Judges 14:15-15:8.  Yesterday we met the next Judge all grown up and doing things his way.  He wasn’t following God’s rules, for the Israelites in general and as a Nazirite either. We also saw that he was pretty average.  He wanted a wife and went looking for the cutest girl around.  Judges 14:1-3 tells us he saw her and decided he wanted her as a wife.  There is no indication of any kind of relationship.  In spite of the fact that it was against the rule (of God) his parents caved in and arranged the marriage.  Samson also broke the rule about a Nazirite not touching a dead body.  Yes, he was doing things his way.  But we also saw God was getting what He wanted done too.  God was causing troubel between the Israelites and the Philistines.  it was time for the Israelites to stop being so “cozy” with the neighbors.  It always had been that time actually.

Today things get stirred up a lot more.  Samson challenges the Philistines to a battle of wits.  A riddle.  If they can solve it before the 7 day long wedding feast is over they get 30 new suits, one for each of the guys from Timnah that are at the wedding.  If they don’t solve the riddle each of them has to give Samson a suit.  Remember in those days they had to make the yarn, weave the cloth, and sew the garment.  No $15 outfit from Old Navy.  So they went to the bride and threaten her and her father’s family if she does not find out the answer from Samson and give it to her.  Even though an outfit would be costly it doesn’t seem like it would leave them broke (v. 15).  Their threat seems a bit over the top, burn the girl, her family, and all their possessions if they lose.  God was stirring and little bubbles were starting to form in the bottom of the pot (Judges 13:24, 14:4).  A couple of other things are interesting in this story.  They seemed to realize that Samson is affected by this girl.  They think she can manipulate him.  Why didn’t they just threaten Samson or blow him off?  Although Samson is clearly given power by God to accomplish the things he does (Judges 14:6, 19) it also would appear that he has some size.  Maybe they were a little bit afraid of him.  Another interesting thing is that verse 15 tells us that the guys went to the girl on the fourth day but verse 17 tells us that she had been crying about the riddle the who time the wedding feast had been going on.  It seems that the guys were not the only ones who thought she could manipulate Samson.

We already could see that Samson was more influenced by his hormones than any sort of commitment to God.  Samson takes another step down that path when he gives in to the girls nagging.  She gets the answer, passes it on, and the guests win the competition.  Or do they?  Samson realizes where they got the answer to the riddle and blows off the girl.  She goes from cute to cow (that’s what a heifer is)  in less than a week as Samson dumps her at the altar.  Samson is then empowered by God and goes out to the coast to a Philistine city and kills 30 guys for their clothes which he then uses to pay off the guests at the party and goes home.

Some time passed and I guess all the mooing back on the farm got to him.  Samson decides to go visit the girl.  She was so cute who cares if she was a nag.  It was fall.  The grain had been harvested and life would be slowing down on the farm.  Winter was coming it would be getting cold.  When Samson reaches the girl’s house he finds that he father has married her off to some friend of Samson.  Samson isn’t cold any longer, he’s hot, burning mad.  And so he comes up with a plot to get back at everyone.  He lights all of their fields, vineyards, and orchards on fire.  Along with the grain theat they had already harvested and stacked.  All of their food is gone.  The whole town of Timnah and anyone who depended on them.  the Philistines retaliate by burning the girl and her relatives and all their possessions.  Our reading today ends with Samson threatening and taking revenge.

