Judges 13-16 ~ "Samson"

judges chapter 13 through 16 we're talking about one of the most interesting characters in all of the Bible Samson how many saw that old movie with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr and that they may be other renditions as well but Samson is certainly a colorful character and he offers us many examples mostly negative about what not to do and yet we're going to also see that as sinful and self-centered as he is God's going to use him I knew somebody once who was sinful and self-centered and I saw him recently actually in the mirror this morning and I think it speaks of all of us and how many of you can say the same thing I think about a third of his skin okay at the end of the message all of us will we're going to look at Samson's birth his special special calling as a Nazarite and as a judge we're going to see in chapter 14 his wife Philistine a heathen we're going to see his victories in chapter 15 and then we're going to see his very sad and tragic end and we're going to see that Samson basically lived for Samson and we're going to see and the Apostle Paul talks about that referring to our walk with the Lord he says in him referring to God we live and move and have our being Sampson would say as with our old sinful nature in me I live and move and have my being very sad but a lot of lessons for us and hopefully we can learn from it let's ask God for help father we ask you to open our ears and our eyes spiritually speaking help us to really understand how to live for you and others and not just ourselves in Jesus name Amen joy Jo why Jesus others yourself that's the order that's not the order for Sampson so in Chapter three tene we see he's born to very godly parents who fear God they pray and they believe in God and God promises them a very special child that child is going to fulfill the promise that God has for him and he's going to be a Nazarite now the Nazarite vow is found in the Book of Numbers and God said that a Nazarite vow might be for a period of time the Apostle Paul took that for a short time it could be for life and Sampson is going to have a Nazarite valve for life and he's not to partake of wine or anything from the vineyard he's not to cut his hair and he's not to touch any dead bodies and we're going to see that that is not something which Samson follows at least as far as the hair being cut in his tragic end and as far as touching a dead body but that's what God said you to be separate and he speaks to us in the New Testament in 2nd Corinthians and he says to us do not touch what is unclean and I will receive you so we need to be separate unto God it does not mean we don't work with other people but we need to be careful that we're not taking on the world in its form of any sort it sways and let's see now how this develops with this very special child judges chapter 13 let's begin with verse 1 again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years the book of Judges has a theme everyone did what was right in his own eyes it isn't that the essence of sin isn't that the world around us isn't that the world within us in the old nature doing what we want to do and that's what he was doing and that's what the nation was doing well the nation is sinning and then God puts them into slavery in this case it's going to be the Philistines and then they cry out to God for a deliverer he sends the deliverer the deliverer gives victory the people are happy they behaved themselves for a short time and then they sin again now in the past we've seen judges who have been raised up and who have led the nation or a couple of tribes in victory over their enemies here we're going to see that basically Samson does something which is the essence of sin he tries to do it all on his own he senses God's calling but he tries to do it not in the energy of the spirit but in the energy of his own flesh and that's something we have to watch out for as well we know the calling we know what we're supposed to be doing but many times we either don't do it or we approach it on our own doing it our way and that's going to be the example of Samson and when you look back over this whole story today you're going to see that let Samson couldn't lead anybody he didn't lead anybody in the nation he couldn't even lead himself and yet he had extraordinary strength and ability what a waste and let's begin now with verse 2 there was a certain man from zora of the family of the Danites so it's the tribe of Dan his name was Manoah and his wife was barren and had no children and the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her that whenever you see the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament that refers to Jesus Christ he is very active in all periods of the Old Testament especially here in the book of Judges this is not the first time that he has appeared to a family to raise up a judge so the angel of the Lord or Jesus appeared to this woman and said to her indeed now you are barren and have borne no children but you shall conceive and bear a son now therefore can you imagine how joyful she was being barren for such a long time and in that day did not have children was a curse and in all generations for some it said not to have a child but then it was definitely a curse and for her to hear that news she's going to have a son must have brought great joy to her heart now therefore and these are the instructions please be careful not to drink wine or a similar drink and not to eat anything unclean remember God had given them certain animals that were clean and certain ones were not clean and they couldn't eat pork and they couldn't eat shellfish and on and on well she had to observe that even today when ladies are pregnant they're told not to drink alcohol and perhaps other substances as well behold you shall conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines so you're not to drink any wine don't touch anything that's unclean whether it's food or eating it and never allow this child to cut his hair now God's promising here in verse 5 there'll be deliverance from the hand of the Philistines now the Philistines were a pagan nation a people in what is now the right by the