"Samson's Greatest Hits" - Judges 15

“SAMSON’S GREATEST HITS”

 

We have read the story of Samson together in our scripture reading and are familiar with the adventures of God’s unusual hero. In chapter 15 are Samson’s “greatest hits,” not to be confused with Abba’s greatest hits (Waterloo, Voule Vous, Take a chance on me). No, these greatest “hits” are Samson’s greatest victories over the enemies of God.
            It’s an odd story, isn’t it? The Spirit of the LORD stirs Samson, and he sees a Philistine girl and impulsively marries her. He kills a lion and violates his Nazirite vow by touching the dead body, eating honey out of its corpse, and becoming unclean. Samson next toys with his wedding guests by making a bet they can’t solve his riddle about the lion and the honey. They do solve it, but only by pressuring his bride into manipulating him. He becomes angry and a cycle of revenge sets off a chain of events that escalates in violence and slaughter. Samson ultimately kills 1000 Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone and caps off this spree with an offensive joke about it. 
            I have studied this story. I have read commentaries. I have rehashed this episode by reading other preacher’s sermons. And I must stand back with you all and say, “What am I looking at?” What does this story tell me about God and his relationship with his people? Is there any connection at all between this impetuous strongman and the loving Jesus? What are you and I supposed to do with this story?

            This Arnold Schwarzenegger type guy makes jokes, chases girls, kills people, and barely acknowledges God. Can you relate to Samson and his story? Does it teach us anything?

            We are going to look at three of Samson’s “greatest hits” or three themes that emerge from this story.

 

1. The Humor of the LORD’s Salvation 

 

Imagine you are an Israelite reading this story of Samson for the first time. It is a biting satire of your worst enemy, the Philistines. Think of when Polish jokes were popular. Nazi propaganda in World War 2 portrayed Poles as stupid and inferior to dehumanize them and justify their horrible treatment of them. Germans said that the foolish Poles attacked tanks on horseback with swords. Dummies. This attitude spread to the US in the 60s.

            The Israelite joke is similar. Look how dumb the Philistines are: they come up with a plan and Samson spoils it every time; a solution-failure formula. They solve Samson’s riddle and win the bet; but Samson kills 30 Philistines to pay the debt. They win but they lose. Samson’s father-in-law gives away his bride thinking he doesn’t like her anymore and Samson responds by burning their crops with 300 jackals with torches tied to their tails. The Philistines respond by burning the father-in-law and the bride alive. And so, it goes.

            The whole of chapters 14-16 is one long Israelite joke on the Philistines. The story is full of irony and humor that we don’t get. Every move the Philistines make, though seemingly giving them the upper hand, proves disastrous as Samson plays with them. They look like the Three Stooges vs. Captain America. But it’s pretty dark humor at its best. 

            I had an uncle who told lame jokes but ended each one with, “Funny, eh?” That cracked us up more than the joke. I don’t blame you if you don’t get this “Samson” joke.

            Are there jokes in the Bible? Does the Bible use humor to make a sober point? The Philistines are the enemies of God’s people. Their stupidity is held up in Samson’s story for ridicule; they are a laughingstock. Why?

            To show us the lunacy of being an enemy of Yahweh and his people (even when they are sinful). When the ungodly try to ruin and crush God’s people, Yahweh makes them look ridiculous. In Psalm 2, the writer asks why the nations rage against God, why do they resist him? Then he reveals that, “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD holds them in derision…” (4). 

            Take courage in this: God will make those who hurt you and mock you look foolish. Who would have thought that God would deliver Moses from Pharoah’s murdering of children by having Pharaoh’s own daughter rescue him…and then hire Moses’ own mother as his nanny? I mean, come on, that’s pretty funny. That is the humor of the LORD’s salvation. 

 

2. The Tragedy of the LORD’s People (15:11-13)

 

While the writer of Judges has us laugh at the Philistines, he also has us weep for God’s people. After they burn Samson’s in-laws, he swears vengeance on them and struck them “hip and thigh.” Then Samson retreats to the rock at Etam.

            The Philistines won’t leave it alone. They invade the territory of Judah looking for Samson. The men of Judah are confused, “What have we done wrong?” They find out that they are looking for Samson and 3000 of them confront Samson. The men of Judah say to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” (11). What’s wrong here?

