0948 Jdg.16.4-31 God‘s Use of Samson's Strengths & Weaknesses Against the Philistines Pt.3
Exploring Biblical Characters • Sermon • Submitted
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We all have enemies as such: War, social unrest, psychological issues, financial issues, sin, sickness & death
You could reduce all that down to 2 fronts: the enemy without & the enemy within
Q. Which do you suppose is worse?
Q. Better still, which is the one that most concerns our relationship with God?
Q. What mostly prevents us having & staying in a right relationship with our Creator?
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I would strongly suggest to you that the enemy within is the greatest threat to a relationship with God
Samson maybe the strongest man physically, militarily, externally, but his inner weaknesses made him one of the weakest of men
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Q. How shall God our Creator help us? Shall He remove our external troubles & enemies, or should He remove out inner enemies?
Would it be that He remove both!
Yes, indeed, He will remove both, but in the right order & the right time
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Q. What led to the Jews rejecting Jesus?
Q. Was He not able to heal the sick, raise the dead, drive the demons out?
Q. How could they refuse to accept Him?
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There is a history that we need to understand & it all had to do with the persona of the Messiah
Q. What would this Messiah be like?
From a biblical standpoint, we are presented with 2 cameos of the Messiah in the OT
a. A Conquering, Warrior Messiah
a. A Conquering, Warrior Messiah
The first cameo is a King that is like Rambo - who takes vengeance out on His enemies
2 The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”
10 Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth. 11 Worship the Lord with reverence And rejoice with trembling. 12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way, For His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. 7 There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.
These Scriptures give us good reason to believe that the Messiah, the King & representative of Yahweh would be a warrior-type person who deals with the external enemies of the people of God
b. A Submissive, Suffering Messiah
b. A Submissive, Suffering Messiah
However, the 2nd cameo of the Messiah we find in the OT is one who seems radically different from the first
Q. In fact, how could they possibly be the same person?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. 3 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. 6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.
10 But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.
Here you have a startling difference between these 2 cameos
Q. How do you think the Jews reconciled these two cameos?
They saw them as different people
Isaiah’s suffering servant is interpreted, even to this day, by the majority of Jews as the Jewish race
The suffering servant of Isaiah is the Jewish nation, according to this view
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To make this as simple as I can, I’m going to lay out this easy way to remember
There are 2 comings of Christ - His first coming to earth 2000 yrs ago, but then we know He will be coming again
These 2 cameos that I have presented are contained within His first & second coming
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In His first coming, He came to deal with our inner enemies of weakness & sin
To submit to suffering & to die for our sins that we might be reconciled to God
To send His Spirit to bolster the frailty of the person living under a world given over to sin
To have the Lord Himself dwell with the believer in full reconciliation with his & her Creator
He came to deal with our inner enemies that were keeping us apart from our Creator as the suffering servant of the Isaiah passages state
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He will return again, not however, as a suffering servant, but as the warrior Messiah in which the Psalms & prophets foretold
Who will come in salvation for those who are His & for vengeance against the those who are unwilling to submit to Yahweh God
2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;
6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.
Clearly then, His second coming is going to be severe for those who have not obeyed the Gospel of Christ
Flee to Jesus now - wouldn’t that be the smart way to go!!!
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This is why the Jews rejected Jesus - He did not conform to their expectations of the Messiah
They were looking for the all-powerful warrior, the Samson-like King who would blow away their enemies - deal with the Roman menace & drive them out of the holy land
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Typical of people though - we only want what is comfortable
Give us our external comforts, don’t challenge me on my inner issues of sin, of unbelief & the unwillingness to accept God’s authority as my Creator
I don’t want transformation, I want vacation
This will take wisdom, discernment - ultimately, it will take a born again reality for a person to accept Jesus for who He is
1. Samson’s Super Weakness
1. Samson’s Super Weakness
This is the last scenario in Samson’s 20 yrs of being Israel’s judge
Again, his weakness for women exposes a great vulnerability
4 After this it came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
This is the only woman, apart from his mother, whom it is said he loved
The first woman that he is involved with - His Philistine wife - looked right in his eyes, but it is never said that he loved her
The second woman is also unnamed & as a prostitute for his pleasure, probably not loved either
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This woman, in chp. 16 is named Delilah & she has gained herself quite a reputation our popular culture
I recall a song sung by Tom Jones in the 1960’s called Delilah
Here is a one minute clip of that song - pay close attention to the words...