Mediterranean Sea and they would cause great trouble for the nation of Israel and we know that Goliath the historic figure who David Feld came from the Philistines and they caused great great problems well verse 6 the woman came and told her husband saying a man of God came to me and his countenance was like the countenance of the angel of God very awesome but I did not ask him where he was from and he did not tell me his name and he said to me behold you shall conceive and bear a son now drink no wine or similar drink nor eat anything unclean for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death so that is to be a full life long commitment of the Nazarite valve then manoa prayed to the Lord and said oh my lord please let the man of God whom you sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who shall be born that's the right attitude to take first of all the wife is going to the husband and telling him the news which is what should happen I kind of wish that Eve had done that don't you when Satan rang her doorbell and said why don't you eat that fruit she should have at least talked to Adam about it I'm not sure the result would have been any different than what we have today but a wife should go to her husband for counsel and direction and the wife it should also be what wise counselor for her husband - they should work together as a team well Manoa is praying now for more insight and that's a very wise thing to do when you feel that God is speaking to you and you feel you need more information ask him ask him what shall we do I feel there's a calling to do this or to do that give me more direction it's a very very wise person that does that and James tells us if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God and he'll give it to him liberally without reproach but let him ask in faith so Manoa is asking for more direction and God listened to the voice of Manoa and the angel of God came to the woman again as she was sitting in the field but Manoa her husband was not with her then the woman ran in haste and told her husband and said to him look the man who came to me the other day has just now appeared to me now she doesn't know who this man is but she knows he's special and she's willing to listen to him so Manoa arose and followed his wife when he came to the man capital M he said to him are you the man who spoke to this woman and he said I am I love that every time I see Jesus saying I am in the Old Testament or the new I think about that time on Mount Sinai when Moses says at the burning bush who shall I say has sent me to deliver us from Israel from Egypt he says I am the great I am well Manoah said now let your words come to pass what will be the boys rule of life and his work so he's asking for specific directions the angel of the Lord said to manoa of all that I said to the woman let her be careful she may not eat anything that comes from the vine nor may see drink wine or similar drink nor eat anything unclean all that I have commanded her let her observe so there's this idea of separation this idea of abstinence this idea of holiness now Manoah verse 15 said to the angel of the lord please let us detain you and we will prepare a young goat for you so at this point Manoa knows that he's a special messenger from God but he doesn't really know he's talking to God himself and so he wants to follow typical courtesy of that time and every culture has its own form of courtesy they didn't have any restaurants to go to they couldn't go to Dunkin Donuts for a meal so they had to prepare something right at hand so let me have a young goat prepared for you this reminds me of the time when Abraham much earlier saw three men coming and he also prepared a meal for them and two of those men were really angels the third was the Lord Jesus again the angel of the Lord so a meal is about to be prepared and the angel of the Lord said to manoa though you detain me I will not eat your food but if you offer a burnt offering you must offer it to the Lord so I'm not going to accept this as a meal but I will accept it as an offering unto the Lord Manoah did not know he was the angel of the Lord then manoa said to the angel of the Lord what is your name that when your words come to pass we may honor you and the angel of the Lord said to him why do you ask my name seeing it is wonderful so manoa took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it upon the rock to the Lord he did a wondrous thing while Manoah and his wife looked on it happened as the flame went up toward heaven from the altar the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar when Manoah and his wife saw this they fell on their faces to the ground when the Lord or the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and his wife than manoa knew that he was the angel of the lord so here we see a wonderful picture of a preview a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for our here we see the Lord is saying to him you're not going to offer me a meal but you offer a burnt sacrifice to God now there are different kinds of offerings the Jews had to offer and a burnt offering was just as you might imagine taking the sacrifice that animal burning it up completely making sure that by the next day nothing was left at all it's a total complete consuming of that body and it speaks of the fact that Jesus would be our complete offering and he would give his life totally for our sins so they're going to be making a burnt offering and what does Jesus do as the flames of this offering are going up he ascends right in the very flame itself indicating that he will be the fulfillment of that offering that burnt offering unto God John the Baptist told his disciples upon seeing Jesus one day behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world Jesus is our lamb our burnt offering our sacrifice and one of the most wonderful things you can do is study the names of Jesus go on the internet and type in that very thing names of Jesus and you'll see over 100 names of Jesus in the Bible and one of them is this word in verse 18 wonderful why do you ask my name seeing it is wonderful now here he may be using it as an adjective to describe the name it's a wonderful