Judges, Chapter 15 - Alone Against All | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom, friends. Welcome back to Prophet of Israel daily. We're at Judges chapter 15. Shalom, Jeremy. Good to see you. Hey, good to be here. Um okay, so I want to open with a question that has bothered readers of the Tanakh for generations. At least it's bothered me. Okay? Samson is on the surface one of the most difficult figures in the entire Tanakh to respect. Like we've said, there's an impulsiveness to him. He's drawn to Philistine women. His battles seem to be fought over personal grievances, not national mission. Uh his his very song at the end of this chapter doesn't mention Hashem even once. Right? And yet our sages teach that when Yaakov, Jacob, blesses the tribe of Dan at the end of Bereishit, at the end of the book of Genesis, he mysteriously cries out the words, Oh God, for your salvation I have awaited." Right? We learn at that moment Jacob had a prophetic vision in which he saw Samson wreaking havoc upon the Philistines, and he thought, "This is him. This is Mashiach. This is the Messiah." Only when he saw Samson die in this vision did he realize, "Not yet." And it was in that moment of disappointment that he cried out those words, "For your salvation I have awaited, Hashem." So, what did Yaakov see that we miss? That is the question that I believe chapter 15 answers. So, let's walk through it together because I think for some people this could be controversial, but this is really the way I see it. It opens with a small detail, verse one. Vayelech Shimshon Vayikod et Ishto Bigdei Izim. Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. Right? A Gedi Izim, a young goat, uh it's it's hard not to notice another famous Gedi Izim in the Tanakh, a young goat, the goat Judah brought to Tamar. Right? The descent of Tamar. That act, whatever its moral complexity, was the moment through which the Davidic line emerged. The same symbolic object, a goat, an attempt at reconciliation, an offering of repair, but here it leads not to redemption, but to further rupture. Apparently redemption and destruction can hinge on the same acts depending on timing and what's in the heart. So, Samson arrives, but um her father, his wife's father, has given her to another man. The marriage is over. And Samson responds the way he always responds to a personal uh offense. He somehow catches 300 foxes and ties them tail to tail in pairs. You know, in my mind I just want to stop you for just a second because people don't appreciate that. They just kind of read it. But, you know, to me it's one of the biggest miracles in the book of Judges. I mean, I see foxes running around the Arab goat farm all the time. Every other day I see a fox dart across the road as I'm driving, you know, to Jerusalem. And I'm like, "How do you catch a fox?" And 300 foxes. It's really remarkable. So, Samson had not only incredible physical strength, but clearly he was in touch with nature in a way that allowed him to work together with those foxes. And so, his life was entirely guided by Hashem. Right, but it doesn't say the foxes came to him. It says that he catches them. So, but anyways, I mean, from what he's done, it nothing is is beyond his capacity when the spirit of Hashem is in him. So, he he ties their tails together with a torch in the middle, and he lights up the torches, and he releases them into the standing Philistine grain fields during the wheat harvest. And fields are burning, vineyards gone, olive groves destroyed, a year's worth of Philistine livelihood gone in a night of fire. And the Philistines find out it was Samson. They retaliate, burning his wife and her father. Right? The very fate she had feared and betrayed him to avoid, she didn't want to be burned, they turned out being burned. The very outcome she tried to prevent by giving in to their threats back in chapter 14, her compromise didn't save her, it sealed her fate. You know, so Samson retaliates against the Philistines with a great slaughter, and then retreats to a cave in the rock of Etam in the land of Israel. You know, Ari, I just think it's worth pausing here for just a moment because I want to point out that Shimshon's stated motivation is entirely personal. It's like, "As they did to me, so I have done to them." And he's not like announcing like this national campaign. He's settling a score. And as we continue, we see it's exactly that dynamic that Hashem was working with. God was looking for a way to confront the Philistines and yet not have Israel entirely involved. He needed someone to break the status quo. And he just he needed someone that was just going to like refuse the reality that Israel was living in this like weird coexistence, living under