Purpose in Grace

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How strong is your faith?

Would you take the Nazarene vow?

Don’t cut your hair, don’t touch any dead animal, don’t drink anything from the vine, and follow a strict and specific diet.

Well… the diet part might do me some good.

But, the specifics above are the physical and dare I say easy part of the Nazarene vow. To be a Nazarite you completely give every aspect of your life into service of the Lord.

Even the tiniest little detail. Did my bad breath offend someone? Did I apologize for intruding on their personal space and offending their nostrils?

Did I speak harshly to my spouse because I had a rough day? Did I take my frustrations of the day out on my over rambunctious children?

Did I thank God and praise Him for the purpose He has for me today? Do I glorify Him for using the accident that left me broken and unable to work?

Is everything I do, including taking my next breath, dedicated in full submission of my humble service to the Lord? You see, there’s a reason the Nazarite vow was a voluntary service.

A service that was only dedicated to a specific amount of time. Because they bore a physical representation of their vow to serve the Lord.

There was no hiding their vow and anything other than completely representing the character of God, would bring disgrace to God’s house. I don’t know about you, but for me the pressure would feel overwhelming.

Unless your love for God is, a shallow on the surface, kind of love. A love that puts your own desires before God.

Each one of us has a purpose in God’s grace. We should be humbly grateful and we should recognize how privileged we are to receive God’s grace.

We’re going to finish the story about Samson today. As we do I want to focus on our privilege in God’s grace. Specifically how privilege is abused (by Samson, by Israel, and by us) and I want to show the proper use of privilege.

Last week we talked about how Samson’s birth was a miraculous birth. How his nazarite vow was from conception until death. He was to be God’s faithful servant to save Israel his entire life.

Does that maybe ring any bells to another birth? One that happened a little over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem?

Samson couldn’t have been more privileged. God set the stage for what should have been Israel’s greatest judge.

What happened?

Samson abused that privilege.

Privilege Abused

I’m going to read several passages from the very end of chapter 13 through chapter 16. Then we can look at how privilege is abused.

Judges 13:24–14:3 ESV

24 And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew, and the Lord blessed him. 25 And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. 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.” 3 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.”

Samson finally goes to Timnah and along the way he kills a lion. He goes back to the lion and gets some honey from the dead carcass and feeds it to the wedding guests including his parents. Then creates a riddle about it.

Picking up in verse 15

Judges 14:15–15:5 ESV

15 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?” 16 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?” 17 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. 18 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.” 19 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. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. 1 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. 2 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.” 3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm.” 4 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. 5 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.

With their entire harvest destroyed, you can imagine how angry the Philistines must have been. Israel is still under Philistine rule and with their anger so worked up, when Samson tries to hide, the Israelites give him up to the Philistines.

Picking up in chapter 15 verse 14

Judges 15:14–16 ESV

14 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. 15 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. 16 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.”

One could say he was a pain to the Philistines. They must have hated him so bad. They would have done anything to rid themselves of this overgrown adolescent menace. Which brings us to chapter 16.

Judges 16:1–6 ESV

1 Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. 2 The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3 But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. 4 After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” 6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”

He lies to her about the source of his strength 3 times and their traps for him fail. But, he finally tells her on the 4th time that his hair is the source of his strength so she shaves his head.

We’ll pick up in verse 20 after she shaved his head.

Judges 16:20–22 ESV

20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. 21 And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. 22 But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

The Philistines so proud of their victory decided they were going to force their former menace to entertain them. We’ll pick up in verse 28

Judges 16:28–30 ESV

28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Timothy Keller said “the story of Samson is famous for its potent mix of sex, violence, death, and power—exactly the stuff of a contemporary summer action film!”

However, taken with the overall context of the Book of Judges, I would say it’s at the very least perplexing if not downright disturbing.

God set the stage for Samson to be the greatest judge of all. Samson says, you think the other judges had their flaws hold my beer.

He couldn’t have been much further from God’s character in any way. He was a violent, impulsive, sex addict; Who was emotionally immature and downright selfish.

And I’m not sure what disturbs me the most. His actions and character in the face of his nazarite calling. Or the fact that the Holy Spirit of God anointed and used his conniption fits, pride, and explosive temper.

Now, if we put ourselves in Samson’s shoes some of his behavior makes sense. He was volintold by God that he would be a nazarite from conception until death. He didn’t have a choice and I can imagine he felt a little rebellious.

But he took rebellion to another level. He took his privilege of strength and abused it horribly. He is the original superman story without the moral lesson.

He used his superhuman strength for personal vengeance. Yes, he may have been going against God’s enemies, but enemies of God or not seemed pretty irrelevant to Samson.

If an enemy made him mad he killed them. And Samson abused his privilege of strength in sexual promiscuity. When Samson sees something he wants he takes it.

