Samson - Vengeance and Victory

We'll get, there we go. Okay, all right, we're in the book of Judges and we've reached chapter 15 and I'd like to take the time to read the first 16 verses, although we may get further than that. And we're thinking this morning about vengeance and victories, vengeance and victories. And so it says, but it came to pass within a while after in the time of wheat harvest that Samson visited his wife with a kid. And he said, I'll go in to my wife into the chamber, but her father would not suffer him to go in. And her father said, I verily thought that thou hast utterly hated her, therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her. And Samson said concerning them, now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. And Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took firebrands and turned tail to tail and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines and burn up both the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and olives. Then the Philistines said, who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them, though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you. And after that, I will cease. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. And he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock, Eton. Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, why are ye come up against us? And they answered, to bind Samson are we come up and to do to him as he hath done to us. Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the top of the rock, Eton and said to Samson, knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, as they did unto me, so have I done unto them. And they said unto him, we are come down to bind thee that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, swear unto me that you will not fall upon me yourselves. And they spake unto him saying, no, but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. And the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass and put forth his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, with a jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps with a jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men. Again, God will bless that reading of his precious word to us as we consider this portion together. Now we've said last time that we pointed out five downward journeys and kind of we saw his life going into a kind of this downward spiral because of his association with the Philistine woman of Timnath. But now we're gonna, if we get there, if we get to verse 20, we're gonna see the high point of Samson's judgeship, the high point of his life. We're gonna see a real kind of a momentous moment in this man's life. We mentioned that Samson had a very favored start in his life. And we will learn when we get to the next chapter that he had a very sad ending in many ways, although still God used it as an occasion against the Philistines. But it reminds us of the fact that starting well is one thing, but finishing well is another thing altogether. And we need to really pray about this, that the Lord would allow us to cross that finish line well and strong. And we want to do that for the glory of the Savior. But nevertheless, in this chapter, we're gonna see that in the middle, there's this wonderful high point in Samson's life, and we want to certainly pay attention to it. But you wonder how different the story would have been if Samson had first learned to conquer himself before he sought to conquer the Lord's enemies. And in one sense, scripture is very clear, isn't it? Proverbs 16, verse 32 says this, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit, then he that taketh a city. That was taking a city in battle is one thing, but being able to conquer your own spirit is altogether different, it's much better. And we would say that one of our biggest battles that every one of us face on a daily basis is the battle within, right? That battle with the flesh. And we can do things in the Lord's name and for his glory, and yet, if we can't subdue that issue of the flesh and put it to death, then we live in perilous danger of defeat and going into these downward spirals. And so how we need to recognize Samson's story could have been very different. Verse 11 of this chapter seems to be the ruling, governing principle of much of Samson's life. And we're gonna see it in this chapter. If you look at the very end of verse 11, it says, as they did unto me, so have I done unto them. And it seems like his life is all about getting even. It's all about vengeance. It's all about payback, getting them back. And it's kind of interesting because our society loves vengeance. Vengeance movies sell, this whole idea of a guy going and getting revenge for something in the past. Our culture loves this, the whole idea of getting even. And yet, as we consider the scriptures, we realize that in Romans 12, verse 19, we read these words, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. And when we, as it were, take matters into our own hands, it rarely works out to be well. And it sets in motion a cycle that we're gonna see here that seems to never end. It would be wonderful to see Samson fighting the battles of the Lord rather than his own private battles. For instance, when David went to fight against the Philistine champion, it wasn't that he wanted to get even because of what the Philistines had done unto him. It was because he felt the Lord's name was being blasphemed by this uncircumcised Philistine. And so he said, is there not a cause that this uncircumcised Philistine would defy the armies of the living God? So David's battle against the same people had a completely different motivation. It wasn't a case of