And Samson

10/09/22

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Sermon Transcript

Good evening. Please open your Bible to Judges 13. Judges 13. I want us to look tonight at someone in the Bible who shows us some of the greatest contrasts in Scripture. He was both one of the strongest men in the Bible, one of the weakest men in the Bible. He was a child of great promise and a child of great disappointment. He was someone who seemed to make the wrong choice at almost every point in his life and yet he found himself on the roll call of faith. I want us to look tonight at the life of Samson.

The year is 1100 BC and as with others in the Bible, Samson’s life begins with a miraculous birth. As foretold by the angel of the Lord, Samson was born to Manoah and his wife, who Judges 13:2 tells us was barren. Yet they had a child. Judges 13:7 tells us that from his birth until the day of his death, Samson was to be a Nazirite to God.

A Nazirite. Now, the Nazirite vow was usually voluntary, and it was usually just for a short period. But with Samson, it was involuntary and it was for his entire life. He was set apart to be a Nazirite. Now, Numbers 6:1-21 tell us what that Nazirite vow required. There were three things. It required the one who took the vow to abstain from strong drink and wine. It required them to never cut their hair, which is easier for some of us than others. A Nazirite was never to go near a dead body. Those were the three requirements for a Nazirite.

Now why did they take that vow? Well the Bible also tells us that in Numbers 6:2. It explains the meaning behind the vow. “When either a man or a woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow the Nazirite to separate themselves unto the Lord”. A Nazirite separated himself or herself unto God and they did that by doing these three things by being sober the first vow by being distinctive not cutting their hair the second vow and by being holy not touching dead a dead body that was the third vow. Now who else in the Bible has been told, commanded to have those same three qualities sobriety, distinctiveness, and holiness? Who else has been commanded to separate themselves unto God? We know the answer to that. It’s us, the church. We are all spiritual Nazarites to God. We’re told to be sober and watchful, 1 Peter 4:7. We’re told to be distinctive, 1 Peter 2:9. We’re told to be holy, 1 Peter 1:15. We’re told to be separate, 2 Corinthians 6:17. So as we begin our study tonight of the life of Samson, let’s don’t act as if that’s just some remote Old Testament story that has no bearing on us today, because it does have a bearing on us today. And as we look at the life of Samson, and as we see how he broke every single one of these vows, let’s take the lessons that God intended us to take from his life. And remember that the Nazarite vow prefigures the church. Samson has a very important message for us today.

Well, the next time we hear of Samson in the Bible is when he falls in love with a Philistine woman from Timnath. He decides to marry her over the objections of his parents. On his way down to see her, he’s attacked by a lion, grabs that lion, and he tears that lion apart. On his next trip down to see her, he finds a beehive in the carcass of that lion with honey. And he eats that honey and gives some of it to his parents. At his wedding feast, Samson poses a riddle to his 30 groomsmen, who are all Philistines. Poses a riddle. He says, if you can solve this riddle, I’ll give you 30 garments. But if you can’t solve it, then you owe me 30 garments. Well, these 30 Philistines threaten his new wife. And so she got Samson to tell her the answer. And then he passes it along. She passes it along to the Philistines. They answer it correctly. And when they do, Samson responds with perhaps one of the greatest one-liners found anywhere in the Bible. “If ye had not plowed with my heifer, you had not solved my riddle”. But Samson did more than just respond with a witty one-liner. Samson also responded by killing 30 other Philistines, taking their garments and giving those garments to his wedding companions. The family of the bride gets a little nervous about her new husband at this point, and they give her to one of his groomsmen as wife instead of Samson. So later, Samson returns to visit her. He’s unaware that she’s now married to one of his groomsmen. Her father refuses to let Samson see her and says you can have a younger sister instead. In response, what does Samson do? I think we would say it was a calm and measured response. He gathers 300 foxes, ties them together by the tail. He attaches a burning torch to each of the pairs of foxes and lets them loose in the grain fields and the olive groves of the Philistines. How did the Philistines respond to that? They burned Samson’s wife and her father, killed them. And what does Samson do in response to that? He takes revenge. He murders many more Philistines. He then takes refuge in a cave. An army of Philistines comes to that cave, demands the 3,000 men of Judah deliver Samson to them. Samson says, “Fine, tie me up with two new ropes. Hand me over”. But Samson breaks free of those ropes and he uses a fresh jawbone of a donkey to kill 1,000 Philistines. Sometime later, Samson spends the night with a prostitute in Gaza. The people of that city hear he’s there, surround that house, they secure the gates and they say, “We’ve got him, he’s trapped.” No, Samson wakes up in the middle of the night, he tears those gates from their gatepost, he carries that gate to a hilltop 40 miles away. And then Samson falls in love with Delilah. The Philistines bribe her to find out the secret of his strength and for a while he kind of teases her and gives her some false answers and doesn’t let her know the secret, but she persists and eventually Samson tells her that if his hair is cut off he will lose his strength. Delilah cuts his hair, Samson loses his strength, he’s captured, his eyes gouged out. Samson’s then taken to Gaza, he’s in prison, he’s put to work turning a large millstone, grinding grain, corn, but his hair grows back. Philistines gather a huge assembly together in a temple to sacrifice to their false god Dagon for having delivered Samson into their hands. They summon Samson so that they can ridicule him. The temple was so crowded, people were climbing over each other, they were all over the roof. The rulers of the entire government of Philistia were there, 3,000 people. Samson is led into the temple. He asked his captors to let him lean up against a pillar, give him some rest. They do that. He prays for strength. God gives him strength. He breaks those pillars. That temple collapses, killing himself and everybody else inside. You know, before we even look at lessons from the life of Samson, I think we’d all have to agree he led one of the more interesting lives in the Bible.

