What I Noticed Today (Judges 13-15)
Judges 13-16
Sampson delivers the Israelites from the oppression of the Philistines.
Judges 13
Judges 13 records Israel once again doing what was evil in the sight of God, so he handed them over to the Philistines for 40 years.
Note: This is the seventh, and last time this reference to the people of Israel doing evil in the sight of God occurs (Judges 3:7, 3:12, 4:1, 6:1, 8:33-35, 10:6, 13:1).
In verses 2-25, an angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah from Zorah and his wife, saying that the child they would bear would be a Nazarite from birth, and he would begin to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines. Samson (which means “sunny”) was born, and the Lord blessed him, and the spirit of God was with him.
- She was not to drink wine or beer or eat anything unclean.
- She was not to cut the boy's hair because he was to be a Nazarite from birth.
Note: A Nazarite was someone who made a vow to abstain from any strong drink, to avoid eating or touching any unclean thing, and not to cut their hair during the period of the vow.
- Manoah sacrificed a young goat and a grain offering to the Lord, and the Angel of the Lord ascended in the flame from the altar.
Note: It was not until the Angel ascended in the flames of the altar that Manoah realized the person he had been talking to was an Angel of the Lord.
- Monoah’s wife gave birth to Sampson. The spirit of the Lord was upon him and blessed him as he grew up.
Judges 14
But, as we see in Judges 14, Samson had a weakness for foreign women.
- Sampson saw a Philistine woman in the town of Timnah and asked his parents to get her for him as a wife.
Note: Timnah was only about six miles west of Zorah, the town where Sampson lived.
- Sampson’s parents tried to dissuade him from marrying a Philistine woman since this intermarriage was prohibited (Deuteronomy 7:3)
- He insisted, and his parents relented.
Note: Verse 8, “After some time, he returned to get her.” Sampson was returning for the wedding after the engagement period. Verse 9, Sampson defiled himself by taking honey from the carcass of the lion. As a Nazarite, he was to avoid all dead animals. He gave some of the honey to his parents and didn’t tell them where it came from, so he defiled them as well. Verse 10, Sampson defiled his Nazarite vow again when he hosted a drinking party for the Philistines (the word for “feast” comes from the word “to drink”).
- During the course of the 7-day wedding feast, his fiancé nagged him for the answer to the riddle he proposed to the Philistines until he finally relented, gave her the answer to the riddle, and she betrayed him.
- The Spirit of the Lord came upon Sampson, and he ended up killing 30 Philistines.
- His father-in-law gave his fiancé to another man.
Some thoughts for further consideration:
- Samson was blessed by God with His spirit and separated at birth for a special purpose - to save the people of Israel from their oppressors and restore their relationship to God. His parents were devout believers, but it didn’t take long as an adult for Samson to fall into sin.
Judges 15-16
Chapters 15-16 continue the story of Samson.
Judges 15
In verses 1-5, During the wheat harvest (May), Sampson returned to see his wife with a goat as a present for his father-in-law. His father-in-law said he thought Sampson hated her (divorce language Deuteronomy 24:3), so he had given her to another man.
- When he found out his fiancé had been given to another man, Samson burned the Philistine’s crops and orchards down.
In verses 6-13, the Philistines came against Judah looking for Samson.
- The Philistines found out that Sampson had destroyed their crops because of Sampson’s wife had been given to another man. The Philistines went to Sampson’s wife and her father and burned them to death.
- This angered Sampson even more, and he took revenge by slaughtering more of the Philistines.
- The Philistines then went and attacked Lehi, a town in Judah, in revenge for Sampson’s killing of the Philistines.
- 3,000 men of Judah went to Samson at the cave of Etam, captured him, tied him up, and turned him over to the Philistines.
In verses 14-20, Sampson kills more Philistines.
- When Sampson arrived in Lehi, the Spirit of the Lord came over Sampson, and he broke free of the ropes.
- Samson killed 1,000 of the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey and escaped the Philistines.
- Sampson gave credit to the victory over the Philistines to the Lord.
- Sampson judged Israel for 20 years.
What did you notice in your study today? Feel free to visit the website and leave a question or a comment.
