The Life of Samson

Transcript

GRS 2-56
2/11/2007
The Life of Samson
Judges 15-16
Gil Rugh

We’re in the Book of Judges and we’ve come to Chapter 15 or in the midst of the life of Samson. He is the last of the judges dealt with in the Book of Judges. The Book of Judges isn’t over because we’re going to find out about some events taking place in this time in Israel’s history, but Samson is the last of the judges dealt within this Book. Not the last of the judges that the Bible will deal with; we’ll consider Samuel out of the Book of Judges. We have to get over to the Book of Samuel for him. He’s a unique judge, unique in a variety of ways. There is no record of him leading any armies in Israel. He stands alone, when it comes to do battle with the enemies of the Lord, the Philistines, in his life he stands alone and does it alone.

As we’ll see in the Chapters before us, there is occasion where there is an army of 3,000 Israelites there, but they don’t lift a finger to join with Samson in opposing the Philistines. He’s a Nazirite and he’s a Nazirite from birth. He’s a Nazirite from before birth. He’s a Nazirite while he is in his mother’s womb and when we looked at what was involved him being a Nazirite. Numbers Chapter 6 unfolds the details, three basic requirements. Number one, abstain from all alcoholic beverages or fruit of the wine, grape juice or wine, all products of the wine, intoxicating drinks. His hair was not to be cut and they weren’t allowed to touch or have contact with a dead body. Now we talked a little bit about Samson's contact with the lion that he killed, but if you stop and consider Samson's life as times when he is involved in killing human beings, now how this fit his Nazirite vow.

In the normal Nazirite vow, if a Nazirite had a contact with a dead body then his head would shaved and he had a start all over with his vow, that doesn’t happen with Samson. So obviously he is a unique Nazirite and his hair is the issue. We noted his mother was not allowed to drink the fruit or the wine or intoxicating drinks even while Samson was in her womb. The reflection of his status as a Nazirite from his conception, but the real issue comes for Samson with his hair and he’s going to have abundant contact with many, many dead bodies. And he has contact with dead bodies because they’re people he kills, but that does not destroy his Nazirite vow because that’s part of God raised him up to be. So his separation as a Nazirite is unique in a number of ways, but if you’ve been wondering about that that’s the explanation you have to come with.

What Samson's unique gift is his strength and it is a strength beyond anybody else’s strength and we’re going to see that even more clearly as we look into Chapters 15 and 16. He’s a man of incomparable strength. We’re not talking here at contest where he comes out as the strongest among the strong. He’s in a totally different category and there is none to be compare to him. The strength that he has is supernaturally given by God and it’s given on a level that there’ll be no way to compare it with other strong men, great body lifters, man able to do great feasts of strength. Samson is beyond any of that we’ll note some of that as we move along. He’s a man of great physical strength, but he’s a man of great moral weaknesses.

His deficiencies are glaring and they will ultimately do him in as you’re aware with the story in Chapter 14. We saw Samson disregarding the word of God, becoming involved with Philistine women. The law clearly said that when Israel comes into the land, there were not to get involved in these kinds of relationships; they were not to intermarry with the people of the land. And in Chapter 14, Samson is doing that very thing. He had a disregard for his godly parents’ advice and the opening part of Chapter 14; his parents try to discourage him from seeking a marriage relationship with the Philistine woman. His concern was what pleased him and what would give him pleasure.

Chapter 14, just to give you the background for what’s going to happen in Chapter 15, remember, there were arranged for a marriage between Samson and a Philistine woman. They had a weeklong celebration at the end of that seven day feasts then the marriage would be consummated and they could live as husband and wife. Even before the marriage is consummated, this woman will be considered Samson's wife and as referred to as such. Remember, Samson presented a riddle and said, if you can solve the riddle, I’ll give you 30 changes of clothes; if you solve the riddle I’ll give you. So we’ve an exchange here.

Well, they plow with Samson's heifer, as he says. They go to his wife and say, you better find out the solution to this riddle, because that will empowers us to have come up with 30 changes of clothes, these things are expensive items. You just didn’t go to the store and buy them in those days. Obviously the clothes had to be handmade. So ultimately Samson's wife gets him to tell her the riddle and Samson, that ends the celebration, he leaves the wedding feast, marches off to kill 30 Philistines so he can get their clothes, then he bring them back and pays off his debt.

