Samson Early Years Series

Series: Here Comes the Judge!

The book of Judges:

It is the history of the Judges of Israel, which is connected with the previous book of Joshua, as a “link in the chain of books.” It describes the history of Israel under different leaderships, governments and their deliverances from other powers for about 410 years of Israel’s history.

Purpose of the book of Judges:

The book of Judges aims to demonstrate that defection from Jehovah incurs severe punishment and servitude. Only by turning back to God can restoration be enjoyed. Thus the judges were charismatic leaders, raised up by God to deliver His theocratic people. Only by heeding their Spirit-directed message and following them in deliverance against their enemies could restoration be accomplished.

The OT judges performed two functions.

1. By divine power and Spirit-anointed leadership they delivered the people from enemy oppression.

2. Having accomplished this, they ruled over them and administered government in the name of Israel’s God.

The book reports seven apostasies, seven servitudes to seven heathen nations, and seven deliverances, it is evidently put in a symmetrical form (From: The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary).

Warning in Judges: Nations instituted under God and for God will face the JUDGMENT of God for doing evil in His sight and if they fall into apostasy toward God – He will raise up and or empower up another nation to in slave them for the purpose of judgement. This should create a heart of repentance in that nation - to humble them – this judgment is intended to drive the Godly nation to repent and return to God and His ways.

Author: Is believed to be the Prophet Samuel.

Key Verses of book:

Judges 2:11: “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” (referred to 7 times in Judges)

Judges 2:16: “Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.”

Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25: “In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.”

Sermon: Samson pt 1 (early years)

Thesis: Samson’s life reveals to us 7 choices that will lead us to blindness. He was called by God for a specific purpose and God used him in spite of his character flaws.

Introduction:

Samson to me is an interesting historical figure in the nation of Israel! His divine strength has won him many accolades in history. But Samson according to what I have read never lived up to his full potential – his disobedience to God and His ways – His lust of the flesh – His anger – His spiritual blindness hindered him.

Brian Bill from sermoncentral.com says this about our hero of the faith, “Sometimes we read the stories of Hannah or Gideon or Ruth and we think, “I could never be like them.” Not so with Samson. He’s a lot like us. Most of us know what it means to be tempted. All of us struggle at times with the desire for revenge. We’ve been there, we understand, and when we see Samson struggling and falling, we have an idea of what he’s going through.

The truth of the matter is that there’s a little bit of Samson in all of us, and a whole lot of Samson in most of us. One of the things we learn from Samson’s life is that sin will always take us further than we want to go.”

We also discover that making wrong choices will always keep up us blinded to what we really could be in serving the Lord.

Scripture Text: Judges 13:1-25

The Birth of Samson

1Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

2A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless.

3The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son.

4Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean,

5because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

6Then the woman went to her husband and told him, “A man of God came to me. He looked like an angel of God, very awesome. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.

7But he said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Now then, drink no wine or other fermented drink and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite of God from birth until the day of his death.’”