And open up your Bibles to Judges chapter 15. Judges chapter 15. Our text is the entire chapter. So hear your God's word. Judges chapter 15. After some days, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, I will go into my wife in the chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her. So I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Please take her instead. And Samson said to them, this time I will be innocent. in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches, and he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and to the standing grain as well as the olive orchards. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, if this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. And the men of Judah said, why have you come up against us? They said, we've come up to bind Samson to do to him as he did to us. Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the Rock of Etom and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? what then is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, as they did to me, so I have done to them. And they said to him, we have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. They said to him, no, we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you. So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck a thousand men. And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have struck down a thousand men. As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand, and that place was called Ramat-Lehi. And he was very thirsty. And he called upon the Lord and said, You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. And shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And the Lord split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called In-Hakor. It is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. So I have, as I've had opportunities to preach, been working my way through the Samson story. It's probably far enough apart that you don't remember. But this is the third sermon in that. And as you think of the Samson story, it's probably best broken into three parts. You have his birth announcement in chapter 13, and then you have in chapters 14 and into 15, the narrative, the story about his trying to have a wife from the Philistines, from Timnah, and everything that comes out of that. And then you get chapter 16, where we have most famously Delilah, Samson and Delilah. And so in many ways we're jumping into the middle of that second section this morning that's coming out of chapter 14. And so we'll mention some of that background as we come through. But what we'll see is in many ways there's a surprise at the beginning, there's a surprise at the end, and in the middle is this escalating conflict. And so why do I say a surprise at the beginning? Well, marriage, this marriage, this wife that Samson comes to visit, it really should surprise us that he thinks the marriage is still on. And maybe more so that he wants the marriage to still be on. And so chapter 14 is really needed in that. In chapter 14, we know that Samson, who had been raised up by God from his birth, consecrated as a Nazarite, destined to begin to save Israel from the Philistines, what is the first thing he does? He says to his parents, I want to marry a Philistine girl from Timnah. And they object. No, aren't there good Israelite girls for you to marry? And he says, no, she's right. in my eyes. Well, as we read chapter 14, his parents give in, but the wedding doesn't go very well. And we should really see that it never actually reaches its conclusion, its finish. Because as Samson comes down as he prepares for that wedding, he decides he's going to kind of have a wage or a match of wits with the Philistines who are at the wedding. And so he has his famous riddle, his riddle that's based about the lion that he killed and the honey that he later found in it, a riddle that is in many ways impossible to solve. And yet, what do the Philistines do? They force his wife to be, through this threat of being burned alive, her and her family to give them the answer. And so she begs, she begs, and finally he tells her the answer, and so she betrays him to the Philistines. And the story ends with Samson running down to Ashkelon, killing 30 Philistines to pay his wager, and then storming back in anger to his father's house. And so when we read at the end of chapter 14, if you look at 1420, and Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man, in many ways we were not surprised. But then when Samson comes back and he comes and he says, I want to go into my wife, this is where we are perplexed. At least the father, the father-in-law is perplexed. He says, I thought for certain that it was done. I was sure that you hated her. And hated is one of the terms that really stands for divorce. Everything, the way it ended, it very much seemed that it was done. That it was broken off. And so he's very surprised when Samson shows up with his goat looking to have this reunion. with his daughter. And so he tries to explain the circumstances, offer another alternative, but Samson doesn't like it. And what we should see here is Samson, who was betrayed by this Philistine woman, he's coming right back. Samson's very attached to his bad ideas. His desire for this Philistine girl continues, even after the betrayal. Didn't he learn his lesson? Well, he certainly does not. He doesn't let any common sense or even sanctified sense get in his way. And this nature of Samson will be highlighted even more in chapter 16. If you've read chapter 16, you've probably thought to yourself, Why does Samson keep going back to Delilah even though she is clearly betraying him one time