relationships (Judges 15:1-20) Be Reasonable

(Judges 15:1-20)  But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat, and said, “I will go in to my wife in her room.” But her father did not let him enter. 2 Her father said, “I really thought that you hated her intensely; so I gave her to your companion. Is her younger sister not more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours instead.” 3 Samson then said to them, “This time I will have been blameless regarding the Philistines when I do them harm.” 4 And Samson went and caught three hundred jackals, and took torches, and turned the jackals tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. 5 When he had set fire to the torches, he released the jackals into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to both the bundled heaps and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and olive groves. 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who did this?” And some said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father to death with fire. 7 Then Samson said to them, “If this is how you act, I will certainly take revenge on you, and only after that will I stop.” 8 So he struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and afterward he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

9 Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi. 10 So the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.” 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam 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, “Just as they did to me, so I have done to them.” 12 Then they said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may hand you over to the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me.” 13 So they said to him, “No, but we will bind you tightly and give you into their hands; but we certainly will not kill you.” Then they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him so that the ropes that were on his arms were like flax that has burned with fire, and his restraints dropped from his hands. 15 Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out with his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. 16 And Samson said,

     “With the jawbone of a donkey,
     Heaps upon heaps,
     With the jawbone of a donkey 
     I have killed a thousand men.”

17 When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi. 18 Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord and said, “You have handed this great victory over to Your servant, and now am I to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi so that water came out of it. When he drank, his strength returned and he revived. Therefore he named it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day. 20 So he judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

TODAY'S THOUGHTS AND MEDITATION:

Throughout the Old Testament, we see that when the Israelites would disobey and reject God, things would go badly, and when they would follow God and be obedient, things would go well.  Therefore, Samson is truly a riddle to me!   Even though the Spirit of God would rush onto Samson (only during his attacks), the Philistines still remained in the land and in control.  Because of that and considering what God's will is in biblical context, we know then that Samson wasn't doing everything God's way.  

I do think that sometimes we read about people in the Bible doing sinful things, but because they are one of the "good" guys, we assume that what they did must be okay.  Or we might think that because God doesn't get preachy, even in His own word, that He endorses certain bad behaviors.  This is simply not true.  And this is why we should always take the entire Bible into context.

It is very clear that Samson was emotionally-driven and hot-headed, allowing his feelings to guide him into stupid decisions, especially when it came to choosing a wife and his friends.  Within all his relationships, there was a lack of wisdom, respect and integrity.  Trusting and aligning himself with the Philistines, he shouldn't have been surprised that they were all unreasonable and also emotionally-driven.  

When people are offended, the immediate reaction is to take revenge.  And this is not a matter of IF, it is a matter of when, because it will happen.  Since none of us are perfect, even people with integrity, we will all do things that hurt others.  But taking revenge never accomplishes anything, because people will always be tempted to retaliate, even if they were wrong in the first place.  You attacked me, therefore I will attack you, then you will attack back, etc.  It will be never-ending.

I've even seen this happen while things were done with "fun" in mind.  Like back in college, I'd watch kids play pranks on each other. I never wanted anything to do with that, so if anyone pranked me, I chose to just let it go, because I had seen pranks escalate.  That is "the game" - right?  They get me, then I'll do them one better.   And eventually, these pranks got very personal, embarrassing and hurtful.  A few even got downright dangerous!  So when God tells us that vengeance is His, there is a very good reason!  It is also very reasonable that He tells us to turn the other cheek, turn and forgive and love and pray for people. This approach is far, far better and far, far more peaceful.

Now back to Samson.  Even his relationship with God was emotionally-driven.  At least after the one big battle, Samson versus a thousand, Samson gave God the credit for the victory.  But then notice how he "asked" the Lord for water in order to live.  It was more of an accusatory and angry demand.  When a person lacks respect in one area, they will more than likely lack respect everywhere else.

While Samson wasn't perfect - in so many ways - his story does show us that God can use anyone who is willing to serve Him.  I remember hearing someone say to a man, "Wow, you say you are a Christian, but you sure have a long way to go!" And the man replied, "Yes, but you also need to see how far God has brought me!"  And God is faithful, so He will not stop working on us!  As we allow!

For everything, we should be giving God the thanks, the glory and the credit for all the good things that we have and all the good that we accomplish.  And we should be ever so thankful for His awesome grace and patience towards us, as we continue to allow God to change us from the inside out!!!  We just have to be willing to be willing, and ask God to do it for us.  This is wise and reasonable!