Get into a word. What? Ignore him. Again, we might be covering some of the areas that you talked about last week, but we're still going to go ahead and do it. Judges chapter 15, verses 14 through 20. Did we cover that last week? I don't know, I was right here. Does it matter? I thought you were. No, I'm kidding. I was very convincing, just like Brian said he was. Even I was questioning. I thought we were here. So what we're doing, we're at the end of the story, or the narrative. of Samson after the debacle of the wedding, and after he had let the foxes loose, right? And burned up. Now the Philistines, and he went and hid at the Rock of Edom, or Etam, however you want to say it. Then the Philistines came up. and wanted to take him. And they're in the area, and the people of Judah, or the Israelites around there, said, hey, we're going to go get him for you. And they took 3,000 to go pick him up. And Samson said, don't hurt me. Just don't kill me. I'll go with you so they bound him with two new ropes and Went to they promised not to kill him and so they're gonna take him back and that's where we pick up in the narrative in verse 14 When he came to Lehi The Philistines came shouting to meet him when the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him and the ropes that were on his arms became his 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 1,000 men. And Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down 1,000 men. As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath Lehi. And he was very thirsty. And he called upon the Lord and said, you have granted me 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 holy place, the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out of it. And when he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called En HaKor. It is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines 20 years." So interesting how it ends there. And we can get into that a little bit later. But it ends almost like how the end of most of the other judges have at the end of their story. This is how long he judged Israel. You would think, the way the writing of this goes, that this is the end of the story of Samson. But it's not. But there's more. There is more. And the story continues. That was the end of the first movie of the trilogy. And now we will go into the the next or might be see my own just a junior duty digging into that as to why people think the transition there I actually did not think for the next time but you know I was gonna wonder maybe it's a major transition like Because Samson only gets worse from here. This last time it seemed like he, we don't necessarily have the information, but did he consummate the previous marriage? What did that relationship look like as it led to his demise? And so it's kind of like, and that's the end. Except it's actually not now this time When we get to the next woman, he's clearly in the house with her multiple nights You know that it seems like he's gone even further down this rabbit hole and before before Delilah He's with As I should say a lady of the evening, right? So yeah So that's something we can look into next time. Yeah, I was just curious if you. No, I did not. Let's look at that the next time when we start in. That'll be our precursor for the next study when we get into chapter 16, the transition. So going through this, they're bringing back Samson. And when I say they, this 3,000 men are bringing back Samson. And when they get to Lehi, the Philistines rush at them. One of my questions is, what happened to the 3,000 men of Judah that went and got him? What are your thoughts? Is Lehi territory in Israel? Or is it territory in Philistine? Thank you. I mean, it says they camped in Judah spreading out near Lehi. So it seems like. So it's still, if we look, Lehi is close to Eshtol, where he had been before. So it's sort of like on the edge there. But more in the, it's close to the area of Dan, but it is considered infill, I think, for this year. No. It's still in Judah. Yeah. So I think we have to make. I mean, we have to kind of maybe think critically on what may or may not have happened because it's not very clear. But I guess my first assumption would be because they said, do you not know that these are the rulers over us? And then they go and hand him over. You know, I mean, it makes, it stands to reason that they handed Samson over, wiped their hands of him, and walked away. Now, it is possible that once they saw him striking down a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey that they rallied behind him, but the narrative doesn't say that. And you think it would if they did. Right. But I, my, my wondering, they brought 3,000 people to get Samson. And That's that's quite an army. Where's Edom at? So he went from one area to another area. Is that a long commute? Oh, you talking about the rock of Edom? Yeah, they captured that location. It is close to, it's not on this map, but when I looked, I should have brought up that other map. It is not too far. It's probably within this circle, probably closer to the river there. But that was just my thought. I don't think that they helped with the fight. I think it is. They might have run away. Because if you read, when the Philistines, when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. So could it be these 3,000 people said, I'm out of here. You have with him what you want. Question, go ahead. And I guess I also would make the assumption that they came with more than 3,000, the Philistines. Now, it doesn't say that. But I think maybe if they had more than 3,000, and they're like, all right, the first 200 fell by Samson. Keep pushing more out. And then finally, by 1,000, they're like, all right, we've got to cut our losses. Like, we're done here. Well, I guess that kind of begs the question of why were there this many Israelites to approach Samson in the first place? There was no expectation on there. I assume they were there in case Samson was unwilling to be bound and taken to. Okay. Yeah. But it also shows a unification in the sense of, we're not with this guy. