Samson Defeats the Philistines. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it. Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.” Jdg 15:15-16
INTRODUCTION
This is a history of the chosen people during the 400 or 450 years which intervened between the death of Joshua and the time of Eli, Act_13:20. It is not a connected history, but a collection of outstanding incidents, which determined the fortunes of the chosen people, and gave special illustrations of the power of faith in God. The chief lesson of the book is the intimate connection between loyalty or disloyalty to God and the corresponding results in well-being or misery. This is distinctly stated in Jdg_2:11-23.
The judges were extraordinary agents of the divine pity and helpfulness, raised up as the urgency of the people’s need demanded, to deliver Israel from their oppressors, to reform religion, and to administer justice. Their administration was generally local, as Barak among the northern tribes, Samson in the extreme south, and Jephthah across the Jordan in Gilead.
It must not be supposed that Israel perpetrated an unbroken series of apostasies. Though these and their special deliverances occupy the major part of the book, there were evidently long interspaces of fidelity and prosperity. And in the darkest hours, there were probably large numbers who, amid the abominations, sighed and cried for a better day.
There are two appendices, relating events which took place not long after Joshua’s death, and therefore preceding the greater part of the history. We may almost consider the book of Ruth as the third. The touches of human characteristics are very vivid and instinctive, and the book deserves much more attention than it receives from the ordinary reader.
Israel’s Apostasies and Deliverances
INTRODUCTION, Jdg_1:1-36; Jdg_2:1-23; Jdg_3:1-432.
RULE OF THE JUDGES, Judges 3:5-16:31
Following repeated apostasy and oppression, the Israelites were successively delivered:
6. From the Philistines by Samson, Judges 13-16
32. Why did the men of Judah deliver Samson to the Philistines?
THE LORD RAISES UP JUDGES
Judges 15:9-20
SAMSON DEFEATS THE PHILISTINES
Then the [army of the] Philistines came up and camped in [the tribal territory of] Judah, and overran Lehi (Jawbone).
The men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they answered, “We have come up to bind Samson, in order to do to him as he has done to us.”
Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Have you not known that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that you have done to us?” He said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.”
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.”
So they said to him, “No, we will [only] bind you securely and place you into their hands; but we certainly will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock [of Etam].
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and the ropes on his arms were like flax (linen) that had been burned, and his bonds dropped off his hands.
He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it.
Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.”
When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi (hill of the jawbone).
Then Samson was very thirsty, and he called out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great victory through the hand of Your servant, and now am I to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised (pagans)?”
So God split open the hollow place that was at Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his spirit (strength) returned and he was revived. Therefore he named it En-hakkore (spring which is calling), which is at Lehi to this day.
And Samson judged Israel in the days of [occupation by] the Philistines for twenty years. [Jdg_17:6]
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
OnJudges 15:9-20
MIGHTY AGAINST THE FOE
To how low a depth had the men of Judah descended, that they should hand over their champion to their hereditary foes? The northern tribes that arose at the call of Gideon rebuked such cowardly treachery. There are things worse than defeat or death. To forfeit honor, to shirk duty, to fail in the supreme call of friendship and loyalty-these are the crimes that belittle the soul and court disgrace. What shall it profit, though we gain the whole world, if we lose our souls?
How inspiring is the thought that on us also the Spirit of the Lord may come mightily! There is no limit to his gracious and irresistible operations, save that imposed by the narrowness of our faith. Notice how the Apostle piles up his words in Eph_1:19. Whatever the cords of evil habits, woven through long years, and however entangling your circumstances, God’s indwelling power can set you free. Yes, and that is not all: At the place where you have won your victories, there shall arise that fountain of water which is fed from the throne of God; and the soul, exhausted by its effort, shall drink and be revived. Lord, cause us so to drink!
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