This post is Day 13 in a series of studies about “Samson”. I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

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Samson – Day 13

These verses remind me of films we may have seen where a group of people was camping around the town of an enemy. Everyone was afraid. Nobody had any idea what to do! So a delegation was sent under a banner of peace to find out what the enemy wanted.

Judges 15:9-10

The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”
“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

The Thought

These verses remind me of classic films we may have seen where a group of people was camping around the town of an enemy. Everyone was afraid, and nobody had any idea what to do! So a delegation was sent under a banner of peace to find out what exactly the enemy wanted. Often there would be the hero of the film who knew exactly what to do and was not afraid of what the enemy might do to them!

In this scenario with Samson, the enemy was standing between the Israelites and their hero. He was the cause of the problem! On reading the verses above, we can imagine that if Israel would hand over Samson to the Philistines, peace would reign. Even if it would not be the peace that God would want. So a delegation went to talk to Samson, their hero and their leader! A big delegation!

Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?” (Judges 15:11).

That verse tells us much about the attitude of God’s people in this situation. They had forgotten they were God’s chosen people and were submitting to the enemy, and living in fear.

Action

Think today about your attitude to “enemy activity” when you were at school. Were you ever bullied, and what was your response? Did you submit and go with the flow, or stand up to opposition? Who were the bullies in your school, Are there any in your work place today?

Samson’s defence was “I merely did to them what they did to me” (v11). Does that make it alright?

Pray today for peace in Israel, and for God’s protection of His people, Jews and Christians, wherever they may be.

Read one of the chapters mentioned on day 11. Pray for God to help you to forgive anyone against whom you hold a grudge, and for Him to heal the hurts they caused.

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