The Chapter ended in verse 20, Samson has returned to his father’s house and hasn’t proceeded to consummate the marriage but – and the practice of the land if you does married and she is viewed as married but the end of verse – Chapter 14, verse 20, Samson's wife was given to his companion, he’d been his friend. That sets the stage now for the conflict of Chapter 15 and it’s a conflict over his wife. And Samson said, I have wife down there and after a while where Chapter 15, verse 1, when in the time of the wheat harvest, Samson takes a gift, goes to visit his wife with a young goat, he said, I will go in to my wife in a room. But you gets there, father just know he can’t do this because I thought you were upset with her and I gave her to another person and so she is married to someone else then living with someone else but she has a pretty young sister, why you just take her as your wife.

Well, verse 3, Samson takes this personally. This is all part of the Philistines a position to him. Remember, all these events, god even using the sin of Samson to accomplish his purposes, god’s purposes. He’s not making Samson do what he didn’t want to do but he is using even Samson's fleshly desires here for accomplishing his purposes in restrain the Philistines and keeping them at bay, breaking their strangle hold on the Israelites. Remember, we were told at the beginning of this that for 40 years Israel had been suppressed and under the domination of the Philistines. Samson doesn’t fully break their power, remember, but he loosens it if you will and we’re told he began to break their power. So verse 3, Samson said to them, this time I shall I be blameless regard to the Philistines when I do them harm. And he knows what is happened.

In Chapter 14, where the Philistines work with his wife and they threatened her, remember. If you look back up in verse 15 of Chapter 14, this serious matter with them, they didn’t say, you got to find out the answer to this riddle, they told his wife, and he’s in the process in the marriage event for seven days, if you don’t find out the answer to the riddle we’re going to burn you and your father’s house to death. Oh, this is a serious matter. Samson's aware what is happened here and aware that the father of his wife, this is all gone contrary to what should have been done and it’s the Philistines’ actions and they’re responsible for it. So this is just not mere human vengeance, what Samson is doing here is god’s judgment on the ungodly Philistines, remember, and their actions have promoted it.

Now what Samson does here hard for us to grasp. He goes and catches 300 foxes, or perhaps jackals and you know my knowledge of animal husbandry but from my reading I understand jackals are easier to catch, they work in packs and so on. So the word here could referred to foxes are jackals. At any rate over a period of time, he traps and collects 300 of these animals, the foxes or jackals, when he has the 300, then he ties their tails together two-by-two and puts a burning torch there. And then he has animal right troops in those days. So verse 5 tells us, when he had set fire to the torches, well, you have here now, two these foxes or jackals have been tied together tail to tail and you got now a burning torch, a torch tied in there and he likes, then he turn them loose.

So they go running through the grain and the vineyards and set everything on fire. You got 300 hundred of these tearing all around setting fire, though a great cost to the Philistines as they loose a great amount of crops and vineyards. Verse 6, the Philistines said, who did this and the answer is very simple, Samson did it. Samson the son-in-law of the Timnite because he took his wife and gave her to his companion, so here Samson did this; you know why he did it? His father in law took his wife and gave her to another man. So what did the Philistines do? They come up and burnt her and her father’s house to death.

Remember, the original threat, if they didn’t find out, she didn’t tell the riddle, well, she tells the riddle but now caught in that web and so the Philistines come and burnt his wife, Samson's wife and her father’s household to death. Now we have another occasion for Samson to take vengeance because now the Philistines have intervened and killed his wife. So verse 7, Samson said o them, since you acted like this, I will surely take revenge on you, after that I will quit. He struck them ruthlessly with a greater slaughter and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock Etam. So you goes out and slaughters and we’re not told how many but we were told that there was a great slaughter, a number of men are killed by Samson as he takes vengeance.

Then he goes down to an area in the rock and sets up camp there. While the Philistines come up now in force and camped in Judah and, its spread out in Lehi, verse 9 tells us. And they bring their army up and so the men of Judah come out and they asked the Philistines, what are you doing up here, what’s the problem. In verse 19, we have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us. We’ve come up to take Samson captive and punish him for what he did. Verse 11, three thousand men of Judah went to the cleft of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us? Then he said to them, as they did to me, I’ve done to them. I’m paying them back.

Remember, back in Chapter 14, verse 4, Samson's mother and father did know – not know was of the lord he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. So all these events god is working, we would say, behind the scenes, arranging all these things, all these events because he is using Samson to judge the Philistines and help to break their power, if you well, and hoard over the Israelites the Israelites. Now here are 3,000 men of Judah, they go down, they confront Samson. Then they come down to Samson as you might expect, think the days of Gideon, the Judge where the armies of Israel assembled under the leadership of Gideon and then they were thinned out to get down to 300.