the Philistines' control. And Shimshon, that was driven by a personal grievance, he does exactly that. He doesn't wait for the perfect motivations in the most righteous of, you know, inside the halo over his head. Hashem uses the instruments that he has, flawed, wounded, they're personally driven, but he moves history along through them anyways. Exactly, Jeremy. And then comes what could very well be the defining scene, one of the defining scenes, of Shimshon's life. The Philistines march into Judah, and the men of Judah come out not to fight, but to negotiate. Right? Verse 10, Vayomeru Anshei Yehudah, "Lama Alita Aleinu?" And the And the men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" The Philistines answer, "We want Samson. We demand Samson. Give us Samson." And 3,000 men of Judah, the tribe of kings, turn heads down, go down to the cave. You know, I just want to point out something here. 3,000 men came to arrest one person. I mean, what's being told to us, the Bible is showing us that everyone already knew of Shimshon's supernatural power. He was already a legendary figure. 3,000 men are going to arrest one guy? Yeah, but it wasn't just 3,000 men. It was 3,000 men from the tribe of Judah. They're like the warriors, they're the royalty. Anyways, they come to Shimshon in verse 11, and the words they say are heartbreaking. "Halei Yadati?" Uh did did did you not know that the Philistines rule over us?" Right? This is a moment of profound spiritual collapse. The people have internalized their subjugation. The tribe of Judah has internalized their subjugation. They no longer see redemption as possible. They can't even entertain the idea. And so, when redemption does arrive, they don't have the eyes to see it, and they turn against the very force sent to initiate it. Right? One of the greatest obstacles to redemption is not external enemies, it's internal resignation. I feel like we see this a little bit in Israel over the past 20, 30 years. It's starting to shift now. But But when a people accept exile as normal, redemption becomes threatening. Right? So, they approach Samson in the cave. Verse 12. "We have come down to take you prisoner and to hand you over to the Philistines." No other judge in the entire book of Judges was handed over by his own people. And notice what Samson does. The rest of the verse. Right? Vayomeru Lahem Shimshon, "Hishavu Li." "But swear to me," Samson said to them, "that you yourselves will not attack me." He doesn't fight them. He doesn't rage. He makes one request. "Swear to me that you yourselves will not kill me. Do not lay a hand on me." You know, stop and think about that request for a moment. We've just come through chapter 9, where Abimelech slaughtered 70 brothers on a single stone. In chapter 12, where Yiftach killed 42,000 fellow Jews at the fords of Jordan in a tribal civil war. The The book of Judges has been drowning in Jewish on Jewish violence. And now here is Samson, betrayed by 3,000 of his own people, his own brethren, being handed to his enemies, and his one condition is, "Don't you hurt me, and I won't hurt you. I will submit. I will allow you to bind me because I will not raise my hand to a fellow Jew, not even against the ones handing me over." You know, and so after everything we've watched in this book, this single line that it it just it's a breath of fresh air for me. Because, you know, for one moment in Judges, brute strength is restrained by brotherhood. Samson can endure humiliation, betrayal, even captivity, but he will not be the one to raise a hand against his brother. And so, what do they bind him with? Verse 13. Vayisru Ba-Betayim. They They bound him with two new ropes. New ropes. Stronger. Right? The The strongest natural bonds available to them. But when the spirit of Hashem comes upon him, they dissolve like burned flax, like instantly, completely. Even the strongest natural constraints cannot hold when the divine purpose is activated. Right? And so, he is led up from the cave, bound, delivered, and the Philistines shout in triumph. And the spirit of Hashem rushes upon him. The new ropes burn off like flax, and what happens next? The stuff of legends. Verse 15. He came upon a fresh jawbone of a donkey and he picked it up and with it he killed a thousand men. A jawbone. Not a sword. Not a spear. The most discarded improvised object on the ground and in the hands of the right person even the lowest object becomes a cle ula, an instrument of redemption. That is the recurring pattern that we see in this book, one of the recurring patterns. Right, the left-handed man, the woman with the tent peg, the barley loaf, the unnamed woman with the millstone. Right, and now a donkey's jawbone. He killed a thousand Philistines with