Sermon
Samson
June 20, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles. We're going through the Old Testament and we're getting acquainted with some of these great men of the Old Testament. These -- not only men, but next Sunday we're going to talk about Esther. Today our subject is Samson, Judges chapter 13. I'd like for all of you have a Bible because most of our lesson today will be read from the Scriptures. I just want to read the Scriptures to you today, and I want you to follow along so have a Bible and I'll read to you.

Again the Israelites did what was evil in the Lord's sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines, who kept them in subjection for forty years. In those days, a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children. The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah's wife and said, "Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink or eat any forbidden food. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God, as a Nazirite from birth. He will rescue Israel from the Philistines."

What's a Nazarite? Well in the ancient text there were 3 qualifications, aspects to the vow. A Nazarite was one if he was a male who never cut his hair. Number 2, he never drank strong drink or alcoholic beverages. And number 3, he never touched a dead body. Those are three aspects to the Nazarite vow.

The woman ran and told her husband, "A man of God appeared to me! He was like one of God's angels, terrifying to look at. I didn't ask where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name. But he told me, 'You will become pregnant and give birth to a son. You must not drink wine or any other alcoholic drink or eat any forbidden food. For your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death.'"

Then Manoah prayed to the LORD. He said, "Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about this son who is to be born." God answered his prayer, and the angel of God appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field. But her husband, Manoah, was not with her. So she quickly ran and told her husband, "The man who appeared to me the other day is here again!"

Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, "Are you the man who talked to my wife the other day?" "Yes," he replied, "I am." So Manoah asked him, "When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy's life and work?" The angel of the LORD replied, "Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her. She must not eat grapes or raisins, drink wine or any other alcoholic drink, or eat any forbidden food."

Then Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please stay here until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat." "I will stay," the angel of the LORD replied, "but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the LORD." (Manoah didn't realize it was the angel of the LORD.) Then Manoah asked the angel of the LORD, "What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you." "Why do you ask my name?" the angel of the LORD replied. "You wouldn't understand if I told you."

Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on a rock as a sacrifice to the LORD. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the LORD did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altar shot up toward the sky, the angel of the LORD ascended in the fire. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground. The angel did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel of the LORD, and he said to his wife, "We will die, for we have seen God!"

But his wife said, "If the LORD were going to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He wouldn't have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles." When her son was born, they named him Samson. And the LORD blessed him as he grew up. And in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol, the Spirit of the LORD began to take hold of him.

One day when Samson was in Timnah (that's about 4 miles away, and he's about 20 years of age), he noticed a certain Philistine woman. When he returned home, he told his father and mother, "I want to marry a young Philistine woman I saw in Timnah." His father and mother objected strenuously, "Isn't there one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry? Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?"

But Samson told his father, "Get her for me. She is the one I want." His father and mother didn't realize the LORD was at work in this, creating an opportunity to disrupt the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time. Now that's a strange sentence, but what the Bible is trying to say is God is going to use this occasion even though it seems wrong. He's going to use it for His purpose. You see the reason why Samson was brought onto the scene of history at this time is because the Philistines lived down on the coastal area, which we know today as the Gaza Strip. They had migrated there.

They on occasions would invade the lands of the Israel, and so having Samson there once in a while just to keep fright, keep them scared, God would use him to ward off the Philistines. Because the day would come under David where the Philistines would ultimately be captured. So he's using Samson just to ward off and to keep them away until the time should come when God will take care of the Philistines. So that's why it says God is going to use this opportunity to disrupt the Philistines.

As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. At that moment the Spirit of the LORD powerfully took control of him, and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat. But he didn't tell his father or mother about it. When Samson arrived in Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her.

Now the reason why he didn't tell his mom and dad is because now that he had killed this animal he had touched a dead body, and he had violated his Nazarite vow. He had ended it really.

Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it. But he didn't tell them he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.

As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom of the day. The way marriage took place then the was there were seven days of festivity, and at the end of the seventh day the marriage was consummated. So you had a big party seven days long.

Thirty young men from the town were invited to be his companions. That is he didn't bring a wedding party along with him so they said we'll put one together for you. So thirty men become Samson's entourage. Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle. He's going to liven up to party just a little bit. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you thirty plain linen robes and thirty fancy robes. But if you can't solve it, then you must give me thirty linen robes and thirty fancy robes." And in those days the garments that you wore depicted the wealth that you had. They didn't have banks in those days so you wore your wealth in your garments.

