The Life, Adventures and Near Tragedy of Samson

Be considered in what we might call the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.

I'm talking about Samson. If you took the time to read the title on your announcement bulletin of the sermon, you see that it's a rather long one. When I told my son this morning, my son called me from Indianapolis and told him what I was the title of my sermon, he said, are you sure that'll fit on a CD label? The Incredible Life Adventures in Near Tragedy of Samson.

Samson is one of those stories from the book of Judges that is fascinating. I chose to speak on this topic here. I think it's the first time I've really ever given a full sermon on Samson in all my years of giving sermons. Looking at it, a well-known story, there was a lot brought out in the Scriptures and a lot to think about. We all know the story of Samson, but what we may not know are some of the key lessons that we might learn from his life. Lessons that can impact every one of us today, young and old, as we look at our lives in the context of the plan of God, the purpose that God's working out. Samson's life is a story told in four chapters. Perhaps you could look at it as a story told in four acts in the book of Judges. In many ways, our stories that are told with differing acts that involve changes of scenes, growth, development, a bit of conflict, and ultimately, as in every good story, a resolution. And in the story of Samson, there is an interesting resolution for us all to ponder and to think about. If you will, please turn over to Judges 13. And we're going to look at the highlights of his life. I won't be able to read the entire verses in this. We'll hit some of the highlights as we move quickly through the story of Samson, which again, as I said, is well known to us. But again, to review it and to look at it in a fresh light can be instructive. Judges 13 tells the story in the midst of a time of evil. In this land of Israel, verse 1 has a very familiar refrain.

When the curtain rises, the children of evil did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. Perhaps a time of testing, a time of trial, seems to be a number that fits that oftentimes in the Scriptures. And for this particular episode, it's 40 years into the hands of the dread Philistines, that group of people that we find throughout the book of Judges and on into the book of Samuel, ending probably about the time of Saul and David with the story of Goliath, but a people that they just couldn't get rid of and lorded it over Israel at various times because of their sins, because of the way they acted toward God. And that's exactly what happened here. The Philistines are this people who, in a sense, kind of kept Israel from fully expanding and developing themselves in this period of time.

The Israelites did not drive out the Philistines or all the other Gentile nations that God had told them to do when they came into the land.

And in the story here of Samson, we're plunged right into the midst of the story of the tribe of Dan, which is, of all the tribes of Israel, one of the most interesting. A nation that, or a tribe that grew into a clan here that seemed a bit restless and are always associated here, especially in Judges, with a little bit of activity that just doesn't measure up to what is expected. In fact, as you know, the story of Dan, they seem to disappear from their inheritance. And we read about the tribes in the book of Revelation, and we find Dan is not mentioned. We can speculate as to why. But when you look at their story as told here in Judges, you see that they were just dialed in a little different, it seems, than the other tribes of Israel. And it is then to this tribe that Samson is born. And he is introduced here in a familiar story, as his parents are named and the family here, and the mother is a childless mother. A very, very great problem in this day and age, and an angel of the Lord appears to her in verse 3 and announces that she is going to have a son. And she's told in verse 4, Therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. For behold, ye will conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall be upon his head, for the child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. So Samson's mother gets some really good prenatal advice. Way ahead of their time. Don't drink alcohol when you're pregnant, as every pregnant lady is told by a good, responsible obstetrician today. Forgo during that period because of the complications that could arise for the fetus. Well, Samson had a good start. Just from that one point alone, but he also had a good start in that he was designated in the womb and set aside, much as we see other individuals in Scripture in that way, set aside for a very special purpose, and said that he is to be a Nazarite to God from the womb. The aspects of the Nazarite vow, quite interesting. Not a razor was to be upon one's head during the time of the vow. They did not drink alcohol. They could not touch unclean foods or bodies during that time that the Nazarite vow would have been taken. In Samson's life, it appears that he was under at least aspects of that, at least legally for all of his life.

Whether or not he lived by that is another question, but it is what was over his life and guided his life all of his life. It's interesting to think about a life guided by a vow, a solemn pledge to God. We would not typically do a Nazarite vow in the church today for a number of reasons, but to just think about making a commitment to God. We do that when we're baptized. We do that when we marry. A person might choose in some part of their life to make a promise to God about how they will live, something they will do. That's between us and God, should a person do that. I don't think any of us could typically fulfill completely a Nazarite vow today because there's no temple, there's no priesthood that would have been involved in ending it. But the idea of a man living a life consecrated by a vow to God within the confines or the strictures of a Nazarite vow is interesting to think about. It is, especially with Samson, as to what exactly he was born into and the type of parents. And the thinking and the feeling that they were given before his birth about the type of person he would be and how he would serve God and begin to be used in some way to break the yoke of the hand of the Philistines upon them, the dreaded Philistine yoke and problems. One of the things the Philistines did was they kept the art of metallurgy away from Israel for a period of time and they couldn't even have proper implements, to till the ground, much less instruments of war unless they got it from the Philistines for a period of time. That's how strong the control was in certain ways of the Philistines over the various tribes of Israel and points out part of the problem here. So this vow, the nature of the people of Dan that they were a part of, if some of the stories and legends about the tribe of Dan are true as they've developed down through the centuries, the Danites and certainly just from what we read about some of the things that they did in the scriptures, they were a warring people. They were a bit cranky at times, I guess is the way to put it. They were rough around the edges. And when we look at the story of Samuel, you see that in many ways, but certainly in the warlike nature and character that he had and that he was able to accomplish. In chapter 13 and down in verse 24, at the actual birth of Samson, it says that the woman bore a son and called his name Samson.

