Sermon Study #241 – STRONGEST MAN’S WEAKNESS – part 2
SAMSON IS HANDED OVER TO THE ENEMIES
Judg 15:9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. Judg 15:10 The men of Judah asked, "Why have you come to fight us?" "We have come to take Samson prisoner," they answered, "to do to him as he did to us." Judg 15:11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Don’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?" He answered, "I merely did to them what they did to me." Judg 15:12 They said to him, "We’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said, "Swear to me that you won’t kill me yourselves." Judg 15:13 "Agreed," they answered. "We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
Samson kills 1,000 men
Judg 15:14 As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. Judg 15:15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men. Judg 15:16 Then Samson said, "With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men." Judg 15:17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.
GOD PROVIDES FOR SAMSON
Judg 15:18 Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, "You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" Judg 15:19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi. Judg 15:20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
SAMSON CARRIES THE HEAVY GATES
Judg 16:1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. Judg 16:2 The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we’ll kill him." Judg 16:3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
SAMSON & THE DECEIVING DELILAH
Judg 16:4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. Judg 16:5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."
Test #1:
Judg 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued." Judg 16:7 Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man." Judg 16:8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. Judg 16:9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.
Test #2:
Judg 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied." Judg 16:11 He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man." Judg 16:12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.
Test #3:
Judg 16:13 Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied." He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric Judg 16:14 and tightened it with the pin. Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.
Test #4:
Judg 16:15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, ’I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength." Judg 16:16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death. Judg 16:17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man." Judg 16:18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. Judg 16:19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Judg 16:20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I’ll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him. Judg 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.
SAMSON - THE BLIND SLAVE
Judg 16:22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. Judg 16:23 Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands." Judg 16:24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the one who laid waste our land and multiplied our slain." Judg 16:25 While they were in high spirits, they shouted, "Bring out Samson to entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. When they stood him among the pillars,
THE VICTORY & DEFEAT FOR SAMSON
Judg 16:26 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." Judg 16:27 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. Judg 16:28 Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "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." Judg 16:29 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, Judg 16:30 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. Judg 16:31 Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM SAMSON:
1. Samson repeated the error of “going to a place he did not belong and looking for something he shouldn’t be looking for.”
ü Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.
2. Taking God’s grace for granted will result in spiritual blindness.
ü 2 Pet 1:5-9 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
3. The grace of God will empower you as you repent.
ü Eph 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.
Note: As a child, I was taught that Samson was in hell because he committed suicide. I then discovered God’s grace in the life of Samson. It was God who gave him the strength to destroy his enemies. It was not suicide - Samson was a martyr! We learn from Samson’s weakness, but the greater lesson I learn is how faithful God is inspite of our unfaithfulness.
2 Tim 2:13 if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
