READ: Judges 15-16

BACKGROUND: These chapters describe the rise and fall of Samson.
By Verse:
15:5 – These are the 3 main crops of the Philistines.
9 – Ironically, Lehi means “jawbone.”
12 – Samson wanted to make sure that he didn’t have to harm, fight, or kill any of his fellow Israelites.
16:3 – These were ridiculously large and heavy gates…and Samson carried them approximately 38 miles.
20 – The strength was never about the hair. It was always about the Spirit of God.
21 – Samson was reduced to humiliating slave labor.
30 – He had previously killed at least 1030.

THINK: Sit quietly and let your thoughts settle. Read this section from The Message translation, and let the story filter through your heart and interact with your present reality:

Then this: Everyone was feeling high and someone said, “Get Samson! Let him show us his stuff!” They got Samson from the prison and he put on a show for them. They had him standing between the pillars. Samson said to the young man who was acting as his guide, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that hold up the temple so I can rest against them.” The building was packed with men and women, including all the Philistine tyrants. And there were at least three thousand in the stands watching Samson’s performance. And Samson cried out to God: “Master, God! Oh, please, look on me again, Oh, please, give strength yet once more. God! With one avenging blow let me be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes!” Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left. Saying, “Let me die with the Philistines,” Samson pushed hard with all his might. The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it. He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life.

What stands out to you about Samson’s dramatic action and the ending of his life? Do you resonate with his deep desire for justice to be served? What do you observe about how he acted on that desire for revenge?

PRAY: Read that section from The Message another tie, looking specifically for a word of phrase about Samson’s desire for revenge or justice that is meaningful to you. Maybe his act angers you, or you eel a similar desire. When you finish reading, close your eyes. Recall the word or phrase and sit quietly, mulling it over. Let it stimulate you into a dialogue with God.

LIVE: Read the section from The Message one last time, watching how God interacts with Samson and with the Philistines: Although God does not directly act or speak in the passage, he grants Samson’s request to avenge himself, and he allows the Philistines to lose their lives. What stands out to you about God’s involvement (or lack of Involvement)? Talk with him about your perception of him in this passage. Be open to what he may be showing you through what you read.

From Eugene Peterson in Solo

READ: Judges 13-14

BACKGROUND: These chapters kick off the incredible story of Samson who was one of the most fascinating but deeply flawed of all the judges in Israel’s history. He was miraculously given as a gift to his childless parents, marked out for great things before the day he was born, and yet hopeless distracted and tempted by the things of the world throughout his lifetime.
By Verse:
13:1 – The pattern of the book of Judges repeats itself…again.
3 – In this case, “The angel of the LORD” is specifically referring to God himself.
5 – The Nazirite Vow (Numbers 6:1-8) wasn’t always for an entire lifetime, but in Samson’s case it was.
14:4 – The undesirable marriage to a Philistine would ultimately be used by God for his purposes.
8-9 – In the heat of the arid summer, the carcass would have dried quickly. But approaching it was a violation of Samson’s Nazirite vow.
10 – A feast like this included drinking, which was a violation of Samson’s Nazirite vow.
20 – Basically, Samson’s best man took his wife on the wedding night. Pretty messed up.

THINK: Every year I play in a softball tournament in Bloomington, MN with a bunch of friends from college. We always play at the same softball complex and inevitably we have a few games on this really tiny field – it’s only about 210 feet to the fences. And because the field is so small every team is allowed to hit only 2 home runs per game – and any more than that are outs. So, everyone goes into the game knowing full well what they should do. And that is: hit the ball low and avoid wasting one of the 2 home runs unless there are at least 2 or 3 runners on base. This is clearly the best strategy. Here is the reality: I couldn’t even count for you the number of solo home runs I’ve seen guys hit when nobody else is on base during games on that field. Why? Because even though what should be done is evident it comes into conflict with what we want to do, namely hit home runs in order to feel powerful and awesome at softball. See, there are a number of guys who could never hit a home run on a regulation field so they really want to hit one on the tiny field just to say that they did it. And that want, that powerful desire, overpowers what they know they should do.

This scenario was the story of Samson’s life. God had very clearly called Samson to do great things. And he gave Samson – and his parents – specific instructions about what that calling meant. What Samson should have done could not have been more clear. But what he should have done sometimes conflicted with what he wanted to do. For instance, he should have married an Israelite since God forbid his people from marrying pagans. He wanted to marry a Philistine. He chose option 2 – though I have some grace for him in this because Judges clearly says that God wanted to use the situation to have Sampson confront the Philistines. But he made some worse choices from there. He killed a lion and didn’t tell his parents. It may seem sweet of him, as though he didn’t want to frighten his mom or something, but that’s not the reason Sampson kept silent. Killing an unclean animal – like a lion – meant that Sampson was unclean for the rest of the day. He should have refrained from contact with others. He wanted to go hang out with his girlfriend and make sure his parents got the wedding worked out. So he didn’t tell them and he chose option 2. Then, on his way back again, he saw that bees made a hive full of honey in the lion’s carcass. But, as a Nazirite he was never supposed to go near a corpse and as an Israelite he was never supposed to eat anything that had touched a dead body and he was unclean if he came into contact with one. He should have avoided it. He wanted to eat some honey. He chose option 2. Then he should have at least told his parents and not fed them the unclean honey. He wanted to impress them and he wanted to hang with his girl again. He chose option 2.

