Day 69–Judges 13-16; John 17

Judges 13 stars off with the people of Israel turning against the LORD and being subjected to the Philistines for forty years. This is nothing new to us, because the pattern continues to repeat itself. We know what’s coming: a new judge. Yes, and this is perhaps the most infamous of all Israel’s judges: Samson. I use the term infamous, rather than famous, because Samson had everything he needed to bring the LORD glory and honor and to go down as one of the greatest leaders in Israel’s history. Instead, as we will see, he took the blessings of the LORD and used them for his own, selfish purposes. The LORD’s gifts and selfishness never go well together. As we will see. But let’s not get ahead of the story. In chapter 13, the future parents of Samson, who are childless at the outset, are visited by the angel of the LORD and told they will have a son, who will become a nazarite.  The son was born. They named him Samson, which means “sun” or “brightness.” What a hopeful start to the story of Samson’s life!

As we turn to Judges 14, we see the beginning of the end, and Samson is a young man. First, Samson chose a wife from the Philistines. His parents were concerned, but the woman seemed “right” to Samson. We’re told God was going to use the situation against the Philistines, but Samson’s motives weren’t to overcome the Philistines. He just wanted what he wanted. In his book Fight, Craig Groeschel tells us Samson displayed a common set of claims that would ultimately destroy his life. He would say, “I want it. I deserve it. I can handle it.” Samson wanted the woman from Timnah. He thought he deserved it, because she seemed right to him. He thought he could handle being married to a Philistine woman, because he was a nazarite.  He was wrong on all three counts. He ought to have used this set of claims:  I want God. I deserve to burn in hell, but I get to be on the LORD’s side, and I can’t handle anything without the Spirit’s power in my life.

Samson demonstrated another example of I want it. I deserve it. I can handle it, when it came to killing the lion and then eating honey from a honey comb that bees built inside the lion’s carcass. Nazarite weren’t supposed to touch anything dead. No Israelite was to do so, or they would be unclean for the day. Samson saw the honey in the lion caracass and wanted some. He deserved it–after all, he had killed the lion. He knew he could handle it, and he gave some to his parents without telling them, because, of course, he knew better than they did how to do things.

One result of Samson eating the honey was he developed a riddle concerning it that he shared at his wedding reception. He didn’t just share the riddle, but turned it into a bet with a number of the guest. The result of that was the guests threatened to burn down the house of his wife and father-in-law, if she didn’t tell them the answer. She got Samson to reveal the answer and the result was Samson killed thirty Philistines in another town and gave their clothes to pay off the bet. We see Samson making one fifteen-minute decision after another. This pattern will ultimately lead to his death and to his falling far short of His potential in serving the LORD. In the short-term, it cost him his new wife.

Judges 15 offers us an example of Samson’s amazing strength, when he returned to Timnah to get his wife, her father told him she was given to the best man at the wedding, because he didn’t think Samson was coming back. He offered Samson his younger daughter, but Samson destroyed some of the Philistines’ fields in revenge. This caused the Philistines to kill Samson’s wife and father-in-law. We see how revenge could escalate in those dates. Eventually, it led to the Philistines retaliating against the Israelites. That led the Israelites to turn Samson over to the Philistines. While in custody, the Spirit of the LORD came upon Samson, he freed himself and killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. Samson was parched with thirst after this and he cried out to the LORD. The Lord provided water from a rock, which shows us the LORD’s hand was with Samson. We would hope this would be a turning point, and Samson would take his role as leader and judge in Israel seriously. We would be disappointed…

In Judges 16 Samson the tragic story of Samson ends. First, he returns to the  land of the Philistines to spend time with a prostitute. Then he returns and meets Delilah. Delilah turned out to be the cause of Samson’s demise. The Philistines bribed her to find out the secret of Samson’s strength. Even after she demonstrated repeatedly her goal in finding it was to turn him over to the Philistines, Samson revealed it was in his long hair. As a nazarite, his hair had never been cut. While Samson slept Delilah had men come and cut his hair, and then she woke him, telling him the Philistines were there. Samson woke up, but his strength was gone. The Philistines bound Samson, gouged out his eyes and put him to work as if he were an ox, grinding grain.

Eventually, Samson’s hair regrew, and he called on the LORD to give him strength one last time. He was brought out as entertainment at a large gathering of Philistines. He got his guard to position him between two pillars holding up the building where they were, and the LORD gave him strength to push them over. 3,000 Philistines died, along with Samson. We’re told at the end of the chapter: Samson judged Israel twenty years. Did he? Not really. Samson occasionally killed a few or many Philistines, but most of the time he indulged his own desires. Samson had all the potential in the world, but he wasted most of it. The LORD gave him unique strength, but he used it primarily for himself. What do we learn from Samson? We learn at least this:  When we’re inclined to think: I want it. I deserve it. I can handle it, we need to remember where that line of thinking led Samson. Remember: I want GOD.  I deserve death, but God is so gracious.  I can’t handle anything without God.  Samson shows us what happens when we forget these realities and pursue our own ends.

As we return to John 16, we return to Jesus’ reminders to the disciples that His death, and His return to heaven would be to their advantage, because He would send the Spirit. I have often thought of that promise: It is better that I go, so you can have the Holy Spirit. If you and I were part of the original group of disciples, could we have believed we would be better off without Jesus? I can’t imagine how amazing life would have been with Jesus. Listening to Him teach, watching Him heal and cast out demons, even walk on water, and calm storms. How could His leaving be “better”? The truth is the way it’s better is the disciples would be empowered by the Holy Spirit, so they could heal sick people, and cast out demons. They would be different in a good and powerful way when Jesus left them. Even so, it must have been hard to believe it would be “better.” That would have been especially true later than night when Jesus was arrested, and the next day as they watched Him be crucified and die.

We live on the resurrection side of all those statements of Jesus. We know He was telling the truth. We also have the Holy Spirit in our lives as we trust Him as Savior and Lord. Yet, I think often of the time when we will get to see Jesus, to be with Him. That day is coming. It will be better than now. The truth is Jesus was right that it is better for us that He left. It is also true it will be better once again when He returns. That puts us in an enviable win-win situation as Jesus followers. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”