Lesson's from Samson - Father's Day

Intro - One Crazy Story (5 minutes)

What if?

What if Samson was a godly, righteous man?

What if he fell to his knees in 14:1 and prayed to the Lord, “Adonai, Lord Sovereign, you have imbued your servant in superhuman strength, grant me by your grace victory- for your glory and the good of your people. Teach me, your humble servant, to lead well, and grant my offspring the gift of a righteous forerunner to emulate?”

Troy reference

It would have been an incredible story. Probably our favourite, we’d teach it to our kids in Sunday school. Remember Samson, who in his obedience finally led the Israelites and the tribe of Benjamin to cast out their enemy, the Philistines, and take a hold of the land of Gaza that the Lord both promised and commanded to them.

It’s just not the story of Samson though. Over this series I’ve had several conversations with you, and I heard of people’s discomfort with these stories. We really must wrestle with them to understand why they’re in the bible, why God allowed the bloodshed and murder and insanity of it all.

However, this story, and others like it that we find in the Bible, aren’t about how much gore would God permit to be in His word, but rather these stories tell us about the broken nature of humanity and God’s faithfulness in the midst of it.

These stories I wonder are they even more pertinent for us in the post-christian western culture. We feel so removed from the culture and scenarios that we come across, but you tell me you can’t think of a single “what if” story in your context. Especially today on Father’s Day. Every father, everywhere has in some capacity failed. Maybe they lost their temper or who too distracted during an important season of life for atleast one child. That’s every dad!

Some fathers failed because of their vices or habits, some fathers failed through their absence. Even for myself, the young dads, first time dads we look forward at the years ahead of sleepless nights, sick toddlers, disconnect from our spouses and in the distant future- the teenage years.

I’ve got some “what if” questions. What if, I fail. What if, like so many others, disconnected from my wife over the years being in survival mode, one day the kids have all moved out and I’m in a house with a stranger- that happens a lot. What if, my kids see through the superhero facade- they will. What if, like Samson, the world and it’s false promises suck me in, chew me up and spit me out.

What if, I could be the man, the father I want to be though. What if, I can stand tall amidst the shifting sands of life, start well, endure the race and finish well, having loved well. What if I could be that towering figure? Whose teaching his children turned back to? What if I could be a pillar, a man worth emulating? You could be, dad. In fact, if think that’s what God is calling you to.

Samson’s life is a case study to that, and it all boils down to a case of mistaken identity. Samson found his purpose in his world, life and actions- and not in the one who called him. The same for Israel, his people too.

Here is what Samson, and Israel failed to understand- they were in a covenant relationship with God.

Our relationship with God isn’t a formal, friendly or transactional one- it’s Covenantal.

What does that mean? It means God has bound himself to His people though promises, obligations and blessings.

It’s not formal like a lease agreement that if you break it he’s going to sue you.

It’s not friendly where you have a friendship based on mutual interests and morals and so long as your interests align you can be friends.

And it’s not transactional where “if you do this, I’ll do this for you” is the currency.

It’s a covenant. God has hitched his wagon to the Israelites. He promises to Abraham, “your offspring will number the stars and through you I will bless the nations”- it’s a promise and a direct reference to Christ who is to come, and in the midst of failure, rebellion and disobedience God will not leave his end of the covenant unfulfilled.

Samson forgot he was called by a God who keeps his promises. We’re going to look at three lessons from the story of Samson that are applicable to us today, the first one is.

1. God Won’t Break His Covenant

The Israelites in Samson’s day sat under the Mosaic covenant, named after Mases who led them at that time. God, speaking to Moses says this at the start of the covenant.

Exodus 19:4–6“‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.””

This covenant is what we call a conditional covenant. There are conditions that come along with the blessing, requirements that Israelites are to uphold.

When God then says to Moses, “if you indeed obey my voice you shall be my treasured possession, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, it wasn’t a threat. Like “you keep your end of the deal lest I take this from you” No, it was a warning! When God’s people stopped obeying his voice- what did they do? They abandoned their priestly responsibilities. We read about how worship stops in the temple, and they no longer observe their feats and festivals.

