“Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill, with slaves…” (John Milton, Samson Agonistes, Line 41). Each phrase from this poem about Samson drops heavily onto our hearts like the burning tears that must have fallen from Samson’s mother when she found out what had befallen her son – that once-mighty servant of God (adapted from A. Macleran). “Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill, with slaves…” How had it come to this? He who once seemed most likely to succeed - his birth announced by God himself, his feats of strength unparalleled - that champ was now just another chump in the Philistine prison.
Was Delilah to blame? She had traded Samson’s secret for silver. But as they say, “Fool me once; shame on you. Fool me twice; shame on me.” Samson had been fooled four times! It wasn’t so much that he was a he-man with she-problems but because he was a he-man with me-problems. Samson had begun to believe that his great strength was not a privileged gift from God but his by right and could never be taken from him. That’s why Samson had been careless – using his strength to gratify his desires instead of to serve like the time he bulldozed his way out of Gaza after a night with a prostitute. God had waited patiently for Samson to repent but finally left him to his own devices. That’s how he had ended up “Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill, with slaves…” But the last chapter of Samson’s life has yet to be told. The Philistines themselves gave Samson a curtain call and he brought down the house. Is this a story of redemption? Yes, God’s redemption of Samson.
The picture of Samson grinding grain in the Philistine prison is not pretty. But look again. Doesn’t the scene remind you of a parable Jesus once told? The parable I’m thinking of is the one about the prodigal son – the boy who squandered his father’s inheritance and ended up sharing a pen with pigs. That boy, like Samson, seemed beyond hope. But his father had never stopped loving his son and neither had the heavenly Father given up on Samson. As Samson’s stubbled hair grew again so did divinely-worked repentance in his heart. I imagine that Samson had at first been angry with God. How could God let his servant be so humiliated? But with nothing more to do than turn a millstone all day long, and with no eyes with which to check out the girls who may have come to watch him, Samson had plenty of time free from distraction to think about his situation. How could he not come to the conclusion that he was to blame for it all?
Friends, God still lets us suffer the consequences of our sins. His purpose is not to humiliate but to humble and make us realize that we’re not hot stuff – not spiritually speaking anyway. What a blessing that time in prison was for Samson. Likewise the time you’ve spent at rock bottom is a blessing from your heavenly Father. When he dims the prospects in our lives it’s so that we would see better the brightness of his love.
How do we know that Samson did indeed turn back to God? After he had been imprisoned for a time, the Philistines threw a huge party to celebrate Samson’s capture. This wasn’t a backyard BBQ; it was a religious festival held at the temple of Dagon. You see in Philistine minds, Dagon had triumphed over Samson and therefore was clearly superior to the God of the Israelites and worthy of praise.
What conclusions do your acquaintances draw about the God you worship? Do your actions, your words lead them to praise the God of the Bible and make them want to find out more about him? Or does your life-style lead them to mock God as did the Philistines? The only Bible translation that many will ever read is you. Dear Christian, live as the salt and light Jesus has made you to be.
Once the Philistine victory party got going, the crowds, 3,000 of them on the roof of the temple alone, demanded that Samson serve as the marquee entertainment. And so the blind Samson was led into the temple like a circus bear. That pathetic sight was enough to cause bursts of laughter to dance through the crowd. But it wasn’t enough to see Samson; the frenzied mob wanted him to perform. And perform Samson did but I can’t tell you what his act was like. The Bible doesn’t describe it. Perhaps several men carried in a heavy table and told Samson to lift it above his head. When he couldn’t, they must have jeered. Some champ he was now! Or maybe they thrust the jawbone of a donkey into his hand and told Samson to defend himself while they took turns poking him with their staffs. Since he couldn’t see, Samson would have looked more like a jester than a jouster much to the delight of the crowds.
Throughout this sermon series we have been drawing comparisons between Samson and Jesus. Do you see any here? Think of how a venomous crowd had once stood around the blind-folded Jesus and made sport of him striking him with their fists while taunting: “Prophesy! Who hit you?” But just as there was a latent power in Jesus that could have destroyed those cowards, there was a slowly waking power inside Samson that would make the Philistines pay dearly for their taunting and blasphemy.
