The Strength that Matters

Strength that Matters

BIG IDEA: Only those who know their weakness are able to know their God given strength.

Samson’s motto, “do unto them as they did unto me.”

What motivates your life and actions?

What was Samson motivated by?

Lust, Greed, Revenge, entitlement.

Judges 15:1

took a young goat as a present to his wife. Lit., Samson “attended to his wife with a goat-kid.” The verb “attended to” (paqad [6485, 7212]) is often undertranslated “visit.” The idea is a visit that entails the exercise of a right or responsibility.

I’m going into my wife’s room to sleep with her. Samson seemed to regard it as normal that he reside with his family, and his wife with hers, and that he periodically visited her. The Hebrew text uses the idiom “to go in to my wife (into) the inner room.” The idiom “go into” is used for sexual congress, but not exclusively. The NLT thus elaborates, probably rightly.

15:2 I truly thought you must hate her. The Hebrew emphasizes both the father’s speaking and his reference to Samson’s hatred. The term “hate” (sane’ [8130, 8533]) connotes not merely malice and hostility, but rejection.

her father explained, “so I gave her in marriage to your best man.” Commentators often claim that the father was stuck: He’d given the woman to another man, and according to Deut 24:1–4 could not give her back to her original husband.

her father explained, “so I gave her in marriage to your best man.” Commentators often claim that the father was stuck: He’d given the woman to another man, and according to Deut 24:1–4 could not give her back to her original husband.

But look, her younger sister is even more beautiful than she is. Marry her instead. That Samson refused the offer of the more beautiful, younger sister might suggest he was more devoted to his chosen bride than claims of his being a sensualist or womanizer might suggest. Or perhaps he was more focused on justice and honor, and how he was being wronged. More importantly, the author portrays the Philistine father treating his daughters like mere property to be disposed.

I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines. The core idiom in this sentence involves more than mere blame.

Note: The unusual method of his revenge.

15:4 Then he went and caught 300 foxes were actually jackals.

He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Commentators often note the similarity of this story to a Roman festival in which foxes, with torches tied to their tails, ran through the circus.

15:5 Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground. Younger (2002:306) brands Samson’s action as “wrong,” claiming Samson’s motives were purely personal.

He also destroyed the vineyards and olive groves.

“At the peak of the Harvest this would have been devastating”

Even Gideon’s three hundred with their blazing torches were to be outshone by Samson’s. A pack of captured jackals! We may think this bizarre exploit cruel, or we may think it funny, but the point of it is still the Lord’s resolve to provoke a confrontation between the two peoples.

15:6 “Who did this?” the Philistines demanded. “Samson,” was the reply.

NOTE: Look at the reaction of the people, they were so angry that they burned Samson’s wife and her father to death. (v.8)

Remember 14:4 “His father and mother did not know that it was “from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.”

“So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them alive.”

15:7 “Because you did this,” Samson vowed. The NLT interprets certain particles in the sentence as indicating a vow. Samson was to avenge a deed done against his own wife and father-in-law.

God will use Samson’s entanglement to harm the Philistines, but that very power only accelerates the cycle of revenge.

15:8 So he attacked the Philistines with great fury. Suggests hand to hand wrestling.

WWWF Wrestling Night with Samson as the Headliner.

15:9 The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah. With this verse, for the first time, the reader sees Samson’s feuds with the Philistines in a context larger than his own personal vendetta, but the image of “larger Israel” is not positive.

15:10 We’ve come to capture Samson. The word “capture” translates ’asar [631, 673] (to bind), foreshadowing both the fateful pillow talk of Delilah who asked how Samson might be “bound”

15:11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson. Whether “thousand” (’elep [505, 547]) denotes the number or a clan-muster (i.e., “contingent”) of the militia (see note on 8:10), it reflects a remarkable concern about Samson’s ability to resist.

Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? This interaction underscores how little kinship the Judeans felt with the Danites. No appeal to Israelite unity appears, nor is there any sense that they faced a common foe.

“What are you doing to us?” But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.” The Judeans were clearly trapped between two parties, each of which claimed only to be repaying a wrong done by the other.

“We have come to tie you up. the term is “bound” foreshadowing of Samson’s final binding in ch 16.

