Judges 15:9 – 20 “Then the Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi. “Why have you attacked us?” said the men of Judah. The Philistines replied, “We have come to arrest Samson and pay him back for what he has done to us.” In response, three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Do you not realize that the Philistines rule over us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he replied.
But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you and hand you over to the Philistines.” Samson replied, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”
“No,” they answered, “we will not kill you, but we will tie you up securely and hand you over to them.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
When Samson arrived in Lehi, the Philistines came out shouting against him. And the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burnt flax, and the bonds broke loose from his hands. He found the fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and struck down a thousand men. Then Samson said:
“With the jawbone of a donkey I have piled them into heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men.” And when Samson had finished speaking, he cast the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi. (Ramath-lehi means the hill of the jawbone)
And being very thirsty, Samson cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great deliverance through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” So God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned, and he was revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, (the spring of him who calls) and it remains in Lehi to this day.
And Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
God is using Samson to deliver the Israelites in spite of themselves. When the Philistines show up complaining about Samson, do the Israelites back him? Are you kidding? If the Israelites could completely disown Samson, they would do so in a heartbeat! Three thousand men of Judah meet Samson at the cave where he is staying to convince him to allow them to hand him over to the Philistines. The predictable happens: when Samson is handed over, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him, he flexes his muscles, and the ropes simply melt away. Grabbing the first thing handy, a donkey jawbone, Samson then kills a thousand Philistines. When the battle is finished and Samson is about to collapse from thirst, God even opens a spring for him.
APPLICATION: In this part of the story, God uses Samson, imperfect as he is, to help keep the Philistines at bay. Why is this such an important story? Many times we feel that we must earn God’s favor and that if we don’t behave perfectly, God will refuse to bless us. But in fact, none of us can possibly behave perfectly. Each one of us is a sinner in need of a Savior; that’s why Jesus had to come and die for our sins at Calvary. After all the other things that Samson has done, it is obvious that Samson is far from perfect; yet, God has continued to use him and to sustain him.
We can take comfort from this story in the fact that God hears our prayers and will answer our prayers. Many times we don’t realize how God has been working in our lives. It is only when we begin to look backwards that we realize “Wow! That was God!” Years ago, our hospital had only a single vehicle and we had to drive all the way to the capital city of Accra to buy drugs and medical consumables. One day we reached a parking spot in Accra, only to realize that all four tires on the vehicle were leaking and needed replacement. Amazingly, 3 months earlier, someone had donated money through the mission group for whom we worked, and the mission had just transferred that money to our account a few days before our tires went flat. This took place nearly 30 years ago, when communication was extremely difficult and even phone conversations required advance planning. Only God could have orchestrated that money arriving at that time. So many times as we have traveled raising funds for the hospital, someone has handed us donated items that we desperately need. Truly, God’s hand is never shortened; God supplies our needs, if not our wants.
Do you have a real need in your life? Go to God; He already knows. Ask Him to help you see if He has already made provision and then thank Him for that provision.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us so much that You provide for us, even before we realize that we need something. Thank You that You hear our prayers and that You answer them. Help us to trust You always. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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