Biblical Superman

In recent years, we have seen the return of superheroes from my youth, from your youth, because some of them like Spider-Man and Superman have been around a long time.

But you will remember names like Thor, the Fantastic Four, Thor. Let's not forget Batman. Our oldest son loves to get coffee cups or t-shirts with superhero logos on them. Thanksgiving weekend, he wore a t-shirt. Actually, his mother gave that to him, and it had kind of the Batman logo. And then it said, I'm not saying that I am Batman, but that no one has seen both Batman and me in the same room. Wonder Woman, thank you. Thank you. All help is appreciated here at this age. And there's Captain America, and there's Daredevil. And who can forget the Incredible Hulk? Well, I want to talk about a superhero today, and it's not any of those. Not one of those. There is a biblical superhero that I think we can learn a lot of lessons from. His story is told in the book of Judges. It is unique. The story is unique in the fact that it starts from before he is born and takes us all the way through to his death. And his name, of course, is Samson. He's what some have called the biblical Superman. And I thought it had been a while since we've just taken one of these biblical personalities and looked at their life and times, and then drawn some lessons from their life. And I want to do that with you today. Let's turn over, first of all, to Judges 21, right at the end of the book. And let us be reminded that this was somewhat of a bleak era among the children of Israel. The period of the Judges roughly went from around 1375 down to 1050 BC. Roughly 325 years. It was over 300 years. It was less than 350 years, though.

But right at the end of Judges 21, we have verse 25. And as we get through the story of Israel and various tribes and some of the heroes that God rose up to deliver them, some of their wars and some of their moral failures, we have the statement, in those days, there was no king in Israel, everyone did what was right in his own eyes. So this is a summary of the era in which Samson lived and worked as a judge of Israel. Now, let's go back to chapter 13, because we have Samson's story told to us in four chapters, 13 through 16. And we'll first just survey some of the story, some of the trials and tribulations that he faced, some of the mistakes that he made.

The name Samson is, well, you'll get different answers if you start looking to see what does Samson actually mean, because it's interesting how names mean things, and oftentimes are a window into the character of the individual. In checking one reference, it says that his name means sunlight or like the sun, S-S-U-N. And I could see where, maybe there's a connection there, where God intended, because from the outset, he said that through this child born to Manoah and wife, that he would bring, he was going to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. So maybe in that sense, a deliverance, a coming of light. And yet Josephus made the statement that the name Samson meant strong or daring one, and you can certainly see that from the story that we're about to look at. So chapter 13, and in verse 1, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. That's a long time. I mean, that's the bulk of a lifetime of many of them. The Philistines came along, and it's a matter that it's in the time of King David before we find that basically they aren't picked, they aren't mentioned anymore until there are some areas of prophecy. Some of those peoples remain, but at any rate. Verse 2, there was a certain man from Zora of the family of the Danites. All right, tribe of Dan, up kind of the northern part of Israel. If you want to look at a, you've got some Bible maps probably, one may have the basics of the territories given to some of these peoples, whose name was Manoah. Manoah means rest. Rest. And his wife was barren and had no children. And the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Indeed, now you're barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink and not to eat anything unclean. For you shall conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb. And he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. And again, remember it was not until the time of David when the Philistines were basically driven away and were no longer a threat. Now, a Nazaritic vow. You could make a note of and go back to the early verses of Numbers 6 sometime. Numbers 6 will give you three main criteria for being under this Nazaritic vow. As we have read, his hair would not be cut, which would show his humility, his devotion to God. He would consume no alcohol.

And thirdly, he would not contact any unclean thing. Because this man was devoted to God, he was in a special sanctified relationship with God. And in the case of Samson, he was set apart from birth. Now, John the Baptist would be another name you might think of. You remember about him, a hairy man, the way he dressed, the devotion of his life to God from the time he was born. Well, she goes and tells Manoa. Manoa wants to hear more.

You could follow the story through here. We don't have to read all of it today. But at any rate, the angel of the Lord, which probably is the pre-incarnate Christ, the God of the Old Testament, appeared to his wife again, and then she went and got her husband, and so Manoa heard it directly himself. Let's go down to verse 24. So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mehena Dan, Mehena Dan, the camp of Dan between Zora and Esthel. So if you look at the map, you will see some of these cities. I've got the Life Application Bible with me. They have a little sketch, a little map right here, and it lists some of these places, these main key areas up above, or rather to the west from Jerusalem, because Dan at that time was over toward Tel Aviv over in that direction, modern-day city of Tel Aviv. Later on, they established a camp up north, and they moved up more to the far northwestern part. Chapter 14. We skip over his life, his growing up years, I should say, and here we find a young man, and he is a young man who has grown up in the church. But we begin to see that he's also the type of a personality who is going to have to learn a lot of things the hard way. Certain difficulties become evident, certain flaws in his character. As we read his story, he doesn't strike me as one who is all that convinced that the way that his parents probably taught him is the way he wanted to choose.

