These last chapters show how Israel discovers what’s wrong with doing what’s right in your own eyes. We’ve seen the rot of the judgeship under Samson, whose two outstanding characteristics were physical strength and moral weakness. We’ve begun to see the Levitical system corrupted, with Micah’s rent-a-priest (it gets much worse). We’ll also observe the […]
Read More… from August 8, 2023 — Collapsing Like Dagon’s Temple
Samuel may be considered the last judge, but in Judges itself, Samson is the end of the line. Following Samson, who “judged Israel twenty years” (Jdg 16:31), we are introduced to Micah, whose name is a rhetorical question: Who is like Jah? Who indeed—certainly not idols! He lives in the mountains of Ephraim (17:1), not […]
How many struggling saints have found hope in Samson’s final prayer, “just this once, O God” (Jdg 16:28). From the last chapter in Samson’s life, the saying was framed, “Oh, the binding, blinding, grinding consequences of sin.” Here they are: “The Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. […]
“A foolish son is the ruin of his father, and the contentions of a wife are a continual dripping” (Prov 19:13). “It happened! I don’t know how—it just happened!” Do you ever hear explanations like that? That’s how our next episode begins. “Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, […]
Whatever Samson’s liabilities, he still appears in Hebrews 11, God’s Hall of Faith. But why? One fact alone makes Samson stand out. Of all the judges, he is the only one who has no one stand with him. In fact, like our Lord, it is his own people who arrest him and hand him over […]
Samson shows that in seeking revenge you dig two graves: one for your enemy, one for yourself. Is it true that “time heals all wounds”? In Samson’s case, he seems to have recovered from his wife’s betrayal, and, taking a young goat as a present, he makes his way to Timnath. There he discovers that […]
Yes, the strong man would be defeated like the lion, and women’s honeyed tongues would do it. Samson has decided, against the command of Moses, and against the wishes of his parents, to marry a Philistine woman. God allowed it because He “was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines” (Jdg 14:4). Samson arranged […]
Seven times we read of Samson going down, not just geographically, but spiritually as well. Israel had been in the hand of the Philistines for 40 years when a son was announced to Manoah and his wife. That meant perhaps 20 more years until he came of age. Like our Lord, virtually nothing is known […]
Angel appearances in Judges: regarding the weak strong judge (6:11-24) and the strong weak judge (13:3-23). There’s that word “Again” again. “Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord” (Jdg 13:1). This time—the final time in the book—it was into the hands of the Philistines that the Lord delivered His […]