In our evening service, we are working our way through the book of Judges. We're in Judges chapter 14 and 15. So Judges chapter 14. I'll begin reading at verse 10 of Judges 14 and read through all of chapter 15. So a little bit longer of a reading, but when you have historical narrative right and not doctrinal epistles in the New Testament, you usually need to take a greater chunk to get things together and in context. So Judges chapter 14 beginning at verse 10. His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young man used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. And they said to him, put your riddle that we may hear it. And he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. And in three days they could not solve the riddle. On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us? And Samson's wife wept over him and said, you only hate me. You do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is. And he said to her, behold, I've not told my father nor my mother. And shall I tell you? She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And he went down to Ashkelon, and struck down thirty men of the town, and took their spoil, and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house. And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, I will go in to my wife in the chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, I really thought you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead. And Samson said to them, this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines to set fire to the stacked grain, and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, if this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi. And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? They said, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, As they have did to me, so I have done to them. And they said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. They said to him, no, we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you. So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck one thousand men. And Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have struck down a thousand men. As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand, and the place was called Rameth-Lehi. And he was thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. And shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called Anharchar. It is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray for his blessing upon it. Our Lord, we do thank you for your word, and we know that your word is truth. Lord, you have done this, you have spoken this, this is yours, and we pray that you would open our minds, that you would open our hearts. Bless he who brings your word, bless each of us that we would hear what you have for us. And so Lord, challenge us, encourage us, convict us. Lord, correct us. May you have your way with us. May your word indeed work in our hearts. We pray it in Jesus' name. Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, last week we began to look at the Lord raising up Samson as a deliverer. Israel had again sinned and this time was sold into the hands of the Philistines. And this time, before we read of any repentance on the part of the Israelites, we see God already intervening. And one of the things that we keep seeing in that is that salvation is by grace. That doesn't mean that repentance is not necessary. It's called for, but it is God who comes to us first, not we who come to God first. And Christ, as the angel of the Lord, went to the wife of Manoah and told her that though she had been barren, that she would bear a son, and he would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. It's interesting that Samson, we're told here, will begin to deliver the Israelites instead of actually delivering them or completely delivering them. But what it seems to be, and what we'll see this evening, is that Israel became used to, comfortable with the oppression that they had from the Philistines. They adopted the culture. They became used to their oppressors. They took it as just simply part of life. In fact, I think in some ways they failed to notice that the Lord in one sense had departed from them. And so Samson would start to deliver the people, but that full deliverance would wait for a later time as God had worked in their midst. As we discussed last time, there are different ways that people have viewed the account of Samson. I believe there's a bit of truth in each of those ways. There are some who see Samson as a type of Christ. In fact, there is a sense, indeed, in which all of the judges are types of Christ. Now, of course, they're all sinners. They all fall short. Samson, indeed, is in that category of sinners who fall short. But in some way, as they deliver God's people, Or as God delivers his people through them, they give us a picture of the perfect deliverer that was yet to come, namely Jesus Christ. But we ought not, as we think of that, think that every detail that we see here in some ways pictures Christ. But all of the Old Testament does, the deliverers point us ahead to the one true deliverer, Jesus Christ. But Samson as well, you see, also seems to personify Israel, and perhaps personifies Israel even more than he points to Christ. Like the nation of Israel, Samson had a miraculous birth, born to a woman who had been barren. And this was announced by the aims of the Lord. It reminds you kind of of the birth of Isaac. Samson, of course, was born a Nazirite, a means of consecration to the Lord. And he was to observe, we saw a number of things. One, no razor was to touch his head. He was not to touch a dead thing. And he was not to drink wine, nor even eat grapes, or anything unclean." Israel, though not literally, Nazarites were in essence like a Nazarite people. They were what? They were set apart to the Lord, devoted to the Lord, set apart for the Lord. And so in some ways, Samson is picturing that. And so Samson, in one sense, as we're going to see, even as he chases after foreign women, Even