Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 31, 2022 | RETOLD - Samson and Delilah

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July 31, 2022 | RETOLD - Samson and Delilah · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been with us before, we've been doing this series for a couple weeks now, so if you have, you can probably give me the spiel at this point.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: But we're in a series titled Retold.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the exciting thing about this series is we are looking at stories that either we knew when we were children, right?
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And we went through those picture Bibles as a kid, or maybe we didn't grow up in that environment, and they're just some of the most popular stories in the Bible.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Either way, it's important that we look at these stories kind of with fresh eyes because we can get into a habit of thinking that we know everything about a story and what it means when in reality there might be something deeper for us to understand.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning, we are going to be looking at an individual who was built like a superhero, acted like a superhero until he didn't.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: He needed and had a lot of trouble finding the right conditioner for his hair, and uh ultimately was recorded as one of the people with the greatest faith in the Bible, yet if we read through his story, we would have almost no idea about it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that person this morning is Samson, and we'll get into his story with Delilah.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Normally these two are paired together.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is Samson and Delilah all the time, and there's this like weird sort of forbidden love that is associated with them.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, don't be fooled.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's certainly not the case.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, Delilah is actually one in a series of poor decisions that Samson makes, which sort of tracks this rise and great fall of one of the judges in Israel's history.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So as we're talking about Samson and Delilah here, we are in the book of Judges, right?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so to kind of bring you along to where we are in the Bible's sort of long narrative, um, a couple weeks ago, we talked about Joshua and the battle at Jericho.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was Israel had come up through the death, right, Exodus, they'd come up from Egypt, they had been slaves, a generation passed, Joshua was the leader now, and then Joshua was bringing them into the promised land.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was the Israelites' land, it was the thing that God had promised to them, it had been theirs beforehand, and then they were sent off and sold as slaves.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so now they're returning, but there are a whole bunch of squatters in the land, namely the Canaanites.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the Canaanites, sort of that umbrella term, is then divided up into different groups, like the Jebuzites and the Amorites, and in particular, with our story this morning, the Philistines.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So God has instructed his people to go and take over the promised land, to remove those who don't work, not only don't worship him, but live this depraved life, and it is supposed to be for Israel.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, By faith you can go and conquer them, you can win, and it will be yours.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, they get right inside the promised land after our story in Jericho.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: They sort of disperse because there are twelve tribes that get these different appointed places, and then they just kind of fall flat.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: They don't end up actually pushing out all of these nations.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: They get to the land that they were promised, and they're like, this is pretty nice, and they just kind of kick it from there instead of finishing the job that God had called them to do.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so, because of that, uh, they have lots of problems.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That would be the simplest way to say it.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: When we go to Judges chapter 2, verses 1 through 3, we see the angel of the Lord appearing, went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land I had promised to your ancestors.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: I also said, I will never break my covenant with you.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: You are not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of this land, you are to tear down their altars, but you have not obeyed me.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: What have you done?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore I now say, I will not drive out these people before you.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, basically the Lord is going to Israel and he's like, Guys, like, we were just here.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go right here, and you're like, What happened?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and that's sort of the attitude that you get.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: You get the book of Joshua, which is sort of Israel fighting these good battles, and then you get to judges, and it just falls apart.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so God says, Well, I am going to keep my covenant with you.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to keep my promise.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to break my promise just because you broke yours.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still going to keep mine.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm faithful.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: But you are going to basically understand those parts of our covenant where I said, if you fail to follow after me, bad things will happen.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You're about to discover what those are.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one of them is that now, you, when you go up against these people in battle, which ends up being a large portion of the Old Testament, is sort of these skirmishes back and forth and fighting in the land, he's like, they're going to be a thorn in your side, and you're not going to be able to drive them out.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: You essentially kind of gave up your opportunity to do this in faith to me, and now just because it's inconvenient to you, I'm not going to help you in that way.