name but Isaiah talks about it in the form of a noun his name shall be wonderful counselor mighty God everlasting father Prince of Peace and so Jesus is wonderful but his name also is wonderful so you can call somebody your spouse or somebody else wonderful but with a small W right only Jesus has that capital W well they knew this was special and they did they saw this wonderful thing in verse 20 the flame going up Jesus going right up in the flame and they fell on their faces they were worshiping now and the angel appeared no more to manoa and then Manoa knew that he was in fact the angel of the Lord well Manoa said to his wife we shall surely die because we have seen God and that might be a logical conclusion but thank God for the wisdom of his wife his wife said to him if the Lord had desired to kill us he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering from our hands nor would he have shown us all these things nor would he have told us such things as these at this time so honey don't worry he could have taken us but he didn't he wants us to fulfill his promise so the woman bore a son called his name Samson and the child grew and the Lord blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahana Dan between zorah and eshtaol so here's a young man with a special calling special because God has chosen him and God is beginning to move on him notice that the Spirit of God is moving upon him for a purpose to deliver the nation from the Philistines and even though Samson is going to show us his fleshly side and really if we got to know all these Bible characters we would see the same thing we need to be careful in our own lives because we like to judge jesus said I didn't come to judge the first time but to save but I like to judge don't you I like to be judgmental and be critical and put other people down that's the old nature that's the competitive side the evil side but we're not to do that and we need to see here that even though Samson's going to fail in many ways the Spirit of the Lord is moving on him and the Spirit of God is using him and so we need to be careful not to criticize one another because to do so will be to criticize God what we should do is pray for each other and even go to each other and point out mistakes and sins but not to judge so the Spirit of the Lord is moving on him that's all we need to know he's God's chosen vessel now chapter 14 we're going to see here that Samson is doing something which is not good he's defying his parents in regard to marrying a heathen woman and we're going to see that that defiance is going to typify his life one of the reasons God says to have the children obey the parents is not just to have order which of course is necessary in a family but to teach those children obedience as they learn to obey their parents they learn to obey God they learn to obey Authority and if you go into the prisons anywhere and for example you're going to find a number of people all of whom are sorry they're there some truly are repentant others are just sorry they got caught but there's a common theme and I would guarantee that in every single case there was not a person who was truly obedient to family truly obedient to authorities that's why they got to where they are and so we need to watch out in our own lives as well children obey your parents in the Lord and it's the one commandment of the ten that's with promise that your days may be long upon the earth you're going to live long when you obey your parents he's not going to obey his parents therefore he's not going to be worth a whole lot to the nation of Israel now we're going to see also that he defies God's Word he's defying his parents he's defying God's Word and he knows that his calling is to not touch a dead body he is going to touch the dead carcass of a lion that he has killed just to get some honey out of it and then he's going to give that honey the product of a sinful touch to his parents and then caused that sin to spread and then he's going to make a riddle about it we're going to find that this incredibly powerful man is in many ways very silly and we find that sometimes as the essence of sin I don't care how grand we are in the world's eyes we can become very silly there have been people who have been very wealthy who become eccentric one in particular worried about his finger nails and worrying about bugs and germs and stuff and so without the Lord we can become very very foolish and Samson is going to typify that for us and I think the lesson here for chapter 14 is the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction Samson is going to show himself to be chosen by God but also a fool he's despising wisdom and instruction chapter 14 now Samson went down to Timna and he saw a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines so she's a heathen she's a Philistine so he went up and told his father and mother saying I have seen a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines now therefore get her for me as a wife then his father and mother said to him is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren or among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines and Samson said to his father get her for me for she pleases me well but his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord that he was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel so Samson went down to Timna with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timna now this is interesting because he is going to marry an unbeliever then God's Word was very clear to Moses you're not to mingle with the foreigners Paul says to us don't marry an unbeliever don't associate with an unbeliever in terms of that intimate relationship or even in partnership because light cannot exist with dark and the Satan can't exist with with the Christ so this is definitely a move of his flesh he's not listening to his parents he's disobedient there and yet it indicates that this was of the Lord and that's very very mysterious for us to understand does it mean that God changed his mind that he wanted him to marry an unbeliever no I don't think he's saying that God never changes his mind is God saying don't listen to your