15:14 As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. As with the lion (14:6), a sudden, loud, hostile sound immediately preceded the onrush of the Spirit of Yahweh.

15:15 jawbone of a recently killed donkey. The term “jawbone” is lekhi [3895, 4305], the ultimate name of the location where the encounter occurs. “Recently killed” translates a term that seems to mean “fresh,” and is used of open wounds in Isa 1:6. Moore (1895:346) cites an Arabic cognate meaning “fresh, moist, juicy.” Touching a dead animal, especially with blood and putrefaction present, violated once again Samson’s Nazirite vow.

He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it. Ironically the Judeans had sent tree times that many men to talk to Samson.

With the Jawbone of a Donkey I have piled them in Heaps.

How does God use flawed people like Samson to get His job done? Shouldn’t He work through people who are only Godly and want to be used by God? Shouldn’t he only use the people who have the right beliefs and the right behavior.

NOTE: This would put God in a box, limiting who and when he could work through people. This would then diminish the GRACE of GOD. IT would mean that God does not work by Grace. Taking the initiative to work in spite of us.

David Jackman -

“It is above all a book about grace, undeserved mercy, as is the whole Bible… That is not to play down theological accuracy or to pretend it does’t matter how we behave… [WE will suffer from our sins}. But we can rejoice that he is also in the business of using our failures as the foundations for his success. Let us never imagine that we have God taped, or that we know how he will work, or when. As son as we start to say, ‘God cannot or will not...until...’we are wrong-footed.”

1.God Saves people by divorcing them from their idols.

ILLUSTRATION

4 BASIC IDOLS THAT ALL OTHERS FALL INTO

Control: You know you have a control idol if your greatest nightmare is uncertainty.

Approval: You know you have an approval idol if your greatest nightmare is rejection.

Comfort: You know you have a comfort idol if your greatest nightmare is stress or demands.

Power: You know you have a power idol if your greatest nightmare is humiliation or embarrassment.

How does God do this?

God works through the sins of sinners.

Biblical Examples:

Paul - The Chief of Sinners.

David - Adulterer and murder yet a man after God’s own heart

Rahab - Prostitute yet God used her to preserve the seed that would bring Christ.

We look at this story and think what a horrible existence. But in the middle of all the darkness we are reminded that God is Faithful.

God works through the free choice people make. ‘

ILLUSTRATION

Overwhelmed by Choices at the Supermarket

Jerry De Luca, Montreal West, Quebec, Canada; sources: The editors, "Too Many Choices?" Consumer's Reports (3-14); Tim Wu, "The Case for Less", The New Republic, April 29, 2013

Life used to be much simpler. Consider the following choices at your typical American supermarket or Big Box store:

Crest toothpaste: 27 varietiesCampbell's condensed soup: 53 varietiesTropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice: eight sizes, from 8 to 128 ouncesBreyers ice cream or frozen dairy dessert: Natural, French, Half the Fat, No Sugar Added, Extra Creamy, Homemade, Lactose Free, CarbSmart (and that's just for vanilla ice cream)Cheerios cereal: Original, Honey Nut, Honey Nut Medley Crunch, Apple Cinnamon, Banana Nut, Frosted, Chocolate, Multi Grain, Multi Grain Peanut Butter, Dulce de Leche, Cinnamon BurstTide liquid laundry detergent: Original Scent, Plus Febreze, Plus Febreze Sport, Free & Gentle, Plus Bleach Alternative, Coldwater, Clean Breeze, Mountain Spring, Plus Downy, With Acti-LifeHead & Shoulders shampoo: Active Sport, Old Spice, Deep Clean, Hair Endurance, Refresh, Extra Strength for Men, Citrus Breeze, Ocean Lift, Dry Scalp Care with Almond Oil, Classic Clean, Sensitive Scalp Care, Itchy Scalp with Eucalyptus, Smooth & Silky, Extra Volume, Green Apple, Damage Rescue, Extra Strength, Clinical Strength, plus seven

We live in a World with Choices.

Romans 8:28

The unbreakable cycle of sin.

“Each action prompts another action, which then brings it’s own action.”

The violence Ratchet’s up.