Samson has been playing with fire and I don’t mean the real kind.  He has been allowing his passions to control him.  It is interesting that God stirred Samson back in chapter 13.  God’s spirit gave Samson power to kill the lion and the thirty Philistine for their clothes.  But we also see Samson acting out on his own.  As I mentioned yesterday I don’t think God is actively responsible for the decisions Samson is making.  Back in Judges 13:24 the Hebrew word for “stir” is “paam”.  It means to push, trouble, beat over and over, and impel (an impeller is the blade on a boat that make it move).  We might say “bugged” or “bothered”.  Samson was bugged by something and he acted.  As we have already seen much of what Samson does is a reaction, his reaction.  The fact that god can use our actions or reactions to move the world toward Heaven is again evidence of His power and wisdom.  No matter what our moves are God is working history for the best possible outcome with the most possible winners based on His rules (See Romans 8:16-28, 2 Peter 3:1-10).  Because of sin in the world there will be trouble.  God has a solution for sin.  He could have destroyed all humanity and been done with sin altogether and he almost did, in the flood (Genesis 6).  But God’s love and compassion moved Him to solve a way in which people would not perish, not all of them anyway.  2 Peter 3:9 says, “God is not willing that any should perish”.  Revelation 20:11-15 makes it clear that some people will not spend eternity in Heaven, they will perish.  Why?  Because of God’s character, His rules.  Sin must be punished and the punishment from the beginning was death, separation from God.  But Jesus paid that penalty.  Jesus said that he is the way and that no one can come to God except through him.  And come we must.  John 1:12 says, “As many as recieve him [Jesus] to them he gave the right to be a part of God’s forever family.  to all those who believe who Jesus is and what he has done.”  Peter then ends that chapter and letter with sort of a question.  “Since this is the way God has set up life.  And since this is the way it is going.  How should you live?  You should be dedicated to God in you actions.  You should be imitating god in your character.  You should be looking forward to Heaven and encouraging others to be looking for Heaven too.  The real fire is coming but after that a whole new remade world.  One in which everything is right again.  So let Jesus live in your lives and give you peace and purity.  God is patient and because of that the world has a chance.” (2 Peter 3:11-15).

God thank you for being patient.  I know that we all mess up all the time.  Our actions really deserve to be punished.  Thank you for taking my punishment.  Thank you for paying it all for all (1 John 3:3).  Help me point other to you.  Help me see your love and show others your love.  Help us all understand about your purity, your holiness.  God I’m glad you are so powerful and that your poser is moved by love.  thank you for providing Jesus and thank you for telling us about Him.  Help me find ways to pass on the Good News.  Let my passion be for You and Your way not my own.

Judges 13:24-14:14.  Yesterday we were introduced to a couple who had no child.  God told them they were going to have a son and that he needed to be dedicated to God from his conception.  he was to follow the Nazarite rules of dedication (Numbers 6:1-21) his whole life.  Even mom had to follow the rules while she was pregnant.  We also learned yesterday that the Israelite people had been living under the control of the Philistines for 40 years.  The Philistines were a neighboring tribe that mostly lived on the lowlands near the Mediterranean Sea.  The interesting thing is that the Israelites had not begged God to save them from Philistine rule.  Today we will see that they had become very comfortable with sharing the promised land.

So the baby arrives, is given the name Samson (which means “Like the sun”.  Check out the “What’s in a Name” page), and grows up.  And God was looking after him. 16 years give or take and we are only one verse into the reading.  He was born and grew up in and around a town called Zorah.  Verses 25 tells us that he was in “the camp of Dan” (Mahaneh-Dan) between Zorah and Eshtaol (Dan is the name of the tribe Samson was part of. See “The Twelve?”).

Israel is kind of like Southern California.  There is a wide low area or plain near the coast.  The central part of Israel contains hills and mountains that reach heights of 3000-4000 feet.  (Mount Baldy in the San Gabriel Mountains is over 10,000 feet and Saddleback Mountain is about 5700 feet).  East of the central mountains is a huge gash in the Earths surface called the Rift Valley.  It contains the lowest land elevation on the planet, the Dead Sea.  The Jordan River runs down the Rift Valley.  Eshtaol and Zorah were neighboring towns about 5 miles up in the hills and about 22 miles from the Mediterranean Sea. They were about 12 miles west of Jerusalem.