But in chapter 14, verse 1, so, Samson went down to Timna and saw a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. So again, if you check a map, it's over a bit further toward the Mediterranean, that strip of land where the Philistines dwelt. So they were kind of on the border area where he was born, wasn't that far from Zora on down to where this woman was. So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, I have seen a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore, get her for me as a wife. I think from the outset we see we have a young man who has, well, we call it an eye problem. His focus is on I, me, my. He's focused on self. I want what I want. I want this woman, even though she's outside of the stock of Israel, go get her for me. Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren or among all my people that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samuel said to his father, Get her for me, for she pleases me well. Well, once again, she's right in my eyes. I want her. Go get her.

Well, verse 4, But his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord. You see, God works in these curious ways behind the scenes. He is in charge. He reigns as sovereign. There are things he allows. There are things he foresees. There are things he may instigate, such as the book of Job was mentioned, Job 1 and 2, where God's the one that kind of set up Satan. Have you considered my servant Job? And then you know the rest of the story. So God's behind the scenes, and the parents didn't know, but God wanted to work out a marvelous plan here. He was of the Lord that he was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. And so Samson went down to Timna. Again, I think that we don't have to read all of this, but it's good to note that a young lion there at the end of verse 5, to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him, and his father and his mother are with him. Verse 6, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. So when this took place, he was out of their sight, but they were traveling together. But we see the Spirit of God working in him in a matter to give him almost a superhuman strength. A superhuman strength. Not just this story, but many others. So they went down and talked with the woman. It mentions in passing verse 8 the swarm of bees, already honey, in the comb there in the carcass of the lion, that Samson went and got some. Now, for one who is under the vow of an Azarite, this is a problem. He is not to touch any unclean thing, and a dead carcass. Clean animal, unclean animal, certainly unclean animal, is not for an Azarite to touch. And so he scooped out some of the honey, took it, gave to his parents, and they didn't know that the honey had come from the carcass of a lion.

Now, verse 10 tells us of a feast that is taking place. This is there with his wife to be, and there are these 30 companions and the posing of a riddle. Verse 12, let me pose a riddle to you. If you can properly solve and explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing. But if you cannot explain it to me, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing. So they said, well, tell us your riddle. Verse 14, he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet, which we realize hearkens back to going and getting of the honey, the honeycomb from the in the carcass of that lion. And they couldn't explain it. Well, verse 15, they leaned on his wife, and so she does lean on him. And in verse 16, you only hate me, you do not love me. And if you love me, you'd tell me the answer. Well, he told her the answer, and she told the 30. And so they came back, verse 18, before the sun went down. So it's right at the end of the seven days. And what is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle. So he realized they had manipulated his wife and got the answer. Verse 19. You know, in fact, let's pause right there. There's a very important proverb. Keep your place. We'll be right back. But Proverbs 16 verse 32. 1632.

And here, here we read in the proverb that he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty. And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. And so it's pointing out that one who has self-control, and you know, that's one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, a person with self-control is greater to God, perhaps we should add, to God, than the great general who leads forces and takes a city or overthrows a nation. And Samson is largely without any self-control.

He sees something, and he wants it, and he goes after it. But as we go back to Judges 14, let's look at the last couple of verses. Verse 19. Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon. So again, look at the map, and it goes further on down. It's one of the five main cities of the Philistines. And he went down there, killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave their changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. So his anger was aroused, and he went back up to his father's house.

And Samson's wife, who was given to his companion, who had been the best man.

Well, Samson, nothing's turning out right thus far. We have a man with tremendous ability, tremendous potential, but he can't see the bigger picture. He can't see what is most important. He can only see what he wants. He compromises what he knows to be right. The results are the opposite of what he wanted. Happiness is not found by going out and seeking what is right in your own eyes. Happiness is not found by giving in to the machinations. There's another word we can write down, the machinations of your own heart, your own lust.