They adopt the worship of other gods of other nations, marry their children and live among them- everything God said not too. Why? Because their special nation set apart has now blended in with godless, pagan worship and societies that neither know God nor obey His voice.

God didn’t threaten to take anything away, instead he warned them that disobedience would see them walk away from the blessings available to them.

In fact, Moses receives these blessings from God, takes them to the Elders and the nation of Israel they bow down and worship God, accept the covenant. Moses goes back up the mountain to receive the Law and during his absence, God’s people who literally just bowed down and swore to uphold the covenant, make an idol of a golden calf using the very jewellery God granted them from the Egyptians in their Exodus moment and they worship that instead. Human nature friends, we never change.

Straight away, they abandon priestly responsibilities and worship an idol made with gold from a foreign nation. God responds, “hey moses that wrath I’ve got, it’s burning hot, might consume them”. Moses pleads; God relents. Then we get to this, God moves to restore the covenant that Israel just broke-

Exodus 34:6–9“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favour in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.””

Moses pleads with God to go with them. He knows, without God’s presence, they’re nothing. “Take us for your inheritance”.

God affirms the covenant- “I am a gracious and forgiving God, I am steadfast in my love” In other words “I made a promise, I’ll keep it”. However, God has promised two sides to the same coin. 1st. He is for those He has committed himself to. 2nd, when he says there are consequences for disobedience, He means it. God has given them commands for their own sake, so they might be a nation set apart from the world. God won’t break His covenant.

God continues, Exodus 34:10–14 “And he said, “Behold, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you. “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),”

God reaffirms the covenant, gives them a command to drive out the inhabitants and it sets up the context for our story in Samson perfectly. They don’t drive out the inhabitants of the land, instead and make deals with them, they fall into their idol worship, marry into their culture, follow their customs and it leads to their oppression and their abandonment of God. No one would look upon Israel and believe that The Lord was their God.

Yet, God had made a covenant, and he would keep it.

Judges 13:1“And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.”

The people failed to be obedience and once again found themselves overrun by foreign peoples and their customs. Yet, even without the people turning to God, repenting of their sin and asking for deliverance, he puts that plan into action.

Judges 13:5“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.””

And Samson fulfils that vision, at the end of chapter 16 he destroys the Philistines centre of worship, their priests, prophets, kings, judges and generals in one sweeping blow of judgement. Yet, we know the story- and it’s a mess. That leads me to me second lesson.

God keeps his covenants and has grace for you in the midst of failure.

2. God has Grace in the Midst of Your Failure

Samson’s failures and mess, leads to what God intends for the next chapter of redemptive history.

The Israelites would ask for a king, they’d appoint Saul, he’ll fail, God would then appoint David with whom God makes another Covenant, the Davidic Covenant, which promises an unbroken lineage and dynasty of kingship. Truly only pointing to Jesus yet again, the one who rules and reigns forevermore.

It’s God’s grace that he continues to work through broken and foolish people like, and like Samson. Don’t forget, Samson’s story is our story- it’s self-reliance, pride, vengeance, selfishness and indulgence, God is faithful through it all.

Whether Samson is fighting a lion or philistines, God continues to vempower him through his spirit with super natural strength. After destroying an army of 1000 men, God provides him water to drink by opening the earth.

Then this is this verse, which I think is one of the most wild in the story- Judges 16:22 “But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” Out of context, super random sentance in the Living Word of God, but it points to hope, that God will restore and redeem Samson and accomplish His will through Him.

We may struggle with understanding why, so it’s important to point out that we wouldn’t do that. If someone fails you, hurts you, betrays you, belittles you- what do you do? Cast them aside. We may need them (or they might be family), so we may put up with them- but if you had no need for them or that relationship? Tell me you wouldn’t dump them the minute you could.

God doesn’t not need Samson in any which way, if he did need Samson He would simply not be God. And there is the difference, our God is a God who bestows grace on fallen, foolish creatures and He shows that grace to you. Ironic, that we read these OT stories and consider God the one who is harsh.

In Samson’s final moments, he turns to God, offers himself up and God redeems him.

3. God Draws Redemption from Repentance

Judges 16:28“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.””

Adonai, Eloheim. “Let me die with the philistines”. Not, “deliver me, lest I fall into their hands”. It’s a final surrender and God redeems Samson.

