Sunday, October 31, 2004 (Tone 5)
The Martyr Epimachos of Alexandria
Kellia: Judges 14:1-19 Epistle: Galatians 6:11-18 Gospel: St. Luke 16:19-31
Judges 14:1-19, especially vss. 5, 6: "And behold, a
young lion roared against him; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore
the lion asunder as one tears a kid; and he had nothing in his hand." In reading the chapters
concerning Samson as a Judge in Israel, one must not ignore the recurring notations which appear
repeatedly, such as the line found early in the present reading: "at that time the Philistines had
dominion over Israel" (vs. 4). These reminders are meant to help us recall God's judgment on
Israel which His angel announced at Bochim (i.e., Bethel): "you shall make no covenant with the
inhabitants of this land...But you have not obeyed My command...So now I say, I will not drive
them out before you; but they shall be come adversaries to you" (Jdg. 2:2,3).
God allowed Israel the freedom to corrupt themselves with foreign ways, to be dominated by
alien peoples, and to suffer the consequences of forgetting Him. Still, the Lord never forgot His
People but sent His Spirit upon men like Ehud, Gideon, Jephthah and Samson to throw off the
oppressors and draw the Israelites away from their dabbling in the degrading worship and
practices of the pagans around them. Such is the primary theme of the entire Book of Judges.
Reading from this perspective, one will not disconnect the verse that immediately precedes the
present passage from what follows: "and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him...." (Jdg. 13:25).
Instead, we will see that even though the young Samson himself did not always live by God's
commandments, nevertheless the Lord was accomplishing His work through his decisions and
actions. Hence, when Samson caught sight of an attractive Philistine woman and wanted her for
his wife, for she pleased him well (vss. 1-3), he then demanded her from his parents despite the
injunction of God's law against making "marriages with them...or taking their daughters for your
sons" (Deut. 7:3). Yet, as we read further, we discover that his action "was from the Lord; for
He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines" (Jdg. 14:4).
Observe then how the Lord used even a forbidden marriage to rouse Samson to his life's mission
of delivering "Israel from the hand of the Philistines" (Jdg. 13:5). As an anti-hero on his way to
get acquainted with his prospective bride, Samson went into a vineyard, not a good place for a
Nazirite to visit (Num. 6:3,4). There a lion attacked him, but in the "might of the Spirit" of the
Lord, "he tore the lion asunder" with his bare hands (Jdg. 14:6). On his next trip to Timnah, he
stopped to look at the dead lion, taking honey from its carcass, again violating the Nazirite laws
against touching dead bodies (Nu. 6:6). This unusual sight of a beehive in a lion's carcass
provided him with grist for a riddle for teasing his Philistine wedding companions.
The inscrutable nature of the riddle, however, drove Samson's Philistine friends to pressure his
bride into extracting its answer for them, which she did by "pressing him hard" and weeping
"before him the seven days that their feast lasted," so that "on the seventh day he told her" (Jdg.
14:17). Samson's own bride betrayed the confidence of marriage by bowing in loyalty to her
people, and thus the Philistines "plowed with [his] heifer" (vs. 18).
See how, once again, "the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him" (vs. 19), so that Samson
attacked and "killed thirty men" of the Philistine town of Ashkelon (vs. 19) in order to pay off his
debt to the Philistines, but the experience left him indignant (vs. 19). Despite himself and his lax
ways, he had begun to function as a Judge in Israel, and we shall see subsequently that his
indignation, beginning from this moment, served him well in fulfilling his life's mission.
Keep us who bow our heads to Thee, O Christ our God, ever as warriors invincible in every
attack of those who assail us and make us victors, even unto the end, through Thy Spirit.