When the Philistines tired of their games, they turned their attention elsewhere. That’s when Samson asked his boy-guide to lead him to the pillars supporting the temple so that he could lean against them. Then Samson offered this prayer. What do you think of it? “O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes” (Judges 16:28). Samson’s prayer started out like the prayer offered by the thief on the cross: “Remember me.” Samson also confessed that if he was to do anything, God would have to give him the strength. Samson’s confidence was no longer in himself but in his Lord. It was a good prayer except…except for this: “…let me...get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes”? You wish Samson would have said: “Strengthen me once more, Lord, to punish these Philistines for blaspheming your name.” Instead he wants revenge for his eyes? What are we to think of Samson? We’re to think of him as a hero of faith. Seriously! The Holy Spirit does and that’s why he included Samson in that line-up of faith-heroes in Hebrews 11.
There’s comfort here for chronic sinners like us. You see even if I die with a prayer on my lips as did Samson, who’s to say that this prayer would be free from the taint of sin? What if my prayer was really a complaint about the pain I was enduring, implying, if not outright accusing God of not taking care of me? Or what if I have a heart attack while berating a family member? Would God slam heaven’s door in my face? He didn’t shut Samson out even though that chump struggled to keep a lid on his sinful emotions right up to the end. So how did Samson qualify for heaven? He didn’t! But his substitute, Jesus, did. As I said in the introduction, today’s sermon is about God’s redemption of Samson. Samson had always been more of a chump than a champ. But he apparently knew it and confessed as much to his Lord – throwing himself on his God’s mercy rather than relying on any good he may have done to get himself into heaven.
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not suggesting that God doesn’t care about our sins. Try telling that to one of the disciples who watched Jesus suffer in agony on the cross. But because Jesus suffered and paid for all sin, we don’t need to live in constant fear that if we haven’t gotten rid of every sinful impulse by the time we die, we’re doomed for eternity. If we had to clean up our act before God will give us forgiveness, then salvation would really be by works, not by grace!
After the sermon we’ll sing the last verses of “Just As I Am” including these words: “Just as I am, thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; Because thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.” (CW #397 v. 5) “Just as I am.” That could have been Samson’s motto at the very end and it’s worth adopting as our own. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, God accepts us just as we are. Isn’t that a relief? It’s also all the motivation we need not to stay just the way we are but to renew our fight against sin and to live for Jesus!
God heard Samson’s imperfect prayer and gave him one more jolt of superhuman strength. With the cry, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Samson pushed on the central pillars so that the whole temple came crashing down killing thousands. Samson too perished but we shouldn’t think that his death was a suicide. His final words were not a death wish but a battle cry - not unlike Jesus’ words when he proclaimed from the cross: “It is finished!” and “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.”
And what a stunning reversal! One moment the Philistines were having the time of their lives but in the next moment they knew nothing but sheer terror as plaster and mortar fell all around and upon them. Samson, however, must not have been scared. He had entrusted himself to his Savior-God. That’s how it will be on Judgment Day, says Jesus. Many will be having the time of their lives or at least doing their own thing apart from God so that when judgment comes it will take them by surprise and utter terror. It won’t be that way, however, for those who have entrusted themselves to the Savior-God of the Bible. Fellow Christians take note of that: the world may jeer at you as the Philistines jeered at Samson. They may think that you too are blind and pathetic. So what? You won’t be the ones panicking when Jesus returns to rock this world. And even if you should face death before then, you don’t need to be afraid. With a great shove on Easter morning Jesus toppled the pillars of death and forever crippled Satan’s kingdom. Therefore your death, like Jesus’ death, won’t be the end of you.
“Eyeless, in Gaza, at the mill, with slaves…” That’s where we found Samson when we started this sermon but that’s not where we’ll leave him. Sure, he died with the Philistines but he did not die as one of them. He perished as a true Israelite like a King David: a sinner who knew he needed a Savior. By God’s grace that’s how we’ll die too: relying on his grace with humble faith in Jesus that we may one day stand with Samson, no longer a chump but forevermore a champ! Amen.
