How to Break the Cycle of Revenge: Judges 15:1-20

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in

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That should be they that's great.

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It's about time. It's about time.

What are you trying to hide?

Try that's funny. So hey, we're going to start off

today's show with a segment written by Desiree called National

Holidays Today.

Oh wow.

And she's saying that today is National Potato Day and

National Soft ice Cream Day.

Oh more, do you need the man?

Could you? Can you imagine like soft ice cream on

a potato? Uh? That would would not be good with it?

What depends on how the potato is prepped.

I was in Duff, North Carolina one time and went

to a place called Donuts on a Stick. I had

donuts with sticks and ice cream. Huh. And I'm telling

you it's one of the best things ever.

So we lived in Texas for a while and they

have everything on a stick. Down there you go, you

go to the you go to the county fairs, and

it's everything on a stick.

Yeah, everything's on a stick Yep, that's legit. Well so.

Ice, soft serve and potatoes. Haven't you ever dipped your

fries in a frosty at Wendy's?

Oh yeah, there you go.

Well then that's it there, So go to Wendy's today,

get a frosty and dip your fries in the frosty,

and you'll be honoring honoring both of these national holidays.

Wow. Yeah, okay, so desirats. A segment says if you

could make up your own national holiday, what would it

be and how would you celebrate?

Oh so we get to make our own national holiday.

Yeah, I'm tempted just to pick another food. But uh

but I guess it could be anything.

Right, Okay?

Yeah?

Yeah, let me see.

I think if I could make up my own national holiday,

because it can be anything, Yeah, let me be, I

would have it. I would celebrate Chris Day, and I

would I would.

I would paint.

I would paint on a your response, I would pay,

I would paint on a little goatee and then I

would walk around with harasp me voices saying good morning,

good morning. No, that's what I would do all day,

every day, all day on National christar Bad Day.

And you have to and you have to squat down

to my height. Okay, so thank you for that. That

was interesting.

How wonderfululd be if everybody was dressed up like and

only like the you know, and then and then everything

would be hyperbole. The whole day would be hyperbole.

Only the thousands who even know me would even understand

what that national holiday would be. That would be and

the dozens but who love me, but.

They deserve to find out about everybody else deserves to

find out about the wonder.

The other ones you enjoy it.

Yeah, okay, so everything would be hyperbole. I would either

be about ready to jump off a bridge or on

my way to heaven. Those would be the every response

to everything the whole day.

Yeah, that's that'd be great.

You know, I've I don't know what to say about.

That, just be flattered, okay, flattered.

So my fact that I want to dress up and

pretend like I'm you every once in a while, I well,

you know, annually, we all annually, we.

All aspire and fantasize and dream. I'm going to say

that my day will be National.

Sushi Day, National Sushi Day? Is there a National sushi

sushi d Oh?

You know what they're probably is we got to look

it up.

No, because if you're going to celebrate it, you should celebrate.

Because it's my favorite food. It has become my favorite food.

And uh, you know, I grew up Italian and I'm

wearing a shirt for those who are watching today. Did

you did you see the quote on this I've worn

it before.

Yeah, yeah, you were a few weeks ago.

A few weeks ago because I go right from here

to train with HFP because herritage are.

You're a tough guy.

No, I'm not a tough guy, but I address sometimes

to go directly from here to there. Yes, So this

is what I'm wearing today. So anyway, this is one

of my shirts that I that I work out and

so anyway, it says it says take the gun. No,

I'm sorry, leave the gun, take the canoli. Just trying

to read it. I know the quote so and anybody

who's anybody in the Italian world knows that's from.

The Godfather, The Godfather.

That's right, right, take leave the gun, take the canola. Huh.

So is there a National Sushi Day?

There is?

June twenty eighth, Holy Christmas International. It's not just National

Sushi Day, it's International Sushi Day.

Wow.

It's taken the world by storm within fun. So I

think people are going to start skipping Fourth of July

and Thanksgiving and just celebrating Kisar Day in International Sushi Day. No,

which then essentially would be the same day for change.

My answer, Oh, because it's already a day. Okay, So

I'm gonna say National Movie Binge Day.

Okay, let's see if that one's out there.

Come on, there can't be a National Movie Binge Day.

Movie for a.

Series, Binge Day, binge watch Day. Maybe there's no way.

It's not going to promote binge watching.

Binge Day is celebrated annually on September twenty fifth. Is

a fun and relaxing day to binge watch your favorite movie,

series or TV show.

Who in their right mind celebrates this?

I know, but a lot of people in September twenty fifth.

There's no way.

Yeah, that's it, says binge Day.

So you chose, okay, fine, I changed my answer. National

Jeff Forester today.

No, you don't get to do that.

Yes, nope, Yes, I'm going to be you and my mom.

Those would be the two people celebrating that day.