And the child grew and the Lord blessed him. It's almost language that we will find later in the Gospels talking about Jesus. Of course, he was announced in advance of his birth to Mary. And we have a very thin slice of a verse that tells us about a long period of time of Christ's life, that he grew and the Lord blessed him, found favor with God. Well, Samson grew and God blessed him as well. Now, verse 25 is interesting. It says, the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Dechthol. It's an interesting statement made about Samson, and without a lot of the details, but you begin to see God working upon him by his Spirit.

And this is what is at the heart in the sense of the essence of Samson, his strength and the nature of what he was able to do within Israel at the time with his life. It was by and through the Spirit of God, that very power. But it moved upon him. And it's interesting, one of the commentaries, I believe it's the expositors I was looking at, brings out the point that this verb, moving, moving upon him, is the same verb that is used when in the story of Pharaoh, who had the Pharaoh at the time of Joseph, who had the dreams that they had to bring Joseph in to interpret.

He was troubled, if you remember, as the account there in Genesis is. Pharaoh had a dream, and genuinely it shook him. He woke and he couldn't get it out of his mind. He was troubled by it, and he called in all of his advisors. Same with Nebuchadnezzar in chapter 2 of Daniel. He had this dream of an image, and he too was troubled. So much so, as you know, certain dreams we have, we may remember for a while. We wonder about it, and they're rather maybe vivid. And sometimes we might have a troubling dream. In this case, the same word here about the way the Spirit of God moved upon Samson is the same as in those others, but it's used here in connection with God's Spirit, moving upon Samson to do good things. And I think there's a lesson for us.

As God's Spirit moves, moved to Samson, it can move us, and it will move us. And we begin to see at the very beginning of Samson's life how that he was moved in a very powerful manner by God to do big things and to engage his life in something bigger than he was. Samson had every advantage as a young man. As this chapter tells us, his birth was predicted by an angel.

My birth wasn't predicted by an angel. I don't know about yours, but my mother didn't know that.

She just got pregnant. As I've said, there's only a few cases of this in advance of somebody being known from the womb. Jeremiah is another and certainly Christ. But to be known from the womb, that's a good beginning. He had godly parents who loved him greatly and were godly as they knew God and understood him at the time. He was dedicated through a Nazarite vow to God from his birth. And he experienced the power of God's Spirit moving upon him as a young man. And despite the favorable factors, as we know, Samson's life begins to unfold in various ways. But at every point of his success, every high point of his life, it is at a time when he is moved by the Spirit of God. And it's as if we could put it another way that the word began to be moved in this way. And it moved him to do some great works and profound stirrings to action. Here's where I'd like to give you one key thought, the first of five key thoughts I'll give you through this sermon here. And this is key thought number one.

What we see here as Samson grows and God blesses him is that God was working with him in his youth. And God works with us in our youth. God works with us as well and moves upon us in our youth. And a young person in God's church today should never underestimate what God can begin to do with them as he begins to move in your life. And in a sense that as the word is explained, the word means that it's an emotional stirring. It doesn't always have to be connected with a troubling dream or anything like that, but an emotion, a feeling of faith.

Can be very strong. A feeling of wanting to obey God, wanting to please God, wanting to learn more about God, to know who he is, and to have those stirrings emotionally and thoughtfully in one's youth as one becomes aware should not be neglected and treated lightly in your youth.

Because this is the time that we see it happening with Samson, and we should not underestimate when we might be moved to good works or to comprehend and to understand God and to desire a relationship with Him. Because as the Scriptures tell us, a young person, through their exposure to the church, to the Word of God, to the Scripture, through a parent's teaching, through a parent's example, through their own actions, or through a friend, and they're beginning to want to draw near to God and to understand the God of the Bible is something that God can act upon and move in His time and in His way.

