Why were the Philistines and the Israelites always at war?

Who were these Philistines that held Israel in such bondage and brought them into such misery and poverty? And what do they represent? They sprang from Egypt, Gen. 10:13-14, but though they had left Egypt behind and got into the land which God had promised to His people, they had not taken His way into it; their way had been an easy and short cut by which they escaped the Red Sea and River Jordan. These things that prefigured deliverance and blessing by the death and resurrection of Christ had no place in their history. They were in the land of God's people, but they had not travelled into it by the God-ordained way, Exodus 13:17. Really they had no right in the land at all, for God had apportioned it to Israel, Deut. 32:8-9. They are figurative of secularized Christianity, religion made acceptable to unregenerate men. Ritualism and Modernism are some of the Philistines of our day; they are really pagan superstitions and philosophies that have invaded the sphere of faith and made it like a great house of mixed vessels, 2 Tim. 2; and they are sorely oppressing the true Israel of God. They draw near to God with the lips, but are scornful of that heart exercise and spiritual life that have marked the revivals of former days. They claim to be children of God, but they have no title to that relationship, for they have not received God's only begotten Son by faith, and have not been born again, John 1:12-13. They have the form of godliness, but deny the power.

Who were these Philistines that held Israel in such bondage and brought them into such misery and poverty? And what do they represent? They sprang from Egypt (Gen. 10:13-14), but though they had left Egypt behind and got into the land which God had promised to His people, they had not taken His way into it; their way had been an easy and short cut by which they escaped the Red Sea and River Jordan. These things that prefigured deliverance and blessing by the death and resurrection of Christ had no place in their history. They were in the land of God's people, but they had not travelled into it by the God-ordained way (Ex. 13:17). Really they had no right in the land at all, for God had apportioned it to Israel (Deut. 32:8-9). They are figurative of what we might call secularized Christianity, religion made acceptable to unregenerate men. Ritualism and Modernism are some of the Philistines of our day, they are really pagan superstitions and philosophies that have invaded the sphere of faith and made it like a great house of mixed vessels (2 Tim. 2), and they are sorely oppressing the true Israel of God; they draw near to God with the lips, but are scornful of that heart exercise and spiritual life that have marked the revivals of former days. They have the form of godliness, but deny the power.

The Philistines were the most inveterate of all the foes of Israel and held them in bondage during a longer period than any other, and as Israel got weaker in faith their power became greater; nor were they finally overthrown until the supremacy of David — type of Christ in the victory of resurrection — was an established fact in the land.

Chapter 25 brings Ammon, Moab, Edom, and the Philistines before us as the objects of prophetic dealing by God. They were really intruders in, and dwellers on, Israel's territory. The first three were related to God's people by consanguinity (see Genesis 19:36-38 as regards Moab and Ammon, and Genesis 25:25-30 regarding Edom). When Israel took possession of Palestine, by God's command, under Joshua, Philistia, a strip of land about forty miles long, and ten to twenty broad, lying between Joppa and Gaza, on the sea-coast, and west of the tribes of Dan and Simeon, was not subjugated (see Joshua 14:2). As a consequence of this failure on Israel's part, the Philistines were ever thorns in their sides, and sometimes their masters. They were finally subdued in the days of Samuel (see 1 Sam. 7:13). Confederates in opposing God's chosen people, these four nations are now marked out as special objects of divine vengeance, for, if you touch God's people, you touch Him.

One of the nations that they failed to drive out was the Philistines. These were near neighbours, so to speak, dwelling in the extreme south-west of the promised land on the sea coast. Amongst their other sins, Judges (chap. 10:6) tells us that Israel served the gods of these Philistines, "and the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines" (chap. 10:7). Of the special battle under consideration we read, Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel, and when they joined battle Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men." (1 Sam. 4:1-2.)

After this, because of Israel's further disobedience, the Lord brought them under bondage to the Philistines for forty long years (v. 1). In this case we are not told that Israel was broken enough to cry to God for deliverance. It seems as time went on, Israel became less and less sensitive to the seriousness of their evil condition. But God nevertheless had His eye on His people.