after another? Well, he just keeps coming back. And we read of it and so we are surprised, but maybe we shouldn't be. Because if we think about it, sin really just is irrational. And yet, we also give into it on a regular basis. And as we read of Samson here, and can be shocked by him, we're so easily shocked by what everybody else can do without often appreciating our own sin and what happens. Well, what we must also remember in chapter 15 is that we've been told in chapter 14 that God is working. That God is actually working through Samson's sinful desire, his desire to marry this Philistine girl, this image of what Israel themself has fallen into, intermarriage and Samson as such. But if you look back at chapter 14, verse 4, After the parents have objected, but Samson said, she's right in my own eyes, we read there, his father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel. And so God, God was going to work through this botched marriage. Through this, Samson would start to fulfill what God had promised at his birth, that he would begin to save Israel from the Philistines. But the real question is, how is he doing that? And as we read on, well, it seems that he's going to do it as Samson continues to make trouble, as he starts a fight. As we have this growing enmity between Israel and the Philistines. Because in chapter 15, what we find out is a family dispute about this woman and her Timnite family. It turns into a national conflict. And what we find are there's really two rounds of conflict going on before we get a final showdown. And we can say the first round is Samson's wife is given to another. And he reacts by burning the fields with the foxes. And so then the Philistines react by burning his wife's family and his wife. And so then Samson reacts by tearing them apart in many ways. And then that leads to the final showdown up at Lehi. Now, as you read these, there's a lot of questions that might come up. Especially what, why does Samson respond in the way that he does? What is he trying to do? And also the Philistines, why do they respond in the way that they do? Well, it's certain that Samson's mad. He doesn't like to not get what he wants. But there's some planning. There isn't rashness to what he does. Many commentators, they question the feasibility of this 300 foxes and tying their tails to tails and sending them out into the field. And it certainly indicates in many ways God's working through Samson. But this was a very thoughtful plan designed to get a reaction. from the Philistines as a whole, because he was striking at the basis of their economy. We were told right at the beginning that it was the time of the wheat harvest. All of the wheat had been gathered into these clumps, and now he's sending out fire and burning what is basically their year's goods, their year's wages. And so it's going out, Destroying those crops, and then it even says it spills over into the olive groves, possibly the grape vines also. And so it's not even just one year's wages that he's hurting, it's multiple years. Destroying those trees and vines that took years to grow. So Samson wants to get the Philistines' attention, and he certainly does. He gets their attention. But the question is, what was he trying to do? What was he trying to accomplish? What did he hope to gain? Was it just revenge? Did he feel the Philistines, because they were the ones who had messed with his wife and thereby ruined his marriage, and so this was just revenge? Or was there something more? I would argue that Samson actually hasn't given up on his wife yet. I think that his striking at the Philistines is an effort to have them then come and give him what he wants. Force his father-in-law to give him back his wife and return him. And I think that then makes sense of what the Philistines do. Because Samson goes out and destroys their crops, and they don't attack him. They burn his wife and his wife's father, his wife's family. In many ways, they were the ones that Samson was mad at. I don't think the Philistines were trying to appease him. I think they were trying to answer him. You want to force us into something? The answer is no. You will not get your wife. We will kill her. We will destroy her because we are against you. You will not get your wife back. And Samson is then very vengeful. as it says, that he will now seek vengeance. And we're told there, we're not given a lot of description, but there in verse 8, we got an interesting idiom, he struck them hip to thigh. Anyways, he tore them apart in some sort of battle. A great blow, we don't know how many, but it's a big enough slaughter that it causes the next event to happen. And he says, I'm going to do this. I'm going to have this last act of vengeance, and then I'm going to quit. Because then I will have righted the scales, what the Philistines have done to me. And so that is what he does. He quits by leaving. After this battle, after beating them hip to thigh, he runs off to the Rock of Etom. Now, Samson was from the tribe of Dan, which is right next to Philistia. The Philistines were on the coast. Dan was in the foothills. This rock of Etam seems to be up in the hill country, quite a ways away from where Philistia was and probably on the drier eastern slopes of the hill country. And this was the heartland of Judah. This was the heartland of the tribe of Judah. And so Samson, he runs up there because he says he's done, but the Philistines are not. This cycle is continuing, tit for tat. And so their army, now we're up to armies, their army marches up to Judah, and now it's Judah's turn to be surprised. What are you doing up here? what have you come? Why are you coming against us? And so they tell