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Judges 15 – Praying through the Bible #76 – A Prayer of “You Owe Me God”
Samson’s prayer begins by acknowledging God’s strength, but seems self-serving in the end. “You have accomplished this great victory through Your servant. Must I now die of thirst…?” (Judges 15:18). Sounds like, “God you owe me!”
Samson’s life is filled with seemingly bad decisions involving women, leading to revenge on his enemies. When divinely empowered, the Hebrew literally says, “Yahweh rushed on” Samson (14.6; 15.14). Meaning, his vengeance, while appearing self-serving, serves God’s purposes. He does things no self-respecting Christian should ever do. Samson is a confusing, unconventional character, a flawed hero of faith (Hebrews 11.32). Whether uncomfortable to admit, he represents us too well with all of us being flawed. And yet God chooses messed up people to do His unconventional will.
Going backwards, notice the reverse order of events. Samson utters this prayer after God’s judge kills 1000 men with a fresh jawbone of a donkey (15.15). I have wondered if this jawbone represents Samson and me. Before this battle, Samson is arrested by people of Judah who do not kill him, but hand him over to the Gentiles (sound familiar?) (15.11-13). Before being arrested, he tears limb from limb his enemies in vengeance (15.7-8), which is taken because the Philistines burn Samson’s father-in-law and wife (15.6). Why? Samson ties 300 foxes tail to tail, then torching their tails, he burns up the Philistine’s grain supply, vineyards and olive groves (15.4-5). Samson begins this payback because His father-in-law gives his wife to another man because he thinks Samson hates her (15.1). Before that, Samson returns his wife because she betrays him to the Philistines by revealing the riddle’s secret, “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet” (14.14). He marries this female Philistine to the objections of his parents (14.1-3). Samson’s parents do not know this marriage is from the Lord who is seeking an occasion against the Philistines (14.4).
On its own, this sequence of events looks ungodly; a never-ending cycle of vengeance – an eye for an eye, not through the law, but through violence. Samson’s life is unconventional, but serves God’s purposes. In his prayer, what Samson get’s right is giving God credit for his victory. Then he fails and thinks God owes him: “Must I now die of thirst?” (15.18). Amazingly, God splits a hollow place in the ground, providing water. Samson names the spring, En-hakkore, “Spring of the One Who Cried Out” (15.19). Amazingly I say, not because of the miracle; but because of God’s grace. That grace includes God quenching my spiritual thirst although I am a messed up man, trying and failing and trying and failing to be a hero of faith, knowing and forgetting God owes me nothing.
Prayer Challenge: Samson unconventional life serves God’s purpose. Pray we will live for God on His terms, and not ourselves. Pray we never think God owes us anything.
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