parents you're an exception Samson he never changes his word but what he's saying is that even though Samson is going to disobey God's Word going after a heathen gal and not listening to his parents God will still use that for his purpose there is that freewill sinfully carried out and yet the will of God to bring about his purpose look at Judas did God water for Judas to betray Jesus no but he used it as an occasion to put Jesus on the cross that you and I would have forgiveness of our sins so here's this wonderful scripture that even though we do things wrong and even though he messed things up God can still work all things together for his purpose and his plan it's not an excuse for us to go out and do wrong but if we do and we mess everything up we come to him and say I'm sorry he can still put good together out of it my mother used to say that although we scramble eggs God can unscramble eggs and still make it right you can get sunny-side up out of scrambled eggs only with God right so now he's going to want his will he's got authority over his parents do you think this is the first time he told his parents what to do oh I think he's an expert by now and many kids are and that's very sad because when are they going to learn obedience if not from their parents from the coach at school from the teacher from the police officer hey the employer is just waiting for a disobedient child to come and tell the employer what to do right I want to find that job and so they're going to have trouble they're going to have serious serious problems down the line so anyway God's going to use it because he wants to really get victory over the Philistines so he goes down to a Timna because he wants this woman now verse 5 to his surprise a young lion came roaring against him and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat though he had nothing in his hand but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done so in this surprise encounter with the lion young lion but still a strong one he's able with his bare hands to rip this lion apart we see first all the strength of this man this unusual strength and we also see the Spirit of the Lord is upon him so don't forget God in all this God is giving him that strength to do it and whenever God calls you to do something he'll give you the strength to do it God's calling is God's enabling and he'll enable you to get that job done well he didn't tell his parents that he had killed this lion and that's important he then went down and talked with the woman and she pleased Samson well after some time when he returned to get her he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion and behold a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion he took some of it in his hands remember that's he's now violating that command remember don't drink wine don't cut your hair don't tuck out he touch anything unclean and so this dead animal is unclean ceremoniously he has now taken this honey from that carcass and he came to his father and mother and he gave some to them and they also ate but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion one of the problems with sin is that it spreads and we spread it and I don't care what that sin is unless we confess it and ask the Lord to forgive us we're going to just give it to somebody else even sins that are done privately without anybody knowing about it well you and I sin privately and the world doesn't know we know we begin to resent a separation from God a separation from others somebody calls me on the phone and says pray for this or that I'm in the midst of sin a call pastor Henry I'm kind of in sin right now I need to enjoy this and then get back with the Lord I'll be open tomorrow and so that's not going to work we're going to have to always be open to represent the Lord we can't afford that downtime can we well he's now letting it spread this is sinful because it's a command of God being broken don't touch the body and now this this honey is being given to the parents so that's the trouble with sin it's wrong in God's eyes it's wrong between God and us and it's wrong by separating us from others and they begin to part it's not a good thing so the father went down verse 10 to the woman he's complying with the demands of his son and they're going to go ahead and try to get this wedding together so Samson gave a feast their four young men used to do that and it happened when they saw him that they brought thirty companions to be with him so this is kind of like a bachelor's party so they bring 30 of these félicité young fellows to be his attendants if you will and Samson said to them let me pose a riddle to you so here's this man who's supposed to be a future deliverer of Israel and he's a rather silly fella he's going to have a riddle now he wants to have a little fun if you can correctly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing but if you cannot explain it to me then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing and they said to him pose your riddle that we may hear it so this is a feast and the feasts often lasted seven days no doubt the one that Jesus attended at Cana was more than a couple of days and they just ran out of wine so he of course performed that miracle of making more but it was not uncommon to have a seven-day feast I'm looking forward to a seven-year feast how about you after the rapture while the earth is in tribulation time for seven years those who are in Christ are going to be in heaven for a seven-year feast and the marriage supper of the Lamb and then we're going to return with the Lord in our resurrection bodies to live here on earth for a thousand years in the Millennium well here's this riddle out of the eater came something to eat and out of the strong came something sweet now for three days they could not explain the riddle but it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife entice your husband that he may explain the riddle to us or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire have you invited us in order to take what is ours is that not so so they don't want to give up there's the 30 changes of clothing do they so they make a very straightforward deal with her