Judges 16 – 18
In chapter 16, we see Samson once again running into trouble by his choice of women. First, he visits a prostitute, putting himself in danger since the men of Gaza waited at the town gates to kill him. But Samson only stayed in bed until midnight, at which time he got up and carried the town gates almost all the way to Hebron.
After that he falls in love with Delilah who betrays him by accepting 1100 pieces of silver for telling the Philistine rulers the secret to his strength. This allowed them to capture and blind him.
Did you think it strange that Samson didn’t realize what Delilah was up to? Considering how many times she tried destroying his strength by carrying out what he told her would work, one must wonder if he was dense or just so infatuated by her that he couldn’t wrap his brain around what was happening. On the other hand, he may not have realized the hair was the source of his strength because he seemed to think he’d be able to “shake himself free.” He didn’t realize the Lord had left him.
Although Samson was blinded, bound with bronze chains, and forced to grind grain in the prison, his captors apparently didn’t realize that with his hair, his strength would return. During a festival in honor of the Philistine god, Dagon, Samson is brought out to amuse the crowd. Samson turns the tables, or should I say the pillars that supported the roof, and prays that God will give him his strength one more time. The Philistine rulers and 3000 Philistine people lose their lives because of their arrogance.
The next person we encounter is Micah, a man who stole 1100 pieces of silver from his mother. She is a puzzle to me. First, she had cursed the person who stole the money, not knowing it was her son who did it. When he admitted the theft, she said, “The Lord bless you for admitting it.” How can someone who says “the Lord bless you” turn around and in the next breath dedicate the silver coins to the Lord and have an image carved and an idol cast? Micah, in turn, sets up a shrine for the idol, makes a sacred ephod, and some other household idols. His son became his personal priest.
Of course, Israel, in typical fashion, was doing what was right in their own eyes.
Micah, meanwhile, hires a Levite to be his priest – nothing is said about what happened to the son who was fulfilling that role – for ten pieces of silver a year, a change of clothes and his food. Micah treats him like one of his sons. He figured if he had a Levite as his personal priest, the Lord would bless him.
The Levite apparently didn’t feel any loyalty to Micah. He takes the idols and the sacred ephod and goes with 600 men from the tribe of Dan. Micah is helpless to prevent this. The men from Dan were not much more loyal than the Levite, since they appointed Jonathan, son of Gershom, son of Moses, as their priest.
Tomorrow, it’s the last three chapters of Judges: 19 – 21 and then we start one of my favorite books, the book of Ruth.
My Pretty Little Peppers
Today, I discovered some baby peppers. The picture of my Jalapeno pepper didn’t turn out very well; someone stuck their finger in front of the camera, but if you look really carefully, you can see my baby bell pepper.It is just to the left of the blossom about 2/3 of the way down the center of the picture.
It won’t be long now and I’ll be eating these precious beauties.
Also, today, I finally hooked up the small printer I bought several months ago. It’s an HP Officejet Mobile Printer and does a great job. Here’s an incredibly bad picture of it:
Until next time…
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