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Samson seems totally ignorant about being played by Delilah
He mistakenly thinks that Delilah is merely playing a pretend game with him
Q. How could he possibly go along with it, if he realises the Philistines were actually lying in wait for him?
He seems to think that she is playing games with him & that she is not maliciously trying to find out the secret of his strength so that the Philistines could take him captive
He probably just thinks that this is his playful Delilah just playing romantic games with him
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He may be in love with Delilah, but she is in love with the money that was offered by the Philistines
He had already experienced betrayal with his Philistine wife, why would he think it wouldn’t happen again with another one?
His inner weakness is shocking - women were his kryptonite
As Keil & Delitzsch had said...
“Samson, when strong and brave, strangled a lion; but he could not strangle his own love. He burst the fetters of his foes, but not the cords of his own lusts. He burned up the crops of others, and lost the fruit of his own virtue when burning with the flame enkindled by a single woman.”
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This game went on 3 times & he had not told her the truth about his strength
Q. What was she actually asking?
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”
Interestingly, this same word for the ESV’s “subdue” is used by God when He tells Abraham that his descendants will be enslaved and - here it is - the word “oppressed” 400 yrs
What’s the secret of your strength that, if you lose it, you could be bound & “oppressed”
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Interestingly, as an aside, the NT talks about those in “slavery” to sin becoming free, yet also, about those who thought they were free from sin as actually being enslaved
Speaking about false prophets & their propensity to preach freedom but be enslaved in their own corruption, the apostle Peter writes... “that the false prophets go...”
19 promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.
Interesting how this is all about that inner enemy we face
The inner enemy that Samson faced was his desire for relations with women
Or, at least, his desire for some women
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Again the power of nagging brings mighty “Rambo” into submission & he surrenders & tells her a tale that was not true
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.
The same occurrence of nagging & success through it, happened earlier on, with his wife
16 Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.” “I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
Wake up Samson, how many times does it take for you, before the penny drops!
2. Samson’s Suffering
2. Samson’s Suffering
Samson’s hair was a permanent, visible, manifestation of his dedication to Yahweh
In succumbing to Delilah’s manipulation & nagging, he reveals the secret of his strength
If his hair is cut & he will be like any other man
New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 16
But he did not know that athe LORD had departed from him.
I guess you could say that he was playing with fire. He got complacent & got burned
We can do that in the Christian life as well - you think you’re going so well & forget to use the wisdom God has given you for various circumstances in life
Christian men ought to know their boundaries but when they get complacent & start playing with fire, they will be burned
Christian women, likewise, need to exercise the wisdom God has given them to put themselves in a good and safe place
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As the Lord departed from Samson, his strength departed
Once again, we see the tie between faith & action
Long hair may just be long hair, but in the eyes of God, the loss of that was the loss of the Nazarite vow
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Samson’s women were, to an extent, victims of some vicious circumstances
But Samson now becomes the victim
He becomes as weak as the women he was attracted to
The first thing they did to Samson was to gouge out his eyes & station him in Gaza, where he had ripped off the city gates
It seems inconceivable to imagine how horrific it must have been for this man
What stood out to me as I have studied Samson is how 3 chapters can barely allow us to enter into the pain of Samson & what he went through
After they gouged out his eyes, he was bound with chains & became a grinder in the prison
John Goldingay notices something interesting in this account...
With some irony, Samson thus ends up as the fifth woman in the story, because he ends up grinding grain. There was nothing humiliating in itself about grinding grain; it was a task like plowing or sewing that always needed doing in Israel. It was an honorable task. But Israel had conventional ways of dividing up tasks in the family: the men plowed while the women ground grain. There isn’t much a blind man’s captors can make him do. What they make him do is the work of a woman.
