Fiery Fox-Tails & a Jackass Jawbone
Judges 15:1-20

            Perhaps, some of you remember the film The Runaway Bride, where Julia Robert’s character achieves tabloid status for leaving a long trail of grimacing grooms standing alone at the altar. In Samson, we have the story of a runaway bridegroom. As we saw in Judges 14, Samson became infatuated with a gorgeous young Philistine girl and he insisted upon marrying her. But during the wedding feast, when his bride-to-be manipulated him into revealing the answer to his infamous riddle and humiliated him by causing him lose his bet to his groomsmen, he was so infuriated that he left her at the altar while he spit, sputtered, and stomped all the way back to his daddy’s house.

            Since Samson never consummated the marriage through sexual relations, they were technically not married. And with no indication that he would ever return to claim his bride, the girl’s father saved her from an embarrassing situation by giving her to one of Samson’s Philistine groomsmen; and even more scandalously, it was his best man. Samson’s broken relationship seems to end of a satisfactory note, but unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there.

 

Playing with Fire (1-8)

            Some time later, after Samson’s rage had ratcheted down a few notches, he found his mind constantly thinking about his voluptuous vixen and visualizing the honeymoon that had never happened. To make matters worse, the spring wheat harvest had just started, which meant that he was suffering a severe case of “spring-fever”, and all of his sensual urges were bubbling up within him. So, in the pursuit of passion, Samson swallowed his pride and decided to go back to Timnah and try to recover his marriage.

            On his way to his bride’s father’s house, he grabbed a young goat to give to her as a gift, a sort of peace offering. Maybe he was thinking that if he gave her a goat that she would say, “Oh thanks Honey, no hard feelings. Let’s get back together right now!” (This sounds like something you would hear in a Taylor Swift song. Seriously guys, if you do something stupid and need to make amends with your wife, leave the goat on the farm! A dozen roses and a box of chocolates would do just fine!)

            When Samson showed up at the doorstep demanding to spend the night with his wife, he got the shock of his life. The girl’s father broke the bad news by saying, “Well, ugh, well, umm, I gave her to your best man. I don’t mean to “get your goat” but I thought you hated her and I didn’t think you were coming back. What was I supposed to do?” When the old man saw Samson’s eyes blazing, he tried to put out the fire by offering him his younger daughter, whom he tries to pawn off as being even more attractive than her sister. (One has to wonder what kind depraved father says things like this about his daughters!) But Samson would not have any of this because the older daughter was the one who was “right in his eyes.”

            Instead of understanding the situation or taking responsibility for his own actions, he shifts the blame to the Philistines and vows to take revenge on them. He feels like he is morally justified to do them harm because they harmed him. He figured that if the Philistines could take his woman, who would bear his seed, that he would take the fruit of the Philistine’s field. So, he conjures up a “clever” weapon of mass destruction to obliterate their national food supply. He caught 300 foxes, tied their tails together, attached torches to them, and set them loose to spread fire through the Philistine’s grain fields and olive groves, wiping out their entire harvest.

            Samson thought that he had outfoxed the Philistines once and for all, but they eventually found out that Samson was the arsonist responsible for the inferno and they decided to fight fire with fire. They captured Samson’s former fiancé and her father and burned them to death.

            The vicious cycle of violence continues as Samson vows revenge on every man who was responsible for burning his bride and then he promises to quit. So, he tracked down each man, beat him into a bloody pulp with his bare hands, and ran for his hideout in the Judean hills.

 

The Thrill on Jawbone Hill (9-17)

            After the Philistines discovered that some of their men had been slaughtered by Samson, they gathered their army and marched against the tribe of Judah at the Israelite town of Lehi. When the men of Judah inquired why the Philistines had marshaled their troops, they told them that they were seeking revenge against Samson. Rather than calling on Samson to lead them in fighting for their independence, they act like complete cowards. They proceed to his hideout to remind him that the Philistines need to be treated with respect and accused him of jeopardizing their safety. Then they inform him of their intention to hand him over to the Philistines. (Can you imagine that, an army sacrificing one of their own comrades to placate the enemy? So much for the policy “no man left behind!”)

            Instead of quarreling with his own people, Samson had another idea. He made them swear that they would only bind him, not kill him. They bound his hands with new ropes and marched him into the hands of the enemy. As Samson approached the Philistine’s, they started whooping and hollering at the anticipation of revenge.

            But like the episode with the roaring lion pouncing on Samson, the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him again and empowered him with supernatural strength. He snapped the rugged ropes like wet noodles, grabbed a jaw-bone from a decaying donkey carcass (compromising his Nazarite vow again) and used it as a form of brass-knuckles and struck down 1000 Philistines.

            As he surveyed the quiet carnage, in triumph, he threw his blood-stained weapon onto the sand. Typical to his narcissistic nature, he began heaping the dead Philistine corpses into a mound and composed a little song to immortalize his achievement. His vain victory tune went like this: “With a donkey’s jawbone, heaps upon heaps; with a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.” Samson also memorializes his conquest by renaming the location Ramath-Lehi, which is a catchy Hebrew phrase that means “Jawbone Hill.” (In Samson’s memory, I have composed my own little ditty: “Samson found his thrill on Jawbone Hill. After all he’d done and seen, and killed the Philistine. He piled the bodies high for all to see, say’n when I die, I hope you’ll remember me.”)