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We are we are not on his side. Right. Please don't destroy us. Exactly. They were prepared to engage in some type of, I don't know, I wanted to say warfare, but clearly, they were there to be against Samson, not to be against the coming opposition with the Philistines. Exactly. And that'll go into a question after this one. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson, and it says the ropes, there were new ropes, Became as flax that was burned who knows what flax is Yeah, it's it's a plant and it's where we get the flaxseed oil but also You can the fibers of it. Is that hemp? No, not him. Richard. Not him, but you do make hemp robes. Right. But it's, no, it actually, flax makes, can be made into linen. Yeah, I got that in print. Flax linen in print. Yeah. And linen is, and this flax linen is very flammable. And so, That's why it's related. It's like flax that has been burned. Basically, as I said, it melted off of his wrist. Should we read into the fact that they're not using a metal alloy of some kind, like why does he not have it, why do they not have a chain? Even linen, linen's like known for its... Well, but it didn't say it was it, it said it was light flax. They used two new ropes. And that's where I got into hemp rope, as you talked about. Half inch of hemp rope has approximately 8,200 foot pounds of tensile strength. Whereas hemp rope, without being burned, has approximately 285. Where did you get this from? Where did you get this? Research. You just Googled it? Yeah. I thought that was funny. Everybody knows that. He checked the label on the package. Not suitable for climbing. But, because I was wondering about that, because yeah, using rope for repelling and everything, if it's actual nylon rope or hemp rope or something like that, you have a tensile strength on it. Go ahead. To Pastor Brian's point, though, I think maybe up until this point, they didn't know what the Spirit of the Lord would do with and for Samson. And so when they come after Delilah betrays him, They do come with bronze shackles. But this first time, because he's never destroyed a thousand Philistines with his bare hands. You just gotta tie him up, because he's just a normal man. Well, and it wasn't the Philistines who tied him up. Who tied him up? Yeah, the people of Judah Well, I just saw that as like they're trying to appease the Philistines But they also don't want to anger God because they probably see Samson I'm guessing they would have known that he was chosen in some way They didn't kill him, you know, they just brought him out Cuz what are they trying they're trying to appease the Philistines and so They don't want to kill their own... Is that the right call? They're under Philistine control because of the judgment of the Lord. Yeah. And so, is it the right call to appease the Philistines? It isn't, but... We're trying to please everyone here, you know. Let's be sure we're kind of... on the side of God was not killing Samson. Let's be sure we're appeasing on the side of the Philistines. I see a lot of parallelism between Samson being handed over to the Philistines and Jesus being handed over to the Romans in the sense that You know, Caiaphas that year, he prophesied and he said, it is better for one man to die for the nation than for the whole nation to perish. There's a lot of irony in that statement. I mean, I see that it's kind of similar for Samson as well. It's like, it's better for him to die than for us all to die. The irony lies in the fact that there was, as far as I remember, a Jewish or Jewish saying that was very popular among the people, which actually said the exact opposite. That said, it is better for the whole nation to perish than for one man to die alone. And the irony is that was a very, that was well accepted, that we stand united. But in fact, they turn it on its head. Well, Caiaphas turns it on its head and says, it's better for this one man to die. Is it kind of similar with Samson? Cool. So what happened when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson? He opened a can. The rope said, no. And here's something. It says he got a fresh jabo. OK. Wordpress is in there Well, yeah, did he kill something or was he in a meat market I'm did they show him oh You know what I'm saying, so I didn't still have the flesh on it Is that what you're saying in the sense of like you could take this home and grill it or you could kill a thousand men Whatever you want to do. Well, I think the implication is he killed it right there like on top of killing a bunch of men He also had to kill the donkey to get the dead carcass. Yeah. Yeah, or the very least he made it. Yeah It's a live one I've seen different things. You can split a donkey jawbone in half and one