Old Testament - Judges 15 & 16 - June 3, 2002

 6/3/2022 – Judges 15 & 16

Judges 15

 Samson came back to his father-in law, wanting to live with his wife. But his father-in-law confirms that he gave Samson’s wife to be to Samson’s best man. The father-in-law then tries to convince Samson to marry his younger daughter who was even fairer than her older sister. (v2)

Samson certainly has an anger control problem. He took his anger out on the Philistines by catching 300 foxes, tying their tails and putting “a firebrand in the midst between the two tails”, and then letting the foxes go into the Philistines corn fields and vineyards and olive trees. (v 5) The Philistines responded by burning his father-in-law and the woman Samson had wanted to marry. Samson responded by causing “great slaughter” among the Philistines.

The Philistines then responded by coming to the edge of the land that had been given to the tribe of Judah, telling them that they had come to bind Samson for his burning of their land and the slaughtering of their people.

The 3000 men of Judah went to Samson to tell him of the anger of the Philistines for the terror that Samson had committed. They came to an agreement with Samson, that they would not hurt Samson, but that they would bind him and give him to the Philistines.  

As the men of Judah presented Samson, now bound with cords, to the Philistines who shouted against him. V 14 says “the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire…”. Samson, single handedly killed 1000 Philistines.  After that Samson was “sore athirst” and felt that he was close to death. (v 18) He then called upon the Lord, who made water come out of a rock, after which “his spirit came again, and he revived”. (v 19) And then in v 20 we learn that “he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.” (v20)

Judges 16 

Samson does not seem to be a good, or worthy, man. This chapter starts with his coming to the town of Gaza and going into a harlot’s house. The men of Gaza decided to lay in wait at the gates of the town and kill him as he tried to leave their city. But when Samson left the harlot, he went to the gates of the town, which were now closed, and he pulled the gates free and took them to the top of a hill….so he missed being killed.

We learn in v 4 that Samson has come to love a woman named Delilah. The Philistine leaders went to Delilah promising her a great wealth of silver if she could discover “wherein his great strength lieth”. (v 5). Delilah then took Samson in and asked him where his strength came from. Three times Samson made up a source of his strength, and 3 times the Philistines were fooled and they were not able to take Samson. 

Samson must have been dull witted or so intent on being with Delilah that he didn’t care that she was working with the Philistines against him. He finally told her that his hair and never been cut and that was the source of his strength. She cut his hair, then called the Philistines in. They “put out his eyes” and bound him and put him in prison. Delilah got her silver.

In prison, Samson’s hair grew. The Philistines were ecstatic that Samson was no longer a danger to them. They pulled him from the prison, they tied him between 2 pillars while they made sport of him. 3000 men and women came to see them make sport of Samson. 

Finally Samson cried out with a loud voice as he pleaded with the Lord: “O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” (v28)  He then asked the Lord “ Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself and with all his might: and the house fell… as he pulled the two pillars that he was tied to and that supported the roof.

I struggle to find why Samson’s story is in the Bible. He was not a person that we would want to follow….maybe that’s exactly why his story is in the scriptures. 

This is what the Study Manual has to say: “The biblical account of Samson reveals him as a man of extreme confidence and tremendous courage, qualities based on his recognition that his power was from God and that God would sustain him in the mission to which he had been called. But Samson did not realize that there is a rule that governs power in the Lord, which is, “let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God” (D&C 121:45). Samson’s misfortunes began when his confidence in God turned into conceit and pride. Over a period of time he broke the vows of a Nazarite and violated other commandments, including the law of chastity (see Judges 16:1).

Samson’s superhuman strength did not reside in his hair but in his confidence in God and in the Nazarite oath, of which the hair was the outward symbol. Delilah’s treachery and the shaving of Samson’s hair signified the final betrayal of his vows. Thus, he became a miserable, broken man with no power left.”

Then there’s the question as to why God once again strengthened  Samson, and once again the study manual helps: “The claim of the Philistines that “our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy” (v. 24) referred to their belief that their success in capturing Samson proved the Philistine deity Dagon was greater than Jehovah. Thus, the people did not fear to make sport of Samson, the champion of Jehovah, in the temple of their god. In this setting, Samson once again exercised that kind of courage through which God could have used him as a tool. But again the self-centeredness of Samson is evident. Even in his final opportunity, when Samson used his restored strength to destroy the temple of Dagon and the Philistines who were there, he thought only of getting revenge for what had been done to him (see v. 28). In the destruction of his very temple, what better proof could there be that the power of Dagon was nothing? And yet how much more powerfully could Samson have borne witness to the power of Jehovah if he had fulfilled his calling to overthrow the power of the Philistines.”

And all of this, I think an important fact that shouldn’t be overlooked is that no matter what sins we have committed, the Lord will always be here us. And when we open our hearts and minds to him, He will be there to help us in the way that will help us the most.