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, and it is still there in Lehi.

Judges 15:16-20

16 Then Samson said,
“With a donkey’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them
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.
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, and it is still there in Lehi. 20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.


“Today’s title is “ A Jawbone and A Spring “

The Bible shows a lot of heroes of faith. But there are not a few heroes of faith who are highly disputable about their status of heroes at least in view of ordinary people. Samson is surely one of those controversial heroes. He was born of an old couple who didn’t have a child by God’s supernatural intervention. He became a super-strong man as he grew up. But his life wasn’t totally holy as we expected from his unusual birth. He wasn’t able to restrain himself from fleshly desires and anger. He had matchless power. But he had fatal weaknesses too. His life indeed had great peaks. But it also had deep valleys. Today’s passage shows such dramatic ups and downs of Samson’s life. Samson killed a thousand Philistinians with a donkey’s jawbone when the Philistines assaulted him. The place where he threw the jawbone of a donkey was Ramath Lehi. It is a symbolic place that he celebrated his power and strength. But right after he celebrated such a great victory, he was on the verge of dying out of thirst. He became so thirsty as to even die or be captured by his enemies. 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?”. Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. The spring was called En Hakore. At the almost same place and almost at the same time, Samson took great pride in amazing victory, then fell into a fatal moment that he could have died of thirst. I believe that this contrast of Ramath Lehi and Enhak Core shows how our life is although it may not be as dramatic as this. At some point in our life, we can be standing at Ramath Lehi, celebrating our own success. We can be very prideful as if we got such success or victory by our own might. Samson proudly said, “ With a donkey’s jawbone, I have killed a thousand men”. Impressed by his own success or victory, it sounds like that he is proclaiming “I have done it myself and my way. That ‘s a typical self-glorification of so-called a self-made man. Do you remember the famous song titled “My way”? The song ends with similar self-glorification with the repeated lyrics “I did it my way”. But can Samson or any other man be really self-made hero? They can’t say that if they equally remember their Enhak Core. Who quenched their dying thirst when they were dying for the lack of such a simple thing as water? Who fed them when they were dying for lack of food? By God’s grace, Samson finally figured it out. Thus, the end of Samson’s life was described as “Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.”. How has been your life? Hopefully, we have as many Ramath Lehi as possible. But the true and final victory comes only after you figure out the real truth of Enhak Core. Did you figure it out?