Hebrews 11:32“And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—”

The author here is listing a series of biblical heroes who by faith are considered righteous. Samson gets listed alongside David? What do you mean? If someone said you had to pick one- Samson or David? Well I’m picking David!

Our initial response might be one of bemusement or confusion, but what does this say? It says- how great, how loving, how merciful, how gracious is our God. Deep and wide is God’s grace, it is sufficient for Samson, so it is sufficient for you as well.

As we leave the story of Samson behind, we’re left with this final image. A Temple, which would have been the centre point of worship, power and control in Gaza, laid is ruin and destruction. Unbridled chaos as some smaller walls collapse, rubble tumbling down, dust, smoke and the smell of death fills the air. Onlookers and witnesses probably, had their heart gripped by fear and terror- “what great power has done this”? The dust cloud blocks out the sun and a darkness falls over the land. Feelings of uncertainty and “what next” linger as the dust floats through the air.

A similar moment rests beside it. Christ, crucified, dead and buried. Darkness overcomes the land, his followers and witnesses gripped by fear as the land is shaken by earthquakes, and the towering authority of a curtain that divided God and His people is torn in two. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, a perfect, sinless man, paying the penalty for sin and dying a death he did not deserve.

This was to fulfil what God had planned long before Moses, Samson, or David- Jesus Christ would fulfil our obligation before the Covenants and the Law, he would take the penalty of sin and conquer death that we might not be ruled by it. Jesus fulfils the Davidic Covenant, establishing a Kingship without end, he fulfils the Mosaic Covenant, completing what the priestly order and law were designed for.

1 Peter 2:9–10“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

This is a fulfilment of God’s promise to Moses. In Exodus God said, “you will be”, Peter says “you are”. Why the change? because Jesus fulfilled our obligations, and the covenant is now a free gift of grace.

Peter earlier in the passage says,

1 Peter 2:4–5“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

We are like living stones, forming a spiritual house. Jesus says to the Church in Philadelphia

Revelation 3:12“The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.”

Death was once worshipped by most cultures on earth. It was either the final authority over one’s life or the mode of transportation to the next life. For the follower of Jesus, death holds no authority. It’s rule and reign has been defeated. The temple at which mortal one once worshipped lays ruined by the strength and power of Jesus Christ.

Like the final scene of Samson’s life, amongst the rubble and ruin and the swirling chaos, Jesus is raising up Pillars of strength, a living temple of his people where the rule and reign of Christ and the tangible presence of His Holy Spirit resides. The broken fragments of a life once lived in arrogance, selfishness, indulgence and laziness, once rebellious and wayward beings- reformed and restored through grace and repentance into pillars to strength.

Those being made into pillars, are the ones whom Jesus says “conquers”. That is, those who display spiritual endurance, resisting sin and compromise. Repentant sinners remade into the image of Christ in His righteousness and obedience.

Dad’s, let this be you. Your wives, your children, your mates look to you. More than you know.

Hayley and I had pre-marital counselling. One piece of wisdom I took was this. They said, “marital conflict can sometimes be like a wheel. One person hurts the other is like someone spinning the wheel, retaliation spins the wheel harder and faster. To stop the wheel often requires one person to put aside their hurt and pride and place the hand on the wheel to stop it. That’ll likely hurt- but it’ll stop the wheel.”

Who shall step into that first? Who’ll be the first to admit wrong and humble themselves? Dads, let it be you. Let us look to Samson as an example, to not wait till the end of life where the weight of humiliation, shame and guilt finally bring you to the knees, but let us know- looking to the future of works and leading to be done, first and foremost fall to our knees in humility and obedience for what God is calling us to do- to be Pillars of Strength.

Dad who lend their strength not to selfish ambition or personal acheievement, but to the supporting and upholding to their loved ones and communities. Dads whose identity and calling is found not in success, or wealth, or experience, or achievement, or physical strength- but in Christ Crucified, Dads who find their ultimate identity to honour their holy calling for their roles and responsiblities. Dads who remember who their Jesus is- Christ who is bound to us, who makes promises He always keeps, whose grace is sufficient in our failure and who redeems us as we turn from our sin.