Samson - A Story of Incredible Strength, Incredible Weakness and an Incredible God

Are you enough?

Are you strong enough for God to use you?

I’m a sinner. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve disobeyed. How can God use me?

God uses people who, on the surface, seemed unlikely characters to represent Him throughout the entire Bible. God uses unlikely people, flawed people, even sinful people—because if He didn’t, He would have no people to use at all. We have all sinned and fallen short of the standard God requires for us to have a relationship with Him, but through grace, He has given us the incredible gift of salvation which makes us good enough for Him to use.

Who was Samson?

Who can tell me who Samson was in the Bible?

He was a member of the Hall of Faith

New Living Translation Chapter 11

32 How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. 33 By faith these people overthrew kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.

He was a judge.

John MacArthur Sermon Archive Gideon and Samson: Stories of Weakness and Strength

“Judge” is a Hebrew word that actually means deliverer. The kind of judge that we’re talking about here was someone who was chosen by God to protect, to preserve, and to deliver or rescue Israel from its enemies.

John MacArthur Sermon Archive Gideon and Samson: Stories of Weakness and Strength

When the nation of Israel went into the land of Canaan, it was occupied. Other nations lived there. It had been promised to them by God, but it was occupied by many different nations. Those nations needed to be defeated so Israel could have the land that God promised.

The judges aren’t legal experts; they aren’t lawyers who were elevated because they were better than the rest. They really were known for their military feats. They were known for their ability to, by the power of God, conquer and protect—conquer the enemies and protect the people of Israel. They are saviors; they are deliverers; they are warriors. They do some governing and some leading and some directing, but more like the general of an army than any president or king. That is to say, they have leadership over the troops at the point of conflict, at the point of protection, at the point of battle.

So Samson was a man of enormous physical power, yet one whose life was riddled with moral failure. A man raised up by God to deliver Israel, yet often driven by his own selfishness. And yet, in his final moments, he demonstrates the power of faith and the grace of God in weakness.

What was happening when Samson took over?

Israel had once again turned away from God and was under the oppression of the Philistines.

God, in His mercy, raised up Samson and put him in charge. Not because Samson was holy, not because he was faithful, but because God is faithful to His covenant promises.

The story of Samson begins in Judges 13. He is born as an answer to prayer and divine intervention. His mother was barren, and the angel of the Lord, announced his birth to his parents. Samson was to be set apart as a Nazarite from the womb, a vow of consecration marked by not drinking alcohol, avoiding contact with the dead, and never cutting his hair.

Despite Samson being set apart by God, you will see as we continue the story that he broke all three rules of his Nazarite vow.

He had a violent temper, frequently disobeyed God, and was carless with the call that God had on his life...but God still used him.

Where did it all go wrong?

In Judges 14, we find him insisting on marrying a Philistine woman simply because he liked how she looked, disregarding God’s law that he doesn’t marry a woman from their enemy.

New Living Translation Chapter 14

One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye. 2 When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.”

3 His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?”

But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.”

So Samson goes to the town where she lived. On the way there, he was attacked by a lion.

New Living Translation Chapter 14

5 As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. 6 At that moment the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat.

Several months later, he was walking along the same path and saw the carcass of the lion that he had killed. Remember his vow. He is not supposed to touch dead things.

He should have steered clear of the carcass, but instead, he saw the lion’s carcass there and went to investigate. I think he probably thought that it would be full of flies and maggots. Instead he found inside the lion a colony of bees had taken up residence, and they were producing honey. Avoiding the dead body was supposed to be consistent with his Nazarite vow, but he ignored that, reached into the carcass, collected honey and ate it as he walked along the road. Breaking of rule #1.

Finally it was wedding day. before the wedding he drank lots of alcohol with his fiance’s friends. Breaking of rule #2.

While he was drinking, he made a bet, lost the bet, walked 23 miles away, killed 30 men, and walked 23 miles back to make good on the bet. Then he was angry so he left the wedding and went home. He came back months later expecting to finish the wedding, but his girlfriend had married another man. Samson got mad and burned all their fields.

The Philistines found out that Samson had burned all their fields so they sent an army of 3,000 men to capture him.

They tie him up with rope but Samson is so strong that he breaks all of the rope and picks up the jawbone of a dead donkey (rule number 2) and uses it to kill 1,000 men. Then he glorifies himself.

New Living Translation Chapter 15

“With the jawbone of a donkey,

I’ve piled them in heaps!

With the jawbone of a donkey,

I’ve killed a thousand men!”

Instead of thanking God for his victory, Samson then cries out to God because he needs something. He’s just killed 1,000 men and piled up their bodies. So he’s exhausted and he’s very thirsty. God does something wonderful. He gives water out of a rock to this very, very bizarre, complex, angry man.

Samson experienced weakness for the first time and he finally called on the Lord. The Lord delivered him from life-threatening dehydration.

Samsons Sins Catch Up to Him

After 20 years, the Philistines came up with a plot to defeat Samson.

They know Samson like pretty Philistine women, so they send Delilah to talk to him and find the secret to his strength.

Samson falls for her and eventually tells her that the secret to his strength is his long hair. She tricks him into cutting off all his hair. Breaking of rule #3.

With his hair gone, Samson loses all his strength. The Philistines capture him and gouge his eyes out. They throw a huge party to celebrate his capture.

3,000 Philistine leaders are at this party and they bring Samson out to show him off.

Samson Calls on the Lord in his time of Weakness

Samson asks to be placed against the 2 central pillars so he could steady himself, knowing that those pillars supported the entire building.

Samson, without seeing anything, knew where he was as he felt the two pillars. And he asks the Lord for strength. In one climactic, self-sacrificing, heroic act.

New Living Translation Chapter 16

28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, 30 he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime.

Samson died remorseful, broken and humble. He died for the cause of his nation and the cause of his God. His God had said, “Remove the Philistines, remove them from the land.” The Israelites had failed to do that. In a final act of faith, he cries out to God to be an instrument by which he can do the will of God and destroy the enemies of God. And God hears his prayer.

SWAT Gas Mask Story (Time permitting)

Wrap Up: God will use you if you let Him

Do you understand that God uses all kinds of people?

He uses the weak and makes them strong. He uses the strong that become weak and then He makes them strong. He uses the humble, the fearful, the timid, the cowardly, the losers and the sinners. He gives them power when they have faith in Him.

Hebrews 11:34, where we started, says this, “Out of weakness, they were made strong.”

We look at our lives and we wonder, “Can God use us in our weakness?” Oh yes He can. He has no other people to use.