Judges: Samson.Sovereignty. Your Joy part 2

The Danger of Half Hearted Devotion

As we noted last time, chapter thirteen opened with the common cycle of sin found in Judges.

Judges 13:1 ESV

1 And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.

This is the last time you will see the phrase “Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” in the book of Judges. You will see, however, the phrase “everyone did what was right in their own eyes,” which is the summary Israel’s sin in the book of Judges. Judges reveals how Israel time and time again did not consider their sin of halfhearted devotion from the perspective of the Lord, but from their own hearts. There is something missing in chapter 13’s cycle. Israel did not cry out to the Lord for help from their oppressors. They’ve accepted their new normal of half-hearted devotion to the Lord.

We learned that there are three dangers to you soul when you accept the new normal of half-hearted devotion to the Lord. Tim Keller was helpful identifying two of them. First, halfhearted devotion defines according to what is right in your won eyes. That is, when you do what is right in your own eyes, you define sin on your own terms; either with a legalistic sword or a liberal wand. Defining sin on your on terms is how immoral behavior among God’s people becomes acceptable.

Another danger that comes from halfhearted devotion that Tim Keller points out is deception. Israel became so ingrained in Canaanite culture that not only did they define sin on their own terms, but they could not see their sinful behavior as egregious toward the Lord. The danger to deceit is that it hardens your heart to God’s truth, his morality, what he finds holy and acceptable.

The final danger for the half hearted devoted soul is the danger of despondency. Despondency is feeling or showing a profound hopelessness or dejection, discouragement, or gloom. A despondent heart is one that is so hopeless that it is convinced that however it is it will always be this way, and I wonder if there were some of Israel who were faithful to the Lord, but stopped crying out to Him for change.

Samson’s parents, Manoah and his wife, appear to be faithful Israelites. Both of them believed the Angel of the Lord when he came to them. Manoah prayed to God for clarification of the child’s mission. They offered a sacrifice to the Lord, and they feared for their life when they realized they were in the presence of God. By all accounts, Manoah and his wife seem like they were not like their fellow Israelites, and yet there is no mention of anyone like them crying out to the Lord for relief from their Philistine captures.

Manoah and his wife may have become what Darnell Neister says about hopelessness. Neister says

“There are no hopeless situations. There are only people who have grown hopeless about them. Remove hope from a man and you make him a beast.”

—Darnell G. Neister

The danger of a despondent heart is hopelessness. Hopelessness stops praying to God expecting an answer for your good. Hopeless hearts stop seeking God’s mercy trusting he is always ready to give it. Hopeless hearts stop believing God is sovereign, good, and able to accomplish the good work he sets out to do. Hopeless hearts turn away from God and make idolatry of God’s good things. A hopeless heart acts like a beast toward the Lord.

Too many of us in the church, community, and home feel hopeless. We feel weak because we are weak. And if you are a believer, you see the danger of defining sin on your own terms, you see the hardening of your heart through deception, and you feel the weight of despondency, everyday in your life because it seems like you cannot overcome your half hearted devotion, and therefore forfeit being used by God for His kingdom.

The goal this morning is to help you shore up your faith. I want to encourage your heart to,

Have a single minded heart united loyal love for Jesus knowing He sovereignly accomplishes his work using weak servants.

In fact , God specializes in using weak and feeble people like me and you to accomplish his great work. Paul says as much when God said to Paul,

2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV)

9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness...”

One of the ways we can shore up your faith from the danger of defining sin on your own terms, the hardness of deception, and despondency in your faith is to help you have a firm commitment to God’s sovereignty.

Last time I said, Sovereignty simply means supreme power and authority.

“To say God is sovereign is to say God has supreme power and authority over eery aspect of life in heaven, the universe, and hell itself; all past, present, and future events.”

In the story of Samson, God sets his heart to work on behalf of his people, even though they do not cry out to him. This is a comfort for those who are suffering at the moment. God sets limits on your affliction. Though the darkness may last for the night, His joy comes in the morning. What is more, your affliction is not governed by the strength of your faith, but by the goodness of God’s design. God ordained Israel to be ruled by the Philistines for forty years, then he would raise up a deliverer. For forty years His discipline would do its work, no less and no more.