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is the time of judges.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a weird time because it's sort of falling in between the leadership of Joshua into this sort of fallow period where Israel's doing a lot of things that aren't great.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is before the time when Israel gets kings.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Interestingly, they want a king because they are surrounded by nations who also have kings, and so they say they want to be just like them.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: But in this in-between period, this is the time of the judges.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And this time of the judges, as God explains in chapter two, is because actually of his love for them.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm skipping many verses here, but kind of trying to knit it together.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: The Israelites did what was evil in the Lord's sight.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord's anger burned against Israel, and he handed them over to marauders who raided them.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord raised up judges who saved them from the power of their marauders, but they did not listen to their judges.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is the time of judges, and Samson is one of those judges.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at the book of Judges, I'm going to quit saying judges in a second, when you look at the book, there are a number of individuals who God raises up always to deliver Israel and to sort of lead them against battle in these places, even though they are exercising kind of the fine print of their covenant and realizing what happens when they reject God.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: God says, I still love you, I'm still with you, I want you to protect you, and so I'm going to do this extra sort of blessing that even though you're getting basically what you deserve, I'm going to try and protect you.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Most of the judges do a pretty good job.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: That is, except for Samson.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So many of you might be familiar with the highest-grossing movie of 1949, Samson and Delilah, starring a uh Hetty Lamar and a young dame Angela Lansbury, and directed by Cecil B.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: DeMille.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it says here, story as timeless and tumultuous as the violent age it spreads before you.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: There is absolutely a part of Samson and Delilah's story as it's brought together here, even though, again, she is a relatively minor part of the story, that's kind of romanticized.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is essentially a romance movie.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Here, Samson is like going up to her while she's, I don't know, sunbathing or something like that.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh, for a bit like Romeo and Juliet sort of thing, which also is not a great romance story, anyhow.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, Samson's story is one where we see somebody who had so much potential and so many opportunities and had been given everything that he could possibly need and yet fell so short of expectations.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: When I think of Samson, I think of, first of all, my favorite sport and all the NFL draft busts.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: These are the people who like are touted coming out of college.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna save a team and they get picked like number one, number two overall, and then they their career amounts to basically nothing.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jamarcus Russell here, this is for Steven, who loves the Raiders and is probably his favorite player.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the Brian Bosworth, Ryan Leif, all of these players, like we criticize them so much, even though one and all they are a better athlete than you are, right?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um but nevertheless, we criticize them and they're like, oh, how could they?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And they had everything going for them, they had all these records, all these accolades, and yet they just don't live up to our expectations.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's typically how the story of Samson is interpreted and read.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: But there's one really interesting detail that we have to bring in here that sort of uh adjusts our perspective.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: When we get to Hebrews 11, which is often called the Hall of Faith, I've brought this chapter up when we talked about Noah and Joshua and the battle at Jericho.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's this list in the book of Hebrews of all of these individuals in the Bible who had an amazing faith, and specifically every single one of them is highlighted because of that faith in God.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see here in 11, verses 32 through 33, and what more can I say?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Time is too short for me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, all these are judges.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get to David, Samuel, and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the raging of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, gained strength and weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, wow, I didn't realize that was Samson's biography here.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: But yet Samson, the sort of failing to live up to expectations, the one that is so often criticized as this cautionary tale, and it is in a manner of speaking, but he is also lifted next to King David as somebody who had an amazing faith.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if anybody in this list can lay claim to gaining strength and weakness, it would be Samson.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I know we haven't even gotten into the story yet, which we'll do in just a moment, but I think these are the two things that we sort of have to balance against each other.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: As we get into the narrative, you're gonna see why it's very easy to understand that Samson did not live up to expectations, even though God had blessed him so mightily.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same time, we see him lifted up later on as an example to others because of his faith.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And like a lot of our lives, Samson's life was messy.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: He had high points and he had low points.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And if we can understand him sort of from that lens, we'll be able to take away, I think, a couple lessons.