What can we learn from the life of Samson? I think we can learn many things from the life of Samson. One thing we can learn a great deal about from Samson is sin. Sin. You know, many things have changed in our world since the days of Samson. In 3,000 years. Sin is not one of them. Sin has not changed. The pathway away from God has not changed. Sin has not changed at all. And one thing we learn about sin from the life of Samson is that sin hardens us against God. We see that same warning in the New Testament. Hebrews 3:13 warns us not to be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And don’t we see that hardening in the life of Samson? Step by step Samson walked away from God and with each step he became more hardened in his sin.

First, Samson broke his vow of holiness by touching the body of that lion when he got that honey. I think Samson also broke that same vow when he grabbed that jawbone of the donkey. Well, how do we know that? Well, because the Bible makes a point of telling us it was a fresh jawbone. I think that donkey was probably doing pretty well until he met up with Samson. And of course, Samson was also around the numerous bodies of the people he killed. I mean, Samson didn’t just break that first vow, he shattered that first vow. But you know, I think he also broke his vow of abstinence from wine and strong drink. That seven day wedding feast in Judges 14:12, with his 30 Philistine friends, we’re told that would have involved nonstop drinking. Nonstop drinking for seven days. And finally, Samson broke his vow of distinctiveness. He told Delilah the secret of his strength, he must have known that would lead to the cutting of his hair. He must have known that. Now, Judges 16:17 tells us he also knew his strength would go. Maybe he didn’t really believe it. Maybe he thought, “Oh, this strength is really my own and it’s not a gift from God”. Maybe that’s not the way it is. Or maybe Samson’s just thinking to himself, “I’m tired of being the only one around here that has this long hair. I’m tired of being distinctive. I want to be the same as everybody else, so go ahead and cut it”. For whatever reason, that vow also went by the wayside, and with the breaking of that final vow, Samson lost his physical strength that was a gift from God. What we see is that Samson’s sins became progressively worse and progressively easier as he became increasingly hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. We see that path in Samson’s life. Paul explains that same cycle of sin in Ephesians 4:17: “This I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind being darkened in their understanding alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardening of their heart, who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness”. You see it? First there is darkness, then there is hardness, and then there is deadness. That’s the cycle, that’s the progression that Paul tells us about, and that’s what we’re seeing in the life of Samson.

You know a good illustration of that is to think about a piece of petrified wood. We’ve all seen petrified wood. We call it wood, but there’s no wood in it. There’s no wood in that. Petrified wood was once wood, it was once alive. It’s no longer wood and it’s no longer alive. Petrification involves two processes going on. The first thing is that the cavities and the pores within the wood are filled with silica. At that point, there’s still quite a bit of wood left, but something else is coming in. But then the second process is replacement. The original wood is gradually substituted by that silica until there’s no original wood left at all. Eventually all you have left is hard, dead rock when before you had soft, living wood. It’s been completely replaced. Sin is like that. Sin hardens us and then sin deadens us. I mean, that piece of petrified wood, it looks just like wood, doesn’t it? But it’s not. Sin creeps into our lives bit by bit, replacing whatever it finds. And although we may look the same on the outside, we are most definitely not the same. Don’t we see that gradual hardening in the life of Samson? Samson didn’t set out to break his Nazirite vows, but he did. Samson didn’t start out lusting after Delilah, but he did. Step by step, decision by decision, self-justification by self-justification, Samson moved further and further and further away from God, away from his family, away from the people of God, away from the plans that God had for his life. Yes, God was still able to use Samson, even in his rebellion. Judges 14:4 tells us that. But God’s ability to turn man’s evil into something good does not excuse that man for the evil. That’s what Romans chapter nine tells us. Samson started out his life dedicated to God. But then most of his life was spent moving away from God. Samson spent his life closing the doors that God had opened for him.

