If we were really honest, all of us could admit that at some time or another in our life we have been tripped up by sin. Some of us may have fallen harder than others but the pain and the guilt remains the same. In the midst of our failure we often are tempted to give up and quit. Because Satan is there whispering in our ear that God could never use us again. This is where faith comes into play. God is a big God and He can use us despite our past failures. If you are having trouble believing that consider some of the great heroes of the faith we have looked at or will be looking at in this message series. Abraham lied by telling Abimelech that his wife was his sister in order to get out of what could have proven to be a sticky situation. Moses killed a man, Rahab was a prostitute and David committed adultery. And then there is Samson. Chuck Swindoll refers to him as a “He man with a She Weakness.” He is listed as one of the great heroes of the faith even though most of his life is characterized by underachievement and unrealized potential. Despite all of this, in the end, when he had been tripped up by sin, he did not quit. In faith, he returned to God and God restored his strength.
I. Samson was born under the Lord’s blessing.
A. Samson was born as a light of hope during some very dark times.
1. The Israelites messed up again and the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. The Philistines had lived in Palestine since Abraham’s time. The Philistines were warlike and powerful, and by 1100 B.C. they were exerting considerable pressure from their five cities in the west. The forty-year oppression of Israel is the longest recorded in the book of Judges.
2. Something is missing in the account of Samson. The narrator begins by announcing another apostasy on the part of Israel and the judgment which followed it. He then tells the story of the birth of the man who would be Israel’s deliverer. He does not, however, mention any cry to Yahweh, either out of repentance or sheer misery.
3. Sin is like that. Sin crushes and beats down until a people have no will to change their circumstances however miserable. Yet here the glorious truth stands out that God begins his great work of deliverance even though his people do not have the good sense to cry out to him.
4. Samson’s barren mother was like Israel as a whole, and as the Lord brought life to her dead womb, so would he bring life to Israel through Samson.
B. Samson enjoyed the blessing of being raised by Godly parents.
1. The Angel appeared again to the wife of a Danite named Manoah. This woman was barren, a shameful condition in those days.
2. She is nameless in the text. Nonetheless, Manoah’s wife is portrayed as a woman of great faith and calm assurance.
3. The stranger began by revealing his knowledge of the circumstances in the life of this godly wife. She was barren. That, however, was about to change. She would conceive and give birth to a son.
4. The woman reported the incident to her husband. She described her visitor as “a man of God.” This was terminology commonly applied to prophets. Nonetheless, she gave a description of the visitor which made clear to her husband that this man was no ordinary prophet. His appearance was “like the angel of God, very awesome”.
5. The faith of Manoah’s wife was rewarded when the Lord blessed the couple with a baby boy.
6. The son promised to Manoah’s wife would be a Nazirite, a word meaning "dedicated" or "consecrated." According to Numbers 6:1-12, the Nazirite vow was voluntarily taken for a limited time, but Samson’s was lifelong. A Nazirite had three special restrictions:
a. He was to abstain totally from wine and beer ("fermented drink") and could not eat any grapes or raisins.
b. He could not have his hair cut during the time of the vow.
c. He could not come near a corpse.
7. Violation of all these requirements plays an important part in Samson’s life, though the second restriction is particularly emphasized.
8. To be able to raise a child under these conditions would take great diligence and faith.
II. Samson displayed glimpses of hope but never reached his potential.
A. Samson refused to obey the prohibition against marrying unbelievers.
1. Samson “went down” to nearby Timnah. The reason for his trip is not stated. There Samson saw a Philistine woman who attracted him. He returned to his home and requested that his parents arrange a marriage with this woman.
2. Samson’s parents objected strenuously to his choice. Israel had been warned not to intermarry with the Canaanites.
3. Although the Philistines were not listed among the seven nations of Canaan in Deuteronomy 7:1-3, the same objections given there applied to the Philistines also. They were foreigners whose idolatry would lead their spouses astray.
4. The image the narrator paints of Samson as an insolent and independent young man, unafraid to venture into the pagan world of the Philistines and undaunted by potentially compromising situations.
B. Samson was too proud to accept the wisdom of his parents.
1. Samson’s parents tried to dissuade him. Could he not find a suitable mate among the Israelite women? Physical attraction, however, prevailed over wisdom and parental objection.
2. “Get her for me,” Samson said, “for she looks good to me!” The lust of the flesh is a foundation of sand upon which to build the temple of marriage.
3. Following the custom of the time, Samson gave a marriage feast. The family of his bride brought together thirty companions to be a part of the week-long celebration, a mishteh or drinking feast.
4. In eating honey from the carcass of the lion Samson had violated the Nazirite rule about touching something that was dead. Now he appears to have violated the rule against drinking the fruit of the vine. So there are two strikes against Samson.
5. Samson decided to have little fun with is groomsmen by giving them a riddle and if they could solve it by the wedding night, he would give them each a new set of clothes it they could not they were to each give him a new set of clothes.
6. Samson’s bride tricked him into giving her the answer which in turn she shared with the groomsmen. Realizing he had been tricked he angrily returned home to mom and dad.
C. Samson refused to accept the consequences of his actions.
1. Finally Samson cooled off. During wheat harvest, a time of great celebration, he visited his wife in Timnah with a young goat. He was thereby proposing a reconciliation feast, but he discovers that she has been given in marriage to someone else.
2. The desperate father tried to ease the anger of Samson by offering to him his younger daughter. The father considered her even more beautiful than her older sister.
3. Apparently Samson did not agree. As he again left that house in anger Samson shouted for all to hear that he now had a right to get even with the Philistines for what they had done to him.
