TYPES OF CHRIST IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
SAMSON AND THE JAWBONE
Judges Chapter 15
The setting for this study is
Judges chapter 15, the first eight verses of which describe Samson’s slaughter
of many Philistines following his burning of their corn.
15:9.
“Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in
Lehi.”
Lehi means cheek: jawbone,
and inasmuch as it was the place where Samson slew a thousand Philistines with
the jawbone of an ass, it points to the great victory won by Christ at
Calvary.
15:10.
“And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered,
To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.”
This points back to the evil
activity of the powers of darkness against Christ two thousand years ago, for
he who sent these Philistines against Israel was Satan, the same malignant
spirit who impelled Israel’s hatred of Christ.
15:11.
“Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said
to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is
this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me,
so have I done unto them.”
This demonstrates the
completeness of the Philistine domination of Judah at that time, as it does
also the extent to which Israel lay under the spiritual dominion of apostasy
and the political dominion of Caesar at the time of Christ’s first advent.
15:12.
“And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver
thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto
me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.”
Judah’s binding of Samson, and
their delivering him to the Philistines is an unmistakable picture of the
Jews’ delivering Christ into the hand of the Romans; and in that context we
read the spiritual significance of Samson’s having the assurance that the men
of Judah would not themselves kill him. The type was fulfilled when the Jews
delivered Christ to Pilate, leaving the Romans to carry out the actual
execution.
15:13.
“And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver
thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him
with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.”
As the next verse reveals,
Samson wasn’t bound by those cords. He could have broken them any time he
wished; and in this we see declared the truth that the Lord’s submission both
to the Jews and to the Romans was voluntary, as He Himself declared, “Thinkest
thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more
than twelve legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be
fulfilled, that thus it must be?” Mt 26:53-54; and again to Pilate, “Thou
couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from
above,” Jn 19:11
The type of the “two new
cords” is more difficult to translate, but one thought which can’t be ignored
is that they may represent the two charges brought against Christ: the one,
that He was a blasphemer claiming to be God, and the other, that He was
setting Himself up as a king in opposition to Caesar. The one “justified” His
condemnation by the Jews; the other, His condemnation by Rome.
But another thought also
suggests itself. Two other “cords” bound the Lord: one, His love for the
Father, and the other, His love for sinful men. He would willingly die for
the glory of the One, and the salvation of the other.
15:14.
“And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the
Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his
arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off
his hands.”
Lehi means cheek: jawbone,
and few will have difficulty in seeing that the mighty victory won there by
Samson is but a miniature of the greater victory won by Christ at Calvary.
In the presence of all those
Philistines, Samson, unbound, may have appeared no more formidable than when
he was bound, and so with Christ. In spite of all the miracles He had
performed during the three and a half years of His public ministry, Jews and
Romans alike had no fear of Christ that day when they led Him out to Calvary
and crucified Him. But it was with Him, delivered to their will, as it was
with Samson when delivered to the will of the Philistines. The hour of His
greatest seeming weakness proved to be the hour of His greatest victory.
15:15.
“And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it,
and slew a thousand men therewith.”
The victory was accomplished
by a means unheard of: with Samson, it was the jawbone of an ass; with Christ,
it was His submission to death. It is significant that Lehi means cheek
or jawbone, for in connection with Christ’s great victory at Calvary
the cheek is also mentioned in Scripture: “they shall smite the judge of
Israel with a rod upon the cheek,” Mic 5:1, “I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame
and spitting,” Isa 50:6; and Job, who is also a type of Christ, said, “The
gaped upon me with their mouth: they have smitten me upon the cheek
reproachfully,” Job 16:10.
To smite one on the cheek was
to express contemptuous hatred. It was by His submission to being “smitten on
the cheek” that Christ slew the enemy at Calvary, and won His greatest
victory. Samson’s slaughter of the thousand Philistines with the jawbone of
an ass, pictures that victory in which Christ, by submission, conquered, As
expressed by the poet:
In weakness and defeat, He won the meed and crown;
Trod all His foes beneath His feet,
By being trodden down.