after the one we're talking about now, there is Delilah as well. He's a trophy of God's grace. Now, so far too, at this point, he's broken two of his Nazirite vows or ordinances. He touched a dead thing, the carcass of a lion, and not only did he touch that carcass of a lion, He reached in and ate the honey that was inside of that. Another unclean thing, because that which touches a dead body is unclean. And so we're seeing here, of course, Samson falling short. Samson in need of God's grace. One vow, as I pointed out last time, yet to fail. and we know that's going to happen later too in regard to his hair. Well, this evening we continue to look at the Samson account, but I want to remind you of what we looked at in verse 4 of chapter 14. His father and mother did not know that this was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At the time, the Philistines ruled over Israel. Now there's some debate on the word he, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. Was Samson seeking that opportunity? I think more so the he there is referring back to the Lord. The Lord was seeking opportunity against the Philistines. The Lord was beginning to deliver his people, not because of Samson, but despite Samson. God delivers us by mercy and grace. And God will even use Samson's disobedience as an occasion for carrying out his covenantal plans. He, God, seeking an opportunity against the Philistines because Israel, and even Samson himself, was all too comfortable with the Philistines. As Samson is ready to marry one, and does indeed marry one. But it's this marriage that God would use to begin the conflict, to bring that tension, to deliver his people. So four things that we're going to look at this evening. First of all, Samson's wedding, verses 9 through 20 of chapter 14. Then we'll look at Samson torching their fields in the first part of 15, the first eight verses. Then we'll see Samson captured. And finally, we'll look at the victory in the end And ultimately, again, what we'll see is God delivering his people. Our hope, right? There's not any earthly deliverer. Our hope is the Lord. Let's begin by looking at Samson's wedding and the commotion that arose from there. His father went down to the woman and Samson prepared a feast there. for so the young men used to do." Now this is maybe a reference to a marriage feast. Samson's parents tried to persuade him from looking after a foreign woman. He would not do that, so they go there anyways. They give in. They don't take the stand perhaps they should have taken. Now a feast at that time, for a wedding feast, included drinking in most cases. But also, the Hebrew word for feast here could also be translated drinking bout or time of drinking. So very clearly, it seems this was drinking. Now, you might be thinking, well, wait a second, a glass of wine with dinner or so forth, that's not sin agreed. But what do we remember about Samson? Again, not to eat what? Or drink wine. even eat grapes or eat anything unclean." And so it appears that Samson again has no concern for his Nazirite vow. The next verse tells us that there were 30 companions assigned to him. As soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. Why? Were they guards who were to keep an eye on Samson or were they appointed to just celebrate? Not clear, but kind of wonder if they were some kind of guards not trusting Samson. But Samson has a riddle and a wager for them that we see in verses 12 to 14. We know the answer to the riddle because we read the prior section, but How would they figure out that riddle? Samson said to them, let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I'll give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. But if you can't tell me what it is, you'll give me those 30 garments and 30 changes of clothes. They say, put the riddle to us. And he says to them, out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. In three days, They couldn't solve the riddle. Now I'm not going to tell you that Samson had pure motives here. I'm not convinced of that at all. I don't believe that. That's not the case. It seems he's trying to get something for nothing. And besides, who could solve that riddle anyways? When Samson killed the lion, and when he went back and got the honey, nobody saw it but him. It's very unusual for bees to have a nest inside of a carcass. In fact, I kind of wonder. Somebody says to you, I want to put a riddle to you, and you want to wager. Don't you think he's got something that he thinks you can't figure out, so why bother doing it? What's the wisdom in that? Maybe they thought, well, there's 30 of us and one of him. Now we know the story of Samson, and so we know, okay, he's got might. Maybe they should know that, but the only thing that we have read about so far is the killing of the lion, which nobody saw. That's the only display of strength at this point. But anyways, they figure, we'll go with it. Again, I think, because there's more of us than there are of you. But here again, what do we have? Israel had been comfortable with the Philistines. This is adding now to the discomfort, or will add to it. It's going to start a chain reaction. It will lead to Samson killing 30 men, then them killing Samson's wife and father-in-law, then Samson retaliating by torturing their fields, then Samson's arrest, and then the killing of a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. But it all began right here. God had a purpose behind Samson's wedding and behind Samson's riddle, though Samson should have never married one who was outside, not necessarily of his nation, but outside of the covenant, outside of the church, who was not a fellow believer in God. But nonetheless, God is using Samson not because of who he is, but despite who he is. Samson stands out, as I've been saying, not as one who is perfectly holy, but as a trophy of the grace of God, who has delivered his people nonetheless, though clearly Samson himself doesn't deserve it. Well, after the guards hear the riddle, they struggle for a time. They become