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, to the story, it begins in Judges chapter 13.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we see the Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord's sight.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: So the Lord handed them over to the Philistines forty years.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: There was a certain man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: His wife was unable to conceive and had no children.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: The angel of the Lord now appearing for the third time, right?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have the beginning in chapter two, we have uh Gideon in chapter six, and then with Samson, these are the three times the angel of the Lord appears in the book of Judges.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is, I mean, big deal.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the angel of the Lord comes and appears to the woman and says to her, Although you are unable to conceive and have no children, you will conceive and give birth to a son.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now please be careful not to drink wine or beer, or to eat anything unclean, for indeed you will conceive and give birth to a son.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazarite to God from birth, and he will begin to save Israel from the power of the Philistines.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: So before Samson has even been conceived yet, the angel of the Lord comes and tells Manoah's wife, who we don't get her name in the story, that she is going to have a miraculous birth, like few others in the Bible receive, which always precede somebody pretty amazing, right?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of Sarah and Isaac, you can think of um Rebecca and her children.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can think, or Rachel, excuse me, you can think of all these amazing examples of people who were barren.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord says you're gonna have a child, and then that child does amazing things.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, God says he's going to be a judge, he's going to rescue your people or begin to do that from the power of the Philistines.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: So this child has, right, huge expectations placed upon it.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then the angel of the Lord gives her some instructions, right?
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: And these aren't just like ideas for how to have a healthy child, though some of them would apply, but rather it has to do with this little word that he is to be a Nazirite to God from birth.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: What that's referencing is very important to the story.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: See, in Numbers chapter 6, the Lord instructs Moses about something called the Nazirite vow.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Speak to the Israelites and tell them.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: He may be holy until the time of his until the time is completed, during which he consecrates himself to the Lord.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: He is holy to the Lord during the time of consecration.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of consecrating.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Nazarite is to shave his consecrated head at the entrance to the tent of meeting, take the hair from his head, and put it on the fire under the fellowship sacrifice.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you were with us when we went through the book of Leviticus, a lot of this language should sort of be popping up in your mind.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: This idea of being set apart, this idea of being holy and devoted to the Lord, this idea of sacrifices and giving of sacrifices, and that they should be doing things that prevent them from being unclean.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: So the Nazarite vow, they can't drink wine or beer, uh, they can't touch anything, they can't touch or come near a dead body, and they can't cut their hair.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, two of those three things, namely drinking wine or beer or not being able to cut their hair, those things aren't wrong.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: They aren't prohibited anywhere in the law.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what this person is supposed to do is be an example to people of somebody who has kind of gone the next step in devoting themselves to the Lord.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: And notice though that the Nazarite vow is supposed to be something that is taken for a period of time voluntarily.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Except that's not what Samson is doing.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Before he's even conceived, the Lord says he's gonna be a Nazirite.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: This brings Samson alongside, he has a couple of, there are two others in the Bible that have this lifelong vow that the Lord gives to them.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: The uh two others would be Samuel, the prophet Samuel, also listed next to him in the uh the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, um, also a contemporary of Samson.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: They were alive about the exact same time.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: But anyhow, he's a Nazarite from birth, and then our friend John the Baptist.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the only two in the Bible who are recognized as having sort of this lifelong dedication to the Lord.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if you can kind of build up with me all of these things, we then get to the final piece of information that shows all of the expectations for Samson.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 13 at the very end.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: So his mother, the woman, gave birth to a son and named him Samson.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: The boy grew and the Lord blessed him.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Then the spirit of the Lord began to stir him in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtale.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's where he lived.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And so once more you just see, hey, this guy, he is not only dedicated and set apart to the Lord, he's supposed to be delivering his people from the Philistines, and now we see that the Spirit of the Lord is working within him.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: This word for the Hebrew word for stir is one that basically he would have anxiety or be troubled because something came to his mind.