When do we choose to keep things the way they are instead of doing what is right?

We don’t want to make any waves so we are work hard not to live in the appearance of peace. Even though we know that it is all a mirage.

vs. 12-13

Note: The Israelites take 3,000 men to hand Samson over to the Philistines. They may bear the name of Israel, but, they have stopped playing the part of God’s Chosen people.

We would rather live at peace with the world and worship their idols then be free to worship God.

2.God saves people even when they are unaware they need saving.

15:10

NOTE: The Israelites are so keen on keeping the status quo the way it is that they are not even aware that the man they are handing over was sent to be their Judge.

vs 14-15

The Beat Down with a jaw bone of a Donkey, Looks like Samson has completely left his Nazarite vow behind.

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.

ILLUSTRATION

When are God’s people unaware?

Matt 24:39 They were unaware of what was happening until the flood came and swept all of them away. That's how it will be when the Son of Man comes.

Luke 11:44 Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.

Rom 2:4 Or are you unaware of his rich kindness, forbearance, and patience, that it is God's kindness that is leading you to repent?

1 Cor 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea;

1 Cor 12:1 Now concerning what comes from the Spirit: brothers, I do not want you to be unaware

We are unaware of God’s power until we need it.

shall I now die of thirst. Like the Israelites who experienced miracle upon miracle in the wilderness, Samson complained to God. The parallel is marked by the cry for water and the miraculous manner in which God supplied it (v. 19; Ex. 17:1–7; Num. 20:1–13). Both Israel and Samson were complaining to God, but God in His mercy and compassion met their need (Judg. 10:10–16).

NOTE: This is the first time Samson calls for God’s help. Notice that his call for help is the meeting of a physical need for water.

WE do not hear Samson call for God’s help again until the end of chapter 16.

We are unaware of the fruit that must grow in our lives.

NOTE: There is a distinct difference between the gifts of the spirit and the fruit.

1 Corinthians 12 and 14 Paul lines out the gifts or skills for doing that the Spirit gives believers to serve and help other people.

Galatians 5:22-23

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

“The fruit of the Spirit is character traits of being, qualities of being a Christian”

“So, when you think of Samson, he had all the gifts that he needed to fight for God, but seemed very shallow when it comes to Holiness and Character.”

NOTE: This is how a Christian can do lot’s of great things for people and exhibit all of the gifts the spirit has given him or her, but, there life is still a wreck.

Link between IMPRESSIVE outer life and BROKEN inner life.

This why you see teachers, counselors and leadership, who on the outside seem to have it all together put their personal, private life is crumbling around them.

SO, WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT?

FRUIT IS THE EVIDENCE OF SPIRITUAL GROWTH

First, we recognize the difference between spiritual gifts and spiritual fruit.

Second, our prayer life, rather than our religious activities, is the best indicator of spiritual health.

Prayer is not just talking it’s LISTENING AND LEARNING.

DON’T BE LIKE SAMSON AND ONLY PRAY AS A LAST RESORT.

Third, we must avoid “Lone Ranger” Christianity.

3.God saves people from themselves.

vs. 1-3

The Pattern Continues

Samson is reckless and dangerous. This also shows the deepening depravity of mans’ sexual addiction. How does this show the reality of our sexualized culture today.

Their is a deepening problem of Samson going to the (capital City) to sleep now with prostitutes.

ILLUSTRATION

Situational Ethics has been a popular approach to making moral and ethical decisions in our lives. Ethics are moral principles that govern a persons decisions.

Situational ethics say that right and wrong are decided by the situation we find ourselves in at the time. So, scripture would have us apply love at defined in Matthew 22:37-38 the same way every time. Not based on how we happen to feel about Loving God.

Therefore, situational ethic might be to say that committing adultery is not always unloving in some cases, it might be the most loving choice for us. We cannot rely on our own intuition and emotions to define how love is going to act in a particular situation.

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God, but he has loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God defines Love. Yes, we should always do what love demands, but the only way to know what love demands is to look at the law of God. Christ does not abolish the law but fulfills it perfectly.

Romans 13:10 “Love does not wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law”

Why Delilah? Why Samson?

Some time later, Samson fell in love with a woman in the valley of “Sorek” Philistine territory.

