The Thirsty Braggart - Judges 15:9-20

 Growing up in a house with young kids is a real joy and treasure, especially at the end of the day. I love coming home and being caught up on all that has gone on while I’ve been away at work—where the kids have been, what they have done, what new treasures they’ve brough into our house, etc. My daughter, Audrey, ends up being the one who fills me in most of the time, providing me with the run-down (“I did this, Henry did this, Heidi did this, We went here,” and so on). She is good at giving credit where credit is due. This got me thinking about the passage we are going to be studying today. Many incredible feats of strength and surprising spectacles have transpired in the life and times of Samson (tearing apart lions, man-handling an entire village, etc.) and yet, Samson doesn’t seem to be in the least bit interested in giving credit where it is due. Instead of thanking God for providing him his strength, he foolishly points to himself (when all the while it has been himself that has gotten him into all the trouble in the first place). This unfortunate trend continues in Judges 15:9-20 as Samson’s role moves into the public eye and the conflict between he and the Philistines spills over and becomes a conflict between the Philistines and the nation of Israel. Today we are going to witness three events that successfully force Samson into his public role of deliverer in Judges 15:9-20 and learn about the value of continued dependency on the Lord and giving God the glory for both the big and little ways in which he comes through for his people.

1) Samson is Forced into Custody-15:9-13

When we last left Samson, he was hiding in a cave in Etam after having destroyed the Philistine town of Timnah. This followed a personal dispute involving his first wife that ended with burned crops and many dead. Thus far, Samson has acted on his own in his dealings with the Philistines, and as a result, he has incurred the wrath of the entire pagan nation. While it may look like chaos, all of this is being used of the Lord to set the Israelites against the Philistines. God’s people had grown too comfortable with this pagan nation and had even entertained many of their customs, practices, and ungodly behaviors. The Philistines must go for God’s people to do what they have been called to do on the world’s stage and Samson is proving to be the instigator that will set these two people groups against each other. After all, the Philistines cannot and will not stand for Samson doing what he did to one of their cities. What began as the Philistines verses Samson is going to turn into the Philistines verses the Israelites. Things begin to escalate in this direction in verse 9 of chapter 15—“Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and spread out in Lehi” (15:9). Here, the Philistines confront the men of Judah with a small army, believing that they are giving the runaway Samson refuge.

Their approach comes as quite a shock to the men of Judah who ask “Why have you come up against us?” (15:10a). Remember, up to this point Samson has gone about his escapades in Philistine territory by himself. Because he has not involved God’s people in what was going on, they have been left in the dark and find it especially curious that this Philistine army is nearby. Luckily, the Philistines explain what is taking place—“And they said, ‘We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.’…” (15:10b). Here the men of Judah learn that one of their own, their deliverer, has offended their oppressor. What will they do in response?

Remember, while this personal conflict between Samson and the Philistines has developed into an international crisis, this is exactly what God wants. He wants the Israelites to finally take up arms against their pagan oppressor. However, rather than rise together and rally around their God-appointed deliverer, the men of Judah seek the easy way out and sell Samson down the river. Verse 11 reads, “Then 3000 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?’ And he said to them, ‘As they did to me, so I have done to them.’…” (15:11).

Instead of acting like proud Israelites in full support of their leader, the men of Judah prove to be dutiful subordinates of the Philistines sent to retrieve their deliverer out of his hideout (Block, Judges, Ruth, 443)—“They said to him, ‘We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.’ (15:12-13a). For the Israelites, Samson is not an asset, but a liability that threatens their security and relative comfort. I say “security” loosely as the Israelites are under oppression and one may wonder how secure they really were under the control of pagans. I say “comfort,” but realize that their comfort was placed in an unrighteous and idolatrous context. Just because it may have felt safe and good to be ruled by the Philistines does not mean that is what God wanted for them.

Once approached, “Samson said to them, ‘Swear to me that you will not kill me.’ So they said to him, ‘No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not kill you.’ Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock” (15:12-13a). Can you imagine a more humiliating position to be in as God’s-appointed deliverer? You are being arrested by your own countrymen and they have to draw you up out of a hole to retrieve you. As shocking an image as this proves to be, even this will be used to carry out God’s will for his people.

2) Samson Slays His Enemies-15:14-17

The next event of this passage takes us to when the Philistines were to intercept Samson from Israelite custody. Picture this, the Israelites are about to hand over their leader to the very people oppressing them. In what should have been a victorious battle scene in which God’s people drove out this wicked nation, we see a fearful and timid people trying to make peace with those who have no business being there in the first place. Thankfully, God shows up in a big way and makes moves that are in keeping with his will despite his people’s failure—“When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily” (5:14a). I cannot conceive of a better occasion for God to act in an obvious and deliberate way. Israel needs to be inspired out of their stupor and the Philistines need to be put in their place. When God shows up here, he can accomplish both simultaneously.

Whenever God’s Spirit shows up in the book of Judges, incredible things happen. Even in Samson’s life and tenure, it was when God’s Spirit came upon him that he tore a lion apart! This note of God’s empowerment is important as it reveals who should get the credit for Samson’s successes and Israel’s victories. It is God’s power acting to perform God’s will for God’s glory that ultimately matters.

