“The ides of March are upon us”. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar includes this famous line, depicting assassinating the emperor on that day in 44 BC.
Today we read Judges chapters 12-16. This is the tragic tale of Samson, the leader of Israel, which also ends in his death.
What’s in a name?
Before we get to that, let’s look at verse 12:6. My first thought, why would you kill forty-two thousand people because of how they pronounced a name? Was it something about the name they said?
Nope! It was simply a dialect issue. The people in Ephraim could not pronounce the “sh” sound. Think of some parts of our population that say certain words incorrectly. From my heritage, we have injected the word wash with an “r” sound. We mispronounce it “warsh”, as in “we warsh our clothes”.
I live in Tucson and we have a lot of Spanish words in the names of streets and of businesses. If you’re talking to a winter visitor, they will often confuse you by asking for a location. The way they pronounce the name is so different you don’t even recognize it.
This can make them feel stupid for the mispronunciation, but it would never be a valid reason for a massacre.
Tolerance
People will call me intolerant. I will tell them “Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him”, which is John 14:6, and they will say that I’m racist for not being open to other religions.
Not that I am not open, but the Word of God says, all other paths lead to destruction. I don’t want anyone to face that result without knowing the truth.
Many will not agree with it. Just as in the linguistic problem in our verse today, there will be a slaughter.
God loves babies
Later, in verse 13:5, we see babies come from God. Even before their conception, He knows them. Samson had a purpose and a destiny before his parents knew him.
This is true of all humans. God has reasons for each of us. We may not be historic and grand, like Samson. He would not have made us if there was no need for us.
As with Moses and the burning bush, and Gilead, we see how Manoah had a hard time accepting the words the angel spoke. (see Ex 3:1-22, Gen 18:12) Manoah was much like Thomas needing a first hand encounter (see John 20:25).
Prayer is a positive and beneficial practice for us. Why are we always so surprised when God responds? Do we not understand that our Father loves us? Manoah thinks they will die because they have seen the angle of the Lord. (Jud 13:22)
Respect
Fear the Lord, have complete respect and reverence for Him and His power.
I was chatting on social media with a person from New York who was lamenting the wildfires in California. This was a tragedy.
I claimed government mismanagement played a large part in the scope of the devastation.
She was more worried about global warming and not caring for the planet.
I told her we have more respect for the creation than we do for the Creator and things like this will continue until we repent and correct this sinful condition.
The sweetness of sin
One of my favorite animals is the Lion. They are so majestic and powerful. It would horrify to see Samson tear one apart as in verse 14:6. But the Lord created the Lion, and it was the Spirit of the Lord that provided the means to destroy it. God had His reasons.
Samson, especially as a Nazarene, should not touch a dead body. He reaches in and eats the honey and even shares it with his parents. We can see he has lost his respect for the Laws of God.
He creates riddles about this atrocity instead of being saddened by his sinfulness. Today, many people want to celebrate their sins.
Wrong choices
His weakness for wrong women backfires on him.
As sin does, this escalates to him striking down thirty men and robbing them of their clothing. Sin always takes us farther than we intended to go.
He then goes further and ties the foxes tails together and burns down their crops. Adultery follows.
Adultery raged until Samson slew thousands of men with a donkey’s jawbone. Sin is insatiable.
Lust results in another poor choice of a woman.
How many times does a wife need to trick you into being captured? Wouldn’t you stop letting her tie you up?
Pride goes before the fall
His pride causes Samson to make a game of this all. He has more respect for his hair than the God who gave him strength.
Even after all this happens, God hears his prayer and restores his strength. No matter how far we have allowed sin to take us, we can still repent.
You may think you are beyond saving, but Samson shows us no one is.
If you have never trusted God to forgive your sins, I urge you now to seek Jesus as your Savior. He is ready to restore you, too.
Tomorrow we will read Judges 16-18