Delilah, means the night, Samson is lying in the nights bed when the downfall begins.

WHAT MOTIVATES DELILAH TO BETRAY SAMSON?

The promise of Money, If she can lure him in secret.

First Question seems stupid, “How can you be tied up and subdued.”

First, Why is Samson playing such a game with Delilah, perhaps he has become just as hooked on the Adrenalin, of the danger as of the affections of Delilah.

Second, Possibly Samson is in the stages of denial that someone caught in the cycle of addiction feels.

Twice she complains that he made a fool out of her, and twice he lies to her about his secret.

NOTE: This is a classic case of being a user instead of a server. We say, “I am with you because I love you,” but the reality is we are there just for our own selfish desires and agenda’s by what can we get out of the deal.

How does God save us from ourselves.

God saves us from ourselves by changing our self-image.

From the start we look for people who are useful in building up our own self-image and/or in getting the kind of lives we want.

How do you see yourself?

How do other people see you?

We have built a society and culture around naval gazing.....

God saves us from a need love to serve love

C.S. Lewis is helpful on this.

“Need love cries … from our poverty; Gift love longs to serve…

Need love says of a woman, ‘I cannot live without her’;

Gift-love longs to give her happiness.”

“You cannot love a fellow creature fully till you love God.”

I Need you to make me feel as if I am worth something.

NOTE: Samson’s inner life and motivation show a lack of God love that should be warning him of all that is happening around him.

HIS STRENGTH LEFT HIM

vs. 18-20

NOTE: It is really strange that Samson did not leave after telling Delilah the truth. This would appear then to be a lack of trust in God, that his hair truly was the source of his strength.

WHEN DO WE FAIL TO VIEW GOD AS THE TRUE SOURCE OF STRENGTH IN OUR LIVES?

God’s power is determined by an internal condition of the Heart.

Acts 1:8 - Jesus sent His disciples out with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:20 “And behold I am with you to the very end of the age.”

This is a Semetic phrase for a relationships. Therefore, what mattered was not so much that Samson’s hair had been cut, but that the Lord had left him.

NOTE: Apparently Delilah’s love mattered more to Samson than God’s

and his strength left him. The series of verb tenses likely here conveys not sequence: She humiliated him as his strength left him. The text almost suggests one could observe the power draining from Samson.

But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him. This statement shows much more than merely the Spirit of Yahweh no longer rushing upon Samson. The claim that Yahweh is “with” someone in the OT implies the full blessing of God’s presence and power not only within them, but providentially working around them to order their way, as in the case of Joseph (e.g., Gen 39:1–6). For Yahweh to turn away from Samson meant not simply the failure of his blessing, but his rejection by Yahweh as his servant.

16:21 So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. The same fate befell the last king of Judah, Zedekiah (2 Kgs 25:7). Assyrian palace reliefs depict the gouging out of war-prisoners’ eyes (Bleibtreu 1991). Most striking is the oft-reproduced image of the mutilated bronze head of a prominent Mesopotamian, possibly the king Sargon the Great, featuring shattered eye-sockets, broken-off ears, and mutilated nose (Frankfort 1996:84; Nylander 1980).

They took him to Gaza. This phase of Samson’s life began at Gaza (16:1–3), where Samson carelessly took his liberty with a prostitute and found his strength equal to the escape. His return to Gaza, especially his passage through the city gate, with which he was intimately familiar, accentuates the depth to which Samson’s presumption brought him.

he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind grain. Artists universally portray Samson pushing the beam on a large, circular grinder like an ox. But this style of mill seems a late Iron Age development.

WHEN DOES YOUR LOVE OF THE WORLD MATTER MORE TO YOU THAN YOUR LOVE OF GOD

“God’s power flows from a deep commitment to LOVE and SERVE God.”

NOTE: Much of the times we serve God mechanically rather than relationally. Our Love for God should flow out of a Relationship with Him instead of a situation that we are needing Him to come through for us.

ONE FINAL CHANCE FOR VICTORY

vs. 22 “but the hair began to grow back on His head. “Why let his hair grow back?”

The Philistines must have concluded that once they cut his hair he was no longer a Nazarite, therefore he know longer had his power.

