As They Did unto Me, So Have I Done unto Them

Samson returns for his wife and learns that she has been given to another man. He burns the Philistines' crops with three hundred foxes. The Philistines then burn the woman and her father alive. Samson kills many of them and hides in a cave. Three thousand men from his own tribe come to hand him over because they have accepted Philistine rule. Samson kills a thousand men with a donkey's jawbone and boasts about it. Then he nearly dies of thirst, cries out to God, and God opens a spring for him.

• 'As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.' Getting even has become Samson's main purpose.
• Judah's line is the saddest in the chapter: 'Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us?' They have accepted the occupation.
• Three thousand men of Judah will organize to arrest a fellow Israelite but not to fight Philistia.
• Samson's victory poem (v. 16) is a pun about donkeys. He is a man who celebrates himself.
• 'Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant' (v. 18) — his one moment of accurate theology, produced by thirst.
• God answers the prayer of a man who has been wrong all chapter. That is grace, and it is not approval.

1. 01Is any part of your ministry actually a revenge project — against a church, a family, a past, a version of yourself?
2. 02Judah preferred a manageable oppression to a costly fight. Where have you made peace with something you should still be fighting?
3. 03Three thousand men joined together against one of their own. Where does the church spend more energy fighting believers than fighting sin?
4. 04Samson prayed only when he was desperate. What is the actual trigger for your prayer life, and what does that reveal?
5. 05God answered him anyway. How does that mercy make you feel, and what does your reaction expose about your view of grace?
6. 06Samson served twenty years and delivered nobody but himself. What is the clear fruit of your last twelve months in ministry?
7. 07Where have you called your bitterness justice?

• Romans 12:19-21

  Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. The exact principle Samson lives in violation of.

• Hebrews 12:15

  A root of bitterness springing up and defiling many. Samson defiled a generation.

• Matthew 5:38-45

  'An eye for an eye' overturned by Jesus. Samson's ethic is exactly what the Sermon on the Mount dismantles.

• Psalm 107:4-9

  He satisfieth the longing soul — the thirst-and-water pattern of Judges 15:18-19 as a psalm.

• Luke 6:35

  God is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Judges 15 is an Old Testament case study.

Bitterness can look reasonable because there is always a story behind it. Name the person or group you still want to hurt back. Ask the men to pray with you as you release it.

Angry men may lead well for a short time, but their anger will eventually hurt people. If your passion comes from an old wound, seek healing before you receive more responsibility.

Name who you are getting even with. Release it out loud. Thank God for mercy you did not deserve this year.