SAMSON’S WARS AGAINST THE PHILISTINES Giving his wife to his companion triggered a series of fights by Samson against the Philistines who humiliated his people for many years. 1- Samson burns the fields of the Philistines with fire 16 2- Samson kills a thousand men of the enemy 8 - 17 3- Water came out from the hollow place that is in Lehi, for Samson to drink 18 – 20 “ After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room. But her father would not permit him to go in. Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead.” (1, 2) A young goat was a common gift at that time (Genesis 38: 17; Luke 15 29). https://coptic-treasures.com/ Her father was wrong to hasten to give Samson’s wife to his companion before she gets a divorce from Samson, or even before warning him; with the wrong assumption that her beautiful younger sister might make up for Samson’s love for his wife. Anyway, that triggered Samson’ anger, with the Spirit of the Lord dwelling upon him, to make war of revenge against his enemies. “Samson said to them, ‘This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!’. Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves” (3 – 5) . Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?”. And they answered, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire” (6) Considering burning his wife as a further insult, . https://coptic-treasures.com/ “Samson said to them, ‘Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease’” (7) Commenting on this, St. Augustine says: [That companion who married Samson’s wife, is a symbol of all heretics. It is indeed a great secret, O brethren. The heretics who intend to divide the church, wish to get married to the Lord’s bride, and to take her away. Through their dissent from church and the gospels, by their evil , namely by their adultery, they attempt to acquire the church as their portion; Hence, Paul, the apostle, the faithful minister, and friend of the Lord’s bride, says: “For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11: 2); and with a jealousy of faith, he adds: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (Jesus)” (Corinthians 11: 3) Now let us see the secret work Samson has done when he was wronged by his companion in the person of his wife: He took the foxes, about which it is written in the book of the songs: “Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines” (Song 2: 15). Saying “catch”, he means (Judge or apply pressure on them) to keep them from corrupting the vines of the church. By saying: “Catch the foxes” ,he means condemn the heretics by the authority of the divine law; hasten to chain them by the testimony of the Holy Book. …….. What does he mean by turning the foxes tail to tail; and putting a torch between each pair of tails? ……….. What are the tails of the heretics, but the results they reached by their heresy. Those should be condemned, chained and burned with torches; for having corrupted the fruition and the good works of those who have fallen into their snares]. https://coptic-treasures.com/ “So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam” (8) “Etam”, A Hebrew name meaning (the dwelling place of the beasts of prey) is two miles South-east of Bethlehem in the land of Judah Anyway, if we, together with Samson, reject any thought that may corrupt the church of God, and burn its tail with torches, to destroy the fruition of evil and the kingdom of the devil; it is befitting of us to flee to a cleft in the Rock, namely to the pierced side of the Lord Christ, the True Rock. Let us go to ‘Elam’ (the dwelling place of the beasts of prey), Let us enter into the wounds of Christ and take refuge in them. “Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi. And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” So they answered, “We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.” (9 – 10) 2- SAMSON KILLS A THOUSAND MEN OF THE ENEMY: When Samson burned the fields of the Philistines and killed many of them, the men of Judah felt committed to deliver Samson into the hands of the Philistines who ruled over them, to avoid their wrath. They counted it better to have Samson die for the whole people; as though a symbol of the Lord Christ, about whom his https://coptic-treasures.com/ own said: “It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish” (John 11: 50). “Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?’. And he said to them, ‘As they did to me, so I have done to them’. But they said to him, ‘We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines’.. Then Samson said to them, ‘Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves’. So they spoke to him, saying, ‘No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you. And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock” (11 – 13) The way the men of Judah bound Samson by two new ropes, and delivered him to the enemies, without killing him, the Jews did to the lord Christ, after accusing Him of being an evildoer and a blasphemer. “When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that https://coptic-treasures.com/ is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands” (14) In this he was like the Lord Christ who, on the cross, confronted the enemies; and being, Himself, “the resurrection”, death could not take hold of him, nor Hades could detain Him. By His divinity, He broke loose the two ropes of death and Hades, and proclaimed breaking their authority off His believers, united to Him. “He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it” (15) What does this mean but that, man, who, through sin, came down to the irrational nature of animals; and death completely destroyed him, the Lord took hold of him anew, as though with a jawbone of a donkey, and provided him with the word of the living faith, by which he could kill the adversary evil hosts, or the work of the devil, symbolized by ’thousand evil men’. Intending to belittle the defeated enemy, he Samson sang the song of conquest, saying:: ““With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!” (16) “And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi” (17) https://coptic-treasures.com/ 4- WATER CAME OUT OF THE HOLLOW PLACE IN LEHI FOR SAMSON TO DRINK: “Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, ‘You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?’. So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore which is in Lehi to this day” (18, 19) According to some, Samson, here, play with words. Having called the place “Ramath Lehi”, he called the fountain from which God made water come out: “The hollow place” , namely (the tooth root canal). It is as though God brought out for him water from (the tooth root canal) in the jawbone of the donkey. Killing a thousand evil men by the jawbone of a donkey, refers to the salvation work of the God, and the destruction of the hosts of the devil. The flow of water coming out of the hollow place, refers to what followed the salvation work on the cross, when the flow of the Holy Spirit came down to revive the soul, and to renew her in baptism. Commenting on what Samson did by the jawbone, and on the water that came out of the hollow place, St, Augustine said:: [Samson killed a thousand men by a donkey jawbone. The Gentiles are likened to a donkey; the way the Holy Book https://coptic-treasures.com/ says about the Jews and the Gentiles: “The ox knows its owner; and the donkey its master’s crib” (Isaiah 1: 3). Before the coming of the Lord Christ, the devil tore the Gentiles apart into pieces, and scattered them like dry bones of a donkey. But when the Lord came – the true Samson -- He took hold of them all by His pure hands, repaired them by His power, and by them He brought awe on His adversaries. So are we, who have previously delivered our members to the devil, to be killed by him, The Lord Christ took hold of us, and turned us into “the righteousness of God”, despite our dryness, because we did not have the dew of God’s grace in us; He turned us into fountains and rivers. In the old, Samson prayed, and God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out; and the words of the Lord: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38) were clearly fulfilled in us. Finally, Samson called it “Ein Hakkore” (18), namely (the fountain of the prayer) as a memorial of his prayer to God, and His response to him. . “And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines” (20)..
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