They don’t come down to help Samson and say, here we are, you are our deliver, were ready to follow you in battle against the Philistines. They come down and challenge him. What are doing making trouble for us with the Philistines, say, at state of affairs? The Israelites had become comfortable in their servitude. They don’t like it but they have come to accept it and they’re more concerned about disturbing the peace here, the peace they have in their bondage and servitude to their enemy, then they are about being delivered. So they come down to confront Samson. Verse 12, they said to him, we have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.

We’re not here to join you, we’re not battle against our enemies and the enemies, the uncircumcised Philistines, we’re here down to bind you and turn you over to our enemies, anything for peace in this particular situation. Samson says, all right, you bind me; just promise me you won’t kill me. Swear unto me, the end of verse 13, that you will not kill me. So I don’t mind you, you can tie me up just swear an oath before god that you won’t kill me yourself. So they said to him, no, we will bind you fast and give you into their hands. Yet, surely, we will not kill you. So they took new ropes, strong ropes here, new ones not old frayed ropes but they’re serious, they don’t want any trouble to the Philistines. So we’re going to bind Samson securely here and turn him over the Philistines.

So they bound him with new ropes and brought him up from the rock. Verses 14 to 17 record the account of Samson's defeat of the Philistine. Verse 14; when he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily. Now we’ve seen this expression back in Chapter 14, verse 6; the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily. Verse 19; then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and tears a young lion to pieces with his bare hands. Spirit of the Lord comes upon him mightily and he goes down and kills 30 men. Now the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily. So this is strength beyond what could be imagined. Samson may have been a good looking physical specimen but I wouldn’t be surprised if he looks just like me good rippling muscles but not that stands out through the coat.

His strength is supernatural, I mean, he’s not like he 7 foot 1 and bulging muscles all over and everybody’s afraid of him. This is divine strength, it’s the power of God and so what happens the Spirit of the Lord came up on him in Chapter 15, verse 14, so that the ropes that were on his arms, were as flax that was burnt with fire. I feel it’s nothing, a kid can break it. His bands dropped from his hands. Here he is now, he turned them over the Philistines, all of a sudden, all the ropes just snap off, but he doesn’t have a sword, he doesn’t have a spear. What’s he going to do? He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, jawbone of a donkey that laying there.

So he picks it up and took it and killed a thousand men. I have a Philistine army here and Samson only has the jaw bone of a donkey and he just takes off through that army, when he is done, there is a thousand Philistine soldiers laying dead. And so Samson then speaks and said in verse 16; with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey, I have killed a thousand men. When he finished, he threw the jawbone away and then he became very thirsty and so he called Lord and said, you have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised. I’m thirst, I mean, you know this, you go and do battle and you killed a thousand soldiers and now I could use something to drink but there is no water around.

So he turns to the Lord and said, Lord, you’re going let me die of thirst and in the uncircumcised Philistines can come. So the Lord answer is prayer and provides a spring of water and he drank and he is revived and his strength returned. Here you see the Lord intervening supernaturally on behalf of Samson. Samson is a strange mixture. See the Lord intervening in such dramatic ways in his life giving him the supernatural strength, now responding to his prayer and supernaturally providing a spring of water to refresh. All remind Samson is acting as the agent of the Lord in these activities just as when Gideon marched and destroyed the enemies of the Lord and the other judges.

Samson's methods here are different; he doesn’t lead armies of Israel. He stands alone but he is God's instrument in the punishing of enemies of the Lord. Samson has his weaknesses as his failures but he is the man the God is using on these occasions and he stand solitary, when no one else in Israel were stand him, Samson is still standing and he has the kind of relationship with the Lord that he can call upon the Lord and the Lord will intervene miraculous way to provide water for him to refresh and revive him. We’re told in verse 20, Samson ruled for 20 years in the days of the Philistines. And you know, there is not a crushing defeating of the Philistines so that their power is broken but what there is, is a loosening, if you will, of the power of the Philistines.

We looked earlier in our studies of Samson, it won’t be till the days of David that the Philistines are crushed. But obviously the Philistines just came, come up here and imposed their will on the Israelites; Samson can roam among the Philistines. So they’re kept off balance, if you will. They’re intimidated and so their power is limited during this 20 year reign of Samson. You’d like to think a change would come about here and Samson is learned some very important lessons. It is not good for me to get involved with Philistine women but Chapter 16 opens up, now Samson went to Gaza. We’re familiar with that from the news and same place we’re talking about, this was the southern most of the major Philistine cities over on coast.

