William Huntington

XIV. - Great Exploits by Simple Means

"And Samson said, With the jaw-bone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men," Judges, xv. 16.

THOSE great men of God who have appeared in the world at different times, and who have cut such a figure and performed such wonders upon earth, both in the antediluvian world, in the age of the patriarchs, and under the former dispensation, all appeared as personating, representing, and introducing, one greater, that is, CHRIST JESUS, in whom all their offices and characters meet and centre.

Moses represents him as Mediator; Aaron as High Priest of our profession; Joshua as Captain of our salvation; the Judges as Judge of quick and dead; the prophets as the great Prophet of his church; David as King of Israel; Solomon as Prince of Peace and Builder of the temple; and Samson as Israel's great Deliverer.

There was an almighty power put forth and displayed in the conception and birth of this hero; the Angel of the great council, the Lord himself, reveals it to the wife of Manoah, who was by nature barren. The Lord tells her this, "Behold, now, thou art barren, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son:" hence it is plain that Samson was a child, or an heir of promise; and, as he was to spring from one who was by nature barren, it is as plain that the power of God was put forth to make that barren tree bear. Christ also was the promised seed, and a greater power was displayed in the wonderful conception of him.

Samson was to be a Nazarite to God, and Jesus was to be called Netzer, "the branch," the branch of the Lord, which is beautiful and glorious; sanctified and devoted to the service of God from the womb.

"And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of God began to move him at times in the camp of Dan." In this also he was a type of him who had grace poured into his lips, and who is blessed for evermore, and who at twelve years old was so moved by the Spirit to speak as to astonish the Jewish doctors with his understanding and answers.

Samson sees a woman of Timnah, a Philistine, whom he loved, and desires his father and his mother to get her for him to wile, Judges, xiv. 1, 2. This was contrary to the law of God; but God is above all law, "for even this thing was of the Lord," Judges, xiv. 4. We know that there were women enough in Israel; but this thing must be done to represent what his ante-type would do, who has done the same thing. Christ sees the elect Gentiles, and falls in love with them; and he desired his father and mother to "get them for him to wife." Well, says the Father, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession," Psalm ii. 8. Christ desires his mother (gospel Zion), the Jewish church, "to send forth Barnabas and Paul to the Gentiles." and she did so, and defrayed their expenses in the work; "They went forth for his name's sake, taking nothing of the Gentiles;" and they espoused the Gentiles "to a good husband, and presented them as a chaste virgin to Christ."

But in Samson's courtship "there was a lion in the way; but Samson rent him as he would rend a kid." And there was also a lion in Christ's way, the old roaring lion of the bottomless pit, who roared sadly against him in the hearts of his persecutors; but the Saviour "destroyed him who had the power of death," that is the devil. And there was a young lion that roared against Jesus in the ministry of Paul, I mean that savage "beast," the pagan Roman empire. But, saith Paul, "I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion," 2 Tim. iv. 17. And both were soon rent. Many of the Lord's murderers were converted at the preaching of Peter, Acts, ii. 41; and the Roman lion was at a long run rent, and the empire under Constantine became Christian.

"Samson returns and finds honey in the carcass of the lion;" and so does the true Deliverer of Israel; for, in many a rebellious sinner's heart, which has been the strong man's palace, where Satan has reigned and ruled, and out of whose heart and Satan hath often roared, "there hath been found the sweet consolations of the Holy Ghost, compared to honey," Prov. xxiv. 13; and the precious promises of the gospel, "which are sweeter than honey, and the honeycomb," Psalm xix. 10; cxix. 103. Samson eats some of the honey, and so doth his father and mother; and what saith our great Deliverer? Why he saith, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; eat, O friends," Cant. v. 1. Yea, after his resurrection from the dead, as soon as he had destroyed the old lion, "they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honeycomb," Luke, xxiv. 42. And Zion, our venerable mother, feeds on the same fare; yea, and even our heavenly Father is better pleased with our sweet savour of Christ, than with "sweet cane," Isaiah, xliii. 24. He taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants, and saith at the return of the prodigal, "Let us eat and be merry," Luke, xv. 23.

Samson's feast, and the riddle put forth at it, were the occasion of the first disturbances among the Philistines; and Christ has made a most delicious feast for his bride and all his bridal friends; and hath put forth a riddle that hath puzzled the most wise and prudent in the world, and all others, except the few that "plow with his heifer." And sure I am that the destruction of the old lion by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the destruction of sin in the souls of men, by the blessed Spirit and sweet word of the Lord, is the substance of the gospel mystery to this day, "What is stronger than a lion, and what is sweeter than honey?" To answer this spiritually, and experimentally, is a good explanation of the riddle.