But here in this book, not just these chapters, but in this book of Judges, we see this almost never-ending cycle of the people of God, the children of Israel in one place or another, drifting away from God, going into sin, being punished, ending up in being oppressed, but then in time repenting, crying out to God, being delivered, but then they start heading back into the sin of forgetting God once again. And as we look at Samson, we see someone who just doesn't seem to be concerned about God at all. Chapter 15. Chapter 15, he visits his wife. The terminology here is a little confusing. He was at the wedding feast, but then he left. His wife was given to the one who was the best man, but now he goes back to her, and he takes a young goat. And he said, let me go into my wife, into her room, but her father would not permit him to go in. Her father said, I really thought that you thoroughly hated her, therefore I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better than she? Please take her instead. And Samson said to them, this time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them. So, verse 4, Samson went and caught 300 foxes, and he took torches, turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. And when he had set the torches on fire, he let the foxes go into the standing grain. I skipped over the part right at the beginning of verse 1 that it was at the wheat harvest. So it is when the fields are golden and very prone to wildfires, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as vineyards and olive groves. And they wanted to know who has done this, and they found it Samson. Now, you read this, and I can't help but think it just has the taste, the story has the flavor of someone who was used to these types of things, of wreaking havoc on others, and it makes you wonder what stories may have happened that were never told. But it's beyond just a little harmless mischief. I mean, it destroyed the livelihood of a lot of people for that year. And clever, devious, kind of a macabre sense of humor, maybe, but he had an attitude that I can handle anything. And again, he did have an eye problem. Well, let's drop on down. He goes verse 8. He goes, at the end of that, he went down and dwelt at the cleft of the rock of Eton. And the Philistines came up against him, against Lehi. And those of Judah sent three thousand men, verse 11, to the cleft of the rock of Eton, and said to Samson, Do you know the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us? And he said to them, as they did to me, so I've done to them. That's kind of the way he lived his life. In fact, it's almost like I hit them before they hit me. I'm going to get even before they do anything to me.

Well, as the story goes on, he allowed them to tie him. They promised not to take his life. They tied him with new ropes and brought him up from the rock. Verse 14. He came to Lehi. The Philistines came, shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. You see, as we read these stories, it's like that this superhuman strength and ability came upon him as a gift of the Spirit of God at times. Maybe it wasn't there in quite the same way all along. But these statements tell us where the true strength came from.

The true strength was not from within. It was from above. It came from God.

But it came upon him mightily, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and killed a thousand men.

Well, at the end of verse 17, the place was called Ramoth Lehi. So, jawbone height. Ramoth is a height, a hill, a high point. And then the Lehi is jawbone. He became very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord and said, You've given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant. Notice he does not give the victory to God. Yes, you've done this, God, but by my hand. There's still a lot of I, me, and my in there.

And now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank. His spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore, he called the name Enchakkahri, which is in Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel 20 years in the days of the Philistines. So it's as though with this overthrow and the killing of that many Philistines, that at that time, he was set up in that part of ancient Israel as a judge, as a leader, as one who could deliver them. So it skips over an awful lot of time right there. But once again, we see someone I did to them, as they did to me.

There was a spirit of retaliation, of vengeance, of revenge, and those always take us down a dark path. And the only way to break that cycle is not retaliation, and not hitting harder, and not hitting first. The only way to break that cycle is by forgiveness.

Well, chapter 16 is the last chapter that tells us about Samson. And this is where we have the story of Delilah coming along. We once again find a man. Maybe I shouldn't call him young man by this point, because time has gone on. And we find a man with little self-control. He also flagrantly disregarded the law of God. And we find that lust, that this passion was ruling him.

So verse 1, Samson went to Gaza, and that's again one of the great cities of the Philistines, and saw Harlot there and went into her. When the Gazites were told Samson has come here, they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, in the morning when it is daylight we will kill him. And Samson lay low till midnight, and then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two gateposts pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. Well, anyhow, is this not just rubbing it in their nose once again?

Then we get to this woman whose name was Delilah, who apparently was phenomenal, in her natural beauty, on the outside. But there's not much beauty on the inside.

And so we have the lords of the Philistines, verse 5, came up to her and said, entice him. Find out where his great strength lies, that we may overpower him and afflict him. Every one of us will give you eleven pieces of silver. The lords of the Philistines, they did have those five great cities, so at least five. Maybe there were more lords than that. Well, the story ensues, and you're familiar with the story. He's toying with her, he's playing with her, and first of all, as she is pleading with him to tell me the secret, verse 7, he tells her, if you'll bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I'll be weak as any man. Well, that didn't happen. She realized that he had lied to her. She called for the Philistines, and he broke them as if there was nothing. Well, she continued after him in verse 10, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me what you may be bound with.