He goes to Gaza and he saw a harlot there, a whore, and he went into her. See, this is the man that the Spirit of the Lord come on mightily, he killed a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of a donkey, the Lord is miraculously brought a spring of water to refresh him. He ruled for 20 years as a Judge in Israel, next verse; he went to Gaza and got have a relation with a whore, Philistine woman. But nonetheless he is still the man that is judging Israel. We’re not told why he is down in Gaza, I mean, he gets something of Samson's power here that he feels comfortable going to these Philistine city. You think he’d be afraid for his life but he is not, I mean, after what he’s done to the Philistine, you just don’t expect him to turn up in a Philistine city.

Here he is, he went to the one of the Philistine cities and is told to Gazites, saying verse 2, Samson is come here. So they surround the place and lay and wait for him all night that what we’re going to do is wait and in the morning when he gets up to come out, we’re going to kill him. Well, Samson doesn’t wait till morning, he gets up at midnight, verse 3; he lay till midnight, at midnight he arose, he took hold of the doors of the city gate, and the two posts, pulled them along with the bars, put them on his shoulders, carried them to the top of mountain which is opposite to Hebron. Now we’ve all seen movies or documentaries, we know what the cities look like.

We know what the gates were like, I mean, it’s not like a door into your house. This is big gates with the bars that pulled across to secure the city, the posts that are anchored there so that people would tried up break into the city can’t do it. Samson just comes up, lifts it all up; the doors, the posts that have been planted in the ground, the bars that secured, put it on his shoulder and struggles down the road of few feet. Well, you know that even walk flat land, we were told he carried up to the top of the mountain at the end of verse 3. And how far that is? 38 miles, so we say here is a guy who could struggle along, just show his strength by uprooting these city gates and then drop them off, ten yards down the road.

The strength the Lord gives him is beyond anything if you compare to, I mean, no context here, world’s strongest man. He put them on his shoulders and take off on a hike, I mean, it’s just a job the walk that for. He just puts them on his shoulder and keeps walking unless that you think it’s just flat land, what were up to the top of the mountain here, put gates up here. If you want your gates, come get them. So get some idea of the strength of this man and here he is coming from spending the early part of the evening with at whore in Gaza and yet God uses him in this way. Remarkable, strange in some ways.

Verses 4 to 9, now all this, I was going to say dabbling but that’s not a word, Samson's involvement where God in his word has said he have not to be involved even though God is using it. Samson is laying the foundation for his own destruction. So we now come to the well-known woman, Delilah. And he loves a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah, thus repeated involvement with Philistine women contrary to the instructions of the Lord. You just know, sooner or later, this story has to have a tragic ending and the tragic ending has arrived. Verse 5; the lords of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, entice him. So here is Samson having regular visits with Delilah. We know something of her character.

And the lords of the Philistines, they were five lords to Philistines and they come to her and said, you entice him, see where his great strength lies. They know there is got to be a secret to Samson's strength. Interesting, that they would know that. It’s not just he is such a strong man but they know there is some secret to his strength, connected with God's power in enabling Samson. So they say, each of us will give 1100 pieces of silver, and there is five lords of the Philistines, each say we’ll give you 1100 pieces, that’s 5500 pieces of silver. That is a sizeable sum of money. Thus obviously Delilah says, now I can retire in style. And all you have to do is find out the secret of Samson's strength. So the game begins and say, why would Samson even play this game, but he does.

Verses 7 to 9, verse 6 is the question, verse 7 and 9 is the first go round. The question of verse 6 Samson; Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength is and how you may be bound to afflict you? What’s the secret to your strength? Tell me. You might think, Samson, strongest man in the world, would say, if you ever asked me that question again, I’ll tear you in pieces like I did the young lion. I do put in into it. But he doesn’t. well, here you got a beautiful woman, giving you pleasure, he says, well, verse 7, I’m going to play the game with you, he doesn’t tell her it’s the game but if they bind me with seven fresh chords that have not been dried, then I’ll become weak.

So all you have to get these seven fresh chords that never been dried out, just wrap them around me, it’s a simple solution. So the lords of Philistine brought her seven fresh chords that have not been dried. She bound him with them. How does this happen. Well, he is involved in a moral relationship with this woman. After they have sex together, he goes to sleep. Now she binds him in seven chords and she said she has the Philistine men waiting in her room, in a secret place the house. So she says in verse 9; Samson, the Philistines are upon you. Samson, wake his heads, snaps his arms and everything breaks. But that wasn’t the answer. Now you’ll think Samson learned a lesson here.