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so probably what happens is the Lord's spirit is working within him as he grows up and sees how his people, Israel, are being brutally treated by these Philistines.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Much like Moses in Egypt, who wants to fight against Pharaoh and the Egyptians for oppressing his people, so Samson gets this same idea.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: And so you sort of careen out of Judges 13 and you're like, man, ready for great things.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then immediately in Judges 14, Samson went down to Timnah and saw a young Philistine woman there.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: He went back and told his father and his mother, I've seen a young Philistine woman in Timna.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now get her for me as a wife.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: But his father and mother said to him, Can't you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines for a wife?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: But Samson told his father, Get her for me.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: She's the right one for me.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now his father and mother did not know this was from the Lord, who wanted the Philistines to provide an opportunity for confrontation.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: At that time the Philistines were ruling Israel.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Judges is messy, and this is a great example of that.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately we see that Samson sees a young Philistine woman, and Samson's eyes are going to get him in trouble every single time.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: It also flows with the comment that runs throughout the book of Judges that the Israelites did what was right in their own eyes.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Samson is part and parcel.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: He is just like them.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: He is not exercising his ability to do all the great things he can.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he is acting just like one of the Israelites.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is much more, this debate from his parents, who appear to have been righteous and understanding of the Lord and faithful to him.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: We get that from earlier in chapter 13 as well.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, hey, Samson, not really what you should be doing.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, no, no, no.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I need to do.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I want to have happen.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: But then we also see that in Samson's selfishness, his hubris, right, his arrogance here, that the Lord is working through him.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those mysterious things where God is using even the foolhardiness of Samson to carry out his will.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even though this is not what Samson should be doing, the Lord is going to use it to ultimately say help save Israel.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: What we're going to see, though, over chapter 14 and 15, and then 16, is that Samson and the Lord, though, have very different ideas about how he should be using his power.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: So through chapter 14 and 15, in the beginning of 16, there are Samson has a bunch of adventures, okay?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And every single one of them, as you keep going, they get greater in intensity and sinfulness.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as Samson keeps going, you get this very, very clear picture that he is somebody who is abusing all of the gifts that the Lord has given him to be able to carry out the mission that God had given him, to begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines, and instead is using them for his own pleasure.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So with the lion and the honey, there is a lion that comes and tries to attack Samson.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the first instance that we see that it says the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: It basically gives him this amazing power to tear apart the lion.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that I think is kind of funny is it says in this section, it says that he tore the lion apart just like somebody would tear apart a young goat.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, was that a frame of reference back then?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like were so many people tearing apart young goats that they're like, he tore apart a lion.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was crazy, but you know, just like somebody would do it to a young goat.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, I know that's kind of gruesome.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: But so then um this uh carcass has bees come into it, which is very unique in nature, and uh Samson goes back and scoops out the honey, which he shouldn't do because he's a Nazirite and he can't touch a dead body, and then he eats the honey, which is both gross and also not what he's supposed to be doing, and then he goes back to his parents and gives them the honey, which then desecrates them as well.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, Samson, what are you doing?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then he keeps going, and this woman that we read about just a second ago, now they are preparing for a wedding.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: And Samson brings up this riddle, which is a very odd riddle.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Riddles back then were less like, you know, sort of the clever things that you can figure out if you think about enough, and it required specific intuition or information.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so Samson gives this riddle to all these wedding guests with a huge wager on the line.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Something that would make, if they figured it out, they would be exceptionally wealthy.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: If they couldn't figure it out, Samson would gain an amazing amount of wealth from his wedding guests if they didn't get it.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And long story short, they can't get it until Samson's fiancee is like, please tell them.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: He tells her, she informs her the wedding guests, and then Samson goes and kills 30 other Philistines and takes their clothes and gives them to the wedding guests.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: And again, you look at these stories and you're like, yes, technically, you are, you know, destroying the Philistines as you should be, but is this the way that it's supposed to be happening?