And the power of our example toward that should never be underestimated. Whether you're a parent, whether you're a friend in school and you represent the truth, you represent God, His church, as you are in college, in high school, in middle school, with your friends at work, in whatever part of your life you may find yourself, don't underestimate the power of your example to be noticed and seen by someone else. And by your desire to say no to an activity or to an action, or to promote godliness by your faith and your way of life, God can work on that. And if you're ever moved to that point through your exposure to the Word of God, understand that that can be God's Spirit moving upon you and moving you to do something. I look back on my youth, and I didn't see this at the time, necessarily. I looked back on it several years later and could identify key spots in my youth where I felt that I was moved by the Spirit of God. And even before I was baptized, I had been a part of the church. My mother was a member of the church. And I can identify certain moments where I was moved to do something. And I knew that I needed to act righteously. I needed to do this or to do that, or not do this in some cases, and do what was right in other cases. And I did, and I'm profoundly glad that I did. And I look back now and I realize that was God's Spirit moving on my conscience, moving my actions because of what I had been exposed to, what I had heard in sermons, what I had seen in the example of others in the church that were my mentors in that day, in that period. And I needed to do something. Finally, in some cases, get off the fence.

So God's Spirit moves upon us in different ways. And that's what was happening here with Samson. And it was when God's Spirit came upon him and moved him to heroic feats that God was with him in using him to judge and to begin to break the hold of the Philistines upon Israel as the story is told here. Now let's go on to chapter 14 here, the second chapter, or if you will, the second act as it unfolds here, as he is now an adult. And this is what I determined or call Samson's first period of idiocy. First period of idiocy. He went down to Timna, and he saw a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. There have been strict instructions by God to the Israelites as to make sure your children marry within the clans, the tribes, within the faith, we would say. Don't go after these other gods and those peoples because they'll be drawn away. Well, what does Samson do? He goes down and he sees a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. He went up and told his father and his mother saying, I've seen a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines. Now, therefore, get her. Get her for me as a wife.

That's what he wanted. And so they were given orders to make arrangements for her to be his wife.

Now, here's what we need to stop and think for a minute about what's taking place around, not just in Samson's life, but among the Israelites. When you go back into Joshua, they conquered the land, and you're told that the tribes or the gentile nations that were already there were to be, in a sense, rooted out, but they weren't. God says, look, they've got high places. They've got these centers of religious worship. Get rid of them. Don't let them stay in the land. And very often, these places were kind of on the hilltops, and they were called the high places. And you have to stop and think about what that means. I was thinking about this a few months ago and reading a part of that, and I realized, well, of course, there's a reason to put these places on the high places, because in Israel, as the Israelites settled, they kept kind of some of the lower lands. And if they didn't root out all these pagan shrines and places of worship on the high spots, they were going to be seen for a long way off by the Israelites. And you know what they would see? If you were in Israelite toiling away into the low valleys and you look up about dark and you'd see one of these pagan high places, you'd see lights, bright lights. And in the ancient world, a big bright light was a draw. It was a beacon. And if you looked long enough and listened very carefully, you'd probably hear music, because along with their pagan festivities, there'd be bands playing, rock bands, heavy metal bands, country bands, contraband. No, music. And you know what else would be up there?

Food, because they would be having a good time. And a part of the festivity would be a lot of food. And there'd be something else there, a fourth item. What do you think that would be?

No. Maybe that too. Sex, because every pagan right and god and goddess was done so through fertility rights, sexual activity. Why do you think the Israelite boys would want to go to the hills? And to those high places, why do you think God said, don't let them stay around? Because you had lights, you had music, you had food, and you had sex. It was Vegas.

It was Las Vegas in their day. If you've ever gone through the desert at night, you crested the hill and you've seen Vegas laying out in the desert. But, oh, you understand exactly. It's lit up out in the middle of darkness, and it's a draw. And that's what was drawing Samson down to Timna and a woman, and it was beginning to draw him away. Well, you look at the story here back in chapter 14. He wanted the wife, and he made a decision. Now, his parents weren't happy, but he insisted. Now, there were consequences to that, as the story in chapter 14 goes on to show. If you look at verse 4, it says, "...his father and mother did not know that it 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." Now, that's an intriguing thought that is put here into the story to explain not just Samson's decision, but how it fit within the larger context of what God was doing.