frustrated. And so on the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is. Lest we burn you in your father's house with fire, have you invited us here to impoverish us? Now there's some debate as to whether the companies came to his wife on the seventh day or the fourth day. Some translations have fourth, some have seventh. But regardless of whatever day, excuse me, day it is, The guards can't figure it out. They don't understand the riddle. And who can blame them? How could they figure it out? And so they blackmail, in essence, Samson's wife. If you don't go and figure this out for us, if you don't tell us, we will burn you and your father and your house with fire. And you're not going to like it. And so Samson's wife weeps over him and said, you hate me. You do not love me. You've put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is. And he said to her, behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you? She's wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted and on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him hard and she told the riddle to her people. Look how she tries to and does indeed manipulate Samson. You hate me. You don't love me. She's not being fair. Husbands and wives are going to have disagreements. But in your disagreements, sit down and talk. Don't try to work things out by saying, you hate me! The wife in scripture, of course, is known as the weaker vessel. But husbands can be quite weak in many ways, too. Samson gives in and he tells her the riddle. She tells the guards. Ironically, love proves, in one sense, love to be stronger, melting Samson-like honey in the woman's hand. And then we read, the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, you have not plowed with my heifer. You would not have found out my riddle. and the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And he went down to Ashkelon, and struck down thirty men of the town, and took their spoil, and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house." Samson's not pleased that they have the answer, and he knows that they got the answer from his wife. And when he accuses them of plowing with his heifer, he's referring to his wife. Now you may know that in the Song of Songs, we find a number of compliments that sound quite strange to our ears. Things that if we said to our wife that way, she probably wouldn't take as a compliment. like when Solomon referred to his bride as a filly among Pharaoh's chariots. However, I assure you that what Samson is doing here is not romantic. It is not a compliment. Both in Hebrew then, as well as today, to call your wife a cow is not a nice thing. Maybe a filly among chariots, that can be a nice thing. But a cow, you've plowed with my heifer. And Samson goes back to his father's house, leaving her behind. Left her. But before that, he went down to Ashkelon, a major city. The Philistines killed 30 men, took the garments, and so forth, and paid his debt. And since Samson left his wife, we read, and perhaps without the marriage even being consummated, We read Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man. Samson's father-in-law apparently assumed that Samson was gone and he gave his daughter to another man. And this is going to escalate the conflict again. You see, God is using Samson. God is using him despite who he is. God is using him in the midst of his sin still to, in step-by-step, bring about that conflict with the Philistines and eventually deliver his people from them. Again, that doesn't justify the way Samson behaves, but God uses him nonetheless. The first eight verses of chapter 15 then tell us Samson's response to losing his wife. After some days, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, I will go in to my wife in the chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead. And Samson said to him, this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each of the tails. Set fire to the torches. I won't read all of it now. He set them loose to the field, burning down The standing grain burning down, the piled up grain going into the olive orchards. And you can kind of picture the scene, right? Probably not the tails themselves tied. There was probably a rope between the two tails, right? Tying the two foxes together, and then a torch in the middle. And you can imagine one fox pulling against another, and then this zigzag motion through the field with torches, easily catching it all. on fire. Samson doesn't take lightly that his wife was given to another. And again, in some sense we're like, Samson, you kind of ran off and left her. What are you expecting? So we're not justifying Samson either. Regardless of Samson's motives, God was working behind the scenes again to deliver them from their oppression. They were too comfortable with the Philistines. That comfort is going to get less and less. God was working again behind this for the good. Just like remember what Joseph said to his brothers, what you meant for evil, God meant for the good. And so God's at work here. In fact, we know God's at work, right? God we see coming upon, or the spirit coming upon Samson. And how can a man go out and simply catch 300 foxes? Children, try that sometime. Try to run out. OK, don't actually try that. You might be rabid. You might get hurt. Don't try that. But can you imagine? Can you actually catch a fox just going out like that? Probably not in most cases. Can you catch 300 of them? When did this happen? During the harvest. The grain was just ripe. It was dry. It went up quickly. The Philistines are upset. And they retaliate and murder Samson's wife and his father-in-law. And where did it all start? Because Samson married a Philistine. God is doing something nonetheless. Israel should be grateful in one sense that they have a deliverer. He ruined the Philistine economy and single-handedly killed a number of them in this whole thing here. who thought, in essence, that Gideon's army was small. Well, Samson didn't even have an army. Israel should be grateful in one sense, but that's not the