Judges Chapter 15 Part Two (Verses 4-8)

2. (Judges 15:4-5) Samson strikes out against the Philistines by burning their crops 

Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain along with the vineyards and groves.

Samson went and caught three hundred foxes: Samson decides to take rather inventive revenge on the Philistines. He captures 300 shu'al, binds their tails together in pairs and ties a lit torch to them. The animals race off in panic. In the process, the flaming torches which they are dragging behind them set the dry ripened wheat fields on fire.

A shu'al is not actually a fox. Rather, they are more akin to jackals. Foxes are solitary animals. It would be nearly impossible for one man to trap 300 of them. Jackals, on the other hand, travel in packs. So there is a possibility of capturing several of them at once. God prescribes man to be humane to all creatures. What Samson did was downright cruel. It is not hard to imagine many of the jackals being severely burned. Others were killed, and every last one of them were traumatized to the extreme. Samson used them as a tool of personal vengeance, caring little for their fate and suffering they endured. This is becoming a familiar trait of Samson.

Burning up both the shocks and the standing grain along with the vineyards and groves: Just like any ancient society, these fields of grain were the livelihood of the common folk. While these people were indeed Philistines, who God ultimately wanted removed from the Promised Land, they were not monsters. In addition, it was common to plant wheat among olive trees. So many of the olive groves were also burned down.

Unlike some of Samson's earlier adventures, we do not find any reference of Samson being given divine strength and influence to set these fields on fire. We also do not find any reference to the Holy Spirit coming upon Samson in this case. It would be reasonable to assume that this was nothing more than Samson obeying his own evil inclinations. Were the results something God would use for His purposes? Absolutely. The LORD'S primary purpose for Samson was to undo the ungodly peace and syncretism between His people and His enemies. Did the LORD approve of wanton cruelty and indiscriminate destruction? Not a chance.

3. (Judges 15:6-7) The Philistines retaliate by killing Samson' wife and family

Then the Philistines said, "Who did this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion." So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. Samson said to them, "Since you act like this, I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will quit."

Then the Philistines said, "Who did this?": In verse six, the Philistine farmers begin to ask one another if they knew who might have caused all this destruction. Some must have witnessed it because, without hesitation, Samson was pointed out as the culprit. 

So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire: The farmers were also informed that this happened because Samson's almost father-in-law had denied Samson's bride to him and had given her to another. It was this which drove Samson to burn down their crops. The Philistine farmers went as a mob to the man's house and burned it down with him and his daughter inside.

Since you act like this, I will surely take revenge: When Samson finds out about this atrocity, he decides he would reciprocate by killing some more Philistines. (And the cycle continues.)

The Philistine farmers had no interest in taking on Samson, whom their army could not deal with. They blamed their misery on someone who they determined upset Samson. (The person the Philistines cast the blame on was also more convenient to extract revenge upon.)

This exact same mentality is still at play in the Middle East. We have a worldwide consensus that the homicide bombings of public buses, the constant rocket attacks into purely civilian neighborhoods coming from Gaza and the desire of a dozen Muslim nations to annihilate Israel is because Israel has done something to offend them. It is Israel's fault that their neighbors are constantly attacking them. The only reason (other than underlying anti-Semitism) that this irrational attitude persists throughout the world is from the vast fear the world has of Islam. The world prefers to shift the blame to the victim because to deal with the perpetrator is fraught with difficulty and great danger.

4. (Judges 15:8) Samson repays the Philistines for the murder of his wife

He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter: Samson went on another random killing spree. He killed any Philistine who came across his path. Then, Samson left Philistia and went to a cave called the rock of Etam. Samson did just as he stated he would do in verse seven. He killed a certain number of Philistines until he had exacted revenge. Then he stopped and retired to the rock of Etam. 

History is circular. What we see happening between Samson and the Philistines is once again happening between Israel and the modern day Philistines--the Palestinians. One thing to keep in mind, the LORD does not want peace in the Middle East, at least not yet. The kind of peace men want and are striving for is man-made. It involves compromising God's principles. It means Israel has to essentially give up on the covenants God made with them. Id the Palestinians were not harassing Israel, someone else would be. Before there were the Palestinians, Jordan was Israel's archenemy. Before them, it was Egypt, Iran and Iraq. If the leaders of Israel were not so willing to give up much of the Holy Land, God would not be allowing the never-ending murders. Israel is constantly being stirred up so that the roadmap to peace cannot possibly happen.

The same seemingly unsolvable dilemma is the Middle East today was very much the same way in Samson's day. It is the instability and constant violence from the enemy, and Israel's disobedient response to it all (instead of repenting of their ways and returning to the LORD) that is the hallmark of the days of the Judges. It is the same way again in our time and for the same reasons.