HEROES OF THE FAITH SERMON SERIES

 

                           Samson

                                       Judges Chapters 13-16

 

 Pastor Robyn Hogue                        August 18, 2013            Skyline Presbyterian Church

 

Real heroes are hard to find. The weaknesses of our leaders are very apparent; the music, movie and sports industries produce a steady stream of “stars” who shoot to the top and then quickly fade from view.

 

The biblical book we call Judges is a book about heroes—eleven men and one woman—who delivered Israel from its oppressors. These judges were not perfect; in fact, they included an assassin, a sexually promiscuous man, and a person who broke all the laws of hospitality. But they were submissive to God, and God used them.

 

Judges is also a book about sin and its consequences. Like a minor cut or abrasion that becomes infected when left untreated, sin grows and soon poisons the whole body. When Joshua and the elders died, the nation of Israel experienced a leadership vacuum, leaving them without a strong central government. Instead of enjoying freedom and prosperity in the promised land, Israel entered the dark ages of her history.

 

Simply stated, the reason for this rapid decline was sin—individual and corporate. The first step away from God was incomplete obedience. This led to idolatry and everyone doing as “he saw fit in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6) Before long, the Israelites became captives. Out of their desperation they begged God to rescue them. In faithfulness to His promise and out of His loving-kindness, God would raise up a judge to deliver His people, and for a time there would be peace. Then complacency and disobedience would set in, and the cycle would begin again.

 

These cycles recorded in the scripture we call the book of Judges spanned over 325 years, recording six successive periods of oppression and deliverance and the careers of twelve deliverers. Their captors included the Mesopotamians, Moabites, Philistines, Canaanites, Midianites and Ammonites. God used a variety of deliverers to lead His people to freedom and true worship. God’s deliverance through the judges is a powerful demonstration of God’s love and mercy toward God’s people.

Over these weeks of summer we have considered several great individuals who shone as bright lights in a dark night. Samson, however, was a little different from the rest.

Most of the judges lived by faith and were obedient to the will of God. Samson, however, lived most of his life not by faith but in the power of his physical strength. He lived most of his life making up his own rules, living life on his own terms. Samson spent most of his life trying to please Samson. Physically, Samson was the most powerful and imposing of all the Judges. Spiritually, he was the weakest.

Most of his exploits revolved around his seeking revenge against those who had offended him. Most of his choices arose out of his sinful desires: his pride, arrogance and sexual lust. More Scripture is devoted to Samson than to any other Judge, but that Scripture reveals a man who is not to be emulated.

Samson is a man whose life should be studied, but not duplicated. It is sad to be remembered for what one might have been. Samson had tremendous potential. Not many people have started life with credentials like his. Born as a result of God’s plan in the lives of Menoah and his wife, Samson was to do a great work for God—to “begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” To help him accomplish God’s plan he was given enormous physical strength.

Because Samson wasted his strength on practical jokes and getting out of scrapes, and because he eventually gave it up altogether to satisfy the forbidden woman he loved, we tend to see him as a failure. We remember him as the judge of Israel who spent his last days grinding grain in an enemy prison, and we say, “What wasted potential!”

Let me tell you a bit of the story of Samson that you can read in detail in Judges chapters 13-16. Yes, Samson wasted his life. He could have strengthened his nation. He could have returned his people to the worship of God. He could have led God’s people to be victorious over the Philistines.

He was conceived by a childless couple after an angel of the Lord appeared to them and told them that they would bear a son who should be raised as one dedicated to the Lord. Then Samson’s story skips from his birth to his adulthood, where his first distinguishing act is to ask his father to bring him a certain Philistine woman to be his wife. Samson’s parents object, asking him to find a woman among the Israelites. But Samson insists. In fact, it is on his way to claim this non-Israelite bride that Samson first discovers his super-human strength: “Suddenly a young lion roared at him. The spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and he tore the lion apart barehanded” (14:5-6). Shortly thereafter he uses this strength to kill 30 Philistine men in a fit of rage. This first act against the Philistines exemplifies Samson’s revenge-based vigilantism. 

He mocks his Philistine bride-to-be with such rancor that when he returns to claim her he finds that her father believed Samson had dismissed the young woman and gave her to another in marriage. His revenge for his perceived humiliation is to set the tails of 300 foxes on fire so that as the animals run in terror they in turn set fire to Philistine grain fields, vineyards and olive groves.

The Philistines then go and burn the woman and her father to death. Samson replies with revenge and slaughters many of the men and then goes to live in a cave in Judah. The Philistines raid a town in Judah in order to lure and capture Samson. To save themselves, the Judeans tie up Samson to deliver him to the enemy. But this episode does not end well for the Philistines: “The Philistines came shouting to meet [Samson]; and the spirit of the Lord rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. Then he found a fresh jaw-bone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men” (15:14-15). Again, Samson leads no army, but acts entirely on his own, fueled by his superior strength and bragging about his abilities. After this success Samson is made a judge over Israel and they experience peace for 20 years.

In spite of his continued directive from God to fight the Philistines, Samson pursues a much more personal connection with them. He falls in love with a second Philistine woman--the notorious Delilah, who has been tasked by her people to find the secret of Samson’s strength. 

Two times she begs to know the secret of his strength, and twice he lies to her. Finally, after Delilah nags persistently, he confesses his secret that he has kept his vows to the Lord by never cutting his hair. He tells her: “If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me” (16:17). 

Sure enough, Delilah takes advantage of this new information, lulling Samson to sleep and shaving off his hair. He immediately weakens, and God’s power leaves him. Delilah hands Samson over to the Philistines, who gouge out his eyes, bind him in chains, and force him slave-like to push a gigantic millstone in prison

Samson’s death ends up being his greatest victory against the Philistines. The Philistines bring Samson down to Gaza and bind him to two pillars in their temple as a display for the amusement of the Philistine worshipers. Here Samson prays to God, asking for his strength to return to him one more time (16:28). 

God responds by sending Samson a final burst of strength, and Samson pushes against the pillars and brings the entire temple down, killing himself and all those in the temple with him. The text concludes: “Those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.” (16:30)

Samson made a lot of mistakes in his life, but when he humbled himself under the hand of God and submitted to the will of God, he achieved victory in his life.

What is the take away for us today? For me, I am reminded that I can be very stubborn at times. I can want to go my own way, instead of going God’s way. If I am not careful, I can be a lot like Samson. Sin, however overt or subtle can first blind us. Ignoring God’s law and doing what is right in my own eyes once….then twice….then as a pattern of disobedience I chose. A pattern of incomplete obedience until I am in bondage to that destructive pattern. Not only am I blind, but now I am bound to its destructive power as well. Sin will first blind us, then bind us and finally lead to our deaths.

What I need to remember is that God is “a very present help in a time of trouble”. (Psalm 46:1) If I will humble myself before Him, walk in His will and do what He has called me to do, I can experience His victory in my life.

What about you?

Has God brought you to a place of weakness?

Is He seeking to humble you before Him?

Are there areas of your life that are not yielded to Him today?

Do you have some need that you need to bring before the Lord today?

Do you need a revival from a time of wickedness or weakness?

Has He spoken to you about some need in your life?

If He is reaching out to you, please respond to Him and let Him have His way!