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: Samson goes home and is angry, and no wedding ends up happening.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then he is angry at the Philistines, um, and so he takes jackals and ties them together with their tails and puts a torch in between their tails and sets a hundred and fifty pairs of them loose, and they burn down all the fields and vineyards and olive orchards in this area, exacting an amazing financial toll upon the Philistines.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, okay, yeah, like if we're waging war, yes, but he's just doing it because he's angry and he wants revenge on them for figuring out his riddle.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so then the individuals kill his ex-fiance, who his ex father in law had given to his best man to be hurt like his bride, and you're like, that's messed up too.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then Samson goes and kills the people who killed his ex fiancee, and then he goes and hides in a cave at Lehi.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And at Lehi, we see again, these things continue to snowball, right?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: So the Israelites now turn on Samson.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And it's both an indictment on Samson as not being a good judge, that the perception of him is that he has brought trouble upon his people, but it's also an indictment upon it's the Judites who come and get him and bring him, and they're like, We're gonna hand you over to the Philistines because they're over us right now, and we don't want to make them upset.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: It shows how far Israel has fallen and their trust in the Lord to deliver them instead of these Philistines.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: So the battle at Lehi, this is where another thing that Samson outside of Delilah and the very end of his life is probably most known for is he takes the jawbone of a recently deceased donkey and kills 1,000 Philistines.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: Also breaking his Nazarite vow, picking up the jawbone.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the battle at Lehi, it's the high point of his ministry until the very end because he killed a thousand Philistines.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the thing he was supposed to be doing, right?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is his whole deal.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: But once again, Samson is going his own way.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he kills a thousand Philistines, and then we get a break.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: It moves from chapter 15 to chapter 16, and we see that a large amount of time has passed.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And Samson goes to the Philistine stronghold, basically their capital of Gaza.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: And there he goes and finds a prostitute and sleeps with her.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And during the middle of the night, the Philistines come to try and capture him, capture him, and instead he goes out uproots, the city gates, carries them on his shoulders up into a hill.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: And once more, and for the final time, you just go, Samson, what are you doing, man?
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like what's going on here?
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_00: You're not acting like a judge.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: God has given you all of these amazing gifts.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: You are fraternizing with the enemy, sleeping with them, and beyond that, the arrogance that he has and the confidence in his own power to go into, I mean, the belly of the beast here, the stronghold of his enemies, and sleep a night.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is not the kind of attitude we should be wanting our judge to have, somebody who is dedicated to the Lord.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: But now we get to our main story, though it is rather quick.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: In Judges 16, verses 4 through 6, sometime later he fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Soric Valley.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Philistine, which is basically in between kind of the Israelite territory and the Philistine.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: The Philistine leaders went to her and said, Persuade him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Each of us will then give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me, where does your great strength come from?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: How could someone tie you up and make you helpless?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: A couple things here.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: We think from elsewhere in the book of Judges that there were five uh sort of Philistine um mayors or uh Philistine leaders, and so this could be anywhere from 1,100 to 5,500 pieces of silver.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: That is an insane amount of money.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: I can't do the calculations because I don't want the inflation rate was from you know a couple thousand years ago, but nor what it is now.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: But um, that being said, this was an exorbitant sum.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: A couple dozen pieces of silver would make you one of the richest people in your town.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so for her to receive this amount of money is a windfall.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Delilah instantly, like sort of setting aside this image of her and Samson in this romance that is kind of pictured, instantly she is positioned as basically an Old Testament Judas type.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: That she is selling out one that she at least says that she loves for silver.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, if you were Delilah, you might do the same thing.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the guy that you're in a relationship with has been killing your people and is known to be an enemy of your people.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you are given an insane amount of money to simply figure out how strong he is.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that Delilah was right.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that her motivations are understandable here from her perspective.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we look at this, we see that instantly she moves into this space where she is asking Samson this very direct question, like, hey, everybody recognizes you're really strong.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: How can you not be strong anymore?