But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend. The Lord Jesus was a husband to the whole Jewish church; and they called him so, and boasted much of the Messiah: but the great doctors and fathers of that national church, by their rejection of Christ, and by their threatenings, excommunications, and murders of his saints, gave themselves and others up to the law, and to Moses, and rejected the divine wooer, for which she was put away; and thus "she played the harlot," Hosea, ii. 5.

The Saviour had a spouse also in the Roman empire; but a pretended friend of the Lord's, such as Samson had, seduced that national church to apostacy, and, under the character of the Lord's bishop, became the Lord's rival, styling himself "the head of the church, and a God on earth."

And what did Samson's wife get by her conduct? She was burnt with fire. And what did the Jewish synagogue get? Why, the Romans burnt the temple, and many in it, with fire; and, it the Lord's threatenings fell upon them "that they could not escape the damnation of hell," then they were burnt in a worse fire. And shall the great whore of Babylon escape for her adultery? No. "She shall be utterly burnt with fire, for strong is the Lord God that judged her;" and he will judge her as one that breaketh wedlock is judged. The law requires that all "priests' daughters," (as the Jewish synagogue and popish church are,) "if they play the whore, should be burnt with fire," Levit. xxi. 9.

But (to be short) Samson was raised up a deliverer for Israel, and he set his heart upon their deliverance; and he sought many occasions against the enemies of God's people; and the Saviour "had the day of vengeance in his heart when the year, of his redeemed was come." Samson admitted even harlots to his bosom, and revealed his greatest secrets to them; and even idolators, spiritual harlots, as well as publicans and literal harlots, have been taken into union with our great Deliverer, who in the days of his flesh, and ever since, "hath received sinners and eaten with them," and to such poor miserable creatures the greatest mysteries of his kingdom have been and still are revealed, while they are hid from the wise and prudent.

Samson was bound and delivered into the hands of his enemies his own people, whom he was born to deliver; and so was Christ bound, and sent to Herod, and to the Roman governor, and into the hands of the Gentiles. They blinded Samson, and they blindfolded Christ; the former ground in the mill, and the latter was ground himself, to be the bread of life for his people. Samson was put in prison, "and the Lord was taken from prison and from judgment." Samson, in his greatest distress, was called forth to make sport; and Christ, in his greatest agonies, was buffeted, smote, mocked, spit upon, enrobed, crowned with thorns, sceptered with a reed, called upon to prophesy who smote him; they bowed the knee to him, derided him, and spoke blasphemous things against him.

But Samson did not long make sport; the joy of these hypocritical sportsmen was but for a moment; he bowed with all his might, and lifted up the two main pillars of the idol's temple, and reed all their laughter into weeping and gnashing of teeth, though he buried himself in the ruins. And so the greater Judge Israel, when he bowed his head, threw down sin and death, the main pillars of Satan's kingdom, and triumphed over principalities and powers, and overcame the world; and by the resurrection of many of the dead, the appearance of them to many living in the city, the darkness, the earthquake, and the descent the angels from heaven, soon put a stop to the derision of the Jews, and made the Roman centurion smite his breast, and the soldiers tremble.

"With the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men." The ass is a dull, sluggish, head-strong, obstinate animal; and to a creature is fallen man compared; "Vain man would fain be wise, though man be born like a wild ass's colt," Job, xi. 12. This sluggish animal is noted for strength, and seems to be deigned chiefly for burdens; and to this creature Jacob compares stupid tribe of Issachar. "Issachar is a strong ass, couching down between two burdens; he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant, and bowed his shoulders to bear, and came a servant to tribute," Gen. xlix. 14.

The ass under the law was ranked among the unclean beasts, and was never to be offered as a sacrifice, when bulls and he-goats were; and there are mystical asses that will never fall as sacrifices to divine justice, when many fat bulls of Bashan and goats will.

"The firstling of an ass was to be redeemed with a lamb; and, if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break its neck," Exodus, xiii. 13. And there are mystical asses which are redeemed by the Lamb of God; and those that are not will have their necks broke; that is, all their false confidences and their false claims upon Christ will be broken off, and they will be separated from him who is "the head of the church." The church of God bears the name of this beast; "A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure, in her occasion who can turn her way? All they that seek her will not weary themselves, in her month they shall find her," Jer. ii. 24.

