Caught in a Trap
By Rev. Res Spears
Sin, According to the Experts • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Have you ever heard the old saying, “You should never meet your heroes?”
What it means is that people never seem to live up to the image of them that we’ve built in our minds. We develop these imaginary personas for them that are based on the best — and usually, most public — moments of their lives.
Meanwhile, we have little, if any, knowledge of the people they were in private. We don’t know the demons they struggled with (or allowed to control them), or all the behind-the-scenes maneuvering it took to make them famous, often at the cost of other careers and even other lives.
I could give lots of examples, but just remember the ones from our current series. Remember, Noah was a drunk. Abraham was a serial liar. Even the Bible’s great heroes of faith aren’t immune from this problem.
And today, as we continue our series, “Sin, According to the Experts,” we’re going to see another hero of the Old Testament in a new and unflattering light.
We’ll see that this man, who seems so heroic on the surface, was actually a slave to his passions. We’ll see that his headlong pursuit of sin finally brought him into actual slavery. And we’ll see that God continued to use him, because God is gracious and God is sovereign.
If you haven’t guessed, today we’re going to be talking about Samson, the judge of Israel, who was called by God to bring the Israelites relief from Philistine oppression.
Now, Samson’s story is found in the Book of Judges. But before we get to the part about Samson, we need to understand the framework and background of this book.
The period of Israel’s judges comes between their conquest of the Promised Land and the time of the kings, starting with King Saul. This was a period of about 300 or so years. And during that time, as we read in Judges 21:25,
25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Now, it’s not hard to see the problem in the second part of that verse. In fact, it’s the same problem we have today. We might rewrite this verse in modern terms by saying: “Everyone had their own truth.”
But when we all have our own truth, we reject the one objective truth that can only be found in God.
Which leads us to the other problem in this verse: “In those days, there was no king in Israel.”
Well, Saul hadn’t yet been born, much less anointed as king, so we might take this as a simple statement of fact. But, as with so much else in the Bible, there’s more going on here beneath the surface. This is an indictment of the people of Israel during this time.
What do kings do? They rule over nations. They’re the sovereign leaders of their nations. They protect their people. They declare war and peace and even lead their people into battle. They set laws, and they’re the final word of justice in their nations.
That sounds like God, doesn’t it? HE’D given the people of Israel the Mosaic Law at Mt. Sinai. HE’D led them into the Promised Land, where He gave them great victories over their enemies. HE’D protected them during their wilderness journey and then in the Promised Land. HE was their sovereign God and king.
And so, by saying there was no king in Israel, God is telling us the people had rejected Him as their king.
Indeed, that’s what God tells Samuel, the last judge of Israel, in in 1 Samuel, chapter 8, when Samuel learns that the people want him to “appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.”
7 The Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.
The people of Israel didn’t want God as their king. They wanted a king like those of all the nations that surrounded them. And that’s when they picked Saul, who turned out to be just as bad as God said he would.
So, going back to the Book of Judges, the first thing to help you understand what’s going on is that, during this period, “There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
And the second thing that will help you to understand this book is the vicious cycle that appears in it over and over again.
Israel would serve the Lord. Then, when all was well with them, they’d fall into sin and idolatry. Then, they’d be enslaved by their enemies. Then, they’d cry out to the Lord for relief. Then, God would raise a judge, who’d fight for them. Then, they’d be delivered from their bondage. Then, they’d serve the Lord again. And then, they’d fall back into sin and idolatry. And the cycle would repeat.
That’s not so different, quite frankly, from our own cycles of sin and repentance and sin again. And the Book of Judges is a warning to us of the dangers of allowing this cycle to continue in our own lives.
You see, the cycle of sin isn’t a cycle like that of a clock face, where the hands just go around and around. The cycle of sin is more like that of a whirlpool, where every time around takes your deeper and deeper.
By the time of Samson, Israel had already had 11 or 12 judges, depending on how you count. So, the nation was suffering from great moral and spiritual decay. They were circling the drain, to use the whirlpool metaphor.
And one of the things we see about the judges — especially when we get to Samson — is that this decay eventually infected even those who’d been called and consecrated by God to lead His chosen people.
Even their heroes were caught in the whirlpool of sin.
In Judges, chapter 13, we see the beginning of Samson’s story and the beginning of another vicious cycle. Look at verse 1:
1 Now the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, so that the Lord gave them into the hands of the Philistines forty years.
Listen, when you’re caught up in your sins, what God wants from you is to bring you to repentance. That’s what He was doing with Israel in these cycles.
They’d turn from Him, and He’d give them into the hands of their enemies for a time, and eventually, they’d cry out to Him, and He’d raise a judge to deliver them.
But, as is so often true for US when we’re experiencing the consequences of our sins, Israel never really repented. They wanted God to take away the consequences of their sin, not the sins themselves.
But God is gracious, and so, after 40 years of Philistine oppression, he raises another judge to deliver His people. Look at verse 3.