You know, we know that patience is a fruit of the spirit, but you know what? Satan is also patient. Satan knows that the gradual approach is usually the most effective approach when it comes to hardening someone. James 1:14 compares Satan’s approach to a fisherman casting a lure. Satan is like a patient fisherman. Guess what? We’re the fish. Satan is much more concerned about the direction of my life than he is about the pace of my life. Satan just wants me moving away from God. He’s fine if I take the slow road. But as long as I’m moving in that direction Satan’s fine with that. In fact, I think Satan knows that the gradual move away from God is usually the more effective as far as Satan is concerned. Because sometimes it happens so slowly that I’m not even sure I’m moving away from God. One of the most tragic verses found anywhere in the Bible is right here and the verses were studying and it’s Judges 16:20. “But Samson did not know that the Lord had left him”. How did this happen to Samson, what is the root cause of this, can we find it? I think we can. Despite his great physical strength Samson was very weak spiritually. He was a spiritually weak man. His religion was superficial. He quickly discarded those vows whenever they got in the way of what he wanted to do in the moment. And in the biblical account of his life that we’re reading, we can find Samson calling on God only two times. And each time, he found himself in a tough situation. Judges 15:18 when he’s about to die of thirst, and then in Judges 16:28, when he’s about to be mocked by the Philistines. At other times, we don’t even see him mentioning God at all. Samson’s spiritual strength was the opposite of his physical strength. He was very weak spiritually.

But I think Samson had another problem. Who did he spend all his time with? He seems to have spent all of his time not with the people of God, but with the enemies of God, with the Philistines. The events in Samson’s life that we just went through centered on his relationship with the Philistines rather than with his own people. Samson’s problems began and ended with his search for love from across the border. Repeatedly, we’re told here that he went down to the Philistines over and over again. You know, it’s interesting that in the Hebrew language, the word Samson means sunshine, sunshine. Think about that for a moment. When Samson was born as an answer to his parents’ prayer, don’t we know that he entered their home as sunshine? And they dedicated him to God so that Samson could also be sunshine to the nation of Israel, to his own people. But how could Samson be sunshine to Israel when he spent no time with Israel? Instead, carousing and marrying the Philistines. I think the text itself makes the same point. It’s a little subtle, but I think it’s there. What was the name of Samson’s mother? We aren’t told. What was the name of Samson’s first wife? We’re not told. His second wife, Delilah, we are told. Why are we told her name? The answer is that the word Delilah sounds like the Hebrew word for darkness. When Samson met Delilah, it was sunshine meeting darkness. I think that’s why we’re told her name. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 6:22: “The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness”. How did these events in Samson’s life begin? With the phrase, “I have seen a woman”. First thing we see him say. How did they end with those same eyes being gouged out? He ended in darkness. Samson’s eyes are a theme running throughout his life, and they betray his spiritual weakness. Samson did what was right in Samson’s eyes. Not in God’s eyes. Not in his parents’ eyes. The only eyes that mattered to Samson were his own eyes. So what then were Samson’s problems? Spiritual weakness and evil companions. And believe me, that remains a very dangerous combination 3,000 years later. 1 Corinthians 15:33: “Be not deceived. Evil companionship corrupts good morals”.

But Samson had another problem, a very serious problem. And here I want to focus on a particular group in the audience. That’s our young people. Now, at my age, you may be thinking, you need to be a little more specific when you say young people. I didn’t say younger people. I said young people. It’s right here. And let me start with a compliment. Y’all always pay close attention. Thank you. That means a lot. A great deal. It tells me a lot about you. And let me tell you, I can tell when people aren’t paying attention. I used to be a math teacher. One thing all math teachers know is when people aren’t paying attention, because they get it a lot. You know the best definition I ever heard of a math teacher? It’s someone who talks in other people’s sleep. So you’re paying attention. I’d say right now we’re at about 99% attention level. Let me say the magic phrase to get us to 100%. This is going to be on the final exam. OK, we’re at 100%. All right, here’s what I want to say, something from the life of Samson, something very important from the life of Samson. “There are people in this world who seem to have been placed on this earth for one purpose, and that is to serve as a warning for others”. A warning to others of what not to do. “Over and over again, they make one bad decision after another, and they give us all a warning of how we should not live our lives. Do not be that person. Make it a point not to be that person. And you might say, well, how can I tell if I’m that person or not? Everybody who’s in that category lives their life by the same principle, the same thing, all of them. And here it is. Just this once. That’s how they live their lives. I’ll do this just this once, and I’ll never do it again. That’s what they say over and over and over again, but they do it again and again and again. If you wanna be that person who’s here just to serve as a warning to others, then live your life by that motto, just this once. Samson did that. That’s how Samson lived his life”. Look at Judges 15:7: “Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease”. Did he cease? Once was not enough. Once was never enough. Look at Samson’s final words on this earth in Judges 16:28: “Oh Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me I pray thee only this once oh God that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes”. In that verse, don’t we see the theme of Samson’s life, “only this once”? How many times must Samson have said that, he died with it on his lips, but once was never enough.