getting even, it wasn't a case of getting them back for what they had done to him, but it was the fact that they had dared, and this champion had dared to defy the armies of the living God. And so it was the glory of God that motivated David. And yet here, Samson seems to be motivated by getting even against things that had been done to him. And so it would have been wonderful if that had been the case. But nevertheless, we gotta keep in mind chapter 13 and verse five, remember that simple principle that God was going to begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines using this man. And so God's still gonna use it. He's gonna overrule it. Even if his motives were wrong and selfish, he's still going to use this man. And it would be good for all of us to analyze sometimes. Sometimes we can hide selfish motives under a cloak of religious zeal. And we can call it righteous indignation, but really behind it is just selfish motives for our actions. It could be envy, it could be some fleshly thing, pride or something like that. And yet we often can cloak things in religious zeal and yet it'd be totally self-absorbed thinking that causes this. So it says in verse one, but came to pass up within a while after in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a kid. And he said, I'll go into my wife, into the chamber, but her father would not suffer him to go in. Samson, we saw in the previous chapter had paid the legal bride price for his wife. And yet he had left Timnath in a rage because if you remember, she had basically betrayed him to the 30 men that were his companions concerning the wager, the bet about his riddle. And so he left in a definite rage. And so you notice the end of verse chapter 14, verse 19, it says, and his anger was kindled and he went up to his father's house. So he left in a rage. He left without consummate in the marriage, even though they'd had the banquet and the feast and all the rest of it for a week. And then it says that verse 20, but Samson's wife was given to his companion whom he had used as his friend. So basically the best man walked away with the bride. And so Samson comes down and he now intends to consummate the marriage. He intends to go through with it. He brings a kind of a gift to try and kind of smooth things over and get his wife back into his favor after his rageful exit. And he's hopeful that he can go into his wife in the chamber, but it says, father wouldn't allow it. And the father said, verse two, I barely thought that thou has utterly hated her. Therefore I gave her to thy companion is not her younger sister fairer than she take her. I pray you instead of her. And so of course the father acted in two true Philistine character. He was treacherous. He'd already got the money. And so he wanted to get the daughter off his hands. So he's not responsible. So he gives her to the best man. And of course, it's all about a lack of loyalty. They'd no respect the Philistines for the marriage bonds and they certainly not any sense of loyalty. And that's gonna be a kind of guiding principle as we go through this rest of this chapter and this section concerning Samson is a lack of loyalty on the part of the Philistines. So the father makes an offer of her younger sister who was at least in his opinion, more pretty than her older sibling. I'm sure that was not a good thing for a father to have those kinds of preferences and say this one's better looking, but Samson was not impressed. And as a result of it, his heart was set on doing them a displeasure. Look at verse three, Samson said concerning them. Now, shall I be more blameless than the Philistines though I do them a displeasure. In other words, I've got a good reason now to get back at them and to hurt them. And I'll be doing it in a just way because of the way they've treated me. And so he's gonna do them a displeasure. And so his plan is very simple. He says in verse four, he went and caught 300 foxes and took firebrands and turned tail to tail and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. I'm not sure what the Peter, I don't know what they call it in Canada, is it humane Canada would think about Samson's actions and certainly they would be pretty upset what he's doing here. But some scholars think that actually it was most likely a jackal or jackals that were in view because they're found in packs and would be easier to catch than foxes which are solitary hunters. However, I don't believe there's any reason why it would not have been foxes that Samson, the Lord, just as the Lord brought the animals to Noah in the ark, he could easily have brought these foxes to Samson. And certainly the bushy tails of foxes would be more suitable for his purposes. And not just that, let me just say this other thing, because foxes are more solitary and because their dens are all individual rather than living together in a communal way like jackals do, this would be much more suitable for his purposes. Because if their tail is on fire, their natural thing for them to do is to head to their den. And of course, their tails are together and so if they're foxes, their dens are all in different directions. And so one's trying to pull this way, one's pulling this way, and they're slowly working their way through the standing corn and causing mayhem. And so he does this and as a result of it, of course, it causes tremendous devastation. And it says, verse five, and when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn in the vineyards and the olives. It's interesting that Solomon later in Song of Songs chapter two, verse 15, would make this little statement. He says, the little foxes spoiled the vines. Well, these little foxes, they did a lot of damage. They spoiled the