Day 93: Strengths and Weaknesses

Today's readings: Judges 12-15 and Psalm 146.

I. Judges 12 recounts the final events of the leadership of Jephthah and then briefly mentions three judges after him: Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. Of course, there was violent intertribal rivalry, which plagued Jephthah to be sure before his death.

In the next chapter, we find the story of Samson, one of the most famous judges of Israel. His father, Manoah, and his wife both received an angelic visit telling them that they would bear a son who would be a Nazirite. The chapter concludes with the birth of Samson.

Judges 14 begins with Samson's marriage to a Philistine woman (mistake), his public career, and introduces the conflict between his divine calling and his own personal weaknesses. He was quite a character, what with slaying a lion, eating honey from its carcass, and killing Philistines to pay off a debt to others of their countrymen.

In today's last chapter, Samson has conflict with the Philistine rulers over Israel. First, his father-in-law had given away his wife to Samson's companion, offering a younger sister instead. He refused and, through some animal cruelty, destroyed Philistine fields with crops, vineyards, and olive groves. They were outraged and burned to death Samson's wife and father-in-law in retaliation. He slaughtered many of them in return, and after being handed over to the Philistines, killed many more with the "jawbone of an ass."

The BIY Companion, Vol I, has some good commentary on this:

Samson is not a particularly "good guy." He is a "hero" because he is strong, but he is not wise. He is consecrated, but he is not living a consecrated life... Though strong, Samson has many weaknesses, particularly his passions: his anger and lust will get him into trouble. Like Samson, we all have certain strengths and weaknesses. Rather than despairing about our weaknesses or dismissing them, we take them up to the Lord and ask him to heal us and purify us. We humbly ask him to help us so our weaknesses will not be our downfall, as they will be for Samson. (p. 198)

II. Psalm 146 is, as the Ignatius Bible notes (verse numbers removed):

A psalm of praise. It invites the covenant people to look for help, not in earthly aristocrats, but in the God of Jacob. Trust in princes is misplaced and bound to disappoint; but trust in the Lord is a firm basis for hope. He is the world's all-powerful Creator as well as its all-benevolent King, who helps those who are powerless to escape their plight, such as those who are poor, oppressed, hungry, imprisoned, blind, sojourning, widowed, and orphaned. (p. 955)

There is a lot of wisdom in this psalm. Every mortal ruler or politician will let us down, for they too are human and fallible, capable of sin like the rest of us. Our complete trust, therefore, is far better for the Infinite, with God alone. 

That's it for today!