Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, “I’m going to my wife’s room.” But her father would not let him go in.
“I was so sure you hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. Isn’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.”
Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.” So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.
When the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” they were told, “Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because his wife was given to his companion.”
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. Samson said to them, “Since you’ve acted like this, I swear that I won’t stop until I get my revenge on you.” He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”
“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”
Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”
He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”
They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
“Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have killed a thousand men.”
When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.
Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

• Judges 15:1-20

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”
But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”
So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”
Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the bowstrings as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”
He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.
Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”
He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric and tightened it with the pin.
Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.
Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.
Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”
When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,
“Our god has delivered our enemy
    into our hands,
the one who laid waste our land
    and multiplied our slain.”
While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.
When they stood him among the pillars, Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.
Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.

• Judges 16:1-31

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Judges 15:1 ‘wheat harvest’: “Samson tactfully made his move when wheat harvest kept men busy. This would have been in May/June. A token of reconciliation was offered as he brought a young goat, showing the father and the daughter that they had nothing to fear.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 15:2 ‘I … thought’: “This flimsy excuse by the father was an effort to escape the trap that he faced. He feared the Philistines if he turned on the new husband, yet he also feared Samson; so, he offered his second daughter as a way out. This was insulting and unlawful (cf. Lev. 18:18).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 15:4 ‘caught three hundred foxes’: “Samson, insulted and provoked to fleshly resentment, took vengeance on the Philistines. It must have taken a while to catch so many foxes or jackals and to keep them penned and fed until the number reached 300. Apparently, he tied them in pairs with a slow-burning torch, sending the pairs down the hills into fields thrashing with fire, igniting all the standing grain so dry at harvest. This was a loss of great proportion to the Philistine farmers.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 15:7-8 ‘God’s authority’: “The sovereignty of God involves all authority and all power. I think you can see instantly that God could never be sovereign without the power to bring about His will or the authority to exercise His power. Kings, presidents, and others who rule over men must have the authority to govern and the power to make good on that authority. A ruler cannot stand up and say, ‘Do this, please; if you feel like doing it, do it.’ He says, ‘Do it,’ and then has an army and a police force behind him. He has authority to command and power to carry out his commands. And God has to have both of these.
“l can’t conceive of a God who has power and no authority. Samson was a man who had power but no authority, and didn’t know what to do with it. There are men who have authority but no power. … Authority without the power to carry out that authority is a joke. Power without authority puts a man where he can’t do anything. But God Almighty, to be sovereign, must have authority and power.”

• A. W. Tozer, The Attributes of God II

Judges 15:15 ‘killed a thousand men’: “Cf. 3:31. God gave miraculous power to Samson for destruction, but also to show fearful Israelites (v. 11) that He was with them, in spite of their lack of trust.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 15:18 ‘Samson became thirsty’: “Samson had been brought down from the top of the rock Etam, bound with cords by his own brothers, and given up as a captive into the hands of the Philistines. But no sooner did he reach the Philistines than the supernatural force of God’s Spirit came on him, and he snapped the cords; and, seeing the jawbone of a newly slaughtered donkey lying near at hand, he grasped that strange weapon and fell with all his might on the hosts of the Philistines. He left no fewer than a thousand persons dead on the ground. And as he piled up the heaps of the slain, he looked with grim satisfaction on the slaughter he had worked. There was, perhaps, a little arrogance in his conduct, but a sudden faintness came over him. He had been exerting himself, straining every nerve and muscle, and now, being thirsty, he looked around for a stream. There was none, and he felt as if he would die of thirst, and then the Philistines would rejoice over him. With that simple-minded faith which was so characteristic of Samson, who was nothing but a big child, he turned his eyes to his heavenly Father and cried, “You have accomplished this great victory through your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” So God suddenly caused a spring to appear. There may be many who are feeling in an unhappy and a distressed frame of mind. We should consider what God has already done for us, just as he had done for Samson. Does this not lead us to a lighter estimate of our present troubles and enable us to argue that he who has worked great deliverances in the past will not allow us to lack in the future?”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Judges 15:19 ‘water came out’: “God worked a miracle of supplying a spring in response to Samson’s prayerful cry in thirst. He called the place ‘the spring of him that called’ (cf Jer. 33:3).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 15:20 ‘the contamination of human sin’: “These miraculous events, as contaminated with human sin as they are, establish Samson as judge. Samson judges Israel for twenty years (15:20). These twenty years should have been a time of deliverance. But Samson’s sinful sensuality prevents him from delivering his people. Judges 16 highlights both the miraculous gifts of Samson and his final failure.”