"All right," they agreed, "let's hear your riddle." So he said: "From the one who eats came something to eat; out of the strong came something sweet." Three days later they were still trying to figure it out. On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, "Get the answer to the riddle from your husband, or we will burn down your father's house with you in it. That's a nice gesture. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor?" In other words, we're all going to lose our wealth in our garments.

So Samson's wife came to him in tears and said, "You don't love me; you hate me! You have given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer." "I haven't even given the answer to my father or mother," he replied. "Why should I tell you?" That's a nice attitude towards his bride, isn't it? So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration (that's four days). At last, on the seventh day, he told her the answer because of her persistent nagging. Then she gave the answer to the young men.

So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer. Here's the answer to your riddle they said: "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" You see in those days in the East you built conversations around riddles, and people would kind of question what you were trying to say in a riddle. That made the conversation alive.

Samson replied, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found the answer to my riddle!" Now that's a nice way to talk about your wife, a heifer. Then the Spirit of the LORD powerfully took control of him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had answered his riddle.

But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother. So his wife, the marriage hadn't been completed, so his wife-to-be was given in marriage to the best man of Samson. Because the father of the bride wasn't going to let this shame come to his daughter. I mean, the bridegroom ran on back home with his mom and dad. So the parents of the bride said you can have her, and they gave her to Samson's best man.

Now we're in chapter 15 -- Later on, probably a few months, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a present to his wife. He intended to sleep with her, that is, he was going to complete the marriage, but her father wouldn't let him in. "I really thought you hated her," her father explained, "so I gave her in marriage to your best man. But look, her sister is more beautiful than she is. Marry her instead." That isn't something nice for a dad to say, is it?

Samson said, "This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines." Then he went out and caught three hundred foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs (that's 150), and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the grain still in piles and all that had been bundled. He also destroyed their grapevines and olive trees.

"Who did this?" the Philistines demanded. "Samson," was the reply, "because his father-in-law from Timnah gave Samson's wife to be married to his best man." So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death. "Because you did this," Samson vowed, "I will take my revenge on you, and I won't stop until I'm satisfied!" So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.

The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and raiding the town of Lehi. The men of Judah asked the Philistines, "Why have you attacked us?" The Philistines replied, "We've come to capture Samson. We have come to pay him back for what he did to us." So three thousand men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, "Don't you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?"

But Samson replied, "I only paid them back for what they did to me." But the men of Judah told him, "We have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines." "All right," Samson said. "But promise that you won't kill me yourselves." "We will tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines," they replied. "We won't kill you." So they tied him up with two new ropes and led him away from the rock. As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the LORD powerfully took control of Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. Then he picked up a donkey's jawbone that was lying on the ground and killed a thousand Philistines with it.

And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, I've made heaps on heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I've killed a thousand men!" When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was named Jawbone Hill. Now Samson was very thirsty (I'm sure after killing 1000 people he would be), and he cried out to the LORD, "You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagan people?" So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place "The Spring of the One Who Cried Out," and it is still in Lehi to this day. Samson was Israel's judge for twenty years, while the Philistines ruled the land.

One day Samson went to the Philistine city of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute. Word soon spread that Samson was there, so the men of Gaza gathered together and waited all night at the city gates. They kept quiet during the night, saying to themselves, "When the light of morning comes, we will kill him." But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up, took hold of the city gates with its two posts, and lifted them, bar and all, right out of the ground. He put them on his shoulders and carried them all the way to the top of the hill across from Hebron. That's 38 miles folks! What a gesture to leave town, to pull up the city gates and go.

Later Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the valley of Sorek, just a few miles from his hometown. The leaders of the Philistines went to her and said, "Find out from Samson what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely. Then each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver." Now that was a fortune in those days folks.

So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely." Samson replied, "If I am tied up with seven new bowstrings that have not yet been dried, I will be as weak as anyone else." So the Philistine leaders brought Delilah seven new bowstrings, and she tied Samson up with them. She had hidden some men in one of the rooms of her house, and she cried out, "Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!" But Samson snapped the bowstrings as if they were string that had been burned in a fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

Afterward Delilah said to him, "You made fun of me and told me a lie! Now please tell me how you can be tied up securely." Samson replied, "If I am tied up with brand-new ropes that have never been used, I will be as weak as anyone else." So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. The men were hiding in the room as before, and again Delilah cried out, "Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!" But Samson snapped the ropes from his arms as if they were thread.

