Judges 15:11  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?”

A lot of people are diagnostic by nature. They can identify a problem very well. However, they are often short on ideas of how to fix the problem. Sometimes they even come to contentment living with the problem.

The book of Judges is a book of cyclical stories. Israel sins - Israel is oppressed - Israel cries out to God - God sends a judge - God delivers through the judge - there is a time of peace. But with the story of Samson the cycle seems broken in a way. It starts out the same. Israel sins and now is oppressed by the Philistines. But there is no crying out to God. Strange.

But God sends a deliverer anyway. He’s an unlikely candidate in many ways. He’s not the hero they choose, but he’s the hero they need! For Samson, everything is personal. He had been cheated out of his Philistine wife and he responds by burning down their grain fields. Treating them as the Midianites in a previous chapter were treating Israel. But rather than rallying to his banner, the Israelites have a different response: “Don’t you know they rule over us?” They identified the problem and had become content living with it.

Jesus came to Israel many hundreds of years later. He came as the promised Messiah. He came to seek and save that which was lost. Yet, when He was carrying out His mission He was met with anger. The Sadducees and Pharisees were alarmed and angered by Him. They had identified the problem but they had, in way, become content living with the problem. So, like their ancestors did with Samson, they came in force to deal with Him.

The Church exists in the world today as Jesus’ answer. The problems are not difficult to identify. But sadly, people, even some church attenders, have become content with them. When the Church begins to move in the world and act against the ways of satan, they rise up to say, “Don’t you know they rule over us?!”

But we follow the Risen Lord. He is not ready to concede defeat in this world and we cannot either!

Blessings,

 

Pastor Russ