If I Talked to God Like that When I Was Your Age…
Have you been around long enough to know that Judges is just not safe for me?
Tiptoe as I might, I will one day trip over my own feet and spend some time stretched out with my face in the dirt trying to sort out why on earth God worked like He did.
Or works like He does.
Or is Who He is.
If this is new to you, welcome.
Every now and again, it’s what we do here.
It’s time.
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Yes, as my dad has pointed out, I’ve been hard on Samson. We’ve seen him behave like a spoiled child and throw violent tantrums. We’ve witnessed assault, battery, theft, murder, vandalism and mayhem at his hands. He inquired more of his appetite for women, revenge and power than of the holy Nazirite vow taken at the time of his birth when seeking wisdom for the day.
Samson, you’ll remember, was one born set apart. He was born to begin the deliverance of Israel from Philistine oppression.
Aside from superhuman strength, he hardly seemed up to the task.
But he was God’s man for that hour. God entrusted the future of His chosen ones to an impetuous hothead.
And He never seemed the slightest bit surprised.
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Way back in Judges 14 when Samson demanded a Philistine bride, God breathed parentheses into His Word, tucking in a reassurance that He knew what He was doing, no matter how wrong it all appeared.
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.” (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) Judges 14:3b-4
God was there.
They were still on plan.
Are we to believe the plan included Samson dishonoring his parents and breaking the Hebrew law?
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When Samson beat up thirty guys and stole their clothes, it was after the Spirit came upon him in power.
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father’s house. Judges 14:19
God was there.
They were still on plan.
Are we to believe the Spirit of God empowered his rage and violence?
::
After he torched the fields and vineyards of the Philistines with foxes brûlée, and after he slaughtered many of the men, he was taken prisoner by the men of Judah to be handed over to the Philistines. The Spirit came upon him again, and he broke free only to kill a thousand more.
“Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
God was there.
They were still on plan.
Are we to believe God energized the slaughter of a thousand?
::
If you’ve been with me down one of these roads before, you might be surprised to find that I’ve navigated through those obstacles with relative ease this time.
Samson was the guy God picked, and He stuck with him through thick and thin. He was in it when Samson demanded to go outside his own people for a wife, knowing that it would ultimately present opportunity (after opportunity after opportunity) to confront the Philistines.
And when Samson did outrageous things after the Spirit came on him, I’m comfortable that he acted as he did not because of the Spirit’s empowerment but in spite of it.
Is it not fair to say that sometimes the power of God is more than we know what to do with? Is it possible Samson mistook God’s power for his own juice and went out to take off some heads?
It took several readings and a fair bit of wrestling on the floor, but I’m okay with all of that now.
I am.
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But . . .
You knew that was coming.
What I’m not okay with is how Judges 15 ends.
Samson, fresh from his kill, was exhausted. Slaughtering a thousand with a donkey’s jawbone makes a guy thirsty.
For the first time in his story, we see Samson acknowledge God.
If you want to call it that.
Samson let loose on God over his thirst, accusing Him of giving him a great victory, then leaving him to die.
If my kids were talking to me like that, I’d ignore them. I’d at least roll my eyes at them.
I might even tell them that when I was their age I never dreamed of talking to my parents like that (though Mom and Dad may have a different story to tell).
But God?
God gave him water — popped a spring right up out of the earth.
And then He set Samson as judge over Israel for the next twenty years.
Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines. Judges 15:18-20
God was there.
They were still on plan.
Are we to believe that God rewards arrogance, murder, rage, revenge, self-centeredness, and whining?
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Just what are we to believe here?
God’s man was a jerk. And yet, God used him. God stuck with the plan, and the plan was Samson.
Samson: murderer, thief, vandal. Jerk.
He was flawed, Samson. Deeply flawed.
Yet, he was chosen by God to play his part in redemptive history.
Samson gave God reason after reason after reason to ditch him and start over. But He held on.
When the wrestling is over, I conclude that should I for a moment begin to think I am any less flawed than Samson himself, I have just given you further proof that I am yet more deeply flawed indeed. Even here, despite the vacuum in my own soul, He holds on.
God is here.
We are still on plan.
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Related: More posts in the Samson series Wrestling How the Road to Hell is Paved A Deal is a Deal
Angry-heart-Murderer, liar, jerk…not Samson, but me. I’m thankful God can still transform that type person into one who sees God, listens to God. But there is a huge gloss-over of Samson’s 20-year judgeship. God could see his heart even when it’s a heart that doesn’t seem to be too great. Perhaps he was tapping into God’s anger against the Philistines. I wonder if Samson were any less rash as a judge? Any less prone to anger?
2009/09/24 at 12:03 AM
Jennifer, from the upcoming content (ch. 16), I’d say he certainly settled down for a while while he served as judge. But soon enough he had eyes for Delilah…eyes he would lose to the Philistines’ poking fingers. As their prisoner, his last request to God before he brought the house down was to give him his strength back…so he could avenge his eyes.
More to come…assuming I didn’t just use up all my good lines here in the comment box.
2009/09/24 at 6:53 AM
Recently heard someone teach on the Judah/Tamar story (Genesis 38). Taught how Jesus descended from Judah’s lineage. How circumstances seemed to come against that plan (eldest two boys died at God’s hand because of their wickedness, Judah afraid to have Tamar in his family). Yet God was on plan and through the union of Judah and Tamar the lineage of Jesus was carried out. God’s ways are truly higher than mine. I’m learning to be thankful I serve a God big enough to stay on plan – no matter how it looks. (Like having His Son die in my place and receiving me despite myself.)
2009/09/24 at 7:48 AM
Nancy, funny you should bring up those two. When I was reading through Genesis last summer, I was still on my 90-day speed-reading tour and didn’t have the “luxury” agonizing through all the potholes in the story of Tamar and Judah. That one is actually near the top of my list of “oh, God, what were You thinking” chapters in history. I’m amazed at what He gets Himself involved in just to work His plan.
And we fit right into that, do we not?
2009/09/24 at 12:25 PM
I’m waiting for the upcoming! Delilah is the only story I remember from Sunday School about Samson. My studies of the OT took me through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then I skipped over a chunk to the Kay Arthur series Kings and Prophets in the OT. That meant skipping all the judges.
So I’m learning a lot from your insights. There’s just too much Bible to study in depth and too little time.
2009/09/25 at 3:29 PM
God breathing Parenentheses-Life into the Word … and into our lives.
Yes! Oh, Lyla. What a reassuring reminder.
When I often consider the wretch that I am, when I often wonder how He would use me as I am, I can have this Truth in the parantheses: (But God….)
I don’t believe this gives us license to act like jerks; we will hopefully reflect more and more of His glory each day. (Perhaps becoming less of a wretch with the passing of time.) But even when our personalities — and even our sinful behaviors — get in the way, God is God enough to make something of it.
Makes my knees buckle …
Well done, Lyla.
2009/09/26 at 9:14 AM
God is God enough.
Enough said.
2009/09/26 at 1:57 PM
Amen, Lyla. God is still on plan even today. And unlike the secular world in which we live, God has no Plan B. His plan for the salvation of the world is the church and only the church. And if the church of today loses sight of its (God’s Plan A) mission, God will raise up a church that is on point and on plan. I lament some of the shortcomings of the church of our times but take heart that God’s Plan is still in place.
Dad
2009/09/28 at 9:57 PM
“Samson, you’ll remember, was one born set apart.”
Lyla, it just occurred to me. So are we.
Born.
Set apart.
To do….
For His glory.
Maybe, I need to re-think old Samson.
Sweet dreams.
2009/10/01 at 5:12 PM