3. Samson’s Most Effective Victory
3. Samson’s Most Effective Victory
We started off this series by saying that God uses the strengths & the weaknesses of Samson to further His purposes for Israel & the world
He even sovereignly oversees Samson’s sins & uses them to deal with the Philistine menace
We could even say that God achieves His purpose more through Samson’s weaknesses than He does with his strengths
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It seems to me that the Lord uses hardships to train His people to be spiritually fit or mature
We grow best when we have to strain & work hard - in short, suffer for a greater good that will come about
Here’s some interesting statements from the beginning of Judges...
19 But it came about when the judge died, that they would turn back and act more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and bow down to them; they did not abandon their practices or their stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I commanded their fathers and has not listened to My voice, 21 I also will no longer drive out before them any of the nations which Joshua left when he died, 22 in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.”
23 So the Lord allowed those nations to remain, not driving them out quickly; and He did not give them into the hand of Joshua. 1 Now these are the nations which the Lord left, to test Israel by them (that is, all who had not experienced any of the wars of Canaan; 2 only in order that the generations of the sons of Israel might be taught war, those who had not experienced it formerly).
3 These nations are: the five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites and the Sidonians and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal-hermon as far as Lebo-hamath. 4 They were for testing Israel, to find out if they would obey the commandments of the Lord, which He had commanded their fathers through Moses.
The crucial issue when put under labour is how well you respond in your religious obligations
The testing we endure is not unbeknown to God - quite truly - He put us in it
It is for our training - “how long will it take for you to learn to put me first in spite of those mitigating circumstances you find yourself in”
As the saying goes, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
This was so true of Israel - it took many years to shake them out of their idolatry and, we know, they never really shook it off completely
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5 lords of the Philistines were left in the land it says & these come to Delilah (probably their representatives) & they offer her an enormous sum of money to deal with the Samson menace
The 5 lords that arranged this bribe are the very ones that are killed with Samson’s last act
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One of the most dangerous acts a society can perform against themselves is blatant blasphemy against Yahweh
After Samson is captured & blinded, he is brought to the temple of Dagon where they celebrate their god’s victory over Samson & Yahweh
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hands, Even the destroyer of our country, Who has slain many of us.”
That is setting yourself up for big trouble
Thinking that’s its all over before the fat lady sings, long behold, Samson’s hair is growing longer - & long enough for his strength to return
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I want us to consider Samson at this point
No doubt, being blind & with no strength, Samson had much to ponder
He was not strong; he was not functioning as a normal person anymore; he was not pain free; he was not happy
Yet, he achieved more for God this way, than when he was fully well & fully able
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Putting himself between two main pillars, he pushed them over & brought down the temple, killing over 3000 people including the 5 lords who were over the 5 Philistine states
He did more damage with his death, than he did within his life
He did more to liberate Israel from their oppression in his death, than in his life
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I think there is a lesson here for us to learn
That we don’t need to be perfect & on top of our game to be effective for the Lord
Often we think that we have to cross “T’s” & dot “I’s” before I’d be good or skilled enough to be effective for God
Yes, we should strive to be skilful for God, but as you could see from these last verses: Samson was more effective for God when he was down & out
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We should remember this, next time we think that when I have enough time, when I have enough energy, when I have enough desire, I will serve & honour the Lord with my life - I will live as a fully responsible disciple of Jesus
Sometimes, that may mean never; sometimes these things can be excuses
Going missing in action can never be a good spot to be in the Christian life &, when life is difficult, we may need to realise that life’s difficulties is God showing His love for you
Best solution is to accept dark times & difficult experiences & rejoice in the trials that come your way
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You are being made to conform to the glory which will be revealed
But rather than go around & around doing the same kind of life knowing that its never going to improve unless I make some resolutions, it just may be time to get off the merry-go-round
It doesn’t mean giving up, it means using sound wisdom from the Lord to direct your steps