Opening illustration: In 1996, a young marine corporal named Joey Mora was standing on a platform of an aircraft carrier patrolling the Iranian Sea. Incredibly, he fell overboard. His absence was not known for 36 hours. A search and rescue mission began, but was given up after another 24 hours. No one could survive in the sea without even a lifejacket after 60 hours. His parents were notified that he was "missing and presumed dead."
The rest of the story is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" events. Script writers would pass it up as "not believable." Four Pakistani fishermen found Joey Mora about 72 hours after he had fallen from the aircraft carrier. He was treading water in his sleep, clinging to a makeshift floatation device made from his trousers (unconventional) - a skill learned in most military survival training. He was delirious when they pulled him into their fishing boat. His tongue was dry and cracked and his throat parched.
Just about two years later, as he spoke with Stone Philips of NBC Dateline, he recounted an unbelievable story of will to live and survival. Who would not give up? He said it was God who kept him struggling to survive. His discovery by the fishermen makes searching for a needle in a haystack a piece of cake. The most excruciating thing of all? Joey said that the one thought that took over his body and pounded in his brain was "Water!" [NBC Dateline: Nov. 1998]
Introduction: In the roll-call of God's heroes, Samson is spoken of as a man of faith (Hebrews 11:32). It is so strange to find him classed with David, and Moses, and Enoch, for as we look upon the deeds recited in this chapter, they seem to us altogether so stormy, and boisterous, and savage. We find it hard to think of him as being inspired by the same holy purpose as filled the hearts of the saints, and that the hand of faith was indeed there beneath the plated armor of the warrior. Truly, "God fulfils Himself in many ways:' And yet it is comforting that God's children are clad in a very different guise, speak many dialects, and are not expected to live higher than according to the light they have.
If you have a tendency to despair over lost opportunities or if you worry about the future, ask yourself this question: “What is right in front of me?” In other words, what circumstances and relationships are currently available to you? This question can get your focus off a past regret or a scary future and back to what God can do in your life.
What will it take to use what is in your hand?
1. Breaking all Bonds (v. 14)
Samson was bound with two new ropes which were made from the fiber of plants, shrubs and trees. Till today, people in the Eastern world use ropes made from jute, bamboo and other vegetation. The fresh ropes tend to be much stronger than the ones that are dry. These conventional ropes tend to be much stronger than the modern nylon ropes we use. According to the Israelites, Samson was much more secured than he ever was before. The Bible says that he was supposed to be like any common man.
The text testifies to the fact that when the Philistines came upon him, simultaneously the Spirit of God came Him too and he was able to break all the bonds that he was tied with. He was loosed from these bonds only by the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Nothing could be bound or tied that could not be broken by the Spirit of God.
Many of us may have already experienced this in our own personal lives. When we have been bound by ungodly soul ties, ungodly vows, curses, spells, spirit of death, occultism, un-forgiveness, generational curses or whatever is ungodly in your lives … it can only be broken by the name of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. If you are still carrying these bonds/bondages in your life, be assured that these can only be broken by Jesus and no other.
Samson who had the Nazarite call had to also rely on the Spirit of God to release and loosen him from the earthly bonds of fresh ropes. Today these things may not mean much to us but the spiritual bonds that we have can only be broken through an act of the Spirit alone. You cannot break spiritual bond by some physical or earthly act. It is not possible! There might be some temporary relaxation but it never ever is broken and that freedom is not experienced. The freedom is from the bonds and there is complete brokenness and freedom from it. There is not a trace of any reminisce of any bonds.
Many of you who still do not have that freedom and continue to be bound by sin and its consequences, may be wondering how to experience this in your life. There is only one name … the name of Jesus and His power of the Holy Spirit can break all the ungodly stuff you are bound with. This will bring freedom to you to act upon what is in your hand and do what God has called you do. Will you come to the Lord your God, the Creator of this universe this morning and give of yourself to Him so that He can break all your bondages and bring freedom in your life to live for Him?
2. Accepting + Using Unconventional Objects (vs. 15-17)
The destruction of the standing crops and the vineyards, with the "great slaughter" (Judges 15:8) of the Philistines proved that Samson was moved by anger in a very high degree. But there is a sense in which we may emulate Samson, who, when he had completed his act of vengeance, went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock. There we are secure from the attempts of faithless friends and the assaults of bitter foes.
It shows to how low a pitch of servility those will come who yields meanly to a foreign despot's yoke. The men of Judah treated Samson, as in after years they treated Christ, whom they bound and delivered to the Gentiles. But as Samson could not be restrained by the ropes, so did the bands of death fall off the limbs of Christ, when raised from the dead on the third day in the might of the Holy Ghost (Acts 2:24).
If any should read these words that have been bound by strong ropes and rendered powerless to do God's work as aforetime, let them trust and not be afraid, for there is that in the mighty descent of the Holy Spirit which shall set them free. The Philistines had not allowed any weapon to remain in the possession of the Israelites (1 Samuel 13:19, 20, 21, 22), so that Samson was dependent upon the jaw-bone of an ass to avenge himself upon his enemies; but in the hand of God a little thing is sufficient to accomplish a great result. Often the "weak things" confound "the things that are mighty," and "the things that are not" bring to naught "the things that are."