Then Delilah said, "You have been making fun of me and telling me lies! Won't you please tell me how you can be tied up securely?" Samson replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I will be as weak as anyone else." So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the fabric and tightened it with the loom shuttle. Again she cried out, "Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!" But Samson woke up, pulled back the loom shuttle, and yanked his hair away from the loom and the fabric.

Then Delilah pouted, "How can you say you love me when you don't confide in me? You've made fun of me three times now, and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong!" So day after day she nagged him until he couldn't stand it any longer. Finally, Samson told her his secret. "My hair has never been cut," he confessed, "for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else."

Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the Philistine leaders. "Come back one more time," she said, "for he has told me everything." So the Philistine leaders returned and brought the money with them. Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and she called in a man to shave off his hair, making his capture certain. And his strength left him. Then she cried out, "Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!" When he woke up, he thought, "I will do as before and shake myself free." But (and here's the saddest line in the story folks) he didn't realize the LORD had left him.

He had played with sin to the point where God departed. That's a sad line.

So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and made to grind grain in the prison. In those days they had the grinder. They'd throw the grain in and they had a long rod attached to that grinder, and then they'd attach an animal and he'd just circle and circle and that would cause the grinding to take place. It was really the job of a donkey. And now the man who was so mightily touched by God, played with sin to the point where God is no longer with him. You see him with his eyesight gone, and day after day grinding out corn or wheat, whatever it was. What a scene of defeat.

You know, I'm a father. I love my children, and I think...I know Manoah and his wife loved Samson. I think they made journeys down to the grinding mill. Can use see dad and mom...Manoah sitting there on a stack of wheat weeping? Because they knew his beginning; they knew the promise of God. They knew what God really wanted and now their son is captive by his enemies in the lowest place grinding out corn with no eyesight. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

The Philistine leaders held a great festival, offering sacrifices and praising their god, Dagon. They said, "Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!" When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy to us! The one who killed so many of us is now in our power!" Half drunk by now, the people demanded, "Bring out Samson so he can perform for us!" So he was brought from the prison and made to stand at the center of the temple, between the two pillars supporting the roof.

Samson said to the servant who was leading him by the hand, "Place my hands against the two pillars. I want to rest against them." The temple was completely filled with people. All the Philistine leaders were there, and there were about three thousand on the roof who were watching Samson and making fun of him. Now you can see its kind of an amphitheater and the roof comes up partway and you can see them jamming up on the roof looking over the edge to see this man that had brought so much pain to their nation, and they are making fun of him. Now you put 3000 people on this roof and it will come through very quick. So they are straining the temple to its capacity.

Then Samson prayed to the LORD, "Sovereign LORD, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me one more time so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of my eyes." Then Samson put his hands on the center pillars of the temple and pushed against them with all his might. "Let me die with the Philistines," he prayed. And the temple crashed down on the Philistine leaders and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime. He wiped out the Philistine leadership.

Later his brothers and other relatives went down to get his body. They took him back home and buried him. There's sadness about the story, isn't there? Starting life with such glorious prospects and the touch of God, but he flaunted with sin to the point where it ultimately became his capture. Now there a lot of things that this lesson teaches us. Let me just touch on a couple of them and then we'll go home.

Number one, ladies and gentlemen, we never sin alone, never. The Bible says that which is done in the closet will be shouted from the house tops. And ultimately the Bible says your sin will find you out. And the tragic thing about sin in that we don't sin alone, we bring injury and hurt and pain and sorrow to many others; hurt to those we love and shame to our God. Those pagans dancing around their god, Dagon, are rejoicing because their god out whipped the God of Samson; shame.

Ladies and gentlemen, when you and I sin we never sin alone. Our life affects many others and our sins do too. We can bring hurt, shame, and pain. Now I'm a human being just like you, and when temptation comes rushing across my pathway I'll tell you, I allow some very strong things to jolt my mind where I allow these thoughts to rush through. What if I do this and I sin? I will bring shame to my God, and I will bring shame to my lovely wife and my three boys and all my family and my church. I couldn't do this, the cost is to great. With those thoughts battery and busting within my mind I run as fast as I can, because I realize and I've read enough stories that sin hurts not only you, but all those around you. Can't you see mom and dad Manoah, realizing that here's a son that could have been blessed. I think they cried themselves to the grave.

