Dancing with the Lion

Introduction

If you ever read the book of Judges, it’s quite a unique book. It’s far less literal, far less historical, far less logical. It is well beyond reason, well beyond the normal. It’s figurative. It’s chalked full of symbolism. It’s a collection of magical stories. There are larger than life enemies. There are eve greater heroes and heroins who battle these enemies. It is like a biblical version of Marvel.

You have God’s chosen people, his sheep, the tribes of Israel at the very center of these stories. Notice I didn’t say nation of Israel, though, because these stories happen right when they settle the promise land. In fact, Joshua, their shepherd, has just died and the Israelites, the sheep, have lost their great leader. They have yet to demand a King from God because God is supposed to be their King.

But they can’t handle the responsibility. In fact, God’s very first command to them when Joshua dies is to drive the foreigners out of their land lest they conquer God’s people, introduce to them idols, convince them to live according to the world’s laws and not God’s laws.

And they don’t do it. They fail at this. They’d much rather dance with the lions than drive them out of the land like God told them.

So then the entire book of Judges happens because the people fail to step in sync with God. They fail to be obedient. They fail to follow God’s commands and laws. They begin marrying the foreigners, inviting them further into their land, allowing them to build temples to false Gods and idols. They begin dancing with the lions.

It was a terrible, terrible conflict that brewed every day, because everyday the Israelites invited sin into their lives. They were like sheep that danced with lions, only to be devoured by them.

So who did God call to fight this supernatural conflict? The Judges.

And in the book, you have these individual narratives about incredible folks who do the impossible. You have them running around, destroying entire armies with a single sword. You have them whipping the Israelites back into shape. You have them doing incredible things!

But their influence doesn’t last forever. One by one, they are anointed Judge, they lead Israel back into relationship with God, then they die and Isreal falls back into her old ways. The sheep fall back into dancing with the lion.

This cycle, it happens over and over and over - and some of us, church, do this very thing!

We Love Dancing With The Lion!

In fact, some of us prefer it this way! We are okay to live half of our life like sinful heathens, only to run to God and repent when we get knocked on our backside! We like to get as close to the edge as possible just to see how close we can actually get before we slip and fall into oblivion.

It doesn’t even have to be crazy sins either, although some of us need to stop watching men or women dance in their underwear on tictok or instagram, because it may not be porn but it still stirs up lust in your hearts - and guess what, the line isn’t the nudity, the line is when it causes you to lust. Stop dancing with that lion, Church.

But you know what else destroys us? GOSSIP! OMG, we yearn for gossip, we love to listen to it, we love to soak it up and drink it in. It’s like a cup for our soul, makes us feel so much better about ourselves. Why does it do that, Church? Why does it make us feel so good when we Gossip? Because we can be pitiful, vain, arrogant creatures - and we we allow someone elses downfall bolster our self-image so that we feel superior and don’t have to think about our own downfalls.

Oh but we are good Christians and we don’t share it, we just listen!

Let me give you a good illustration here about how gossip really works. One of the constant complaints that we get as Pastors and Elders is that “‘such and such’ happens and the Pastor didn’t even call to check on me” or “Pastor hasn’t called me in two, three weeks.” And you know what, Church, this type of complaint kinda gets under my skin. I may be totally wrong here, but my thoughts and a lot of times my response is, “Did you know that my phone actually receives phone calls? It’s one of those fancy ones that doesn’t just make phones, but people can actually call me.”

I mean, I have kids who call me every single night because they want to tell me about their day or update me on their grades or behavior. And if they don’t call me, you bet I’m calling them. Because I am going to be wondering what made you miss that phone call. But we as grown adults, for some reason, think that we ought to be on the receiving end of any type of relationship.

Now, bringing this mild rant back to earth - gossip only happens if two people take part in the conversation, just like a relationship is built on both giving and receiving, just like a phone call is build on two people participating.

Just because you’re only listening doesn’t mean you’re not taking part. This has been such a convicting realization in my personal life, so much now that I get uncomfortable, I get convicted when someone is clearly gossiping to me - so much so that I feel obligated to stop the conversation because it’s wrong Church.

And if you don’t stop the converstation, if you don’t stop the gossip, guess what? You’re dancing with a lion.

What lion are you dancing with today?

We LOVE dancing with the lion, Church, but one day we’re going to forget to jump back to God.

In the Lion’s Mouth

There is a word for this. It’s called hubris. It’s where we get so used to toeing the line that we don’t even realize we’ve crossed it way back. There is a judge who embodies this word, this idea in book of Judges.

His name is Samson.

In fact, I have a super cool picture of Samson wrestling a lion. That’s actually a painting of a roman sculpture of Samson, which is super cool. But that was Samson - he loved to wrestle with lions.

But by the time Samson came along, the Israelites were so deep in their sin that they didn’t even bother crying out to God when the Philistines began to lord over them. They just didn’t care. They were so complacent.

Then you get Samson whose entire upbringing is the picture of faith. He was called by an angel of the Lord. Much like John and Jesus, the mother was told first by the angel, then the father was told. Further, his birth was nothing short of a miracle, his mother was completely barren. Samson was then called to a strict lifestyle that honored the Lord, including that he should never cut his hair to show that lifestyle he was called to.

His mother was faithful. His father was faithful. They raised the child in such great faith.

Looking at all of this, you would expect Samson to be the golden child, the perfect shining example of faith to Israel. But he turns out to be the gilded child.

He is rash and immature. He is compulsive and impulsive. He forsakes nearly all of his teachings as a child, save not cutting his hair. He kills a lion on his way to marry a philistine and then on his way back home finds honeybees in the dead lion, takes the honey, eats it and then brings it home for his parents to eat without telling them it came from the carcass of a lion. So many grave sins in that single sentence.

