Good weekend to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
For the past 7 weeks the attention of our world has been riveted on Israel, the “Gaza Strip”, the “West Bank” and other regions which are particularly volatile in the Middle East. In our “Walking with Jesus” over those same weeks, we’ve been looking at the Biblical history of this modern-day Israeli – Palestinian feud which so often, throughout history, has boiled over to extreme violence. We’ve looked closely at the Biblical perspective of God’s intention for His ‘chosen people’, (Exodus 19:5,6) the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons, to have a rightful claim to live in this land of Israel.
In our Biblical journey we’ve entered the time of the “Judges” which follows Joshua’s death, about 1375bc, and lasts until Samuel anoints Israel’s first King, Saul, in about 1050bc. This 300-year period was a particularly volatile time in history as the Israelites, who had crossed the Jordan river with Joshua, slowly began to spread out across the land seeking to find places to build their future as a nation.
But there was a problem, a very big problem: this entire region of the world was already inhabited by millions of people who were not one nation but rather many large tribes of people each claiming large sections of this region as their homeland. In some cases, these tribes were descendants of Ishmael, the first son of Abraham, and his twelve sons (Gen. 25:13-16); as well as Esau, twin brother of Jacob, and his many sons (Genesis 36). Thus, you might say they were distant ‘kin’ of the Israelites, however the animosity between them was significant, generation after generation.
Through these 3 centuries after Joshua, God several times raised up men to lead the people of Israel in defending themselves against these other tribal peoples who did not want them living in this region and were attacking them. Those men were called “Judges“, and their leadership was normally in a relatively small region of the country.
Gideon, for instance, was raised up by God to defend a region up near Jezreel and Megiddo south of the Sea of Galilee, from the Midianite tribes who were attacking each year at harvest time and pillaging villages and harvest fields. (Judges 6,7) When I was in Israel two months ago, I visited the Spring of Harod where the Spirit of God came upon Gideon and led him in a very strategic battle to defeat the Midianites and bring peace to that region for several years.
The other well known “Judge”, during this turbulent period of three centuries of Israel’s history, was Samson, and over the past couple of days we’ve stepped into Samson’s story found in Judge 13-16. Samson was raised up by God to deliver the Israelites in the south region, from the attacking Philistines. The Philistines of Samson’s era lived in the same region as modern-day Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In fact, did you know that Gaza city is mentioned in Samson’s story?
You’ll remember that Samson was a miracle baby, born to a childless woman. (Judges 13) Samson’s parents were instructed by an angel to raise their son as a ‘Nazarite’, a man consecrated to God and God’s purposes for his entire lifetime. We presume they made a valiant effort, but sadly, Samson appears to have some of the same character flaws as many other men, especially a lustful appetite for women. In his adult life I count at least three women Samson pursued.
The first was a Philistine woman whom Samson desired and therefore asked his parents to arrange a marriage with her family. (Judges 14) Of course Samson’s parents tried to discourage that since God’s instructions had been very clear since the days of Joshua… no intermarriage with the ‘uncircumcised’ tribes around them who worship other gods and are immoral and wicked people. (Joshua 23:12,13)
Nonetheless, Samson followed his passion and pursued this woman and I presume broke one of the Nazarite requirements, not to drink any fermented drink. (Numbers 6:2-4) The week-long wedding festivals normally flowed with wine and other fermented beverages. In that week-long festival Samson encountered his first betrayal by a woman he loved and his first violent confrontation with the Philistines. (Judges 14)
As so often happens violence begets violence and there was Philistine retaliation to which Samson retaliated. Back and forth it went amazingly similar to what we see happening between Hamas, Israel and Hezbollah in the current escalation of violence in the modern Middle East. (Judges 15)
And then came Samson’s marriage to Delilah. I’m sure you’ve heard that name and perhaps even remember the story of her prolonged strategy to try and discover the reason for Samson’s unusual strength. Judges 16 gives us the details of how finally Delilah learned the secret of Samson’s Nazarite vow and the significance of his long hair! In his moment of weakness and frustration Samson said to Deliliah “No razor has ever been used on my head, because I have been a Nazarite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me…” (Judges 16:17)
The record says “Delilah sent word to the Philistine rulers…” Once again Samson was betrayed by the woman in his life and while he slept, she cut off his hair and called the Philistines in to capture Samson, which they easily did. Their brutality matches what we have seen on our TVs lately. “The Philistines seized Samson and gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza as their prisoner. Binding him with bronze shackles they put him to work grinding grain in the prison.“ (Judges 16:21) Like a donkey or an ox, Samson manually rolled the grain grinding wheel, hour after hour, day after day, and I presume standing around were Philistines mocking him, maybe even throwing things at him.
We have no record that Samson ever led an army or even a small group of Israelite warriors as Gideon did. Samson, anointed with unusual strength, did his defending of Israel alone, and he was very effective in repulsing Philistine attacks, until he was captured and blinded and shackled like an animal. But like all people, Samson’s hair began to grow, and it seems no one noticed or at least paid any attention!
The last part of Samson’s story, found in Judges 16:22-31 is the remarkable self-sacrifice of this amazing man. A great Philistine worship festival took place to honor their idol god Dagon and Samson was brought there to be further humiliated. All the Philistine rulers and thousands of others were present, and blind, Nazarite Samson prayed asking God for His help once more: “Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please God, strengthen me just once more and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for gouging out my eyes.” (Judges 17:28)
The place where this great festival was held was a huge temple both filled within and thousands of people upstairs on a second level, which was supported by two great pillars. Samson asked the servant who led him around to position him by those pillars. The record says: “Samson reached toward the two center pillars and bracing himself against them his right hand on one and his left hand on the other, Samson prayed, ‘Let me die with the Philistines’, then he pushed with all his might and down came the temple on the Philistines.”
As often happens in a great catastrophe, many people came to remove bodies and bury them, including Samson’s family who evidently had heard about how Samson died. They found his body and took it back to their home region where Samson had first sensed the stirring and calling of God upon his Nazarite life to defend Israel from the Philistines. They buried Samson’s broken body in the tomb of his father Manoah. And the story of Samson is epilogued with these words in Judges 17:31 “Samson had led Israel 20 years.”
It’s not a pretty story is it my friends, but it takes place in the same place the battles are raging today in the Gaza Strip, and it reflects so very much of the anger and bitterness arousing horrific brutality in the descendants of the Philistines and the Israelites who live in that same place 3000 years later.
It calls me to pray for God’s direct intervention in it all, for Almighty, Holy God is the only One who can resolve it all. And so, here’s a song that might help us in our reflection today…
Today’s Scriptures are Judges 14-16.
Choose below to read or listen.
Judges 14
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Judges 15
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Judges 16
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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