I told her seven fresh chords, I woke up, I had seven fresh chords on me, good thing I didn’t tell her the truth. Verses 10 to 12; we’ve heard this story before earlier in Samson's life, you were here, you remember it, kind of pattern he had with is wife. Remember, she says, Oh, you don’t love me, you don’t tell me your secret. Well, Samson gave in and told her a secret. Well, here, he is on the same track. Verse 10; behold, you have deceived me and told me lies: now tell me how you may be bound. What’s Samson thinking? She’s telling him, you deceived me. He should be telling her, your goal is just destroy me. What would you intend to do by binding me with those chords and removing all my strength? You know, sin has a way of dolling our senses, of making us not able to think straight.

I always wonder, why would they do that. You see, Christians, who were well-known Christian leaders and they found in sin and you say what were they thinking. But then we think ourselves, why do any of us sin. Somehow we don’t think about what’s going to happen. So here we go again. Verse 11, Samson still playing the game, if they bind me tightly with new ropes which have not been used, then I’ll become weak. So here we go, late night, Samson sleeping away and Delilah is binding him with new ropes. Then she says, Samson, wakeup, the Philistines are here. And same result, he just snaps the ropes like they’re nothing. Now what?

Then Delilah said to Samson, verse 13; up to now you have deceived me and told me lies, tell me, how may you be bound? Now we’re getting closer. Now we’re getting to the hair. You see the weakening in Samson. For bind me, bind my wrists, my arms. Now where is the secret, well, it has to do with a hair and now we’ve moved close. He’s not going to tell her the true secret but he is brought her to the region that does matter. He said to her, if you weave the seven locks of my hair the web, I mean, Samson's going to have long hair and where is never been cut from his birth. You got that divided out in to seven locks, f you weave it with the web and fastened it with a pin.

So you put in that web and weave the locks together, then fasten it with the pin, then I’ll just be as weak as it could be. Frightening the watcher man playing this game, isn’t it? I mean, it’s a game with his life. It’s a game with a view; will his service for the Lord as the Judge of Israel? The God was done such great things in his life and here he is playing with sin as though it was a game. She hear this, goes to sleep again. And here she is doing his hair. Same scenario; Samson, wake up, the Philistines are upon you. He just gets up, pulled that out of his hair. Never any indication, no indication of his wrath toward her, what were you thinking, weaving my hair like that, you could have destroyed my strength. Is it never gets any clue to the character of this woman?

Never learned something about how sin blinds us. I don’t make us afraid of sin, I don’t make us run the other way, doing a read Samson's life here and say, I just can’t, no, no, what this man is thinking of. But somehow when it’s our sin and it’s our pleasure, and it’s our enjoyment, we become just a deadened doll. What are learned from these lessons? Well, you know where it has to go. Verse 15; she said to him, how can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times; you didn’t really me where your strength is. Now if you’re thinking, what you’re going to think now if I tell her the truth.

What did she do the first time I told her, she did exactly what I said would destroy my strength. What did she do the second time? What she do the third time? What she is going to do the fourth time? Then where will I be? Just don’t think straight when you’re into sin. It came about; she pressed him daily with her words and urged him. His soul was annoyed to death. Just can’t take this woman constant, I’ll tell her. So he told her all that was in his heart, verse 17; he said to her, a razor is never come on my head for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. I’m one who is dedicated to God from my mother’s womb and key to that dedication is my hair never being cut. If I’m shaved, my strength will leave me, I will become weak like any other man.

You think you would go to sleep on Delilah’s lap knowing which she did the last three times? When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines saying, come up once more for he has told me all that has in his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her, brought the money in their hands. You know, sin always starts out as so attractive, nobody starts out thinking I’m going to ruin my life, I’m going to ruin my family, I’m going to disgrace myself, I’m going to – sin never works out them. It is starts out drawing us in, the pleasure, the enjoyment.

How often you had deal with a fellow believer over an issue of sin and you say, what were you thinking? They say I don’t know what I was thinking. For Samson is at this point. He told her the truth of his secret. So she made him sleep on her knees. And what happens? Here they are, they make love, puts your head on my lap, relax, go to sleep. What a pleasant situation. Here with a beautiful woman, her body has been his, relaxed, go to sleep, head on her lap and she calls for the man to shave off his seven locks. So now, disaster. Here he is, strongest man in the world, man that can kill a thousand Philistine soldiers with a jawbone of a donkey, man that can pickup the – of gates of the city, the posts, the bars and everything, carry them 38 miles up the top of a mountain.