            Israel faces all the “ites” in Judges. When they are oppressed, they cry out to God, and he sends someone to deliver them. With the Philistines it’s a different story. The Philistines aren’t that cruel, they even intermarry, and they trade with each other (the Israelites were dependent on Philistine technology). It was a “live-and-let-live” situation. Peaceful. What’s so bad about that? Assimilation. As they interacted with the Philistines, the Israelites started losing their own culture, their own faith, their dedication to Yahweh. 

            Tim Keller said, “Israel’s capitulation to the Philistines is far more profound and complete than any of their previous enslavements. In the past, Israel groaned and agonized under their occupations by pagan powers, because their domination was military and political. But now the people are virtually unconscious of their enslavement, because its nature is that of cultural accommodation.” They have adapted the Philistine lifestyle, their worship. Even Samson tries to “marry in” to the upper classes of Philistine society. 

            Think of the church in Canada today. Our greatest threat is not overt persecution and threats from our society. The greatest danger we face as the church of Christ is the enticing nature of Canadian culture. We pray for the persecuted church in Iran and China because they face imprisonment and death for Jesus. But I wonder if they pray for us because we face assimilation into our culture, because we have adopted values without discernment and practice them in our communities. We are disappearing; we have lost our distinction as a people of faith. There’s a big word that describes this, it’s called “syncretism.” It means that two cultures are blending into one new culture, often to the detriment of the one culture that doesn’t want to hang onto its distinctives. It blurs the lines as we conform to the dominant culture.

            Paul warned in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect,” (2). What makes us distinct in Southern Manitoba? What makes a Christian unique in our culture? 

            In Samson’s story, Israel told him to stop rocking the boat. They were ready to forsake God to placate the Philistines. They didn’t ask for this deliverer. They didn’t ask to be saved. They didn’t even want to be Yahweh’s free people. It is a sad thing when God’s people are content to let the enemy rule our lives when we are called to “hate what is evil” with a holy hatred. 

 

3. “I’m going to save you anyways”

 

Samson kills 1000 Philistines after breaking the ropes that bound him. Now he’s thirsty. And for the first time in the story, he prays to God for relief. God answers him, provides a spring of water, and guess what? He names it after…God? Nope. It’s called “the spring of him who called.” Self-centered arrogance. It’s all about you Samson, isn’t it? 

            We see in Samson some ungodly traits. Two stand out immediately: One, he is impulsive. Led by his sensualities, his “thirsts” he reacts to what he sees without thinking it through. He sees what he wants and takes it. In the next episode it will become even clearer that he has no sexual self-control. Women are objects to him, and he only wants to possess them, not to love them. Two, he is unteachable. Wanting to marry a Philistine woman, his parents try to dissuade him, but he doesn’t listen. In that culture, your father chooses your spouse. So, “honor your father and mother” is out the window. And we see that Samson does not learn from his mistakes. He is unteachable. 

            Samson is a flawed character. Ruled by his passions, taking what he wants because he wants it. The theme of Judges “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” is modeled by Samson. Clearly, Samson is the personification of the spiritual state of Israel. The story of this one man is the story of Israel.

            And his story is our story. James tells us that Scripture is a mirror. “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like,” (1:23-24). As we gaze into the mirror that is the word of God and evaluate Samson and his impulsive nature, how he greedily gulps what the world offers, do we not see our own reflection? 

            What does our culture value?

            Individual freedom. The liberty to choose what makes me happy and to live a life that expresses the real “me.”

            Deconstruction. All that the past said was true is reevaluated. Traditions, religion, the wisdom of our elders, laws are all unpacked and rethought, revised, or thrown away. 

            Technology. We think that we can make our world better by creating a better app. All I need to know I can find on the internet.

            Tolerance. Everyone has the right to find their own truth and define themselves by their own values, so don’t judge.

            The goodness of humanity. There is a belief that we are basically good. 

            And to be honest, we probably agree with most of these values as Christians. We go to church and listen to the Word, but we still choose what to believe and question the authority of someone who tells us we are wrong. 

            Look at the Philistines, look at Judah, look at Samson, and we see ourselves. They are messy people. We are messy people. 

            What astounds me about this story is how many times we see the “Spirit of the LORD” use Samson. I believe it is four times, more than any other person in the historical books of the Bible. He wasn’t worthy of such a filling, but God used him. 

            The second thing that amazes me is that Judah did not cry out to God, but God decided to save them anyways. And he does it through this unlikely man. Did Samson know he was a deliverer? 