(1) Again the story is repeated of Israel's departure from God, and their chastening by the hand of those after whose gods they had gone. Indeed, the gods of every nation round had now their worship, and Jehovah alone is deprived of His. He sells them, therefore, again into the hands of the Philistines and of the Ammonites at once. The Ammonite scourge is spoken of in the section now before us; the Philistine bondage is not broken until we reach the book of Samuel, although Samson, as prophesied of him, begins the deliverance (Judges 13:5).

Again did Israel fall: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years" (Judges 13: 1). God does not give us any particulars of this fresh declension, but we discern His estimate of it, by the weight of the rod He laid upon His people; and the Philistines were the chastisement. Nothing more clearly indicates the state of Israel than this fact. Hitherto the subjection had been to outside enemies; or to Jabin, chief of the former possessors of the land; or to the nations which had sprung from Israel after the flesh and who attacked them on their borders. Here we find the enemy established within the confines of Israel and committing ravages. The Philistines ruled over the people and reduced them to a state of servitude. There is hardly any difference, morally, between those times and the present. The unfaithfulness of the church has long since brought about this last form of evil. That which was once outside the house of God now rules within; those described in the first chapter of Romans have taken up their abode there, and impart their own characteristics to the people of God (cf. Rom. 1; 2 Tim. 3: 1‑5). This mixture is what is called Christendom.

Again did Israel fall: "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years" (Judges 13:1). God does not give us any particulars of this fresh declension, but we discern His estimate of it, by the weight of the rod He laid upon His people; and the Philistines were the chastisement. Nothing more clearly indicates the state of Israel than this fact. Hitherto the subjection had been to outside enemies; or to Jabin, chief of the former possessors of the land; or to the nations which had sprung from Israel after the flesh and who attacked them on their borders. Here we find the enemy established within the confines of Israel and committing ravages. The Philistines ruled over the people and reduced them to a state of servitude. There is hardly any difference, morally, between those times and the present. The unfaithfulness of the church has long since brought about this last form of evil. That which was once outside the house of God now rules within; those described in the first chapter of Romans have taken up their abode there, and impart their own characteristics to the people of God (cf. Rom. 1; 2 Tim. 3:1-5). This mixture is what is called Christendom.

Now what is the resource of the Lord's people at such a time? One word answers the question, namely, Nazariteship. We should be characterized at the present time by complete separation, and by a true and whole-hearted consecration to God.

Before entering upon the history of Samson, let us look a little at this important subject. Under the law, when all was outwardly in order, Nazariteship was of temporary duration (Num. 6); in a time of ruin it became perpetual, as we see in the example before us. Samson was a Nazarite from his mother's womb. This permanent character of Nazariteship reappeared in Samuel, judge and prophet (1 Sam. 1, 2), but ceased with David, type of the royal grace, and Solomon, type of the royal glory of Christ. Then came the ruin of the people under human responsible royalty, as had been the case in the time of the judges under the more direct government of God. After this ruin of the people and of the royalty was complete, Israel was delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, and a remnant of Judah was restored to await the Messiah.

But we must look a little into the great principles of divine truth that meet us in weighing the history of Samson. His very birth was peculiar, and the circumstances too before it; for there never had been as yet a time when Israel had been so enslaved; and undoubtedly the deliverer, as we have traced regularly hitherto, so here again to the last, is seen to be according to the estate of the people, with whatever might or success God might be pleased to clothe him. "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Jehovah; and Jehovah delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years." It was a long time, we might have justly thought, in the days of Gideon, to have known seven years' subjection; but we hear of a far longer period in the case of the Philistines, the hottest and most pertinacious of the hostile neighbours of Israel, and so much the more galling as being within their border. For forty years the people groaned under their hard mastery. We shall find too that Samson's feats of power, great as they were, in no way broke the neck of Philistine oppression. For on the contrary after Samson's days, the sufferings of the children of Israel reached even a higher degree than they had ever attained under Samson or before.