GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 16:25-30
25 When they were in high spirits, they said, “Bring Samson out to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he made them laugh. They had him stand between the pillars.
The two words translated “entertain” and “made them laugh” are similar. In fact, they only differ by which “s” begins the words, sachaq and tsachaq. Both are in the piel stem (here causative: “let him make us laugh”), and both are translated by the same word in Greek (παίζω) and the same word in Latin (ludo). Yet is there a subtle difference in Hebrew?
The first verb—the command from the Philistines—means to amuse or entertain. It’s also the word for “frolic,” which the whales and dolphins do in the sea (Psalm 104:26). The second verb—the one Samson actually did—means to joke or to make people laugh, and it’s the root of Isaac’s name. It’s a curious choice on the part of the inspired writer; as if they called Samson out to do one thing, and he sort of did it, but not exactly what they expected. I think it’s a hint about what’s coming. He wasn’t going to do what they expected at all. And on top of that, they had him stand between the pillars!
26 Then Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I can lean against them.”
This boy may have been young or not so young, but after all the trouble Samson had given to the Philistines, it’s amazing that they thought he could be led, guarded, and watched over, by a child! As long as he was already down among the pillars, he asked to be taken to a good strong pair. The main ones—that’ll do. Take me to the biggest, strongest, most important pillars in the place. Maybe the Philistines even roared with more laughter to see him dwarfed by the massive pillars of their glorious temple.
27 Now the temple was full of men and women. All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and even on the roof there were about three thousand men and women watching Samson entertain them.
The Holy Spirit wants us to have a better picture of the scene, so he stops at this point and allows us to see the scene through Samson’s eyes. The kings of the five cities were there. You can feel Samson acknowledging each one in turn: Ashkelon, Gath, Ashdod, Ekron, and the one that got his beloved Delilah to betray him, the king of Gaza. They were in the temple with him with all of the priests of Dagon, all of the prostitutes and cheap whores of the coastlands, and many important businessmen. And up above! At least three thousand more, men and women both, roaring with drunken laughter at him. His hands felt the cold stone of the pillars; the solid, immovable presence of the things. They didn’t budge at all. They supported virtually the whole weight of the roof…
28 He prayed to the LORD: “O LORD God, please remember me. Strengthen me, O God, just once more. Let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes with one act of vengeance.” 29 Then Samson took hold of the two central pillars supporting the temple and braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. So he killed many more at his death than he had killed while he lived.
When is permitting one’s own death an act of suicide, and when isn’t it? The soldier who falls on a grenade to protect his comrades is saving them by spending his own life. The teacher who shields her students from an insane sniper is saving them with her body. The Savior who laid his life down to atone for our sins saved us all. And Samson? He was destroying the leadership and a good many more of Israel’s enemies with what was certainly to be the very last opportunity he would ever have. His was an act of bravery, impulsive though it was. Samson died the way that he lived, with his own idea of how to serve his Lord, but serving his Lord all the same. His prayer even shows that he did not hold a grudge for being shackled and imprisoned—he had probably known that would happen when he gave in to Delilah’s nagging. But his eyes! That was uncalled for. If Samson were an Englishman instead of a Danite, he might have said that taking his eyes just wasn’t Cricket. So this “one act” would pay for his “two eyes.” There is irony at least if not exactly humor in his words.
His hands found the pillars. With strength no human could ever has summoned, aided for one last time by the divine gift of the Holy Spirit, the power of God moved the immovable, and the temple fell. The roof caved in; people screamed. The stones crashed in a chain reaction that brought other pillars and sections of the building down like so many dominoes. The death toll, we are told, was many more in this one instance than any of the times Samson had taken on his opponents, from the thirty sharp-dressed men of Ashkelon to the thousand that he struck with a jawbone at Ramath Lehi.
He ended their laughter. The Philistine tide would continue to be a menace to Israel, but less and less dangerous, until there was just one more stone to fall. That last stone would strike only one Philistine, but the nation would never overpower Israel again. Forty or so years down the road, a shepherd-boy from Bethlehem would place that stone into his sling, and the Lord would cause it to fall precisely where it needed to go.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wnlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota