The Unstoppable God
Notes
Transcript
Intro: Theme/Topic (What’s the problem, the question, etc.)
In 1928, scientist Alexander Fleming entered his laboratory to discover that mold had contaminated one of his petri dishes. But before he could throw it away he noticed that the bacteria surrounding the mold was all dead! This seemingly bad incident turned out to be a really good thing for it led to the discovery of penicillin, the first the first true antibiotic.
The potential for this discovery was initially overlooked until during WWII when a team in Oxford demonstrated how penicillin could be used to treat infections. Penicillin then gained significant recognition and was mass produced for the war effort, saving thousands of soldiers’ lives!
What initially seemed like an unfortunate and chaotic accident led to some pretty incredible good.
Sometimes we can look at the chaos of our world and get easily discouraged thinking where is God and what is He doing in all of this!!!
And this is especially so when we consider the self-inflicted chaos and suffering of our own evil choices or those of our loved ones. And sometimes it appears that there’s no one left who wants to do things God’s way and serve Him faithfully.
What can God do when it appears that there is no one who is faithful to Him?
This is the question that the Samson story will answer — I hope that it will give you such great hope and comfort as you are amazed by a God who works in the most hopeless circumstances using the most unexpected means.
Scripture
Let’s turn to God’s Word now. Please turn with me to Judges 14-15. If you need to use a pew Bible, you’ll find today’s text on page 252. Once you’re there, please stand with me if you are able and follow along with me as I read...
Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.
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.”
But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”
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.
Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring.
Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.
After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.
His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do.
As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes,
but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.”
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.
On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?”
And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?”
She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people.
And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” And he said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.”
And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father’s house.
And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.
After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. And he said, “I will go in to my wife in the chamber.” But her father would not allow him to go in.
And her father said, “I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead.”
And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.”
So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails.
And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards.
Then the Philistines said, “Who has done this?” And they said, “Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.” And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
And Samson said to them, “If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit.”
And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam.
Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.
And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us.”
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?” And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.”
And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.”
They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.
And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.
And Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men.”
As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.
And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this day.
And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
This God’s Word!
Prayer
Good Father, send the Spirit to illumine our hearts and minds this morning. Reveal to us the character of Christ that we may rejoice in it and be glad. And may you receive all the glory! — We ask this in Christ’s beautiful name — AMEN!
Intro: Formal (give context to passage, setting the scene, big idea)
If you’re new here, I’ve been preaching through the book of Judges for 11 weeks now. Let me quickly give you some context. The thing you most need to know about the structure of this book is that there is a repeating cycle…
Israel rejects their God to do evil and worship the false gods of the nations around them.
Then God punishes them by delivering them over into the hands of their enemies to oppress them.
God’s people then cry out to Him to rescue them.
Then God raises up a Judge — a military leader who will deliver them from the oppression of their enemies.
There is peace in the land for as long as that Judge is alive.
When the judge dies, the people again reject God to do evil and worship false gods.
The cycle repeats…
And each time this cycle repeats, things get a little worse. We saw for the first time in my last sermon, that under Jephthah (the Judge just before Samson) that God no longer gave rest to the land.
And as we looked at birth of Samson last time in ch. 13, there was hope that maybe this would be the Judge to finally bring lasting deliverance to God’s people.
His birth was announced by the angel of the Lord
He would be set apart for life long service to God from the womb
Samson is the last Judge in this book and more is written about him than any other judge. Today we’re going to look at the first part of Samson’s story and the 3 points I want to draw out for you from this text are
First, The Tragic Problem that God’s people find themselves in.
Second, The Uncomfortable Solution that Samson really is.
Third, The Divine Purpose of God that stands behind it all.
Let’s get started…
The Tragic Problem
The Tragic Problem
I already mentioned last time that this is the first cycle where none of God’s people ever cried out to Him for help under the oppression of the Philistines. But the problem is so much worse.
We see this right off the bat in v. 1 — Notice this subtle detail “Samson went down to Timnah and saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.” And as this story progresses Samson simply comes and goes among the Philistines in Timnah without any problems — as if this is a normal thing that people do.
The problem is Timnah is a settlement that is well inside the boarders of Israel. This is not a boarder town. The picture here is of the Philistines having advanced and settled among God’s people to the point where it has become the accepted norm.
In the past God’s people would cry out to Him because they couldn’t bear the military, political, and economic oppression of their enemies. But things are different now. They are unconscious to their enslavement and are integrating right in with their pagan enemies!
They are adopting their values, their idols, and their customs. God’s people have become comfortable with the state of their oppression!
We see this crystal clear when we skip ahead in this story to 15:11 —
Samson has just whooped up on some Philistines and fled to Judah for refuge…
The Philistines come knocking on Judah’s door looking for Samson
Judah goes to Samson and rebukes him!!!
They say to Samson in v. 11 “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this you have done to us?
Do you see how bad things are?! Notice how far Judah has fallen even from the beginning of this book? In chapter one it was the tribe of Judah who was the first to go in to take possession of the land God was giving them!