4. Samson then rounded up three hundred foxes. By twos he tied the tails of the foxes to a burning torch. The terrified animals drug the torches here and there through the grain fields and vineyards of Philistia.
5. A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control. (Proverbs 29:11—NIV)
6. Faith believes that God will make all things right in the end, pride insists on settling the score personally rather than waiting upon God.
7. The Philistines launched a mass attack against Israel with the prime objective being the capture and death of Samson. The men of Judah wished no hostilities with the Philistines. When they learned that the objective of the invasion was the capture of Samson, the men of Judah agreed to hand him over to them.
8. The Philistines shouted triumphantly as they saw Samson being led into their camp at Lehi. Then for the third time the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily upon Samson. He snapped the ropes that bound him as if they were as pieces of thread. He grabbed a new donkey’s jawbone from the ground and killed a thousand Philistines.
9. God’s patience is amazing. Samson lived in selfishness and semi-disobedience for twenty years and yet God gave him chance after chance.
D. Samson was too proud to see the dangerous results of his choices.
1. For some unexplained reason Samson journeyed to the Philistine city of Gaza. There he met a prostitute and went into her. When the men of Gaza heard that Samson had come to their city they surrounded the prostitute’s house.
2. Samson learned that his enemies were prepared to ambush him in the morning. At midnight he slipped out of the house and passed the sentries.
3. He went down to the city gates which had been bolted shut for the night. He ripped the doors of the gate off their hinges. Along with the posts and bars of the gate, Samson carried the doors on his shoulders to the top of a hill near Hebron.
4. Samson could not resist Philistine women. Even after his fiasco at Timnah, and his near escape from the house of the prostitute in Gaza, Samson became involved with yet another Philistine woman, the infamous Delilah.
5. The Philistine lords took note of the attraction which Samson had for Delilah. Each promised to pay her eleven hundred pieces of silver if she could discover the secret of Samson’s strength. Their intention was to overpower Samson and do away with him.
6. To his credit Samson resisted the feminine wiles of Delilah for a time. He lied to her three times about the secret of his strength.
7. Samson being annoyed enough finally told her that he had been Nazirite to God from birth. The secret of his strength was in his unshorn hair which was the outward symbol of that Nazirite vow.
8. She summoned the Philistine lords and received her wages of betrayal. Then she put Samson to sleep on her lap. A servant came in and cut the seven locks of his hair. Here was what appeared to be strike three.
9. The Philistines seized Samson with little resistance. They gouged out his eyes to render him permanently harmless. He was then taken to Gaza, bound with bronze chains and made to serve as a grain grinder, a job normally performed by oxen.
III. Seeing the missed opportunities, wasted potential and being totally humiliated Samson repented.
A. In prison Samson came to the realization he had really made a mess of his life.
1. As he performed the work of an ox, his hair was beginning to grow back.
2. His hair was not magical it was simply the symbol of his strength. The sincere repentance which grew in the sightless darkness of the prison grain mill positioned Samson for one last heroic act in the drama of redemption.
3. The lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god. Little did they realize that they were setting the stage for the greatest feat of Samson.
4. When Samson sensed that he was standing near the main pillars of the structure, a plan formed within his mind. He asked the boy who was leading him by the hand to let him lean against the great pillars upon which the house rested.
5. Samson cried out to the Lord. He asked for one last infusion of divine strength that he might be avenged of the Philistines for the loss of his two eyes. He then braced himself between the two main pillars, with his right hand on the one and the left hand on the other and pushed with all his might against the pillars. In this final act of defiance, Samson slew more of the Philistines than he had slain during his lifetime
B. Lessons we can learn from Samson’s experiences.
1. Samson truly recognized the source of his strength and put his faith in the God who empowered him.
2. Regardless of your past, regardless of the commitments you have broken, the people you have hurt or the consequences you have suffered. God is still waiting for you to repent and turn back to Him.
3. If you will put your faith in God He will forgive you and restore you.
4. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9—NIV)
Years ago there was a man named Earvin Johnson. We know him as Magic Johnson. He was one of the greatest basketball stars of his day and yet in 1991 the world was shocked by the disclosure that "Magic" had HIV. It was a terrible moment for this sports legend. Other players wouldn’t take the court with him. A doctor made news when he treated Johnson for a cut "without using gloves." The situation was making a circus sideshow out of his disease and detracting from the game. Magic Johnson hung up his shoes and walked away from the game that had made him a star.
In an interview on Face To Face With Connie Chung he said: “I lived the bachelor’s life & I’m paying for it….” But then he went on to say: “I agree with those who say my life-style was morally wrong, I’m not trying to deny it. I’m trying to battle for my life and the only thing I can ask for is forgiveness... It was my fault. Morally, I was wrong sleeping with a lot of women. I wish it hadn’t happened, but it did. All I can do is ask God’s forgiveness and leave it in His hands. All I can do is pray a lot.” Just like Samson in his day, Johnson suffered bondage and pain because of his sinfulness, and just like Samson, he repented.
What has God done with Magic Johnson? Sixteen years later, Magic is not only still alive, he’s 47 yrs. old, married and has two kids. Every day he works out from 7am till 1 pm, lifting weights, running sprints, playing basketball scrimmages with others in the gym.
Johnson runs a financial empire worth $500 million But he does something special with his fortune: he invests in inner city businesses, trying to help other black families attain the success that he now enjoys.
Reflecting on his disease he said he was sad that the circumstances by which he got it will be part of his legacy… but he believes he was chosen to get the disease because "God needed someone, and he picked me."