The profoundness of God’s sovereignty is not just His supreme authority over the circumstances in your life, but his supreme wisdom and His desire to take accountability for His work in your life. Remember what pastor William Glyn Evans said to both God’s sovereign initiative and his accountability in your life.

“God must reserve for Himself the right of the initiative, the right to break into my life without question or explanation. That shattering phone call, that disturbing letter may indeed be the first stage of God’s interruption in my life.… Since God does the initiating, He must be responsible for the consequences.”

—W. Glyn Evans

God’s sovereignty is responsible for the consequences of his “interruption into my life.” If he is going to take the initiative to work in my life, he assumes the consequences of his work. I love that. No one in the world can take the initiative to invade my life and guarantee that the consequences of doing so will work out for my good. No body on earth, no being in heaven beside God himself, has the supreme power and authority to interrupt your life, even in dramatic and sometimes tragic ways, and keep the promise to work all things for your good.

God is committed to working all things out for my good. He assumes the responsibility to take the initiative and the consequences thereof. His sovereignty ensures that the work will be good for me, no matter how insane it looks from my perspective. Samson’s brith, life, and death gives us a glimpse the supremacy of God’s initiative to invade someone’s life to bring a deliverer for His people, and accomplish his work despite the weaknesses of his people, even the weakness of his sovereignly appointed judge.

Last time, the Word of God showed us that

God’s sovereignty ensured Samson’s miraculous birth and ministry (Judges 13:2-25)

We saw his sovereignty worked out in three movements. First,

God announced His miraculous plan to raise up a deliverer (Judges 13:2-20)

Second,

God fulfilled His promise for Samson’s miraculous birth (Judges 13:21-24)

Finally,

God stirred Samson’s heart for His work (Judges 13:25)

As we move on to chapter 14, keep in mind, the name Samson means “little sun.” The sun was considered a god by the Canaanites. As faithful as his parents were to keeping the Nazarite vow, this is a clue that their worship was still half-hearted and syncretistic. They combined Canaanite worship with covenant worship. They named the future deliverer of Israel after a pagan god. This creates tension in the story. How can you be followers of Yahweh and name your divinely chosen son after a Canaanite God?

Nevertheless, in verse 25, God’s Spirit falls on him and stirs his heart. God’s champion is on the scene. Tim Keller describes Samson as, “ a boy conceived miraculously, chosen by God, set apart to serve him, blessed by him and shaped by his Spirit. Samson has every spiritual advantage. He is the last judge in this book, the last great hope for Israel. We wait to see how he will rescue and rule God’s people in obedience to God.” And yet, when you read chapters 14-16, you will find yourself scratching your head. Something is wrong with Samson. He looks more like a Canaanite than a Nazarite. Can God still use his chosen weak flawed man as an instrument of grace to deliver his people? Because he is sovereign, we can with absolute confidence, Yes, and Amen!

God’s sovereign strength overcomes Samson’s weakness (Judges 14:1-16:22)

Samson is under a Nazarite Vow. In chapter 13, we learned that God’s plans for Samson was for him to be a Nazarite from his very beginning in the womb until his death (Judges 13:7). The Nazarite vow It is a special commitment to God of separation, or a vow of holiness (Numbers 6). Typically, there were commitments to the Nazarite vow. First, it was done voluntarily for a set amount of time. Second, Nazarites were to never drink fermented wine or beer, nor could they even eat grapes with their seeds or raisons. Third, Nazarites were to never touch a dead corpse. Finally, they were to never have a razor touch their head, meaning they were to never cut their hair. When their time was finished, they completed a complex ritual to end the vow (Numbers 6:1-10). From the time of his conception to chapter 14, we are lead to believe that Samson’s vow was in tact. The last thing we read in Judges 13 is, “the Lord stirred Samson.” But when you begin chapter 14, Samson’s moral weakness becomes immediately apparent.