National Jeff Fores Today. I'm going to walk around and

tell everybody what to do and watch Indiana Johnes.

Yes, okay, that's it, and grow, grill and pack your suitcase.

That's that's pretty much my life.

Yeah, that's it. Okay, Yeah, that's right, pack your suitcase.

That's actually pretty accurate.

Well, there you go. That was super exciting. It's never

gone on me. You could just like choose your own holiday.

Well apparently everybody has.

Yeah, well I've tried.

I tried to choose two ridiculous.

Ones and they were already there.

And they were already there.

Yeah.

So there's a website called Days.

Of the Year.

Well, there's probably something every day there.

There is history of Binge Day there, There's all kinds

of stuff on there.

So super exciting and according to Desiree, this day is

shared by Pato Day and National ice Cream Day.

Ice cream Day, very specific, right, not scooped ice cream,

not gelato, not custard.

That's next.

Okay, Well here we are, we are back talking about Samson.

We ended last week on the first two chapters in

Samson's life. Yes, and the first one, his parents are

promised that they're going to have a child.

They're super excited.

The next day we find out he's kind of spoiled

and he demands well. The next day of the podcast,

next next day of the podcast, it was years yes yes, uh,

and he demands his own way, and then he uses

his gifts for his own own benefits. So then what happens,

because I have to set this up if you weren't

with us on last week, he is. He finds a

philistine girl who he wasn't supposed to marry, but he

wants her. He demands her. So next thing you know,

they're engaged and they have this long wedding ceremony or

celebration oftentimes to be a week or a month long celebration.

During that time, he's assigned by her father a bunch

of groomsmen, and so he does a wager with them,

and if they can guess the answer, then riddle to

this riddle, then he would give them all thirty he'd

give all of them.

Suit of clothes.

But if they couldn't guess it, then they would owe

him thirty, so they keep pressuring his fiance. Pressuring his fiance,

she puts pressure on Samson, Samson agrees.

Tells her.

She goes back, tells the guys, and so Samson gets mad.

Samson gets so mad he goes and kills thirty Philistines,

brings the clothes, gives it to these guys, and the

family feels like he any went home.

He like. He leaves the wedding ceremony.

And gives the wife to the best man.

Well he doesn't, but the family does. So he doesn't

give her up. He thinks they're married, because that's what

we're going to read today. But the family gives her

to the best man, who.

Because it says so his wife was given in marriage

to the man who had been Samson's Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So today in that sparks a whole series of offense

and revenge, offense and revenge, and so judges Check fifteen says.

Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young

goat as a present to his wife. Super romantic gesture

by the way, young goat. He said, I'm going into

my wife's room to sleep with her. But her father

wouldn't let him in. I truly thought you must hate her,

her father explained, So I gave her in marriage to

your best man. But look, her younger sister's even more

beautiful than she is. Marry her instead. Samson said, this time,

I cannot be blamed for everything I'm going to do

to you Philistines. Then he went out and caught three

hundred foxes. He tied their tails and pears, and he

fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he

lit the torches and let the foxes run through the

grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain

to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain.

He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves. Who did this,

the Philistines demanded. Samson was replied because his father in

law from Timna gave Samson's wife to be married to

his best man. So the Philistines went and got the

woman and her father and burned them to death. Because

you did this, Bowed, I won't rest until I take

my revenge on you. So he attacked the Philistines with

grape fury and killed many of them, and then he

went to live in a cave in the Rock of Eatom.

The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and

spread out near the town of Lehigh. The men of

Judah asked the Philistines, why are you attacking us, and

the Philistines replied, we've come to capture Samson. We've come

to pay him back for what he did to us.

So three thousand men of Judah went down to get

Samson at the cave in the Rock of Edom. They

said to Samson, don't you realize if Philistines rule over us,

what are you doing to us? But Samson replied, I

only did to them what they did to me. But

the men of Judah told him, we've come to tie

you up and hand you over to the Philistines. All right,

Samson said, but promise that you won't kill me yourselves.

We will only tie you up and hand you over

to the Philistines. They replied, we won't kill you, So

they tied him up with new ropes and brought him

up from the rock. As Samson arrived at Lehigh, the

Philistines came out shouting in triumph. But the spirit of

the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the

ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands

of flax, and they fell from his wrists. And then

he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He

picked it up and killed a thousand Philistines with it.

And then Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey,

I have piled them in heaps. With the job bone

of a donkey, I have killed a thousand men. When

he finished his boasting, he threw away the jawbone, and

the police was called Jawbone Hill. Samson's now very thirsty,

and he cried out to the Lord. You've accomplished this

great victory by the strength of your servant. Must have

now die of thirst and fall into the hands of

these pagans. So God caused water to gush out of

a hollow in the ground at Lehigh. Samson was revived

as he drank, and then he named the place the

spring of the one who cried out, and it is

still in Lehigh to this day. Samson judged Israel for

twenty years during the period when the Philistines dominated the land.

