Making friends with Samson - 15 December 2009 |
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I think I may have been a little unfair during Sunday morning’s sermon to Samson and Jephthah, a couple of the Judges mentioned towards the end of Hebrews 11. Prompted by a couple of conversations after the service (many thanks to you both…), here are some further thoughts.
It wasn’t really fair of me to describe Samson as suicidal. True, he ended his life by pulling down the Philistine temple on top of himself and the Philistine army. But given his circumstances (blinded, imprisoned, etc) this was actually a fairly brave thing to do. And, after all, we all rejoice in a Saviour who willingly gave himself up to death in order to conquer our enemy. ‘Suicide’ isn’t quite the right word.
Perhaps Samson’s problem was not so much the way he died, but the sense of uncontrolled fury that pervaded his life. He was hardly a man in control of his desires and actions, in stark contrast to the Lord Jesus, who always knew exactly what he was doing.
Jephthah is a little more complicated. On Sunday I said that his great mistake was the foolish vow he made to God, that ‘If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering’ (Judges 11:30-31). This rather hasty undertaking backfired spectacularly when ‘Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter’ (vv. 33-34).
It then looks like Jephthah made matters far worse by actually going ahead and doing what he’d promised. Convinced that he ‘cannot take back [his] vow,’ Jephthah ‘did with her according to his vow that he had made’ (vv. 35, 39).
However, it’s just possible that we should read the passage another way. James Jordan suggests that after the Spirit of God ‘empowered’ Jephthah, He ‘provoked’ him to his vow, which was ‘calculated, not rash.’ It was an expression of ‘gratitude to God,’ and a confession that only ‘God is able to do the work.’ Jephthah is anticipating that a person, not an animal, will come to meet him – after all, sacrificial animals don’t live inside houses. And, crucially, ‘the whole burnt sacrifice represents the consecration of the whole person to God, wholly dedicated to him.’ Jephthah had in mind not the execution of anyone or anything, but ’some permanent service to God that would prevent the person from living a normal life’ (Jordan, Judges: A Practical and Theological Commentary, pp. 200-201).
Perhaps this reading gains additional credence from the fact that Jephthah’s daughter laments not her death, but her virginity (vv. 38-39). On the other hand, such appalling mistreatment of women was not entirely unheard of during the period of the Judges (cf. ch 19). Dan Block is one commentator who takes the more critical view of Jephthah (Judges, Ruth [NAC], pp. 364-379), and his treatment is well worth considering in detail. For now, I’m not sure, though I still think I incline more towards Block’s negative interpretation of Jephthah’s actions than Jordan’s positive construction.
Maybe we’ll have some sermons on Judges sometime.
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Bible, Minister's Blog