This particular expression of God’s power allows Samson to shed the ropes that bound him—“so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bons dropped from his hands” (5:14b). There is no natural cause for “new ropes” to disintegrate in the way they do here. The supernatural power of God unleashes this deliverer from what binds him, giving him the ability to exercise his God-given strength in a spectacular way.

Now freed, Samson goes on the offensive with the only tool he could find nearby—“He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and toot it and killed a thousand men with it” (5:15). What makes this incredible feat more impressive is that the jawbone found was “fresh,” indicating that it was still relatively soft and had not yet hardened. None but God could be behind such a feat of strength and efficiency with so feeble a weapon. However, despite the unmistakably supernatural nature of this event, I am not sure that Samson even recognizes who is enabling him to do what he accomplishes here.

They say that old habits die hard and perhaps none are more difficult to break than narcissism. We can see this in Samson’s celebratory exclamation of verses 16—“Then Samson said, ‘with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men.’” In contrast to previous songs in the book that take time to give God credit and praise, not a word is shared about God’s enabling power here. Samson claims all credit for himself, which causes the reader to wonder if he is even aware of God’s involvement in his life. What a tragedy!

“When he had finished speaking, he threw the Jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi” (15:17). Samson memorializes his achievement by renaming the place “Jawbone Hill.” Some believe that this “hill” refers to the mound of Philistine corpses that fell at the hand of Samson in this episode (YIKES!). Though empowered by God to break free and gain this victory over the Philistines, Samson soils the potential for praise by claiming all the credit and punctuating it with a morbid and self-serving display of pride. Will Samson ever learn that he is only great insofar as God enables him to be great? When left to himself, he has proven to be a disaster and totally in need. Perhaps the third event of this passage will remind him of that.

3) Samson is Nourished-15:18-20

As God continues to establish Samson’s public role of deliverer (a role that he has chosen to keep to himself up to this point), something happens in Samson’s life that should have reminded him of just how dependent on the Lord he really is. “Then he became very thirsty, and he called to the Lord and said, ‘You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant, and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” (15:18). This is interesting on several levels. First, this is the first time that Samson calls out to the Lord in his story. He does not call out to the Lord for victory over the Lion, the village of Timnah, or the Philistines that would seek to kill him. He also does not call out to the Lord on behalf of his people who are under oppression. No, instead he calls out to the Lord first when he develops a personal need. He is thirsty. Also, what makes this request so ironic is that while he recognizes God’s ability to empower him in big ways (earning him big victories), he questions God’s willingness/ability to provide for him in the small and simple ways. While we ought to commend Samson for finally crying out to the Lord, we might be left unimpressed by the tone and attitude with which he does it.

That said, despite all that Samson proves to be, God answers this cry in verse 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…” (15:19). The same God who had empowered Samson to win over the Philistines is the same God who split open the seem of a rock to nourish him and replenish his strength. What grace! What love is seen is God’s willingness to refuel his self-centered and reckless servant.

Even this great display of lovingkindness from the Lord is turned into an occasion for Samson to draw attention to himself. The text goes on to say “Therefore he named it En-hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day…” (15:9b). Most scholars seem to think that the best translation of the name given to this spot it “the spring of the caller” (Block, Judge, Ruth, 447). This name focuses not on God who provided the water, but on the thirsty Samson who prayed and asked for it. How is that for thankfulness?

Regardless of his personal failures, what results from these events in the life of Samson is he goes from a rogue deliverer to the public leader of God’s people. He has, through his isolated escapades dragged Israel herself into conflict with the Philistines. Again, this is what God wants to drive out the pagan influence from his people and their land. Samson, for better or worse is the leader of that people and “he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines” (15:19b-20).

So What?

Among other things, this passage reminds us that God is the enabler behind anything and everything good (big and small). Whether Samson recognizes it or not, the text of Judges 15 makes it abundantly clear that it was God who empowered Samson to escape his captivity and gain victory over the Philistines. However it was also God that satisfied his thirst and replenished his strength. While we might rail against and scorn Samson for so flippantly turning the graces of God in his life into opportunities for self-aggrandizement, how often do we prove to behave the same way in our own lives? How often do we fail to give God the glory for the major victories in our lives? How often do we forget to say thank you for the simple graces that sustain us each and every day?

After all, doesn’t Paul say in Romans 7:18 “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”? Does not Jesus remind that “apart from him we can do nothing” (John 15:5)?

No matter what this next season may bring for, we cannot forget to give credit where it is due for sustaining us and carrying us through. As precarious as our world may prove to be today, I imagine it was worse still in the days of the Judges. The same God who extended his grace and favor to an undeserving people then will continue to do so now. He is our God; we are his people. May we live a life that gives him glory and honor and praise accordingly as we persevere and remain on our mission to the end. Don’t believe for a second that your victories and successes are your own doing. It is the Lord that sustains his people in both the big and the little ways. May he alone be praised.