Sermon Tone Analysis

Judges 14:1-4

Samson is moved by what he sees to acquire as a wife one of the daughters of the Philistines.

There are three sad things about his approach that should be noted by all those who would pursue marriage.

Samson cannot be counseled () - He is his own God and does not respect the counsel and command of God.

Samson's behavior is dictated by his natural appetites.

Paul describes this kind of person in his letter to the Philippians.

17 ‎Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.

18 For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame— who set their mind on earthly things.

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‎‎1 “When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.

You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them.

You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.

(Deuteronomy 7:1-3)

Samson cannot be corrected () - He has rejected God's authority through His parents (; Deuteronomy 27:16).

he has rejected God's commandments through the Scriptures.

‎‎12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

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‎‎16 ‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’

“And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ (Deuteronomy 27:16)

Samson can be counted as compromised () - God leverages his evil to effect His plan to show pity on His people.

Do not think that God is obligated to stop us from doing evil.

When we continually reject His counsel and correction God may actually be counting on our rebellion to help promote His own agenda.

But do not think that we are entitled to His intervention when we have been inveterate in our rebellion.

- God hardened the hearts of the nations against repentance in order to accomplish His good and perfect will.

; - The king Rehoboam did not listen to counsel because God had actually confirmed him in his rebellion.

Where God desires that we repent He is able to use our obstinance to accomplish His will.

We cannot be glib with God and assume that we are going to be delivered from determined dereliction.

Judges 14:5-9

Regarding what happens next we are introduced to the strengths and weaknesses of the young deliverer.

In the span of a few verses we are made aware of why Samson could be a great blessing to the people.

In that same pericope we are made privy to why he will not succeed.

Samson is Undefeatable in Combatant () - The writer would have the reader to see the amazing abilities of this deliverer when the Spirit of the LORD comes upon him.

Imagine what the lion is saying to his buddies as he spies this young man coming his way.

He says to his buddies, "I got this, man.

I have the speed.

I have the strength.

I have the teeth.

I have the claws.

And...

I have the element of surprise."

A lion can weigh anywhere from 265 to 420 lbs.

Lions can typically run about 50 miles per hour.

That is about twice the speed of the fastest human being alive today.

Samson is Untrustworthy in Leadership (; Leviticus 11:27) - Although he is called by God to provide deliverance and leadership for the people of God, Samson is only concerned with his personal appetites.

Moreover, he brings his defilement into the lives of others.

Not only is he prohibited from touching a carcass but he is also prevented from touching unclean animals.

He does both and knowingly causes other people to be ceremonially unclean.

The Weakness through His Pride - In his own view Samson is smarter than everyone else.

He is a clever man and takes delight in mocking his enemies while he fellowships with them.

Although he is supposed to be delivering Israel from the oppression of the Philistines he is partying with them and showing off his superior intellect.

Why?

Because he can outwit and overcome anyone.

The Weakness through His Bride - The wife of a man will be either his great strength or weakness.

Be warned men, your choice of a spouse does more to determine your success than your intelligence, diligence, or inheritance.

The Weakness through His Pals - His best man took his wife.

Who does that?

See note below on the resentment of Samson.

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Right In Their Own Eyes

(The Doomed Deliverer)

1 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. 2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children.

3 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean.

5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son.

And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

The national downward spiral into depravity has been chronicled through the prior material of this book.

In earlier chapters Israel repeatedly rebels against the commandments of God and discards the calling of God to be his own special people.

Israel was supposed to cast out the false religion of worshiping through sexual immorality.

Israel were supposed to cast out the sacrificing of children to false gods.

Israel were supposed to bring justice for the foreigner, relief for the widow, and help for the orphans.

They were commissioned to cast out the evil of the Canaanites.

Instead Israel has become canaanized.

And their evil is not a point of view - right for me wrong for you.

Their works are wickedness without question because they are evil in the sight of the Lord (; )... again.

It's a pattern.

And in this pattern the first verse of chapter thirteen describes the rebellion of Israel and the rebuke of God; the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years (Judges 13:1).(1)

But noticeably absent from the pattern is the part where the people repent.

The people do not cry out for relief.

There is no groaning with their grief.

No war is waged by the nation against their oppressors.

They have become so acclimated to being ruled by the Philistines that they state it as a fact () and are perturbed when their deliverer begins to deliver them.

Israel is content being under the control of a nation that opposes the program of God and the prosperity of His people.

Why? Fully canaanized communities don't complain when being compelled to conduct themselves as Canaanites.

Although the people do not cry out God still comes to their aid through a unilateral act of grace.

Apart from an appeal Yahweh raises up another judge... from a barren woman.

Excursus: Barrenness

In barrenness we are broken.

Through our seemingly unending season of unanswered prayer for something (e.g., a baby, a spouse, a job) we are made to feel the unrelenting pain of some neediness.

In the midst of our emptiness we entreat God for help in hope that He will hear and have mercy.

But in the delay we become more than desperate and we are undone.

In the silence of no answer we are made to regard our wretchedness and the reasons why the Almighty is not obligated to answer.

In that time outside of "a long while" the barrenness breaks us.

Let it, saint.

Let the barrenness break you.

Be broken.

In barrenness Hannah breaks through her competition with the other woman, through her rivalry (), and through her desire to have a son and she enters into the blessedness of wanting a son that can be devoted to the Lord all the days of his life ().

The Lord closed her womb in order that He might at last raise up a priest with the right priorities ().

In barrenness Elizabeth is made ready to receive Elijah, made fit for her role of raising the forerunner, and prepared for worship when the Holy Spirit comes on her and her son.

She was a long time childless so that she could cherish the blessing of a boy that would belong to the Lord from the womb ().

Out of barrenness is born Samson; from childlessness comes a churlish deliverer with supernatural strength.

The Angel of the Lord did not appear to the apparent authority of the husband but to the nameless woman without child - to the barren ().

And the commands for the coming child were not given to the man of the house; they were given to the barren.

It was to her that the Angel of the Lord said the deliverer shall be a Nazirite from the womb ().

It is out of barrenness that the Lord brings forward the better priest Samuel.