How Weak Can You Get? The Case Against Samson, God’s Strongman

Sermon Outline

Pr. Paddick Van Zyl

Laus Deo Minsitries Int.

Title:

How Weak Can You Get?

The Case Against Samson, God’s Strongman

Intro:

Who, lately, has been to the airport and asked the person in charge of the apron, where the airplanes are parked, if they may please help out and move some planes into their parking bays, bare handed?

Anybody that you know, that needed help lifting their car in the air to fix a tire, without the help of a mechanical jack?

I know someone that may be able to help with these routine tasks….his name is Samson. He was God’s strongman that lived back in the days of the Judges. He was a judge, a leader, raised up by God. Let’s find out more about this remarkable man in the Bible:

Text:

Judges 15:4-5

4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes and tied them tail to tail in pairs. He then fastened a torch to every pair of tails,

5 lit the torches and let the foxes loose in the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the shocks and standing grain, together with the vineyards and olive groves.

Judges 16:16-16

14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands.

15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

16 Then Samson said,

“With a donkey’s jawbone

I have made donkeys of them.[a]

With a donkey’s jawbone

I have killed a thousand men.”

Ca n you for a moment imagine what this must have looked like? A thousand big men, annihilated with the jaw bone of a donkey? Imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rocky Balboa turned into one superhuman….wow

Judges 16:25-30

When they stood him among the pillars,

26 Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.”

27 Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.

28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

29 Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other,

30 Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

Message:

The 6 major and 6 minor judges in the Old Testament, are the deliverers and saviors of God’s people, raised up by God. They are a type and shadow of Jesus, God’s ultimate Judge and Savior of the world. (Psalm75:7, Isiah 45:21, 2 Tim 4;8, Acts 17:31)

God raised Samson up to deliver the Israelites from a 40 year period of Philistine oppression.

To do this Samson had to be consecrated, set apart and become a Nzaratie unto God. Some Nazarites were set aside for God for a short period of time however Samson was set apart for life.

His setting apart already happened in the womb of his mother:

Some Nazarites were set aside for God for a short period of time however Samson was set apart for life.

Judges 13: 2-5,13 NIV

2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth.

3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son.

4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean.

5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. He will take the lead in delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

13 The angel of the LORD answered, “Your wife must do all that I have told her. 14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I have commanded her.”

*Not allowed to eat grapes since this was temptation