Sermon Tone Analysis
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All of the characters in Scripture are sinners in need of a Savior: Abraham the doubter, Jacob the deceiver, Moses the murderer, David the adulterer, and Rahab the prostitute.
We could go person by person through the entire Bible and see this pattern throughout redemptive history.
God doesn’t blush at working through imperfect people.
All of the characters in Scripture are sinners in need of a Savior: Abraham the doubter, Jacob the deceiver, Moses the murderer, David the adulterer, and Rahab the prostitute.
We could go person by person through the entire Bible and see this pattern throughout redemptive history.
God doesn’t blush at working through imperfect people.
Why do you think the Bible’s storyline consistently highlights the flaws and failures of its heroes?
What significance does this theme have for us today?
The reality is that we walk in the footsteps of our fathers.
Israel’s story is our story.
Like them, we are prone to chase after empty, lifeless things.
God tells us how to find life and freedom, but still we do what is right in our own eyes (see ).
None of the judges in these stories solved Israel’s ultimate problem—sinful, wayward hearts.
The judges are but a shadow pointing to the final Judge—Jesus Christ.
In this session, we see how God sent Samson to rescue the people of Israel from the Philistines, even when they didn’t cry out for deliverance.
God, in His extravagant mercy, chose a deliverer for them.
In the life of Samson, we see God working through a flawed and sinful man for the good of His people and the glory of His name.
Before Samson’s birth, an angel came to his barren mother and told her she would conceive a son.
God had chosen her child to be the one who would begin delivering His people from the Philistines.
The angel also told her that the child should observe the Nazirite vow from birth (and she should observe the Nazirite diet until his birth) because of God’s promise to work through her son.
The Nazirite vow typically was a voluntary commitment that the people of Israel could enter into in order to pursue God.
Nazirites dedicated themselves to God by keeping three vows:
1.
Never defiling themselves by touching a dead body.
2. Never drinking alcohol or eating fermented foods.
3. Never cutting their hair.
Unfortunately, as he grew up, Samson wavered in his commitment to worship and love the God of his ancestors.
Samson was a distracted judge.
From women, to power, to having a good time, he consistently demonstrated a tendency to go astray and reject his special identity.
Nevertheless, God chose to work through him.
In , we see how he impulsively pursued a Philistine woman as his wife and then how he allowed his impulses to lead him to break his vow to never touch a dead body.
Nazirites dedicated themselves to God by keeping three vows:
“Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines.
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.”
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.”
His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.
At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah.
And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring.
Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat.
But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.
After some days he returned to take her.
And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went.
And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate.
But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.”
(, ESV)
A few miles from where Samson lived was the town of Timnah, where Samson found a Philistine woman whom he wanted to marry.
By pursuing this woman, Samson abandoned the clear teaching of God () and said, “She is right in my eyes.”
The problem with this relationship wasn’t because of racial or ethnic differences but because of the difference in their faith.
Samson was not “missionary dating” and trying to convert this girl; he just wanted what he wanted.
Isn’t this exactly what sin does to us? Sin appeals to our desires and then beckons us to pursue the fulfillment of sinful desires rather than righteousness.
The most dangerous lies of our time encourage us to do what seems right for us or to follow our heart or to find our own truth.
“It is right in my eyes,” we say.
But the Bible teaches that what matters isn’t what we think is right but what God says is right.
God’s Word is final, and He determines right from wrong.
So to “follow your arrow” or to “do what is right for you” is not the message of the Bible.
This is merely our culture striving to be god.
The mantra is “We decide what is right in our own eyes,” and this is pure idolatry.
What are some desires that we appeal to in order to justify our disobedience to God’s commands?
Samson’s flirtation with sin is a lesson for us.
As Christians, we should not ask, “How far can we go?” or, “How close can I get to the world without sinning?”
The real question we should ask instead is “How can we be holy as an expression of love for Jesus?” Samson’s heart was set on finding the line and jumping over it.
The story of Samson’s encounter with the lion reveals the level of his strength.
He was impulsive and powerful, and the strength that led him to sin was also the strength that could protect him.
Samson tore this lion apart like a sheet of paper!
His incredible strength came from his obedience to the Nazirite vow.
His strength came from God.
Once the lion was dead, to keep his vow, Samson should have gone and washed his hands with a ceremony, but he didn’t.
He didn’t tell his parents what happened.
Instead, on his way back home, he followed his impulses yet again and chose to eat honey out of the lion’s carcass.
He then shared it with his mom and dad, even making them unclean with his actions!
Samson’s story is showing what Israel’s heart was at the time.
His life was a microcosm of the people walking in rebellion and lusting after things other than God.
When we read this account, God is speaking to us, warning us as we look at these compromises, challenging us not to “do what is right in our own eyes.”
Like Samson, compromise creeps into our hearts.
The story of Samson is not given to us so that we can feel more or less righteous than he was.
Samson’s story is showing what Israel’s heart was at the time.
His life was a microcosm of the people walking in rebellion and lusting after things other than God.
When we read this account, God is speaking to us, warning us as we look at these compromises, challenging us not to “do what is right in our own eyes.”
Why is it not right just to “do what comes naturally” in every situation?
What are some consequences of living this way?
By the time we get to , Samson has shown indifference to his vows, he has rejected the advice of his parents (14:3), slept with a prostitute (16:1), and continued a downward spiral of impulsiveness.
He once tied 300 foxes together and lit their tails on fire in order to burn some Philistine fields (15:4).
He once killed 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey in one of the greatest battle stories in the entire Bible (15:15).
But he did these things not to honor God but to vindicate himself.
Samson’s successes led him to forget his identity.
He trusted in his own strength instead of in God who supplied it to him.
Let’s read ...
“After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
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.””
(, ESV)
Here we find God’s chosen deliverer with yet another woman he should be nowhere near.
Maybe you want to defend poor Samson and blame mean, old Delilah for deceiving him, but we see that both these characters wanted the same thing—their own glory.
Delilah wanted power and wealth.
The Philistine leaders were powerful and would give her wealth and power if she helped them.
Samson wanted the thrill of the chase and sexual fulfillment.
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