God used Samson’s sinful nature as a means to deliver Israel from bondage to her enemies. Previous judges acted decisively with lasting results, but that’s not how God worked with Samson. Samson’s ministry was to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines (Judg 13:5), a process that wouldn’t be completed until the reign of David almost 100 years after Samson’s birth.
Samson failed to see himself as Israel’s deliverer. He burned with passion, followed his heart, and did what was right in his own eyes. He didn’t see himself as God’s ordained minister (Rom 12:1-4), but acted from prideful ego, hurt feelings, and fiery emotions. Israel would be delivered, God would triumph and His glory displayed, but these were never Samson’s interest or desire.
I. One Sin ... (Judg 15:1-3). Months passed after his wedding feast before Samson returned to consummate his marriage. As is typical of young people, they don’t foresee consequences to their actions, and how those actions affect others and their own future. Samson’s father-in-law refused to let Samson in the house, believing Samson hated his daughter after she enticed, manipulated, and betrayed him, so he married her to a Philistine.
As a consolation, he offered his younger daughter to Samson instead, assaying she was better, or more physically appealing; looks, rather than virtue, were Samson’s criteria for a wife (Judg 14:3). Samson’s pride wounded and plans thwarted, he vowed to get even by doing harm or ill will (it’s the same Hebrew word) to every Philistine (Judg 9:23). God, via Samson, would cause even more conflict between Israel and Philistia.
Both daughters were nothing but property for their father to trade or sell. Such paganism is at the heart of the Sexual Revolution and feminist movement which began in the 1960s in the US, and has resulted in making women even more of sexual objects, evidenced by the proliferation and celebration of pornography and prostitution in America.
II. … Begets Another Sin ... (Judg 15:4-5). Without attributing this act to the Holy Spirit, Samson caught 300 foxes or jackals (vicious, pack-hunting wild dogs), indicating it took him time and effort to carry out his revenge. He tied them in pairs, tail to tail, then put a lit torch between each pair and set them loose in the harvest-ready fields, destroying the immediate economy and that of the coming year. Philistia’s chief god, Dagon, was the god of grain and produce.
The Philistines in turn burned Samson’s wife and family alive. Samson’s wife thought betraying him was saving her and her family, but God repaid her in-kind. By providence, God caused her betrayal of Samson to lead to her own betrayal (Deut 32:39; 1 Sam 2:6-8; Ps 75:7). Trying to escape one sin by doing another sin always brings more sin and more consequences.
When we try to protect and preserve our worldly empire of life and belonging, we lose the opportunity to gain eternally. We either pour our energy and hope into our “best life now” or we lay up treasures in Heaven; we can’t do both (Mt 6:19-21; 16:25-26). Godliness may mean the lack or loss of material things for 50 years, but spiritual gain is eternal (1 Tim 6:3-10).
III. … and Another Sin ... (Judg 15:7-8). Justice was served and the Philistines believed the offense evened, but what of Samson’s God? He wasn’t appeased with human solutions when Israel was still in bondage. He would set His people free.
Violence usually sparks more violence (Mt 26:52). Samson would get even with those who killed his wife, also intending to end the conflict (Judg 15:7), but God would use his sin to bring about intensified conflict in His work to deliver Israel.
Man’s cycle of “justice” is un-ending revenge; God’s justice is final. The only way to stop the violence of vengeful justice is to never begin it, but entrust justice to God (Rom 12:16-13:4).
Samson attacked Philistia hip and thigh, a figure of speech for a bloody massacre of dismemberment and body parts strewn near and far. Then he fearfully hid for his life.