• Walter A. Elwell, editor, Baker Commentary on the Bible

Judges 16:4 ‘loved … Delilah’: “Samson’s weakness for women of low character and Philistine loyalty reappeared (cf. Prov. 6:27, 28). He erred continually by going to her daily (v. 16), allowing himself to be trapped by her deceptions.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 16:7 ‘And Samson said’: “Samson played a lying game and gave away his manhood, here a little, there a little. He also played with giving away his secret—and finally gave it up, i.e., ‘told her all’ (v. 17). He could be bought for a price, and Delilah paid it. Compare Esau selling his birthright (Gen. 25:29-33) and Judas denying Jesus (Matt. 26:14-16).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 16:17 ‘If I am shaven’: “His strength came from his unique relation to God, based on his Nazirite pledge. His long hair was only a sign of it. When Delilah became more important to him than God, his strength was removed.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 16:21 ‘Gaza’: “This would be the last town encountered in southwest Palestine as a traveler went from Jerusalem toward Egypt, near the coast. It was nearly forty miles from Samson’s birthplace, Zorah. There, he was humiliated.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Judges 16:21 ‘those with light and those with sight’: “Between light and sight there is a wide difference. One man may have light without sight; he is blind. Another may have sight without light; he is temporarily blind, but the coming of the light quickly enables him to see. The Philippian jailer had good eyes, but he ‘called for a light’ in order to find Paul in the darkness. But all the light of the sun, moon, and stars could not help poor Samson, for the Philistines had bored out his eyes.
“It is always night to a blind man, and it is always day to the man with a lantern—provided he can see.
“A couplet from the Hindu Book of Good Counsel points this up:
‘Though a blind man hold a lantern,
Yet his footsteps stray aside.’
“What does all this say to us? Simply that religious instruction, however sound, is not enough by itself. It brings light, but it cannot impart sight. The text without the Spirit’s enlightenment cannot save the sinner. Salvation follows a work of the Spirit in the heart. There can be no salvation apart from truth but there can be, and often is, truth without salvation. How many multiplied thousands have learned the catechism by heart and still wander in moral darkness because there has been no inward illumination.”

• A. W. Tozer, Born after Midnight

Judges 16:22 ‘conquered by his own foolishness’: “Poor Samson—the champion of Israel, now ridiculed by his enemies. The hero of so many fights, now at last conquered by his own foolishness. They have bound him and gouged out his eyes. Then they bind him to the mill and lash him as he grinds for them, doing the work of beasts. See what sin will do. That shaved man made a slave is the picture of many who once were the avowed servants of God and were valiant for the truth of God. They have lost the locks of their dedication and are led captive by the devil at his will. They cannot see as they used to see; darkness shuts out all joy. They do not work for God as they used to, for they are slaving for people. They have come into an awful bondage and have brought great dishonor and weakness on the church to which they belong. How the mighty are fallen. I want to speak of God’s great goodness to backsliders and of how he restores them. But I want to warn them at the outset that sin does not pay—that whatever may come of it through God’s mercy, it is an evil and a bitter thing to wander from the Lord. Though Samson’s hair grew again and his strength came back—and he died gloriously fighting against the Philistines—he never recovered his eyes, or his liberty, or his living power in Israel. His last stroke against the adversary was effective, but it cost him his life. He could not again rise to be the man he had been before. And though God did give him a great victory over the Philistines, it was but as the flicker of an expiring candle. He was never again a lamp of hope to Israel. His usefulness was brought to an end through his folly. Whatever the grace of God may do for us, it cannot make sin a right thing, or a safe thing, or a permissible thing. It is evil, only evil, and that continually. Do not be enslaved by fleshly lusts.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Judges 16:22-31 ‘A tragic end’: “Samson’s life ends tragically (16:22-31). The Philistines hold a great religious festival to celebrate the victory of their god, Dagon, over Samson and, by implication, over Samson’s God as well. Samson is brought out to entertain his captors; he maneuvers himself to a place between the two great pillars holding up the roof of the temple. It is to Samson’s credit that, in an act of faith (Heb. 11:32), he turns to God for help. It is not to his credit that his desire in turning to God is for personal vengeance rather than God’s glory. Samson dies in a spectacular way and kills many of his enemies at his death. However, his vengeance does not provide deliverance. The Israelites at the beginning of Samuel’s judgeship were still firmly under Philistine control. Samson probably succeeded in bringing twenty years of partial relief from the Philistines, but he leaves his people in bondage at his death.
“The Philistines permit Samson’s family to come and retrieve his body for honorable burial. This graciousness may have resulted either from respect for Samson’s human greatness or a superstitious desire to be rid of even the corpse of such a formidable enemy.”