But now Judah is content to be ruled over by an enemy nation! They should be rallying around Samson to drive out the Philistines but instead they are handing him over to them!
Understand what this means…God’s people have united with their enemies to hand over God’s chosen servant to be killed. They send 3,000 men to make sure they can capture him.
Why because Samson is a threat to their comfort and security. This is exactly what the religious leaders did to Jesus — they even sent soldiers to arrest him and like Samson, Jesus would go willingly.
The danger here for the church today is that we seek to avoid conflict with the world by making compromises that make the church more acceptable to them!
We saw this in the 1st half of the 20th century when mainline Protestants tried to become more relevant to modern people who would believe in anything supernatural — Their solution…was to de-supernaturalize the Bible…
Explain away any miracles as legends developed by the minds of pre modern people who didn’t know any better. The conflict was removed but Christianity became nothing more than trying to live a good life.
Today there are many liberal churches who try to remove conflict with the world by adopting the accepted sexual ethic of our day. There’s no judgement — no talk about sin or needing a Savior. Personal choice and freedom are elevated as the ultimate good.
Now it can be easy to point the finger at “THOSE Churches” but how many of us have stayed silent in conversations at work or in school where the values of our world are celebrated that are truly evil in the eyes of God?
Abortion rights
Normalizing and affirming sinful sexual lifestyles
Maybe we’ve stayed silent because we don’t want to be cancelled. In some ways we are no different than Israel here in Samson’s story. We too have sought to avoid conflict with the world.
There was real danger here to Israel because they were on the brink of extinction. If things continued in this way, it would only take a few generations before they were completely absorbed into Philistine culture.
Church hear this: There is something wrong with us when we no longer despise our true enemies.
Think back to Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Enmity here is a gift that keeps us distinct from and separate from evil.
O you who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
If you love the Lord you must hate evil! In many ways Samson’s story is a humorous finger to the eye of an evil nation that is opposed to God and His people.
It’s kind of a like a RoadRunner cartoon where the Coyote thinks he’s won only to be beaten by the RoadRunner!
They solve his riddle but he kills 30 of their people.
His wife is given away but he sets fox fire to their wheat fields.
They burn his wife and father-in-law But then he strikes them with a great blow!
He’s shamefully betrayed and handed over by his own people But he strikes down 1,000 of their men with the jawbone of a donkey!
This clearly intended to be humor. But is this appropriate for God’s people to take pleasure in the defeat of the wicked? The scriptures say YES. Look at Psalm 2:1-3
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.
It is good and right to hate evil — even to laugh at it’s defeat.
But God’s people in the days of Samson had lost their hate for evil and were instead content to tolerate it and live among it — avoiding conflict — keeping the peace — fighting for the status quo.
They are in a tragically bad place! So, what does God do?
God will send an uncomfortable solution
An Uncomfortable Solution
An Uncomfortable Solution
The end of chapter 13 tells us the Lord blessed Samson and that His Spirit began to stir within him. Samson is God’s solution to His people’s problem. But he is a very uncomfortable solution because of all the judges Samson has the most flagrant character flaws
His life is story is filled with violence, deception, and sexual desire… kind of sounds like your typical summer blockbuster action flick.
Let’s do a quick survey of his flaws here and then tackle a difficult question.
First, he lacks no self-control. He’s driven by his desires — in this case his sexual desires. He SEES the Philistine woman and has to have her — and not for her personality!
Secondly, when his parents voiced concern Samson responds disrespectfully to them.
Then in the incident with the lion and the honey he clearly breaks one of the 3 parts of the Nazarite vow by touching a dead animal. Not only that but he secretly makes his parents unclean when he gives them some of the honey without telling them where it came from!
In v. 10 nearly all scholars are in agreement that the feast he throws is a 7 day drinking party! — Another violation of his Nazarite vow (Eating or drinking anything from the vine) — He clearly shuns and cares nothing for his calling to be set apart for God!
At the end of v. 18 he rudely refers to his wife as a heifer — By the way, this is just as rude and demeaning in Hebrew as it is in English!
Then even though he stomps back to his father’s house in a tantrum instead of going to his wife, he finally comes to his senses and goes to try to win her back. Instead of flowers in hand he brings a goat. But it’s too late. Her father has already given her away thinking Samson had abandoned her — which he kind of did. Then in another impulsive tantrum he sets fire to the Philistines wheat fields!
Then after he whoops 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey, he makes up this clever rhyme that pridefully takes all the glory for himself and gives no credit to God.
After all that we see in v. 18 the first time he calls out to God at all. But notice the demanding tone and the fact that it took him being thirsty to the point of death. The real surprise here is that God answers this prayer at all let alone in miraculous fashion by splitting a rock.
Now for the uncomfortable question…Why in the world would God use a deeply flawed person like Samson? And if His Spirit was rushing upon him as it says repeatedly throughout these chapters how is it that he can be so deeply flawed with the Spirit of God upon him?!
