Questions for Thought
- Why do we often have a problem with doing what God says to do?
- Why did God have Gideon decrease the number of fighting men before allowing them to take the Midianites?
In the last blog, we saw how God selected Gideon also known as Jerubbaal to lead the Israelites as their judge. Remember in that account how Gideon had to have several signs from God before he was really convinced about what God wanted him to do. I think today many people are just like Gideon. We can read the Bible and fully understand what it says, but we are hesitant to obey. Why? Is it a lack of faith? Is it a strong desire to do what we want to do instead of what God says to do? Is it a fear of what others will say about us? It is so important for us to be teaching our children and other women the necessity of doing what God says to do because we love Him and we know He loves us and would never lead us in the wrong way.
So now we have Gideon ready to fight the Midianites. He had 32,000 men with him to overcome the Midianites, but God said that was too many men. He told Gideon to send home anyone who was fearful and afraid. There were 22,000 men who willingly left the force and went home. The Lord then told Gideon there were still too many men. The Lord said to take them to the water’s edge and divide them into two groups based upon how they drank the water. There were 300 men that lapped the water by putting it in their hands and putting their hands to their mouths. The rest of the men bowed down upon their knees to drink the water. God told Gideon to take the 300 men to the battle and by them He would deliver the Midianites into Gideon’s hand. In Judges 7:3 we can read why God had Gideon decrease the number of men. God knew if all the men went to battle, they would claim the victory instead of giving God the credit.
This battle was to be won without any fighting on the part of Gideon’s men. In Judges 7:9, God told Gideon He had delivered Midian into Gideon’s hand, but it seems even Gideon after seeing all the signs was still afraid. God told him if he was afraid, to go down with Phurah, his servant and hear what the people were saying. Gideon and his servant went down and Gideon heard a man telling a dream he had. In the dream, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the Midianites and came into a tent and smote it. The man’s companions answered him and said this was nothing other than the sword of Gideon because God had delivered Midian into Gideon’s hand. When Gideon heard the telling of the dream and the interpretation, he worshipped God and went back to his army and told them to get ready because God had delivered the Midianites into their hands.
Gideon divided the soldiers into three different groups. He put a trumpet in each man’s hand along with torches inside of pitchers. He arranged them on every side of the enemy and he told them when he blew a trumpet they were all to blow their trumpets and to say “the sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.” Then they were to break the pitchers in their hands and hold the torches in their left hand and the trumpets in their right hands. They did as he said and the Lord won the battle by causing the Midianites to fight each other.
When the men of Israel asked Gideon to rule over them, in Judges 8:23, he told them he would not rule over them neither would his son, but the Lord would rule over them. Of course, that was the way it was supposed to be, but as we have seen time after time, Israel rejected the Lord as their ruler. Gideon judged Israel for forty years and the land had peace during that time. Gideon had 70 sons by his many wives. He also had a son, Abimelech, by a concubine. After Gideon’s death, this son went to Gideon’s house and killed the 70 sons and became the new judge. After a few years, God removed Abimelech from the position of judge by allowing a woman to throw a stone down on his head which crushed his skull. He had his armor bearer kill him so it would not be said a woman had done so.
After Abimelech, other judges were Tola who judged for 20 years and Jair who judged 22 years. Then Israel again did evil in God’s sight and God was angry with them. He let the Philistines oppress them and the children of Israel then cried to God admitting they had sinned by forsaking God and by serving false gods. God responded to them by telling them they had forsaken Him and He would not deliver them any more. He said for them to cry to those other gods. The people told the Lord to do whatever He wanted to do, but to please deliver them. They put away the idols they were worshipping and served God again. God in turn allowed a new judge Jephthah to deliver the Israelites out of the hands of their oppressors. But Jephthah made a big mistake. He vowed to sacrifice whatever came out of the doors of his house to meet him when he returned from battle. When he returned, his daughter came out to meet him. She was his only child. Jephthah only judged for six year and then he died.
After Jephthah the next three judges were Ibzan who judged for seven years, Elon who judged 10 years, and then Abdon, who judged eight years. After these judges, the Israelites again did evil in the Lord’s sight and He delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years.
The next judge, Samson is one about whom many children know. There was a man named Manoah whose wife could not have children. An angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her she would have a son He told her not to drink strong drink and not to eat anything unclean. She was not to cut the child’s hair because he was to be a Nazarite unto God. The angel said this child would begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. The woman told Manoah what had happened and Manoah prayed to God to send the man again to teach them what to do with the child. God again sent the angel to the woman and this time she ran and got Manoah. He asked the angel what they were to do concerning the child and the angel told him to do what he had told the woman. Then he repeated the orders so Manoah could hear them too. Manoah wanted to fix something for the man to eat, not realizing this was an angel. The angel told him he could offer an offering to the Lord but he would not eat of the food. When Manoah made the offering, the angel ascended up in the flame and only then did Manoah and his wife realize they were talking to an angel. both of them fell on their faces on the ground. Manoah told his wife they would surely die because they had seen God, but in good sense the wife told Manoah that was not God’s intent for if it had been, He would not have given them this message.