find out the riddle or we're burning you and your dad alive okay that'll get their attention for sure well Samson's wife wept on him one of the great tools she wept on him and said you only hate me you do not love me you have posed a riddle to the suns of my people but you have not explained it to me and he said to her look I have not explained it to my father or my mother so should I explain it to you shows you his priorities right there right mom and dad come first and they're not going to get it nor are you so he like every other man says I'm not going to be fooled by those tears I am stronger than this now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted and it happened on the seventh day that he told her because she pressed him so much then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people so she finally got the answer after continual weeping so here's this man who has incredible physical strength but he does not have the moral strength it doesn't have the emotional strength that would be required to resist her so the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the Sun went down what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion and he said to them if you had not plowed with my heifer you would not have solved my riddle so now he's ticked they've solved the riddle and he is angry and so what's he going to do verse 19 the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily he went down to Ashkelon killed thirty of their men took their apparel gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle so his anger was aroused and he went back up to his father's house and Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man so here we see this silly pastime about the riddle we see how he gives in to his wife and gives the answer and then he gets angry and then he goes out and he kills 30 of these Philistines to get their clothing and that seems frivolous to us and it really is but notice these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and that's why this is not so easy to judge in the natural I think this is foolish and silly and a waste of time but in the spiritual realm God is using it in order to have an occasion to defeat the Philistines who have been keeping Israel pressed under their thumb so as we're about to judge other people and say you're a believer but you're silly and foolish and frivolous you probably better go into prayer and say God are you in this in some way no it doesn't mean that he was necessarily right in going out and killing these thirty men but God used that occasion against them so it's not so easy to judge we need to really get our face in the carpet ask God to judge us and give us wisdom on how to approach somebody else who's doing something that we think is frivolous or silly well chapter 15 now is going to continue he is remember he is called by God to break the stronghold of the Philistines on the nation of Israel he has rather interesting ways of doing it we saw already killing 30 men just to get their garments I don't sense in Samson at this moment or at any moment any sense of his mission of leading the nation of Israel I don't think Samson ever sees beyond Samson and that of course is a picture of the old nature for sure and yet even though he doesn't see beyond himself God is still using him I don't think God can use me when I'm thinking about myself only but you know God can still use me and he can still use you now he doesn't want us to be selfish he wants us to get beyond ourselves but God is working even in unsuspected ways even in our sinfulness because he'll still carry out his purpose alright chapter 15 he Samson is victorious in destroying the enemy's crops and some of the enemy but he loses his wife and is given up to the enemy by his own people he will judge Israel for 20 years but he can't govern himself he acts alone without the eating others and he has a strong ego and he's we're going to see that in the naming of a certain well that he has he's all about Sampson and yet God is using him chapter 15 after a while in the time of wheat harvest it happened that Sampson visited his wife with a young goat remember the wife he left behind he kind of visited her like he's on vacation or something but he he got angry he killed those guys got their clothing and then he took off he didn't know that she's been given now to his best man so he goes back to see her what a surprise he has so he visits his wife with a young goat he said let me go into my wife into her room but her father would not permit him to go in now he's been gone for some time but he comes on back and expects to just pick up where he left off her father said I really thought that you thoroughly hated her therefore I gave her to your companion is not her younger sister better than she please take her instead Sampson said to them this time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them then Samson went and he caught 300 foxes he took torches turned the fox's tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails when he had set the torches on fire he let the Foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves then the Philistines said who has done this and they answered Samson the son-in-law of the Tim Knight because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion so the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire Samson said to them since you would do a thing like this I will surely take revenge on you and after that I will cease so he attacked them hip and thigh with great slaughter then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of eita so certainly his method of leading Israel and overcoming the Philistines is unique best so we find here he wants to go back to his wife the wife's been given to his best man now he's angry so what does he do he finds these foxes and I've tried to picture this in my mind many times ever try to catch a fox 5 years ago when I was teaching this I had just seen a red fox a couple of days before that flying across the trail so fast that my four dogs didn't even spot that Fox can you imagine trying to catch one Fox and then another Fox tying their tails together getting a torch lighting the torch making sure