• Walter A. Elwell, editor, Baker Commentary on the Bible

Judges 16:28-30 ‘remember me, I pray!’: “A prayer of repentance and trust pours forth from Samson.
“Some Philistine temples had roofs overlooking a courtyard, above wooden columns planted on stone foundations. The central pillars were set close together to furnish extra support for the roof. Here the victory celebration and taunts flung at the prisoner below drew a big crowd. The full strength of Samson, renewed by God, enabled him to buckle the columns. As a result, the roof collapsed and the victory was Israel’s, not Philistia’s. He died for the cause of his country and his God. He was not committing suicide, but rather bringing God’s judgment on His enemies and willing to leave his own life or death to God. He was the greatest champion of all Israel, yet a man of passion capable of severe sin. Still, he is in the list of the faithful (cf. Heb. 11:32).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

 

My Thoughts

At the end of Judges 14, Samson’s father-in-law gave his wife away to another man.  When Samson returns to claim his wife, he is offered the younger daughter of the father-in-law.  Rev. MacArthur says that this is illegal, but he cited Levitical Law.  It may not have been against Philistine Law for the father-in-law to offer, but it was against the Hebrew Law for Samson to accept this offer.

Samson then does something quite interesting.  As Rev. MacArthur asks, Samson must have had a great deal of patience in gathering and penning foxes until he had 300.  Then turning them loose in the Philistine fields.  The foxes did an excellent job in that the grain, vineyards, and olive groves were all burned.

That reminds me of an old joke from my last workplace.  Warning: If you are a cat lover, you may want to skip to the next paragraph.  I would teach the operator how to light the gas burners for the industrial furnace.  The start-up procedure is many pages long.  The actual lighting of a single burner is less than a page of that, but you have to have everything set just right to get to that point.  As for a beginner, a multipage procedure became a daunting task, and someone would ask if there was an easier way.  The standard suggestion was to tie an oily rag to a cat’s tail, light the rag on fire and throw the cat into the furnace.  Cat’s do not like it when their tail is on fire and sooner or later all the burners in the furnace will get lit.  Then when the laughter died down, I would tell them that making shortcuts in the lighting of the furnace is the chief reason why furnaces blow up, killing the person lighting the furnace.  The joke was quickly forgotten, and they started reading over the procedure again and again.

The point is that the foxes would be afraid of the fire and try to run away from it, a very effective method of spreading the fire.

Now with his wife given to another person, Samson sulks in a cave.

The Philistines kill Samson’s wife and father.  Then they come after Samson, marshalling their army and going through Judah in search for Samson.  Judah then makes a trade.  The tribe of Judah turns Samson over to the Philistines, but since the ropes cannot hold him, he grabs a donkey’s jawbone, killing a thousand Philistines.  Again, a Nazirite is not supposed to touch a dead body, but he uses part of a dead body to kill a thousand people, and he was close enough to touch each of them.

Samson then led the Israelites as judge for twenty years.  In those twenty years, he may have had other encounters with the Philistines, but the Bible records none of them.  The Philistines may have simply bided their time for those 20 years.

Then Samson visits a prostitute in Gaza.  He avoids the trap set for him and rips off the gates of the city, depositing them on a nearby mountain.  But this story has a big hole in it in my opinion.  They were sleeping at the gate to attack Samson.  Ripping the gates off had to have made noise.  I do not think the men of Gaza were that committed to their ambush plan.

Then, Samson falls in love with Delilah.  The Scriptures do not hint that Delilah loved him.  She did love the money that the Philistine leaders offered.  Just as at Samson’s wedding, Samson’s Philistine love interest badgers him until he tells the truth.  At the wedding, Samson thought that his riddle was a smart move.  Here, he thinks telling lies to Delilah, three times in a row, will be great fun.  But just as before, he can’t stand a woman crying and he tells her the truth, or what he thinks is the truth.

Samson’s strength was not in his hair, but in what his hair represented, a visible symbol that he was set apart to be an instrument of God.  Samson did not lose his strength when his hair was cut, but when he disrespected God in the process, breaking the rules of being a Nazirite.

Thus, after his eyes are gouged out, the Scriptures talk about his hair growing back, but that had nothing to do with his returned strength.  To bring down the temple killing many more Philistines than he had killed to that point, Samson humbled himself before God.  Samson repented.  Samson gave a plea that was within God’s will.  Samson would die in the effort, but the Philistine leaders were in the temple mocking Samson.  There were three thousand people on the roof, looking down.  There may have been three thousand in the temple or more.  This does not remove Philistia as a threat.  The Philistines were a sore in Saul’s side through his entire reign, and King David finally dealt with them, but Samson showed how God’s power can work within a single man to overcome one’s enemies.

