Judges 15:1-20

     The Central Idea of the Text is that God continued to work through Samson to cause disruption between the Philistines and Israelites. 

     After the conflict with the Philistines during the wedding feast (Judg. 14:12-20), Samson returned to claim his wife, only to find her father had given her to another man (Judg. 15:1-2).  Samson was so outraged that he felt revenge was justified (Judg. 15:3), so he burned the crops of the Philistines (Judg. 15:4-5).  The Philistines then killed Samson’s wife and her father, perhaps because they were easier targets (Judg. 15:6).  Samson retaliated again and killed an untold number (Judg. 15:7-8).  The Philistines prepared for war and camped in Judah, and this caused great alarm among the Israelites (Judg. 15:9-10).  3000 Judahites came to Samson upset that he had caused disruption between them and the Philistines and sought to deliver him over to death (Judg. 15:11-13).  When the Philistines saw Samson bound, they shouted a victory cry over him, but the Spirit of the Lord empowered Samson, and with a fresh jawbone of a donkey he killed a thousand men (Judg. 15:14-16).  Afterward he named the battlefield Jawbone Hill (Judg. 15:17).  God then provided Samson with the natural resources he needed to restore his physical and mental health (Judg. 15:18-19).

     God had originally called the Israelites to take the land by force (Deut. 7:1-6), yet the Israelites in Samson’s day had disobeyed the Lord and turned to idols, so God was punishing them for forty years (Judg. 13:1).  The Lord brought about Samson’s birth to begin Israel’s deliverance (Judg. 13:5), but the task would later be completed by Samuel and David (1 Sam. 7:10-14; 2 Sam. 5:17-25).  The sinful state of the Israelites kept them from seeing Samson as God’s deliverer, and their spiritual darkness produced in them a misplaced anger at Samson for upsetting the Philistines.  They sided with the enemy rather than God’s judge, preferring wrong-slavery to freedom. 

     Christians should strive for peace with everyone (Rom. 12:18; 14:19; Heb. 12:14), but never when it means forfeiting God’s will (Dan. 3:16-18; 6:1-10; Acts 5:27-29; 1 Pet. 4:14-16).  The believer with spiritual integrity will stand with God, even when other believers choose friendship with the world.  Having spiritual integrity means being consistent with God; it means knowing and choosing His will above self-interest, and calling wayward believers to do the same.  We need Christians with integrity.