NOTE: This shows that a shallow view of God, Samson’s power did not come from the vows he made but the one with whom he made those vows.

16:23 great festival … praising their god, Dagon. While readers normally imagine Samson’s last act occurring in Gaza, ancient sources testify to a place known as Beth Dagan north of Gaza on the coast, near Joppa.

16:24 Our god has delivered our enemy to us! The one who killed so many of us is now in our power! The Philistines describe Samson as (lit.) “our enemy … the destroyer of our land … who multiplied our slain.” While he had not delivered Israel from the Philistines, the harm Samson did to the oppressor cannot be minimized.

16:25 to amuse them. The precise nature of the amusements offered by Samson remain unsaid. Some imagine feats of (reduced) strength in which Samson the divine hero was reduced to a circus strongman. Ancient translations suggest dancing, but the Hebrew also has sexual connotations, suggesting lewd or humiliating action.

between the pillars supporting the roof. Excavations of a series of Philistine temples at Tel Qasile, within the city limits of modern Tel Aviv, reveal in the stratum X level two stone column bases about six feet apart upon which would have stood massive cedar columns, of which carbonized remains were found, to support the roof.

16:28 Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord.” Samson addresses God in perhaps the most formal manner possible, combining the term “master” with the divine name, yhwh.

remember me again. “Again” does not appear in the Hebrew. The cry for God to “remember” carries deep connotations. For humans, to remember God and his saving actions involves those actions having a continuing impact—that is, one orders one’s life around the reality of God’s actions in a concrete way. Israel’s whole problem resided in its tendency to forget Yahweh and his actions.

O God, please strengthen me. For the first time, Samson actually appeals to God for strength rather than presuming on Yahweh’s presence.

just one more time. The core of this expression, happa‘am expresses unambiguously that Samson knew this would be the final act.

With one blow … for the loss of my two eyes. Lit., “let me have vengeance for one of my two eyes.” The idea could be that Samson did not even ask complete vengeance, just enough for one of his eyes.

Let me pay back the Philistines The context has clearly aligned the humiliation of Samson with the exaltation of Philistine gods, so that Samson’s vindication would entail Yahweh’s vengeance as well. Claiming that Samson’s prayer is purely self-centered misses this point and ignores the solidarity that existed between a tribal people, their deity, and their hero; it judges him by a standard of modern, Western.

16:30 Let me die with the Philistines. Contrast this statement with Samson’s prayer in 15:18, where he protested that he would fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. His words here are not an affiliation with the Philistines, but articulate some degree of acceptance of the consequences of his actions.

the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. The ancient historian Tacitus reports the collapse of a wooden amphitheater that buried 50,000 victims (cf. Moore 1895:363). Nothing prevents the temple in this story from featuring wooden structures such as bleachers.

he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime. This line could be a commendation or a wry criticism affirming the best thing Samson ever did for Israel was to die.

16:31 his brothers and other relatives went down to get his body. Samson’s relatives traveled unhindered to the Philistine city to recover his body, which the Philistines apparently had not mutilated or abused as would happen later to the body of Saul (1 Sam 31:8–13). Both facts possibly testify to Samson’s impact.

CONCLUSION

SAMSON AND JESUS

2 Ways that Samson’s death is different than Jesus

1.Samson is in the Temple of Dagon for his inability to remain obedient to God’s rule.

2.Samson’s death achieved the limited role that God had for him.

NOTE: Samson’s end is also a shadow or foreshadow of Jesus death.

1.Both Samson and Jesus were betrayed by someone acting as a friend.

2.Both were handed over the the Gentile oppressor, Samson handed over to the Philistines, and Jesus over the Roman’s.

3.Both were chained and tortured.

4.Both appeared totally struck down by their enemy.

5.Both of their deaths crushed the enemy.

REJECTED - BEATEN - CHAINED - LEFT FOR DEAD - VICTORIOUS IN THE END

The Christian life is all about the same pattern, Becoming weak to become strong.

Only those who admit they are weak and unworthy of the gift can receive the greatest power on earth.

Only those who know their own weakness are able to know their God given strength.

Samson’s life ended with one great victory. How will you finish this life, what strength are you counting on to carry you into eternity?