Judges 14: Our Hope and Trust

We have all heard the phrase, “God works in mysterious ways.” Often through very difficult and sometimes painful circumstances God works amazingly. How often have you experienced some disappointment or setback only to see how God worked it out for something greater than you could have imagined? But there is also another side of God’s mysterious workings, where God works through our sin or rebellion. Samson was like this.

Samson was called to be a deliverer for Israel against the Philistines. But there was a problem; Israel was much too comfortable being ruled by the Philistines. What is noticeably absent from this cycle is that Israel does not cry out to God for deliverance. How far has Israel fallen, they don’t even want deliverance! But God has other things in mind for Israel; he uses Samson’s wanton lust for a Philistine woman to destroy this “peace (v 4).” Samson’s first confrontation with the Philistines ended with thirty men from Ashkelon being killed to satisfy a bet and his wife being given to another man escalating into further violence.

This story brings up a number of strong questions. Does this confrontation happen because God brought it or because of Samson’s wanton lust? The answer can seem very unsatisfying, but it is both. Samson was fully responsible for his own lust and anger, but God was also at work as more than a silent partner. God was also driving the situation so that the confrontation occurred and his people would be delivered. This interplay is a mystery and we too often want to break it down further than is possible to remove that mystery.

This mystery with Samson is but a shadow compared with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The cross was the ultimate sin and rebellion against God, nothing compares to it, yet God moved all of history so that Christ would come and die. It was the climax of history, yet the Pharisees and Romans were equally guilty and responsible for it. However, out of this mysterious working, God gave to us the greatest blessing we could never fathom—His sacrificial grace. So the question remains for us, “Do we trust God?” Can we look past our current difficulties and trust that he is working all things for our good (Romans 8:28)? We have hope because God is working and though it may be mysterious it is more powerful than we could ever imagine.

Posted by Aaron Miner