They were taking the approach that surely you can tie him up with something and he can't get free. Verse 11, so he said to her, if they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak like any man. Well, we know that story. She called the Philistines, he broke them, the end of verse 12, he broke them off his arms like a thread.

Well, she persisted, and in verse 13, he told her, if you will weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom. Again, he must have had long, long hair by this time because a razor was not to touch it. Interesting that he would abide by that part of the life that he was given. But, you know, too many times he was off at feasts, which were known for having alcohol, and too many times he'd grab honey out of the carcass of a dead lion or pick up a jawbone from a donkey and use it as a weapon.

So, he disregarded that part of it, of keeping himself away from the unclean. Well, she did that, and once again called the Philistines, and he pulled his hair out of her loom. Well, verse 15. Then she said to him, How can you say, I love you? When your heart is not with me, you have mocked me these three times.

Well, Samson has truly met his match. She's putting it back on him. You have mocked me. She's got an eye problem, too. And have not told me where your great strength lies. It came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death that he told her all his heart and said, No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been an Azurite to God from my mother's womb.

If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man. And her woman's intuition told her, he has truly told me the truth. And so, she, of course, calls those. She lulls him to sleep. She calls someone to cut off his hair and cries out, the Philistines are upon you.

And lo and behold, this time, like it says at the end of verse 20, but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Because the Lord, not his hair, his Lord was the strength, the source of his strength.

God left him, and he was like anybody else. And there's probably a warning there we could dwell on as well. Then the Philistines took him, put out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza. This chapter is interesting. He starts the chapter at Gaza, seeing a harlot, and he ends back at Gaza, and he's grinding their grain. And that's where his life ended. He became a grinder in the prison.

Verse 22, however, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven. And that's a little footnote there to remind us that it doesn't matter how deep a sin we may commit. It does not matter how far we may drift away from God. It's never too late to start all over. And we find that's what happened with Samson. His hair began to grow, and as it grew, it was a symbol of his devotion and submission to God. And it goes on. The latter part of the chapter tells of the the lords of the Philistines, and they're there to sacrifice the Dagon, their God, the fish God.

And they said, in the end of verse 23, our God has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy. And so they cried out, praise their God Dagon, they cried out for Samson to come out and and to perform for us. Well, in the middle of verse 25, so they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars. And Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I may lean on them.

Now the temple was full. I skipped over the part that his eyes, his eyesight was put out. He had spent his life living his life based upon what he could see with his eyes, and wanting what he could see with his eyes. And you know, the Apostle Paul is the one who said, we are to walk by faith and not by sight. And now he had no physical sight. And as he lost that physical sight during the time of grinding grain, he began to see spiritually.

27. The temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there. About three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, Lord, O Lord, God, remember me, I pray. Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes. You see, when the angel of the Lord appeared to Manoah, this son was to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. And now, his heart's desire was what God's will had been for him all along.

And Samson took hold the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And they pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the Lord's and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.

And his brothers in all his father's household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Esthel. In the tomb of his father, Manoah, he had judged Israel 20 years.

You know, the New Testament, let's keep our place here.

But can anyone think of a place in the New Testament where Samson is mentioned?

Hebrews 11. Let's look at Hebrews 11 and begin in verse 32.

We have had a certain amount of detail given about names like Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and many others. But as the author, who I believe was Paul, as the author gets down toward the time when the walls of Jericho fell, he starts summarizing. Verse 32, What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms.

You see, Samson is one listed here, and the Philistines were knocked back severely. They weren't gone yet, but they were really knocked back and weakened by what happened there at that temple that day. Worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. Well, Samson did that. Daniel, God through Daniel, did that. Quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword. Yes, they wanted to kill him, and he just uprooted the whole city gates and walked off on the hill with it. Out of weakness were made strong. That's a very important statement right there. The Apostle Paul said that in one of his epistles. He had this physical equalizer that God gave him, lest he be exalted above measure, but he learned that by being weak, physically he was strong spiritually. Became valiant in battle, turned to flight, the armies of the aliens, and I think it's as far as we need to read. Samson, as he was grinding grain, and as his hair grew, Samson changed. Samson became a man of faith. He lost his physical sight, but he gained a deep, abiding faith in God, and he began to walk by faith, rather than human sight. Judges 16, verse 22, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven. And that hair, in his case as an Azerite, was his sign of being devoted to God.

