We left Samson at the end of Judges 14 after he stormed out of his father-in-law’s house and killed 30 men to get their clothes to pay off a bet. Samson is not a role model by any stretch, but God used his lust for the wrong women and his anger to punish the Philistines. The story continues.

Later on—it was during the wheat harvest—Samson visited his bride, bringing a young goat. He said, “Let me see my wife—show me her bedroom.” But her father wouldn’t let him in. He said, “I concluded that by now you hated her with a passion, so I gave her to your best man. But her little sister is even more beautiful. Why not take her instead?” Samson said, “That does it. This time when I wreak havoc on the Philistines, I’m blameless.” (Judges 15.1 – 3, MSG)

So he caught 300 foxes (jackals in The Message), tied their tails together with torches between each pair, and sent them through Philistine grain fields. After which the Philistines burned his wife and her father to death just as they had threatened in Judges 14. So Samson reacts again:

Samson then said, “If this is the way you’re going to act, I swear I’ll get even with you. And I’m not quitting till the job’s done!” With that he tore into them, ripping them limb from limb—a huge slaughter. Then he went down and stayed in a cave at Etam Rock. (Judges 15.7, 8, MSG)

So the Philistines come after Samson even as the Israelites ask Samson to back off:

The Philistines set out and made camp in Judah, preparing to attack Lehi (Jawbone). When the men of Judah asked, “Why have you come up against us?” they said, “We’re out to get Samson. We’re going after Samson to do to him what he did to us.” Three companies of men from Judah went down to the cave at Etam Rock and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines already bully and lord it over us? So what’s going on with you, making things even worse?” He said, “It was tit for tat. I only did to them what they did to me.” (Judges 15.9 – 11, MSG)

And once more, “the Spirit of God came upon him…”

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting in triumph. And then the Spirit of GOD came on him with great power. The ropes on his arms fell apart like flax on fire; the thongs slipped off his hands. He spotted a fresh donkey jawbone, reached down and grabbed it, and with it killed the whole company. And Samson said, With a donkey’s jawbone I made heaps of donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I killed an entire company. (Judges 15.14 – 16, MSG)

And the chapter ends with Samson’s first recorded prayer and a miracle:

Now he was suddenly very thirsty. He called out to GOD, “You have given your servant this great victory. Are you going to abandon me to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” So God split open the rock basin in Lehi; water gushed out and Samson drank. His spirit revived—he was alive again! That’s why it’s called En Hakkore (Caller’s Spring). It’s still there at Lehi today. (Judges 15.18 – 19, MSG)

As I wrote in No Magic Formula, all the stories and characters in Judges are different. Gideon won his battle with 300 men, but Samson is a one-man wrecking crew! It reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in True Lies or James Bond. Samson is not that good of a guy, but God uses him to wreak havoc on the Philistines.

I want to report to you, friends, that my imprisonment here has had the opposite of its intended effect. Instead of being squelched, the Message has actually prospered. All the soldiers here, and everyone else too, found out that I’m in jail because of this Messiah. That piqued their curiosity, and now they’ve learned all about him. Not only that, but most of the Christians here have become far more sure of themselves in the faith than ever, speaking out fearlessly about God, about the Messiah. It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! (Philippians 1.12 – 18, MSG)