One thing to always remember, whether it's in this story, but any other story of the intrigue and the sometimes perplexing situations we ask, well, why did God let this happen? Why did a good person do this? And why did it work out? God's sovereignty. His sovereignty, his purpose, and his plan is overarching everything, even our decisions. And he can use even the bad decisions to continue to further his purpose and his will among his people, as we see in many examples in Scripture, and we see it right here. Because Samson was making a personal choice, as so often we do. We want, in this case, a wife from someone completely alien of our culture, our lifestyle, and certainly one's faith. And the parents couldn't see, as it was put in here, that this even worked toward God's end and toward his purpose, because he was going to work and allow that to seek an occasion against the Philistines. God was moving Israel ultimately into a key position within the world at that time, and it didn't happen during Samson's age, his period. He died and had generation passed. Ultimately, a few years later, under David and then Solomon, Israel did come together and get their act together for a period of time, and they did ultimately, for a brief period, became that bright, shining nation on a hill of a godly nation, worshiping God, ultimately reaching a high point during Solomon's time, and then after his death, it kind of went downhill. But God's purpose was to eventually accomplish that. He was going to, originally when he brought them out of Egypt, he was going to take them in a more direct path toward that end. But because of their sin, they had to take, they took the number of detours. But again, God's sovereignty and God's purpose always stands, regardless of individual decisions that may be made at various times, even among key individuals, like Samson here, who was a judge. Samson had a role to play, and God was going to accomplish his largest purpose, in this case, among the Philistines, in spite of the minor missteps that other humans took. As I said, Samson's story is a story within a larger story.

And you know, he uses us, too, in the midst of a larger story. Our lives make sense when we keep them set in the larger context of God's great purpose that he's working out.

We should always remember that and count it a great joy that God has revealed to us the purpose he's working out in this world, in the purpose of human life, in who he is, and why the church is as it is, and the truth that we are called to live within this age is. And focus on the positive aspects of that, as it is set in the context of God's greater plan. It's when we lose sight of that, that we sometimes make decisions that cause us to go down detours.

And five years, ten years, twenty years later, we may veer back onto the right path.

But our lives are set within a larger plan. I've lived my life like that from an early age. I know many of you have. And again, those decisions are important to be understood when you're young. When you're young. And when we keep that in mind, we understand then our individual story in the context of a larger story of God's plan, and it makes sense, and it has purpose, and it keeps us moving toward God and toward His kingdom. Neither Samson or his family, his parents understood all of that at that particular time, the large imprint that they were making. There were consequences to Samson's choice. I keep bringing in Samuel into this, but there are always consequences. And God doesn't hide that twice in this chapter of chapter 14.

You see the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Samson. He kills a lion and a tremendous feat of strength that He does, almost as a side thought, as He veers off the path, He counters a lion, kills him, and that story winds around later than with the honey there. And that's an example of Samson violating his Nazarite vow because he wasn't supposed to touch a dead corpse.

But it's all part of the persona that He is weaving. In verse 19, we see that Him moved here again by the Spirit of the Lord, and it came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon, and he killed thirty of their men, took their apparel, and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle. And so his anger was aroused, and he went back to his father's house. His wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. The whole story here is he doesn't really wind up with the woman that he wanted. He gets tricked and jerked around, and yet God's Spirit is still upon him, came upon him mightily, and he went and did what he did here. It was an anger, and it was for his own purpose in one sense, and yet God's Spirit was upon him. And in the course of the riddle that he tells, you see an interesting aspect of Samson's personality, that he was a woody guy, sharp-brained, very good intellect, and how he weaves this around here. But at the end of the chapter, it's a failed relationship. Did he learn? Well, we have to read on to see. In chapter 15, we see revenge, retaliation, and anger in this third chapter, this third act of the story of Samson.

His short fuse becomes an instrument where a thousand phyllisines are killed as he charges them with a jawbone of an ass. When you look at this story here, he wanted to go down in verse 1, visit his wife, and he's told by her father that she's been given to someone else, and so he gets angry, gathers up 300 foxes in verse 4, and turns them into flaming torches and sends them out amongst the green fields, the corn, verse 5.

The standing grain of the phyllisines burns it up with the shocks, as well as the vineyards and the olive groves. And one of the things you should understand is this fantastic story in itself, how he got 300 foxes together, tied him into 150 flaming battalions, and I don't know. He was a pretty sharp character to get that done. But he sends them out, and it basically, when you start destroying olive groves, you're destroying years and years of work.

Olive trees take a long time to grow, vineyards, and they produce for a long, long period of time. But you destroy that, you begin, you strike a blow economically. And this is what this incident was, and it should be understood in that context of an individual who destroyed, not destroyed completely, but he struck a blow at a critical moment to the Philistine economy. And that's one of the ways by which God was beginning to work on the Philistines to break their power and ultimately their hold, because that crippled them.

It didn't destroy them, but it did cripple them for a period of time. We, in 2008, the United States and other Western nations went through a very, a crippling financial near meltdown. It didn't destroy us. We bounced back, but it did hurt, and it did impact the United States in ways that are still playing out. That's how things work economically at times. And the the Philistine economy was not put under, but it was crippled at this particular time.

And so they wanted to know who did it, and they were told that it was Samson, the son-in-law of the Tim Knight, and he attacks them in verse 8, hip and thigh. I love that phrase in Samson, hip and thigh, whatever that means. I just love it. You know, you can slay them hip and thigh with a great slaughter. Well, then he goes off and goes into a kind of a solitary mode into a cliff of a rock for a period of time.

