Samson: A Confusing Paradigm
Pastor Rollan Fisher
Have you ever tried to live with your feet in two worlds - the Kingdom of God and the world?
How did that work for you?
How did it end up in the end?
Focus: Just because you are used of God, doesn’t mean you won’t be judged by God - be holy!
Then There Was Delilah
Ignoring all of the Signs
Blindness, Death and Redemption
Then There Was Delilah
Samson’s downfall was steady, then all at once.
Judges 16:1-6 ESV
“Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.””
God loves blessing his children in the right way, at the right time with the right people - all according to his wisdom and eternal plan in Christ (Romans 8).
One of the goals of our lives is learning to trust this truth.
When you belong to Jesus, your life is no longer your own.
When we lose sight of this fact, sin enters in when we decide to do what is best in our own eyes rather than God’s, and we try to take our destinies into our own hands.
I don’t know how it can be any more clear than this:
I Corinthians 6:12-17 ESV
“"All things are lawful for me," but not all things are helpful. "All things are lawful for me," but I will not be dominated by anything. "Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
“And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, "The two will become one flesh." But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.”
I Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Unchecked sin is a slippery slope.
This is why John the Baptist warned that we should bear fruit in keeping with repentance (a lifestyle of it).
Matthew 3:8-10 ESV
“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Once you get used to living in one measure of unrepentant sin, it becomes easier to open a door to add additional rebellion.
Samson’s presumption that God would continually be with him despite his actions resulted in Samson persisting in more consistent and brazen measures of disobedience.
People have been hurt because they’ve seen men and women of God, who’ve been used mightily of God but were full of sin that destroyed their relationships, their families and even their view of God himself.
This is to help clarify things.
The reality is that God will use people for his purposes even when they are in sin.
This is because God’s great love and compassion for his people and the world will not be short-circuited by individual sin.
However, it does not mean that he will not judge the individual sin, even while he is using the people in mighty ways.
Don’t be misled and don’t deceive yourself.
Jesus is your perfect standard and everyone will be held
accountable to God.
In fact, the Scripture tells us that judgment begins in the house of God.
Jesus also gave this warning:
Matthew 7:15-23 ESV
“"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”
Balaam provided a way for Israel to be led into sin - through sexual temptation and immorality.
Remember that there was nothing that Balaam could do to curse Israel because God had blessed them - but Israel could call curses on themselves through sin.
The moral of the story - be holy and be pure.
Hebrews 12:14 ESV
“Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
Samson’s sin would eventually catch up with him.
All of the warning signs were there which he chose to ignore because of how his flesh was being satisfied.
You can not talk about Samson without talking about sexual immorality.
You can not talk about sexual immorality without talking about pornography.
God wants to free you and heal you.
To the unmarried:
Stop Netflix and chilling with your time and find something more public to do if you want to win.
The same self control that you learn to exhibit as a fruit of the Holy Spirit before you are married is the same self control or lack thereof that you will exhibit when you are married.
The only difference is it will have greater consequences for better or for worse.
To the married:
You will reap what you sow.
Learn to sow into and (husbands especially) cultivate your spouse rather than looking for the easy road of uncommitted affection.
This is why people love dogs 😆.
Delilah was eventually introduced as a trap that would play on Samson’s sin, accentuate his disconnect from God and lead to his downfall.
Ignoring all of the Signs
God gives many opportunities to wake up and turn before sudden destruction.
Judges 16:7-22 ESV
“Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” Then the Lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web. And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the Lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.”
You can not outrun the consequences of sin if you are committed to it.
Samson begins to lie to Delilah, thinking that if he can just keep stringing her along, he will be able to have his cake and eat it too.
*It may not be hair, but when we forsake our consecration, we eventually lose the supernatural grace and power of God, when we try to serve two masters.
Jesus said:
Matthew 6:24 ESV
“"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
It is not just about you and money.
You can not serve, for example, God and lust, sex, unholy ambition or just plain old hedonism.
Enjoy them with the right person at the right time (monogamous, covenantal marriage) and all these things are ultimately blessed.
“If you asked twenty men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to the desire. If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
-C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Blindness, Death and Redemption
Redemption will always come in repentance and death - death to sin and the death of Christ to bring us life.
Judges 16:23-31 ESV
“Now the Lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” Now the house was full of men and women. All the Lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the Lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.”
Again, a confusing paradigm is how the mighty have fallen, have been greatly used by God, but were full of unrepentant sin.
May this provide clarification and healing - but also a warning to us all.
Samson gave up his consecration and was judged - but found redemption in the end through his sacrificial death.
“We must not be troubled by the unbelievers when they say that this promise of rewards makes the Christian life a mercenary affair. There are different kinds of rewards. There is the reward which has no natural connection with the things you do to earn it, and is quite foreign to the desire that ought to accompany those things. Money is not the natural reward of love; that is why we call a man a mercenary if he marries a woman for the sake of her money. But marriage is the proper reward for a real lover, and he is not a mercenary for desiring it. A general who fights well in order to get a peerage is a mercenary; a general who fights for victory is not, victory being the proper reward of battle as marriage is the proper reward of love. The proper rewards are not simply tacked on to the activity for which they are given, but are the activity itself in consummation.”
-C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
I Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
Have you been reconciled to God?
*We all need to be prepared for death which will come for us in unexpected ways.
You will not be right with God because of any of your good works, nor will your evil deeds be ignored.
The only hope that we have of eternal life is repentance and faith in the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ at the cross for you.
Through his death, he paid the penalty for our lifetime of disobedience and rebellion against God - to atone for sins.
By his burial and resurrection, we can put away the old man in baptism and rise through faith in the power of God to the freedom of a forgiven and redirected life.
We can be new creations living out the rest of our days in our redemption road in Christ - for his pleasure and glory alone.
I Corinthians 6:18-20 ESV
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
The Lord knows those who are his (II Timothy 2:19).
Be counted in that number.
Second City Church - Pastor Rollan Fisher