Revenge

 DEVOTION

JUDGES

REVENGE

Judges 15:1-8

15:1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, "I'm going to my wife's room." But her father would not let him go in. 2 "I was so sure you thoroughly hated her," he said, "that I gave her to your friend. Isn't her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead." 3 Samson said to them, "This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them." 4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails, 5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves. 6 When the Philistines asked, "Who did this?" they were told, "Samson, the Timnite's son-in-law, because his wife was given to his friend." So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father to death. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you've acted like this, I won't stop until I get my revenge on you." 8 He attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.

NIV

There is more to this encounter with the Philistines, however, within this action by Samson against the Philistines, because his father-in-law gave his wife to one of his friends. Why did he walk off and leave her, and that revengeful act against those thirty men? Now he wants this wife, but she has been defiled by being given to another man, so Samson takes out his fury on the crops and vineyard of the Philistines. Samson is supposed to be a man set apart for God, a Nazarite, and it seems he acts out of anger and revengefulness. Israel was indeed being ruled by the Philistines, which was done by the hand of God because they did evil in his sight. Israel had a problem with being faithful to God; although he was always faithful and made a covenant with Abraham, however, his descendants turned to other gods. We know that God wanted Samson to lead Israel, and eventually he would, but for a man of God to act so angrily and strike out against a whole people because of the actions of one man does not seem Godly. We can take our cue from this portion of the story. First, we know God would not approve of us having any anger against anyone. Jesus said that anger is equal to murder. It also seems to us that the reason anyone who even considers any revengeful action would be due to self-centeredness. The fact that Samson had those hurt feelings about the actions of his father-in-law was that Samson thought it was his right to act anyway he wanted with his wife, marry her, leave her, come to her. It was all about Samson. When our feelings get hurt, it may not be about the other person being wrong for acting in some way or saying or not saying something, but we get our feelings hurt because we are centered on self. Sometimes, we may strike out a little bit, sort of a “tit for tat” action, so to speak. We might even just go silent, cold, when our feelings take over, getting hurt, which could be seen as an act of revenge. Should we not treat others as we would want to be treated? That is the golden rule, but it seems we ignore it at times. Lord, help us love first, and all our relationships will fall in line, and revenge will never be part of our lives.