"But God"

 Judges 15:9-20

 

Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.   And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”   Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”   And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”  They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So, they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.   And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it, he struck 1,000 men.  And Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men.”

 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.

And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”  And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this day.   And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

If you are not a believer in miracles, when you read this account and others, it sounds like something Hollywood is turning out with all the new heroes doing the impossible.  And I would agree with you but for one thing, “BUT GOD '' yes it was not Samson, but God who gave Samson the power to overcome 1000 armed men with the jawbone of a donkey.

 

And Samson was very aware of where his power came from, for after the battle he did not ask a man to go get him water, but to the one who had given him the Victory.  Could it be you and I run to man after God has given us the victory and not to God?

 

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice