Samson - When We Marry Culture

Welcome: Test

Well, good morning Lifepoint! So glad to be with you all this morning! If we haven’t met yet, my name is Dan Osborn and I serve as the teaching pastor here, alongside Jason Phillips who is our campus life pastor!

If you’ve got a bible, open with me to the book of Judges. And we’ll be in chapter 14 today.

We’re continuing in our series this morning called “Broken Mirrors” looking at imperfect people reflect a perfect God.

And this morning we are going to be looking at the first part of the last judge in the book in the book of Judges--a man named Samson.

Introduction:

Marriage Illustration:

And the majority of Samson’s story is built around his marriage.

Marriage is powerful isn’t it?

How many of you who are married right now would say that you are exactly the same now as before you were married?!

None of us, right?

Why?

Because when you make that level of commitment to someone else it literally changes you! In a lot of ways, it’s like you marry into a new way of doing things. You marry in to a new family that has a whole set of habits, rituals, and values--and a lot of times it’s things you didn’t see or didn’t do BEFORE you got married!

Let me give you one example. When Courtney and I got married, one of the new things she had to pick up with my family is this thing called camping. And she’s been a champ with it, but that wasn’t something that her family had ever really done…it’s something that had to grow on her!

The point is, you get married--and you’re not just bringing together two lifestyles and trying to fit them together--but YOU actually change. In many ways, you’re brought into a new culture--you develop new habits--you develop new values--you’re marriage has a profound impact on what you do and even what you believe.

You see, what you can’t run away from is that who you marry is phenomenally important because without a doubt it will have a profound influence on your life both in seen and unseen ways!

And the reason I bring this up is because in Samson’s story, as we look at HIS marriage--we’re going to see that his story is actually more like a case study. Because his marriage actually shows us another marriage of sorts--but it’s not a so much a marriage to a woman, but a worldview...

We are going to be looking at what happens when...just like SAMSON...we marry into the culture around us. And in particular, from HIS story, we’re going to see three things we miss when we marry culture.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me Judges 14.

I’ll pray and then we’ll get started.

PRAY

When We Marry Culture

Background to Judges

Now, let me give you a little background on the book of Judges.

It’s a super encouraging book that tells the story of Israel’s decent into madness. And in many ways, it is like the shadow side of what God’s people are supposed to be like—they are the antithesis of what God had called them to be…which also means that for us to make much sense of the story of Judges, we have to know they were supposed to be like!

And I’m going to summarize [expand briefly]

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Exodus 9:16 ESV

16 But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

Background to Samson

Now we get to Judges —and there is a very recognizable pattern in this book.—each story start with Israel rejecting God and instead, worshiping idols--or false gods...and it starts this cycle all over again. It’s on the screen behind me [SLIDE].

It starts in chapter 13...we’re told in v. 1 that Israel is given into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years.

And yet, just like He’s done OVER and OVER again, God shows His kindness by promising to raise up a Judge, a deliverer…to rescue them.

But this Judge is different than the others.

And the first place we see that it is in how Samson comes on the scene.

God appears to a husband and wife who had been struggling to get pregnant and he tells them that they will have a son.

Look with me at Judges 13:4-5

Judges 13:4–5 ESV

4 Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, 5 for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”

So what we know about Samson, is that from the very moment he was born God was already preparing to use him to save Israel. But he’s also gonna be a Nazarite which essentially means he was going to live this distinct lifestyle of obedience to God--to model for Israel what it looks like to honor God with your life...at least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

[I could talk about the two ways in which Sampson was supposed to ‘save’ Israel. He was physically supposed to free them from the hand of the Philistines. But in freeing them, they were supposed to be restored to their rightful purpose - as a Light to the Nations.

Actually, as the story plays out, we’ll see that Samson IS a model for the rest of Israel, but not in the way you’d expect.

Samson’s life ends up as this mini-story...this case study...for the whole nation of Israel--so what Samson does is like a commentary on what Israel has been doing...and what happens to Samson is what happens to Israel--ultimately, we’ll see, it’s the same thing that happens to us!

So let’s take a look at this.

Look with me at Judges 14:1-2

Judges 14:1–2 ESV

1 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”

Right away we already see something’s not quite right with this Judge…because the first thing he wants to do is take a Philistine woman as a wife--essentially entering into a mixed marriage.

And this is in direct opposition to what God had already told Israel about marriage—saying that the men of Israel weren’t supposed to take any of the foreign women as wives OR give their daughters to foreign men.

Now...at face value, that sounds a little archaic...but we need to understand why God prohibited his people from this kind of intermarriage.

You see, it really had nothing to do with where the people were from...but had everything to do with what they believed.

Remember all of the other nations around Israel--including the Philistines--worshiped these false gods. And what God knew is that if Israel started to intermarry with people who had radically different belief systems...who worshipped different gods...he knew the kind of power marriage has — that it literally changes you--that His people would slowly take on the same beliefs and values of the nations around them! In other words, God knew they would begin to marry NOT JUST THE PERSON, but the CULTURE around them!

In fact, this is what we’ve seen happen through the whole book of Judges--that God’s people were becoming just like the nations around them--that they have been ‘marrying the culture’ and as a result, mixing up all of these different ideas, beliefs, and values from the world around them into their own understanding of who God is! Having the culture around them shape what they believed about God rather than what they believed about God shape how they engaged with the culture around them.

And so when Samson--this Judge who is supposed to be a model for the rest of Israel--starts off by getting married to a Philistine woman, things quickly begin to unravel--and instead of being a model of what Israel is supposed to look like going forward...he becomes a model of what Israel will look like if they continue on the same path they’re on right now--as they continue to marry the culture around them.

And as we work through the rest of the story we’re going to see the three things that SAMSON and Israel miss when they marry the culture around them...but ultimately, we’ll see what WE miss when we do the same thing.

We Miss Our Sin

Here’s the first thing we miss when we marry culture.

We miss our own sin--or we miss seeing our own sin.

Let me show you what I mean.

You see this at the very beginning with his desire to marry this Philistine woman--you see he comes out and says it--that his desire to do this is solely based on what seems good to him. Look at the end of v. 3, he demands his parents get this woman for him saying, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eye!”

Samson has decided to do something that clearly violates the way God has called HIS people to live and he’s doing it simply because he wants to! And this is pretty clear example of what sin is right...it’s doing what God has called us not to do or NOT doing what God has called us to do...and either way you look at it, what’s clear is that Samson doesn’t even see anything WRONG with what he’s doing!

You see, for so long already Israel already has married into the culture around them...buying into a new set of values and beliefs...and so as a result--Samson is already so far gone that he doesn’t even recognize his sin as sin!

He has married married into the culture around him and as a result he has missed his sin!

But what we have to see here is that he is no less guilty just because he doesn’t see his sin for what it is!

And honestly, I think this directly addresses something that I hear pretty regularly as a pastor now.

Not too long ago I was sitting down to have a conversation with couple who had been around the church for a little while...they explained to me their own spiritual stories, how they’d become followers of Jesus...and they were talking about them taking their next step as a couple and getting married. And so as we’re starting to talk about them getting married, it came up that they were currently living together and regularly sleeping together...and so we began to talk about what it would look like for them to honor JESUS in their relationship before they get married and that was going to mean NOT sleeping together..and not living together. And their response was very interesting. The dude just told me that they didn’t feel like God was convicting them over it!

And I’m not picking on them—but I think it reflects a broader belief that a lot of us have —maybe with different issues — that a sin issue only becomes an issue for us when God personally brings conviction in our lives!

Friends, God does not owe us a personal message about our sin that is any more clear than what he’s already laid out in His WORD!

Not feeling convicted over something is no guarantee that it’s not an issue! It could be that in this arena you have so married into a cultural value that now we’re just numb to how God is speaking to us!

And look, I know we talk about this a lot at Lifepoint, but this is one of the reasons why it is so important for us to be regularly and actively engaged in reading through the bible as followers of Jesus! Because scripture is the PRIMARY way that God speaks to us today! It’s the primary TOOL that God uses to reveal to us where we have married into culture--and missed sin….where we have let a cultural value shape how we view God rather than letting God and His word shape how we engage in culture!

Friends, the first thing we learn from Samson story is that when we marry culture, we miss our own sin!

But it’s not the only thing we miss...

We Miss God’s Hand

Let’s keep moving through the story.

When Samson’s parents hear his request to marry the Philistine woman, they spend some time trying to talk him out of it, but almost immediately, they cave in to what he wants.

But before the story continues, the author brings up this small detail. Look with me at v. 14:4.

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.

And again, it’s a small detail in the story, but it has profound implications throughout all of Samson’s life. And this brings us to the second thing we miss when we marry culture--we miss seeing God’s hand at work.

You see, it is because they’ve married into the culture around them, they now miss seeing how God is actually at work behind everything happening in the story!

They don’t understand that God is using Samson’s desire to marry this Philistine woman ultimately to bring about the deliverance of His people — but either way, Samson’s parents miss seeing how God is at work!

And again, we have to see the same principle is true for us today! That when we marry into the culture around us--mixing in different values and beliefs into our understanding of God--the result is that often we’ll miss seeing how God is actually at work!

And just one small example--and there are hundreds we could come up with--but I think one of the ways this works out in our life is when we buy into the prevailing cultural belief in karma. You know what I’m talking about, right? In general it’s the belief that we get what we deserve--that if we do GOOD, then we get GOOD. If we do BAD, then we get BAD! It’s this underlying belief that many of us have--and we might not even realize it!

But you know when we see it really pop up? When we go through seasons of life that don’t make any sense to us! When we experience some kind of suffering--and we eventually get to the point where we want to know HOW God could let something like this happen to US...or how he could let it happen to someone we LOVE?!

And that’s a very real question...it’s one that we’ve all asked...but you see what it reveals is that there are times when we take a cultural belief like Karma...and then make it a standard that God is supposed to live up to! And the result is that we miss seeing what God is actually up too or miss even considering that He might be up to something that we just don’t understand yet.

We take a value and it becomes a standard that GOD’s supposed to meet and, friends, it doesn’t work that way! And so we walk away disappointed...frustrated...even angry…NOT because God has let us down, but because we’ve married a cultural value...

And Samson’s story is such a powerful illustration of how easily and often this happens for God’s people--that when we marry culture...we don’t just miss seeing our own sin… but we also miss seeing God’s hand at work!

We Miss Our Need

And finally, what this story highlights is that when we marry culture we miss our seeing our need of a rescuer!

Let me show you what I mean. Because we really see this as the rest of Samson’s story plays out through chapter 15.

Story (14:5-15:12)

You see, in chapter 14 Samson does get married to this woman.

But it doesn’t take long before some fighting starts to take place between Samson and his new family! After losing a bet with them, Samson becomes so infuriated that he goes and kills 30 Philistine men.

And as you move in to chapter 15, we learn that Samson’s father-in-law gives away his new bride to another man. Obviously Samson is not crazy about this and so he retaliates by burning down one of the major Philistine fields where they got their crops for the year. He completely destroys it!

And as the story plays out, it looks like things are finally getting to a breaking point between the Israelites and Philistines--that there’s finally going to be this battle where we see Samson really shine as the true Judge he’s supposed to be, right? As you read the story, it looks like that’s where things are heading...just like it’s happened in EVERY OTHER story in the book of Judges...that God empowers the Judge to raise an army and defeat Israel’s enemies!

But look with me at chapter 15:11. Because Israel does put an army together...but they don’t go out to fight against the Philistines like you’d expect.

15:11 “Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, ‘Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?’...v. 12… “And they said to him, ‘We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.’ 3,000 Israelite soldiers come to find Samson, not to rally together to fight the Philistines, but to give Samson over to the Philistines!

They take the man that God is using to actually deliver them from the Philistines...Which they can’t even recognize because they’ve MISSED their own sin...they’ve MISSED how God’s hand is at work...and they reject him! They’d rather live with the way things are!

It’s not perfect in Israel, but things are okay for them right now! And SAMSON is messing it all up

But we have see, in line with this whole story, is that they are only thinking these things BECAUSE they’ve married into the culture around them! And as a result, they miss seeing their need of a rescuer at all!

Actually, this has been hiding just beneath the surface of this story from the beginning!

You see, one of the things that makes Samson’s story so unique is that this is the first time when the cycle of sin plays out in Israel--the cycle that has played out in EVERY STORY [SLIDE]...this is the first time that Israel doesn’t even cry out for deliverance!

