OUTGUNNED by Dr. Shah, Clearview Church, Henderson, NC
Introduction: Hulk is an ordinary person, even a weak person, until he gets angry. Then, he turns green, big, and incredibly strong. In our series on the book of Judges, we are in the section that deals with the judge Samson. Just like the Hulk, Samson is also an ordinary person, even a weak person, until the spirit of God comes upon him. Then, he becomes incredibly strong. In fact, he becomes supernaturally strong. Keeping our western theme, today’s message is titled “OUTGUNNED.” Main Point is 2-fold: Samson is a type of Christ. Just like Samson, who appeared ordinary but did the extra-ordinary, Jesus also appeared ordinary, but he did the superordinary. The second point is that just as God used a weak person like Samson to conquer the strong, God still uses weak people like you and me to confound the wise.
Judges 15 14 “When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.”
Context: Last weekend, we learned how Samson has been horribly and unfairly judged. Other than being in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11 and being mightily moved by the Holy Spirit (mentioned 4 times in Judges), he is also a type of Christ. He stands in line with Moses before him and David after him in doing things in a certain pattern that find their fulfillment in Christ. To correctly interpret Samson, we must apply the 2 filters of Christ and the Christian life to his story. It’s only then that we will see that he is not the unrestrained and stubborn brute we have made him out to be. Instead, he is the unrelenting and submissive man of God that scripture portrays him to be.
Application: Are you an unrelenting man/woman of God? Are you a submissive man or woman of God? Are you saved?
With that in mind, let’s return to the account about Samson in Judges 15 starting in verse 1 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in. Typically, we rush past the details in this text, but we must stop here and pay attention to what God’s word is saying. When Samson went back to reclaim his wife, he took with him a young goat. It was kind of like a gift to have a feast. An unruly and mindless brute would not have done that. His wife father stopped him from going to her. Think for a moment – Could Samson not slap the father down with one swipe and keep walking to his wife’s room? Afterall, he just killed a lion with his bare hands and 30 Philistines by himself! He doesn’t do that. He has respect for the man.
2 Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.”
Again, let’s pause here. The word for companion is “raa.” This is the word for “best man.” It has the idea of a loyal companion of the groom. If you go online, many of the wedding websites will talk about how the modern concept of the “best man” comes from the 16thcentury or medieval times when the bride had to protected from being kidnapped or they had to kidnap her from her parents’ home and all that. That may be true, but the history of the best man goes much further back. In fact, it goes back to 1900 BC. There is a Sumerian document from the time after Joseph. It is known as the Code of Lipit-Ishtar. It comes even before the Code of Hammurabi. Listen to line 29 – “If a son-in-law enters the household of his father-in-law and performs the bride-wealth presentation, but later they evict him and give his wife to his comrade, they shall restore to him twofold the bride-wealth which he brought, and his comrade will not marry his wife.” The comrade/friend of the groom/best man is responsible to make sure that the bride gets to the wedding and to the groom. Same thing is also found in the Code of Hammurabi which comes a couple of hundred years later from Babylon also has in line 161 – If a man sent a marriage-gift to his father-in-law’s house, gave a bride-price, and then his colleague has slandered him (and) his father-in-law has said to the wife’s lord “you will not marry my daughter,” he will return twice what was brought to him; and his colleague will not marry his wife. Even among the Jewish people, there was the position of the “shushbin.” Maimonides, the Jewish scholar, gives a whole chapter in the Mishnah talking about the role of the shushbin/best man in helping the groom with the wedding. Even Jesus had a best man!Listen to John 3 26 And they came to John [the Baptist] and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!” 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
Application: In your life, are you increasing or is Christ increasing?
Unfortunately, Samson’s best man betrayed him. Do you blame him for what follows in Judges 15 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” 4 Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. 5 When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. Some of us may say “Is that fair for Samson to do that to the innocent animals or burn up the fields and the vineyards and olive groves? Keep in mind that Samson is representing the judgment of God. Romans 12 17 “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.” Listen to Paul in 2 Timothy 4 14“Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him according to his works. 15 You also must beware of him, for he has greatly resisted our words.”
Application: Our world is crying out for justice. Do we realize that ultimate justice is in the hand of God? Do you know that a single wrong thing that people do will go unpunished?
Listen to the response of the Philistines – Judges 15 6 Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, “Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.” 8 So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam. What does that mean “he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter?” Scholars have usually concluded that this was an idiom, but we don’t find it anywhere. What is the meaning of “shoq al yarek”? (See John Roskoski’s article in The American Journal of Biblical Theology) Shoq means “lower leg.” Al means “upon” or “over” or “above.” Yarek means “thigh” or “side” or “base.” This was the outer part where the sword hung. So, these were Philistine warriors. The meaning goes back to the Greek athletic games. There were two types of wrestling: Upright wrestling and Pankration. The second one was known among some of these sea peoples which was a combination of wrestling and boxing but no gouging or biting. The result is not a great slaughter as in killing. The word is “makah” which can also mean “blows” or “stripes” or “plagues.” In other words, he beat them black and blue with a quite a few broken bones and limbs. In other words, yes, he is defeating them, but he is giving them a chance to stop and repent. Unfortunately, they are not. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”
Application: Some of you are trying to wrestle with God. He can destroy you at any moment. The only reason he doesn’t is because he wants you to come to repentance.
Unfortunately, the Philistines did not learn the lesson. Judges 15 9 “Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi. 10 And the men of Judah said, ‘Why have you come up against us?’ So they answered, ‘We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.’ 11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?’ And he said to them, ‘As they did to me, so I have done to them.’ 12 But they said to him, ‘We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.’ Then Samson said to them, ‘Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.’ 13 So they spoke to him, saying, ‘No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.’ And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. Can you see the type of Christ on the night Jesus was tried. The Pharisees and the chief priests had him arrested. Then they Ping ponged him between Herod and Pilate. When Pilate asked in Matthew 27 22 Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said to him, “Let Him be crucified!” 23 Then the governor said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they cried out all the more, saying, “Let Him be crucified!” 24 When Pilate saw that he could not prevail at all, but rather that a tumult was rising, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this just Person. You see to it.” 25And all the people answered and said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” In fact, listen to John 11 49 “And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to them, ‘You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.’ 51 Now this he did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were scattered abroad.” Is your mind changing about Samson? Can you also see what it means that Jesus “came to his own but his own received him not?” How we treat Samson is a good indication of how we would have treated Jesus as he was being led away to be crucified!
Let’s go to the final account of this narrative – Judges 15 14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. 15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it. 16 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!”17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.
Why the jawbone of a donkey? The Philistines had monopoly over iron so that the Israelites could not make any weapons. They could get farm equipment if they went to the Philistines. God used an unexpected thing and turned into a powerful weapon. No different than when God asked Moses “What is that in your hand?” A rod. No different than when God used David to kill Goliath with a sling and smooth stone from the brook. All this was fulfilled in Jesus who became the sacrifice for our sins by hanging on a Roman cross on a hill outside Jerusalem. So also, God is willing to use us with whatever we have in our hands. All that is required is that we be available to him.
The closing of Judges 15 18 “Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” 19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived…” Who also became thirsty and asked for a drink? John 19 28 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, ‘I thirst!’ 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, ‘It is finished!’ And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.”
Along with seeing Christ all through Samson’s life, we also learn the lesson of strength through weakness – 1 Corinthians 1 26 “For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.’”
Invitation: Are you willing to be weak in order to be strong? Do you know Christ as your Savior and King?