FRUITLESS VENGEANCE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in.

"I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead."

Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend."

So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?"

"We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us."

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?"

He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me."

They said to him, "We've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines."

Samson said, "Swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves."

"Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you."

So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

Then Samson said:

"With a donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men."

When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.

Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.

Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Judges 15

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As Judges, chapter 15 opens, we find Samson on his way to make amends with his Philistine wife who he angrily left at the end of the last chapter. You’ll recall that this was after he discovered she had tricked him into giving her the answer to a riddle which she passed onto the thirty Philistine companions he had made a wager with. As a result, Samson lost his bet and ended up striking down thirty Philistines in Askelon, taking their garments so to pay off his obligation. Through his selfish, self-centered behavior, we saw Samson clearly reveal that he was vindictive and treacherous, traits that we find continuing in today’s scripture passage.

For when Samson arrives at his wife’s home, telling her father that he going to her room, the father stopped him and informed that he had given his daughter to another man, a friend because he was afraid that Samson was never coming back for her. The father, realizing that Samson had legally made proper payment for his bride which put him in the wrong, tried to make amends by offering Samson his wife’s sister instead. The father promoted the other woman by praising her attractiveness but Samson would have none of it. As before, he wanted everything to go his way and so he vowed revenge on the Philistines.

We read that he carried out this vengeance in a pretty unique way, catching “three hundred foxes” and tying “them tail to tail in pairs” before fastening “a torch to every pair of tails, lighting the torches, and letting the foxes “loose in the standing grain of the Philistines”. As the foxes ran, the flames on their tails “burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves”. The harvest was destroyed.

Well, Samson’s quest for retribution didn’t end things but rather led to the Philistines doing likewise. For we read that when they investigated how their fields had been burned down, learning that it was carried out by Samson, they killed his prior wife and her father, burning them both to death. It was a classic eye-foe-an-eye scenario.

This series of actions only shows us the fruitless nature of revenge. For typically, it only leads to tragedy that never needed to happen and doesn’t accomplish anything good in the end.

For when we get right down to it, a vengeful spirit conjured up by any person is not of God but only of Satan and sin. This was underscored in God’s Word from Leviticus when He stated this:

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” 19:18

Later, Jesus would go on to use these very words when defining God’s second greatest commandment after rendering the first, the call to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (Matthew 22:36-40).

The Apostle Paul would go on to add these words in his letter to the Romans, echoing God’s word from Deuteronomy, chapter 32, verse 35:

“Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” 12:19

The bottom line here us that only God and He alone could consider and render vengeance for He was and is the only true Judge of all mankind. None of us have the authority but Him but unfortunately, Samson…and too often us as well…disregarded God’s authority.

Going back to the scriptures, we read where Samson, after learning about the killing of his wife and father-in-law, decides to once again get even. In fact, he tells the Philistines that he wouldn’t stop until he gained payback before going on to attack them viciously, slaughtering many before taking up refuge in a “cave in the rock of Etam”.

The question is…What exactly did Samson gain from all this?

We don’t read that he received God’s favor for his actions. In fact, we never see an instance when Samson even asks God for His counsel for if he had, you can bet God would not have told him to go on a murderous rampage unless He planned on using Samson as an instrument of His own vengeance. There’s zero indication that this was happening here. Samson was clearly on his own program.

Well, while Samson was holed up in his cave, the Philistines didn’t stop seeking him. They hoped to do away with him once and for all, eliminating the vengeance he was bringing them. And so they camped near Judah and this made the Judeans very nervous. We get the indication that they were happy and at peace just living under the oppressive rule of the Philistines, something that wasn’t heard of before in this book as the nation of Israel never hesitated entering battle with the Canaanites as they followed God’s command to conquer their cities and drive all their people.

And so when the Judean men found out that it was Samson who had drawn the Philistines into their land, they took “three thousand men” and “went down to the cave in the rock of Etam” where Samson was. They then confronted him saying:

“Don't you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?"

In other words, they were letting him know that his actions had placed them all in danger and basically wanted to know what he had been thinking. His actions carried consequences impacting far more people than himself. Of interest, we should note that the Judeans were showing no concern for Samson himself either. They never asked if the Philistines had wronged him in some way. Rather, they assumed he was guilty and, in doing so displayed the same selfish attitude that Samson had shown for the better part of his life up to now. The Judean men were showing clearly that they were only concerned with themselves, not Samson.

Their very actions prove this as they took Samson and tied him up so to hand him over to the Philistines, all this after taking a vow that they wouldn’t kill him themselves. The Judeans were so self-centered that they would rather hand over a fellow brother Israelite to be killed than risk any harm coming to them. The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few or the one.

And so we find the Judeans binding up Samson and taking him to the Philistines who began shouting as they advanced toward him. In the moment, things weren’t looking good for Samson as he tied up and unable to defend himself. Death seemed to be his destiny but as we see, it wasn’t God’s will for that to happen. For a “Spirit of the Lord” came upon Samson “in power”, resulting in the ropes on his arms becoming “like charred flax”. And as the bindings dropped from his hands, Samson grabbed a “fresh jawbone of a donkey” and “struck down a thousand (Philistine) men”. Once staring down death, Samson had experienced God’s grace and mercy first hand.

Friends, this same thing frequently happens to us as believers today. For like Samson, we turn from God and adopt our own sinful attitudes within our circumstances. Then, after we have managed to get ourselves into a difficult situation…a situation where we faced hardship, difficulty, or even danger as a result of our actions…God intervenes and rescues us from our potentially difficult circumstances…and He does so because it was His will for us. He didn’t wish for us to suffer the consequences for our behavior in that instance, even though we deserved it.

Well, in Samson’s case, we finally see him turning to the Lord…later than he should of for sure but he turns to Him nonetheless. This is something else I think we can all relate to.

So what led to Samson going to God?

The scriptures tell is that he became so thirsty that he cried out to the Lord saying:

“You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?"

Note here that for the first time, Samson gave God the glory for the success he had gained. The victory over the Philistines wasn’t of his doing but of the Lord’s and we sense here that God rewards Samson for his faithful words, opening up “the hollow place in Lehi” and making water come out of it”…water that restored Samson’s strength. Instead of perishing from thirst, he would go on to rule the Israelites for another 20 years.

Friends, my prayer today is that we see the destructive nature of revenge in the story of Samson and never seek to carry it out ourselves. May we ever turn to the Lord in all instances and all occasions, seeking His guidance and then doing what He desires because He will NEVER lead us wrong.

We can always trust in that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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