Judges 15 // Juvenile Delinquent

Based on Judges 15

Samson and the Philistines are a good match… if you like bloodshed and mutual annihilation that is. After a while Samson got over his anger and came back to get his wife… specifically to sleep with her. Her father wouldn't let this happen because for some unclear reason he had given her to his best man. Then her father offers his younger daughter instead, which seems a fairly unrealistic proposition, Samson would need something really wrong with him to go along with that.
So Samson is unhappy, but he seems to be overreacting somewhat when he makes the first version of Firefox. He does this by the incredible feat of actually catching 300 foxes and using them to spread fires all over the Philistine wheat fields. This would have been an economic disaster for the Philistines, and seems a bit much considering that Samson was the one who left in a huff at the end of his wedding without his wife.

The Philistines are a match for Samson though, and act just as irrationally, burning Samson's wife and her father to death. Samson is understandably upset by this, and goes on a killing spree, we don't know how many people he killed. I don't know what the reference to "hip and thigh" is, I'd be interested to find out though. Anyway, Samson decides "its the hermit's life for me" and goes and lives on a rock where the Philistines come looking for him.

Samson must be pretty torn up at this point. He's lost the woman he loves and he knows it's his own fault. So he doesn't care too much what happens to him. But he still hates the Philistines.
The Philistines raise an army to come looking for Samson, and send the men of Judah to fetch him. Samson doesn't want to cause trouble for his own people and goes along with them and then kills as many of the Philistine army who will stand and fight.

He famously does this with a donkey's jawbone. He less famously sings a song about it. It wasn't a very good one, but the Philistines thought it was a hit. People who know nothing about art and culture have been called Philistines ever since. (Tongue in cheek)

The finale is that God gave Samson a water fountain out of the same jaw bone because he complains he's thirsty. Reminds me of the exodus.

And the epilogue is that Samson judges Israel for 20 years.

What can we get out of this story? If God is willing to work with and care for a juvenile delinquent like Samson, he can do the same with you and me.