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: That would be my goal.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then begins an extremely odd set of circumstances where Samson plays this game with her and basically starts, first of all, he lies to her and tells her all these different things, like, if you put my hair in a loom, you know, if you bind me with seven cords, if you do these different things.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually he tells her that if she cuts his hair, if someone cuts his hair, he will lose all of his strength.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And here's where you we have to think that there are only two possibilities.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Either A, Samson is a complete fool and thinks that they are playing some sort of game.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: We know he likes games, he did a riddle at the wedding, right?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe he thinks they're playing some sort of game, and so he thinks that this woman that it says that he loves is not going to actually do anything to him.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that would be one possibility.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: The other one, though, is that Samson is very aware of the circumstances, as he would be aware that he was with a Philistine woman in Philistine territory.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: He is aware that they have always tried to capture him and subdue him, and he is so confident that by even telling her the source of his power, that he can still get out of his bonds.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: I contend that it is option B.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that fits his character, I think that fits the story.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, when we get to verses 19 through 20, we see that that seems to be his reaction.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: She let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: In this way she made him helpless, and his strength left him.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then she cried, Samson, the Philistines are here.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: When he awoke from his sleep, he said, I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: Really a tragic statement there at the end.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're reminded of, I mean, if we know more of our Bible, of Saul later on, as the Spirit of the Lord rests with him until he goes against the Lord and fails him and abuses that relationship and the power that he was given, and then the Lord's Spirit leaves Saul.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: And here we see that the Lord's Spirit, which has contended with and supported Samson and protected him all of this time, as Samson has fought against God's will and spurned all of these gifts that he had been given and abused them, that God had been with Samson this whole time, and now finally he leaves him.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that he stopped loving Samson, it doesn't mean that he stopped caring for him or desiring his best or being present for a relationship, but the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit that was with Samson, left him.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's also extremely sad to see that when Samson explains to Delilah the source of his power, he acknowledges that he is a Nazirite, right?
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: Which in a way makes it even sadder.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that he knows what he is supposed to be doing, and yet he has abdicated that.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: But beyond that, that he doesn't acknowledge God.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: He says, My strength comes from my hair, and because I am a Nazirite, and if you cut that off, then I will lose all of my strength.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: No mention of the fact that God is the one giving him this power.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And if we recall Numbers 6, where we learned about the Nazarite vow, if anybody was to ever cut off their hair, it was at the end of their vow, and it was supposed to be given as an offering to the Lord.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was a sign of their faithfulness and their dedication.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so Samson here gets his hair cut off, but instead of an offering to the Lord, it is given as a joke or some side of arrogant statement to the Philistines.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: To the man who up to this point has seen all of the trouble before it has come to him, to a man who is fulfilling everything about Israel, that he does what is right in his own eyes, his eyes are gouged out.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: But his hair began to grow black back after it had been shaved.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so Samson, powerless, like any normal man, and the one thing that's sort of interesting, you have to sort of read between the lines, but there's an assumption that Samson might have actually not looked like a superhero, because when they're questioning how he was so strong, it wasn't because of, like, or at least it wasn't readily apparent.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like he was, you know, jacked out of his mind, and they're like, well, okay, obviously you can see.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: He might have been a rather normal-looking man who the Spirit of the Lord empowered to do amazing things, perhaps.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, all of the strength that had been given to him, where he would have been able to easily tear out of these shackles beforehand, they now bind him.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: He is now a prisoner, grinding grain, a humiliating punishment, in the city where he had previously slept with the prostitute and carried the city gates out.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And now he is beneath the city in a dungeon doing all of these things.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yet, and we're reminded almost of the beginning of Judges, where God says, You're getting what was coming to you, but I love you and I'm with you, and I want to protect you.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see that the Lord, there's sort of this stirring here that his hair is beginning to grow back, and that God is going to be with him.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, we have the end of Samson's life.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, basically, these Philistines, all the leaders of the nation, are gathered together in this huge sort of party in this religious festival, and they're sacrificing to their God Dagon, and they want to bring Samson in to mock him, because for decades he has been their chief enemy.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: The temple was full of men and women, all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: He called out to the Lord, Lord God, please remember me.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Strengthen me, God, just once more.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then again we get a classic Samson statement, right?