And so even though we are told in a number of different ways that they are oppressed by the Philistines...given into the hands of the Philistines...or that even by their own admission, the Philistines rule over them...if you really look for it, they never ask for a deliverer.

Because they have completely married into the culture…embracing the beliefs and values of the world around them--they are blinded to their own sin...they miss God’s hand...but ultimately, they miss seeing their need of a rescuer.

You see, just like Samson was supposed to be live a unique, set apart life as a Nazarite as a model to the rest of the nation, Israel supposed to live this unique lifestyle of obedience to God as a model to the rest of the world around them! They were supposed to be distinct from everyone else...to model how God had created humanity to live! [Add Light to the Nations language here]

But Samson failed...Israel failed...and instead of being unique--they have become just like the world around them...all of the practices, beliefs, and values of the culture around them have become normal to them! In their minds, the way things are in Israel now are the way things should be!

That’s why as you read through this story--there is no battle scene between the Israelites and the Philistines like there are in every other story in Judges.

It’s because they have resigned to live in the status quo.

Because they’ve married the culture--they have been completely changed and are unable to see their desperate need for rescue.

But what we have to see is that as Samson and Israel have married into the culture, they now operate under the delusion that this is the way things are supposed to be! That’s why the Israelites are so quick to give Samson to the Philistines! But the irony of the story is that they are still enslaved!

From their perspective, it looks like they’re doing the best thing...BUT because they cannot see their need for rescue...all this marriage really does is keep them enslaved! Because whether or not they see it, the Philistines will continue to oppress them. And they will continue to fail to live in the freedom that God actually has for them!

And at the end of the day, what we have to understand is that this is where Samson has ultimately failed to live the way God had called him to live...it’s where Israel failed --and the same is true for us today--when we marry the culture around us, we fail in the same way!

And at the end of this story, we have to ask the question...if Samson and Israel have really missed seeing their own sin...missed seeing God’s hand...and have fundamentally missed seeing their very real need to be rescued...how is there any hope for them at all?

Gospel

Let’s take it one step further...because if we really end up doing the same things as Samson and Israel--marrying the culture around us...then how is there any hope for us?

Friends, there is hope because this is where the story of the Gospel tells us of Jesus--who is the TRUE and BETTER Samson--the TRUE and BETTER Israel!

Because where Samson, Israel, and even us, have failed, Jesus succeeded! He is the greater rescuer who has done for us what we couldn’t do ourselves!

It’s Jesus who lived the life of perfect obedience, doing all of what God had called us to do! Living as the perfect Nazarene...the perfect model for how we were supposed to live! And it’s the Gospel tells us that Jesus lived the life that we SHOULD HAVE, but FAILED to live!

He is the better rescuer because Jesus did not wait until we actually SAW our sin! He did not wait until we SAW his hand...and he did not wait until we saw our need, but the scriptures tell us that WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS--Jesus died.

That IN OUR BLINDNESS--He made us SEE

IN OUR ENSLAVEMENT--He set us FREE

He died IN OUR PLACE, FOR OUR sin...for our failure to what he’s called us to!

And the GOOD NEWS is that he rose again from the dead with hope and promise for anyone who would trust in His perfect work on the cross that we might have freedom to live the way we’d been created to live! Freedom from this marriage to the culture around us that at the end of the day only...blinds us to MISS our sin...to MISS God’s hand...MISS our need and ultimately enslaves us!

And now, as followers of Jesus, we are empowered to live differently in the world around us.

Reaching Priority

The final question is freed for what?

The same thing Sampson was called to do…the same thing Israel was called to do…to be a Light to the Nations.

[EXPAND]

This is why we call this out so directly at Lifepoint. Because we don’t just want to be a church that exists. We want to be a church that looks to the world around us and fulfills the mission God has created us for!

1% of Worthington Vision

Conclusion

Friends, Samson story shows us just a portion of what we miss when we, as followers of Jesus, marry culture. When we get so used to what we see around us that we are desensitized to the reality of what is actually happening. We MISS seeing our sin--or at least seeing it for what it really is! We MISS seeing how God is actually at work. And and the end of the day we miss seeing our very real need of a savior! And yet, while Samson’s story is a reminder, we also know that it points us to Jesus who is the TRUE and BETTER Nazarene who actually brings rescue that is far greater!

Would you pray with me?