standing corn, they both shocks and standing corn and the vineyards and the olives. And so devastating the supplies of the Philistines in one fell swoop. And yet there's a kind of sadness that hangs over this little incident. And the sadness is that it says, he said let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines but actually this land, this land that is a fruitful land. Remember it's a land flowing with milk and honey was not intended for the Philistines. It was intended for the tribe of Dan. The tribe of Dan should have driven the Philistines out and this should have been their standing corn. And so in one sense, there's a sadness here that this good and fruitful land should never have been in the enemy's hand in the first place. And in a sense, the reason we have the story of Samson is because of the failure of the tribe of Dan in the first place to drive out the inhabitants of their territory. And there's always long-term consequences to failure. This whole incident really comes about because of a former generation's failure to drive out the enemy. And so what does this result in? Well, it says in verse six, then the Philistines said, who had done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion and the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire. Back in chapter 14, verse 15, they had threatened her and it's evident now that it wasn't an idle threat. If you look at verse 15, it says in chapter 14, it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, entice thy husband that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire. Have you called us to take that we have? Is it not so? So again, we see that the Philistines are, their true character is coming out. Rather than deal with the real culprit, Samson, they used two of their own people as scapegoats and exacted vengeance on them. So when news of this comes to Samson, it says, Samson said to them, though you have done this, yet will I be avenged of you and after that, I will cease. And so he determines once again, here we go again, to get even. And then he says, I'll stop. However, these things are very hard to stop. Tit for tat killings, desires to get even, never seem to come to an end. Violence breeds violence. And that's a general principle that you can count on. He seemed to believe that his action would bring the conflict to an end, but actually the conflict would continue even beyond his death. And so much of our human history, this principle really of vengeance, not being easy to stop is really played out. I think of Northern Ireland and I think of when we lived there, there would be killings in the North of Ireland of say a Protestant and then it wouldn't be long and then there'd be some Catholics that would be killed and it wouldn't be long, it just continued on and on and it'd been going on for over 800 years. The Arab-Israeli conflict, you just have to watch. Something happens, they send a bomb into Israel, what do Israel do? They retaliate and it just goes on and on. And even in closer to home in some of our cities, the warring gangs in our inner cities, it just continues to go on and on and on. And it never seems to be an end of it. And it's interesting, sometimes in a more practical level, when we're engaged in wrongful conduct or sinful conduct, we say, I'll do it this one more time and after that, I will cease. It's easy to say, after that, I will cease. But instead of sin, getting it out of your system, it actually gets it into your system and it's very, very hard to stop. And so we can certainly see violence breeds violence, indulging the flesh breeds further indulgence in the flesh. And really with the flesh, we have two options really. One is to gratify it and the other is mortification. Gratification or mortification. We indulge or we put it to death. What will it be? Because it's something we all face. It's that inner battle, that inner conflict that never ceases and it will not cease until the rapture. And so we just need to be very cognizant of all this. So now we see Samson, the end of verse eight, it says, well, beginning of verse eight says, and he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. The term hip and thigh gives the impression that the slaughter was ruthless and cruel. And I don't know about what it pictures in your mind, but I get this idea of this guy just swinging from side to side, just causing devastation. Just the whole movement of his hip and thigh as he exacts vengeance on his enemies. And it says he accomplished a great slaughter. And so Samson is continuing on to exact vengeance on his enemies. And then it says, and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock, Eton. So now we come to this top of the rock, Eton section, which is very fascinating. What we're gonna see in this little section that in previous judgeships, armies had been raised in order to support the deliverer that God had raised up. People had been inspired by their leader and the stand that they took. And so they got involved in the fight. They needed somebody, as it were, to rally them to the battle. And so that would be the normal standard procedure in the book of Judges up to now. The judges raised up, the people of God rallied to the judge and there's a tremendous deliverance for the people of God. Sadly, we're gonna see here in this section that an army is raised up, but it's not to join Samson, but it's to stop Samson. And this army is from God's own people. And not only God's own people, but actually the tribe of Judah, the tribe that was destined, that the ruler of the nation would come from that tribe. So people had been inspired in the past by their great leader, they got involved in the fight, but here an army is raised. And a large