Welcome to this episode of Sunday Brunch. The Sunday Brunch blog posts are warm and inviting, encouraging discussion about the Bible.  

This blog post was sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like stories about faith and Christianity then you must read Loving Luke by Cecelia Dowdy. Loving Luke is about a reunion between Luke and Kim, two childhood sweethearts. It’s a Christmas novel full of love, regrets, and second chances. There’s also a bakery and plenty of delicious desserts wrapped within this amazing story. Can Luke and Kim find the courage to overcome their hang-ups and learn to love again? Loving Luke has been an Amazon bestselling novel with several 5-star reviews! Purchase today and tell your friends by sharing this blog post! The purchase link for Loving Luke is at the end.

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Judges Chapter 15

Do you remember learning about Samson in Sunday School? What do you remember about him?

Let’s read and discuss Samson’s life as told in the Old Testament. We continue with Chapter 15 – moving forward with other chapters in later podcasts. When I share Chapter 15, I will read each verse, sharing my thoughts in between the verses. If you are reading this, my thoughts are bolded in brackets.

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

Chapter 15 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.

2 “I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.” [I find it strange that his wife’s father can just take Samson’s wife and give her to someone else. What gives him the liberty to do that? Let’s veer off of the subject for a little bit. Verse 2 reminds me of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel; Genesis Chapter 19. Rachel was beautiful and Jacob slaved for 7 years for Rachel’s dad, Laban, just so that he could marry her. But he was tricked by Laban and unknowingly married Leah! As mentioned, Rachel was beautiful. But Leah was unattractive. I also wondered about Jacob. Did he have sexual relations with someone while he was slaving for Rachel? This is the Old Testament, so, they were not necessarily bound by the same rules as the New Testament.]

3 Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. [This is horrible! Even though Samson had been chosen by God, he had a lot of faults. He was brutal! I’ve never heard of tying foxtails together, until I read this verse. Is this even possible or plausible? Wouldn’t the foxes have tried to escape? Wouldn’t they have tried to bite Samson? I know this is the Bible but, it just seems strange to me. If you have any insight about this verse, then please share!]

6 When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.” [See, this proves that the actions of Samson’s father-in-law were unjustified. He should not have given Samson’s wife away to his companion.]

So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam. [So brutal! Just reading this makes me feel sorrowful. Old Testament scriptures can be so depressing. Can you imagine what it would have been like to live back then? Back before Christ came?]

9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

12 They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

13 “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. 14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. [Although this is brutal, Samson is doing this with the Lord’s blessing. As mentioned in another podcast, I wonder if Samson was a huge, muscular man, or, if he looked just like any ordinary man. His strength came from the Lord, not from his muscles. At least, that’s the way it appears to me. Using a jawbone as a weapon seems highly strange. But, since the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, this gave him the strength he needed to use the jawbone to his advantage. Samson reminds me of the superheroes that you read about it comic books. He has extraordinary, almost non-believable strength.]

16 Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone

    I have made donkeys of them.

With a donkey’s jawbone

    I have killed a thousand men.”

[Samson seems to be implying that these men were fools. I suppose this is one of the riddles for which he is known.]

17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.

18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. [This reminds me of the verse where Moses strikes his walking stick against a rock and water comes out of it. Numbers 20:9-11] When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.

20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines. [I wonder about this 20-year leadership. This verse seems so final. Yet, in Chapter 16, he meets Delilah. I assume he met Delilah, as well as the prostitute in Gaza, after this 20-year time-frame? I ask because, the Bible isn’t necessarily in chronological order. Any insight you may have about this is greatly appreciated!]

So, do you remember learning about Samson in Sunday School? What do you remember about him?

This blog post was sponsored by Divine Desserts Publishing LLC. If you like stories about faith and Christianity then you must read Loving Luke by Cecelia Dowdy. Loving Luke is about a reunion between Luke and Kim, two childhood sweethearts. It’s a Christmas novel full of love, regrets, and second chances. There’s also a bakery and plenty of delicious desserts wrapped within this amazing story. Can Luke and Kim find the courage to overcome their hang-ups and learn to love again? Loving Luke has been an Amazon bestselling novel with several 5-star reviews! Purchase today and tell your friends by sharing this blog post! The purchase link for Loving Luke is at the end.

Subscribe to this blog by leaving a reply and selecting “Notify me of new posts by email.”

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