And the Philistines pursue him. They come up and they deploy themselves against him. And an interesting scenario develops here, and the remainder of these verses here, because some of his fellow Israelites, men of Judah, verse 10, they come up and they say, why have you come against us? And they answered, and we said to the Philistines, we came to arrest Samson to do to him as he's done to us. So 3,000 men of Judah, they went down to the cleft of the rock and they said to Samson, there's a 3,000 person delegation.

Think about that. 3,000 men, they go to Samson and they say, do you know what this is all about, what you've done? And he says, well, as they did to me, so I'm going to do to them. I've done to them. And they said, well, we've come down to arrest you that we may deliver you. So Samson strikes a bargain with them and he says, well, you know, turn me over to him, but kind of keep the ropes kind of loose.

And we'll go along with that. And they tie him up with new ropes and bring him down from the rock. And in verse 14, once again, the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that he burned with fire and his bonds broke loose from his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it and killed a thousand men with it. Probably the most famous of the stories of Samson, maybe the second most. He kills a thousand men. Think about it.

Three thousand men of Judah had come up to talk to Samson. And we have a thousand men that are ultimately killed of the Philistines, almost three to one. But the men of Judah couldn't muster the desire, the gumption to act on their own behalf. It took one man, Samson, to do what he did. Now what Samson did, I don't know how he did that. I mean, a jawbone, even a big jawbone, to kill a thousand men. That's a legion. In the Roman period, a Roman legion was a thousand men.

And Samson slays a thousand of them right here when he reaches out and he killed a thousand men.

He's trying to think about exactly how he would have done that. And then I thought about the movie The 300, or The Matrix. Some of these martial arts movies, and you see this, I don't know what you call it. I tried to, I went to our crack video men here yesterday and tried to find out exactly what it is that that type of photography is called. I couldn't find Jamie. He was off with someone else.

But you know, you're seeing these scenes of, you know, warriors that they leap and they jump and the action just stops and they turn and then they suddenly they're off on the other side and this and that and maybe that's how Samson did it. I don't know. It was a stop action sequence of his day that allowed him to dominate the field. The guy was a one-man SEAL team.

He was a one-man Delta Force. All rolled into one with what he did that day. It's phenomenal to even stop and think about it. You know, when the Romans lost a lead, one of their crack legions in the forests of Europe in the first century and it devastated them. When the news returned to Rome that they had lost the legion to a Germanic tribe, they were devastated, demoralized. The Roman Empire didn't end at that moment, but it was a major blow. A thousand Philistines to die like this at the hand of one man, it was a demoralizing blow that took place. And again, you see God working against the Philistines even through Samson here in this particular way. He was not limited by Samson's weakness. God's intent was to break the whole of the Philistines in that way. Well, you know, it's interesting in verse 16. Samson makes a boast. He says, "...with a jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps, with a jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men." You begin to see a little crack in his shield of faith. He talks about what he did. He boasts a bit of what he has done, not giving God the total credit for the spiritual power that he has and what gift and talent that he had when the Spirit moved upon him. He didn't give God fully the credit. He had a time of regathering here. He became very thirsty in verse 18.

And he cries out to God and God hears him and provides him with the nourishment and the sustenance to regain his life at this time. God wasn't finished with Samson. His intent was going to be accomplished. He was going to break the hold of the Philistines. The wrath of men, one of the Psalms says, can be used of God for his purpose. And in this case, that is being done.

We're told that in verse 20 that he judged Israel for 20 years and the days of the Philistines. What other exploits he may have done in that time. We're not told by the story.

But he continued on, and perhaps because of what had happened at this point, he has then looked upon as a judge, as a figure of authority within Israel at this time for 20 years.

He's a physically strong man, obviously a virile individual, probably quite handsome. It's very easy to imagine a cult of Samson developing within Israel at this time during this period. Their deliverer, their hero, who killed a thousand Philistines. And what he began to do at this point, we could only speculate about. Because we see his actions beginning—there's the crack where he's beginning to reflect more upon himself than God, depending more on his own gifts and his talents than completely that of God. And if the stories began to be told, and the legend of Samson grew, you can only imagine the songs that may have been written about him and sung around the fires, and in the gatherings of other men, around the places where people would have gathered in that day, and the stories that would have been told about Samson. And they would have grown as only a legend grows over any individual, no matter what they have done. And in this case, he would have been a very popular individual. We could well imagine that he wrote his memoirs and they had a movie made about him during this period of time. He grew, he became older, and when we look at him, in on him in chapter 16, we still see that he has not learned his lessons because he went to Gaza, that says, the same Gaza that we read about and hear about in the news today where the Palestinians are. It's a Palestinian enclave within Israel today, separate from Israel, but kind of a thorn, still a thorn to Israel, even where Gaza exists today. Well, Samson went there and he saw a harlot and he went into her. Another period of idiocy. You know, you're reading along the story of Samson and you sympathize with him. You say, that's it. Good, good on you.

