Judges 15:1–20

✍️ By Pastor Gary Boyd

There comes a moment in every person’s life, no matter how strong they seem on the outside, when they finally run into something they cannot push through. 💥

Sometimes it hits suddenly.

Sometimes it sneaks up on you.

But it always comes.

For Samson, that moment came right after his greatest victory.

For you, it might come after one of yours.

Have you ever noticed that your strongest seasons often carry quiet warning signs? You are juggling responsibilities, pushing through pressure, carrying weight you never asked for, and people say, “Wow, you’re so strong.” 💪

And for a while, you do feel strong.

But then something small, something ordinary, something that should not even matter, completely knocks the wind out of you. 😮‍💨

A criticism.

A bill.

A diagnosis.

A moment of loneliness.

A burst of fear.

A thirst you never saw coming.

Life is strange like that.

We survive the lions but nearly faint from the bee stings.

We conquer giants but stumble over the pebbles.

We endure public battles but fall apart in private moments.

So what do we do?

We push harder.

We dig deeper.

We tell ourselves, “I can handle this.”

And sometimes we can.

But sometimes we cannot.

And that moment, when our strength fails, is exactly where Judges 15 brings us.

Let us step into Samson’s world, a world fueled by strength until suddenly strength is not enough.

1. A Story Fueled by Strength (Judges 15:1–5)

When the chapter opens, Samson looks unstoppable. 💥

He comes back to Timnath with a young goat as a peace offering for the wife he abandoned. But her father has already given her away to Samson’s best man. Humiliated and furious, Samson vows revenge.

And he delivers.

He captures 300 foxes, ties torches to their tails, and releases them into Philistine fields. Grain, vineyards, olive groves, all go up in flames. 🔥🦊🔥

Strength dominates the opening. Samson looks like a one-man army. But strength by itself never leads to peace. It only leads to escalation.

2. Strength Escalates the Conflict (Judges 15:6–8)

The Philistines strike back with cruelty.

Samson hits harder.

The text says he struck them “hip and thigh,” a Hebrew idiom meaning total and overwhelming defeat. The violence spirals until Samson’s personal revenge becomes a national crisis.

Strength is not solving anything.

Strength is multiplying the problem. ⚠️

3. Strength Cannot Fix a Spiritually Broken People (Judges 15:9–13)

The Philistines invade Judah, but instead of resisting the enemy, Judah goes after Samson.

“Don’t you know they rule over us?” they say.

It is heartbreaking. 💔

God raised up Samson to deliver Israel, but Israel does not want deliverance. They have started to accept bondage as normal.

They bind Samson and hand him over to the Philistines.

Here is the reality:

👉 Strength can burn fields, defeat enemies, and snap ropes, but it cannot change a heart that has accepted defeat.

4. Strength Peaks in a Jawbone Victory (Judges 15:14–17)

Samson is brought to Lehi, bound and surrounded. The Philistines shout in triumph, but the Spirit of the Lord rushes upon him. ⚡

The ropes fall off like burned thread.

Samson picks up a fresh jawbone of a donkey and charges.

Dust flying.

Shields shattering.

Men scattering.

Samson wiping out a thousand soldiers with nothing but a jawbone.

It is cinematic. 🎬

He stands in the silence of victory, exhausted and breathing heavily, surrounded by the fallen, and names the place:

Ramath-Lehi, “Jawbone Hill.”

This is the mountaintop moment.

Samson looks invincible.

But mountaintops never last long.

5. Strength Finally Runs Out (Judges 15:18)

Right after this great victory, Samson collapses. 😟

Not from a sword.

Not from an army.

Not from a wound.

From thirst.

The strongest man in Scripture is dying of dehydration. His body shuts down. He cries out to God, something Samson rarely does.

And suddenly the truth becomes clear:

👉 Human strength, even great strength, has limits.

Many of us meet God the same way Samson did.

Not in triumph, but in collapse.

6. God Shows Who Is Really Doing the Saving (Judges 15:19)

God responds with mercy. 💙

He opens a hollow place in Lehi, the very ground where Samson stood, and water comes out. Samson drinks. His strength returns. His life is revived.

He names the spring En-hakkore.

🏞️ “The Spring of the One Who Calls.”

A permanent reminder:

“This is where I cried out to God, and God answered.”

And here the story delivers its message:

🌿 When our strength runs out, God shows us who is really doing the saving.

Samson’s strength did not sustain him.

God did.

7. God’s Mercy Outlasts Human Strength (Judges 15:20)

The chapter ends quietly:

“And he judged Israel for twenty years.”

His long-term ministry was not upheld by foxes, flames, or jawbones.

It was upheld by the mercy of God who sustained him. 🙌

What This Means for Us

Somewhere in your life, you are carrying something in your own strength.

And maybe you are starting to feel the thirst:

• The cracks
• The weariness
• The quiet fear whispering, “I cannot keep this up.”

Judges 15 is not showing you a failure.

It is showing you an invitation. 🤝

For the self-reliant:

You do not have to pretend to be stronger than you are.

God is not impressed by your strength. He is drawn to your need.

For the exhausted:

Your weakness is not the end.

It is where God steps in and brings the water. 💧

For the spiritually numb:

Do not accept bondage as normal.

Cry out. God still delivers.

For the wounded:

God does not abandon people when they collapse.

He meets them in the dust.

How Samson Points Us to Jesus

Samson’s story ultimately points beyond himself and toward a better Deliverer.

• Samson killed enemies with a jawbone.
• Jesus defeated sin by giving His life.
• Samson collapsed in thirst.
• Jesus cried, “I thirst,” so He could offer living water. 💧
• Samson needed God to save him.
• Jesus is God who came to save us.
• Samson delivered Israel for twenty years.
• Jesus delivers forever. ✝️

The same God who opened the spring at Lehi opened the tomb of Christ, so thirsty, broken people like us can come and drink freely.

🌟 Come to Him

If you are tired of fighting alone,

If your strength is gone,

If your soul is thirsty,

Come to Jesus.

Not the Jesus who demands your strength,

but the Jesus who meets you in weakness.

Not the Jesus who waits on the mountaintop,

but the Jesus who comes into the valley.

Not the Jesus who asks you to save yourself,

but the Jesus who already did.

Come and live.

Come and drink.

Come and rest in the strength that never fails. 💛

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