Tanak Foundations-Concepts in Judges-Part 13

Judges 15.1-20 gives us another prophetic picture in the life of Samson. In the time of the wheat harvest in the fall (speaks of the Birthpains and the coming of Yeshua during the fall festivals) Samson visited his wife and brings a young goat. This is alluding to Yeshua who gave himself as the Messiah to unbelieving Israel because he loved her. Samson learns that she has gone over to another man (Israel in apostasy) because the father thought he hated her. So, he offers Samson her sister. This is like Satan who offers Replacement Theology because they think God hates Israel and has rejected the Jewish people. Samson says he will be blameless in what he will do to the Philistines, just like Yeshua will be blameless when he executes judgment in the Birthpains. God will use Samson’s anger for his purposes.

Samson goes and catches three hundred foxes, but the word (“shual”) used there can also mean jackel, but we will use foxes here. These were unclean animals and allude to false prophets. He took torches (“lapidim”) and turned the foxes tail to tail (the tail alludes to false prophets-Isa 9.15) and the torch was put between the two tails. The number two speaks of witness, so this is a false witness. He set fire to the torches and releases the foxes into the standing grain (speaking of unused Word of God) and burns up the grain along with vineyards (ungathered grapes, alluding to the true teaching of the Torah and the Scriptures that was unused) and the groves (olive groves, alluding to the oil of the Ruach Ha Kodesh, or Holy Spirit, that has not enlightened them). This tells us that those that will be judged know nothing of the Scriptures.

The Philistines wanted to know who did this, and they found out it was Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to another. So, the Philistines came and burned her and her father with fire. This alludes to the fact that in the Birthpains the False Messiah will use Replacement Theology Christianity for awhile, but then will destroy it (Rev 17.16). Samson heard about this and came against the Philistines, and then lived in cleft of the rock of Etam (“cleft”).

Then the Philistines went up to Judah and spread out in Lehi (“cheek or jawbone”), a type of Golgotha (Mic 5.1). The men of Judah wanted to know why they came up against them, and the Philistines said they had come to get Samson and bind him and do to him what he did to them. So, the men from Judah bound Samson with ropes because they did not want any trouble from the Philistines, just like the Jews bound Yeshua because they did not want any trouble from the Romans (John 11.49-52). Yeshua was “bound” by his love for the Father and for sinful Israel.

When Samson came to Lehi (“cheek or jawbone”) the Philistines shouted, and the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) came upon Samson and he broke the ropes binding him. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and killed 1000 Philistines with it. The jaw alludes to the strength of the tongue (Jam 3.3-12; Isa 30.20-21) and Samson using a jawbone to kill 1000 Philistines alludes to the fact that the teachings of God through Yeshua was used to defeat the enemy and bring in a new age (1000 alludes to an age), the “Yomot Ha Mashiach” or “Days of the Messiah.”

When he was done he threw the jawbone down (Yeshua said, “It is finished”) and he named the place Ramath-lehi (“high place of the jawbone” and a type of Golgotha) and he was thirsty (Yeshua became thirsty at the end of his victory at Golgotha-John 19.28). God split the hollow place that was in Lehi and water came out (just like it did with Moses in Num 20.8) and Samson was revived (Yeshua was resurrected).

Now we come to Judges 16.1-3 and we are going to continue with the picture God has given us in the story of Samson about the spiritual idolatry of unbelieving Israel. Again, Samson’s story, though tragic, was a picture of God, Messiah and Israel. Samson goes down to Gaza (“she was strong”) and visited a harlot (a picture of apostate Israel-Isa 1.21; Jer 2.20, Book of Hosea). The Gazites were told that Samson was there and plotted to kill him (some leaders of Israel plotted to kill Yeshua in Matt 26.1-5. They waited at the gate of the city, where the leaders would meet).

At midnight (when Messiah comes-Matt 25.6) Samson took hold of doors of the city and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars (Jerusalem was destroyed after Israel rejected the Kingdom offer in the first century, and the Jewish leaders were destroyed also). He took the gates 48 miles to Hebron (“communion”), and Hebron is an idiom for heaven, and also called “Abraham’s Bosom.” Yeshua ascended to heaven and the eschatological congregation (the Kahal) began when the Ruach Ha Kodesh came in communion with the believer in Acts 2 as promised.

Beginning in Judges 16.4 we have another picture in the life of Samson. Samson loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, meaning “a choice vine” and immediately we have an allusion to Israel (Isa 5.1-7). Her name was Delilah, meaning “languishing” and she will be a picture of Israel who was “weak” and “languishing” in unbelief. This will continue the same theme of unbelieving Israel involved in spiritual harlotry, and we will pick up with the story of Samson, Delilah, his capture and how his death is a picture of the crucifixion and how it brought final victory in Part 14.

Posted in All Teachings, Articles, Idioms, Phrases and Concepts, Prophecy/Eschatology, The Festivals of the Lord, The Tanak, Tying into the New Testament

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