When the child was born, he was named Samson. He grew up with the Lord’s blessings. Samson was a strong-headed young man and some of what he did looks pretty stupid to us, but we have to remember God was in charge. As he was going to a place called Timnath, he saw a Philistine woman he wanted for his wife. His dad and mom were not happy with this choice as they did not realize it was from God. On his was to Timnath, a young lion roared at Samson. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he killed the lion with his bare hands. He did not tell his mom and dad.
When Samson went back to Timnath to take the Philistine woman as his wife, he went over to see the remains of the lion and he found a swarm of bees had taken up residence. He took the honey and ate it and gave some to his parents who had no idea where he got it. When he got to Timnath, it was the custom for the young man to make a feast so Samson made a feast. The people gave Samson 30 men to be with him and Samson gave them a riddle. He gave them seven days to get the answer and if they could not answer the riddle, they had to give him 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. If they could answer the riddle, he was to give them 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. The riddle was: “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.”
The men could not figure out the answer to the riddle, so they went to Samson’s wife and told her if she did not tell them the answer, they would burn her and her father’s house. Samson’s wife cried in front of Samson telling him he did not love her because he would not give her the answer. He told her he had not told his mom and dad and he wasn’t telling her. She kept crying before him and finally on the seventh day, he told her the answer. Of course, she told her people. When they gave Samson the answer, he told them if they had not plowed with his heifer, they would not have known the answer.
Samson had to make good on the promise to supply the people with clothes if they could answer the riddle. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he killed 30 of the men of Ashkelon and took their clothes and gave to the men. He was then mad at his wife so he left her and her dad gave her to another man. After a while, Samson decided to go back to her, but her dad would not let him go in to her. He told Samson he thought Samson hated her so he had given her to another man. He offered Samson the younger sister. Samson was really upset now, so he caught 300 foxes and tied them together at the tails putting a torch between the two tails in each pair. Then he sent them into the standing corn of the Philistines and burned up their crops. When the Philistines found out who did it, they burned his wife and her father. Samson then killed a bunch of the Philistines and went to live in the rocks at Etam.
The Philistines went after Samson and the men of Judah bound him with two new cords and delivered them to the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson and he broke the cords from his arms. He found a fresh jawbone from a donkey and killed 1000 men with it. After the battle, Samson was thirsty and called upon God for drink. God produced water for him in a place called Lehi.
After losing his first wife, Samson went to Gaza where he saw a harlot and went in to her. When the Philistines knew he was there, they planned to kill him the next morning. Samson got up at midnight and left the area, taking the doors of the gate of the city along with the two posts with him up to the top of a hill. He had outsmarted them again.
Samson next found a woman named Delilah who would be his complete downfall. The Philistines persuaded her to find out for them the source of Samson’s great strength. The lords of the Philistines each promised her 1100 pieces of silver for a total of 5500 pieces. The first time Delilah asked Samson about his strength, he told her if he was bound with fresh bow strings he would be just like other men. So, Delilah bound him and called for the Philistines to be upon him. Samson broke the strings and Delilah said he had mocked her.
The next time Delilah asked him about his strength, he said if he was bound with new ropes that had never been used, he would be weak. Again, Delilah bound him and called for the Philistines to be upon him. He broke the ropes as if they were just threads. Again, Delilah accused him of mocking her and lying to her. She pressed him for an answer to his strength. He said if she would weave the seven locks of his head with the weaving loom, he would lose his strength. She did and called for the Philistines to be upon him. Again, he walked away taking the pin of the weaving loom with him.
Delilah did not give up. She again accused Samson of not loving her and of mocking her. She pestered him every day until he finally told her his hair had never been cut and if it was cut, he would be just like other men in strength. Delilah called the lords of the Philistines and told them Samson had showed her his heart and she was sure she had the solution. They brought her the money and she made Samson sleep on her knees while she had a Philistine man cut his hair. When he awoke and she had said for the Philistines to be upon him, Samson thought he would get up as usual not knowing his hair was cut. Instead, the Lord had left him and he had only normal strength. The Philistines took him and put out his eyes and made him grind grain in the prison house like an animal would do.
Samson’s hair grew back and on a day when the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, they called for Samson to come and entertain them. They were praising their god for delivering him into their hands. Samson asked the boy who was holding him by the hand to put his hands on the pillars of the house so he could lean upon them. The house was full of about 3000 men and women and the lords of the Philistines. Samson called upon God to remember him and to one more time give him strength. He took hold of the two middle pillars of the house and pulled them down. As he requested, he died with the Philistines. His family buried him in the burying place of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for 20 years.
It has always seemed so strange to me how Samson told Delilah the secret of his strength after she had tried three times to have him killed. Did he not know what she would do? Ladies, as women, we have so much power over the men in our lives. Should we not use that power for good and not for evil?
Samson is the last judge in the book of Judges. Later when we look at 1 Samuel, we will find information on a few more judges before God agreed to give Israel a king like the surrounding nations. In the meantime, in the next blog, we will look at the story of Ruth since the events in the book of Ruth took place during the time of the judges. This is a beautiful love story showing us the great love a daughter-in-law had for her mother-in-law.
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