Here he is willingly laying his head on the lap of the woman who will see that he is destroyed. They know something here while we go to the final details. The Philistines couldn’t destroy Samson, Delilah could not destroy Samson. Who could destroy Samson? Samson. I mean, Delilah, a woman, Samson could have torn her limb from limb, I mean, she didn’t have the power to destroy Samson but Samson could destroy Samson. He is willingly put himself here. He is the one put his head on her lap, he is the one who told the secret, he is the one who chose to go in and have a relationship with her in the worst way, he is the one who chose to play the game. Philistines couldn’t kill Samson, destroy him, Delilah couldn’t destroy Samson. Samson could destroy Samson.

Each of us, James1 says, he is carried away by our own lust. Lust brings forth sin and sin brings forth death, that’s the road that Samson has chosen to walk. He is willingly put his head on her lap and began to sleep after he willingly told her his secret, after he willingly chose to establish a relationship with this Philistine woman. So now his ruin is accomplished. His hair is shaved off. And so she began to afflict him, push on him. And here now a woman is strong enough to tell her. Well, say, Samson probably who hasn’t the physical specimen, we would picture in our mind because it is easy now, she begins to afflict him. Obviously, the Philistines see in each of these cases where they have been present, they’re not going to step out in the room and get themselves killed. So, on these it’s in the context they can observed to see that he is still got strength.

Here now as Delilah begins to afflict him, his strengths gone while he gets up, though he doesn’t know the situation. I mean, here, he gets up off the lap of Delilah. She says the Philistines are upon you. And he says, I will go out like other times, I’ll shake myself, nothing’s changed. But everything’s changed. The end of verse 20, you got to have it underlined, he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. There is a world of difference between when he went to sleep on Delilah’s lap and when he woke up. He is just an average weak link now. He doesn’t know the Lord’s departed from him. It’s over.

So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, that guarantees he won’t be a problem again because he’ll be a blind man. And they don’t want to kill him at this point because he is their trophy. So they’ve blinded him. So he is at their mercy. Now they lead him down, bind him with prisons, put him in the – bind him with chains and put him in as a grinder in the prison. And now he’s just grinding out the grain and here he is, now in disgrace. It’s where we come to the people have their regrets, their remorse. Now the consequences of sin have caved in on me. O, why did I do it? What was I thinking? What did I even dabble with the Philistine women? Why would I even talk about the things that might weaken me? Why would I play that game? Why would I submit myself willingly to Delilah?

It was too late. He’s a blind man grinding away in a Philistine prison, and the Spirit of the Lord has departed from him. But you’re aware of the account. Verse 22; the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off. We have 20 years of Samson's life and we have them condensed with a few key events over what we have this four Chapters in our Bible. How long was he grinding? What’s going, we’re not told. What was every day like? You cannot be sure it was misery. The hair of his head began to grow and we see something of the mercy in grace of God in dealing with Samson as a fallen servant of the Lord. Now there comes the day, the Philistines are going to have a great celebration honoring their god, Dagon, and we’ve got a great idea because this demonstrates that our god Dagon is greater than Samson's God and our god Dagon has defeated Samson.

Verse 23; our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hands. So they bring him to the temple, 3000 people are present at this pagan celebration. And Samson is there as their trophy, standing there as a blind man who is been grinding grain in the prison, shows the power of Dagon. Our god is given our enemy into our hands, verse 24, even the destroyer of our country; he was slain many of us. They were in a high spirits, they call for Samson that he may amuse us. And there he stands. What a sad ending but it’s not over. As we’re well aware, you know, when David’s sinned with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, when Nathan the Prophet came in Second Samuel Chapter 12; he said, by this you have given occasion for the enemies of the Lord to rejoice. And that’s what’s happen to Samson here.

His sin had their consequences. Now the last Chapters not written but isn’t always true when we, as God's people sin, we do give occasions to the enemy of the Lord, see that’s what it, their God doesn’t do great things in their life, they’re just like us, they do the same vial things we do, they just pretend they don’t. And we’re all embarrassed by it when it happens in our life or someone else’s life. So here Samson and you’re aware, and he has a boy with him because he has to be let around. It did not familiar area to him, he doesn’t where to go. So he had a boy now to be his eyes and he wants the boy to bring him to the pillars that support the whole facility, the 3000 people on the roof structure and everything. Where are the pillars so I can lean against them and we have in the midst of this crushing and humiliating situation?

Verse 28, we’re told verse 27, I didn’t see it. The 3000 men and women gathered on the roof and Samson is their amusement. Verse 28; Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, please remember me, please strengthen me, just this time, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. He cries out to God, his hair has grown, so some time has passed here and have it condensed. His hair began to grow back but Samson is been grinding in the prison now for some time but his hair has grown back and so he asks the Lord to restore his strength one more time. One final of hit, this is not an active suicide on Samson's part even though he all declare that he is ready to die with the Philistines but this is his final act as the Judge of Israel in destroying the armies of the Philistines and he will give his life in the doing of it.

