士師記15:1-20

15:1 過了些日子，到割麥子的時候，參孫帶著一隻山羊羔去看他的妻，說：「我要進內室見我的妻。」他岳父不容他進去，
15:2 說：「我估定你是極其恨她，因此我將她給了你的陪伴。她的妹子不是比她還美麗嗎？你可以娶來代替她吧！」
15:3 參孫說：「這回我加害於非利士人不算有罪。」
15:4 於是參孫去捉了三百隻狐狸（或譯：野狗），將狐狸尾巴一對一對地捆上，將火把捆在兩條尾巴中間，
15:5 點著火把，就放狐狸進入非利士人站著的禾稼，將堆集的禾捆和未割的禾稼，並橄欖園盡都燒了。
15:6 非利士人說：「這事是誰做的呢？」有人說：「是亭拿人的女婿參孫，因為他岳父將他的妻給了他的陪伴。」於是非利士人上去，用火燒了婦人和她的父親。
15:7 參孫對非利士人說：「你們既然這樣行，我必向你們報仇才肯罷休。」
15:8 參孫就大大擊殺他們，連腿帶腰都砍斷了。他便下去，住在以坦磐的穴內。
15:9 非利士人上去安營在猶大，布散在利希。
15:10 猶大人說：「你們為何上來攻擊我們呢？」他們說：「我們上來是要捆綁參孫；他向我們怎樣行，我們也要向他怎樣行。」
15:11 於是有三千猶大人下到以坦磐的穴內，對參孫說：「非利士人轄制我們，你不知道嗎？你向我們行的是甚麼事呢？」他回答說：「他們向我怎樣行，我也要向他們怎樣行。」
15:12 猶大人對他說：「我們下來是要捆綁你，將你交在非利士人手中。」參孫說：「你們要向我起誓，應承你們自己不害死我。」
15:13 他們說：「我們斷不殺你，只要將你捆綁交在非利士人手中。」於是用兩條新繩捆綁參孫，將他從以坦磐帶上去。
15:14 參孫到了利希，非利士人都迎著喧嚷。耶和華的靈大大感動參孫，他臂上的繩就像火燒的麻一樣，他的綁繩都從他手上脫落下來。
15:15 他見一塊未乾的驢腮骨，就伸手拾起來，用以擊殺一千人。
15:16 參孫說：我用驢腮骨殺人成堆，用驢腮骨殺了一千人。
15:17 說完這話，就把那腮骨從手裡拋出去了。那地便叫拉末‧利希。
15:18 參孫甚覺口渴，就求告耶和華說：「你既藉僕人的手施行這麼大的拯救，豈可任我渴死、落在未受割禮的人手中呢？」
15:19 上帝就使利希的窪處裂開，有水從其中湧出來。參孫喝了，精神復原；因此那泉名叫隱‧哈歌利，那泉直到今日還在利希。
15:20 當非利士人轄制以色列人的時候，參孫作以色列的士師二十年。

 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 hated her,” he said, “that I gave her to your companion. 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 companion.”

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 swear that 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.

⁹ The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. ¹⁰ The people of Judah asked, “Why have you come to fight us?”

“We have come to take Samson prisoner,” they answered, “to do to him as he did to us.”

¹¹ Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?”

He answered, “I merely did to them what they did to me.”

¹² They said to him, “We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”

Samson said, “Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves.”

¹³ “Agreed,” they answered. “We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock. ¹⁴ As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

¹⁶ Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have made donkeys of them.^[a]
With a donkey’s jawbone
    I have killed a thousand men.”

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.^[b]

¹⁸ Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore,^[c] and it is still there in Lehi.

²⁰ Samson led^[d] Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

***********

    在人看來參孫和非利士人之間好像是冤冤相報，在人可能會動慈心，引用佛家的說法：「冤冤相報何時了？」認為「冤仇宜解不宜結！但是，對參孫受上帝揀選為士師，是要和非利士人和平相處嗎？

    今天有許多人只講求表面的和平，認為凡事要禮讓人，要是如此真的能為真理來征戰嗎？當然不能！該爭的事情還是要爭，該反對的事情就應該反對！

    就像《使徒行傳》15章1-4節所敘述：

15:1 有幾個人從猶太下來，教訓弟兄們說：「你們若不按摩西的規條受割禮，不能得救。」

15:2 保羅、巴拿巴與他們大大地紛爭辯論；眾門徒就定規，叫保羅、巴拿巴和本會中幾個人，為所辯論的，上耶路撒冷去見使徒和長老。

15:3 於是教會送他們起行。他們經過腓尼基、撒馬利亞，隨處傳說外邦人歸主的事，叫眾弟兄都甚歡喜。

15:4 到了耶路撒冷，教會和使徒並長老都接待他們，他們就述說上帝同他們所行的一切事。

    在這個事件中「保羅、巴拿巴與他們大大地紛爭辯論」，這是非重要的！要是他們不站起來說話，只維持表面的和平，耶穌基督的福音就變質了！變成大家要先成為猶太人，也就是受割禮、遵行猶太人的律法，才可以信耶穌！

    也因為「保羅、巴拿巴與他們大大地紛爭辯論」，才能使福音先於猶太人的割禮和律法，人只要信靠耶穌基督就可以成為上帝的兒女，與上帝和好，將來與基督一同進入榮耀境！

    正如當年馬丁路德反對贖罪卷的販賣，進而進行宗教的改革！提出「五個唯獨」：唯獨聖經、唯獨基督、唯獨恩典、唯獨信心、唯獨上帝的榮耀！在今日，這「五個唯獨」更是教會重要的立場！

    我們稱為「改教家的後代」為了讓教會堅立在這世代，我們仍然要高舉這「五個唯獨」：唯獨聖經、唯獨基督、唯獨恩典、唯獨信心、唯獨上帝的榮耀！該爭的一定要爭！