There is, however, a further
significance to it’s being the jawbone of an ass, for the ass was an
unclean animal. Is God perhaps reminding us that Calvary’s mighty victory was
accomplished because Christ was willing to become “unclean,” so that we might
be made clean? “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him,” 2 Co 5:21. As Samson, a
Nazarite, contracted defilement by touching the bone of the dead ass, so did
the Lord become sin when He voluntarily took our guilty place at Calvary. But
as it was by his willingness to be defiled that Samson defeated the enemy, so
was it with Christ. By His willingness to take our sins upon Him and die for
them, we have been saved, and the enemy defeated.
Since the jaw is clearly
associated with speech, we may be meant to see also here in symbol the fact
that the Lord Who is the living Word, assumed humanity, and in perfect
submission to the written Word, died in order to fulfil it, and thus make
atonement for sin.
A further significance
attaching to that jawbone is that it was still moist, for that is the literal
meaning of the word “new.” In other words, it was that of an ass that had
just died and hadn’t yet begun to decay. The body of Christ saw no
corruption, as it is written, “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither
wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption,” Ps 16:10. See also Ac
2:31.
15:16.
“And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw
of an ass have I slain a thousand men.”
This is the OT typological
anticipation of the words that concluded Christ’s great battle at Calvary, “It
is finished,” Jn 19:30. The slaughter of the thousand Philistines speaks of
the victory of Christ over Satan, sin, and death.
15:17.
“And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away
the jawbone out of his hand, and called the place Ramath-Lehi jawbone
height.”
Samson’s casting away the
jawbone is the symbolic announcement that when Christ said “It is finished,”
He ceased to be what He had been willing to be made, and which must have
revolted His holy soul, i.e., sin. He will never again have to undergo that
terrible experience. When He comes again, it will be as declared in He
9:27-28, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them
that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto
salvation.” It speaks also of the fact that having assumed humanity in order
to die, the human body of flesh and blood was now set aside, for with the
great work of redemption completed, it was no longer needed.
Calvary, the scene of His
greatest humiliation, became the true Ramath-lehi: the scene of His greatest
exaltation, for it was from that cross where He had hung crowned with thorns,
that He has returned to heaven, where He now sits exalted at the Father’s
right hand, the writer of Hebrews reminding us that now, “We see Jesus, who
was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor,” He 2:9.
15:18.
“And he was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast given
this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for
thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
No one will forget that at the
end of His great victory the Lord also thirsted, as we read in Jn 19:28,
“After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the
scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst” Clearly Samson’s thirst
points to Christ’s.
15:19.
“But God clave a hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water
thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived:
wherefore he called the name thereof En-hakkore fount of the caller,
which is in Lehi unto this day.”
The water didn’t come out of
the jawbone itself, but rather out of a rock cleft by God at the place, which
because of the victory won there by means of the jawbone, came to be known as
“the jawbone.”
That cleft rock, of course, is
a type of Christ smitten at Calvary, and becoming thereby the source of the
water of life to all who trust Him as Savior. We must note, however, that
Samson was the first to drink from that cleft rock, and the spiritual message
is easily read. This points to the satisfaction which the Lord Himself enjoys
as a result of that mighty victory won at Calvary, as it is written in Isa
53:11, “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”
Its being said of Samson that,
“when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived” makes it
clear that his revival is a figure of the Lord’s resurrection.
Its being said that it is in
Lehi “unto this day” points to the eternal efficacy of the work so perfectly
completed when He said, “It is finished.” And its being called En-hakkore
fount of the caller reminds us that Calvary is the true En-hakkore, for as
a result of the Lord’s mighty victory won there, the fountain of living water
has been opened for all men, as it is written, “For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Ro 10:13. Very different from the
repentant call that brings salvation to sinners, was the call from the lips of
Christ when He hung on the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”
Mt 27:46. On that occasion there was no response!
A further discussion of Samson
as a type of Christ will be available next week, God willing.
For a detailed discussion of
Samson as a type of Christ, please consult Judges
chapters 13-16, also available on this Web site.