Samson

Wednesday Evening Bible Study

May 13, 1998

Introduction

This week Deb and I have been at the annual Pastors’ Conference, where the theme has been on "Finishing Well". This particular message is based on a message that Pastor Chuck gave on Tuesday night of the conference.

There’s plenty of people who have started the race, but the goal of racing isn’t to start, it’s to finish, and to finish well.

Samson was a guy with great potential. He started out well in his life and ministry. The problem was that he didn’t finish well.

Judges 13:1-5

:1 the children of Israel did evil

Samson lived in a wicked society.

Some of the things he’s going to do aren’t all that bad, not in a bad society.

Lesson:

Don’t let the world tell you what’s right and wrong.

:5 the child shall be a Nazirite

This comes from Numbers 6 – when a person takes a vow to dedicate themselves to the Lord for a period of time.

They abstain from anything of the vine, no wine, grape juice, grapes, or raisins.

They don’t cut their hair as a sign of the vow.

Lesson:

Samson’s strength was in his dedication to the Lord.

We get the mistaken idea that it was because of his long hair.

The hair was only an outward sign that he was dedicated to the Lord.

Your strength comes from your dedication to the Lord, your desire to serve Him.

Judges 13:24-25

:24 Samson

Samson = "like the sun"

:25 the Spirit of the Lord

Here’s the source of strength in Samson’s life.

We like to think of him as looking as Arnold Schwarzzeneggar, and perhaps he did. But he might have looked like Woody Allen.

It was the Holy Spirit that gave him strength.

Lesson:

We have God’s power available to us.

It may not be in the form of Samson’s, but we have power available to us:

(Eph 6:10 KJV) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

14:1-4

:1-4 saw a woman in Timnath

This is going to be both the beginning of Samson’s ministry and the beginning of his decline as well.

He’s going to fall in love with this woman, it’s going to cause problems, and he’s going to end up fighting and killing a lot of Philistines.

I’m just not too sure if he should have been there in the first place.

We’re going to see in verse 4 that God was going to use it, but I wonder if it was really God’s best plan to fight the Philistines.

It was going to break a fundamental principle of God for His followers:

(Deu 7:1-5 KJV) When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; {2} And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them: {3} Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. {4} For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. {5} But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.

(2 Cor 6:14 KJV) Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

Some might say, "Well, love does it’s own thing, you can’t help who you fall in love with!"

You can if you don’t go into Timnath.

Lesson:

There are some places that believers don’t belong.

There are places on the Internet that a believer has no place going.

Stores, streets, magazines, books, radio stations, TV shows, movies, places where you shouldn’t be.

What would you do if suddenly your eyes were opened to the unseen world that is around you and you realized that your guardian angels were with you, and that God Himself was fully aware of where you were?

For some, the downhill slide starts at the places you don’t belong.

14:5-9

:9 out of the carcase

This was actually against the rules for Samson, eating something that was in a dead animal body:

(Num 6:6 KJV) All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.

Lesson:

Little compromises.

It’s the little compromises in life that get us moving in the wrong direction.

There’s no standing still in the Christian life. You’re either moving forward or sliding backward.

You might say to me, "Hey, what’s a little bit of this going to hurt? Don’t start getting legalistic on me!"

Is it legalistic of me to not allow my children to play on a busy street? It’s not legalism, it’s precaution.

Judges 14:10-13 (summarize)

As we mentioned earlier, God was going to use this Timnath marriage anyways.

Samson is about to marry the gal. Before the wedding he is partying with the other Philistine guests and decides to make a wager by giving them a riddle to solve. If they solve the riddle, he’ll give each of the 30 guys there a change of clothes, but if they don’t get the riddle, then they have to give him 30 changes of clothes.

Judges 14:14-20

:17 that he told her …

You’re going to see a pattern here in Samson’s life, his weakness with women. This will work against him later.

Lesson:

The enemy knows your weakness.

Don’t be surprised if you keep falling in a certain area. The enemy knows how to push your buttons.

Be on guard in your area of weakness. Do whatever it takes to deal with it.

Jesus said,

(Mat 5:28-30 KJV) But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. {29} And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. {30} And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

The idea isn’t that you go around cutting of parts of your body. The idea is that you take WHATEVER steps are necessary to guard yourself from your weakness.

If you have a problem with cable TV channels, stop your service if you have to. If you have a problem on the internet, then get a filtering program, or change servers, or throw away your modem, whatever is necessary!

:19 the Spirit of the Lord

Lesson:

Don’t confuse God’s grace with approval.

You might be involved in a certain sin, but then find that God still uses you.

This is simply God’s grace, that He would continue to use you, even as He continued to use Samson.

