a plan to pay for our sins himself (See more in “The Old Testament Connection”).  The Israelites were part of that plan, Samson was part of thea plan, and we are part of that plan.

The Bible teaches us that God knows everything and alway has.  That includes all of the bad choices that all of have and will ever make.  The Israelite were making bad choices and so was Samson.  In todays reading Samson continues to follow his own passions instead of looking to God for direction.  Again it involves a woman.  He just cannot seem to get enough of those Philistine women.  For the first time we actually get a name for the woman in Samson’s life.  Although the meaning of the name is unsure (See “What’s in a Name?”) two of the possibilities are interesting.  Her name may come from an Arabic root and mean “Flirtatious” or it may be a contraction of the hebrew word meaning “of the night”.  As we will see she certainly seems to flirt with Samson, sucking him down the path of his misguided desires.  Darkness often represents evil in the Bible while light represents God and his path for us.  Delilah certainly represent both of those ideas, flirting and a path other than Gods.

Samson seems to be involved with Delilah for some time.  He is with her long enough for the leaders of the Philistines to find out where he is and who he is with.  they then approach Delilah with an offer of a lot of money.  One source indicates that this would be about 17 pounds of silver.  Today that would be worth about $8500.00.  In the time of Judges though that would allow you to buy 200 oxen with some money left over for land or several fields (2 Samuel 24:24, Jeremiah 32:9). Another Source indicates that this would be about 138 pounds or about $68000.00 today.  So it was a lot of money.   Delilah takes the job and bugs Samson for the secret of his power (Remember the meaning of “stired” from Judges 13:25).  Although that word is not used here we certainly see Delilah pushing Samson.  He must have had quite and ego because she even tells him she wants to know how someone can overpower him.  Samson makes up some source of how he can be beaten and she passes it along to the Philistine leaders.  Samson over powers them.  This happens three times with the same result.  The third time though Samson gets close to the truth by telling involving his hair in the lies about his strength.  His flirting with the flirt is a flirtation with disaster.  More time and more bugging and Samson feels annoyed to death.

Samson eventually tells her about being dedicated to God and the Nazirite Vow.  Interestingly he seems to think it is all about his hair and that if it si cut he will lose his power.  His power.  He fails to realize it is and always has been God.  Delilah gets him to fall asleep and has a man cut his hair.  She has sent for the Philistines and they are there waiting.  Samson wakes up and goes out to fight them and does not even realize God is not with him.  The Philistines overpower him and gouge out his eyes.  They then take him back to Gaza where he is used as a human food processor pushing their grinding stone round and round.  The greal fighter who once destroyed all the fields around one of their towns is now making flour for them to eat.  The greatest irony though is that the guy who never really seemed to see God in his life now cannot see at all.  Todays part of the story ends with his hair growing back.

Hebrew authors were master story tellers.  Delilah was certainly a tease in Samson’s life but the author is baiting us too.  His hair is growing back?  Is there hope? Is more revenge coming or will Samson start to really see?  We will have to wait until tomorrow.  But for today what might we see in this part of the story.  Judges 16:17-18 tells us that Samson told her every thing that was in his heart.  And what he told he was all about him.  His power, his dedication, his hair.  Four times he has told her how he can be like every other man.  what he failed to realize was that he was like every other man.  In the end he really only had power when God was with him.  His story should not have been, “me me me”.  It should have been, “Him, Him, Him”.  Of course he was a strong impressive guy.  the Philistines did not chain him up for nothing.  And usually animals pull grain mills not men.  We all are Samsons in our own ways, we all have talents and abilities.   But what we are as human beings is really only useful and helpful when are controlled and guided by God.   When we are controlled by our passions the results are disastrous in our lives.  god in His great wisdom and power will still see His plan finished but there  are consequences for us if we do not allow Him to guide us.  One time Jesus was challenged because his followers were  not obeying the religious rules of the Jews.  Specifically his followers were eating without washing their hands.  The leaders felt that dirt going in you mouth would make you un-pure to God.  Jesus told them that it wan’t dirt going in that makes us un-pure it’s the dirt that comes out that shows we aren’t right with God.  He said, “Out of the heart the mouth speaks.”  Samson’s word showed that he was all about himself.  Although he knew about God the rest of his life was all him, as far as he cold see.

