GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 16:31
31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family came down and carried him back. They buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
After his death, Samson’s family came and took care of his burial, just as the women did for Jesus after the crucifixion. Since he was buried in the tomb of his father, we can be fairly certain that Manoah had already died (although this isn’t completely certain; Matthew 27:59-60). The custom in Israel already at this time was for many family members to be buried in the same tomb, as Abraham and his family were buried in the cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23:19; 25:9; 35:29; 50:13). This is especially significant when we read about Jesus’ burial in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. It was a new tomb which had never been used (John 19:41). Therefore we can be confident and certain beyond the shadow of a doubt that the man who rose from the dead from that tomb was Jesus, and could not possibly have been anyone else.
We can identify the brothers that are mentioned here as the sons of Manoah and his wife, Samson’s parents. Although the word “brothers” can sometimes mean more distant relatives such as cousins (Genesis 13:8; 25:17), it can’t be in this case. This is because it’s used in the same context as “his father Manoah.” The wider sense of “brother” as “cousin/uncle” can’t apply here; “brother” can’t mean anything but sibling when it’s used in proximity with naming a father or mother. This is why we are also confident that the sons of Mary (James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3) were the brothers of Jesus Christ in the sense that they were blood brothers through Mary, and that they were also the sons of Joseph.
This is a gentle conclusion to Samson’s tale. Samson’s mother and father had no children when he was born, but after his mother’s womb was opened, she had other children, including these sons, Samson’s brothers. They were a comfort to her when her firstborn was claimed as a Nazirite by God, just as Hannah also had other children (three sons and two daughters) when her firstborn Samuel was claimed by God as a Nazirite and a prophet (1 Samuel 2:21).
This passage also puts to shame the old fiction, still taught by some inside and outside Christianity, that Samson was himself some kind of giant like the Incredible Hulk. This is not based on any Scriptural passage. There is no mention of special difficulty in transporting him or any comment about his size such as we find when Og, King of Bashan was killed and we’re told that his iron bed was thirteen feet long and six feet wide (Deuteronomy 3:11). However, this teaching betrays a mistrust of the Bible with regard to miracles. If the Samson stories are to be taken seriously, and someone doesn’t believe that miracles exist or that the Holy Spirit could come upon or descend upon anyone, then Samson must have been ridiculously huge. This is all a reaction against accepting the miracles of Jesus Christ as truth—and it’s done at the expense of reducing Samson to the status of a silly myth. The is only to the shame of modern Israel and all of its teachers. They come under the Lord’s own judgement: “No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the LORD” (Psalm 101:7-8). If we wonder how Samson did the amazing things he did, we only have to look as far as other people in the Bible who were permitted to do miraculous things. Moses parted the Red Sea, but we know that it was God working through him. So we hear that Samson killed a thousand men with a bone, and we say, “I believe that. I love God’s word, and nothing can make me stumble away from it” (Psalm 119:165). We read about Samson shoving and heaving against the pillars of pagan temple and we know that no other man of any strength could have done that, and we humbly ask God to give us a childlike faith: “Give me understanding according to your word” (Ps. 119:169). And we read Samson’s last prayer, and we pray, “Give me a faith like this man who trusted in God even in his dying moment.” As Solomon said, “Even in death the righteous have a refuge” (Prov. 14:32).
Samson’s faith was based on the gospel promise God have to him and his parents, and on the word of God upon which they raised him and instructed him just as Christian parents instruct their children today. But Samson should never cause anyone to despair about his or her faith, as if Samson, crass and impulsive Samson who was always rushing into things like Peter, had a stronger faith than my wretched belief. Luther said, “This battle is exceedingly annoying to the flesh, which would prefer a faith that is not tried or assailed but kills lions and bears, as David, Samson, or others did. But my faith is so small and weak that it could very easily be devoured by a lion or a bear. Yet the bruised reed and the dimly burning wick (Isaiah 42:3) are present. So is God, who understands the sighings, who knows what the Holy Spirit demands for us. Therefore before God there is a great fire [of faith burning in me]. Indeed, it is hotter and greater than heaven and earth” (LW 5:326). Whatever your faith is like today—strong and powerful or smoldering and spluttering—it is faith in Christ, and faith in Christ means eternal life in heaven. Trust in Jesus, stronger than strength itself, and know that he will never let you go.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota