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him a further opportunity to take action against the Philistines. Following his revenge
taken by releasing in pairs with burning firebrands tied to their tails, three hundred foxes,
events led up to the situation in which "he smote them hip and thigh with a great
slaughter" (15: 8). The combined result of these events was that the Philistines came
against Samson, and persuaded no less than 3,000 men of Judah to take him (15: 9-16).
The outcome of this was a further 1,000 Philistines slain by him.
This latter incident reveals just how submissive to the Philistines the children of Israel
were at this time. Three thousand of them meekly went to capture their own champion at
the bidding of their enemies! There is another hint of the extent of the subservience of
the nation to the Philistines in the incident where Samson kills the lion with the jawbone
of the ass. I Sam. 13: 19-21 informs us:
"Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines
said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears . . . . . so it came to pass in the day of
battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people . . .".
With a nation meekly submitting to their enemies, and with the complete absence of
weapons among them, it is no wonder Samson could only begin to deliver Israel!
The downfall of this man God called is recorded in chapter 16: 1-21. Samson saw
an harlot. The Companion Bible note at this point reads:
"He could rend a lion, but not his lusts. He could break his bonds, but not his habits.
He could conquer the Philistines, but not his passions."
Not long after, it seems, came his affair with Delilah. The Philistines were able to
capitalize on this weakness of Samson's, and to discover the secret of his strength by
means of the seductions of Delilah. Samson was captured.
"The Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and
bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house" (16: 21).
From God's appointed leader of His people, reduced to the work of women and slaves
in the prison of his enemies.
Then, his hair, the symbol of his separation to God, began to grow in prison. The day
came when his enemies gathered in the temple of Dagon to rejoice over the downfall of
Samson, and he was brought in `to make sport'. Calling upon his God to grant him once
more his strength, he pulled down the pillars on which the whole structure of the temple
depended: "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in
his life" (16: 30).
Did he repent? or did he simply recognize another God-given occasion against the
Philistines, by which he could also revenge for his eyes? We cannot be certain. We can
be certain of his faith in Jehovah, even at the darkest moment of his life. If only he had,
in all things, put God first!