Do we do the same thing?  Do we talk all about God but really think it’s all about us?  Do we talk the talk but not walk the walk?  There is an old poem “Footprints in the Sand” (footprints-inthe-sand.com).  In it a follower of Jesus asks God why there were only one set of footprints during the worst parts of their life. They though God had left them alone.  God’s answer was that those were the times when God was carrying them.  What does your speech tell others about your heart.  We need to remember that God is for us and God is with us.  He will take care of our needs (Romans 8:31-39; Hebrews 13:5-6).  God fix my heart.  Help me believe in you more.  Help me remember all that you have done for me.  Help me never give myself the credit.  Let the words out of my mouth be words of thanks and praise.  Lord help my unbelief.  Open my eyes, fill my heart, and use my lips.

Judges 15:9-16:3.  Yesterday I said our story ended with Samson threatening revenge for the burning of his abandoned wife and her family.  Actually he carried through on his threat and I have updated that post.  It only increases the picture of Samson as a man controlled by his feelings.  At the end of yesterday’s story he said he would get revenge and then quit.  And after he fought a severe and ruthless fight with some Philistines he did just that.  He went up into the hills and hid in crack in the rocks.  The place was called Etam and scholars do not know exactly where it was.  From today’s reading we know it was in the territory of the tribe of Judah.

So far in our reading we have met several of the tribes of Israel (See “The Twelve?”).  Manasseah which had territory on both sides of the Jordan River in the northern part of the promised land.  Asher, Naphtali, and Zebulun further north yet on the west side of the Jordan across the Jezreel Valley from Manasseh.  Issachar between Naphtali  and Manasseh at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley.  Gad and Reuben on the estern side of the Jordan River just south of Manasseh’s territory on that side.  And Ephraim in the cetral part of the promised land on the western side of the Jordan.  Dan, the tribe that Samson is part of had a small section of land just south of Ephraim’s land.  Dan’s land started about half way across from the Dead Sea and went to the Mediterranean Sea.  Benjamin’s land was next to Dan’s spreading east to the northern tip of the Dead Sea.  The southern part of the promised land belonged to Judah and was quite large.  It started about even with the northern tip of the Dead Sea and went south to the border of Egypt.  Simeon’s land was also in the south but was completely surrounded by Judah’s land.  Gaza was on the coast about even with the middle of the Dead Sea.  Remember that, although this land was given to the different tribe that they had not completely taken it over.  That is where all the problems in the book of Judges come from both the physical problems and spiritual ones.  Or lets say that that is the setting where the spiritual problems come out.  Remember too that the Philistines, who had originally been “sea people” lived mostly on the costal plain between the hills and the Mediterranean Sea.  Think Costa Mesa to Long Beach.  Garden Grove to Lakewood.

Although we do not know the exact place Samson went we do know the name.  Just like people’s names in the Old Testament can sometimes be related to who they are and what they do (See “What’s in a Name”)  the same goes for place names, maybe even more.  The Hebrew word “Etam”  comes from a root that means to shriek and to fly.  From that root the Hebrews had a word for birds of prey, you know the kind that shriek and fly.  And from both of those words they had the word “Etam” which means a place where wild beasts hide.  That certainly paints an interesting picture of Samson.  You don’t get much more wild than this guy and he is now hiding.  If any person ever lived like a bird of prey or a wild animal it was Samson.  Driven by his desires he swooped in and took or lashed out at anyone who crossed him.