With Samson, I think what we see is less premeditation and more just a flippant disdain for the law of God. Samson was impulsive and he went through his life acting on those impulses. Look at Judges 14:2: “I have seen a woman in Timnath. Now, therefore, get her for me”. Yes, that’s right, Samson’s first recorded words in the Bible are, “I have seen a woman”. And what he said in that verse is likely something he said over and over and over again in his life, “I have seen, therefore, get for me”. Later, when he sees that honey in the carcass of the lion, he sees it, he gets it. “Just this once and never again, but sin hardens us, and what we do once becomes something we do again and again and again and again”. You know, Nancy Reagan had the right idea, and she’s still criticized to this day for having said it. Just say no. But what Nancy said was what the Bible had been saying all along, isn’t it? Titus 2:11–12: “For the grace of God that bring us salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, godly in this present world”. Did you catch it? Did you hear it? Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. Just say no. How many of Samson’s problems would never have happened if he had just said no instead of saying just this once? You know, we don’t need to worry about committing some sin just once and never again if we never commit that sin in the first place. We can learn a lot about sin from the life of Samson.

But we can also learn a lot about God from the life of Samson. A lot about God. We learn from Samson that God strengthens his people. 2 Corinthians 12:9 tells us that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. The strength of the faithful comes from God. It doesn’t come from themselves. It comes from God. It’s only when we recognize our own weakness that we can enjoy the strength that comes from God, only from God. The mighty Samson experienced great weakness. As Milton famously described him, at the end of his life, Samson found himself “eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves”. Great weakness. For Samson, the lust of his eyes led to the loss of his eyes. But in his blindness, he was finally able to see, wasn’t he? And in his weakness and in his bondage, he finally found the strength and the freedom he’d been searching for all his life, didn’t he? He’d never had it when he walked freely and unafraid among the Philistines, but he found it bound and blind in the middle of Gaza. We must be abased before we can be exalted. Luke 18:14: “For everyone that exalted himself shall be abased, he that humbleth himself shall be exalted”. 1 Peter 5:6: “Humble yourselves therefore to the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time”. Only when he was blinded was Samson finally able to see himself and to see his mission, to see his God. Only when he was blinded did Samson finally understand He was to walk by faith, not by sight. God strengthens his people, but the strength God provides is not just our physical strength. God provides spiritual strength, spiritual strength, and that’s the strength that matters. Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. That’s spiritual strength. Physical strength is temporary. Spiritual strength can last for eternity.

Samson teaches us that God strengthens his people, but Samson also teaches us something else about God, something so beautiful, so hopeful about God. And that is that Samson shows us that God is a God of second chances, God of second chances. The book of Judges is not the only place in the Bible where we learn something about Samson. He’s also mentioned in another book, Book of Hebrews chapter 11, starting in verse 32. “And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah, David and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouth of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword”. “Out of weakness were made strong”. That’s Samson, right there in the roll call of faith. And perhaps that short phrase in Hebrews 11:32, “and Samson” tells us more about Samson than all that we read in the book of Judges. “And Samson”. Why? Because that short phrase in Hebrews 11 tells us how Samson was viewed by God. Now he was viewed by God. Yes, Samson made mistakes. Yes, Samson sinned. Yes, Samson broke every single one of his vows. But Samson was placed among the great heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. And it was not because of what Samson did, it was because of what God was able to do through Samson and through his weakness, but through his faith. Look at Hebrews 11 again, “out of weakness were made strong”. God did that. Samson was flawed, deeply flawed. God was able to use Samson’s faith to accomplish great things. Don’t we see that with the others listed in Hebrews 11? Hebrews 11 is not a list of great men and women who accomplish great things. That’s not what it is. Hebrews 11 is a list of faithful men and women through whom God was able to accomplish great things. And yes, many of those faithful men and women in Hebrews 11 were flawed. They made terrible mistakes, but God did not give up on them. God is a God of second chances.