It doesn't tell us the whole story of what happened to him in his years of imprisonment. But he became a pillar of faith, because he went through life's great experience that is called repentance. He changed. He began to walk the path of conversion, and he gave himself to the will of God, whatever that might be. And at the end, he gave his life to God's will to begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines, as his father had been told many years earlier.

The strength did not come from his hair. It never did. The strength began to flow, because his life and his attitude were devoted to God. It is as Zechariah was inspired to write so long ago that it is not by might or power, but by my spirits as the Lord of Hosts. And he died doing God's will. He died performing God's work. And he had finally subdued and was able to reign over the flaws of his own character and do simply what God said. So, as we look at these four chapters that tell the story of the biblical Superman, I'd like to quickly just list five lessons that we can draw. And there probably are so many more, but five we will focus on. The first one is, reach out for the very best in life. Reach out for the very best in life.

Don't settle for less than the best. And Samson is an example of one through the bulk of his life. He was willing to reach out for the crumbs that fell from the table of what could have been, what God could have given to him. And I think we're all guilty for settling for less than the best.

We're guilty whenever we sin. We take a wrong turn. We choose from the wrong tree. We can't cast stones at Samson or anyone else because we've all made our mistakes and we all will. And we pay penalties for sins of the past. Sin limits our receipt of the very best that God intends. Young people starting out can work from the beginning toward having a happy marriage as a teenager. If they'll wait, if they'll be patient, if they will do it God's way, there's so much that God holds out in a loving marital union that God intends.

But sometimes we get in such a hurry and we want to go outside the law of God. And we always pay prices when we do. But if possible, keep yourselves pure and chaste within the law of God. Sin has a way of offering pleasures that in the end it really can't deliver.

It might feel good for a moment, but there's a price to be paid later on.

And sometimes those prices, those penalties, can be with us for a long, long time, even after God forgives us and other people forgive us. Lesson number two. Lesson number two. Deeply appreciate God's truth. Deeply appreciate God's truth. Samson is an example of a life of one who obviously took the truth for granted. It was all too easy for him. The law of God, the way of God, the blessings of Israel were all given to him on a silver platter. And you know, humanly we tend to disregard, even disrespect, that which costs us little. And what God has given to us costs the body and blood of Jesus Christ. It cost us the ultimate sacrifice. When we were first called, there was a zeal. Everything was new. We couldn't get enough. We'd devour the next magazine that came. We would devour the new booklet that came. We would pour over materials of the truth and over God's Word. I think it'd be good for us within families. Share your stories. Some of you go back decades. You have stories. You remember examples of people who drove a long, long time. Great distances. R.C. Pritchett down here in Birmingham was called to the church at a time where there was a group of them that went to church in Memphis, Tennessee. And that was on Old U.S. 78. That's not on the new freeway that they are opening up more and more. They went to Memphis, Tennessee, if you can imagine. And that's what you did to observe the truth of God. The truth of God, and once God gives it to us, it's not, well, how to word it. Once God gives us a truth, it doesn't necessarily mean we'll always have the truth. We have to cherish it. We have to maintain it. We have to continually go to God. Or it'll start slipping away from us. And we all know people who have walked out these doors, never to be heard from again. You can see some later who drifted away from the church years ago, and it's like they don't even remember what they once knew. And that ought to sober us to deeply appreciate God's truth, and thank God for it every day, and renew that truth within us every day.

Lesson number three. Number three is that true strength comes from God.

True strength comes from God. Humans tend to want to rely upon our own strength. Samson lived by his own strength, and yet at the end, he failed because his mistakes came crashing down on him. He imploded from within. There was a big cave-in that took place there in his life. And the strength never was in the hair. The strength was from God. It came from above. It came from above. The Spirit of God worked in Samson's life in a very uncommon way. It gave him the ability to rip ravenous lions apart, or to tear ass-threads, brand new ropes with which he was bound, to take a bone and kill a thousand men. He worked with him in a unique way. He worked in us in other ways. As Paul said, we walk by faith, not by sight. And the Spirit of God, there are all kinds of different phrases as far as how the Spirit works. It regenerates. It revives. The old King James word is, it quickens, makes alive again. And it imparts faith. It teaches all kinds of means by which the Spirit of God works in our lives. It bears fruit. It empowers us to do what we can't do on our own strength. And anyhow, truth strength always comes from God.

