Part 2: The downward spiral of Israel’s apostasy (Judges 3:7-16:31), continued
Samson (Judges 13:1-16:31), continued
Samson and the Philistines, part 1 (Judges 14:1-15:20)
- Samson disregarded his parents’ advice, although they stopped short of condemning his choice.
- Judges 14:5-6 – Lions were unclean under the Law of Moses, which might have had something to do with why he did not tell his parents. See Leviticus 11.
- Judges 14:7 – Samson was apparently short-circuiting the social conventions of the time by talking to the woman directly.
- Judges 14:14, 18 – The quotes here are all six words long in two lines in the original Hebrew.
- Judges 15:11-13 – The men of Israel showed no inclination of trying to align with God and Samson or overthrowing the Philistines. Instead, they were just trying to avoid violence from the Philistines.
- Judges 15:19 – En-hakkore means “the stream of him who calls.”
Class 10 takeaway
- Samson’s parents refused to condemn his relationship with the Philistine woman. They may have justified it by saying, “He’s going to do whatever he wants anyway, so what’s the point?”
- We do others a great disservice by not sharing God’s will with them when they are heading down a dangerous path spiritually. Let’s not be like Samson’s parents in enabling sin, but helping others avoid and overcome it (which was Jesus’ mission).