Although he was done with the fighting the Philistines were not.  Revenge is like a bad cycle.  Back and forth, worse and worse.  The Philistines heard that Samson was hiding out in Judah’s territory and so they sent an army in and camped out, ready for war.  As we have already seen the cycle in Judges of sin, servitude, supplication, salvation, and silence (See “Intro to Judges”) has been broken and in this “cycle” the Israelites don’t even cry out to God for help, they are happy to share the land with and even be ruled by the Philistines.  hey, “Why can’t we all cooexist?”  When faced with war they do not rally behind Samson they give him up to the Philistines.  The Philistinses are no match for Samson’s God though.  Empowered by God Samson breaks free of the ropes that the  men of Judah had tied him with, grabs a jawbone from a freshly slaughtered donkey that is lying there in the Philistine camp, and kills 1000 of their soldier.  Evidently in the face of this rage the Philistines retreat.

I don’t know if any one in the story saw that God was the real power behind what was going on.  Samson clearly takes all of the credit.  He composes a song about himself and his deeds while still holding the bloody jawbone, make a monument to his deeds by piling up the bodies, and he even names the place after the unlikely weapon he used, “Jawbone Hill”.  It’s all about Samson and continues to be.  Unlike Deborah in her song God gets no credit.  In fact Samson treats God like a servant and demands water, he’s thirsty.  God, ever gracious and loving provides water in a miraculous way but Samson’s focus is still on himself.  He names the spring of water which God created En-hakkore, “The spring of him who called”.  It’s always about Samson.  And he ruled for 20 years.  But ther is no peace, no rest, no silence for they live in the “days of the Philistines”.

The next little piece of the story sets us up for tomorrows reading.  Samson is still following his desire and chasing after Philistine women.  This time he goes and visits a prostitute in Gaza, a Philistine city on the coast about 45 miles from his home town.  The Philistines of the city think they have him trapped but in the middle of the night he escapes, not quietly though he rips apart their city gates and takes them with him, leaving them on the top of a hill 40 miles away in the heart of Judah’s territory.  Although Samson is clearly empowered by God he must have been quite impressive to see, maybe a sort of Incredible Hulk.  I mean 3000 men of Judah had gone to get him to bring him to the Philistines earlier in today’s story.  Tomorrow we will see Samson’s last run in with the Philistines and again it involves a woman.

I think it is interesting that the comment about Samson’s rule comes n the middle of his story not at the end like the other cycle in Judges.  As I pointed out before  Judges 15:20 says his rule was in the day of the Philistines.  He never really had an over all victory just lots of little battles (if you can call 1000 guys a little fight).  There’s a saying that goes, “You won the battle but lost the war.”  Samson was winning a lot of battles but he was losing the war.  His personal life was all about his pleasures.  In fact it was his desires that led him into most of , if not all of, his fights.   James asks, “What causes fights and quarrels among you, is it not your desires which wage war in you?” (James 4:1).  Samson wasn’t the only one living by his feelings.  Nobody in Israel was concerned about the Philistines controlling their country.  They were too busy living their lives, hey lets not stir things up, let’s just all coexist.  But at what price.  They were supposed to be God’s people showing the world what the true God was all about.  But that might upset some people.  They were giving up their souls for a moment of peace.  They were living for their pleasures too.  Are we doing the same?  Do we try to just fit in and get by or are we being God’s people  showing the world what the true God is all about?  God’s battle was moving forward.  Samson was even a part of it.  But he was losing his personal battle.   Jesus said there will be many people at the judgement who claim to have done great things for him but who never really had a relationship with him.  They will be sent out of God’s presence forever.  God help me not to confuse doing with being.  Sure I want to do things for you but more important I want to be a part of your family.  Thank you for making me a part for free.  Thank you for adopting me, not because of what I can do but because of who you are.  Help me remember who’s family I am a part of and how I should act because of that.  Help me not be content to live in the “days of the Philistines”.  Help me live with forever in view not today and tomorrow.