He then bets with some Philistines that were hanging around his new Philistine wife because he thinks of a riddle and thinks it’s the best riddle in the world that they couldn’t possibly guess it - hubris - loses the bet and owes them thirty sets of clothes, but he doesn’t have any money or anything, so he goes down to the nearest town and murders thirty people, steals their clothes, then brings them to Philistines to settle the wager.

He then finds out that his new father in law has offered his wife to another man because I’m sure the guy thought it was a joke that a Israelite wanted to marry his daughter, so Samson does the only reasonable thing and burns down the entire town’s crops. Well this understandably causes a ruckus and he murders even more people come to defend their land. Then the ones who are left want to know why he set flame to their livelihood, he tells them that if they kill his ex-wife and her family then he will be avenged and would no longer kill them. They do just that and then Samson kills the rest of them for no reason at all.

Well this of course angers all of the Philistines and they make war with the Israelites.

Judges 15:9–11 CSB

The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi. So the men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?” They replied, “We have come to tie Samson up and pay him back for what he did to us.” Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines rule us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered.

Well, no, Samson, that’s not true! If you hadn’t disobeyed God’s law, if you hadn’t tried marrying a Philistine woman in the first place, then you wouldn’t have done everything else that followed! You wouldn’t have gambled, you wouldn’t have murdered a whole town to pay off that debt, you wouldn’t have lost your wife, you wouldn’t have waged war against the land - none of it would have happened!

Furthermore, Israel, since when are you okay with the Philistines ruling you? Isn’t that God’s job? What is going on?!

I’m sure that the Spirit screams this exact question at us many times. And if we are dancing with a lion and hear that shout, we ought to listen, step back from the ledge, and remember what got us there.

But sometimes we are so far deep in our sin, so used to it, so desensitized to the Spirit, that we don’t even realize that we are gone. We don’t even realize we’ve fell off the cliff. We don’t even realize that we are sheep in the lion’s mouth. We don’t even realize that we’ve embraced our hubris.

Samson thought just because he was chosen, just because he was a Judge, the rules didn’t apply. Not once does Samson pray to the Lord, not once does he pray thanking God for his gifts and abilities. Not once. He firmly believes that what he has done, what his parents have done, what his calling and anointing has done will pave a way for him to see his way out of any situation.

A lot of us think just because we punched that “I wanna be Saved” spot on the prayer card and turned it in, said a little prayer, then started coming to church - some of us believe that those steps allow us to think the same way. We bleive we can live the same exact way that we were living before we did those things. Some of us think the rules don’t apply to us because we are professing believers. Because we are baptised. Because we pray. Because we tell others about Church.

But my God, those are the ones who are in the the lion’s mouth.

Do you think it was a coincidence that Satan convinced woman and man in the garden of Eden that God had lied, that we would not die if we disobeyed the Lord? Do you think it was coincidence that Satan convinced them that death could not touch them, that they were immune?

No church!

Because a lot of times we are convinced that death still cannot touch us so we choose to dance with it and that is our folly. That is our downfall. We think we are invincible on our own doing, on our own peculiarity.

Are you in the lion’s mouth today?

Church, I implore you to think about this question long and hard, because hubris tells us that it is all a game, that we will come out on top and everything will work out. But that’s almost never true.

Eaten by a lion.

Samson doesn’t give up his lifestyle. After sleeping around with a few hookers, he settles down with a Philistine girlfriend named Delilah.

Delilah was no ordinary woman, though. Check out what happens:

Judges 16:5–9 CSB

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. Each of us will then give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me, where does your great strength come from? How could someone tie you up and make you helpless?” Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.” The Philistine leaders brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them. While the men in ambush were waiting in her room, she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. The secret of his strength remained unknown.

Samson was dancing with a lion.

Judges 16:10–12 CSB

Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me and told me lies! Won’t you please tell me how you can be tied up?” He told her, “If they tie me up with new ropes that have never been used, I will become weak and be like any other man.” Delilah took new ropes, tied him up with them, and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men in ambush were waiting in her room, he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

Samson was dancing with a lion.

Judges 16:13–14 CSB

Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me all along and told me lies! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids on my head into the fabric on a loom—” She fastened the braids with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled out the pin, with the loom and the web.

Judges 16:15–21 CSB

“How can you say, ‘I love you,’ ” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!” Because she nagged him day after day and pleaded with him until she wore him out, he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.” When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, for he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the silver with them. Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. In this way, she made him helpless, and his strength left him. Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he awoke from his sleep, he said, “I will escape as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.

But he did not know the Lord had left him.

What lion is eating you today?

Conclusion

Are you dancing with a lion? Are you in the lion’s mouth? Are you being eaten? Samson danced with lions all his life until finally God left him and he was destroyed. After he was beaten, blinded, and thrown into slavery - he was brought out of captivity to the temple of the Philistine’s false God to entertain them. To dance for them. No longer was he dancing with a lion, he was dancing for the lion. He had gotten so far deep into his sin that it was no longer a choice but a compulsion he could not shake save an act of God.

So in that temple, he prayed for God to give him strength one last time and brought the temple down with him and all of the Philistines in it. God came back to him once again, even if it was for one final act. Even if it was to fulfill the singular purpose God had for him.

But are you willing to waste your life dancing with a lion until your time is spent? Or will you pray today, will you pray for an act of God? Will you pray for the lion to be slaughtered by our great shepherd? Will you pray for your wounds to be healed? Will you pray for your strength to be resurrected? Will you pray for the dance with the lion to end?