The scriptures give an account of two animals that have spoken in the world, the serpent and the ass. The voice of the first was to destroy man, and to bring him under the curse of God; the "voice of the latter was to rebuke the madness of a prophet, who was going to curse them whom the Lord had blessed." The devil opened the mouth of the serpent, but God opened the mouth of the ass. And there are serpents, and a generation of vipers, in the world, that speak for Satan to this day; and there are mystical asses that speak for God. What the serpent said was lies, but the whole speech of the ass was true; and she appealed to Balaam's conscience for confirmation, and he was obliged to justify her in her sayings, and take the guilt and shame to himself.

Balaam smote the ass, and wished for a sword in his hand to kill her, only because she turned out of the way that was perverse before God, crushed his foot against the wall, and fell under him, rather than carry him to the point of the angel's drawn sword; and there are some in the world now that would be glad to see the death of those asses that want to prevent their being "cut asunder, and having their portion appointed with hypocrites and unbelievers."

The ass is a creature that in general is kept for burden, slavery, and drudgery; and there is no heavier burden than sin, and no worse drudgery than that of the service of Satan. "But who hath sent the wild ass free, or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?" Job xxxix. 5. I answer, the same glorious person that said to his disciples, "Loose the ass and the colt, and bring them unto me; and, if the owner say, Why loose ye them, say, Because the Lord hath need of them, and he will send them." And it is a blessed thing to be made free from the bondage of sin and death; and they shall surely be loosed which the Lord hath need of; "and, if he makes them free, they shall be free indeed."

Notwithstanding the meanness of this creature, it hath been used and preferred before the horse by many very great personages in the world; the venerable patriarch Abraham rode on one when he went to offer up his son, Gen. xxii. 3, 5. The ram was offered upon the mount for a sacrifice, while the servant was bid to abide with the ass at the foot. The judges of Israel used "to ride upon white asses," Judges, v. 10. But what is the most remarkable instance, is, that the King of Israel, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, should choose this despicable animal to ride on; but no wonder, when he hath chosen the weak, the foolish, and the base things of this world, to confound the mighty, the wise, and the noble.

There were two prophecies that went before concerning the Lord's appearance on this creature; the tribe of Judah was to have a hand in this: "Binding his foot unto the vine, and his ass colt unto the choice vine," Gen. xlix. 11. And it is plain that the Lord Jesus Christ, the "living vine," was seen upon an ass's colt. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass," Zec. ix. 9.

Stupid as this creature is, the blind and ignorant Israelites have been reproved by it, and sent to school to it. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know (his owner), my people doth not consider," Isaiah, 3. And hence we see that "young asses have been redeemed with a lamb;" that "the Lord hath opened the mouth of an ass to speak; that he hath sent out the wild ass free; that the Lord himself ordered the asses to be loosed and brought to him, for that he had need of them;" and that the church of God is compared to, and called by the name of, this creature: yea, and about the time of Jerusalem's ruin, when the judgments of God were coming on, before and after the desolation of that city, when many eminent ministers of the gospel were sent out into the world to preach, and many inferior ones, such as ordinary teachers and helpers, they are called by the name of oxen and asses. "When it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low place. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass," Isaiah, xxxii. 19, 20. The hail that came down upon the forest was the judgments of Christ upon his unconverted enemies, who were not trees of righteousness in the Lord's garden, but corrupt trees in a forest: "the city in a low place," is Jerusalem in her calamities and desolations; "sowing beside all waters," is preaching "the word among all nations;" sending forth the feet of the ox and the ass is sending out fresh labourers into the Lord's husbandry, some in the yoke, and some with the cross.

"Heaps upon heaps, with the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men." But Samson slew his enemies not with a live ass, but with the jaw-bone of a dead one. True, and the mystical ass of which I am speaking is not fit for the Lord's work till he is "dead; a sinner alive in himself, and alive to sin," is of no use. "The commandment came, sin revived, and I died," says Paul; "I am crucified with Christ, I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified unto me." Such asses are of use to carry the Lord, and to bear him among the Gentiles. But Samson slew his foes with the jaw-bone of this creature. True, and so doth the Lord. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations for a witness against them, and then shall the end come." Real ministers in the ministry are made "the savour of death unto death, and of life unto life." But can a man preach without moving his jaw-bone? I suppose not. Peter, under one sermon, was the savour of life unto life to three thousand souls, Acts, ii. 41. But there was a great company of mockers who charged Peter with intoxication. "These mockers had their bands made strong," Isaiah, xxviii. 22. And to how many of these was Peter a savour of death unto death? I suppose the Saviour slew more by the moving of Peter's jaw-bone than ever Samson did. Samson slew a thousand men; but our David, by the foolishness of preaching, hath slain his ten thousands. "He shall judge among the heathen; he shall fill the places with the dead bodies (as Samson did); he shall wound the heads over many countries," Psalm cx. 6. This slaughter is "heaps upon heaps."