So because the young man put him by the pillars, nobody’s thinking anything of it because there is been no demonstration of strength in the whole time now that Samson, the blind man, has been under their control. And as he cries to the Lord, he bend with all his might and pushes on those pillars that are the key supports for the key whole structure and it comes crashing down and the 3000 people, they’re watching, are killed. And so we’re told in verse 30; the dead who may killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life. They come and burry him. His families come and take him and buried him. We’re reminded in verse 31; he judged Israel for twenty years. Still possible for God to use him at the very end.

Samson makes it into the Hall Of Fame as we talk about, the heroes of the faith, the examples of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11, all his short comings, all his failures. They‘re dire consequences for his sin but God his uses him at the very end. In that sense, here you see, Samson, a man of faith still believing God has the ability to give him the strength so he could bring the entire building down, he hasn’t forgotten how God could use him and asked God one more time to intervene.

Few things to summarize this account and I made a longer list at sometimes. It’s not a perfect six, it’s not a short – it’s not a perfect seven, not an assured six but even longer. Some of the lessons, we want to learn from the life of Samson. Number one, alliances with the world are always disruptive. Back in Chapter 15, the first eight verses that carried over from the earlier part of Samson's life was his marriage to the Philistine woman. Alliances with the world are always destructive then. You just cannot make any contracts with the devil, I mean, alliances with the enemy of the Lord are song with problems. So tragedy comes of it.

And sad in this context, second point, God's people sometimes become more concerned about peace than they do victory and that comes out of Israel situation. In Chapter 15, verses 11 and 12; where the three thousand men of Judah go down to Samson. They don’t go down to offer their services to him as God's divinely appointing a Judge to bring deliverance of the Philistines. They come down concerned to maintain the peace with the enemies of God to whom they’re enslaved. They’re more concerned with peace even in their circumstances and they are with the victory that the Lord might give and not interested in being an instrument God uses to bring victory, because that would mean war with the Philistines. Our only concern not to have trouble and sadly that comes down in the church today, sometimes people are more concerned not to have troubles and they are to be part of victory that the Lord might bring.

Point three, some believers are unwilling to join the battle even when God is given you a great victory and that go follows through on that, down through verse 17 of Chapter 15, verses 14 to 17 in particular. There is no indication that three thousand men of Judah join in even when Samson's bringing great victory, killing a thousand Philistines soldiers with the jawbone of a donkey. You know, who’s involved? Just Samson. What are the three thousand soldiers of Judah doing as they watch this? Nothing, no indication they do anything. They don’t even join in the battle when God is given them a great victory, sad state of affairs we sees at Israel as settle into in the Book of Judges.

Number four, significant blessings may make us careless to the danger of sin. We’ve talked about this before was Samson. Significant blessings may make us careless to the danger of sin. First three verses of Chapter 16; Samson goes into a Philistine harlot. What’s he doing? Been with the whore. What’s he doing with the Philistine whore? I mean, you know what, when he’s done, he goes out and picks up those gates and takes off, walks to the top of the mountain. And sometimes, as we’ve talked about, we think our sin is not so serious and there won’t be any direct consequences because, look, God is still using me. Look it, the Spirit of the Lord still empowers me. Don’t tell me I shouldn’t be dabbling with the Philistine whore.

Can you pick up the gates of the city and carry them off for thirty-eight miles. So sometimes we need to be careful, we don’t go around and say, think, wow, I don’t think my sin so bad, God is still using me. I like someone to the Lord the other day. I had a man come in from this church at one time; sit down at my office to tell me the immoral relationship he had had as a married man with another married woman wasn’t so bad because he let it to the Lord. I asked him, are you really telling me this sitting in my office in this church, having sat under the wonderful sermon you’ve heard me preach. That his morality is not so bad because that provided an occasion for you to lead someone but that’s the way sin works. The sin can’t be so bad because the Lord used me and if the sin was so bad, the Lord wouldn’t use me. Wrong. Samson is on the road to his own destruction and God is still using him, so significant blessings may make us careless to the danger of sin.

