Judges Chapter 15 Verses 1 – 3

• Trying to figure this out, this response of the father in my own head, I gotta tell you, at first, I was a little confused. Was he protecting the honor of his daughter by refusing Samson? I don’t think so because in the very next breath he offers to give up the honor of his other daughter. So I was a little confused and then I remembered verse 16 of the previous chapter. Where do you think the father got the idea that Samson thoroughly hated his wife? From her!
• And so then the pieces fell into place. She hates him! I think her father knew that if Samson stepped within ten feet of her there would be blood and it would be his. She’s burnt, scorned as it were by Samson and judging from verse 16 of the previous chapter and what we saw of her in our last study, she’s a So Samson is refused and his response is interesting. Notice his unrepentant sick heart…, “This time…” He carries the weight of last time, you see.

Judges Chapter 15 Verses 4 – 5

• Now first off, many at first blush are a little skeptical here as to Samson being able to capture 300 foxes. When you examine the original language, the number 300 is represented in two words for us…three and hundred…but look closely at the multiple uses of these words and the definitions and you can arrive at a third of a hundred…why? Because the word used for three is the same word as “third.” So don’t get hung up on trying to reconcile an army of foxes (what do they say though?).
• What I got hung up on is how juvenile Samson is…he can’t face his demons! He can’t own up the fact that she is gone…that she completely HATES him and it’s all because of HIM! He can’t face that, so he throws this disgusting fit! What a baby but man I tell you, I have this in me as well. I know it! It is only the love of Jesus that compels me towards wisdom…I’m not ashamed at all to admit that! I’m thankful, man…because without the Holy Spirit, without the cross of Christ, without the Word of God, I would be hunting foxes day in and day out…(I might use goats though!)

Judges Chapter 15 Verses 6 – 7

• See this. What does his juvenile, self-centered, reactionary, impulse anger and dirty diaper driven tirade result in? Welcome to the story of sin. He burned crops, they burned her. And when it was all done, his reponse…, “Since you would do a thing like this….” It’s your fault Samson! Your fault! The answer is not retaliation. The answer is repentance! Understand this…retaliation is a never-ending cycle. We have to know that! Repentance is an eternal power that delivers strength straight into your core to walk in wisdom and to walk worthy of God!

Judges Chapter 15 Verse 8

• “Hip and thigh,” means that he was especially cruel and when it was all done…when the childish reactionary decision was carried out, he finds himself That is consistent in all situations. Folks are fighting because of the one thing they hate, being alone and being without and what they are fighting because of becomes what they are fighting for…and they just don’t see it.

Judges Chapter 15 Verses 9 – 13

• So the pattern continues. Samson has gone from man of the hour at his wedding, to being utterly hated and rejected by his wife…all at his doing mind you…to childish retaliatory behavior leading to isolation and now isolation has grown even more harsh…as folks, his own people, now turn against him. Why? Because they are bad or in the wrong? Not at all. Again, because what Samson has done. And then finally notice Samson’s end state. Alone, hated and now…very scared.
• I do pray this is a lesson for us. The cure for this entire situation is repentance and Samson just can’t find it…I wonder can you? Repentance is not being sorrowful over your situation…Samson most certainly is that…he carries the weight for sure…repentance is the rejection of self in favor of God and in service to others. There is no other kind and I am convinced that there are some, like Samson, that have never repented of anything…because they are not Christ-like today and they have no heart to serve others…that’s fruit that will be there if the tree of repentance grows in the garden of your heart…

Judges Chapter 15 Verses 14

• Ever wonder where the idea of the Incredible Hulk came from? Right here! Well, maybe not but again we see the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Samson as the enemies of the Lord advance. This is something I count on personally in ministry. As Satan attempts to hinder, I count on with assured hope that the Spirit of the Lord is about to drop!

Judges Chapter 15 Verses 15 – 17

• He’s a one man That’s one thing that really sets Samson apart from other Judges. There would not be another warrior like him until the great King, King David. Same word as was used before for hundred is used here for thousand…was it a thousand men, it doesn’t matter…it was a lot and Samson somehow killed them all with a jawbone of a donkey…now other than that being just weird…anything else wrong with that picture?
• Yea, he once again has defiled That really is his character isn’t it? God has this great calling on his life…delivers to him great resources to be something great for the kingdom and even though he makes it through, he defiles himself. There’s something very tragic in that story, man…because it leads to not only a tragedy of a life, but a tragedy of heart…look at his accusation now against God…

Judges Chapter 15 Verse 18

• After all that, faithlessness and irreverence towards the very one who has sustained him. He sorrows when he could rejoice. He yearns when he could celebrate! Do you see this? But God’s mercy and God’s grace…

Judges Chapter 15 Verses 19 – 20

• Literally, En Hakkore means, “Fountain of the Crier.” God is so good…He provides even for the broken and the The spirit-less and the lost…Samson has been given much and he has made an utter complex mess of it all…and yet God answers his cry. He is greater than I.