the tails contain the torch and then you do that 29 more times with a total of 30 pairs of Fox and all these torches and then turning them loose into a field and the vineyards and destroying all these crops and it sounds incredible it sounds to me very frivolous and silly you ought to go out and get a good job instead of playing games like this I think and yet God is using him so that's the mysterious that God is using some very interesting techniques so we've got to be careful about judging well there may get angry at him and they were they want now to have revenge so they they burned down his wife and and the family so now he's angry at that you know how this tit-for-tat of this anger keeps going and going you did this I'm going to do that so now he attacks a large number of them and hip and thigh he has a great slaughter and so it looks to me like he's just working out of the passions of his own flesh and yet behind the scenes God is working God is making a statement to the Philistines and to Israel I will not allow the Philistines to oppress my beloved people so he's there in the cleft of the rock now the Philistines verse 9 they're going to try a different approach they really cannot handle Samson straight on so they've got to find help the Philistines went up and they encamped in Judah and they deployed themselves against Lehi and the men of Judah said why have you come up against us so what they're going to do now the Philistines are smart they can't get Samson so they got go out and they're going to threaten the tribe of Judah and Judah saying what are you bothering us for they said we've come up to arrest Samson to do to him as he has done to us so Judah is going to now help the Philistines to arrest Samson because they don't want the Philistines to destroy them notice how many men they send to get Samson verse eleven three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of hitam and said to Samson they don't go down to take him they go down to talk to him so do you not know that the Philistines rule over us what is this you have done to us you see the Philistines have been in charge of the whole nation of Israel and yet God is using this rather silly powerful man named Samson in a strange way so the Philistines are over us he said to them as they did to me so I've done to them so that's his answer they got me I got them but they said to him we have come down to arrest you that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines Samson said to them swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves so they spoke to him saying no we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand we will surely not kill you and they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock so he's going along with this we'll see how this all plays out when he came to Lehigh the Philistines came shouting against him but uh here's the the Spirit factor verse 14 the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire and his bonds broke loose from his hands so the Holy Spirit comes upon him and incidentally we've seen that a number of times today that was something that was done in the Old Testament when God was going to use somebody the Holy Spirit came upon that person and then at the end of that period the Holy Spirit left that person that's why David when he sinned with Bathsheba said don't take your Holy Spirit from me but once the Holy Spirit came upon the church in the book of Acts chapter - he indwelt a believer and I don't need to say please don't take your Holy Spirit from me the mighty powerful Holy Spirit is always within me and upon me and upon you as well in Christ so thank God for that but here the Holy Spirit's upon him he breaks the ropes like as if they were just burned by fire and now he's ready to go to town he came up to Lehi and they were shouting these ropes are burned and he found a fresh jawbone verse 15 jawbone of a donkey he reached out his hand took it and he killed a thousand men with this simple jawbone of a dead donkey and then of course he has to have a little poem about it my little love poet here Samson said with the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men who has slain a thousand men I have slain a thousand men in me I live and move and have my own being where is the sense of God with this man and yet God is using him and so it was when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called that place Rama Lehi that means jaw bone height then he became very thirsty so he cried out to the Lord and said you have given this great deliverance so he now acknowledges God you have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised so God split the hollow place that is in Lehi water came out he drank and his spirit returned and he revived therefore he called its name and Hawk or which is in Lehi to this day and that means spring of the caller and he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines so here is a man of great passion anger revenge certainly incredible strength the Holy Spirit upon him for a great victory and then as we are when we're tired thirsty I'm going to die oh if I don't get some food I'm going to die and that was the way it was in several cases in the Bible where we get exaggerations because we're tired and we think the end has come upon us and we find that with the the twins of Rebekah when you've got the two boys there and you've got Jacob and his brother what's the brother's name Esau and Esau comes in from the field he's hungry give me your stew Jacob or I will what I want to die I'm so hungry I'm gonna die we get like that sometimes we get cranky and life isn't worth living Oh take me off the scene Lord I can't can't live anymore I was like that many times I get so depressed so dark and so heavy and my mother would say honey did you go swimming today Oh mother you don't understand the complexity of my life take a swim honey call me later I take a swim ah life was good the endorphins were flowing and life was good I'm working with somebody right now who gets very cranky he's a young fella gets very very cranky very miserable but all go to Taco Bell and all is good afterwards say that's the way he is here so he's got us he's now ruling