The Treason of Pragmatism
Introduction: A Crisis of Nerve
We live in an age of profound compromise, an era where the people of God have largely forgotten who they are. We have become experts at negotiating the terms of our own surrender. We call it prudence, or realism, or keeping the peace. But the Bible has another name for it. It is a crisis of nerve, a failure of faith that amounts to treason against the God who called us.
The book of Judges is a grim and bloody account, but it is an honest one. It shows us the repeating cycle of sin, oppression, crying out to God, and deliverance. And in the middle of this cycle, we find men like Samson. Samson is a perplexing figure, a man of immense strength and glaring weakness, a Nazirite who often lived like a Philistine. And yet, the book of Hebrews enlists him in the hall of faith. This ought to make us sit up and pay attention. God's ways are not our ways, and His chosen instruments often look very little like the polished saints we manufacture in our imaginations.
In this passage, we see a stark and pathetic contrast. On the one hand, we have Samson, the flawed but chosen deliverer, a one-man wrecking crew against the enemies of God. On the other hand, we have the men of Judah, his own kinsmen, who have become so accustomed to their slavery that they are now willing to enforce it. They have made a pragmatic peace with evil, and Samson's holy violence is upsetting their carefully managed decline. This is not just an ancient story. This is the story of the modern church. We have made our peace with the Philistines of secularism, and we are often the first to hand over the troublemakers in our midst who insist on fighting.
The central issue here is covenantal loyalty. Who are your people? To whom do you belong? The men of Judah had forgotten that they were the people of Yahweh. Their identity had become wrapped up in their status as subjects of the Philistines. And when you forget who you are, you will inevitably act like someone else. You will do the enemy's work for him. This passage is a sobering warning to us. We must decide whether we fear God more than we fear the Philistines. We must decide whether we will stand with the Samsons, flawed as they may be, or whether we will be the ones to supply the ropes to bind them.
The Text
Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and spread out in Lehi. So the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” And they said, “We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.” Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so I have done to them.” And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you yourselves will not kill me.” So they said to him, “No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not put you to death.” Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
(Judges 15:9-13 LSB)
The Enemy's Advance and Judah's Question (v. 9-10)
The scene opens with the Philistines making a significant military move.
"Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah and spread out in Lehi. So the men of Judah said, 'Why have you come up against us?' And they said, 'We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us.'" (Judges 15:9-10)
Samson had just burned the Philistines' fields, vineyards, and olive groves in retaliation for what they did to his wife. This was not random vandalism; it was an act of war by the appointed judge of Israel. The Philistines, naturally, respond. They don't just send a small posse; they come up in force and camp in the heart of Judah. Their presence is a clear message of intimidation.
But notice the response of the men of Judah. Their first question is utterly revealing: "Why have you come up against us?" This is the question of a conquered people. This is the question of collaborators. They don't say, "What are you doing on our land?" They don't muster an army. They assume the Philistines have a right to be there, and that they, the men of Judah, must have done something to provoke this justified response. They have accepted the Philistine frame. Their slavery is not just external; it is in their heads.
The Philistines are brutally honest. They are not there because of a border dispute. They are there for one man: Samson. "We have come up to bind Samson." The enemy knows who the real threat is. It's not the 3,000 men of Judah who will soon show up. They are no threat at all. The threat is the one man, empowered by God, who refuses to accept the status quo. This is always the case. The world is not afraid of a tame and compliant church. It is not afraid of Christians who know their place. It is terrified of the one man or woman who, by the Spirit of God, stands up and says, "No more."
The Philistines' reason is simple vengeance: "to do to him as he did to us." This is the law of the playground, the law of paganism, the lex talionis without the framework of divine justice. But in their quest for revenge, they reveal the cowardice of Judah. The Philistines know that Judah will not protect their own champion. They are counting on Judah's betrayal.
The Confrontation of Cowardice (v. 11)
What happens next is a disgrace. An army of Israelites goes to confront, not the Philistines, but their own deliverer.
"Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, 'Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?' And he said to them, 'As they did to me, so I have done to them.'" (Judges 15:11 LSB)
Three thousand men. This is not a small delegation. This is an army. They have the numbers to fight the Philistines, but their force is directed entirely at Samson. They go "down" to the cleft of the rock, a fitting geographical description of their moral and spiritual descent. Samson is in a strong, defensible position, but he is alone.
Their question to Samson is the centerpiece of their shame. "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us?" This is the voice of pure pragmatism. They are not debating the theology of the covenant. They are not asking what God's law says about foreign oppressors. They are stating a fact on the ground. This is just the way things are. They have accepted their subjugation as a fixed reality. To them, Samson is not a deliverer; he is a fool who doesn't understand politics. He is a radical rocking the boat.