            God didn’t intend for Samson to be so impulsive, reckless, and wild. But that God used him gives us hope. God uses weak, flawed people and redeems them. That’s the good news of Jesus right there. God uses sinners. We shouldn’t sin, but our Redeemer doesn’t stop working on us, in us, and through us. 

            Tim Keller wrote, “If you ever feel that way about reading the Bible [that the Bible is a collection of moral fables showing us good examples], it shows that you don’t understand the message of the Bible. You’re imposing your understanding of the message on the Bible. You’re assuming that the message of the Bible is “God blesses and saves those who live morally exemplary lives.” That’s not the message of the Bible. The message of the Bible is that God persistently and continuously gives his grace to people who don’t ask for it, don’t deserve it, and don’t even fully appreciate it after they get it.”

 

Three questions we need to ask when we read any text of Scripture are these:

·      What do we learn about God from this text?

            From Samson’s story we learn that our God is a Redeemer God who works to deliver his people.

·      What do we learn about God’s salvation or deliverance from this story in the macro-sense (the big picture)?

            That our God doesn’t stop working to deliver us (even when we don’t want to be delivered)

·      What should we do or know?

            We need to go the opposite direction than Samson; we need to become submissive and teachable. Imagine what God could have done with a Samson that was submissive and teachable. Imagine what God could do with you and me if we were to submit to his ways and learn from his grace.

 

Bonus:

The Puritans were famous for finding “types” of Jesus in the OT. A type is an OT picture of a NT truth. They saw in Samson a type, a symbol but not necessarily an example of the ideal of Christ. Let me show you what that looks like.

·      Samson was rejected by his countrymen – so was Jesus.

·      Samson was arrested by his own people – so was Jesus.

·      Samson handed over to certain death – Jesus was handed over to die.

·      Samson didn’t resist his own people when they betrayed him. Jesus said nothing to those who came to arrest him and was silent before the chief priest.

·      Samson broke the cords which bound him. When Jesus rose from the dead, he broke the cords of death.

·      Samson in his mighty victory put the army of the Philistines to flight. Jesus in his victorious resurrection from the dead defeated Satan and the powers of the demons. 

·      Samson delivered his people – so did Jesus.

            Samson is the last man on earth you would think would be a type of Jesus. There is no one more unlikely. But that’s the beauty of the Samson story; it is there to encourage us that God wants to deliver us from sin even when we don’t want to be delivered. And while there is a lot of Samson in us, but Jesus wants to be the LORD in us and change us from glory unto glory, bit by bit, until we are like him.

 

                                                            AMEN

 

A Savior is Born - A series on Samson (Judges 13)

“A SAVIOR IS BORN”

 

I stared in disbelief at the man in the casket. Barely 20 years old, this young man reminded me of Samson. He was a little over 6 feet tall with broad shoulders and impressive physique. You could tell he worked out and took care of his appearance. He even had the long, dark, curly hair you would imagine Samson to have. My college friend was full of potential too, coming from a missionary family and hoping himself to do some ministry work somewhere.

            But here he lay in a casket, his once proud chest deflated, each finger broken, his body crammed into a box. A recovery team had found him pinned between two logs. It didn’t hit me at that moment, but as we drove away from the viewing, I suddenly burst into tears. I can’t explain what I felt or why I cried. Some would say it was lost potential, a waste, a “what could have been” moment.

            Was it a waste? Was this young man’s life a lost prospect? How did God view this life?

            I once regarded Samson as wasted potential. As we will see, he was a child of promise, someone we would say was “most likely to succeed” in life given his beginnings. He had great potential.

            On Monday night football broadcasts, Howard Cosell would bluster on about the potential of a young player. His partner, Don Meredith, would reply, “Potential is the heaviest burden in life.” He was correct: potential is nothing more than unrealized possibility. It’s the difference between what you are and what you could be. That’s heavy. 

            So, at Samson’s 25-year high school reunion, after his selfish pursuits, his womanizing, his detour from God’s plan for his life, would his classmates have said, “Oh, what might have been.” That’s what I have often said about Samson’s story in the book of Judges. What a waste of gifts. What a waste of strength and leadership. What a waste!

            Or was it?

1. A People in Need of Saving (13:1)

 

The times into which Samson was born were difficult for Israel. That difficulty was self-inflicted. Before Samson’s nativity, we read, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years,” (1). In the next verses, God begins to act on their behalf. 

