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2 Cor 6:17-18 “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” “I will be a Father to you, and you will be
my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Well, by now you probably know that this
study is about Samson. The title kind of gave it away I guess. Samson, Samson,
Samson… Such a great example, unfortunately, of what might have been. But I
don’t want to get ahead of myself. This study will concentrate on the last
judge presented to us in the book of Judges. We will also look at the last
enemy to raise its head against
A few other comments are necessary before we begin. The life of Samson is quite disappointing really. Quite negative you might say, and I don’t think you were told the full story at Sunday school! Some people only like ‘positive’ messages, and if that is you, prepare to be disappointed. What I find interesting however, is that when God decides to write about His Judges, He spends more time on Samson than anyone else. Just possibly He wants us to learn something so that the errors of Samson are not repeated in the lives of other believers. We shall see.
Judges 13:1-5 Now the sons of
So the seventh and last ‘cycle of sin’
begins as
Now, the other main point that stands out
in the passage before us is the prophecy concerning Samson that he will ‘begin
to deliver
Judges 13:24-25 Then the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson; and the child grew up and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
So ‘the woman’, Manoah’s unnamed wife,
finally gives birth to her little boy. Can you imagine how they felt? They know
they can’t have children, and then the Angel of the Lord comes to them and says
she will give birth to a deliverer… and finally she gives birth to her son. She
calls him ‘Samson’. The name means ‘like the sun’ or possibly ‘little sun’.
Either way, you can imagine the hope these godly parents had that he would
shine like the sun… that he would be a light bearer for
What indeed? What would this child, whom the ‘Lord blessed’, become in later life?
Judges 14:1-3 Then Samson went down to Timnah
and saw a woman in Timnah,
one of the daughters of the Philistines. So he came back and told his
father and mother, “I saw a woman in Timnah, one of
the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore, get her for me as a wife.”
Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the
daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a
wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.”
However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord[5], for
He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the
Philistines were ruling over
So a grown up Samson finally goes down to Timnah, a Philistine controlled area. And what exactly does
he do there…fight and begin the deliverance of
Samson’s alliances with the Philistines also speak to us of the Church as a whole in these last days. It seems that this last period in the book of Judges has parallels with the last days of Church history.[7] Do we not see compromise and alliances with the Philistine enemy in our day? There is no doubt that a one world government is on its way... even non-Christians can see this emerging. But be aware that with it comes a one-world religion. The alliances the church is making today with the Catholic Church and others are leading the way to a compromised, worldly, end time ‘religion’ which holds vague concepts of ‘God’ without the power of Jesus victory on the cross. ‘Tolerance’ is in, ‘truth’ is out (way gone!) It is an error of Philistine proportions.
Judges 14:5-9 Then Samson went down to Timnah…and behold, a young lion came roaring toward him. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, so that he tore him as one tears a kid though he had nothing in his hand… When he returned later to take her, he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion. So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
Wow! What amazing strength Samson had. Out comes the lion[8], roaring away and ready for the kill. Yet it is no match for a Samson supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit! A good type for our lives would you not agree? The Apostle Peter tells us that Satan goes around like a roaring lion, looking for those He could devour. But we too, like Samson, gain victory over the enemy through our faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s empowering. No sooner had Samson performed this great feat of strength however, than He was breaking His Nazirite vow by examining and touching the dead body of the lion! Oh Samson! So little regard for the commands of the Lord. He ‘turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion’ the Bible says, and this curiosity with that which He wasn’t allowed to do, led to compromise. Curiosity concerning sin has a habit of doing that!
On finding honey within the carcass, Samson took some home for his parents, but made sure he didn’t tell them where he got it from. Not exactly surprising, as a guilty conscience often shuts our mouth from speaking the complete truth. The sweet honey may have given temporary satisfaction but was it really worth it Samson?[9]
Judges 14:10-14 Now his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was customary for bridegrooms. When he appeared, he was given thirty companions. “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.” “Tell us your riddle,” they said. “Let’s hear it.” He replied, “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” For three days they could not give the answer.
So what started out as one Philistine
companion, now leads to thirty! And as Samson eats and drinks (and possibly
breaking his nazarite vow once again) at the feast to celebrate his soon coming
marriage, it probably doesn’t even cross his mind that these same Philistines,
his companions, are meant to be the ones whom Samson is delivering
Judges 14:15-20 On the fourth day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?” Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.” “I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people. Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” Samson said to them, “If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.” …Burning with anger, he went up to his father’s house. And Samson’s wife was given to the friend who had attended him at his wedding.
What a wedding celebration that must have been! Only 7 days to go to the big day, the feast and guests are all prepared, the wife to be… well she cries the entire seven days leading up to the wedding! Earlier, having seen this Philistine and going by mere outward appearances, Samson had said ‘get her for me, for she looks good to me!’ Well how about now big guy? Does she still look good to you now? Of course you can’t blame Samson’s fiancé completely. Those nice gentle Philistine companions of Samson’s had just said to her ‘coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father’s household to death.’ Nice guys these. So the Philistine fiancé wore old Samson down until he gives in and tells the answer to the riddle. Alliances with Philistines have a habit of wearing us down. This time it was just a riddle. Next time would be far more serious!