Then he makes a hard left turn and he goes off and does something stupid like this.

You're thinking, oh man, haven't you learned? You could have had a V8, Samson. But he goes and he visits, he goes and visits a harlot. Again, you see his actions reflecting more him and his desires than God. Well, he can still party and he does, but he's entrapped when they're told that he's there, he's surrounded by men of the city and they're going to lay in wait for him, but he wakes up in the middle of the night after being with the harlot and he escapes and he lifts up the gates of the city, puts them on his back and walks with those gates about 40 miles probably to the hill of Hebron as it tells the story here. This was not just a stroll across the courtyard, it was a hike, a big hike with the big gates, not a little garden gate that you and I might have in our backyard made out of chain link fence or anything like that. The gates of an ancient city were big and massive timbers and he puts them on his back and he walks 40 miles and deposits them. And in this particular point, he's still not focused even on God and what he did. They endeavored to entrap him. Which brings me to key thought number two. If God has moved upon us at any time in our life and magnified our talents and our abilities, that's a good thing. Whatever natural talents we might have been born with and developed. And then with God's Spirit moving upon us and in us and God gifting us with certain talents and skills, whatever that may be. And we have used them in service. We've used them in teaching. We've used them in various ways to edify and to build the body of Jesus Christ. Make sure we keep our eyes firmly fastened on that.

Use the gifts for God's purpose and His edification. Never forget who He is and why He's given us what He's given. Who God is and why we've been called and why we have been given what we have been given. Never forget that. Samson began to forget it at this point. We don't know all that had led up to this. He goes down and he gets himself involved with a harlot. And then as you read on in verse 4, it happened that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. My, my, my. Delilah. I had to go type into YouTube and ask for the lyrics to the Tom Jones song, Delilah. And I had to listen to the whole song, too. It was pretty good.

I'd forgotten how good it was. You know what the first the first stanza of the song is? I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window. I won't try to sing it like Tom Jones, but I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blinds. She was my woman.

As she deceived me, I watched and went out of my mind. My, my, my, Delilah. Why, why, why Delilah?

Tom Jones had a pretty good hit with that back in the 60s. And I think that first stanza kind of captures the spirit of what the story about Samson and Delilah then becomes in this. He's entranced by her. And she sells him out four times to find out the source of his strength.

And this is what makes up the bulk of this story from this point on. Verse 5, The lords of the Philistines came to her and said, entice him, find out where his great strength lies, by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and every one of us will give you 1100 pieces of silver, quite a sum. Well, you know the story. She begins to wheedle and entice him. And he toys with her like a cat with a mouse, even to the point on one occasion I've you try to imagine this, she weaves his hair into a loom and into some cloth while he's sleeping. He must have really been, he must have tied one on the night before is all I can say to have been that happened to him without knowing what was going on, didn't deter him, he rips it all up and takes off as well. Until finally he gives in and he tells her that it's in his hair, as you know.

And she brings the Philistines in, they buzz his hair off. And you and I both know that the strength was not in his hair, the strength was from God. The hair was merely a symbol of his strength through the Nazarite vow and his relationship with God. And there was no magical powers in those dreadlocks that they must have sheared off at that point in the story here.

But then he's powerless because God's not with him. And he's on his own. He's on his own.

And there's a key thought here as well. When you look at the story of Samson and Delilah, know the character of the person that you want to marry before you fall in love.

Determine, ladies, men, the character of the person that you want in a mate before you fall in love.

Don't try to make over a flawed person. It doesn't always work.

Know what you want. Samson, unfortunately, he got himself involved with a flawed woman.

And there was nothing that was going to change her. She was poisoned. She enticed him and she brought him down to his downfall. But he couldn't see him. He couldn't see her character. Four times she deceived him because perhaps Samson wanted to be deceived. You have to try to push yourself in that story. Why couldn't he see through her? Was it blind love on his part? Was it an old man by this point, at least old by the age, that couldn't see any better? Sometimes old men make bad decisions with women. And in this case, it could have been that one. But it's obvious Samson wanted something strong enough. And when we want something strong enough in our life, whatever it might be, a person to marry, something else, some physical bubble or some position or something, when we want it bad enough, we'll sometimes allow ourselves to be deceived, tricked to get it. And we will fall for lies and deceit. It's important to be honest. Practice integrity at every point of action in our life. I once had a member in the church years ago where I pastored. He was a good man. He tried hard and a very good servant within the church. As I got to know him, he told me a bit about his past life before he was called. He was a salesman when I knew him, but he had always been a salesman. And he had a gift of sales and the gift with people to talk and engage people and sell whatever he was that he was selling. One of his episodes of his life, he was a salesman. He would go from town to town and he would open up a storefront meat store. We used to see these a lot. I don't see them anymore, but you'd see ads in the paper back when we had papers and we read papers for those things. You'd see an ad for a storefront location of so-and-so's meat market, and they would be selling quarters and half a whole week if you wanted, really cheap. Well, it was sometimes tainted meat. Or it wasn't what it was purported to be, and it was way overpriced. And this is what he did. He would open up a meat store and he would sell and sell and sell until he got caught. Usually he would get run out of town by the attorney general or somebody would bring suit because of deceit. But he'd just pack up and go down the road to another place and open up another storefront meat store. And he was telling me about this. And I said, well, how did you do this? And he said, you know, he said it was easy. People always thought they were getting a bargain. It's easy to trick people and deceive them if they think they're getting a bargain. If they want to, they thought they were going to be getting one over on me by my prices and the way I marketed it, but it was really me that was getting it over to them. But he said, one thing I learned and through all of this, he said, I could never cheat an honest man.