Their follow-up question is dripping with accusation: "What then is this that you have done to us?" Notice the "us." Samson's actions against the Philistines are perceived as an attack on Judah. By disturbing the peace, a peace purchased with their own dignity and freedom, Samson has made life difficult for them. This is the constant cry of the compromiser. "Don't make waves. You're making it harder for the rest of us who are trying to get along." They would rather have the quiet of the graveyard than the conflict of the battlefield.
Samson's reply is simple and direct. "As they did to me, so I have done to them." He is operating on a principle of justice. They burned his wife and father-in-law, so he burned their fields. It is a personal vendetta, yes, but Samson's personal battles are the theater in which God is conducting His war of liberation. God uses flawed men and their mixed motives to accomplish His sovereign purposes. Samson, for all his faults, has not forgotten who the enemy is. The men of Judah have.
The Negotiation of Surrender (v. 12-13)
The men of Judah now state their treasonous intent plainly.
"And they said to him, 'We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hand of the Philistines.' And Samson said to them, 'Swear to me that you yourselves will not kill me.' So they said to him, 'No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not put you to death.' Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock." (Judges 15:12-13 LSB)
There it is. "We have come down to bind you." Three thousand Israelites have mustered to do the dirty work of the pagans. They are the enforcement arm of the occupation. This is what happens when God's people adopt the world's definition of reality. They become the world's errand boys.
Samson's response is remarkable. He could have fought them. One man against three thousand is impossible odds, but with the Spirit of the Lord, nothing is impossible for Samson. Instead, he negotiates. But he does not negotiate for his freedom. He negotiates the terms of his surrender. "Swear to me that you yourselves will not kill me."
Why does he do this? This is an act of faith. Samson is a type of Christ here, betrayed by his own brothers and handed over to the gentiles. He willingly allows himself to be bound, knowing that God's power is not constrained by ropes. He knows that his strength comes from the Lord, and that the Lord can deliver him from this just as easily as He can deliver him from the Philistines. He is trusting that God's plan is bigger than this moment of betrayal. His concern is not with the Philistines, but with his own people. He makes them swear an oath, forcing them to confront the line they are about to cross. They are willing to hand him over, but they are not quite willing to have his blood on their own hands.
They agree readily. "No, but we will bind you fast... yet surely we will not put you to death." This is the pathetic self-deception of the compromiser. They wash their hands of the ultimate consequence. They are just following orders. They are just keeping the peace. They will bind him with two new ropes, a sign of their determination to secure him, and hand him over. They are Judas, selling their brother for the promise of a quiet life. But as we will see, God uses the very ropes of their betrayal as the trigger for His glorious deliverance.
Binding the Strong Man Today
This is a profoundly relevant passage for the church in our time. We are surrounded by Philistines who rule over us, not with swords and spears, but with cultural, political, and legal power. They have defined the terms of public discourse, and they demand our compliance.
And what has been the response of much of the church? It has been the response of the men of Judah. We have accepted the premise of our conquerors. "Do you not know that the secularists are rulers over us?" We have become pragmatic. We seek a quiet life. We want to be seen as reasonable. And when a Samson arises in our midst, a man who speaks with prophetic fire against the sins of the age, a man who refuses to bow, a man who fights, what do we do? Too often, we are the first to form a committee. We are the first to say, "He's too controversial. He's upsetting people. He's making it hard for us." We gather our three thousand respectable evangelicals to go down and tell him to be quiet.
We bind him with the new ropes of "civility" and "winsomeness." We hand him over to the Philistines of the media and public opinion, assuring ourselves that we are not the ones stoning the prophet, we are merely distancing ourselves from his "tone." We commit the treason of pragmatism, and we call it wisdom.
But God's plan is not thwarted by our cowardice. God is sovereign over the faithlessness of His people. He allowed Samson to be bound to demonstrate that the victory was not in Samson's strength, but in the Spirit of God. He will allow the church to be backed into a corner, to be betrayed from within, to appear defeated, in order to show that the resurrection power belongs to Him alone. The question for us is not whether God will win. The question is which side we will be on. Will we be the lone champion in the cleft of the rock, trusting God? Or will we be part of the pathetic posse of three thousand, carrying ropes for the enemy?
May God give us the grace to recognize our own deliverers, to stand with them when the whole world is against them, and to never, ever trade the glorious liberty of the sons of God for a negotiated peace with the Philistines.