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Judges · Men's Leadership Study

Week 15: As They Did unto Me, So Have I Done unto Them

Judges 15

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Read Together

Judges 15

Read the whole chapter aloud before discussing the handout.

Hidden in the Text

Weekly Devotional

Three thousand men of Judah came to Samson's cave. They did not come to join his fight. They came to tie him up and hand him to the Philistines. They had lived under Philistine rule so long that bondage felt normal. People may fight against freedom when bondage feels safer and more predictable. After Samson's victory, he named the place after what he had done. Only when thirst humbled him did he cry out to God and name the spring after that prayer. For a moment, Samson stopped looking at his own strength and looked to God.

Discuss Honestly

Hard Questions

  1. 01

    Is any part of your ministry actually a revenge project — against a church, a family, a past, a version of yourself?

  2. 02

    Judah preferred a manageable oppression to a costly fight. Where have you made peace with something you should still be fighting?

  3. 03

    Three thousand men joined together against one of their own. Where does the church spend more energy fighting believers than fighting sin?

  4. 04

    Samson prayed only when he was desperate. What is the actual trigger for your prayer life, and what does that reveal?

  5. 05

    God answered him anyway. How does that mercy make you feel, and what does your reaction expose about your view of grace?

  6. 06

    Samson served twenty years and delivered nobody but himself. What is the clear fruit of your last twelve months in ministry?

  7. 07

    Where have you called your bitterness justice?

Look Them Up

Cross-References

  • 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.