The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Judges 15:11-12,
"Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock
of Etam and said to Samson, 'Don't you realize that the Philistines
are rulers over us? What have you done to us?' He answered, 'I merely
did to them what they did to me.' They said to him, 'We've come to tie
you up and hand you over to the Philistines.'"
After having "viciously" attacked and slaughtering "many" Philistines,
the Philistines came to Judah to fight and take Samson prisoner. When
the men of Judah asked the Philistines why they came to fight, and
having been told, three thousand of the men of Judah went to the cave
Samson was staying in to take him prisoner and hand him over to the
Philistines. Having done so, it appeared they avoided their own
destruction by giving him up.
However, the story does not end there. It turns our their appeasement
of the Philistines was an unwise choice. It was a choice at odds with
God's determination to free Israel from Philistine domination. It was
God that enabled Samson's strength, power, tenacity and determination.
I wonder what they thought as they saw the ropes that bound Samson
drop to the ground? I wonder what kind of terror entered their hearts
as they witnessed Samson's slaughter of a thousand of these "appeased"
Philistines? Samson had to agree to allow the men of Judah to bind him
and hand him over to the Philistines, else Samson might have
slaughtered them! What did they think as they witness this slaughter?
What did these men of Judah go home and tell their fellow countrymen,
their families? How could they have acted so unwisely? How could they
have bet their fortune, their future on the wrong horse? Standing in
the path and finding yourself an obstacle to the agenda of God must be
a terrible position to find yourself in. It is almost certain these
men had no idea what it was God was doing. In their ignorance and
foolishness they made decisions and took action contrary to the
context of God's unstoppable, indomitable, insurmountable and
invincible agenda.
Might it have been important to these men of Judah to know God, to
know what his intentions were, to know what he was in the midst of
doing? What a relevant question for our day! How many today live their
lives, make choices, take positions, take actions without any
reference to God, his agenda and his doings today!
Today I think of what choices I have to make, what actions I need to
take, things I may say that best be done in the light of knowing who
God is, what he is doing in life around me, what his agenda is... how
about you?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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