Blinded By Pride Series

When my dad sold his business and retired, he got bored just sitting around – so he went to work as a meat inspector for the government. They gave him a white coat and helmet and special knife, and his job was to go to meat plants (like Tyson or Indiana Packers) and inspect the meat as it was taken from one part of the processing plant to the next. Sometimes, there’d be some bad meat on the side of beef or pork and dad would take his knife and cut it away. It didn’t take long - the workers appreciated his help.

However, other inspectors would shut down the entire line and order a worker to come over to do what dad - in one swipe of his knife. But, why shut the line down? Why make it harder for these people to do their job? Because they could. They had the authority and power to shut down the entire plant if they wanted to. They didn’t work for the company and they didn’t care about the workers. They had power… and they intended to use it!

Dad once said “You give a man a white coat and some authority and he’ll become a tyrant.”

Someone once said “All power tends to corrupt. And absolute power corrupts… absolutely.” (Lord Acton)

Someone else observed: People like Hitler and Napoleon have all committed shameful actions in the hopes of gaining absolute power. Authority, or simply the desire of control, can cause people to act in incomprehensible ways.” (https://www.bartleby.com/essay/Power-Corrupts-and-Absolute-Power-Corrupts-Absolutely-FKS52CS8J38Q#:~:text=There%20are%20many%20examples%2C%20throughout,to%20act%20in%20incomprehensible%20ways.)

In our text today, we read about a man who had absolute power. His name was Samson, and it was God who gave Samson his absolute power. Samson was the superman of his age. Back in the 1950s George Reeve played the part of Superman - the intro said: “He was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound… able to change the course of mighty rivers and bend steel in his bare hands.”

Now, I’m not sure Samson could do any of that - but he did kill a huge lion with his bare hands and he wiped out an entire army of Philistines with just jawbone of a donkey. And, of course, there was the time he carried an entire city gate a distance of about 40 miles. He singlehandedly protected the people of Israel from their enemies. And the Philistines feared him so much that they were willing to pay Delilah the modern-day equivalent of about $80,000 to discover his weakness.

HE WAS NOT A MAN TO MESS WITH.

But he’s always been a problematic hero. On one hand, he was a protector of Israel for about 20 years. And Hebrews lists him as one of the great heroes of faith along with Gideon, Samuel and David. So, you’d expect him to be a great man of faith and morals

But then (on the other hand) Judges tells us he slept with a prostitute one night, and we’re pretty sure he was sleeping with Delilah as well. Sooo… what’s going on here?

Well, Samson became an important person. He was impervious to pain, powerful beyond imagination, people feared and respected him, and he could do whatever he wanted… and no one could stop him! In fact, he became so important and so powerful that his power went to his head. As we’ve noted “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power (like he had) corrupts absolutely.

After a while he began he became so self-absorbed that he forgot all about God. Almost every time Samson displayed his great power, Scripture said “the Spirit of the Lord came upon (Samson)” Judges 14:6; 14:19; 15:14. But, after he’d slept with prostitute… that was never said again.

I mean, he still had great power and strength – but it was like he didn’t think he needed God anymore. Samson became blinded by his pride. He became such a powerful man that God was no longer that important to him, and after that… it was only a matter of time before he was brought down.

Proverbs 11:2 says “When pride comes, then comes disgrace…” and Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” And – of course – that’s what happened to Samson.

Now, what can WE learn from this? What can Samson’s blindness of pride teach us? Well, first it can teach us that even the mighty can be taken down by pride. Samson had the POWER and the PRESTIGE to do whatever he wanted to do, and that led him to believe nothing could touch him.

ILLUS: I know of a large church that once had a rich and powerful Elder. He was highly respected, highly regarded… and he had money. But he also slept around. When the preacher found out about it he canned him. But when the preacher moved on the church put that Elder back in. After all, he was a wealthy and powerful man. About 5 years later, this large church had money problems. One of the deacons was the treasurer… and was keeping 2 sets of books. When the powerful Elder learned of the fraud, he went out to the Deacon’s house… and he burned the books.