No regard for God’s will just selfish desire. The Philistine woman in Timnah that he told his parents to get for him.

Oh, they tried to redirect him.

Wouldn’t you be better off with a Jewish woman. Or at the very least be like moses and find a woman who fears the Lord.

He responds like a toddler. No!! I want that one. Get that one for me. “For she is right in my eyes.”

Then the prostitute in Gaza, then comes Delilah.

And it’s very interesting that chapter 13 is the last time we see the phrase “Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

Samson’s uttered words “right in my eyes” is the slow transition finally realized. The last verse in the Book of Judges reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

When Samson is single handedly fighting Israel’s enemies, Israel won’t even step up and help. Instead they hand him over to their enemies to appease them.

Kind of parallels what’s going on in the church today right? Some of the church is lusting after the worlds gods. When those who stand on truth give a little pushback, well… that part of the church sides with the world.

There’s a tragic point in this narrative. Rhetorically speaking, Samson is Israel. And if there ever was a privileged nation Israel is the one.

Samson was privileged, Israel is privileged, and we are privileged. We are privileged with gifts of the Spirit. Do you know what your gifts are?

If you don’t you should find out.

What motivates our daily activities?

Are we wanting to be the boss so we have power and control?

Do we use our privilege to attack others for vengeance?

Are we seeking the pleasure of sex in frivolous relationships?

Listen, we are privileged by the grace of God. We are privileged to be His ambassadors in this broken world.

And we abuse that privilege every day.

Not that long ago I was hurting so bad I couldn’t get out of bed. And to make things worse the pain was making me sick to my stomach.

So I would have to roll out of bed. Crawl to the toilet. Let my stomach tell me when it was done rebelling against my back pain.

Then I would crawl back to the bed. Pull myself back up into bed. And repeat. After a while my medication kicked in and I was at least able to move out to my chair.

And my stomach quit rebelling.

I was starving so I ordered something through Doordash. When the person delivered my food there was an item missing. Not the first time it has happened from this same place.

I said “exactly what I thought this item isn’t with the order.” And it was not in a very friendly tone at all. The person who delivered the order said, “what do you want me to do about it?”

I snapped back “nothing!” and I went to my chair and sat down to try and eat the part of my meal I received.

The delivery person comes back to the door and hands me a few New Testament Bibles written in Spanish. He said with a calm voice, “a little consolation. The hispanics are coming.”

I went back to my chair and literally out loud said to myself, “That wasn’t very God like Bill.”

I abused my privilege and did not present the character of God. Yes I was hurting. Yes, I had a rough morning. But that is no excuse for my behavior.

That’s the litmus test. No matter what the circumstances am I always grateful. No matter how much power I may have or how angry I am, do I always present the character of God.

Because that is a proper use of our privilege.

Privilege Used Properly

We have a prime example in Jesus. He had all the power, all the privilege, and was called to faithfully serve God from conception to death. Just like Samson.

And Jesus used that power and privilege for the sake of others, thereby glorifying God. Jesus shows us the proper use of our privilege in God’s grace.

Paul describes it better and in far less words than I could in Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

You see, Jesus doesn’t just show us the proper use of that privilege. He makes it possible for us to experience it. We experience self-sacrificing love. We experience the fruits of the Spirit poured out, by Jesus, on our behalf.

We aren’t perfect. We abuse our privilege. But we are to strive for perfection everyday.

John Piper in an interview was asked about Mark Driscoll and the Mars Hill implosion. This is what he said.

To your question [about Mark Driscoll], it’s not a unique situation. In history, or in our day, Christians are failing. Lay people and pastors are failing every day, and bringing reproach upon the gospel. Individually at your office, if you’re known as a Christian and then you do something out of character, it brings reproach upon the gospel. Who has not let Jesus down? Something you should be witnessing, you didn’t witness. You feel bad in the evening. You let him down. This is not unique to leaders, and it’s not unique to Mark or Mars Hill…One way to process Mars Hill or any other ministry that is defective, whether the defect implodes like Mars Hill or not, is to say, “God is unbelievably merciful to use you and me with our defects to speak gospel truth.”

Whether it’s Samson, Israel, Driscoll, or you and I; Under the microscope of God’s holiness, we all look like a hot mess. We’ve all abused our privilege for our own desires.

That’s why every day, usually multiple times a day for myself, we must be thankful for God’s grace. We are privileged to know Jesus and be loved by Him. We are privileged to have access to God the Father through Jesus Christ.

May we use that privilege to sit in His throne room in prayer. May we use that privilege to be discipled and disciple others. May we use that privilege to transform our Character so it resembles God’s character.

May the Holy Spirit help us not abuse and/or squander that privilege, rather use it the way Jesus used it for the sake of others, to glorify God the Father.