it. And he names the place Ramath Lehi, jawbone hill. And then he recites a victory song. Verse 16. With the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men. Right, chamor means donkey. Chamor also sounds like heap. With a donkey I made heaps of them but notice not a word about Hashem. The spirit rushed upon him, the ropes dissolved, the victory was complete and Samson's song doesn't mention Hashem once. Right, despite his righteousness this is one of his struggles. His eyes led him astray and here his tongue does too. The man who would not raise a hand against his own brothers cannot resist claiming personal credit for Hashem's miracles. I judge him but I think we all do with our own victories and successes but we may fall to that as well. But anyways, Hashem responds immediately. Verse 18. Vayitzma, and he was very thirsty. A moment ago he was invincible. Now he's about to die from a lack of water. You know, and I think that's just the most important and interesting part of Shimshon. I mean, he was chosen by God even before he was born. He was inspired, he was guided by God but he's so human. He's the embodiment of the name Israel. He struggles with man and he struggles with God. And God not only uses him to save Israel but he's constantly living in a dialogue with Shimshon. Once Shimshon thinks he's so strong, says like a little bit of water and you lost all your power. And so he's making sure that Shimshon stays connected. Yeah, that's exactly it. Right. He he he he wants he needs that relationship. He's not going to put his spirit where there's not an authentic relationship of some sort, some sort of connection. You know, and so Samson prays for the first time in in the chapter. Let's continue further into verse 18. Vayikra Hashem vayomer, and he called to Hashem and said, you have given this great deliverance into the hand of your servant. You have given, not I have taken. The thirst cracked something open. The weakness broke through the armor. And what came from that vulnerability was the truth. You gave this Hashem, not me. The strength Hashem was yours and Hashem responds immediately. He splits the hollow place in the ground and water comes out and Samson drinks and his spirit returns. He names the place Ein Hakore. The spring of the one who called out. The well of him who cried. You know, Ari, I just want to point out he doesn't call it the jawbone hill part two. He names it after his crying, after the prayer. It's as if he's saying the most important thing that happened here wasn't that a thousand Philistines were killed or my victory, it was a moment when I ran out of strength and I called out to Hashem Ein Hakore. And here you really see Shimshon's heart really is one that is righteous in its core. Yeah, that's right. And the chapter closes. Verse 20. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. 20 years. 20 years. Not by leading armies or by sitting in courts but by refusing to accept subjugation, by refusing the comfortable coexistence and by absorbing betrayal from his own people and continuing to fight for them anyways, continuing to love them anyways. So let's come back to the question we opened with. If Samson was so flawed, so driven by personal grievance, so loose with his vows, so compromised by his appetites, why did Yaakov look at him and see Mashiach? Now we can answer, at least the answer in my heart, because Yaakov saw past the flaws to the fire underneath. He saw a man whose people scorned him and who kept fighting for them anyways. A man whose own brethren handed him to his enemies and who refused to raise his hand against them. A man who when his strength finally ran out called out not in rage but in prayer. And a man who named the monument of his greatest day not after the victory but after his cry to Hashem. Samson was not the final redeemer but he carried the shape of one. Right, but beneath the flaws was a man who bore rejection without abandoning his people, who restrained his power rather than turn it against his brothers and who learned that true strength begins where pride ends. Yaakov saw in Shimshon what Hashem values most. Right, not perfection but devotion to Israel joined with a surrender, a surrender to Hashem. Right, and that's why he could mistake him for Mashiach, I think. And and why Samson remains one of the most tragic and courageous and revealing figures in in the entire Tanakh in my opinion. You know, but the story isn't over yet. Right, for the epic ending of this great leader stay tuned for chapter 16 tomorrow with Jeremy. But before we go, we are coming close to the end of the book of Judges. We have six chapters left and what an incredible journey this has been. 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