He said, I could never cheat an honest man. And he said, I quit trying. If they were honest, they probably didn't come in my store. But if they were honest, they could see through me.

And I could never deceive an honest man. That's why it's important to be an honest person and to practice integrity, because we're less prone to be deceived, thinking that we're going to get something for nothing or something for some grand bargain that turns out to be a swindle, whatever it might be. And it's so unfortunate when we hear of people who are swindled by scams over the Internet, over the telephone, or even in person, even sometimes with people that they do know and trust. But I've always learned that piece of advice. You can't cheat. I couldn't cheat an honest man.

By this time in Samson's life, he had drifted from God, and he couldn't see through Delilah. And it cost him ultimately his life. And as you know, his life ended on a tragic note. Because when you come down to the end of the story, they put his eyes out after they were able then to finally bind him, and his strength was gone. And then there came that day, that fateful day when there was this huge festival at the temple of Dagon.

Beginning in verse 23, with the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their God and to rejoice. They thought God had delivered their enemy into their hands. All of their people came together. They were rejoicing. They praised God. And it happened that they said, well, bring Samson in. That he may perform for us in verse 25. So they called for Samson from the prison. He performed for them. He's kind of like a, you know, a poor old trained bear that's, you know, toothless and had one too many episodes that is brought out to parade before a group of people that looked, he must have looked pathetic. He must have looked pathetic at this point. But they stationed it between the pillars. And he said to the lad who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple that I can lean on them. Now, the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there.

About 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. 3,000 of the lords of the Philistines. This was the Supreme Court, the Houses of Congress, and the executive branch, all in one building in Philistia at the time, at this pagan festival. And as you know the story, Samson called to the Lord saying, O Lord, remember me. Remember me, I pray. Strengthen me. I pray just this once. O God, that I may take one blow and take vengeance upon the Philistines for my two eyes. He took hold of the metal two pillars which supported the temple. He braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he pushed with all of his might, and the temple fell on the lords 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. 3,000 of the elite, the rulers of Philistia, killed in this episode. That was another major blow to the nation. He killed already 1,000 of their best soldiers. He had struck a blow at their economy with the vineyards and the olive trees and the standing corn with the fiery foxes.

And now he kills their leadership, or the majority of it. It's another blow that comes down. Now, the nation didn't collapse completely. We still see them a few years later during the time of Saul.

But it is during the time of Saul, then David, that the oak of the Philistines is finally broken. They had been a crippled, declining nation because of what Samson did during this period of time.

And so Samson's life and his exploits come to an end. And it's a sad story. It's a thrilling story. It's a poignant story. You have to ask, how much more could he have done in his own time if he had remained faithful to his vow and to God and never got sidetracked from the power of God working with him? You know, one of the most poignant evaluations a person could ever get in any type of a review, evaluation critique is this. You have a lot of potential. You have a lot of potential.

It may not be always a compliment. It may be a statement saying that you're not living up to what you could do. You're pretty good, but you could do more. Samson was pretty good at times. He was pretty much of an idiot at other times. He could have done more.

He didn't live up completely to his potential. He had a great one. And yet, he makes it into the Hall of Faith. In Hebrews 11, we find his name right there on a plate.

And he subdued kingdoms and he put the flight, the aliens, the armies of the aliens, verses go after that. And he did both of those things. And his name is right there anyway.

Again, God's sovereignty and God's purpose and his plan goes on. And God tells us everything about the heroes of the Scriptures, even the mistakes and sins that they make. Samson is a larger-than-life character. We love him. We root for him every time we read the story. He's a strong, confident person. And when the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, he did good things. As I read through this week in preparing for it, after I came to the end of the story, my mind was drawn to a passage in the book of John. I'd like to take you there in conclusion to 1 John 2.