Point five, temptation may appear very beautiful and harmless, they brings us Delilah. What is Samson have to fear from the beautiful Delilah and you can be sure she was beautiful and attractive. And I’m sure Samson found great pleasure in the physical relationship he had with her. I mean, none of us are drawn to things that are ugly and repulsive and so whatever sin we may find as the Puritan’s talked about, that referred with you often, are bosom sins, those particular sins that we find delightful and pleasurable. So we keep enclosed to our heart in case might want to indulge. But you know, what is Samson have to fear from Delilah? She is a beautiful woman, I mean, I’m not to be worried about her, I can take on a thousand Philistines soldiers, what do I have to fear from a beautiful, physically attractive woman.

Number six, towing with sin can only destroy us. Note there, as Samson moves along, he gets more involved, he not only know in sin being involved with woman that the law said he should not. Now he is planning the game. What’s the secret of your strength? All seven fresh chords, new ropes, weaving my hair. He just say you – you know, this is not a game you want to play. But Samson didn’t realize how close to destruction, his own destruction, he was. So it becomes point seven, willing victims to the power of sin and we have entered into James One but you can go there and read it. It’s our own lust, our own, that draws away to sin. Verse 19; she made him sleep on her knees. How did she make him sleep on her knees? This is the strongest man the world. How did this young attractive woman make him sleep? She didn’t overpower him, she just allowed him into it so that he wanted to do it.

So she made him sleep on her knees. Point eight, important point. We can choose to sin but we cannot control the consequences of our sin. Samson could choose to become involve with Delilah; he could choose to tell her his secret. He could choose to go to sleep on her knees but he couldn’t choose – control the outcome. He couldn’t choose the results and that’s true for every one of us. He couldn’t control the consequences. Verse 21; his eyes are gouged out and he’s bound with bronze chains and no control over that now. We got to the point now. Sin has asserted its destructive power and brought about his ruin. And he became the willing participant.

Point nine, forgiveness does not remove the consequences of our sin. God, I take it forgive, Samson. He will respond to his last request. Never gets his eyes back and never again be able to function as a free man judging Israel. You can’t undo all the consequences and God will forgive but we need to remember that that doesn’t mean God will cancel out all the consequences. At the end Samson is here as a blind man, doom to die with his enemies. There will be a glorious victory but with the miserable consequences of his sin.

Point ten, told you this was a long list, a believer sin gives the enemies of the Lord the chance to rejoice. A believer’s sin gives the enemies of the Lord a chance to rejoice. Verses 22 and 24; the enemies of the Lord are celebrating. Second Samuel 12:14 that I refer to with David when Nathan confronts him, your sins given the enemies of the Lord an occasion to rejoice. So remember, our sin, what happens when a figure, in the public guy, a Christian leader, falls into sin. Turn on the news and he don’t want to listen to it. People gloat over what is happen and we gave them occasion to do that, it did discredited our testimony. Would you want to go on that program as a follow-up to explain to them what a real Christian is like, I’d say, just embarrassing? We give the enemies of Lord an occasion.

Point eleven, there is nothing significant to the eleven, it’s just where I stopped. God can use even the most crush sinner when he turns back to God, verse 28. God can use even the most crush defeat the same. I want to be careful, I don’t want there to be an occasion from my sin because God is going to use Samson here, put it as a sad use in that sense, that he’ll use him for a final judgment on the Philistines but there is a sadness to it, the condition of Samson but it is a great victory and God uses us. S it doesn’t mean God never use you again but probably never in the same way with the same effectiveness. There are certain things that can’t be undone. Saying for assistance, sin can be very desirable. Remember, Moses chose to endure suffering with the people of Israel rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Saying for assistance, sin can be very desirable and sin always destroys. Lesson to be learned from the man Samson and he had served a great guy and he was a great Judge but his sin brought him to a sad end.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for your greatness, thank you for the way your sovereignty works. Thank you for the man Samson and the record you’ve given us of him. Lord, we would learn from his life. Learn indeed that he was a man of faith, the man that you sovereignty chose to use and your Spirit empowered greatly and gave great victories through him to relieve the oppression of your people Israel. Lord we were saddened by his failures that we would learn lessons, how easy it is for us to sit with clarity at vision as we evaluate the failures of others. Yet Lord, it’s important that we examine our lives under the search light of your verse and we be careful not to be deceived by the deceptiveness of sin.

Lord you know, perhaps some sitting here are entangled in such a web or may return from that sin. Cast ourselves on your mercy. Conduct ourselves faithfully so that we might be used in the greatest possible way. Guard us from being diluted, from diluting ourselves and becoming willing even the glad participants in the sin that can only ruin, mar our testimony and bring us to destruction. Thank you for the savior who loved us and died for us, for the Spirit who indwells us today as your people and enables us to walk in a manner honoring to you in Christ’s name, amen.