3 Then the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Behold now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son.
4 “Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing.
5 “For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”
OK, verse 5 is one of the keys to understanding Samson’s story. So, let’s talk about Nazarites for a moment.
The word, “Nazarite,” means “consecrated or devoted one.” A Nazarite was someone who’d been separated for service to God.
Back in Numbers, chapter 6, we learn that a person could make a special vow to dedicate himself or herself to God for a certain time.
For Samson, though, GOD had chosen him for this service, and He’d declared that Samson would be a Nazarite from womb to tomb, as it were.
Now, four things were required of Nazarites: While they were under their Nazarite vows, they couldn’t have alcohol or any part of the grape. They couldn’t eat unclean things. They couldn’t touch unclean things, especially dead things. And they couldn’t cut their hair.
So, after hearing from the angel of God in Judges, chapter 13, the woman becomes pregnant with Samson, and she keeps the Nazarite vow during her pregnancy, and Samson is finally born in verse 24.
24 Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him.
It’s interesting to note here that no other judge of Israel is given such a direct blessing from God. Samson has been set apart for service to God. He’s raised by godly parents. And he has God’s direct blessing over him. He’s got everything going for him.
But very quickly, we see his life begin to unravel. Look at verse 1 of chapter 14:
1 Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.
Now as we necessarily move quickly through Samson’s life today, I want you to notice the ways Satan tempts him. Here, as in a couple of other places, he’s tempted through what he SEES.
Samson LUSTS after this woman. “She looks good to me,” he tells his parents in verse 3, so he wants to marry her.
He’s not taken with this Philistine woman’s intellect or her sharp wit or her compassion or generosity. And he’s certainly not impressed with how much she loves the Lord, because she’s a Philistine, and they didn’t trust in God. And that should have made her off-limits to him.
But he sees her, and he’s focused on just one thing. And it will be Samson’s lust that is finally his undoing.
Now, if you have your Bibles open, you’ll see that verse 4 says “it was of the Lord.” Certainly Samson’s lust wasn’t of the Lord. Nor was his desire to marry one of Israel’s oppressors.
What the author is telling us is that God PERMITTED Samson to pursue marriage with this woman, even though He didn’t approve of it. He would use this relationship to punish the Philistines for their oppression of Israel, even though He disapproved of it.
God would accomplish His purposes, even in the midst of Samson’s folly and in spite of Samson’s lust. But that wouldn’t change Samson’s guilt for this incident. Which should remind us of a certain verse in the Book of Romans:
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Yes, He can use ALL things — even our sin — to bring about good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. But that doesn’t mean we should go on sinning!
And the good that He works out isn’t always in THIS life, either. Sometimes, as we’ll see in a few weeks, the good comes about only after He carries out His judgment.
So, Samson takes his parents to Timnah to discuss their marriage. Look at verse 5:
5 Then Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came as far as the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him.
The first thing I want you to see here is what the author says about their journey to Timnah: They “went down to” Timnah.
This isn’t a geographical or topographical reference. It’s a statement about Samson’s spiritual walk with God. He’s going down, not up. He’s caught in his own personal whirlpool that reflects what was going on in the Israelite culture at large.
In fact, this is the second of four appearances of that phrase in this chapter. We’re intended to see that SAMSON is now circling the drain because of his lust.
And let me ask you this: What was Samson, a Nazarite from birth, doing near a vineyard, anyway?! There was nothing there that he could eat or drink. So, this is a bad sign for him as a Nazarite.
But then, we see them attacked by the young lion, and we get one of the children’s stories we love so much.
He kills the lion with his bare hands in verse 6, and in verse 7, he goes down again and talks to the woman and, as the text puts it “she looked good to Samson.”
In fact, the literal translation from the Hebrew would be, “she looked RIGHT in Samson’s eyes.” Remember, everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Then, Samson returns from meeting with the Philistine woman, sees the carcass of the lion, and finds a swarm of bees, with wild honey in the carcass. Verse 9:
9 So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
Well, do you see the problem here? He’d eaten food that was unclean because it came from the body of something dead. He’d broken one of His Nazarite vows. He’s still circling the drain.
Now, verse 10:
10 Then his father went down to the woman; and Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this.
Now, Samson’s FATHER is going down with him. And isn’t that just what so often happens with our OWN sins? We bring down the others who are close to us, right along with us.
We’ve already seen that take place from fathers to sons in this series. Now, we see the son bringing down his father.
But that’s not the only problem in this verse. The Hebrew word that’s translated as “feast” here comes from the word, “drink” and usually suggested a lavish banquet with lots of wine.
And so, there’s at least, a likelihood that Samson broke another of his Nazarite vows as he sought to satisfy his lust for this pagan woman.
But even with all of Samson’s rebellion against his Nazarite vows, and, therefore, his rebellion against God, the Lord continued to use him.
Does that mean it was God’s will that Samson break his Nazarite vows? Does it mean that it was God’s will for Samson to sin against his own people by betrothing one of their enemies?