            We should note three things: a) Israel is sinning again. In the book of Judges, this is the seventh time we read that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. The cycle of sin – oppression – deliverance continues to be a problem even after God saves them. b) Yahweh’s response to his disobedient children is to allow other nations to oppress them, to wake them up, to bring them back. This is Yahweh’s judgment on sin. And it’s the longest period of oppression yet in the book of Judges – 40 years. c) Then the LORD begins a plan to deliver the people from their oppression. However, the savior is not even born. 

            What’s missing? Did you notice? The children of Israel did not cry out to God. Previously, they felt the boot of the “ites” and would call on the LORD to deliver them. Not this time. There was something peculiar about Philistine dominance. The Philistines had them in such a pickle that they didn’t even cry out to God. No potential deliverer was even born yet so God had to start from scratch in the womb of an unnamed woman. 

            Why didn’t they cry out? Spiritual apathy for starters. Maintaining the status quo for another. When Samson gets going in chapter 15, a delegation from Judah comes to him to tell him to stop causing trouble for them. They are so used to living in ungodliness that they don’t see anything wrong with it. Forty years they have lived with idolatry and compromise, and it has become the way things are. The Philistines had what they wanted: materialism and sensuality. They didn’t even think they needed saving. 

            This is where we see a hint of the grace of God. They didn’t think they needed saving, but God did. They forgot God, but God did not forget them. It is easy for us to look back on these people and on this story and judge them for being spiritually dead. How could they not know they needed saving? How could they be so blind? 

            Weren’t we blind? Aren’t people blind to the consequences of their sin today? Aren’t people rejecting Jesus today, blind to the salvation he offers?

            I can’t help but think that we were in the same predicament as Israel in Judges 13. Paul speaks this word to the Romans, and it is relevant to us: God saved us…while we were powerless…while we were sinners...while we were enemies of God. When we didn’t even know what judgment we deserved, God decided to save us. While we were blind, he sent us a child…

 

2. The Unusual Way God Begins to Save (13:2-5)

 

God begins his project to save Israel. He comes to the wife of Manoah (we never get her name, but she’s amazing). The angel of the LORD says, “You’re barren…” (thanks a lot. Thanks for pointing out my weakness and shame). But then he utters three powerful words: pregnant, give birth, and son. 

            Think of Manoah’s wife: her name is not given, she can’t have children, and ultimately, she is hopeless to change her situation. Here is where Yahweh begins to deliver his people – out of obscurity, with a barren woman, who has no hope. The LORD begins where there is no human energy or ability to serve as a starter. Samson’s birth is another instance of God’s way of doing something exceptional with exceptional difficulties standing in the way. 

            God saves. But we want to help him, don’t we? We want to help him save us. What can we do to help? If we could help even a little bit with our deliverance, we would mess it up. When cake mixes first appeared in grocery stores, cake-mix packages would warn not to add milk, “just add water.” Some housewives would add milk anyways as s special touch. But then the cakes and muffins would fall. Cake mixes told these women not to add eggs since milk and eggs were already added in powder form. Just add tap water? You got to be kidding. Companies realized that these bakers wanted to be part of the process, so they changed the mixes so that “you add fresh eggs.” You do have a contribution to make.

            Manoah’s wife had a contribution to make. She was told to drink no wine and not to eat anything unclean. She was to be a Nazirite. We’re not familiar with this kind of vow in our time. It comes from Numbers 6 and Nazirites were people who made a temporary vow before God and signaled it with three obvious actions: a) eat or drink nothing from the vine, no grapes, no raisins (IOW abstain from luxury items); b) touch no dead thing, not a person, not an animal; c) don’t cut your hair. The Nazirite vow was temporary and voluntary, but in Samson’s case it was ordained by God for his whole life. 

            What a bizarre requirement! But it’s important. Three times this instruction is given in this chapter. Samson will be break each of these vows in his story. So, he’s disqualified from serving the LORD, right? This too is unusual.

            At the end of the chapter (24-25) we are told that Samson grew, and the LORD blessed him, and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him. Okay! And in the next chapter, Samson sees a Philistine girl and tells his parents to get her for him as a wife. Those two things don’t go together. 

            Let’s do the math and sum this up for a moment:

·      The angel of the LORD announces the great nativity of a deliverer.

·      Manoah’s wife faithfully believes in the announcement.