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, be with me, give me strength again, don't leave me.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: Have your presence rest upon me so I can fulfill your will.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm angry at the Philistines that they took my two eyes.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, what a torn sort of relationship that Samson has with God, not fully understanding the reason and purpose behind his strength.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the very end, Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it, and those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another tragic statement.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: A statement that only at the end of Samson's life did he do really the thing that God had been calling him to do after all, which was to help deliver Israel from the Philistines.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so we see Samson here, who had decades of his life and did not conquer the Philistines in the way that he should have.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yet at the same time, we have to remember what was in Hebrews 11.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is still a man who is recognized for his faith.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is still one who is shown to be somebody that is an example to us for the kind of trust that they have in God.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: And really, the only way that we can reconcile all of these things together is that at some point in these final moments for Samson, everything clicked together.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: That his abdication of his responsibility that came about before he was even conceived, the fact that he was born and made to deliver Israel as a judge, and that was one of the last things he ever wanted to do unless it aligned with his own interests.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, here he seems to grasp what it means to have been given all of this power, been given all of this, the privileged opportunities, and he's going to actually carry out God's will the way that he had intended.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps at least carrying out God's will, much of Samson's life was doing it in a way that God did not intend.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we wrestle with these two things.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you, it's okay if this story doesn't give you warm fuzzies on the inside.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's not supposed to.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't like one of those great, oh, like let's put him in the stained glass window because we should always be.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is a cautionary tale.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: But yet, like many of us, he made many, many mistakes.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yet there was he was never too far away to be redeemed and to ultimately carry out the will that God had for him.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning, when we consider Samson and technically Samson and Delilah, though really she just plays a part in a story and is the third woman that we read about in a couple chapters that Samson is with, who really just plays the part of the betrayer.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: Samson might have loved her, but she did not love him.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: She sold him for silver.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: And much like sin in our own life, they treat us like it treats us like Delilah.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: We love it, it treats us well until it doesn't.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to Samson, there are four lessons I think that we can draw from it briefly about what we can take away from this story where we have this man who was given great opportunity, failed, and yet was still listed as an amazing man of faith.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one is that the spirit and the flesh don't mix.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: Much of Samson's life was an example in this not working out.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say the flesh, I mean our sin nature, our desire to rebel against God, to pursue the things that God does not want for us.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: When we run after our sin nature, we have to understand that we are setting aside the Lord's will.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: And these two things, they don't mix, they don't mingle, and you pursue one, God's spirit or the flesh, you pursue one at the expense of the other.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: You have to.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: You can't walk both roads.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can't.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: You might be able to try and walk both roads, and really what it looks like is like Samson, you just have a diminished understanding of what it means to have a relationship with the Lord, and also you aren't able to actually pursue any of the things that you think will give you pleasure because you're still fighting this internal battle, thinking that you can have both.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're like the Israelites.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_00: You want to have your cake and eat it too.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: We want to be in the promised land.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's so wonderful, but we don't really want to drive out any of the other nations.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, okay, well then they will just be a thorn in your side for the rest of your lives.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: The spirit and the flesh, they do not mix.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can't bring them together, and you have to pursue, or you are always rather pursuing one or the other.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_00: The second is that your power is meant for God's kingdom.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: All of us, every single one of us, has been given power by God to do something for his kingdom.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some people, it is true, have been given a greater measure than others.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, much more is expected of them.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Much was expected of Samson, because he was given much too.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: God had given him everything that he needed to be a judge.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And yet Samson failed to recognize that his power was meant for God's kingdom.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: He chose to use it for his own pleasure and purpose.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: And occasionally, yes, the two aligned when Samson could benefit too, when he could get revenge, when he could sate his anger, when he could, you know, tell somebody and do something that showed his power and his prowess.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, then he was happy to do God's will.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: But not really before then.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Every single one of us has been given a circumstance, a skill, a spiritual gift, a power, a talent, at least time to be able to carry out God's will and for his kingdom.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yet many of us, myself included, choose to use those good things that God has given us for our own wiles.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately we find that it's not nearly as satisfying as when we're able to use it for God's kingdom.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: And if that frustrates you, remember that your power isn't yours anyway.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: It never was.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: You're an amazing businessman or businesswoman.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're a piano prodigy from childhood.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: You're one of those few that really understands algebra, right?