I’ll answer this in part here and then address it further in my third point.
First, how is it that the Spirit of God could rush upon Samson, that he could be so morally flawed?
One way to understand this is to know that there is a distinction between gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. And you can have gifts but be severely lacking in the fruit department
The fruit of the Spirit has to do with your inner character. Look the list in Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
But the gifts of the Spirit are primarily skills and abilities to be used for outward acts of service. But these gifts can also be misused for selfish purposes.
Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians to rebuke many in that church who had gifts of the Spirit but were very much lacking in the fruit of the Spirit as they were mistreating one another and becoming prideful about their gifts and looking down on others. Then Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Add to this Jesus’ sobering words in Matthew 7:22-23
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’
And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
So, hear me carefully church…the Scriptures are clear — God may have enabled you by His Spirit to do mighty things in ministry and at the same time your inner personal life could be a complete train wreck.
How many Christian leaders do you know who have had high profile ministries with clear gifts of teaching and leadership but in their private lives have given in to temptations like anger, fear, and lust? Sadly, we can probably think of too many.
I can hear the objection some of you may be thinking but doesn’t God only use people who are really surrendered to Him? — Just think for a minute what that question implies…If God only uses people who have it all together then God’s hands are somehow tied by our faithfulness and obedience to Him! And then we suddenly have a ground for boasting! — Look at me! I must be a pretty good Christian because God is really using me!
The truth is that God uses anyone He chooses — They don’t even need to be a believer. We see this in Isaiah 44:28 where God calls Cyrus, the pagan king of Persia, His shepherd who will fulfill ALL His purpose!
Here’s what this means for us today. Do not use whatever gift or skill God may have given you as self-justifying “proof” that you are spiritually healthy!
Related to this, when developing ministry leaders or even looking to hire new ministry staff like an associate pastor (Lord willing) — Don’t be so overly enamored by their gifts or skills that you don’t ask good questions about the health of their souls.
Let’s move on now to my final point and this is really the key to understanding the entire story of Samson…
The Divine Purpose
The Divine Purpose
Look at v. 4 — Just before this Samson has already lusted after this Philistine woman and disrespected his parents by demanding that they “Get her for him.”…Then the narrator says something truly profound in v. 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.
This is profound and really blew my mind the more I thought about it this week. Let my try to unpack this a bit for you.
First, remember that the Israelites are immeshed with the Philistines and content — not wanting to stir up any conflict. There is no one who seems to want what God wants — for His people to be set apart and distinct from the pagan nations around them.
God’s people appear to be completely faithless and have turned their backs on God!
So, what does God do? When His people are faithless, He remains faithful to His promises. Judges 2:1
Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,
So, their faithful God sees an opportunity in Samson to pry His beloved people apart from the Philistines by introducing conflict between Israel and the Philistines!
But remember all of Samson’s actions were self-serving…there’s no indication that he wants what God wants — NO! He want’s what Samson wants!
So, this is what God does — He may have made Samson physically strong but it’s actually Samson’s great character flaws…his weaknesses, that God uses to begin to deliver His people from the Philistines.
God is so faithful to His promises that He not only fulfills them in spite of His people’s sin but He will even deliver His people using their sin!
That’s the whole point of this story as we look at it through the lens of verse 4!!!
Now we may not know the purposes of God behind all our sinful choices but we have a promise that his more precious than gold…
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
ALL THINGS…including our sin.
But the fact that God uses even the sinful choices of people to accomplish His will is not an excuse for you to behave however you want or that it doesn’t matter if you’re doctrinally sound because God will still use you.
Samson was still accountable for his actions as are we. But there is great hope and comfort here in knowing that our sin will never derail God’s good purposes for us.
The ultimate example of this is found in Acts 2:23
this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Notice how mind blowingly awesome this is!…God used the free wicked choices of human beings to put Jesus to death on the cross so that He could deliver human beings from their free wicked choices!
Here’s how this works — I’ve already told you we’re all accountable for our evil actions. Hebrews 9:27 says…
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
Every one here will all one day stand before Jesus the great and perfect Judge of the world. And on that day no evil or injustice will go unpunished including yours and mine!
Every person here has a choice, you can pay for your sins yourself by spending an eternity in hell or you can ask Jesus, the eternal Son of God, to pay them for you. Either way justice will be served. Someone will pay. Will it be you or will it be Jesus? You choose.
If you choose Jesus then all you need to do is come to Him in faith, asking Him to apply His death on the cross as the death that pays for your all your sin. — And trusting His resurrection for the hope of eternal life!
And take great comfort and hope in knowing that Jesus will forgive all who come to Him by faith.
Prayer
Closing Song: Beneath the Cross
Benediction
Church take great comfort in knowing that your sin will never derail God’s purposes and that He will even redeem your sin for your good and for His glory!
This morning we’ve been the church gathered for worship. In a few moments we will be the church scattered for witness. Who will you tell about Jesus this week who desperately needs the forgiveness and hope only He can give?
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24