This is where I drew the conclusions to Samson's story. As John, in his first epistle here, has some very interesting words. Some call it poetry, but I look at them as just basically instruction in 1 John 2, beginning in verse 12. As he talks to all of us, and I think that there are lessons here to be gained from all of us to sum up the story of Samson here. I'll read this from the New Living Translation in verse 12. It says, I am writing to you, John says, who are God's children, because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus. I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ who existed from the beginning. I'm writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the evil one. He covers all the age groups, if you will, in these pieces here, these lines. And then he kind of goes back to repeat. He says, I've written to you who are God's children, and we're all God's children. No question about that, because you know the Father. Samson knew not only his physical Father, but he knew God in his time and in his way as a young man. And as God's Spirit moved upon him, as we read.

Verse 14 goes on. John says, I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ who existed from the beginning. I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. And here's why you're strong. He says, my words, God's Word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.

These are not from the Father, but are from the world. And this world is fading away along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 4. Samson could not escape the gravitational pull of his world, the Philistine pagan world. He kept going down and finding a woman. He went first to try to marry her, to try, secondly, just to spend the night with the harlot, third, with one who just used him and ate him up and spit him out. And all the other things that we're not even told about.

That he may have done as well. He couldn't escape the allure, the lights, the music, the food, the sex of his world. It all passed away, and he passed away with it, even while he did good things. The bright lights and the culture attracted him almost like a moth to light. Every one of us should ask at various times what part of this world today pulls us into sin. What part of it that catches our attention? What part of it are we not able to see is passing away? And its glory will fade very, very quickly. Every one of us has to ask ourselves that question at various times to make sure that we are not being caught up in that.

Key thought number five is what is said in verse 14. A very, very beautiful phrase. God's Word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.

That's the thought that I leave with us. Does God's Word live in our hearts? Does this Bible live in our hearts to the point where we win the battles with the evil one?

Samson subdued a kingdom, and he put his enemies to flight. He did so at the times that he was confident God was near him as the Spirit of the Lord moved upon him. And he did mighty things. You and I are not called to put the flight the armies of the aliens and likely as not to subdue physical kingdoms, but we are called to subdue the power of a spiritual kingdom in our minds and in our lives that is there. And that is attacking and is relentless and is always pressing against us with that tension. The only way we will overcome that is by this word being strong and living in our hearts. The only way Christ overcame Satan in his temptations in Matthew 4 was by quoting Scripture. Every time he quoted Scripture, he overcame the evil one.

And it's an example for us. This word must live within us.

Do we live with a confidence that God's power is in us, that it moves us, and are we strong in that confident power? In other words, do we live like we believe who we are? The people of God, a chosen people, a part of the elect, a Christian, a child of God. Do we believe that?

Do every time a speaker, a minister, an individual designated to teach in a Bible study, a teen Bible study, a sermon at a sermon, when we get up, do we speak as if we believe that? And then do we hear whatever we are taught at any given time and moment? Do we hear it as if it is the Word of God, the instruction from the Bible for us, that we believe who we are and we live our lives that we believe that without hypocrisy, without this world robbing us of our strength, like it did with Samson? We can. And we can do even greater and mightier works than Samson in the spiritual realm. If God's Word lives in our hearts, we can win the battles of the spiritual evil that is around us, seeking an ever-deeper relationship with God through His Spirit.

We have every opportunity today to live and to allow the Word to live in our hearts.

It's a phenomenal time with the knowledge explosion that we have and the availability of the Word of God, the instruction, the explanations that can come and be a part of it.

And what we are able to do in the Church with all of the tools that God has given us to not only preach the gospel, but to teach, to help people understand these words. And as they choose, and to whatever level they are at a particular point in their life, to develop a relationship with God. It's a good thing. It is a good thing that we are all a part of. Whether we're here at ABC learning day in and day out and having the Bible read to us every day, those of you that have been here in this particular audience, it's a number of us. When the Word of God is expounded in the classes at the Ambassador Bible Center, that's a good thing. To be read, the book of James, the book of Matthew, one of the prophets, to be explained and to hear that. And for those that have the opportunity in this building to put it together in written or televised form and send it out on the Internet and on television and in print, and have it magnified far beyond our small numbers and power and resources that we have been given, that's a good thing. Every day, one of my good friends says, good things happen in many, many places around the world in the United Church of God. And I'm glad as you are to be a part of that. And that doesn't limit God to work wherever He may be working in any other venue that He chooses in His sovereignty and in His time as well. But what we have been given and what we are a part of is a good thing. And to the degree that that energizes and moves us and God's Word lives in us in that way, then we can win. And we will win. The challenges, the difficulties, and the battles, and we will prevail. And we can be used of God. And in some way, in some fashion, God will write our names, not necessarily in a chapter of the book of Hebrews, but He will write our names in something even beyond that. If we win that battle, He will write our names in the book of life.