SAMSON, GOD’S STUMBLING HERO
Judges 14:1-20
Introduction:
Have you ever felt like a spiritual failure? If so, let me introduce to you others who have shared the same experiences in their lives: Samson, Jacob, Jonah, Martha, Peter, Thomas. Each of these people pictured for us in the Scripture had one thing in common. They were imperfect people, yet God still used them. And He wants to do the same things in and through us! So if you’ve ever felt like a sinner beyond help and beyond hope, I want to encourage you this morning. There is still hope.
Someone has said, “While there’s life, there is hope.” But the deeper truth is that only while there is hope is there life. If you take away the hope (or promise) that bad things will one day get better, then you reduce life to a painful burden too heavy and difficult to bear. To hope for better days is as natural as waking up in the morning. Alexander Pope wrote,
"Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest."
Where do we look for to find this hope? Can we look to the political process and find hope? Hardly. We should pray and vote to insure that moral and godly candidates are elected. But don’t be deceived. Hope for America is not found in the political arena. Furthermore, hope may not be found in the ever changing fields of medicine and technology. Hope that lasts beyond the grave is not found in the accumulation of wealth.
Where is true, genuine hope found? It is found in the God of hope. The God of hope was able to use Jacob the cheater, bossy Martha, stubborn Jonah, and the womanizing Samson.
It’s hard for us to read the story of Samson’s life without thinking, “This is a tragedy, a waste of potential.” The story of Samson’s life is a story of so much good being wasted because of the way he allowed himself to be snared in the traps of Satan.
And yet the Bible tells us that Samson is a hero of the Christian faith. Hebrews 11:32 - “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets.” The Bible goes on to say that these men “subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.”
There is a phrase that is a part of Samson’s life; and a part of our lives as well: “Out of weakness [they] were made strong.” It is a part of the lives of all of God’s people on this earth who are not yet perfect.
What do we see in the life of Samson? What lessons should we learn from him?
I. THE DEFECTS IN HIS CHARACTER
A. He Couldn’t Resist a Girl (14:1-3)
Samson lived in a time when his society was more permissive perhaps than any other time in the days of Israel. As a matter of fact, the society in which he lived was so permissive that the Bible says in Judges 17:6 “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Samson did what was right in his own eyes. He married a pagan woman, completely against the wishes of his parents and His God. The Bible acknowledges that God ultimately used this sorry episode in Samson’s life to His own purposes, but this doesn’t change the fact that Samson married out of the will of God and without any regard to God’s Word.
God had said that the Israelites were not to intermarry with pagans: Deut. 7:1-4 - “When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, and He drives out many nations before you . . . and when the Lord your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, because they will turn your sons away from Me to worship other gods. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and He will swiftly destroy you.”
Samson began his ministry with the ill-fated marriage to this unnamed Philistine. He ended his ministry by being made a fool of by Delilah. And in between, the Bible tells us of a visit he made to a prostitute in Gaza. Samson couldn’t resist a girl.
God had called Samson to be a spiritual champion. He had called Samson to take the vow of a Nazirite. This involved a sacred vow that committed Samson to a life of complete dedication to God. Only four people in the Bible are named as being a Nazirite: Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist and Paul (cf. Judges 13; 1 Sam. 1; Luke 1:15-17; Acts 18:18; 21:22-26). Samson, however, forfeited his place as a spiritual champion because he couldn’t control his passions. And when he couldn’t control his passions, his passions controlled him. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s learn a lesson from this man Samson. God gave us the passions for the opposite sex that we have. He intended that they be as strong as they are. It’s normal for 7th and 8th graders to be “boy crazy,” or “girl crazy.” But remember this. God’s plan for the sexuality of men and women is this: one partner for life; your husband or your wife. If you don’t learn to control your passions, they will control you. The devil will be there to bring about your undoing. Don’t forfeit your place as a spiritual champion because you couldn’t say no to yourself.
If you find yourself close to committing sexual sins, think of the consequences. Think of what it would be like to have to tell your wife and kids that you had an affair with another woman. Think of what it would be like to tell your parents that your girlfriend is pregnant. Imagine facing her father, her mother, his wife, your husband, your wife. Imagine losing your job; your respect in the community; your integrity; your fellowship with God.