number gathered up to bind one man reflects the fear they had of the might of both Samson and the Philistines. Fear is directing the children of Judah here, fear of the Philistines and fear of Samson. So notice as we look at this, it says, then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. Now again, Dan and Judah's border are close together. So this is not too far at all from where Samson's home was, but it's in the territory of Judah. And so it says, they went up to Lehi and the men of Judah said, why are you come up against us? And they answered to bind Samson and we come up to do to him as he hath done to us. Here we go, this vengeance kind of narrative again. So kind of interesting that in days of departure, like the book of Judges, sometimes a believer can find himself isolated when he takes side with God against the enemy. And if you really get serious about living for the Lord, you might find that not only do you have the opposition of the world, but you also can have the opposition of carnal so-called brethren as well. In other words, some people enjoy the deadness and the status quo so much that when somebody comes with a rallying cry and says, let's take the fight to the enemy, that they're actually a disturber of the peace or they're considered to be a disturber of the peace. Never forget preaching, a group of us were preaching on a university campus. And as well as ridicule from some of the students there, our biggest opposition actually came from the Christian Union on the university campus. They felt that we were disturbing their work because they were committed to friendship evangelism, which was non-confrontational. And here we are preaching the gospel in the free speech area on the campus. And so not only do we have the opposition of the world, but we actually had so-called people of God who were opposed to this aggressive attempt to take the message of salvation on the university campus. And sometimes that can be the case, can't it? And certainly in this case, it was a lonely experience for Samson. He's on his own. No support whatsoever, except we're gonna see that somebody is gonna be with him and the spirit of God is gonna come upon him and help him. But nevertheless, it seems like a lonely, lonely situation. This place, this Rakitim, we believe it was four kilometers, two and a half miles southeast of Zora. And it proved to be a place, a cleft in the rock where he could find a bit of solitude after the battle that he had slaughtered so many Philistines. And so he went to this rock and he found solace there in this Rakitim. He dwelt at the top of the Rakitim. And interesting, I was mindful of that wonderful hymn where it says, Oh, safe is the rock that is higher than I, my soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly. So sinful, so weary, thine, thine would I be. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. And of course, we know from scripture that the incidences in the Old Testament where we see a rock, it's usually a beautiful picture, isn't it? Of the Lord Jesus. 1 Corinthians 10 verse four, and did all drink of that same spiritual drink or they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. Wonderful, isn't it? Wonderful to see the typology of the Old Testament affirmed in the New Testament. That rock, and Jehovah lifted up his rod, oh Christ, it fell on thee. That's a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus being struck so that refreshment and blessing could come out to a thirsty barren world. Oh, what a beautiful picture. And yet, what a sad picture we have here because here's Samson in this place of solitude after this great victory, slaughtering them hip and thigh. And then the men of Judah come up based on their fear of the Philistines. Verse 11, notice this. Then 3,000 men of Judah went to the top of the rock Eton and said to Samson, knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us? What is how, done unto us? Yeah, like you're disturbing us, Samson. Not that he's getting at the Philistines, you're getting at us. And he said to them, as they did unto me, so have I done unto them. So the men of Judah preferred the yoke of the Philistines to the difficulties and risks associated with being with Samson. Not only do Israel no longer cry out to Jehovah, but they do not wish to be delivered. They actually seem to be comfortable with the yoke of bondage of the Philistines. They say, what have you done to us? Samson not only attacked the Philistines, but the people of God were so far gone that an attack against the Philistines was considered to be an attack against them. They identified themselves with the enemy who enslaved them in preference to the deliverer raised up by God. They had lost sight of the true nature of the Philistines. Remember the Philistines represent professors that are amongst the people of God, but they're not the real thing. They're religious professors and they're dangerous. How much blood has been shed down through the centuries of the Lord's people by religious professors? You think of Rome and its inquisitions. You think of all of these events down through the history of the church. Think of the Anabaptists being slaughtered, not only by Catholicism, but also by Luther and Zwingli and their followers. And so instead of seeing Samson as their real deliverer, the men of Judah considered him to be a troublemaker, just like Elijah would be viewed in the days of apostate Ahab. And I just wanna say that the more apostate the church becomes, the more true believers who have a zeal for God and want to take the gospel to the enemy camp, as it were, and really be used of God, they will be considered to be the troublemakers. They're the troublers of Israel. And so we see