looks like a true hatchet or something like that. Or you can have them together, both sides, both mandibles. in there together, and that's how it's shown here. Did he take Tutankhamen's bow? It doesn't say, and it doesn't really matter. He was able to kill, through God's strength, 1,000 men with the jawbone. And here's the thing. I would think a fresh shovel still has the moisture in it, still has the strength and everything. The NET says solid. Again? The NET says solid juggle. Solid juggle. Which would imply fridge. So in the previous chapter, the lion is clearly described as being ripped apart by Samson. But we're not being told that here. Right. So now we have to ask the question, why did the Lord sovereignly intervene to allow a donkey to have died recently enough in that area that, oh yeah, you're going to need this juggle? We'll just leave it there for you. And again, it brought it to, he's in Lehigh. Could there be a market there? Could he have been brought to the market where they have carcasses out there? I think he just grabbed one of their donkeys and was like, you'll do. And on that, He kills 1,000 men. It doesn't say, and this is where I'm going into your thought process. Who they were. Yeah, who they were. Could some of those have been trying to restrain him? Could they have been Judites who were trying to restrain him and could he have killed them? My Bible doesn't say he killed 1,000 Philistines. It implies that. My first thinking was these were all Philistines, but it doesn't say. Well, verse 14 says the Philistines were shouting at him when he came to Lehi. Yeah. I don't think they've changed the antecedent. Something that's interesting, like the end of verse 14, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. I don't know if we have seen that, that like addition or qualifier at the end of that phrase. It's usually the Spirit of the Lord came upon this person, the Spirit of the Lord that person. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. Like, I don't know, does that appear anywhere else? What? I read somewhere that... End of verse 14. Usually when we see the phrase, Spirit of the Lord come upon a person, that's it. Like, that's enough to be like, alright, they're about to do something awesome or noteworthy or whatever. No, now it's in power. Like that extra qualifier means something different. So this is distinct to Samson, right? This is the only judge that we get that operates kind of in a singular and upon himself. He is the totality of the force. I'm trying to get the right words out here as you can see, but prior to Samson, the spirit of the Lord was identified as an individual could gather a local force. So it was always militarily. So now God's just using one man, Samson. Here's another observation. So the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He didn't call out to the Lord. Right. And when you go on further, when you look at them, then he has his song. But he doesn't give credit to the Lord. He takes off with us. I struck God. Yeah. instead of the Lord through me or something like that. Yeah, but then he goes and throws out, he still insults them and calls the Philistines uncircumcised. He doesn't call upon the Lord until he asks, until he says the, you know, about dying of thirst. Yeah, and speaking of that, he gives credit to the Lord at that time that he says, you have granted this, this is in verse 18, you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. So he does recognize that God did it through him. And then he goes on the negative side, and he says, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? So he recognized the power of the Lord to save him from a thousand people. But he doesn't recognize the Lord can save him from thirst. But he doesn't, but he only does it, he doesn't do it where, when he's done this feat where he takes credit, this is where he should be taking, he should be giving God, the credit, right? Not when he's not pointing back to himself. Oh, now I'm dying of thirst. And I don't know. The setting seems to me it's an individual thing that it's not in front of. Maybe it was, but I don't see it. It seems very much like an afterthought and kind of like, oh, I'm thirsty. Now I'm going to like, oh, yeah. God, thank you for helping me do this thing after he's already taken all the credit for it because now he wants something. And God is gracious, because after this, after him taking credit and then complaining to God, God opens up the brook so he can drink and revive himself. He didn't deserve it, just like we don't deserve the grace that we receive. I was going to say, it seems like it's so typical that usually when we're at the end of our rope, we're really tired and exhausted. That's when we finally are like, all right, God. Now I don't have any of my own strength left. It took 1,000 men for him to use up his, I guess. So God gives him this. And at this time, there seems to be a period of rest where he judges Israel. for 20 years. To be continued. And we'll discuss that next week. Yeah, next week. On this 20 year interlude and then going into his time in the next chapter. Any last words? It's interesting that we have so little yet. leads for so long. We've seen this throughout every judge. It's like if you actually timed out all the events that is recorded, it's like, OK, well, that was a week of your life. And what about the other 19 years and 50 weeks? Who would like to close us in prayer?