I love how he named the place after himself.

Yes, it's so Samson, Yeah, that is so Samson.

It is, it is. I was thinking about that.

I actually that, so I actually looked up other names

of places.

Yeah right, they're all named after the one who provides.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jacob named Bethel, which means house of God. That's where

he met God. So it wasn't the house of the

place where the man met God.

Right right, right right.

Jehovah Jyrah.

Abraham named this place Jehovah Jirah, which means the Lord

will provide. It was named after a ram was substituted.

It wasn't named the place where I found a ram, right,

it was the place God provided, right.

The place where the one where the one found the ram.

Hey, do you remember the story when Jacob wrestled with God. Yes,

so he named that place penile right or penial or

whatever it means, the face of God. Not where I

wrestled with God, right right. It's hysterical.

The one who wrestled with God.

But but he calls this spring God get God makes

water out of the ground, and he goes, I'm going

to in this place the one who cried out, the

spring of the one who cried out. Yeah, he named

it after himself, one who cried out, Yeah, not the

place where God provides water.

It's so unbelievable.

He could have named it God is refreshing.

But no, bro, Yeah, God is refreshing.

Yeah yeah, yeah, but.

The quencher of thirsty Yeah, right, anything right, pick one?

But nope, Sampson did it. He named it for himself.

He's so unbelievably narcissistic.

Yeah, the spring of the one who cried out, Oh,

Sampson's spring yep. And and yeah, I mean there's only

what four chapters on this guy's life. Yes, I had

totally forgotten because the last time that I didn't you know,

I didn't prep I get her a few minutes late.

I didn't even read ahead. I'd totally forgotten that he

went back expecting to still be married.

Yeah, and that's.

Why he did it. I remember the fox story and

everything else, the joblone story, which, by the way, holy cow,

right right, jawbone of donkey? Are you kidding me?

Crazy?

And I've seen a job bone of a donkey, like

an actual job one. I went to Cuba, Yeah, it's

about yeah, about what foot a little over front. I

went to Cuba and there was a guy who had

a job oone of a donkey and the teeth were,

you know, still in place, and he grabbed he used

it as a musical instrument and he was saing. He

was just like, you know, dragging it along and it

sounded awesome and he's and he's playing this job on

and then this other guy has this makeshift ukulele type

thing or whatever it is and uh and they were

sitting on the side of the road and I filmed

them and I was like, this is amazing and I

said what is that? And he said it's the job

one of a donkey And I was like, are you

kidding me? And of course I immediately thought of this, right,

like you know, when you kill somebody with that, you know,

I mean, how could you do that? You know what?

The answer is?

Supernatural strength, yes, from God, the spirit of Guy from God.

Yes, yeah, that's the theme.

The theme is the spirit of Guy comes on him,

but then he takes all the credit and does whatever

he wants to with it.

Right, So God uses Samson in spite of himself. Yes,

like in other words, you know, you knew that he

was born to take on the Philistines. You knew that

he was born to you know, combat them and deliver

the Chune of Israel from their oppression. All that was announced,

and you know he he basically is doing that, you know, right,

So he's killing one thousand men, he's making a ruckus,

you know, he's declaring war upon them single handedly. So

he's sort of doing the prediction. But he's doing it

his own way, which leads me to believe that this

wasn't necessarily the way that God wanted him to do it.

Right.

Well, up to this point, he's doing it as a citizen.

He's not even the he's not even the judge until

verse twenty, right, So he's just doing it because he

wants to do it.

Well, he's doing it because he's mad.

Yeah, angry.

Well, as a matter of fact, that's that's the verse

that jumps off the page for me is verse eleven.

He said I only did to them what they did

to me. Right, So there's this cycle back and forth.

It's literally was it, uh, doctor egrich In Emerson Emerson?

It was Emerson Emerson, Yeah, Emerson edgridch He talks about

the crazy cycle, right, Couples get on this crazy cycle

where they get revenge back and forth, back and forth,

you know, you don't. You don't show me respect, so

I'm not going to be romantic and uh, then you know,

you're not treating me with love, and so I'm going

to be disrespectful. And they go back and forth, back

and forth. It's not always a conscious decisions. A lot

of times it is, but it's not always a lot

of times it's reflexive. It's it's just a natural response,

and it's it's basically a cycle of revenge. We're seeing

that in geopolitics right now in the Middle East. We're

watching Israel get revenge, and then Iran getting revenge, and

then Israel getting revenge, and then I Ran getting revenge.

And they call it it's an honor.

What do they call it? Like honor?