Lesson number four. Number four, it is never too late to start over. It is not where we began that matters most. It is where we end up. Along our own Christian journey, we all make mistakes. We will make more. What matters is that we get back up, and we walk by faith, and we let God live through us. Samson disregarded what he was given. He didn't value the pearl of great price. He made some awful mistakes. He paid some horrible penalties. But in the end, he was a humbled, devoted, repentant tool in God's hands. In the end, he was willing to just simply do what God had brought him into the world to do, and that is to begin the deliverance from the Philistines for those of the Israelites. We see this old saying, Be patient with me. God is not through with me yet. And that is a true saying. God is not through with any one of us. Sometimes we have a lot of unnecessary mileage on us by some choices we have made. Sometimes we are wounded. We are the walking hurt. But it is never too late to just simply get back up, dust off, and put one foot in front of the other, and walk in the direction of doing it in God's way. It's never too late to take a step in the right direction. Number five. Lesson five. Judge, righteous judgment.

Now, this may seem like a strange lesson to add here in this context, but look at it from this point of view. If you were in a position of hiring a judge and a deliverer for Israel, and if you were handed Judges 13 through 16 as Samson's resume, would you hire him?

Probably not. You would look at this and you think, this guy has no use to it. We'll cast him aside. Because, you see, humanly, we look at the present. We look at just what we see before us.

We don't look at what may be, what might be, as God brings out His will for that person, as God humbles and chastises that person. Let's go to 1 Samuel 16.

Samuel was sent to the household of Jesse. He knew why he was sent, and that was to anoint the next king. He didn't know who that person was to be. We don't really know if Samson knew well of the tribe of Jesse. He just was sent there. Maybe he knew he had a whole bunch of sons, and maybe he didn't even know him. But he went there, and of course, the sons are assembled. And in verse, I always have to chuckle inside, verse 4.

So Samuel did what the Lord said and went to Bethlehem. And the elders of the town trembled at his coming and said, Do you come peaceably? Are you here? Are you for us or again us? Verse 6. So it was when they came, this is Jesse and sons, that he looked at Eliab and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before me. All right, this appears to be the eldest. He must have looked really good. Maybe he was bigger. I don't know what it was, but Samuel was immediately smitten by him. He was so dead certain. This is God's anointed, right here. But in verse 7, the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

The story goes on in verse 8. So Jesse called Abenadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. And so the way it's worded, it makes me wondered if Samuel thinks, Okay, well, this is him. And God says, Nope. And then Shammah passed by, and God had to tell Samuel, Nope, I haven't chosen this one. And actually, seven came and went. And at the end of verse 10, the Lord has not chosen these. Are all the young men here? Well, there's the youngest. He's out with the sheep. And David was brought, verse 12, he was ruddy, bright eyes, good looking. The Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is the one.

And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David. We tend to look at the outward appearance. We look at externals. And that's a sad commentary on how much we judge each other. I mean, people in general around us, people at work, people in the family, people in the community, but also people here in the body of Christ, we make all of these judgments. And I think what God is telling us is just a reminder. Judge righteous judgment. Don't look at the outside. Through 95% of the story of Samson, we would have said, he is nothing but trouble. Get rid of him. But at the end, we see, nope, there was a marvelous purpose God had for him. And he's listed among the faithful. Don't be so ready to focus on someone's faults and weaknesses. Don't be so ready, so willing to tear someone else down. Ask God to help you to see the potential, to look beyond short-term problems to see what may be in the long term as a potential to be a part of the very family of God. Maybe if we would suspend our unrighteous judgment a bit more often, we wouldn't have as many people problems as we tend to have. So the story of Samson. Superhero, yes.

The biblical superman. But it tells us there's a better way than the hard way. There is an easier way than learning by the school of hard knocks. Samson made a lot of tragic mistakes. And a lot of his story to me reads of a man who was lonely, frustrated, heartbroken, and unhappy. And it was unnecessary. But in the end, he died a different man. Grinding grain, he, like it says of the prodigal son and the old King James, when he came unto himself, grinding grain, Samson came unto himself and he became a different person. So let us appreciate and learn from his example, be cautioned by his mistakes, take great hope in the end of his life. We all have problems to face. We all make mistakes. But it is never, ever too late. to change.