Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Self-Consumed? | Historical Books | Judges 15

Episode Date: March 13, 2025

Who did Samson worship? Are you self-consumed? Do you submit yourself to God's law? In today's episode, Patrick shares how Judges 15 reminds us of our deep need for our sacrificial King. We love to hear from you all! If you're listening on Spotify, drop a comment below and tell us your biggest takeaway from today's episode. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Judges 15

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Patrick Miller. Today we're continuing the story of Israel's most famous judge, Samson. But as we'll see, he was famous for his strength, not his character. The truth is that as Israel descended deeper and deeper into idolatry, her judges became more and more morally ambiguous. When we meet him, he's taken a lifelong Nazarite. vow. This was basically a way for a normal person to commit himself to living like a priest. Normally, these vows were taken for a short period of time, like seven or even 30 days.

But Samson took a Nazarite vow for his entire life. And as a result, he was not supposed to drink wine or strong alcoholic beverages in the exact same way a priest wouldn't do that. He wasn't supposed to cut his hair, just like a priest. He wasn't to become ritually impure by touching corpses, bones, graves, or dead animals, just like a priest. And as Samson's story goes on, he disregards his vow time and time again. He not only fails to live like a priest, he fails to uphold some of the most basic laws. For example, in Judges 14, the chapter we went over yesterday, Samson forces his parents to wed him to a Philistine woman. Now, in the book of Deuteronomy, Israelites were banned from marrying people who worshipped foreign gods, like the Philistines. But it's clear that Samson sees

himself as not just being above his Nazarite vows. He thinks he's above Israel's own law. In fact, Samson puts himself above everything and everyone in the next chapter, Judges 15, today's passage. I rarely read a whole chapter on here, but today's story is so outrageous, it's worth reading and whole. But here's what I want you to see. Samson is not a judge who defends Israel. He's a judge who defends his own honor. Samson is not a judge who worships God. He's a judge who worships his own thirsts and desires. Samson is selfish.

The only person he takes care of is himself, and all of his self-care leads to tremendous violence and the near destruction of the tribe of Judah. We pick up the story after Samson finds out that the woman he wanted to marry was given to someone else. Now, this was done because the last time Samson saw her, He refused to marry her, and he murdered literally everyone in her town. Why?

Because she told the townspeople and answered to a riddle that Samson came up with. It was petty. It was awful. It was violent. And so it's totally understandable why she wouldn't want to marry him. Let's pick up in chapter 15, verse one. Later on, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife, or the woman that he thought he married.

He said, I'm going to my wife's room. but her father would not let him go in. I was so sure that you hated her, he said, that I gave her to your companion. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead. Samson said to them, This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines.

I will really harm them. So he went out and caught 300 foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He fastened a torch to every pair of tails. He lit the torches and let the foxes loose and the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and the olive groves. So let's pause here and notice for a moment that Samson is not fighting for Israel.

He's fighting for personal vengeance. He's fighting for his own honor. Now, in God's providence, he uses Samson's vengeance to rout Israel's enemies. But the author wants you to notice that Samson isn't doing this for God or for Israel. He's doing this for himself. And the whole story of taking these foxes and tying them together and emulating them and destroying all the food of the people so that they die by hunger, it's meant to make us feel shocked and grossed out and terrified. Let's pick up in verse 6. When the Philistines asked, who did this?

They were told, Samson, the Tim Knight's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion. So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, since you've acted like, like this, I swear that I won't stop until I get my revenge on you. He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Atam. Again, let's pause. The author doesn't want us to feel sorry for the Philistines. He doesn't want us to feel sorry for Samson either. In fact, they're no better than each other. That's the whole irony of this story. Israel's judge really is no better than a pagan nation. Israel's judge has become like the

Philistines, and that's a point that we'll see again. Verse 9. The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The people of Judah asked, why have you come to fight us? We have come to take Samson prisoner, they answered, to do to him as he did to us. Then 3,000 men from Judah went down to the cave at the rock of Itam and said to Samson, do you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us? He answered, I'm merely dead to them what they did to me. Again, I want to pause. Do you hear how petty and childish Samson's selfishness sounds? He doesn't care that he's jeopardized the safety and security of other people. He doesn't go to defend them after he's done it and said he hides away. He was happy to let the Philistines

destroy the people of Judah. Verse 12. They said to him, we've come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines. Samson said, swear to me that you won't kill me yourselves. 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 Lahi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. 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. Again, let's pause. Samson is breaking his vow. his Nazarite vow. How? Well, he's touching yet another corpse, just like he did in the previous chapter. He's grabbing this donkey jawbone. Yes, we see that God is using him here, but clearly, Samson cares nothing for God. He's dishonoring God, and he's dishonoring his vow. He's dishonoring Israel's laws. Verse 16. Then Samson said, with the donkey's jawbone, I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey's jawbone, I have killed a thousand men. When he finished speaking, he threw away

the jawbone and the place was called Remoth Lahie. 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 Lahi and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. You see, God shows up for Samson, even if Samson doesn't care about God. And what the story is supposed to show us is that Samson cares mostly about his own thirsts. He's literally only crying out to God when he's thirsty, when he's hungry. Samson only cares about his own desires and his own honor. The great irony of this story is that he's become like the very nation, the Philistines, that God is using him to resist the Philistines.

He's a Nazarite who breaks his vows. He's an Israelite who breaks Israel's laws. He's no better than a Philistine. And that's precisely why we all need the story of Samson. Because let's be honest. have super strength like he had, we may not be able to take down a thousand men. But isn't it true that we're still a lot like Samson? Isn't it true that we can be equally self-consumed like Samson was, equally worried about our honor, our image, our reputation, equally committed to pursuing our thirst, our desires, our hungers, equally careless about the consequences of our actions for other people? The story of Samson is a mirror for my heart. It's a mirror for your heart. for every human heart, and it's meant to point us toward our need for a truer, better judge than

Samson, for a truer better king, King Jesus. You see, rather than defending his honor, Jesus laid down his honor at the cross. He wasn't like Samson. He bore the shame that you deserve so that you could enjoy the renown that he deserved. Rather than pursuing his own thirst and desires like Samson did, Jesus submitted himself to his heavenly father. He took the punishment for selfishness and sin that you deserved so that you could have what he most desired, heavenly joy with his heavenly father. You see, Jesus is not a king who hides in caves. He doesn't even let people deal with the consequences of their own actions. He's a king who defends his people. He defends them from their own sin. He takes the consequences of their actions so that they can remain hidden.

and safe. On the cross, he took the slings and arrows of sin, the devil and death in our place, and he rose again to give us new life. So don't let the story of Samson make you proud. You're not better than Samson. I'm not better than Samson. Let it make you humble. Let it point you toward your deeper need for the crucified, self-giving, sin-forgiving king. Jesus.