It seems kind of interesting that in Judges 13:1 that the parents are from the town of Zorah but now in verse 25 we find Samson living in “the camp of Dan” between the two towns.  The lifestyle of most Israelites in those days would have been rural, most of them would have been farmers and had flocks or herds.  The fact that Samson does not live in town indicates to me that he was a country boy.  “Like the sun” with hair that many women would die for, and stuck on the farm.

Verse 25 is a little troubling because it says the “Spirit of the Lord began to stir him” while he was there on the farm.  It’s troubling because of where the story goes next.  Sampson went down to the plain to a town called Timnah and was checking out the girls.  It was clearly a Philistine settlement and he saw a Philistine girl that he just had to have.  The Old Testament is crystal clear that the Israelites were not to marry the inhabitants when they took over the promised land (Deuteronomy 7:1-4).  They were to get rid of them. Next he went home and basically ordered his parent to get her for him.  It looks like they might have known the verses from Deuteronomy because they encourage him to get a wife from his relatives but he refused.  Another violation of God’s commandments (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16).  So they went to Timnah and arranged a marriage between the two.  It’s troubling to think that God would “stir” Samson to do things that He had said not to do.  Judges 14:4 even kind of repeats the thought.  So why is this all a problem?  God is God and can do whatever He wants to can’t He?  Well, No.  “Argggggg!  Myron’s going crazy saying God is not sovereign,”  you might say.  No God is in complete control, but He even controls Himself.

2 Timothy 2:13 says that God cannot deny Himself.  He has certain characteristics that will never change.  That passage in 2 Timothy lists one of them, faithfulness.  Important for what we are reading today is James 1:13-15.  That verse tells us that God is not tempted by sin and he does not try to get other to sin either.   You might ask, “What about Pharaoh?  Didn’t God make his heart hard so he would not let the people go?”  Well it does say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.  But what does that mean and how did he do it?  I have five children and sometimes I had to discipline them when they were growing up.  They didn’t always respond well to the discipline.  Sometimes they would continue to do what ever I was trying to get them to stop doing and would get very angry on top of it.  then they would tell me I was , “Provoking them to wrath” (See Ephesians 6:4).  Was their rebellion my fault?  No. Was their anger my fault?  Sort of but not really.  As a parent I am supposed to help my children grow up and become mature.  I also have to keep them in control.  If they are completely set on doing something that I think they shouldn’t then there is going to be trouble.  In a sense they are becoming hardened and in a way it’s my fault for not giving in.  But if I’m going to be a good parent and I cannot give in to certain things.  God was not going to give in to Pharaoh.  The Israelites had to leave and so Pharaoh became more and more stubborn, his heart was hardened.  In reality though it was really the fault of my children (if I was right in what I was doing) and in Pharaoh’s case it was his fault, because God is alway right in what He does.  It goes back to the idea of God being like a master chess player from a couple of posts back.  No matter what move we make God will bring the game back to get what he wants done done.  So God is masterfully powerful and completely in control even though he has given us real choices.

Judges 14:4 tells us just what God was doing too.  God was creating a situation where the Israelites had to do what it was they were supposed to be doing, getting rid of the Philistines.  And he was using Samson’s sinful moves to get the job done.  They were still Samson’s moves, God was just way ahead of him.  In the rest of todays reading we see Samson breaking one of the conditions of his vow.  Remember that a Nazirtite could not touch anything dead.  But he does that and worse when he returns to the dead lion and eats honey from a comb inside of the lion.  Yuck.

It’s good to know that, no matter what we do, we cannot out play God.  God’s will will be done.  The question is are you on his side.  Because there are consequences if you are not.  Pharaoh paid, Samson will pay, my children paid, and I pay when I disobey God.  We need to be careful to look at all of the Bible and find out what God is doing and join Him.  Lord help me join you.  Help me understand the love letter you have written to me and see what good things you are doing.  Let me see what you have provided here and now for me and be satisfied.  Keep me from wandering into the enemies camp.  Help me not want what the enemy has to offer.  God thank you for being faithful.  Help me agree with you in my life and not tell you no.