Samson (3)

Samson was so angry with his wife for tricking him and for giving his companions the answer to his riddle that he didn’t go home to her. He went to his father’s house instead, but soon his anger began to go away. So many times, when we are angry, we do things that we are sorry for later, don’t we? Samson was sorry, too, so he went back to his wife with a present—a kid, a young goat, but her father wouldn’t let him through the door.

In fact, he told Samson some awful news. “She married your friend,” he said. “You were so angry when I saw you that I thought you hated her, so I gave her to another man. Why don’t you marry her younger sister? She’s even prettier than your wife was.” Samson did not want to do that. He was very angry at his wife, at her father, and at ALL the Philistines! Away he went, ready to do whatever he could to punish the people who had hurt him.

Now, always remember, revenge is WRONG. It is a SIN to get back at someone who has hurt us. It is a SIN to hate. God does not put such feelings in our heart. However, in our story, God would use the strength and anger of Samson to save the Israelites from the Philistines. Samson saw some foxes, and that gave him an idea. He found strong sticks which would burn well. Then he caught three hundred foxes and tied them together by their tails, two at a time. He put a stick between the tails of every pair of foxes. Samson brought the foxes to the Philistines’ fields of corn, set each stick on fire, and there he let the foxes go. They were so afraid of the flames behind them that they ran this way and that, and the burning sticks set the corn on fire. Not only was the corn destroyed but also the Philistines’ grapes and olives. You can imagine how furious the Philistines were when they found out their fields were all burned. “Who did all this damage?” they cried. When they found out that Samson had done it because his wife’s father had given her to someone else, they became angry at the father for causing the problem. They went and burnt him and Samson’s wife with fire.

Stop and think about this for a minute. Do you remember that Samson’s companions had said they would burn her and her father if she did not give them the answer to the riddle? Now, even though she had sinned to save her life, she was burned anyway.

Was Samson happy to see his wife and her father burned? No, he wasn’t happy at all. All alone he went after the Philistines, and with the help of the Lord, he killed many of them.

Of course, the Philistines were not going to let Samson get away with killing their people. They came and set up their tents in Judah, seeking to capture Samson, but Samson had gone off by himself to the top of a certain rock. The people of Judah were frightened to see the Philistines camped around them, and they asked them why they had come. “We just want to catch Samson and do the same to him as he did to us,” the Philistines said.

So, the men of Judah went to Samson. “Why did you do all this?” they asked. “Don’t you know that the Philistines are our rulers?”

Samson said, “I’m only doing to them what they did to me.”

Then the men of Judah told him that they wanted to tie him up and give him to the Philistines.

“Okay, but promise me that you won’t kill me,” Samson said. He did not want to have to use his strength against his own people. God had given him great strength, and it was to be used against the Philistines. The men of Judah promised that they wouldn’t kill him.

The men of Judah tied him up as well as they could. They even used brand new ropes, which were VERY strong because they were not worn down or thin in spots. How the Philistines cheered, cried out, and laughed to see their strong, tough enemy all tied up like a weak prisoner. Now they had him! Now he couldn’t hurt them anymore! Then—what happened?

The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and God put a mighty strength in him. Suddenly, he jerked on the strong, new ropes, and they broke and fell off him like threads. The Philistines must have looked at him with shock and disbelief. However, Samson looked around and found a bone from a donkey’s jaw, and he began killing the Philistines around him. He killed a thousand Philistines with it.

Samson sang a song of victory, but shortly thereafter he again had to learn that if it were not for the Lord’s help, he could not do such great things. God reminded him of this by making him weak with thirst. Samson then realized that it was only with God’s help that he could kill a thousand Philistines with only a bone, and he turned in prayer to God. “O Lord,” he prayed, “please help me! Thou hast helped me to kill these Philistines, but now will I be so weak with thirst that they will capture me after all?”

God heard Samson, and God caused a hollow place in the jaw, and there came water thereout. After Samson drank of the water, he was again refreshed and went on his way.

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