The story of Samson is a story that could be like our story, except for the superhuman strength part.  And that is sad in that God could do miracles through us, if we had enough faith.  But Samson was a flawed hero.  Maybe all the other judges were equally flawed, but the Scriptures point out Samson’s weakness.  Through that weakness, God used Samson’s power to subdue the Philistines, but we might wonder what Samson could have done if his love for Philistine women had not been his downfall.

But what is the weakness within each of us that prevents us from achieving something much greater?

Let’s not condemn Samson’s weakness but learn from it.  Look in the mirror and see the weakness within us, and then beg forgiveness, repent, and grow in our faith.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“Samson, Judges 15: 1. When have you burned with righteous indignation? What is your fuse like: Long? Short? Like a foxtail?
“2. When have you been on a vicious cycle of revenge? How did it feel? Where did it end up?
“3. In the ancient Near East, ‘cities of refuge’ were set up to prevent endless cycles of revenge (see Jos 20). Samson’s wife and her father could have used one. What similar refuge could you use to escape the cycle of revenge ‘the next time’?
“4. Where could you use the Spirit of the Lord to empower you?
“5. Where could you use God‘s thirst-quenching water to revive you?
“Samson with Delilah, Judges 16: 1. Everyone has their price. How rich was Delilah after this deal (v. 5; see 17:2,10, where ten silver shekels is a priest’s annual wages)? How do you imagine Delilah felt about betraying her lover and Israel’s deliverer: Sad? Guilty? Numb? Suicidal? In this regard, how did Judas feel after betraying Jesus (see Mt 27:1-5)? How would you feel in a similar situation? What’s your price? Draw from your personal experience.
“2. Every strength has its flip side. While Samson had obvious physical strength, what strength was he lacking? What strength are you lacking? Where do you feel like Samson—bound and hoping your hair is growing back?
“3. What positively affects your spiritual strength? What is draining it? How can your small group add and not subtract from that strength?
“4. Where is God calling you to persist, even harass, until to get what you want? Ask yourself: ls that what God wants for me?
“5. What has been nagging at you lately and wearing you down?
“Samson’s Death, Judges 16: 1. If a Christian’s witness includes ‘dying well,’ what witness did Samson have? How do you suppose he was eulogized? How can you prepare yourself to ‘die well’?
“2. What‘s the relation between ‘living well’ and ‘dying well,’ as typified by Samson? Like Samson, where do you feel like you are merely ‘performing,’ and not really ‘living’?
“3. What would you say to your son who says, ‘I want to grow up to be like Samson’?
“4. If you could pray (as Samson did) for one thing to happen, what would that be? Pray as a group.”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

There is one set of questions for Judges 15.  Judges 16 is divided into two sets of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

Usually, I have concerns over one question or another.  They are either quite simple or they have a specific answer which does not support group discussion or reflection.  But for these two chapters, it seems in some cases a total lack of understanding of those times.  Yes, we could put the story of Samson in another setting with different rules, but these questions seemed off.

Refuge Cities: They were established for one function only, to determine whether a death was an accident or not.  If the accused could reach one of these cities, he was held until the court decided whether the death was accidental.  If so, the accused was exonerated and allowed to go home without harm.  If not accidental, the accused was turned over to the family of the deceased for punishment, which would probably mean death.  This would not apply to the father and daughter.  Were Philistines, who were oppressing the Israelites with their own set of laws, protected by Jewish law?  Especially when their own law superseded the Jewish law.  The question could be answered as is, but it logically makes no sense.  Note that this quoted Bible’s reflection questions were written before the recent political issue over sanctuary cities.  While the Bible may be misquoted in the sanctuary city debate, the Bible did not condone a continuation of law breaking.  If the law is bad, change the law, but until then, uphold the law.

And it threw me off to think Delilah had a conscience.  She was paid handsomely to steal Samson’s strength.  Modern Delilah’s have a fealty to those who pay them or the country that they represent with no thought of the person they are harming.  The love-making that may have happened was not “love” at all, especially on Delilah’s part.  Judas was among Jesus’ inner circle and betrayed him for money.  The question forgets loyalties and reduces it to harming someone for a number of coins making the two betrayals equal.

The last set of questions, about dying well, could have the discussion go awry easily, but as Rev. MacArthur notes, Samson is listed among the faithful in Hebrews 11.  Temper that fact with the discussion.  And look in the mirror.  Do we really live well?  Are we faithful enough to die well?

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.