We see that in the life of Samson. You know, I he’s waiting for us to stumble and do something wrong and then whap! The trap door opens and through we go. That is not the God of the Bible. Not the God of the Bible. It’s not God’s will that anyone should perish. 2 Peter 3:9. God wants everyone to be saved. 1 Timothy 2:4. And when someone returns to God in repentance, God delights in giving that person a second chance. There is joy in heaven when a sinner repents Luke 15:7. God is a God of second chances and I think we see that with another person in the Bible who is also a man of contrast, someone else in the Bible who is also very strong but very weak. Apostle Peter. Think about Peter just for a moment. In Mark 14:29–31 Peter told Jesus that he would stick by his side even if everybody else fled. “I’m not leaving”. He told him he would go to his death before he denied Christ. But Peter fled. Peter denied Jesus three times. Could Peter have a second chance? In Mark 16 an angel speaks to the women who found the empty tomb and in verse 7 what did that angel say to those women, “but go your way tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee”? Did you catch it? “and Peter”. How Peter must have rejoiced when he heard those two words relayed to him by those women. Peter had a second chance. Hebrews 11:32 says “and Samson”. Mark 16:7 says “and Peter”. Samson got a second chance. Peter got a second chance. While we’re still breathing we can all have a second chance. God delights in giving second chances. “and Peter and Samson and me”. How I start the race is important, how I run the race is important, but what really matters is how I finish that race. That’s what really matters, how I finish the race. Paul the once great persecutor of the church understood that. 2 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race”. “I have kept the faith”. Remember what that angel told Samson’s mother in Judges 13:7, “for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb until when”? “To the day of his death”. Yes, Samson strayed from those vows. But on the day of his death, he was once again a Nazarite separated unto God. He found himself on the roll call of faith. God gave Samson a second chance. He will do the same for us today. We may have strayed far away. We may strayed as far as the prodigal son. We cannot stray outside the love of God. God is waiting, watching for us to return.

You know, James tells us we should read the Bible as if we’re looking at a mirror. Well, why is that? Well, because when I look at a mirror, tells me what I look like physically. When I look at the Bible, it tells me what I look like spiritually. That’s what it is. It’s a mirror. Shows me what I look like spiritually. That’s what James said. The Bible is a mirror. Samson was a mirror for the people of Israel. Listen to how Judges 2:17 describes the people of Israel. “And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went on whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them. They turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not do so”. Does that sound familiar? Whoring after other gods, turning away quickly, not walking in obedience to God. Isn’t that how Samson lived? Isn’t that how Samson walked? When God gave his people Samson as a judge, God was giving them a mirror so they could see themselves. Samson seemed to have been proof of the old adage that people get leaders they deserve. Israel, like Samson, was a child of great promise, greatly blessed by God. But Israel, like Samson, had gone astray. Samson was a mirror for them. They were intended to see themselves in the life of Samson. Is Samson a mirror for us? Do we see anything of ourselves in Samson? We also have been greatly blessed by God. We also have been commanded to come out and be separate. We’ve also been commanded to be distinctive in this world and show the world that we’re distinctive. We’re also surrounded on all side by Philistines who are hostile to the ways of God, wanting us to join them in riotous living. We’re also been told to conquer. We’ve also been given great strength by God. We’re also surrounded by people trying to weaken us and trying to destroy us. I think there are some things we can see in the life of Samson.

And yes, Samson was a great hero of faith, but you know something about Samson’s victory? It was not a complete victory. A hundred years later we still see King David fighting those Philistines. Now King David finally ended their oppressive dominion over Israel, but you know what? Even that wasn’t a final victory. The final victory was left not to David, to a son of David, the Messiah, to Christ. Jesus had the final victory. Something that Samson could not do, something King David could not do, Jesus did and he did it at the cross. That’s where Jesus spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them. Jesus did that at the cross, Colossians 2:14–15. Jesus did that through his sacrificial death on that cross. Yes, Samson triumphed through death over the Philistines, but the final triumph in death belongs to Christ and that victory was perfect that victory was complete. Yes, Samson won a victory for his people but the final victory belongs to Christ. And the good news of the gospel is that we can all share in that great victory. 1 John 5:4: “for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith”. Faith is the victory. And being born of God that means being baptized for the remission your sins your sins washed away rising from the waters of baptism a new creature. And if you’ve done that but you’ve strayed from God the good news of the gospel is that God delights to give second chances. He wants to give you a second chance if you will come to him in repentance and a little obedience. That’s the God we serve. Whatever your need please come while we stand and while we sing.