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•It All Started With 300 Animals and a Match•By Joshua AdamsSamson didn't start this story looking for a war.He went back for his wife.And found out she had been given to another man.What happened next is one of those Bible stories that almost sounds too wild to be real.Samson caught 300 foxes.He paired them tail to tail.Put a burning torch between each pair.Lit them.And turned them loose in the Philistines' fields.“And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.”Judges 15:4The fire ripped through their standing grain, vineyards, and olive trees.Their harvest burned.Their food burned.Their livelihood burned.But this wasn't the end of Samson's revenge.It was the beginning of something much darker.When the Philistines discovered why Samson had done it, they retaliated by burning his wife and her father.Then Samson retaliated against them.“Yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.”Judges 15:7That sentence stopped me.After that I will cease.One more act of revenge.One more person has to pay.One more wound inflicted because of the wound I received.Then I'll stop.Except it didn't stop.The Philistines came after Samson.Thousands of men from Judah became involved.Samson was bound and handed over.Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, the ropes broke from his arms, and Samson picked up the jawbone of a donkey.A thousand Philistine men fell.Judges 15:14–16.And suddenly this story about 300 burning animals doesn't seem nearly as strange as it did at first.Because the fire didn't stay in the fields.It moved into people.Revenge answered revenge.Pain answered pain.Blood answered blood.Everybody had a reason for what they did next.That's what vengeance does.It convinces you that your next act will finally make the last one hurt less.Samson said:“After that I will cease.”But he didn't understand something we still struggle to understand.Revenge always promises an ending while quietly writing another chapter.And this is where Christ calls us somewhere completely different.“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves.”Romans 12:19Not because what happened to you didn't matter.Not because evil should be called good.But because vengeance belongs in hands far more righteous than ours.Samson set fire to a field because he had been wronged.Before long, people were dying.Be careful what you light while you're hurting.The fire you start trying to make someone else feel your pain may burn far beyond the place you intended it to stop.Read Judges 15.It isn't just a story about Samson's strength.It's a warning about what happens when nobody decides to put the fire out.#Samson #Judges15 #BibleStudy #BibleStories #JesusChristjy•By Joshua AdamsSamson didn't start this story looking for a war.He went back for his wife.And found out she had been given to another man.What happened next is one of those Bible stories that almost sounds too wild to be real.Samson caught 300 foxes.He paired them tail to tail.Put a burning torch between each pair.Lit them.And turned them loose in the Philistines' fields.“And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails.”Judges 15:4The fire ripped through their standing grain, vineyards, and olive trees.Their harvest burned.Their food burned.Their livelihood burned.But this wasn't the end of Samson's revenge.It was the beginning of something much darker.When the Philistines discovered why Samson had done it, they retaliated by burning his wife and her father.Then Samson retaliated against them.“Yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.”Judges 15:7That sentence stopped me.After that I will cease.One more act of revenge.One more person has to pay.One more wound inflicted because of the wound I received.Then I'll stop.Except it didn't stop.The Philistines came after Samson.Thousands of men from Judah became involved.Samson was bound and handed over.Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, the ropes broke from his arms, and Samson picked up the jawbone of a donkey.A thousand Philistine men fell.Judges 15:14–16.And suddenly this story about 300 burning animals doesn't seem nearly as strange as it did at first.Because the fire didn't stay in the fields.It moved into people.Revenge answered revenge.Pain answered pain.Blood answered blood.Everybody had a reason for what they did next.That's what vengeance does.It convinces you that your next act will finally make the last one hurt less.Samson said:“After that I will cease.”But he didn't understand something we still struggle to understand.Revenge always promises an ending while quietly writing another chapter.And this is where Christ calls us somewhere completely different.“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves.”Romans 12:19Not because what happened to you didn't matter.Not because evil should be called good.But because vengeance belongs in hands far more righteous than ours.Samson set fire to a field because he had been wronged.Before long, people were dying.Be careful what you light while you're hurting.The fire you start trying to make someone else feel your pain may burn far beyond the place you intended it to stop.Read Judges 15.It isn't just a story about Samson's strength.It's a warning about what happens when nobody decides to put the fire out.#Samson #Judges15 #BibleStudy #BibleStories #JesusChrist