Prayer: May our eyes be lifted to you Lord, as we delve into the story of Samson today, lead and guide us by your Spirit. In Jesus name, amen.
What is it that attracts your eyes? For me if I’m outside I am drawn to look at the beauty of creation and always the sunshine. But if I’m in a clothes shop my eyes will be drawn to items that are the colour red or maybe green, I just instantly get drawn to those colours. But one of the first things I do when I take the item off the rack is to check the price tag. I will only try it on and buy it if the cost is not too much.
Samson’s eyes seem to be constantly drawn towards pretty women and he would do what he thought was right in his eyes regardless of the cost. Samson is the 12th and last judge in the book of Judges.
What comes to mind when you think of Samson? His super strength to kill a lion, or his relationship with Delilah? He is remembered in Hebrews 11 as a mighty man of faith who rescued Israel. But if you’ve read the story, you’ll know that Samson is hardly a man of God! He is violent, promiscuous, full of anger and with flagrant disregard for his calling and the laws of God. He is revengeful and that is why he kills many of the Philistine enemy – not because he was seeking to rescue Israel.
Samson represents all that Israel had become. Chapter 13 opens with the repeating pattern that Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord. In the final verse at the end of Judges chapter 21: 25 we read, In those days Israel had no King; everyone did as he saw fit. Samson was no exception, he did exactly what he thought was right in his eyes – his self-indulgent eyes. And yet, God used him to deliver Israel from the Philistines, whom they had been oppressed by for 40 years!
If you kept reading after the story of Gideon from last week, you will have noted that Israel seemed to steep further and further in to sin, and away from the Lord after each deliverance. After Gideon there were other Judges, then more idolatry, violence, murder, terrible sacrifices and bizarre details…like we are told of one Judge who had 30 sons who rode 30 donkeys and another Judge who had 40 sons and 30 grandsons who rode on 70 donkeys! I’m not quite sure what the significance of this is! We also note that as time goes on, we stop hearing about Israel having long periods of peace.
After the Judge with all the 70 donkeys we come to Samson, the final judge. Although Israel had been oppressed for 40 years, this time we don’t even read that they called out to the Lord for help. It seems they have just accommodated themselves among the Philistines and taken on their values and practices.
The Israelites may have forgotten the Lord, but he has not forgotten them. Israel are his chosen people, he made a covenant with them, he longs to see them turn back to him. The Lord decides it’s time to raise up another Judge.
This one is chosen even before conception. I wonder what other biblical stories came to mind as you read or heard chapter 13 this morning? A barren childless couple, a visit from an Angel announcing the pregnancy with a message that the child is to be set apart, dedicated to God and will deliver Israel…
There are a couple of stories that come to mind. How about barren Abraham and Sarah, with the promise of a son? Abraham who was to be the Father of God’s chosen people Israel. Or maybe you went straight to the New Testament and the story of barren Zechariah and Elizabeth, certainly some similarities here with their son John the Baptist and the parents being told that he is never to take wine or fermented drink and will be filled with the Holy Spirit and lead people back to the Lord.
Or did you think about God sending the Angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary to be told she would give birth to God’s son who will be filled with the Holy Spirit and reign forever. Jesus the ultimate Judge that God sent to rescue his people once and for all, through his sacrifice on the cross.
The story of Samson does in many ways point to Jesus. God does choose and call Samson from birth and sets him apart and his Spirit comes powerfully upon giving him great strength. He does save Israel from the Philistines, using God’s supernatural strength while sacrificing his own life. But that is about as close as Samson gets to being like Jesus!
At the end of chapter 13 we read that the woman (we are not told her name) gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him…
But while Samson was empowered by the Spirit, he was dominated by the flesh!
So much for the Nazarite instructions given to his mother for her and her son to follow. Nazarite vows (you can read about in Numbers 6) meant you were set apart for the Lord and you were not to drink alcohol, not to touch dead things and not to cut your hair. This last one we know is very important to Samson’s strength.
Samson seemed to have blatant disregard for this vow. He was intent on gratifying his own desires, not the Lords. But God used his sin to deal with the Philistines anyway. Samson did not seek at any time to rescue the Israelites for the Lord’s sake, only killing for his pleasure and revenge. If anything, he seems ignorant of his calling; did his mother not tell him what the Angel said? (Although he did seem to know about his hair.) I think he was just like most of the Israelites who followed a life of sin.
Lust is his fatal weakness. He eyes off a woman he desires and demands to have her, even though she is a Philistine. He kills a lion with his bare hands, showing us his supernatural strength, but later he touches the dead body that he is forbidden to do, because he wants to taste the sweet honey that the bees have made in the carcass… Samson does what he sees fit, doing evil in the Lord’s eyes but he doesn’t care, he goes where his sinful eyes take him.
If you haven’t read it, you can go and read the full account at home. But like with much of the book of Judges there are some weird ways that the enemy are treated and killed in this story by Samson. Like when he is angry (and he gets angry a lot – though usually it is own fault because he gives in to and tells manipulating women his secrets!) he catches 30 foxes and sets their tails on fire and throws them at the Philistines crops. He kills 1000 of them with the jawbone of a donkey. Most bizarre descriptions. As one commentator notes, the writer of Judges is a consummate storyteller!
You probably all remember Samson’s final downfall after falling for Delilah, she betrays him to the Philistines by getting him to tell her the secret of his strength. And so, when he is asleep, she gets someone to shave off his hair. He loses his physical strength.
The Philistines do not kill him but gouge out his eyes (those eyes that have led him astray time and again), and they shackle him. Naturally his hair begins to grow again. The Philistines believe their god Dagon has delivered Samson into their hands, but the one true God had been making his own plans all along. When the temple is full of about 3000 Philistines, they bring Samson out to entertain them and Samson finally acknowledges and prays to God for his strength to return so he can avenge himself. Under the temple he pushes on two pillars and the temple comes crashing down killing the rulers, all the people and Samson.
There ends the story of the final judge Samson. But it is not quite the end of the book of Judges.
There are a few more chapters showing further decay in the lives of the Israelites, more moral decline, murders, rape, violence and finishing in civil war.
At the beginning of the book the Israelites were together after the death of Joshua, asking who would go up first to fight against the Canaanites. At the end they are hardly recognizable as God’s chosen people and they almost wipe out one of their tribes, the Benjamites. A horrific story if you want to go and read it…
The book finishes with that verse, In those days Israel had no King; everyone did as he saw fit.
It sets the scene for what is to come, (Although the book of Ruth follows immediately and refreshingly shows a picture of some Israelites following God even in the dark days of Judges!), but then in 1 and 2 Samuel, God does respond to their request for a King.
As we know King Saul turned bad, and even David, a man after God’s own heart was not perfect, but he at least would repent and turn back to the Lord after his sinful failures, when his eyes led him astray! But they were very mixed lot of Kings after him.
So, the end of Judges also points to the need for the coming of King Jesus. And we may wonder why God took so long to put that plan of his into action.
As the Spoken Gospel point out in their devotional, (that I sent out to you) …Samson does point us to Jesus. Jesus’ birth was announced by angels (Luke 1: 30-31). And the Holy Spirit rushed on him like a dove of peace. Jesus was strong, not to avenge personal vendettas, but to remain single-minded through persecution and crucifixion. Jesus’ sacrificial death brought greater victory than his life because through his death, everyone who believes in him is saved from the stalking lions of sin and death…
Jesus, the true Israelite, (who kept his eyes on and was obedient to the will of his Father God) died so that all his people could be purged from their sin. And he replaces our violent and treacherous hearts with his own Spirit. Because of Jesus we are a new Israel. Not a kingdom of lust and violence, (like the days of Judges) but one empowered by self-sacrificing love and mercy.
So, what have we learnt from the book of Judges? That we need Jesus!
And that God is always faithful in showing mercy, and we can be so thankful that he did send Jesus that we might be forgiven and live a new life.
We learnt that God chooses and empowers the weak to do amazing things for him. We may have a disability, (like Ehud) we may be the wrong gender in a patriarchal world, (like Deborah) we may lack faith and confidence (like Gideon), we may be great sinners (like Samson)– but God asks us to trust him, and he will empower us by his mighty Spirit to build his Kingdom, even right here in Tasmania. There are many people who still need rescuing, who need to be delivered from the lies of the enemy, who need to hear the good news of God’s grace and mercy in Jesus.
Will you be willing to let God use you?
Let’s pray: Dear God, we thank you for your word, even in the dark, mainly depressing book of Judges! Thank you that you didn’t leave your people in sin, but time and again you rescued them, ultimately rescuing all through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you, and not on our own selfish pursuits and pleasures like Samson. Please send your Spirit on us, to empower us to be at work for you right here and now, to share the good news of Jesus so that many more may be delivered and receive abundant life now and for eternity. In the name of our Judge and Saviour Jesus, Amen.