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: You're somebody who has great success, has great circumstances in your life, all these things you can thank God for, all of these wonderful things.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: You are talented and exceptional, and it's like the help.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: You are kind, you are smart, you are beautiful.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it is not yours.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: It never was.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: It came from God.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everything that you have that is good has come from God.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one who gives good gifts, and he loves to do it.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: He loves to give you good gifts, but know that they weren't yours in the beginning.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so, therefore, that should make it much easier to use them for God's kingdom.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the idea of stewardship comes in, because you are like Samson, a steward of a gift for a time.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: And for some people, God says, not any longer.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: You have not used it the way that you were supposed to.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth and finally, though, is that salvation is never too far gone.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is one of the most beautiful aspects of Samson and his story.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_00: Blinded, hair-shorn, uh, humiliatingly being mocked by the Philistines and grinding their grain in a dungeon in a city that he had previously embarrassed.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: There was probably a couple times where Samson felt like God wasn't with him anymore.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like he had gone too far.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like he had really, yeah, this time, for the final time, he had messed up so much that God had said, no more.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And God did react and take away some of Samson's power, but his hair was growing back.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: God was still with him.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: And over that time, sometime and however long he was in that dungeon, Samson realized that his relationship with God could be restored if he just realized what God had been trying to do all along.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: God's desire for him, and ultimately his desire for the Lord, his faith that he is commended for later.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so our salvation is never too far gone.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: There is never somebody who has gone so far outside of God's bounds, no matter what their story is, that the blood of Christ cannot bring them back.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is not somebody who exists who has done so much evil or wrong that if they repent and turn from it, cannot be saved.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the beauty of the cross.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: And to think that there is somebody who has done something so great that God writes them off is to misunderstand and misconstrue the power of the cross and thinking that Jesus' death was not sufficient for every person.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you are somebody right now, whether you have trusted in Christ previously or that's a decision you haven't made, and either way you feel distant from God, know that it's never too far gone.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, you do have to walk a road back to him.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: He's been reaching out, he's been growing your hair this whole time.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to walk back to him.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're going to never fully realize what he had intended for you, and never fully realize why he gave you all of that power and the purpose so that you could serve his kingdom.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things that God desires for every single one of you.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: But some of us are walking the road of Samson instead of walking the road of a Samuel.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go ahead and pray.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your goodness.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for as often as we run away, continuing to bring up circumstances to rescue us back.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you chase after us.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: You love us.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: God, you love us unconditionally.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Father, I pray that you would help us to learn from the lesson of Samson.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: God, that there are many of us who are squandering the gifts and talents and treasures that we have been given because we think they are ours to use for our own satisfaction.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Father, help us to realize they are not ours.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: They are from you and they are for your kingdom.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_00: Father, also help us to realize no matter how far we have walked away from you, God, we can always return.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have never gone too far that you would not welcome us back.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we thank you for all of these things.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for the lesson of Samson, and we're thankful that despite his life, that he is still recorded as a man of great faith.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, that is how you remember him and want him to be remembered as well.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.