I've lived long enough folks and I've mopped up enough buckets of tears to say it with experience -- sin does not pay. Satan is a terrible task master and he has only one thing in mind and that's to destroy. Don't let him get to you.

Secondly, Samson hadn't learned what Joseph had learned -- Joseph had learned to run! Samson didn't do that. He played with temptation until it grabbed him. Every time I read that I keep saying, Samson, get out of that house! Samson get out of there, you ought to have better sense than that. Run! I try to yell into my Bible. And the next sentence always comes up and says he kept playing with temptation. Don't get near it. Avoid the very appearance of evil.

I had a phone call this week where a man said, Pastor, I want to ask some of your advice. I said, what is it? He said well I love this lady and we want to move in together, but he said there's nothing else involved. I said nonsense, I've lived long enough to know that's not true. Well, he said, I'm a Christian and so is she. I said, well if you're a Christian you wouldn't be thinking of doing something like that. Finally I said, listen, sir, if you've got anything upstairs you're going to run as fast as you can. Because anybody who gives away themselves before marriage, isn't worth having after marriage. That's pretty straight folks.

Sin doesn't pay, and Samson played too long and got caught.

There's one other thing about this story that always amazes me. I'm amazed at the love and the mercy of God the way He handles us disobedient kids. I mean last week we talked about Elijah, and Elijah had been blessed, prayed this prayer, fire came down from heaven, licked up the stones, licked up the water...I mean he's given strength to kill these enemies, the false prophets, and a little lady says 'I'm going to get you,' and he starts running. He runs and spends a night under a tree, and God sends down an angel who cooks him a meal, and he gets up and travels 40 days after the second meal. And God finds him clear down in Sinai 200 miles away hiding in a cave.

God said, what are you doing here? What are you doing here Elijah? And he gives Him a weak excuse, and God asks him again, and another excuse. And God said all right, Elijah, you turn around and head for home because you're all done -- you're fired. You go and anoint your successor Elisha. Your job is finished.

Now I'm thinking that through and if the guy likes the wilderness that much, and he got fired, why not leave him in the wilderness? God doesn't do that. He brings him back home, and here's the mercy of God, He said it's time to bring this guy home, so He sends from heaven a chariot of fire and comes down and picks up old Elijah and he goes home in a heavenly limousine. I mean he got fired and then goes home in a limousine. That's a pretty good deal.

And here's Samson...he shamed his God, shamed his family, shamed his name, flaunted everything that was sacred, and he prays a prayer that is selfish as he hangs on to those pillars and said, God, I want to get even with these folks for putting out my eyes. Now that's a pretty selfish prayer. But I want you to grasp the mercy and the kindness of God. God hears his prayer. If we were reading that in the original Hebrew he calls God by three different names, the God Almighty, the God that's sovereign, and the God that saves. He said, God, hear me one more time. And God answers his prayer, but he dies in a rubble heap. God had completed His work, the Philistine leadership was demolished. He had inflicted deep injury on the Philistines, but he died in the rubble heap of a pagan temple.

You know, it's not so much how you start the journey, it's how you end it. You know, ladies and gentlemen, the longer I live the more I realize that ending with dignity is exceedingly important. I'm 73 years of age and I'm getting near the finish line, and I have one daily prayer, God, help me not to fail You. I want to reach the finish line and I want to do it with dignity, and I want to bring You honor, and I want to bring You praise, and I want to honor my family. Don't...may I never end in a rubble heap just this close to the finish line.

You are never to young to set that as a goal in your life: I'm going to live my life so that when I come to the finish line I'm going to bring honor to the God who's loved me and the Christ who has saved me. You know, ladies and gentlemen, no matter how far we go, as Samson did, you may be here today and you feel that you've wandered one million miles from God. Your life is filled with shame and sin, God is still ready to hear your prayer.

Old Samson, eyes gouged, doing the work of a donkey, said God, hear me one more time, and God listens. And God will listen to your prayer when you pray it and call upon Him. Amen?

Let's bow our heads. Jesus, what wonderful stories and yet they are filled with pain, hurt and failure. To realize that all of us have glorious opportunities to make life really meaningful and full, and fruitful, and beneficial to ourselves and others yet so frequently we blow it. Would You help us? Would You help us to keep our eyes on the finish line knowing that one of these days we'll stand before You? And may we leave a testimony of righteousness and godliness that brings honor to You. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. God bless you all. God bless you.