One last thing is to look at who gets the blame… a furious Samson tells them ‘if you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.’ Samson blames his companions and, indirectly, his, um, heifer. (He was obviously quite the sweet talker this Samson when it came to his wife to be!) Samuel Ridout in his ‘Lectures on the book of Judges’ brings out the real truth when he says ‘Ah, if only he had reversed it; “If I had not ploughed with your heifer…”. But he blames them…’ That is the truth. Samson was now paying the consequences for being in an alliance with the enemy that should never have been formed! Oh that we as individuals, and the church as a whole, would learn from this!
Now you might think I have been a little hard on Samson. After all, he did make the ‘hall of faith’ in Hebrews chapter 11 didn’t he? Yep, he sure did. There are things later on in the life of Samson which he should be commended for. But unfortunately, we are always left with the ‘but what if’ question upon our mouths. A.B Simpson expressed it well when he wrote that Samson was:
‘A
marvellous example of what God might have done with a thoroughly separated man,
and yet what self-indulgence and sin can do to hinder the glorious promise and
the gracious purpose of God.’
We will look again at the life of Samson in the next study. In that, we will look a little closer at some of the implications for the church as a whole of the Philistine alliances that are being made. For now however let us remember that something good can come out of Samson’s life. Like honey from the defeated dead lion, something sweet can come out Samson’s life if we learn from his mistakes and don’t duplicate them in our own.
[1] You may remember from an earlier study that
the name Philistine means ‘wallow self’. I mentioned at that time that they
speak as a type of the extremes of our selfish carnal nature. In this study however,
we see them now in possession and control of the Promised Land. Here the
picture is not just of an individual’s carnal nature, but how that nature
expresses itself through religion – namely, a carnal, worldly religion. This is
the Philistine enemy that faces the Church in these last days.
[2] Just a quick comment
or two about Nazirites… Read all about it in Number 6. Mostly it was a vow
which somebody made for a limited time – usually 30 days. Samson, however, was
to be a Nazirite all his life. The name Nazirite means ‘separate’ or ‘set
apart’. Three main commands are given – 1) They could
not drink or eat fruit from the vine. (No wine, grapes etc.) 2) Could not go
near a dead body, or defile themselves by touching
anything ‘unclean’. 3) Could not cut their hair all their days. Now while there
is no command concerning Nazirites in the New Testament, all of these things
can be applied to the believer today. God is still looking for those that are
truly His to use. The wine or fruit of the vine is used as a type in scripture
of human joy… worldly pleasures and pursuits. Our joy should come from knowing
the Lord. Not touching a dead body or things unclean, speak of improper
associations or relationships with those spiritually dead. That is why 2 Cor
[3] It is interesting that
there are only three people mentioned in scripture who were Nazirites their
entire life – Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. I say interesting because
they were all born to women who were barren – Manoah’s wife, Hannah, and Elizabeth.
It just goes to show I guess that God is a God who gives life to the dead, and
makes the barren, fruitful. Is that not awesome? We all have times of apparent
‘hopelessness’ like these woman, but God brings sense out of chaos, and creates
something out of nothing. Trust Him.
[4] The other point to consider is that
[5] While the scripture does
say that ‘it was of the Lord’ we should not ever think that this was God’s
desire for Samson. God’s will is never in contradiction to His word and the
Bible clearly commanded
[6] If only Samson had
abided by this, his life would have been a totally different story. ‘Put on the
Lord Jesus’ is spoken of first. Everything stems from here. If we were just
trying to not fulfill the lusts of our flesh in our own strength we would end
right up in Romans 7 – where the good you want to do, you do not do, but the
evil you don’t want to do! Using the flesh to defeat the flesh! No, walk close
to the Lord and ask Him to live through you. This is always first. But also do
the second… don’t put yourself into situations where you know you will be
tempted! Don’t trust yourself! A patient once said to his doctor that he had
broken his arm in three places. To which the doctor replied, ‘well then, I’d
stay out of them places.’ Good advice. Check out what Solomon thought
concerning temptation – Read Proverbs 5:1-8. He says ‘do not go near the door
of her house.’ In other words, take the long way home if you have to but give
her a wide birth!
[7] It is not a type as such… just a parallel. As the book of Judges
progresses we see more and more of the truth expressed in the last verse of the
book coming into play – ‘In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone
did what was right in his own eyes.’ We are even starting to see this in
Samson’s life, and He was God’s deliverer! Does this not remind us of the last
Church age mentioned in Revelation –
[8] Samson might have done well to ask himself why He was having this fight with the lion in the first place. Just maybe he should have taken it as a sign that going down after his Philistine woman was putting him in dodgy territory! The same could be possible for us. Not always, as Satan loves to attack those who are of the greatest use to the Lord… but clearly, a definite maybe!
[9] Like the honey, sin can be temporarily satisfying. The Bible
doesn’t speak of the ‘passing pleasure of sin’ without reason (Heb