for 20 years now the very famous story we all know about that and you can see that old movie with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr see how that all works out Samson and Delilah chapter 16 Samson's downfall comes again through sinful passions he yields to Delilah he falls quickly loses his hair his strength his sight his liberty his usefulness his testimony his life in 20 years he fails to totally defeat the Philistines and he's defeated instead by them and really by himself so Sam actually Samuel is going to accomplish more in one prayer to defeat the Philistines then Samson does in his whole life we're going to see that in 1st Samuel Samuel is going to pray to the Lord offer a burnt offering and God will totally defeat the Philistines so verse 21 is going to show us in this chapter the blinding binding and grinding results of sin Samson and Delilah chapter 16 now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there and went into her when the gas i'ts were told Samson has come here they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city they were quiet all night saying in the morning when it's daylight we will kill him so he decides he wants to have a little fellowship so he goes out and gets a harlot and he's enjoying himself and the fellows in the city of Gaza saying let's wait until morning and then we'll jump on him well Samson lay low until midnight he was smart the Holy Spirit's probably tipping him off and he arose it midnight and then notice how frivolous this is he took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gate posts pulled them up bar and all put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron so here he is in action with a harlot he doesn't want to get killed by the people of the city so he waits until midnight most folks would just slip out of town no he's gonna take the gates with him the doorpost so to carry them all the way up to the top of the hill of that's facing he bran there so he certainly marches to his own drummer and many times that drummer is not the holy spirit but sometimes it is and we have to be careful not to judge verse 4 afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah so verse 4 indicates it's a different woman there are those who said that Delilah was a harlot though the harlots in verse 1 now this is a gal named Delilah and the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her entice him and find out where his great strength lies and by what means he may overpower him we may overpower him to bind him to afflict him and every one of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver a lot of money so Delilah said to Samson please tell me where your great strengths lie and with what you may be bound to afflict you Samson said to her so he has a sense of humor he's again rather frivolous he likes to play games and so he said if they bind me with seven fresh bow strings not yet dried that I shall become weak and be like any other man so the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bow strings not yet dried and she bound him with them now men were lying in wait staying with her in the big room in the room and she said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson but he broke the bow strings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire so the secret of his strength was not known then Delilah said to Samson look you have mocked me and told me lies now please tell me what you may be bound with so he said to her he's still having some fun if they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used that I shall become weak and be like any other man therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson and the men were lying in wait staying in the room but he broke them off as arms like a Samba arms like a thread so then Delilah said to Samson until now you have mocked me and told me lies tell me what you may be bound with and he said to her if you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the Loom so she wove it tightly with the baton of the Loom and said to him the Philistines are upon you Samson but he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the baton and the web of from the loom so she's working on him he's had this happen to him before hasn't he remember his wife was weeping for seven days he finally gave in look at the pattern of sin in our lives is that the first time I have yielded to that sin probably not and did I notice the same telltale signs as I was going down that road probably not so here we tend in the area of sin to have certain patterns certain areas and we become very prone to that and very weak in that area so that's what's going on here and also with sin to get closer and closer and closer to our door it's seven bowstrings that it's ropes and now it's the hair and it's getting close to the true source of his strength so that's what happens with sin it keeps working on you and working on you and you'll finally give in if you're not careful so verse 15 she said to him here it goes how can you say I love you when your heart is not with me you have mocked me these three times that have not told me where your great strength lies so now he's starting to succumb to her ploys and it came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death he just couldn't handle the vexing of his wife or this woman so he told her all his heart and said to her here it is no razor has ever come upon my head for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb if I am shaven then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man finally he gives him now the strength is not in his hair the strength is in the obedience to not cut his hair there is the critical point just like if he had a glass of wine the same result if he had to touch the dead body which he did so it's obedience not the hair that is the answer here and he's now been disobedient and when you're disobedient you lose the power of God in your life purity is power so verse 18 she knows she has the answer when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart she sent and called for the Lord of the Philistines saying come up once more for he has told me all his heart