3.Moral turpitude:
I am going to sidestep the fifth major judge, (Jephthah), and all the minor judges. Why? Because the first four major judges that we’ve already examined, more than adequately demonstrated the ongoing pattern of Israel’s sequences of sin, oppression, crying out to God, and His deliverance through the judges.
Before we meet the last and the most famous major judge, (Samson), I am going to segue to the chapters 17 – 21 of the book of Judges, which occur after the account of Samson. These chapters consist of a postscript of the initial period of that same book. It depicts the depths of Israel’s sin that created the need for the judges, which God mercifully provided.
This expose on the depravity of the Israelites, begins with a man named Micah, from the tribe of Ephraim, who stole silver from his mother, and later admits it, returning to her. She says that she will honor him for his repentance by taking a portion of that silver to a silversmith, who created an idol to be placed in Micah’s house.
Micah built a shrine for it and made his son his personal priest. (See Jdg. 17:1 – 5.)
Then, the Bible reveals why behaviors like these were widely perpetrated:
In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. Jdg. 17:6 NLT
(Nor did they recognize their rightful King, Jehovah.)
Next, a Levite from Bethlehem approached Micah and said he was looking for a place to live. Micah said that he would provide him shelter, treated him like a son, and made him his personal priest. Why?
“I know the Lord will bless me now,” Micah said, “because I have a Levite serving as my priest.” Jdg. 17:13 NLT
Obviously, this is a total desecration of the true Levitical priesthood’s purpose, which was to serve God in the temple.
Simultaneously, the Israeli tribe of Dan, was looking for a place to live. Joshua had allotted land to them[1] That allotment was filled with their enemy, (the Philistines), and the Danites lacked the faith in God to take the land from them.
So, they sent out scouts, who came to Micah’s house, where they met the Levite. And they told him that they had spied out the northernmost Canaanite city of Laish, located at the foot of Mount Horeb. The scouts found the city to be highly desirable. So, they asked the priest if they would be successful in their conquest of same. He gave them his blessing.
Six hundred Danites returned to Micah’s house and forcibly took all his idols; and the Levite, who was only too happy to be a priest for an entire clan, instead of just Micah.
The Danites conquered the city, killing all the inhabitants and burning the city to the ground. Then they rebuilt it and renamed it the city of Dan. But they maintained their idolatry:
Then they set up the carved image, and they appointed Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses, as their priest. Jdg. 18:30 NLT
Chapters 19 and 20 present a most serious moral degradation:
This account begins with a Levite, living in Ephraim, who procured for himself a concubine from Bethlehem. Returning to his home, he and his retinue stop to spend the night in the town of Gibeah, in the land of Benjamin.
A kind man took them into his home. But Benjamite men from the city surrounded the house and demanded that the homeowner give up the Levite, so that they could sodomize him. Instead, he offered the crowd his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine.
The Levite pushed his concubine out the door, and the men raped her all night, leading to her death. Consequently, the Levite took her home and cut her up into twelve pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes as a call to civil war. (See Jdg. Ch. 19).
Four hundred thousand men from all the eleven tribes of Israel attacked the land of Benjamin, with the permission of Jehovah.
The Benjamite men were slaughtered, leaving only 600 men behind. But that was not all:
And the Israelites returned and slaughtered every living thing in all the towns—the people, the livestock, and everything they found. They also burned down all the towns they came to. Jdg. 20:48 NLT
(Eventually, the Israelites would deeply repent what they did, and send wives to the 600 Benjamite men to repopulate the tribe.)
4.Samson
Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who oppressed them for forty years. Jdg. 13:1 NLT
During that time, there was a man from the tribe of Dan, named Manoah, whose wife was barren:
And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold, you are infertile and have no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.Therefore, be careful not to drink wine or [any other] intoxicating drink, and do not eat anything [ceremonially] unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite [dedicated] to God from birth; and he shall begin to rescue Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” Jdg. 13:3 – 5. AMP
The Angel of the LORD is consecrating the child for His purposes.
Manoah prayed for the return of the Angel of the LORD, who subsequently manifested Himself to him and his wife. Manoah asked Him for His name. He replies:
“Why do you ask my name,” the angel of the Lord asked him, “since it is beyond understanding?” Jdg. 13:18 CSB
Manoah sacrificed a young goat and gave a grain offering on a rock altar. The Angel of the LORD consumed it with miraculous fire and then He Himself ascended toward heaven. (Once again, we see that He accepted a sacrifice, which angels cannot do. Thus, He can only be explained as a theophany, whom many understand to be the pre-incarnate Christ.)
