God’s Redemptive Power

 

READ Judges 11–16

A t-shirt carries this saying: “I asked God to fix it because if I fix it, I will go to jail.” Had Samson lived today, he would likely wear it. He was often filled with the Spirit of God, yet he ‘fixed’ things with actions that today would make him perplexing to say the least and today would likely put him in jail. For instance, even as he “grew and the Lord blessed and began to stir him” this happened:

He came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” 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. (Judges 14:1–4)

Both OT and NT tell God’s people not to be “unequally yoked” with those who do not believe. The danger is being led astray from trusting God to follow whatever such a spouse might follow, but Sampson ignored that principle. Even though his choices make my head shake, God used Samson to destroy the Philistine’s power over His people.

In another situation, he killed a lion and later ate the honey from a hive that bees built in the carcass even though touching a carcass is a sin (see Leviticus 5:2). After this, Samson prepared a feast as “the young men used to do” and “the people brought thirty companions to be with him.”

And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” And he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle. (Judges 14:10–14)

But his wife, who was one of them, coerced Samson into telling her the answer to the riddle. He lost the challenge, then “The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.” (Judges 14:19–20)

When he tried to get his wife back, her father offered her younger sister, but Sampson had another plan: “This time I shall 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 the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.

When the Philistines identified he did this and why, they “came up and burned her and her father with fire.” 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 . . . .” (Judges 15:3–8)

Most know the next events. Samson engaged a prostitute, was attacked when with her, then tore up the gates of the city. He fell for loved Delilah who soon was paid by the Philistines to find out the secret of his strength. When he finally gave in to her torment, his head was shaved and he was captured, blinded, and put in prison. Then his hair grew, his strength returned and he was mocked at a Philistine religious gathering. He prayed, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” (Judges 16:28) God heard him and he pulled down the building killing all the people in it, dying in the process. “He had judged Israel twenty years.”

I’ve been whining now and then about my many mistakes, yet through this story God tells me I have no idea how God can use even foolish choices for His purposes. That is not an excuse, yet as I fight battles with sin and Satan’s devices, I must remember Samson — he is listed in Hebrews 11 with the heroes of the faith. This was not because of his choices and actions but due to the amazing redemptive power of God.