him of Samson, that Samson's actions, his hiding place, that it's raised this quarrel now between both the Philistines and even this tribe of Judah. And so the Philistines, they answer, and we see there in verse 10, the men of Judah said, why have you come against us? And they said, we have come up to buying Samson to do to him as he did to us. This is this continuation of the feud, one-upping each other. And as we continue on reading, we see that Judah seems only too willing to help out. They are willing to help out these Philistines, these oppressors of Israel. And as we read that in the book of Judges, we should remember where the book began in many ways. It said that the tribes gathered and they said, who will go up, who will go to fight against the Canaanites for us? And what was the first tribe chosen? Judah. And Judah goes up. But now we have Judah with the Philistine coming against them, seeking out one of their own, Samson. And they come and they find Samson and they lecture him. Don't you know that the Philistines are ruling over us? Don't you know that the Philistines are ruling over us? Well, we know why the Philistines are there. God had said in chapter 13, Israel sinned again in the eyes of the Lord. This is the judges' cycle. So God raised up the Philistines to oppress them because they had done evil in their sights. And some of that evil we learn about in chapter 10, verse 6. Israel's abandoned the Lord. They've gone after the gods of the other nations, including the gods, even of those Philistines. But what happens in this cycle is Israel doesn't cry out. Israel doesn't turn to the Lord. Instead, we find here Israel is not ready to change. Judah says we're more satisfied with this Philistine oppression than service to the Lord. There are lords over us, Samson. Don't you know that? Stop rocking the boat. stop making trouble for us. Well, if we can find fault with Judah, Samson's reply is really no better. There's no passionate plea with Israel. Repent now of your sins, of the idolatry that we've fallen into. There's no calling on them to see the evil that they're in under this oppression that's roundabout. Samson, he shows no interest in Israel, in saving them, in leading them into battle. There's no cry, follow me and we can take them. Instead, remember what he had said. He's just up there to quit. He said he's done with the battle. He had fought. He's done. His personal feud was over, and that's all this was for him. We see that in his response that really echoes in our ear what we just heard from the Philistines. And so we get verse 11 there, as they come to him, and they say that, Don't you know the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this you have done to us? And he says to them, as they did to me, so I've done to them. This is a few, this is personal, that's what this is about. And this is their judge. It's just a cycle of revenge. And he doesn't show any sorrow that he's dragged Judah into it. It's the Philistines' problem, not mine. And in the book of Judges, what we find is not just a rupture often between God and Israel, but it's also this rupture amongst Israel. Israel fights amongst itself. And so in one sense, we're not so surprised here, if we've been reading up to this point, that now Judah will actually turn on their own countryman, Samson, and agree to bind him and turn him over to the enemy, to the oppressors, the Philistines. We'll read just a couple chapters later where they actually go up into civil war. And so though this is certainly not a good thing, it is not surprising based on what we've read elsewhere. And as Samson goes up, as he agrees to this, we're getting struck by a question. What was he thinking? He certainly didn't want to fight his fellow Israelites. He doesn't want to make it that. Was he seeing himself as serving them in some way? Trying to help them out, get them out of a bind? well by his attitude that seems a little unlikely i think it seems more likely that he actually thought he could fight his way out of this bring me up as long as you don't kill me yourselves i think i'll be fine and uh and certainly that is the attitude we find in chapter 16 if we go back there, that he's not really worried about whatever the Philistines will do to him, that he will always be able to rise up and fin them off and get away. And so I think he views himself as virtually indestructible. And so as he approaches these Philistines, they come shouting at him in many ways like the lion in chapter 14 came roaring at him and very much the similar thing happens the spirit of the lord rushes upon him and he is able to defeat them he finds there this fresh bone of a jawbone of a donkey fresh so that it won't shatter in his hands and he fights them. He wins. He kills 1,000. This great victory that we have. And he celebrates. He celebrates with his song there in verse 16. Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey, I've struck down 1,000 men. Samson, always quick with his tongue, He has another memorable phrase to mark his victory. I have struck down a thousand men. But our narrative doesn't end there. This is where we get our other surprise. And maybe it shouldn't surprise us, but this judge prays. But what we know of Samson so far, I think it is a little surprising. It seems to come out of the blue. Many have said, well, maybe it was an insertion. It wasn't there at the beginning. Critical scholars like to do that sort of thing. But it comes, and now Samson's praying. And we look and we see, well, what is it? What has brought Samson to his knees? It wasn't the thought of facing an entire army by himself. It's actually just plain old ordinary body needs. He's very thirsty. He's just fought a big battle, a tiring battle, probably in this dry land. And now he thinks he's so thirsty that he's going to die. The strong man who is so confident that he could fight his way out of anything. Now he can't even provide for his own basic needs. he can't make water appear but God can now his prayer there is is hardly a model to follow we read it in in in verse 18 you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised as as we've read through the authors made it clear to us who's the real power behind the lord as he has his spirit rush upon him and we're somewhat surprised that that samson actually gets that as he says you've given into the hand of your servant this great salvation but what he goes on to do is is really demand God to act now should I die of thirst now should I fall into the hands of the uncircumcised how would that be good how would that be good for you God and in this complaining many rightly hear the sounds of Israel in the wilderness After God accomplished all his great conquests in the exodus, save them from Egypt, they cry out again and again, complaining, what did you do? Save us from Egypt just to kill us by thirst in the desert, in the wilderness. But as with Israel, God was patient. God was patient and long-suffering with Samson as he brought forth water, granted him life. Now, some have taken Samson's prayer here as a turning point in the narrative. As if he gets a greater recognition now of God's calling, God's role in what is going on. But if you've read chapter 16, it's hard to see this as a turning point. what we find in chapter 16. And many have rightly said that chapter 16 is in so many ways parallel to 14 and 15, as again it's Samson's desires leading him after these Philistine women, causing him to go down a path of destruction. Now I think instead we get here, We get an insight by Samson's prayer that he did believe in God. He did believe in the God of Israel, but as most of Israel, or very often most of Israel, he didn't live it out very much in his day-to-day, in his practice. Instead, God was the one that he turned to when things were really bad. Even if he doesn't figure in his daily life how he is to live. And so, Samson's prayer here at the end really emphasizes what the author showed us at the beginning. That God, as he answers Samson, as he works, it's highlighting God's control and his care. his concern for his people. It's highlighting what we have seen throughout, that God is the one working, God is the one working even when his people are not looking for it. God is in control and he won't turn his back on his people. Because God's people, As we saw with the men of Judah, they don't want a savior. And as we saw with Samson, the judge that God is raising up, he doesn't want to save anyone. And yet, God's plan has been progressing. Progressing as he places this enmity, using Samson to start this fight, stopping Israel from being absorbed into the Philistines. This was God seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. And thus, I would say there's some irony in the closing verse there. And he, Samson, judged Israel all the days of the Philistines, 20 years. I would say it's really only God who was thinking, who knew that Samson was judging. Now, as we close on this passage, we can see it both as a mirror and as pointing forward. Israel, as they read this, they were to see themselves. As we said, Samson was wholly consecrated from birth, from its beginning. This was Israel, the holy nation. And Israel, as they constantly went after other gods, constantly followed what was right in their own eyes, a phrase that we're going to get at the end of the book of Judges again and again. That's what Samson's doing. And Israel, as they fail to recognize God, his constant care for them, his constant provision, only turning to him in dire desperation as Samson does at the end, That's what we find with Samson. But we also see here what Israel needed. Because the book of Judges is preparing us for the book of Samuel and kings. It's looking to the future. It's looking to kingship. And it examines that as it portrays these leaders, these judges, and examines what Israel needs. What do they need? Well, and with Samson, and as we continue on, what we find with these leaders is they show us more and more what Israel needs by what is lacking, what is failing. And so Samson is in so many ways the anti-leader, the anti-king, because Israel needs the one who will do the opposite, the one who will lead them in right worship, lead them in righteousness, the one who is not focused on himself, the one who has a care and concern for his people, the one who is looking to save them. And so in the book of Samuel, that will be portrayed in King David. We all know King David looked forward to one greater, a greater son, and that greater son is the one, the one who was also tied up by his own people and turned over, but it was to give his life, to give his life to save his people, and that is the comfort, that is what we need, that Savior, and that is the Savior who has come. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, as we read your word, we are struck again and again how it shows us our own sin. It shows us our failures. If we fail to identify with those who go astray, we are not looking close enough adequately at what we have done. May your law always expose that to us. But may it continually drive us, drive us to look for the one Israel was looking forward to, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And may our every hope, may our every confidence be placed in the work that he has accomplished on our behalf. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.