HEROES OF THE
FAITH SERMON SERIES
Samson
Judges Chapters 13-16
Pastor
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
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
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
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
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
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
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!