that principle here. So when God's people get comfortable with the status quo and their leaders fail to arouse them to action, they become in a very bad state. And that's what we see here, the terrible state of the tribe of Judah, this royal tribe. So verse 12, they said to him, we are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, swear to me that you will not fall upon me yourselves. A nation is in a sad state indeed when its citizens cooperate with the enemy and hand over their God appointed leader. These are people who have acquiesced to bondage, who can no longer imagine anything beyond the status quo, who see deliverance as a threat to peace, who look upon the Lord's enemies as their rightful Lords. This is how bleak things have become. And Samson neatly submits to them. Something heroic about this, Samson's decision, but it was lost on the men of Judah. His fight was not with them, but with the enemy. I don't know if you get a faint reminder of something else here. It seems to me that this is a faint reminder of what happened with the Lord Jesus. He's the deliverer, he's the God appointed deliverer, but it was risky to be associated with him. And the children of Israel, they felt more comfortable on the Caesar than they did associating themselves with this new liberator. We have no King, but Caesar, they would say. In other words, don't you know that the Philistines rule over us? Don't you know that the Romans rule over us? And they also sent a large band to arrest the Lord Jesus and bind him because they feared the Romans, that they might lose their own place and nation, but they also feared the Lord Jesus. And so a whole band come to arrest him of soldiers. And so we can't help but sense that there's a faint picture here of the Lord Jesus. And if he is a faint picture of Christ being bound and led away to Calvary, handed over by the ones he came to deliver, in breaking the cords, which is what Samson's gonna do as the spirit of the Lord comes upon him. Perhaps we get a faint foreshadowing of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus to breaking the cords and the bands of death as he comes forth victorious from the grave. And so an amazing picture here. So it says, verse 13, they spake to him saying, no, but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand, but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock. You see, interesting too, they didn't want to kill him. They wanted the enemy to do it. So they bound him and they handed him over to the enemy and let the enemy do the dirty work. Again, isn't that a foreshadowing of Calvary? They wanted the Romans to do the actual dirty work. And they bound the Lord Jesus and handed him over to them. But we notice something beautiful is occurring here. It says, verse 14, and when he had come unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him. Again, they begin to mock, they begin to taunt him. And it says, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. Again, it's this language of the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him in a mighty way. He has this rushing, as it were, mighty wind experience with the spirit of God. And so as the spirit comes upon him, and sadly, this is the last time in the life of Samson, we're gonna hear of the spirit of the Lord coming mightily upon him. In fact, the next real thing we learn about him is that he didn't know that the Lord had departed from him. When he's bound and his head is shaved and all the rest of it, it says he did not know. He wished not that the Lord had departed from him. But in this occasion, for the last time, the spirit of the Lord comes upon him mightily. I wonder what the men of Judah are gonna think as they watch the man they've handed over and see what happens next. Because it tells us in verse 15, and he found a new jawbone of an ass and put forth his hand and took it and slew a thousand men therewith. Again, another sad thing here is that the Nazarite ship is once again being disregarded because notice it doesn't just say a jawbone of an ass, it says a new jawbone of an ass. Not old and brittle, probably had the moist flesh, perhaps still rotting and dripping from it. Certainly it was an unclean weapon. Remember, he's not supposed to touch that which is unclean, a dead body and all the rest of it. Nevertheless, he takes up this weapon and he's going to use it. And he's gonna use it to slay 1000 men. What an amazing feat, really. A thousand men single-handed with one jawbone of an ass. Now, of course, we realize it's because the spirit of the Lord has come upon him that he's able to do this. And so I want you to look back to Deuteronomy just for a second, Deuteronomy 32 in verse 30. We read this very interesting scripture. It says, how should one chase a thousand and two put 10,000 to flight? One chase a thousand, two put 10,000 to flight. Samson slew a thousand men. Imagine if he'd have had support from Judah instead of Judah handing him over. If one could slay a thousand, two put 10,000 to plight, what could have these men of 3000 men of Judah have done if they'd have joined forces? Surely the Philistine threat could have been ended forever. But again, they refused to rally to the cause. It's interesting that the Philistines in their day had the most advanced weapons systems available. And yet when we read in scripture of how the Philistines were defeated with all their technological advancement that they had, the weaponry that was available to them and all the rest of it. In Judges 3, Shamgar killed 600 of them with an ox goad. Here, 12 chapters later, 1,000 more are beaten with the jawbone of a donkey. Later on, Goliath, their greatest champion of all, would be beaten with a stone in a sling. Isn't