The Real Meaning of Life

https://biblehub.com/nkjv/judges/15.htm

I’ve never done it, nor have I witnessed it first hand, but I’ve heard stories of how juveniles used to torment and abuse animals. I’ve heard stories about guys shooting roman candles at cats, or tying firecrackers to a cats tail, or a string of empty tin cans to a cats tail. The stories mostly centered around cats, however news reports indicate dogs are not immune either.

In this story, Samson used foxes to burn the fields of the Philistines by tying burning straw to their tails and setting them loose in the fields to set the fields ablaze. He did this after going to visit his wife, and finding that her father had given her to one of Samson’s companions.

In the last chapter, Samson was angry with her because she had divulged the answer of his riddle to the Philistines, and her father thought Samson didn’t want her any longer, so he gave her away.

Sounds kind of like Payton Place to me, but rest assured, God is setting the stage for Samson to defeat the Philistines.

So Samson went and hid from the Philistines, and an army of Philistine men went to Judah and began to pressure those residents about the location of Samson. So a large group of the men of Judah went to the hiding place of Samson and pleaded with him. Samson agreed to surrender providing the men of Judah did not kill him themselves.

They bound him with new rope, the rope had to be new so there were not any weak areas, and began to take him to deliver him to the Philistines. But as the army of the Philistines approached, the “Spirit of the Lord” overcame Samson, and his strength grew so that he was easily able to break the ropes. He then found the jawbone of a donkey, and scripture says he attacked and killed a thousand men.

The jawbone of a donkey is quite large. Google it, there is at least one photo of two men who appear to be re-enacting the assault of Samson on one of the Philistines and the bone, especially in the hands of a man filled with God’s strength, could do some serious damage. bsa b q

After this, God performed another of his miracles by producing water for Samson, “from a hollow place”, whatever that is, then scripture says that Samson judged Israel for 20 years.

Where do we start with this one? First of all, God made marriage to be between one man and one woman who (I’m paraphrasing) “leave their parents and become as one”. Now we’ve read where many figures in the Bible had multiple wives and concubines, but in this chapter, it seems as though we are trading wives around as if they are property. And if this unnamed wife of Samson was his wife, why did he have to go visit her at her father’s house? Why had they not established a residence together?

And then we have stories of the Philistines taking revenge and killing their own people over burned fields of grain, then the Israelites are giving up one of their own to the Philistines because they won’t fight for themselves.

But again, this is all apparently part of God’s plan to deliver the Philistines into the hands of Israel. If I were a guessing man, I would bet many of the players in this piece of history veered off course quite a bit, and God had to steer them back in the right direction.

But chapter after chapter, one thing that shines through each story, is that you are capable of anything when God is on your side, and no matter who you are, God can call upon you to serve Him.