·      Manoah accepts it too by faith but wants clarification.

·      Samson is supposed to be a Nazirite but breaks every vow.

·      The LORD blesses Samson and stirs him up.

·      Samson wants to marry a Philistine (an enemy).

Something’s not normal. This is an unusual rescue operation. 

3. “Tell me how this salvation works”

 

Samson’s mother expresses no doubts in what the angel of the LORD tells her. And when she tells her husband, Manoah, he also has no doubts. But he has questions. He prays to the Lord in v. 8 that this “man” will come again to teach them how to raise this amazing child. And God answers him. 

            We need to pause just a moment to appreciate the advantages of this child. Not only is Samson appointed before he is even born to deliver Israel from the Philistines, but he also has godly parents who believe God’s promises. In an age of compromise and assimilation to the godless culture, this is an amazing blessing. 

            Manoah asks his question of the angel of the LORD, “Now when your words come true, what is to be the child’s manner of life, and what is his mission?” (12 ESV). The angel of the LORD repeats the Nazirite conditions, but to the question of mission, the angel says nothing. Nada. Manoah is curious, “Tell me how this salvation works.” And the angel implies that it is “nunya” as in “nunya business.” That’s it!

            Manoah then asks the angel (he doesn’t know he’s an angel) to have supper with them. No! the angel says.

            Manoah asks the angel’s name. Can’t tell you, the angel says. “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” (18). The NIV says it is beyond understanding. But the name of God is best explained as “too wonderful for words.” It is beyond us. It is so grand we cannot pull it all in. In Psalm 139 we find the same word used of knowing God, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it,” (6). My character is too much for you. That doesn’t mean we can’t know God; it does mean that though we may know God truly, we do not know him exhaustively. 

            When the angel of the LORD ascends up the flame of fire from Manoah’s sacrifice, he realizes who he’s been talking to (just like Gideon); it is Yahweh himself (19-20). Then the fun begins.

Manoah and his wife are left in shock. The exchange between them may have gone like this:

Manoah: We’re going to die

Wife: Why do you say that?

Manoah: We’ve just seen God, and no one can see God and live.

Wife: If God wanted to kill us, we’d be dead already. Why did he accept our offering if he wanted to kill us? And why did he say we’re going to have a baby if he’s going to kill us? How could we have a baby if we’re both dead? 

Manoah: Good point. 

            Tell me how this salvation works. Manoah’s question is valid. But God doesn’t explain it. In fact, it’s weird and out of character. The Spirit of the LORD stirs Samson…and he goes to take a Philistine wife. After studying this story, I am more convinced that Samson did exactly what God wanted him to do to begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines. God sent a man to irritate everyone! 

            But aside from that, this salvation comes not through an army with a valiant general, not from an uprising of the tribes against their enemies, not even a miracle battle like Gideon’s, but through one man who no one follows. He is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. 

            How does this salvation work? An angel comes to a young woman and tells her that her baby son is going to deliver Israel…from their sins. He will act alone. He calls on some men to follow him, but the work of salvation is his alone. After healing many, casting out demons, explaining the scriptures so people can actually understand God’s laws, he is arrested and killed on a cross. Can you explain how this salvation works? How does an innocent man dying on a cross save you from sin and heal you and reconcile you to God? No wonder the angel of the LORD refused to answer Manoah, it is too wonderful to grasp.

            What a waste, someone might say. Jesus could have healed many more people if he had not died at 33. His teaching would have helped many more to understand God and God’s kingdom. Oh, the potential! Oh, what might have been! 

 

You and I have come to a place where we put our faith in Jesus. Even though we do not fully understand the cross and how Jesus dying saves us, we have the potential to grasp the meaning of it. We have the potential to participate in this great salvation and share it with others.

            Paul declared, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” (Eph. 1:3). He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (like Samson) …he predestined us to be members of his family…he redeemed us through the blood of Christ…he made known to us the mystery of his will through Jesus…he has given us the same Holy Spirit who stirred Samson to accomplish his purposes.

            Oh, the potential we have in Christ.

            What are we doing with the resources God has given us? I pray that none of us will look back and say of our lives, “Oh, what might have been.” 

            But I am encouraged too to look at Samson and say, “The Lord’s ways are too wonderful for me to nail down.” He takes the unusual route, the unlikely persons, the flaws and weaknesses of my character, and he turns it into glory.

 

                                                                        AMEN