Later, Manoah’s wife gives birth:
…and named him Samson; and the boy grew and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him… Jdg. 13:24, 25. AMP
One day as he matures, Samson sees a Philistine woman who stirs up his lust, and he tells his parents to get her for his wife. They try to reason with him – to marry an Israelite instead of a pagan Philistine. Only caring about how she looks, Samson stands firm.
However, none of them sees that this is God’s plan:
His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time. Jdg. 14:4 NLT
The three of them went to arrange the marriage, but on the way, Samson was attacked by a lion. It was at this moment, that Samson was first imbued with the Spirit of the LORD, strengthening him to be able to tear the lion apart bare-handed. (This was also in God’s plan.)
They met the girl and Samson was pleased and plans were drawn. On the return trip, Samson saw that the body of the lion was filled with bees and honey. He ate some of the honey.
Later, Samson prepared a feast for a ‘bachelor party’ for him and 30 attending Philistine men. As per custom, he began a riddle game, where he said to the Philistines that if they could solve it within the 7 days of the feast, he would reward them with a certain amount of clothing. But if they could not, they would have to reward him likewise.
His riddle:
“Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.” Jdg. 14:14 AMP
By the end of the 3rd day, they still hadn’t solved it. So, they threatened Samson’s betrothed, saying that if she didn’t get the answer out of him, they would burn her and her father’s house. So, she whined to Samson, crying daily that as his wife, she should know. He finally relented.
Then the 30 Philistines answered him on the 7th day:
“What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” Jdg. 14:18a AMP
Samson’s response is classic:
If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow, you wouldn’t know my riddle now! Jdg. 14:18b CSB
He went to Philistine city of Ashkelon and killed 30 men and brought the dead men’s clothes and gave them to the 30 men of his wedding party. Subsequently, his father-in-law gave his wife to another man.
Samson reacted with vengeance:
Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves. Jdg. 15:4, 5. NLT
The Philistines retaliated by burning up his ex-wife and her father. Samson responded mercilessly. In turn, the Philistines camped in the land of Judah. When the Judahites found out why they were doing that, they sent 3000 men to bind Samson and turn him over to the Philistines. Uh oh:
As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. 15 Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it. Jdg. 15:14, 15. NLT
Samson went to Gaza for a Philistine prostitute. (God can use anybody for His purposes).
The Philistines find out, and they lay in wait for him. But he gets up at midnight and uproots the city gate and carries it away.
After this he fell in love with a [Philistine] woman…whose name was Delilah. So the [five] lords (governors) of the Philistines came to her and said to her, “Persuade him, and see where his great strength lies and [find out] how we may overpower him so that we may bind him to subdue him. And each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.” Jdg. 16:4, 5. AMP
Delilah did just that. Samson first told her that binding him with 7 ‘fresh cords’ (undried tendons), new ropes, or with 7 locks of his hair weaved on a loom, would weaken him. Each time he told her of these examples, the Philistines would try to take him, but to no avail.
Finally, Delilah worms the truth out of him, i.e., if his head is shaven, he will assuredly weaken. She has it done while he slept. (Samson’s hair didn’t really give him power; God did that – but He took it away because Samson violated his Nazarite vow.)
…Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Jdg. 16:20 AMP
Consequently, the Philistines took Samson captive, gouged out his eyes, bound him in chains and brought him to Gaza. He was imprisoned to labor as a grain grinder. (However, no one paid attention to the fact that his hair was beginning to grow back.)
The Philistines gathered to sacrifice to their pagan god Dagon. They had Samson brought out of prison to entertain them, making him stand between the pillars of Dagon’s temple.
Then Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the [roof of the] house rests, so that I may lean against them.” Jdg. 16:26 AMP
The temple was filled with 3000 people. Samson cries out to Jehovah as speaks his last petition:
“O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this one time, O God, and let me take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Samson took hold of the two middle [support] pillars on which the house rested, and braced himself against them, one with his right hand and the other with his left. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Jdg. 16:28 – 30. AMP
Samson pushed against the pillars with all his God-given strength and the pillars fell to the side, and the roof collapsed – killing all the people, and Samson died with them…
Goodnight and God bless.
On a personal note: I am going to take a 3-week hiatus from blogging while I move from the decaying state of California to the sane state of Alabama. I will then return with more of what God wants us to know. It is a blessing to serve you in the Lord.
[1] Jos. 19:40 – 48.