[236 words]
“Then 3000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?’ And he said to them, ‘As they did to me, so have I done to them’” (Judges 15:11).
There’s a lot of avenging going on here. Samson’s wife was given to his best man because he didn’t like being tricked into giving up his riddle. So he sent 300 foxes with lit torches tied to their tails into the Philistines’ standing grain. So they burned his wife and her father. So he “struck them hip and thigh with a great blow.” So they made war on Judah. So he willingly let 3000 Judaites bind him so he could strike down 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. The world operates in this way, its mantra being “as they did to me, so have I done to them,” but Christians know that vengeance belongs to the Lord and turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, and give the cloak as well as the tunic. We don’t wage war as the world does. Rather, in weakness we persuade men and take every thought captive for Christ. Do you act as though Satan is still ruler over us or that Christ has defeated sin and death?
Doug Kashorek
Plattsburgh church of Christ
Plattsburgh, NY