Revenge almost is the idea is, hey, you offended us,

We're going to hurt you back. And and they just wait, okay,

shoot some more rockets in all right, we're gonna go

blow this person up or assassinate this person. And it's

just punishment, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth,

and there's no end to that, right, So they the

Philistines get mad. Uh you know, we well, first of all,

he feels like he's offended because this Philistine father gave

his wife away. Well that there is an offense there,

no lie. So he just goes ahead and burns down

all of the food for next winter for the Philistines, right,

destroys it all for everybody. Right, that's a little heavy handed. Well, right,

he's going to.

Take out probably more people that way than he did

with the Jaba.

Right.

So then they go and burn to death his wife

and her father. So then he goes, oh, well, I'm

gonna go fight a.

Bunch of people. And what is it?

He kills a bunch of people, right, He goes in

and takes revenge, attax the Philisines with great fury and

killed many of them.

It doesn't say how many.

And then he's going hiding in a cave, and so

then they come hunting him. They're threatening, they're starting to

spread out through Judah now and they're threatening him, and

so the men come and get him, and in that

then he winds up killing a thousand people. But his defenses,

I'm only doing to them what they did to me.

And I wonder how often we use that same right

we feel justified.

Yeah, it's a complete justification. I mean, first of all,

that's not what they did to him and he didn't

do back with right, I mean it's not the same. Yes,

Like those are not equal things, right right, I mean

just the fire is the is the common denomination there,

but those are not equal things. And so yeah, well

I think that we all can learn from Samson, and

there's a little Samson and all of us in that

way where we'd justify ourselves. And then if somebody tries

to saber like Samson, we say, well wait a minute, no, no, no, no,

my story is different and everybody has their own story.

Everybody has their own set of exceptions.

Don't we Yes, we do.

But yeah, it's just it's pretty funny, not funny, hah.

Well, revenge is always a dead end, you know. I

think if I can remember, not long ago, a couple

had split up, they got a divorce, They had some children,

and both of the parents were playing tug a war

with the kids, and so it was constantly he would

punish her by being extra late dropping the kids off,

and so because he was late dropping the kids off,

she'd punish him by scheduling something on his day for visitation.

And it would go back and forth and constantly escalating,

and you know who lost everybody else and the kids,

probably the kids, That's what I'm saying. And you see

that a lot where somebody has to be the adult.

What we see with Samson is he was so narcissistic

and so juvenile in the way he behaves. So his strength,

his physical abilities when God would come on him, far

exceeded his character or his maturity, right, and so he

never had the character of the maturity to just de

escalate a thing. He always took it to the next level,

you know, always took it too far, and then that

would demand that the people come back and get revenge

they felt like, and it just kept going back and forth.

And so here's a guy that God chose to bring

peace to Israel through military combat, leading the people, and

instead he's just out there stirring the pot for all

this time until he finally becomes the Judge of Israel.

But then you know, he's not a wise man and

he's not bringing peace. He's constantly bringing chaos. As a

matter of fact, there is no peace in his leadership.

You think of all the others Darren Deborah, she wins

a victory and for the next thirty forty years.

There's piece.

You think of Othneil, you think of he hud right,

you think a Gideon during their time after their big battle.

From that point on, there's piece, But not with Samson.

So even though he was a judge, he wasn't a

wise judge and there was never peace during his leadership.

Yeah, and the Philistines were more brutal than at least

it seems to be indicated, right, I mean they carry

all the way on through you know, uh.

To David was going to say through David.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what I should have said,

by the way earlier, I should have said immediately, I'm

gonna make Jeff National Jeff Forrester Day to travel around

the world within Indiana Jones Complex.

Oh okay, I should have said that. Okay, so that's

a callback too, yes, yeah, well that might be a

place to end. What just have people imagine the wonders

in the glory of should I get Fedora? Do you

think I should get a Fedora?

There's no way. You don't know what.

I don't have one?

Really, why would you not have one?

Because nerds do that?

No, I mean there's legeniic places where you would need it.

In the sun.

Yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to do it again.

Yeah. Well, hey, that was a great chapter. There was

a lot to learn. So yeah, I guess that we

are at our time.

Uh yeah, revenge. There's no end to revenge. You have

to be the grown up and decide to stop it

because there was no peace. Ever, his job was to

bring peace. He never brought peace because he was always

in a revenge cycle.

Well then I'll just I'll go ahead and then do

a call back to Emerson's breaking the cycle.

Yeah.

So the downward spiral of emerson cycle is he would say,

you know, you disrespect me, and then I do something

unloving and then because you feel unloved, you disrespect me.

And the way to break the cycle is to say, hey, wow,

what you just did feels really disrespectful. So what did

I do that was unloving? And then and then basically

look at yourself and then you know, she has the

opportunity to say, okay, this is what you did, and

then you know she can say the same thing, Hey

that felt really unloving. What did I do that felt disrespectful?

And that's the way to break the cycle. So so

there you go. You all right, well, that ends her

time together and we will see you next time on

the Bible Guys.