Fox Tails

Judges 15:1-8

¹After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in. ² And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.” ³ And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” ⁴ So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵ And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. ⁶ Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. ⁷ And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.” ⁸ And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

When it comes to creative warfare, this story of Samson and the foxes (or perhaps jackals – the Hebrew word is rarely used and thus somewhat unclear) stands alone. Samson gets credit for thinking outside of the box on this one.

This miniature painting comes from the Vatopedi monastery in Greece. It is over 1,000 years old and the author is unknown. Because of its age it is considered public domain.

Somewhat surprisingly, Samson decides to return to his “wife” in Timnah and comes bearing a goat as a gift only to discover that her father has given her to another man. The father offers his younger daughter to Samson and is soundly rejected. Samson is not a man to mess with and his determination to get revenge on this Philistine village causes him to devise a plan that would wipe out their food supply for the season. You must admit, catching 300 foxes and tying their tales together in pairs would be no small feat. Lighting and attaching a torch to the foxes effectively takes out the ripe fields. The Philistines then turn on themselves. They kill the woman who married Samson and her entire family. Now the Philistines are on alert and Samson becomes public enemy #1.

I have often typified Samson as “a big dumb guy.” But that isn’t really fair. He shows a great deal of ingenuity and determination with this scheme. The problem with his efforts at this point in his life is that he is seeking personal vengeance rather than fighting for Israel. But the outcome is the same. Philistia is taking damage. God’s plans are being fulfilled.

Perhaps that happens far more frequently than we might think. Perhaps when I’m making my plans and executing my ideas it is God working out His plans and His will. When something works and I take delight in how successful something was, perhaps granting God the glory and the praise would be more appropriate. That’s never the wrong thing to do. Again I am reminded that should I be consistent in seeking God's face before I strike out on my own path, then perhaps the success would be more quickly attributed to Him as it should have been in the first place.