I think most of us choose option 2 more often than we care to admit. Be honest with yourself for a minute and think back over all the decisions you’ve made in the last week – the places you’ve gone, the things you’ve watched or listened to, the people you’ve spent time with, the words you’ve spoken, etc. How often are you choosing to do the thing that you know God says you should do, and how often, when it conflicts with God, are you choosing to ignore him and do what you want instead? Our desires are powerful and the world is tempting, but if there is one lesson we can learn from the life of Sampson it is this: following God’s call and doing what we should even when it’s hard is a far better way to live than chasing the empty pleasures of a broken world.

PRAY: Confess all of the times that you have ignored God’s call and chased the call of the world. Admit to God that you often let your desires overrule your conscience. Ask him to give you the wisdom to know what is right and the strength to choose it.

READ: Judges 11-12

BACKGROUND: This is the story of Jephthah’s judgeship.
By Verse:
11:1 – Since he was the son of a prostitute he lost his familial rights.
7 – Jephthah reminds the elders that they drove him out because of his family history and now they are asking him to save them.
13 – This statement isn’t entirely true. Jephthah corrects the Ammonite king by reminding him of the real history in verses 14-23.
24 – Jephthah shows great wisdom here – wisdom that he will not continue to display – by trying to negotiate for peace without fighting.
30 – This is where Jephthah’s wisdom deserts him. He had no reason and no need whatsoever to make that vow. He was trying to buy and coerce God’s favor…but he already had it.
31 – It’s important to note here that when Jephthah made this vow he expected an animal to come out first – because numerous animals lived inside of homes with people in this culture – but he should have known it could be a human.
35 – Jephthah blames his daughter for the mess he is in. Classic job of taking responsibility for his own actions…not!
12:6 – The Ephramites, who were in the wrong here, pronounced the word Shibboleth differently than everyone else, so they were able to apply a linguistic test to see if people were Ephramites or not.

THINK: I have always thought that one of the absolute stupidest parts in the entire history of humans is the European witch-hunts of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Some really brilliant Christians decided that there needed to be a definitive way of determining whether any woman accused of being a witch was actually a witch. So, naturally, they came up with the ingenious idea of tying a woman’s hands and legs together and then tossing her in a lake, river, or ocean to see if she would float. Because, of course, non-witches sink like normal human beings but witches float. And why do witches float? There were a number of theories including: they renounced baptism, witches are supernaturally light – hence the ability to fly on broomsticks, water is so pure an element that it rejects witches, and witches are made of wood (hilarious video if you’ve got 5 spare minutes). The problem with this method is that everybody loses. First and foremost, innocent women lost if they didn’t get pulled up in time before they drowned. Secondly, any innocent women who floated lost because they ended up getting burnt at the stake. Finally, everyone lost, society lost because they were so overcome by fear and superstition that they participated in an utterly ridiculous, improper, and barbaric ritual that cost people their lives.

This situation isn’t entirely unlike Jephthah’s situation in Judges 11. I have always thought that one of the absolute stupidest parts in the entire history of the Bible is what Jephthah did in Judges 11 when he swore an oath that he would sacrifice the first thing that came out of his house as an offering to God if he won the battle. He didn’t have ANY REASON to make that oath! He had just finished explaining why God was right and Ammon was wrong and he knew that God would win the day. But because he allowed himself to be overcome by fear and superstition he tried to coerce God and to earn God’s favor by making a stupid oath. And it cost him dearly when the first thing to come out of the door was his daughter. And his daughter very calmly offered herself up since Jephthah had made that promise to God and the whole nation of Israel celebrated her bravery each year. But here is the critically important thing to understand here: THAT WAS UTTERLY RIDICULOUS, IMPROPER, & BARBARIC! By all of them. Jephthah, his daughter, and Israel.

Even though Jephthah made God that promise, God didn’t want his daughter to be sacrificed. God specifically prohibits human sacrifice! He would way rather have a broken promise than a murdered daughter. But because Israel had fallen so far away from God and become so much like the pagan cultures around it, everyone was blinded to see that truth. Jephthah was. His daughter was. The entire nation was. And they were all guilty! They were all wrong! They all sinned before God!

Jephthah’s mistrust of God and his selfishness and his attempt to coerce God – his sin – ultimately affected more than just him. It affected – and it dragged down his family and his entire nation. Sin does that. Sometimes it’s really easy to think that sin is personal and that our sins don’t hurt anybody else. But that simply isn’t the case at all. Our sins affect those around us. They affect our culture. Sin isn’t just a personal thing. It’s a communal thing. The tragic story of Jephthah in Judges 11 makes that clear.

ASK: Do I ever let my doubts, fears, & superstitions lead me away from God? In what ways have my sins affected those around me?

PRAY: Ask God to show you the ways in which your sin drags others down. Pray for the courage to follow him wholeheartedly and the strength to draw those around you closer to him.