Samson does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 14)

Right away in chapter 14, Samson goes off the Hebrew gird and asks his father for a Philistine woman to be his wife (Judges 14:1-2). He father questions Samson’s desire for an uncircumcised woman (Judges 14:3). It was not right for the Jews to intermarry with the Canaanites. Some have tried to use this text to argue for the separation of ethnicities, as if it is morally wrong to marry someone outside of your “race.” If that were the case, Moses would’ve been in trouble with his wife Zipporah. She was a non-Israelite. She did, however, recognize God’s covenant (Exodus 4:24-26). In Exodus 34:15-16, God forbids inter-faith marriage. God did not want the Jews to intermarry with the Canaanites because he did not want His people to fall into idolatry. The same goes for Christians.

Jesus does not want his disciples to be unequally yoked to nonbelievers. Paul says in

2 Corinthians 6:14 ESV

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

A yoke is a wooden bar that joins two oxen to each other and to the burden they pull. An “unequally yoked” team has one stronger ox and one weaker, or one taller and one shorter. The weaker or shorter ox would walk more slowly than the taller, stronger one, causing the load to go around in circles. When oxen are unequally yoked, they cannot plow together. They are at odds with one another. Just as darkness is at odds with the light, and lawlessness is at odds with righteousness. So, Samson’s father is like, “What gives?” Why are you, God’s chosen deliverer, yoking yourself with the very people who are against the Lord?”

Samson becomes belligerent. He demands his father get him a Philistine wife (Judges 14:3). Samson defies his father, which again, is odd. In Hebrew antiquity, it was the father’s responsibility to get his son a wife. The son was to obey his father and take the wife he got him. Samson a breaking Hebrew norms by his actions. He justifies his desire for the Philistine woman at the end of verse three, “for she is right in my eyes.”

The downfall of God’s people in the book of Judges is they refused to do what was right in God’s eyes. Instead, they did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6). This is sin. A.W. Tozer said,

The essence of sin is rebellion against divine authority.

A. W. Tozer

God made it clear to Israel how to live with him in the land; follow his law and keep his covenant. Do what is right in God’s eyes. Submit to His authority. Trust that his ways make you flourish. Sin turns away from God and does what is right in your own eyes. Sin says, “Personal Autonomy is where you flourish. Be a law unto no one but yourself. Do what is right in your own eyes. Be your truth.” Samson shows you and I that doing what is right in your own eyes reveals to glaring weaknesses to your faith: impulsivity and obstinance.

Doing what is right in your own eyes: The Weakness of Samson’s Impulsivity

Samson’s impulsivity is most seen in his sensuality. He was a very sensual man, meaning he had very little control over his desires. You see his impulsivity mostly in his lack of self-control with his sexual desires. He had to have what was forbidden. He was ruled by his passions.

Samson’s father secures the Philistine woman in Judges 14:1-3 from Timnah. In Judges 14:7, Samson speaks with the woman and does what is right in his own eyes. This woman does not work out after all and you find Samson with another woman, a prostitute from Gaza, in chapter 16. A few verses later, Samson is with another woman, Delilah (Judges 16:4). Not one of these woman were Hebrew. Not one of them were approved for Samson by his parents or the Lord. All of them were impulsively pursued, and eventually cost Samson his life.

In the backdrop of Samson looking for love in all the wrong places is this ominous feeling that Samson’s impulsivity is blinding his heart to his calling and ministry. On his way to get his Philistine lady friend, verse five says that came to the vineyards of Timnah. Why would Samson by anywhere near a vineyard? He is not allowed to even eat a grape or raison, let alone drink wine. Why would he tempt himself by being so close to a vineyard? You may think, “You are over reacting, Plumer. It is not a big deal for him to be by a vineyard. Fine. What about the Lion?

One day he is walking on a road by Timnah and he is attacked by a Lion. He rips the lion into pieces like one who rips a goat. Easy peasy lemon squeeze. That’s awesome but no big deal. On his way back from where he was going, some honey bees made a hive in the carcass of the Lion. He dips his hand in the hive to get some honey. Then he gives some of the honey to his parents. So what? A Nazarite is not supposed to touch anything dead. Furthermore, his parents are not to touch anything dead, and if they do they need to go through the ritual of becoming ceremonially clean. Samson does not tell them where he got the honey.

