Strength With No Power

I know a lot of people who are sports fans. Whether you are a fan of football, baseball, hockey, or soccer. Some people are fans of boxing, although I will admit I am more of a fan of UFC then boxing. And for every person who is a fan of a certain sport, they also have favorite teams and players. Big-time fans will be able to quote all sorts of statistics to 'prove' that they're player or team is the best, and a big deal is made of all of that.

If you're a sports fan, and you watch ESPN or read Sports Illustrated or even casually follow sports online with Facebook or news apps, you have probably heard about the bout that is coming up next month between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Without getting into too many stats, let's just say that both of these fighters are top of their game, and each are very formidable opponents. They are very mighty men, powerful men, and needless to say, I think it will be a very interesting fight.

But that's all they are, powerful men. The may be fit, strong, quick. They can definitely take a punch, and they knockout records certainly show they can dish one out as well. But in the end, that's all they are. Mighty men. And the same could be said of any other athlete, soldier, warrior, king, or giant in our history. They're mighty men. Cool. But how much power do they really have? How much power does anyone really have, especially of themselves?

In Judges 13 we read the story of a man and woman who desired a child, but they could not have one. They plead and pray and, long story short, God finally blesses them with a baby, but with stipulation. The baby would be a Nazirite. Nazirite were laypeople in the Jewish religion who had take an oath of seperation. In many ways they were the most devout laypeople in Judaism, and certainly the most disciplined. The oath really had three special stipulations: you could not touch anything dead, you could not touch anything that grew on a vine, and you could not cut your hair. If you failed in any of these things, there were elaborate cleansing rituals you had to complete to restore yourself to a pure state. You can read about them in Number chapter 6.

The baby was named, Samson, and I think most people have heard at least a little about him. Most people remember that he was really strong and really good at killing Philistines. He was probably the most powerful man in the Bible, at least from a physical standpoint. Let's put it into context. Goliath, the Philistine from the story of David, held off the entire nation of Israel's army. He was huge and terrifying, and strong. His coat of armour alone weighed 5000 shekels, which is about 125 lbs. Samson, on the other hand, took out 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey as his only weapon. He followed that up by ripping the gates of the city off the wall, together weighing about 700 lbs, and carrying them 40 miles away. He was pretty impressive.

But we'll get to all that. I'm getting ahead of myself. When Samson grew up, he had a choice ahead of him. Right from the beginning, God had blessed him with miraculous strength. It was God's gift to him, his talent, and with it, God desired for Samson to bless His people with it. The same could be said for all of us. God has blessed each of us with different gifts and abilities, with the hope that we will use them to impact the world for God, to reach the lost and to spread the truth.

But here's the thing, anything done in the physical realm, here in this world, done in your own power, with your own talent, amounts to nothing. No matter how much people praise you, no matter how much money you make, no matter how many friends you have, anything done in your own power is pointless, because its all temporary. The only things that echo for all eternity are things done for the glory of God and done in His strength and will.

And let me say, while I try not to be a doom and gloom person, let me say that if you claim the name of Christ and openly rebel against Him, you do it tempting your own destruction. Let's look at our text.

In Judges 14:1-9 we see the beginning of Samson's rebellion. As a devoted member of Judaism, Samson was well-aware of the fact that he was to be seperate from other people, and that the Jewish people were not to intermarry with other tribes of people. Nevertheless, the told his parents that he wanted this, and so they went to set it up. Along the way, they are attacked by a lion, and he rips it apart and kills it. With his bare hands.