Of course not. What it means is that God accomplishes His purposes IN SPITE OF our disobedience. The fact that He does His will in SPITE of our sinfulness doesn’t in any way absolve us of our guilt for our sins.
And we see God accomplishing His will through a disobedient Samson at the beginning of chapter 15. There’s this long, sort of tit-for-tat, running battle between Samson and the Philistines.
He burns their wheat fields. They kill his betrothed Philistine wife and her father. And he takes revenge by killing 1,000 of them with the jawbone of a dead donkey — another violation of his Nazarite vows.
And then, look at verse 1 of chapter 16:
1 Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and went in to her.
First of all, Gaza was in the heart of Philistine territory. Why was Samson even there if he hadn’t gone to defeat Israel’s oppressors — and there’s no evidence he’d gone for that purpose.
Instead, we have another episode of Samson being guided by his lust. He SAW a harlot there and went in to her. Not just a Philistine woman, but a prostitute — and possibly a temple prostitute, as well. Here’s Samson circling the drain ever more quickly.
Here’s what one commentator has to say about all this:
“Why did God continue to use Samson, seeing he was so morally impure? Part of the answer has to be that God had chosen to use him, and that He was patient with him. God’s patience was providing Samson the opportunity to repent, and to experience God’s blessing, instead of His judgment. Unfortunately, Samson responded to God’s patience by taxing it to its limit. While the heavenly Father is patient, He is not permissive. That is, He does not allow unacceptable behavior to continue indefinitely without discipline.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Jdg 16:1.]
Then, in verse 4, we meet Delilah, who’ll prove to be God’s agent of judgment against Samson. She’s a woman the writer tells us that Samson loved.
He’d moved so far outside God’s will that he now LOVED the people who were oppressing his own people, the people God had sent him to deliver Israel FROM.
And Samson was absolutely blind to the fact that she was allied with the Philistines. He’s been blinded by his lust throughout this account, and now he’s blinded by love for a woman who’d been paid to capture him.
You all know the story. He toys with her, telling her to do this or that, and his strength would leave, and he’d be “like any other man.” And three times, he rose up and escaped from her after she’d tied him up.
But then, in verse 17, something changes.
17 So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, “A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
He’d told her his secret, and that was bad enough. But the translation here isn’t great, and it hides something different about his response to her. A better translation would be this: “I will become weak and be like EVERY other man.”
Well, what was different between Samson and every other man? He alone is known to us as a Nazarite at this time. He’s GOD’S man, the man who’d been set apart for service to God.
And here, he’s renouncing that calling. He no longer wants to BE God’s man. He wants only to give himself completely over to sin.
And so, as we reach the end of that scene, Samson, in spiritual slavery to his lust, is now physically enslaved by the Philistines. He’s been spiritually blind for all his adult life, and now we see that he’s physically blind, too.
Blessed by God from his childhood, Samson has now lost everything — his strength, his freedom, his family, his sight, everything.
And just like Israel at this time, what do we see him do? Look at verse 28:
28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me just this time, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”
We see him calling on the Lord for deliverance. In fact, it’s the only time we see him call on God at all. But just like the people of Israel, he’s not praying for God’s glory. He’s not repenting. He wants revenge.
And God does, indeed, give him revenge, while ALSO accomplishing His own will of punishing the Philistines for oppressing Israel.
Samson gets one more burst of strength and brings down the walls of the temple where 3,000 Philistines are on the roof watching as he was made to entertain them. And all, including Samson, are killed in the event.
What a tragic life this was for this man who had everything going for him when he was young. All brought to an end because of his lust — his lust for women, his lust for so many things that were off-limits to him.
Samson was a man who was a slave to his passions, to his sensuality. And as the philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, “When the passions become masters, they are vices; and they give their nutriment to the soul, and the soul nourishes itself upon it, and is poisoned.” [Elliot Ritzema, 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).]
Listen folks — and I’m addressing the men here, primarily, although this is NOT a problem just for men — lust is a trap. And like most traps, it’s baited with sweetness.
If it looked scary and terrible, it wouldn’t be much of a trap. It lures you with its sweetness and then springs closed with unexpected speed and unrelenting pressure.
If you find a bear trap in the woods, what’s the better idea: to test it with your foot to see how sensitive it is or to run the other direction?
FLEE! That’s what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians: “Flee from sexual immorality!”
Lust and other forms of sexual immorality are a whirlpool that will take you down to places you never wanted to be and leave you with memories you’ll wish you’d never had.
They’ll affect your relationships for the rest of your life. And they’ll draw you further and further from Jesus, who died so that you might have forgiveness for them through faith in Him.
See HIM. Look at HIM. Pay attention to HIM. Or, as Paul puts it in his letter to the Philippians:
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
When lust presents itself, turn your mind to THESE things. Turn your mind to Jesus. Don’t step into the trap. Don’t get into the whirlpool. Don’t be like Samson.
