“So Shimshon went and caught three hundred foxes. Then he took torches, tied pairs of foxes to each other by their tails, and put a torch in the knot of every pair of tails. Then he set the torches on fire and let the foxes loose in wheat fields of the P’lishtim. In this way he burned up the harvested wheat along with the grain waiting to be harvested, and the olive orchards as well.“-Judges 15:4-5
So Samson is in a rage because the girl whom he thought was his wife was given to another man.
In retaliation, Samson decides to take revenge on the entire Philistine population.
And he decides to do it in a cruelly unique manner.
What he does is he captures 300 foxes, ties their tails together in pairs and binds a lit torch to them.
He then lets the little beasts rush off into the wheat fields in a panic setting everything ablaze.
Now I know a lot of English translations say it was a bunch of foxes that Samson caught and tied up to be used for his own devious purposes.
But that’s not actually correct.
The original Hebrew here is SHU’AL.
Rather than being the little red-skinned furry animals we all think are cute and adorable, what Samson actually captured were wild dogs.
In other words, they were jackals.
Foxes are actually animals who live and operate in isolation.
So there’s no way Samson would have been able to capture a group of them at once…and definitely not a huge number like 300.
Jackals on the other hand travel in packs.
So Samson would’ve been able to trap a large number of these at once.
Now I have to admit I cringed when I read this story.
I’m not necessarily a huge animal lover or anything but what Samson did to these animals was downright cruel.
What he did was almost a malicious form of torture akin to some nut case who likes to catch cats and cook them alive in his own oven just for kicks.
The animals would have suffered third degree burns, many of them probably died and all of them were traumatized for life.
Yet, it appeared Samson could have cared less.
These animals were simply tools in his hand to be used to carry out his own personal and selfish vengeance.
Another point that should be made is that while the Philistines were the enemy of God’s people, they weren’t necessarily monsters.
At the end of the day, they were simple farmers who like many of the ancient societies during this time lived off of the wheat crops they grew.
And they didn’t just grow wheat crops.
It was also normal to plant olive trees alongside the wheat crops.
So Samson was causing some serious damage to the Philistine’s food supply here.
Now there’s something interesting in this tale I don’t want you to overlook.
If you read the text carefully, you’ll find there isn’t any mention of the RUACH HAKODESH (the Holy Spirit) here unlike in other stories.
So I think it’s safe to assume that this wanton violence being perpetrated by Samson was the result of his own evil inclinations getting hog wild outta control.
Yet at the same time, Samson was also acting in sync with the Lord’s main objective to undo the unholy peace that existed between His people and this gentile people.
Am I saying the Lord warrants indiscriminate destruction?
The answer is NO.
But can He use it to achieve His purposes?
The answer to that question is absolutely YES.
This is the paradoxical nature of the Lord that has baffled theologians for ages.
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