Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Judges 15:18–20
“Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, ‘You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?’” (Judg. 15:18)
Samson is very thirsty after fighting the Philistines, but no one is present to assist him and he seems to come close to despairing of life. “It was a natural effect of the great heat he had been in, and the great pains he had taken,” Puritan commentator Matthew Henry writes. “His zeal consumed him, ate him up, and made him forget himself, till, when he had time to pause a little, he found himself reduced to the last extremity for want of water and ready to faint.” Henry speculates that God allows this to humble Samson, who had sung of his exploits in the battle. “Perhaps … God would hereby keep him from being proud of his great strength and great achievements, and let him know that he was but a man,” he writes. Indeed, this great thirst does seem to restore Samson’s perspective; he speaks to God as the One who gave “ ‘this great deliverance’ ” and of himself as God’s servant.
Abandoned by men, Samson cries to God for assistance. It is difficult to know what to make of his cry: “ ‘You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst?’ ” It almost sounds reproachful, as if Samson is asking, “How could you enable me in a great thing and fail me in a simple thing?” The comment is also reminiscent of other Old Testament figures, who, after a great triumph of faith, seemed to waver in their trust (1 Sam. 26:1–27:1; 1 Kings 18:20–19:10). On the other hand, it also harks back to certain prayers in which Biblical figures call on God to do something lest the pagans gloat over His “failure” (Num. 14:11–19; Josh. 7:6–9). What is clear is that Samson is in need, and he is looking to God to meet that need, apparently trusting that He is able to do so.
God proves faithful, miraculously supplying Samson’s need by causing water to spring up in a low place. Samson drinks and revives, then names the spot “the well of him that cried.” Henry writes, “Samson had given a name to the place which denoted him great and triumphant—Ramath-Lehi, the lifting up of the jaw-bone; but here he gives it another name, which denotes him needy and dependent.”
This chapter concludes with an interesting note—that Samson judges Israel for 20 years. Apparently his abandonment is not final and at least some of the Israelites follow him as their deliverer as he carries forth his work of beginning to throw off Philistine oppression.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
For all his faults, there is a core of piety in Samson. He knows he is God’s servant, that it is God who gives him victory, that God can supply his needs. As you look around at your brothers and sisters, you may see great flaws and failures in them. Be slow to pass judgment on them, but pray earnestly for them in their walk with Christ.
For Further Study
- Romans 14:13
- Ephesians 4:32
- Hebrews 3:13
- James 5:16
- 1 Peter 3:8