GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 13:1
In this chapter, we are introduced to Samson, the final judge of the book, in the book’s longest account. We meet Samson’s parents. We are made aware that he is a child fulfilling a prophecy, and that the Lord planned to do great things through him. Samson’s personal flaws later on do not detract from these things or thwart the will of God, but his flaws give a background for the flawless Messiah promised long before.
Birth of Samson
13 The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.
Perhaps this is a good time for us to address the origin and appearance of the Philistines in Palestine. In the Bible, Philistines are mentioned over a long period of time, from Genesis 10 through the stories about David—more than a thousand years. Dr. Brug of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary proposes three strata or phases of the growth or change in the Philistine population, recognizing that the Old Testament uses the word “Philistine” more about the region of southwest Palestine than about a specific people. I will call these three groups and their phases of dominance (1) the giants, (2) the Caphtorites, and (3) the Sea Peoples. These are not exact titles, but they will serve to help us understand what was going on.
1. The Giants. The first phase of the Philistine people was the giant race called Casluhites (Hebrew Casluhim) mentioned in Genesis 10:14. These giants were present throughout the history of the Philistines, but in fewer and fewer numbers. Some of them were still around in the time of David, fighting as champions for the later Philistine groups and living peacefully with them. Goliath was one of these, as was his brother Lahmi (1 Chron. 20:5) and the “huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot…descended from Rapha” (1 Chron. 20:6).
2. The Caphtorites. Later, we still see the giant Philistines, but they are only one element of a large population in which the majority of the people were of a more typical height. They came from “Caphtor,” which can mean Crete but which in the Old Testament probably has a broader meaning of all the Mediterranean islands and coastal settlements like those in Greece and western Turkey. Moses said that these Caphtorites made war against the giant Avvites: “As for the Avvites who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorites coming out from Caphtor destroyed them and settled in their place” (Deuteronomy 2:23). Even if the Avvite giants of Gaza were destroyed, some giants survived—or perhaps the Caphtorites made a distinction between the Avvite giants and the Casluhite giants. These Caphtorites were the Philistines with whom Isaac and Rebekah lived when Abimelech was their king in Gerar (Genesis 26:1-6). We should note that the incoming races like the Caphtorites seem to have adopted the existing (Semitic) Philistine language, since the Israelites never have trouble communicating with the Philistines at any point of their history together.
3. The Sea Peoples. The third phase of Philistine settlement involved a war that happened in Egypt during the days of the Judges. A Pharaoh who reigned at about the same time that Deborah and Gideon judged Israel was Ramses III. In the eighth year of his reign (around 1199 B.C.) Egypt was invaded from overland by the Sea Peoples, comprised of groups he calls the Peleset, the Denyen, the Shardan, the Meshwesh, and the Tjekker. Ramses drove the invaders off at a fearsome cost, and took credit for “settling them” in Canaan, although they probably just went home. Some of the Sea Peoples settled in Philistia. They may have come first as hired mercenaries, but they stayed and brought in their families and settled with the others, becoming part of the Philistine race.
As we are about to see, all three women with whom Samson fell in love or had affairs were women of typical height and not giants, yet they were all Philistines, living peacefully with the giant race. They were either descended from the Capthorites or the Sea Peoples.
The Lord used the Philistines to bring trouble to Israel for forty years. This trouble was meant to lead Israel back to the Lord in repentance. The story takes us back in time to a much earlier period in the book of Judges, before Abdon and the other late minor judges, before Jephthah, before Tola and Jair, all the way back to the time of Gideon. This means we have moved our point of view from northern and eastern Israel, down to southwestern Israel. The tribes of Judah, Simeon and western Ephraim were most affected by this trouble, but God was going to raise up one man from the tribe that was first chosen to drive out the Philistines. The whole tribe had failed, and had been forced to move away far to the north, beyond Galilee, to the western slope of Mount Hermon. The tribe was Dan, and the judge, of course, was Samson. Through Samson, we will see God rescuing his people through an incredibly strong man chosen from birth to be set apart and special. He wrestled with that special status, sometimes falling into sin, but always turning back to the Lord.
He was a strong man with a strong faith but with many personal weaknesses. May we seek to reflect the part of Samson that is most important.
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