God would rather show mercy toward you than judgment. His usual pattern is just that, showing kindness first, hoping that will get your attention:

(Rom 2:4 KJV) Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

But as Samson will find out, there will be a time when the Spirit of the Lord will depart from him.

Judges 15 – summarize

When Samson cools down, he goes back to take his wife and when he finds out she has been given to the best man, he gets REALLY upset!

He goes out and captures 300 foxes, ties them together in pairs, tail to tail, and ties a torch to each pair of foxes, sending them off running through the fields of the Philistines.

It’s harvest time, and the fields are standing there all dried out, ready to harvest. There’s a huge fire, destroying all the Philistine agriculture in the area.

The Philistines get a little upset at this and go to the Israelites and ask them to hand over Samson if they want to keep the peace. The Israelites go to Samson and ask if he might surrender to them so they can turn him over to the Philistines. Samson lets them.

Judges 15:14-16

:14 the Spirit of the Lord

Again, we see the real strength behind Samson, God’s Holy Spirit.

:20 twenty years

Samson actually had a fairly long "ministry".

Judges 16

:1 an harlot

Again, this is Samson’s "weakness", this is his sin, lust for women.

It’s sad to see that a man who had such great strength against enemy armies did not have the strength to control his own flesh.

Lesson:

Flee Temptation.

Samson seems to be a good runner when it comes to temptation, but he always seems to be running TO it.

Joseph on the other hand was a man who finished well in his life because he learned to flee FROM temptation –

(Gen 39:7-13 KJV) And it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. {8} But he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand; {9} There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? {10} And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. {11} And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. {12} And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out. {13} And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,

:6 wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee

Why doesn’t this seem to bother Samson?

Is this just a game to him?

Does he think he can handle it? Does he think he’s invulnerable?

Lesson:

Don’t overestimate yourself.

What seems to be a small, controllable habit now, can very quickly get out of hand.

:10 tell me …

Where has Samson’s senses gone?

Lesson:

Playing with temptation makes us incredibly stupid.

There’s no other way to put it.

There is kind of a high that comes from getting close to temptation. But you run away at the last minute and are okay. Until you want to fill the thrill of that high again.

It’s like a moth and a flame. It flies closer and closer until it’s burned.

:13 seven locks

He’s starting to get a little closer to the truth.

I think he can see that she’s not going to be satisfied until he gets a little closer to the flame.

Lesson:

Temptation likes to get worse.

They say that this is what happens with drugs. It starts with something small like marijuana, but it never seems to end there. You need a stronger high, and move on to the next step.

:16 she pressed him daily

Does this sound familiar? Hey, it worked with the gal in Timnath!

Lesson:

Temptation will continue if keep hanging around it.

That’s why you need to flee!!! Do whatever it takes to get away!

:20 he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.

One of the saddest verses in Scripture.

Lesson:

The work of the Spirit isn’t always so obvious.

And that’s why when it left, Samson couldn’t tell.

Sometimes we think that the Holy Spirit is always going to send electrical charges down our spines and make our hair stand up straight. We think that someone speaking under the power of the Holy Spirit has to have some kind of weird, altered voice.

But the truth is that the Spirit likes to work in a quiet, natural way!

Lesson:

Don’t keep pushing the limit.

It seems that there can be a point where you can go too far.

David prayed,

(Psa 51:11 KJV) Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Am I saying a person can lose their salvation? Maybe.

Paul writes,

(Gal 5:19-21 KJV) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, {20} Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, {21} Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

It’s those who make a way of life, who "practice" these things that are in serious danger.

"Have I lost my salvation?"

Whether or not you have it not really the issue. The issue is to repent from your sin and stay close to Jesus!

We’ll be talking about how to know you’re saved next week when we get back into 1John.

:21 put out his eyes …

It has been said that sin will blind, bind, and grind.

It will blind your eyes to what the truth is.

It will bind you and keep you doing it’s will.

It will cause your life to become a "grind", doing a donkey’s work.

:22 the hair of his head began to grow

If the Philistines were smart, they would have had a barber visit Samson every day!

Lesson:

God’s grace.

Even in a pitiful condition like Samson’s we still see the grace of God.

As his hair grows back, his strength returns.

But he’s still a prisoner. He’s still blind.

:23-31 Samson’s death (summarize)

The Philistines are going to have a big party at the house of their god Dagon. Someone decides to have Samson entertain them. They bring him in, probably insulting him, kicking him, spitting on him. They mock him. Samson is being led by a little boy, and he asks the boy to lead him to the two pillars that holds up the entire temple. Samson prays one final time, asking God to give him his strength back one more time, and then he pulls down the pillars, killing 3,000 people, including himself.

Overall Lesson:

Finish well.

Don’t take the temptations in your life lightly.

We’re in a race. We need to work to finish it, and finish it well.

(Heb 12:1-3 KJV) Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, {2} Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. {3} For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.