Samson lost his place as a spiritual champion. He is mentioned in Hebrews 11. But imagine what he might have been for God.
How To Protect Your Place as a Spiritual Champion With Regard to Your Moral Lifestyle:
1. Confess lust as a sin (Matt. 5:27-28; 1 John 1:9).
2. Ask God to help you walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:16-26).
3. Think pure thoughts (Phil. 4:8).
4. Stay away from situations that encourage immoral behavior. This includes what we watch on tv and what we listen to on the radio; where we go on the weekends; where we allow our children to go.
5. Think about consequences. Learn from the mistakes of others.
B. He Couldn’t Resist a Joke (14:12-14)
Samson was sort of a buffoon who thought he was a 12th Century B.C. Johnny Carson. He enjoyed telling riddles. So at his wedding feast, he set this riddle before the Philistine men,
"Out of the eater, something to eat;
Out of the strong, something sweet."
Well, the men didn’t want to be embarrassed, so they asked his new bride what the answer was. When she told them, it infuriated Samson. He went to Ashkelon, killed 30 Philistines, and gave their clothes to the men at his wedding feast.
Samson had a sense of humor, but it was a bad one. He said, “If you thought that was funny, watch this.” Then he caught 300 foxes (How?!), tied them together by the tails, fastened a fiery torch to their tails, and turned them loose in the crop fields of the Philistines. The Philistines only had three cash crops: grain, grapes, and olives. Samson single-handedly destroyed a year’s worth of all three. Ha Ha.
At the end we find Samson teasing Delilah about where his strength came from. But what he didn’t know was that while he was making fun of her, she was plotting his downfall. When he told her the truth, the joke was on him, and it wasn’t funny.
C. He Couldn’t Restrain His Temper
Have you ever known someone who was angry all the time? Samson was one of those persons. He was mad at his parents. He was mad at his first wife. He was mad at the Philistines. It seems that he went out of his way to be angry. When he felt that someone had wronged him, he had to pay them back. Revenge was the sweetest feeling in the world to him. He died trying to bring revenge on the Philistines. He stood between the pillars of the temple of Dagon and said, “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” (Judges 16:28). Samson never learned to control his temper, even at the point of death.
Do you see the lesson here? Your temper will kill you if you don’t get a handle on it. Learn to let go of anger and let God worry about exacting vengeance on those who have wronged you. Life is too short to go around hating people.
II. THE DIRECTION OF HIS CREATOR (14:4)
A. God Overruled His Mistakes
Samson was a man with many flaws. He was a bit of a smart aleck. He was arrogant and vain. He was a womanizer. He didn’t have a great witness for the Lord. But even still, God used this stumbling, bumbling man.
This should give us hope, because we are sometimes guilty of the same attitudes. At times we are self-centered and self-reliant. We let anger get the best of us. We stumble over our own clay feet while trying to serve God. And somehow God accomplishes His work with out half-hearted efforts. Most of what God does in this world is in spite of us rather than because of us.
B. God Honored His Memory
God honored the memory of Samson by including him in the “Faith Hall of Fame” found in Hebrews 11.
III. CONCLUSION: LESSONS FROM SAMSON’S LIFE
A. What We Feel to Be Our Strengths May Actually Be Our Weaknesses
1 Corinthians 10:12 - “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Proverbs 16:18-19 - “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall. Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly,
Than to divide the spoil with the proud.”
Samson was a loner. He did his own thinking. He often lived independent of the God He claimed to be serving. If he had listened to his parents he would have done better. Samson thought he was standing firm, and he fell. He was taken captive by the Philistines. They put out his eyes. They cut off his hair. God gave him strength for one last effort. But Samson might have accomplished much more for God had he continued as a spiritual champion.
God may deal with us the same way. He may allow us to be brought low when we think we are standing firm in our pride and our sins. This happened to Israel. It happened to Samson. It happens to others, and it will happen to us as well. God may allow this to occur on a grand scale with the Christians in North America. We have had so much success in the material world that we think we are alright spiritually.
Charles Spurgeon said, “Success exposes a man to the pressures of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices.”
B. God Uses Us Despite Our Flaws
C. God Forgives Our Sins When We Repent and Confess