Samson gloried too much in his own strength. It was in the moment of exultation that this great thirst came, from which his right arm could not save him. He was driven to plead that he might be delivered for God's glory, lest the uncircumcised should rejoice. So when flushed with success, we are often reminded that it is not ours, but God's good gift. Many a well of comfort opened to us might be called En-hakkore "the fount of him that cried" (Psalm 34:6).
The inadequacy of the weapon plainly shows this to have been a miraculous feat, “a case of supernatural strength,” just as the gift of prophecy is a case of supernatural knowledge. When we reach that place in our lives where we are not self-dependent but all our dependence is on God Himself, He starts to use the Spiritual gifts through our lives. You and others around you will witness that He will place unconventional devices and things in your hands to use for God’s glory. This will leave you and others baffled, knowing and testifying to the fact that it is not of you but God working through you.
Illustration: If Samson had lived today he would have been the leading man in all our college clubs, and no price would have been too high to secure him for the football team, and the athletic tournaments that so rapidly are turning American brains into heels, hands, punch bags, and prize fights. But Samson's strength was not that of material brawn, but a far more subtle and supernatural power. It came to him through the touch of faith and the Spirit of God.
Samson's strength could not have come from gigantic stature or exceptionally developed muscle, for we know that in a single moment he lost it, and yet he had probably not lost an ounce of weight, but had touched the forbidden earth and lost the secret of the Lord. Samson's physical strength was a vital principle that came to him from the unseen world and the living One, and it came to teach us that there is for our mortal frame a life and strength in God which we may claim as surely as the power that quickens our soul. For One has lived on earth since Samson's day who contained in His own human frame the power that could raise the dead and heal the sick, and who has become for us, in His resurrection life, the second Head of redeemed humanity and the living Source from which we can take our perfect life for body and for brain. "We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones," "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh."
But Samson teaches us one lesson more; namely, that the supernatural life of God in the: human body is dependent upon our separation from the world and sin. We can only retain it while we live in His holy will, and we lose it whenever we touch the forbidden world of evil. There is nothing that is so sanctifying as the life of Christ in your mortal flesh. There is nothing that so holds you to a life of separation and dedication. If Christ is dwelling in your body that body must be used as His holy temple and for the things that Christ Himself would do if He were living in your place. This then, beloved, is one of the providences of faith, to take the Lord for supernatural strength, and give it back to Him in living sacrifice and loving service.
3. Thirst for God, ushering in Miracles leading to Revival (vs. 18-19)
Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely to get thirst assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to be delivered from a thousand Philistines! but when the thirst was upon him, Samson felt that little present difficulty more weighty than the great past difficulty out of which he had so specially been delivered. It is very usual for God’s people, when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines, and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water! Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel, and overcomes Omnipotence itself, and then goes “limping on his thigh!” Strange that there must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order to keep us within bounds.
Samson boasted right loudly when he said, “I have slain a thousand men.” His boastful throat soon grew hoarse with thirst, and he betook himself to prayer. God has many ways of humbling his people. Dear child of God, if after great mercy you are laid very low, your case is not an unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of Israel, he said, “I am this day weak, though anointed king.” You must expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest triumph. If God has wrought for you great deliverances in the past, your present difficulty is only like Samson’s thirst, and the Lord will not let you faint, nor suffer the daughter of the uncircumcised to triumph over you. The road of sorrow is the road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing water all along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with Samson’s words, and rest assured that God will deliver you surely.
The Word of God testifies that when Samson was thirsty, he cried out to the Lord and God responded by splitting the hollow place in Lehi and water came forth and Samson was able to quench his thirst. Something very unfamiliar happens here. After he drinks the water, his spirit returns and is revived. It is obvious that till now the Spirit of God was upon (the anointing) and in him that was controlling him. The Spirit of God did not need to be revived but his spirit did and as soon as he is in his element, we see that God revives him.
When we are thirsty for God and cry out to Him with desperation, He will break heaven and earth for us to quench our thirst. When we take a step toward Him, He will go all the way for us. If our thirst is for the flesh, we will sow and reap also of the flesh but if our thirst is for the Spirit, we will sow and reap of the Spirit. The word of God testifies to the fact that Samson was revived and so can we. Is our desire for God or for something else?
Just as Samson, all of us need to be anointed by the Spirit of God before our spirit is revived and once we are revived, God will use us mightily for His glory and purposes. For God to really use what is in our hands, He desires us to be anointed and revived by His Spirit. Are we heading in that direction?
Illustration: The story is told of a young student who went to his spiritual teacher and asked the question, "Master, how can I truly find God?" The teacher asked the student to accompany him to the river which ran by the village and invited him to go into the water. When they got to the middle of the stream, the teacher said, "Please immerse yourself in the water." The student did as he was instructed, whereupon the teacher put his hands on the young man's head and held him under the water. Presently the student began to struggle. The master held him under still. A moment passed and the student was thrashing and beating the water and air with his arms. Still, the master held him under the water. Finally, the student was released and shot up from the water, lungs aching and gasping for air. The teacher waited for a few moments and then said, "When you desire God as truly as you desired to breathe the air you just breathed -- then you shall find God."
Application: So, what will it really take for God to use what is in our hands? The Spirit of God wants be break all bonds/bondages in our life, empower us to use the unconventional, discarded and stuff that is given up for being useless. Finally our genuine thirst for God and desperation will revive us by His Spirit.