case, so they send 3,000 men to arrest Samson. We see that in verses 9 through 13 here. I won't read those again. The Philistines, however, go to encamp against Judah. They want Samson and they want him real bad. And the men of Judah are understandably alarmed and basically interpret the actions of the Philistines as a declaration of war. But instead of calling on Samson to lead them into battle after all the victory that he did indeed have, or trying to ask him to negotiate peace, they ask Why have you come upon us? And so they want to go out and arrest Samson. They take 3,000 men to do it. God had given them a deliverer, and instead they rally the troops to fight the Philistines. Of course, what are we going to see in the New Testament? God sends the deliverer, and what do they do? Crucify him. Crucify him. They say to Samson, what have you done to us? They didn't see this man as a deliverer. They also said, do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? That's a disappointing saying in the context of what we've already seen in the book of Judges. I forgot what Gideon said to them back in chapter 8. Gideon said, I will not rule over you. and my son will not rule over you, the Lord will rule over you." And now it's gotten to what? Well, the Philistines, they rule over us, so what are you doing? The Philistines have forgotten God, and we're all too comfortable, as I've been saying, with the Philistines. They rule over us. Now Samson doesn't attack his own countrymen who come to arrest him, but says, if you're not going to kill me, if you're not going to attack me, just give me to their hands and OK. And so he goes with them. So the men of Judah turned Samson over. But the Lord is with Samson. Verses 14 and 15. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. And the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it struck a thousand men." Notice that God mightily came upon him. God is delivering him, nonetheless, despite who he is. And since God's with Samson, these two new ropes bound were like flax in a fire, snapped easily. And at this point we read that Samson grabs a nearby jawbone and uses it to kill 1,000 Philistines. But children, what did it say about the jawbone? Did you catch it? There's something in the Bible here that's really interesting to note. It was a what? A fresh jawbone. You might say, why is that important? What about the Nazirite value? Won't touch a dead body. Not an old one, not anything you might say, well that's not really a dead body anymore. Okay, yeah, still probably would be. But he touches a fresh one. Now we might say, okay, a motion came over him. But if God came upon him, he didn't need what he was told not to touch. Nonetheless, he touched it again. He broke his vow again. This is not Samson delivering the people. This is God delivering his people, not because of Samson, but despite Samson. Samson realizes that the victory is from the Lord and he calls out to the Lord. Perhaps he realizes that he is the deliverer that God has chosen and God is bringing that about. But Samson gives credit to the Lord. But verse 18 we read, and he was very thirsty and he called upon the Lord and said, you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. And shall I now die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? What a way to talk to God! I mean, if he's thirsty, he could certainly appeal to God, but his prayer, if you will, is something like this, Hey God, don't you know that after what just happened, I need water? Are you just going to let me die? Samson did deserve death. Samson is a trophy of what? God's grace. Brothers and sisters, the only way you and I can stand before God is not on the basis of our merits, not on the basis of what we've done, only by grace. When you go and request something of God, right? We don't request something as if God doesn't care. What have we seen in John chapter 11? When Mary and Martha were concerned with the great illness of their brother Lazarus, what was the petition? Jesus, the one whom you love, is ill. What is the basis of any petition that you and I can bring before the Lord? Not, you owe this to me. Never. Not, God, I love you, you owe it to me. It is, God, you love me. That's my hope. Let that be your hope in prayer. Well, what does God do in response to Samson's complaint? Like God provided water for the Israelites, so God graciously still responds. to Samson's request, hidden in the form of a complaint. God split open the hallowed place that is at Lehi, and the water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, the name of the place was called Enharcor. It is at Lehi to this day." Now, we don't want to justify Samson's complaining. But here's the amazing thing about God. God doesn't answer our prayers. because we deserve it. God doesn't answer our prayers because we prayed just right. We don't deserve it. We don't deserve an answer from prayer. God answers His prayers, or our prayers. Why? Again, think of this morning. Because He loves us. Not because we merit it. Not because we deserve it. Not because we're worthy. Now, again, don't get me wrong. Does God bless obedience? Absolutely! Do we merit God's grace by our obedience? Absolutely not. God is a God of grace. Anything we have from him is by grace. We see that in Samson here. And again, Judges 14.4, his father and his mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he, or as I believe, God was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. God was at work, not because of Samson, but because God continued to love his people. Our hope for salvation is God. Look to Christ. Rest in Christ as he's offered in the gospel. There's salvation there. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do praise you, we thank you for the blessings that we have in Christ. Lord, we know that just like Samson, we don't merit anything from you. You call us to obedience, yet all that we have, we have of grace. And so Lord, we thank you for the blessings that we have. Lord, strengthen us to live for you. We pray it in Jesus' name, amen.