the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand she lulled him to sleep on her knees call for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head then she began to torment him and his strength left him seven locks seven is the number for God the number of and completion indicating the complete fulfilling of the promise to not cut the hair and to honor God now that's gone she said to the philistines or said the philistines are upon you samson he awoke from his sleep and said i will go out as before at other times and shake myself free and one of the saddest verses of the bible he did not know that the lord had departed from him you didn't know it when you and i sinned we're disobedient we don't know that the power and the glory of God departs from us and the only way to get it back is to confess that sin and call upon the Lord for forgiveness verse 21 this is said the Philistines took him put out his eyes brought him down to Gaza they bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison that's where I had my lesson here this verse 21 shows the blinding the binding and the grinding results of sin but God's grace is always there verse 22 however the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven so if you would find yourself in verse 21 blinded binded and grinding there's still that confession turning to God and a new and fresh day so now the hair is beginning to grow now the Lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their God and to rejoice and they said our God has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy you see the problem with sin is that the devil gets the glory when you and I fall and fail people say his God can't deliver him and so Satan gets the glory and the other gods of ones making instead of the Living God well the people saw him they praised their God for they said our God has delivered into our hands our enemy the destroyer of our land and the one who multiplied our dead so it happened when their hearts were married that they said call for Sam's that he may perform for us so they called for Samson from the prison and he performed for them so here he is kind of like a trained bear how sad this great man of God now just being a pathetic figure before these people and so it is with you and for me as we sin having done much for the Lord we become a pathetic figure of what once was how many have fallen from their ministries from the pulpits and from whatever when they were used so mightily of God and then they really were good for nothing so he now is performing like just some animal in the circus and they petitioned here they stationed him between the pillars Samson said to the land who held him by the hand let me feel the pillars which support the temple so that I can lean on them now the temple was full of men and women all the Lords of the Philistines were there about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed then Samson called to the Lord saying O Lord God remember me I pray strengthen me I pray just this once o God that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes so here we see again the sad picture of a man who even at this moment blinded and bound and grinding can't think about his country can't think about others I want to do this because of the vengeance and revenge for my two eyes he never gets beyond himself and yet God uses him and Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple and he braced himself against them one on his right and the other on his left then Samson said let me die with the Philistines and he pushed with all his might and the temple fell on the Lord's and all the people who were in it so the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life and his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between zorah and eshtaol in the tomb of his father manoa he had judged Israel 20 years sad story a sad story about being able to be used by God but never getting beyond flesh never getting beyond self caught up with frivolous activities tying foxes tails and setting torches on fire and just grabbing a donkey's skull and just bashing the enemy just anything to get back and to live by the flesh the passions and yet even in that God is compassionate God still uses us and so we never discount ourselves and it's important not to discount yourself if you and I are caught in sin confess it if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and about the time that you and I think that were good-for-nothing we failed God we have failed others and our lives are hopeless as we turn to God and ask his forgiveness that can be the most powerful time spiritually of our lives but I find when I fail and I ask God to forgive me and my nose comes out of that carpet I have no sense of self I have no sense of my value I realize that without the Lord I'm nothing and there are two verses that govern my life what is John 15:5 based on this experience the Lord says I'm the vine and you're the branches apart from me you can do nothing when you and I realize that we're in good shape I can do nothing without the Lord but Philippians 4:19 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me use those two verses for your life without you Lord I'm nothing with you I can do anything amen let's pray father were grateful for this story about Samson a sad story a sad story of self and of such potential frivolously wasted in so many areas the job not completed to take care of the enemy because he was so caught up in his own flesh but Lord we are not accomplishing all that we can or should do and so the time that has left for us Lord must count a CT stud once said in his poem only one life will sue be passed and only what's done for Christ will last help us to take the time left Lord and use it for the glory of God not for self joy Jesus others yourself may that be the order of our lives for your glory in Jesus name Amen and amen

Channel: Jerry Lynn

Views: 18,990

Rating: 4.6208529 out of 5

Keywords: Bible Reach Out Fellowship, Albany, NY, Pastor Jerry Lynn, Scripture, Gospel, Spirit, Lord, Holy, Praise, Ministries, Preaching, Today, Ministry, Word, Salvation

Id: jmF6aDJX3k8

Length: 58min 9sec (3489 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 29 2014