Then you have Samson greed. At his wedding party, he makes a bet with the men for thirty pieces of clothing that they could not solve his riddle referring to the lion he just killed.

Judges 14:14 ESV

14 And he said to them, “Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet.” And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

The men do him wrong by threatening his new wife to tell them the answer (Judges 14:15-19). Samson takes his vengeance by slaughtering thirty men from a neighboring town and giving their clothes to pay his gambling debt (Judges 14:19-20). Samson’s impulsivity broke his vow to the Lord. He put his feet up to the line at the vineyard. He defiled an act of God’s gracious of deliverance from a lion by eating out of its carcass. Then he leads his parents away from the Lord by making them ceremonially unclean and never telling them. His desire to gamble puts he and his new wife in a bad spot. Samson’ impulsivity makes him look more and more like a Canaanite and less like a Nazarite.

Christian, we live in a highly sexualized culture. Even our fabric softener adds on T.V. are sexualized. Americans are deeply confused by sexuality and have bought into the sexual revolutions claim that sexual fulfillment is ultimate human flourishing. That is why everything in our culture revolves around sexual identity and fulfillment, and we are so commited to it that we expose our children to it as soon as possible.

Our culture that is trapped in impulsivity. Are you? You are sinfully inclined with a growing appetite for the things God forbids. How are you doing, friend? Impulsivity was a major weakness to Samson. In the end, it is what cost him his strength in the Lord. And just as it was a weakness for Samson, so it is to us.

I want you to think about your thoughts for a moment. Kent Hughes is right on the money when he says,

No sensual sin was ever committed that was not first imagined.

R. Kent Hughes

Jesus implies that impulsivity comes from your heart when he connects sensual sins to your heart. He says,

Matthew 15:18–19 ESV

18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

When you are led by a heart that is committed to doing what is right in your own eyes, you are committed to being ruled by your passions, your unholy desires. Furthermore, Jesus says your unholy desires form evil thoughts in your head. When your heart is corrupt your imagination is corrupt. Your thoughts go where your heart goes, and eventually your hands will follow. Sexual immorality, all of it, from infidelity to homosexuality, begins in your heart and mind, and there lies Samson’s weakness. He would not let God rule his heart or his thoughts, which led to his hands doing what was right in his own eyes. As it was with Samson, so it is with you friend. How are you doing with your thought life? Are you hiding secret sins? Do you feel what weight of the danger of your impulsivity? Ellen Gould White wisely tells you,

Through sensual indulgence, Satan seeks to blot from the soul every trace of likeness to God.

Ellen Gould White

You may say, pastor, you don’t understand. You have no idea how hard it is fight the good fight. I’m so weak. Hold on, Christian. We are getting there. But first, also need to address the hearts obstinance.

Doing what is right in your own eyes: The Weakness of Samson’s Obstinance

To be obstinate is to be stubbornly adhering to one’s purpose with a refusal to yield to reason or argument. In the Bible, to be obstinate is to be unteachable. Samson knew what the Lord required of him. He knew his father was right to question his desire for a Philistine wife, but Samson refused to yield to God’s design and plan for his life. He refused to let God help him flourish.

God had raised Samson to be Israel’s deliverer. Samson could’ve been the example, the model, a man after God’s own heart. He had the spiritual pedigree but he did not have the right humility. I think this is most seen in Sampson by what he does not do very much of, pray.

The story of Sampson consists of four chapters in the book of Judges. In those three chapters, Sampson is face with many opportunities to seek the Lords wisdom for marriage, battles, and for deliverance. Sampson calls upon the Lord twice. Both times he calls upon the Lord is when he is about to die (Judges 15:18; 16:28), and of those times, only the time before he actually dies does he appear to finally have an ounce of humility. Edward Mckendree Bounds rightly says,

In reality, the denial of prayer is a denial of God himself.

Edward McKendree Bounds

To not pray is to say in your heart God does not exist. To only pray on occasion is to say that if God does exist He’s only consulted when necessary. As if to say to God, “I’ve got this. I’ll let you know when I need you.” Obstinance, friend, is pride. James Montgomery Boyce says

The root of pride is saying that we can do without God.