 

A Thirst for Glory (18-20)

            When Samson finished piling the bodies, he sat down in the sand to rest his weary body. That is when he realized that killing Philistines and singing songs parches the throat. He was extremely thirsty and there was no water in sight. Faced the possibility of perishing in the desert, for the first time in his life, he cries out to God for help. He prayed for water lest he die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines

            At first glance, we may applaud Samson for such a pious prayer and that he finally acknowledged God’s presence in his life, but when we look under the surface, we can’t help but notice that his plea is purely self-serving. He doesn’t even address God by his name; instead, he employs the “impersonal” pronoun “you.” There is no gratitude for God’s providential provision of a lethal weapon. There is no thanksgiving to God’s Spirit for endowing him with supernatural strength or overcoming the enemy. There is no recognition of God’s grace in his life. He is not interested in giving God any glory; he is only concerned with protecting his own glory.

            The last thing that we would ever expect is that God would answer the prayer of such a wicked and wayward man. We would never predict that God would save such a selfish and conceited person. But sure enough, as Samson lay sulking in the sand, a seam in the rock miraculously spit open and began gushing clean water. The water spared his life and he went on to judge Israel for twenty years.

 

            Wow, what a story! In our remaining time, I would like for us to reflect on some of the modern spiritual applications we can take away from this episode in Samson’s life.

 

1.) Take responsibility for your actions!

            Remember back at the beginning of the story! After leaving his bride at the altar, Samson arrogantly expected to return and pick up right where he left off. But when he found out that his fiancé had been given to another man, he failed to take any responsibility for his actions. Instead, he played the victim card.

            Do you know anyone who does this today? It is epidemic in our modern society, isn’t it? I know many people who go through life complaining about everything, yet they are unwilling to admit they are the primary creators of their own misery. It is easy to say, “It’s my parent’s fault! It’s my spouse’s fault! It’s the government’s fault! It’s the system’s fault.” It is hard to say, “Yeah, I admit it; I’m part of the problem.” Allow me to get a little personal for a moment: When you make foolish mistakes or unsound decisions, are you apt to own them or blame someone else?

 

2.) Stop the cycle of revenge!

            Did you notice the cycles of revenge in this story? Samson was mad at the Philistine’s for taking his bride, so he burned their fields–they burned the girl and her father—he pummeled them and ran—they marched against Judah—and Samson crushed them with a jawbone.

            This illustrates the modern cliché that “Violence breeds violence!” and “Hurt people hurt people!” And so often, the violence doesn’t stop until someone ends up dead. Whether it is bullying on the bus, an argument with another parent, or spreading rumors at work, when would you resort to violence? Do you ever find yourself seeking revenge against someone who has hurt you? Do you live by the philosophy of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” or do you live by Jesus’ words that “if someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other one to him also.” (Matt. 5:39) May the cycle of violence stop with you!

 

3.) Don’t ever be content to conform to the world’s standards!

            One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this story is how the men of Judah were willing to sell out one of their own countrymen to maintain the comfort of their lives. They were disgracefully happy to hand Samson over to the enemy to avoid upsetting the equilibrium. They were content to remain slaves and conform to the Philistine’s standards rather than joining Samson in the fight for freedom.

            Oh, how many Christians are willing to sell out Jesus Christ to maintain the comfort of their lives? How many Sunday morning pew sitters would rather sacrifice God’s moral mandates than upset the equilibrium with someone in their family or community. How many so-called Christ followers have simply accommodated the world’s standards instead of standing on the truth of God’s Word? Like the men of Judah, every day the world tries to force us to adopt its ungodly values. What are going to do? Whatever you do, don’t ever be content to conform to the world’s standard.

 

4.) Be amazed by God’s incredible grace!

            Samson is one of the most overconfident selfish self-centered self-seeking egotistical proud arrogant conceited bigheaded. He disrespected his own family and showed no concern for his nation. He was flippant with his vows to God and ignored God’s plan for his life. The only person he cared about was himself. He, of all people, did not deserve God’s grace! And yet, we must be amazed to see that God never gave up on him. God continued to endow him with supernatural strength and enabled him to accomplish amazing feats. He even answers Samson’s selfish prayer and provided water to save his life.

            Like Samson, we are all guilty of being self-centered, conceited, arrogant, and egotistical. We have all been disrespectful to someone sometime. We have all broken vows we have made to God. And we have all ignored God’s plan at some point in our lives. But God continues to extend his grace to us. Through the death and resurrection of his son Jesus Christ, he has provided atonement for our sins to save us from hell. He offers us forgiveness and redemption for all of our sins. We don’t deserve his goodness, but he gives it to us anyway. Have you truly embraced God’s grace?