When Samson had slain his enemies "a violent thirst came upon him," which was satisfied by a miraculous spring of water; and when Christ wounds the heads over divers countries, and fills the places with the dead bodies, it is added, "He shall drink of the brook in the way, therefore shall he lift up his head," Psalm cx. 7.

Samson slew them "hip and thigh." By hip I understand foot soldiers, who move their hips in marching; and by thigh horse soldiers, who use their thighs in riding: "hip and thigh" foot and horse. And his work is not over yet; "the riders and horses have been confounded" as well as them that pad the hoof. Samson wished to be avenged of his adversaries for his "two eyes;" the glory of the Lord is called eyes, Isaiah, xxxviii.; and his church "the apple of his eye," Zech. ii. 8. And for the sake of these he will be avenged of his enemies, and of them that hate him, and hate Zion. The most mysterious judgment executed by Samson was burning the harvest of the Philistines with fire-brands carried by foxes. God compares false prophets to these cunning stinking vermin. "O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the desert," Ezek. xiii. 4. And false doctrine is false fire. "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled; this shall ye have at my hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow," Isaiah, l. 11. Christ promises to send not only three hundred, but many of these false prophets. "And false Christs shall come, yea, many shall come in my name, and shall deceive many. And these shall set fire both to the tares and to the stubble." Samson is ranked among the Lord's worthies. "The time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak, and of Samson," Heb. xi. 32. "Heaps upon heaps, with the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men."

Now for the mystery of his strength, and where it was concealed; not in his back, nor yet in his shoulders, nor in his arms, for we are to put no trust in either of these. "Let not the strong man glory in his strength." Samson's strength was hid in a "lock of his hair," a strange match! the greatest power in the weakest members. Samson's hair was a type of God's left, as sure as Samson was a type of Christ. Christ is the head of the church; and all his members stick as close to him as Samson's locks did to his head. But the locks of his head were shorn off; true, and this has been done over again since that time by the express order of God. "And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy beard; then take the balances to weigh, and divide the hair. Thou shalt burn with fire a third part, in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part, and smite about it with a knife; and a third part thou shalt scatter into the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel," Ezekiel, v. 1, 2, 3, 4. This prophet is a type of Christ the great prophet in his incarnation, and therefore is repeatedly called "the son of man" from one end of his book to the other, as Christ calls himself throughout his whole gospel. Now the Messiah had caused the national church of Israel to cleave to him, their king and head, as Ezekiel's hair had cleaved to his head; and they were as helpless without him as the prophet's hair when severed from his head. "Cutting off the hair" prefigured the sword of war, Chaldean and Roman, and Israel's banishment and separation from God's temple, and his presence there. "Weighing the hair" shewed his just dealings with them; they were weighed in the balances and found wanting. "Dividing the hair" shewed their different calamities according to the nature of their crimes. "One part was to be burnt," which shewed the fire of God's jealousy, and that some should be burnt in Jerusalem, and some roasted in the fire in Babylon; Jer. xxix. 22. "Another part was to be smitten with a knife. These were to be scattered into the wind, and numbered to the sword. And a few in number were to be bound in the prophet's skirt." These were those that "the Lord bid to live when he passed by them and spread his skirt over them," Ezekiel, vi. 8. Nevertheless, even these were to be put into the fire, the furnace of affliction; and another prophet tells us who they were. "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and I will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say, It is my people; and they shall say, The Lord is my God," Zech. xiii. 9. "And from these a fire was to go out into all the house of Israel." And this was fulfilled in the apostle's days; they "took hold of the skirt of him that was a Jew," and he made them "the light of the world;" and by the "cloven tongue" the Lord "made these his ministers a flaming fire," and the whole house of Israel that opposed their doctrine "was as stubble before them; and the day of the Lord, that burnt as an oven, left neither root nor branch" of them in the land of Israel. Samson's hairs were his weakest members, but here lay the Lord's power, and so it is now, the weakest souls that cleave to Christ have the greater share of promised strength. "Let the weak say, I am strong. To them that have no might he increaseth strength," for his strength is made perfect in weakness. "Heaps upon heaps, with the jaw-bone of an ass have I slain a thousand men;" true, and the jaw-bone is slaying still, and that with a much greater slaughter.