James Montgomery Boice

Samson had an arrogance about him that clouded his thinking about himself. He acted as if he was a self-willed man. He was an authority unto himself. The Bible warns us.

Proverbs 16:18 ESV

18 Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Samson’s pride blinded his heart from seeing Delilah’s deception. When he was captured the Philistines gouged his eyes out, the very eyes that fed his impulsivity. Only when his eyes were gouged out of his head could the eyes of his heart finally see his God and his calling. Only in his humility, his weakness could he be the man called him to be.

Pride hardens your heart and makes you the hypocrite says Johnathan Edwards.

“The hypocrite has not the knowledge of his own blindness, and the deceitfulness of his own heart, and that mean opinion of his own understanding, that the true saint has. Those that are deluded with false discoveries and affections are evermore highly conceited of their light and understanding.” (Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 1 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 257.)

Samson’s conceit blinded him from obedience and made him a hypocrite. How can you on the one hand be God’s divine chosen deliverer of Israel (who has forsaken God with their obstinance) and on the other hand at the same time look more like a Canaanite than a Nazarite with your impulsivity and obstinance toward the Lord?

Hypocrisy is what the world sees when Christian’s claim that Jesus is enough and worth following only to see them ruled by sensual passions and obstinate hearts. This is what God has to work with. Impulsive and obstinate people who live too much of their life with a half-hearted devotion to the Lord.

Samson is the human picture of Israel. And if we are honest with ourselves, we are Sampson. Who in here can cast the first stone and say, “Impulsivity and obstinance has not ruled my hearts at times?” Who here this morning mourns over their spiritual weakness and doubt God’s presence and goodness in their life? Who here wonders of they are too far gone for God to use mightily for his kingdom? I want you to see the sovereign strength of the Lord in Samsons weakness.

The Lord sees it differently: The Sovereign Strength of the Lord

Every single time Samson was weak in his impulsivity or obstinance, God was stronger and prevailed for Sampson. Even though Sampson’ heart lustfully went after God’s enemy, the very people God raised Sampson up to judge and deliverer Israel, God worked through Sampson

Judges 14:4 (ESV)

4 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

The Lord used Sampson’s impulsivity to bring about the confrontation between the Philistines and His judgement. Even though time and time again, Sampson demonstrates ungodly character and drifts away from God’s calling in his life, the Spirit of the Lord shows up and rushes upon him to deliver him and use him to deliver

The Spirit of Lord delivers Samson from a Lion (Judges 14:6)

The Spirit of the Lord avenges his enemies when they cheat Sampson (Judges 14:19).

The Spirit of the Lord rushes upon Samson to deliver him from a thousand Philistines who had him bound in ropes (Judges 15:14-15)

The Spirit of the Lord spilt a rock open to give him water to drink when he was dying of thirst (Judges 15:19).

The Spirit of the Lord returned left Sampson when he was humbled by being sold for 1,00 pieces of silver and having his eyes gauged out, to judge the Philistines one last time (Judges 16:28-31).

Every single time Sampson was at his weakest, God was at His strongest. For twenty years God empowered, sustain, and used Sampson, his impulsive and obstinate servant mightily for His kingdom.

Sampson is a reminder that we are week, impulsive, and obstinate people. Our hearts are inclined to make idols of God’s good gifts. Every single one of us is Sampson.

But Sampson also points us to someone greater than us. There was another chosen child who was set apart for deliver his people from our greatest enemies. There was another judge who kept his covenant vow, living a perfect life of submission to God’s law. There was another man who was sold for pieces of silver and died on a cross killing death and sin. But this deliverer did not stay in the grave. God was so satisfied with his perfect life, his perfect sacrifice, that He raised him from the dead, defeating sin, Satan, and death once and for all. And he offers his victory to all who would call upon his name to be saved. And his name is Jesus. Jesus invites the weak to come to Him to find strength. he ascended into heaven so he could pour out his Spirit into your heart giving your their power to defeat sin and joyfully advance his kingdom.