that just like the Lord taking the foolish things, not exactly high-tech weaponry, but using those things to tear down the enemy's stronghold. And again, we're reminded the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What weapons do we have? We have prayer. We have the ministry of the word of God. We have the same spirit of God that came upon Samson that lives in us. We have the armor, the armor of God. And if we would just utilize these weapons in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, great things can be done once again for the glory of the Lord. And so it says in verse 16, and Samson said, "'With a jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, "'with a jawbone of an ass have I slain 1,000 men.'" Remember we said that as well as being used of God to begin to deliver Israel, but he was a very much a literary man. He's using riddles and proverbs. And now he burst into a poetic kind of expression. And it's a poem with a play on Hebrew words that's not quite as obvious in the English. The word hamor is donkey and the word hamor is heaps. So donkey and heaps sound very similar in Hebrew. It's not so obvious in English, but this is where you could see it. With a jawbone of an ass, I have piled them in a mass because ass and mass, hamor and hamor. With a jawbone of an ass, I have piled them in a mass. With a jawbone of an ass, I have assailed assailants. And so his poetic bent comes through once again. And yet at this point, there's no glory to God. There's no acknowledging that it's actually God that has enabled him to achieve this. Now, it's gonna come. I said, we're reaching a high point in Samson's life and existence in this chapter, but he's not there yet, not giving God the glory. And that's so important, isn't it? That if there's victories accomplished, we know it's the Lord that's accomplished the victory and we must be swift because he will not share his glory with anyone. We must be swift to give him the glory. So it says in verse 17, and it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand and called the place Ramath-Lehi, or the height, remember Rama is that of heights, the height of the jawbone, the height of the jawbone. And of course, what he's saying is that this place where this victory has been, he's kind of renaming it as the height of the jawbone because of the effect that this jawbone had had in his hands to destroy the Philistines. But then we noticed something very significant. It says in verse 18, and he was sore of thirst and called on the Lord and said, that was given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant. And now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. Straight after this incredible victory, where again, he's not giving glory to God at this point, but God brought something to remind him that he was just a man and he needed water to keep him alive. See slaying a thousand men apparently was thirsty work. And I would imagine that he really is totally parched after doing it. And so often in scripture, testing follows triumph. He's just experienced this great victory and now he's dying of thirst. And if triumph aren't balanced with trials, there's a danger that will become proud and self-confident. And so sometimes after a great victory, the Lord brings a test so that we realize how dependent we are on him and how he alone has to get all the glory. And then we read this, he was sore thirst and he called on the Lord. This is the first recorded occasion when Samson is recorded as turning to the Lord in weakness and dependence on him in prayer. Surely this poor man cried and the Lord heard him. He cries out for water and he's desperate. If only Samson had a cried out more for divine guidance, it might've been a different story. He didn't want to know the Lord's will when he first went down to Timnath and saw this woman and said, she pleases me well. He didn't want to know what the Lord had to say about it, but here he's desperate. It's a life and death situation. He's dying of thirst. And so he asked for water. It's good, isn't it? To pray with real need. Lord, lead me not into temptation. The battle is real. The enemy is real. Lord, help me, right? And sometimes it doesn't have to be a long fancy prayer. When Peter's sinking, Lord save me, right? No long platitudes there. It's a desperate situation. And often in our weakness, that's when as scripture would say, we're really strong because we're more inclined to depend on the Lord. When I am weak, then I am strong. And that's part of the problem of the age we find ourselves in, this Laodicean age, because we don't recognize our true weakness. It says you're rich and increased with goods. Then what does it say next? In need of nothing. The Laodicean church didn't recognize how needy it really was because it had everything. It didn't know what it was to go thirsty. It didn't know what it was to go hungry. It didn't know it was luxuriating. It had everything. In so much of contemporary Christianity, we have everything. And so there's not that sense of desperation and need. And sometimes the Lord has to shake our world to realize how thirsty we are and how we need to cry out to him for help. Of course, we're reminded again, aren't we? There's these faint reminders of Calvary. If slaying a thousand men is thirsty work, what about redeeming the souls of lost humanity? Would that be thirsty work? And here's one crying out on Calvary. I thirst. But there was no one there to answer him. The Lord deliver for him in time of need. And so notice, not only does Samson call on the name of the Lord. We said, this is the high point. This is where we're getting somewhere. And then it says, and said, verse 18, thou has given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant. Two more beautiful things. He calls out to the Lord in dependence. He acknowledges that the victory was the Lord's. Thou has given this great deliverance. He's quick now to give the glory to God. He's no longer boasting about with a jawbone of an ass. I have done this, but no, you have given this great victory. His need of water is making him realize what a fragile individual he is. And that only this kind of victory had to be of the Lord, not of him because he realized his own weakness. He called on the Lord. He said, you've given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant. This is the third most beautiful thing. He prays, he recognizes God gave the victory. And the third thing is he recognizes he's just a servant. You've given it into the hand of thy servant, simply the Lord's servant. He recognizes who he really is. And so he says, and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. And perhaps there's a thought here. Not only is the need great, that he wasn't sufficient of himself to meet the need, but he also was concerned about the damage that it would do to the Lord's name if he were to perish as a direct result of his conflict with the uncircumcised Philistines. At this point, he recognizes, Lord, how's this gonna all look? You've given this great deliverance. And then he says, onto the hand of thy servant and how shall I die for thirst and fall into the hand of this uncircumcised? How will it look, Lord, if I've accomplished this great victory and then I die and I'm back with the Philistines again? And so notice he also calls the Philistines these uncircumcised, in the hand of the uncircumcised. He's finally recognizing something. Should have seen it a long time ago, but he's recognizing who these people are. They're the uncircumcised. Interesting too is that he needs water after the battle. We said there are weapons. One of them is the word of God and we need it for the battle, right? It's our main, as it were, attacking tool is the word of God, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. But another picture of the word of God is water, the washing of the water, the word. And not only do we need the word of God as we go into battle, but after the battle, we need to be refreshed and renewed by the word of God. We need to, as it were, to drink deeply of God's word. On the one hand, it's our weapon, but it's also our personal refreshment. And we need it in both ways. We need to be personally refreshed by the word of God and we need it to fight the enemy. Then it says, but God claimed a hollow place that was in the jaw and there came water there out. And when he had drunk, his spirit came again and he revived. Wherefore, he called the name thereof, Hen Hako, which is in Lehi to this day. He calls it the call of spring or the fountain of one calling. And again, just a recognition that out of this place, and remember he's called it the height of the jawbone, but I don't believe that the water's coming out of the literal jawbone, but it's coming out of this rock, this height of the jawbone, this place that he's renamed. And it's called the call of spring. And this water comes out of this cleave, hollow place that was in the jaw. God claimed a hollow place. He made a place there. I mean, there wouldn't be any water that we could get in the jawbone of an ass, but this height of the jawbone, there's a cleaving, there's water there, and he's able to get the needed water. And again, we think of that beautiful picture of the struck rock and the water that came out, bringing refreshment to a needy world. And here again, the Lord uses that same picture. And so it says he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines, 20 years. It's a simple statement, notwithstanding all the failures that we've pointed out, God now tells us that we're just getting a few little incidents here, but there's a bigger picture. God doesn't record many of the details, but he tells us that for 20 years in the days of the Philistines, he judged Israel. And he doesn't just tell us it once, it actually tells us it twice. If you look at chapter 16 in verse 31, it says, then his brethren in all the house of the father came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zor and Eshtiol in the burying place of Minoah his father, and he judged Israel 20 years. You know that he's the only judge that it actually has this double reference to he judged Israel 20 years? It's kind of interesting, isn't it? God is saying there's something about Samson that maybe we're not getting in the story. That yes, there were these incidents that kind of stand out in our minds, but for 20 years, he exercised judgeship over the nation of Israel. And God is giving his affirmation of the usefulness of that, period. He's saying, I recognize this, I recognize what this man has done. And again, I'm still amazed as I look at Samson that he's along with Samuel, he's in Hebrews 11. Kind of amazing, isn't it? Because they're very different. And we don't see quite the same failures in the life of Samuel as we do in the life of Samson, but he's there. And part of it is the beautiful passage we've just considered, where we see a very much a high point in the life of Samson, where he called on the Lord, he acknowledged that he had given this great deliverance, and then he acknowledged that he was God's servant. And again, isn't it good for us to live in dependence upon the Lord, crying out to him, recognizing that if any good is accomplished in our lives, any deliverance wrought by us, it's him that has done the work, and recognizing we're just humble servants of an illustrious master. And may God encourage us with Samson in the high point of his life. Thank you.