Bible Readings
- Matthew 10:34-39
- Judges 15:1-20
Introduction
My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,
Many might look at the story of Samson and remember his strength, his long hair and bad choices of women. Some might think of Samson in the same way as what is told of a Spanish patriot soldier who, in his dying moments responded to his chaplain, asking him whether he had forgiven all his enemies. “I have no enemies, I have killed them all.”
If we take Samson’s story out of the context for which it was included in the Bible, that’s what he is: a vengeful, pig-headed man with a larger-than-life ego who had no social skills and became responsible for his own death.
It is only in the context of his calling as God’s chosen instrument at that specific time that we will understand his mission. We to see both
- why his people needed deliverance, and
- why the Bible calls him a faithful deliverer
Last week we learned how Samson could not, and maybe would not see that God did not intend him to set his people free by trying to win them over as friends. He disregarded the advice of his parents, and could not interpret the Holy Spirit’s leading by giving him the power to kill a lion with bare hands—this was a sign that he could only deliver his people from the enemy by the ability which comes from God. We saw him getting married to a Philistine girl, and him only slightly upsetting the enemy. He left the wedding in rage, without his wife, and need up back in his father’s house where it all began. Then he tried again to win the enemy’s heart.
About three or four months later we find Samson again in the house of his Philistine wife. He had a young goat, probably meant as a gift to restore peace.
Keep in mind that there was still a legally binding contract between the two families, but that marriage was still not consummated. Samson and his wife were not, so to speak, one flesh. This was of God who prohibited such a marriage.
Things took another direction from this point on in the story. All along we need to keep this line in mind:
… this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel. (Judges 14:4, NIV)
Samson’s wife became the wife of his master of ceremonies because her father thought the deal was over. He could take the younger, more beautiful sister instead. But at this point, Samson began to understand his mission: God called him to set his people free from oppression. God did not call him to be part of the enemy, but to oppose them.
If we don’t get this point, we will miss most of the teaching of the Old Testament. In fact, we will misunderstand the mission of Christ by limiting his mission to only setting to us an example of how we should love regardless of truth.
This is indeed the weakness of the Christian church today. If we saw it our calling to love outside the boundaries of the truth as expressed in the Scriptures, we end up loving the world. The message of Christ in Matthew 10:34 still stands:
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Matthew 10:34, NIV)
But did the angels not proclaim peace on earth when they announced the birth of Christ:
“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests.” (Luke 2:14, NIV)
Did you hear the second part of the verse, “peace to those on whom his favour rests”?
He who loves the world has become an enemy of God (James 4:4). “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1John 2:15) Paul writes:
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? (2 Corinthians 6:14, NIV)
Paul also writes:
You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. (1 Corinthians 10:21, NIV)
Even David prays:
Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord, and abhor those who are in rebellion against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. (Psalm 139:21–22, NIV)
Yes, Christ demands of us to love our enemies, but a true disciple of Christ loves his Saviour about all. When it comes to the glory of his Name, the purity of the Gospel and the advancement of the church, we get our marching orders not from the world, but from Him who conquered the world and their deceitful master.
God led Samson to understand this valuable lesson. He never consummated his marriage or did not take another Philistine wife the day. The little goat he brought as a peace offering never served a purpose.
Confrontation
Samson’s mission would be fulfilled in battle. How he discharged of his calling to us a manifestation of faithful obedience to the Lord, but not a norm of obedience. I’ll explain: we are not called to catch foxes and burn the wheat of the world. What we are called to is to faithfully obey the Lord for and in what He calls us as people who live in the reality of the death and resurrection of Christ. He enables us by the Holy Spirit we sow the seed of the Gospel wherever He calls us and whenever He calls us. In this calling we confront the world with the Gospel of Christ, we stand on the truth of God revealed in Him, and in his Name, we become a church who subdues the enemy of Christ with his Word by his Spirit. In other words, what drove Samson to deliver his people from the enemy, will drive us; but the method was forever changed after the finished work of Christ.
Confusion
Samson was not directly responsible for what happened next, but his definite change of attack shows the weakness of the enemy of God.
Samson refuses to take the younger sisters wife. He was done with the Philistines. He chose the road of confrontation to achieve God’s purpose of deliverance.
He chose to destroy the wheat fields. Instead of Israel occupying the land and receiving corps they did not plant, their spiritual slavery to the gods of the surrounding nations caused the reverse. What happened?
Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. (Judges 6:2–4, NIV)
The people of God hiding in mountain clefts while their crops were ruined. Is this a picture of property and blessing? God sent his people Samson, the deliverer.
He would ruin the financial prosperity of the Philistines. In the Sorek Valley with its fertile soils and mountain streams, the Philistines had vineyards, around which they erected walls to protect them from wild animals. Foxes was a significant pest which got through holes in the walls and destroyed the crops. We read about this in Song of Songs 2:15. Samson most probably just blocked the holes through which the foxes would escape and so trap them. Soon he had 300. Tying their tales together with dry flax between every pair and setting it alight cause havoc. The wheat, ready for harvest, burnt down, also causing extensive damage to the vineyard and olive groves.
This is amusing. The Philistines then turned against one another. They killed both Samson’s “wife” and her father. And when they took to Samson, we read, “…he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter.” (Judges 15:8, NKJV) This is an expression meaning they suffered huge losses.
Conflict
Samson then took a break and sought respite in the rock of Etam. The cleft or chasm in the rock is a long, narrow cavern about 75m long, 15m wide and 1.5m high.
What happens is tragic beyond words. Samson’s own people became so used to be slaves in their own land, that they slavishly obeyed the Philistines to betray God’s deliverer. The Philistines did not have the gumption to face Samson themselves unless he was bound. The men of Judah did not see confrontation with the enemy as their duty to reclaim their Promised Land. Instead, they delivered Samson to them. Samson trusted his own people to protect him from their enemy, yet they regarded him as their enemy.
One would need much more time to explain what is hidden in these few verses. But just in short:
- It is possible that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ become so worldly that they turn against those who proclaim the Kingdom of God in all sincerity. They did it with Moses too. And they did it with Jesus Christ. Worldly Christians can quickly become the footmen of the world doing their dirty work for them.
- It is possible that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ can become spiritually so blind that they see the enemy of Christ is their liberators.
- It is more than just a possibility that the church of our Lord Jesus Christ would disown Him purely to protect their own interests and peace.
Think about it. Consider your personal attitude in this.
Like a slave with hands tied up, Samson was delivered into the hands of the Philistines. His own people did not kill him, but they would hand him over to others who would.
But God’s servants are not powerless. The Spirit of God rushed on Samson, and he broke the ropes which bound him. What followed was something I would not mind seeing on video. Samson picked up the jaw bone of a donkey and started to fling it around. Jawbones are not really smooth, and anyone who dared to come close got knocked over. Did he really kill a thousand of them? The word in the Bible can also be understood as a military company. In any case, they did not have a chance. Samson made donkeys of them; in other words, they became like salve animals under God’s power through him. Later on, they named the place Jawbone Hill. There’s something of this which echoes into the future to Golgotha, Place of the Skull where our Saviour, after He was handed over by his own people to be hanged, being thirsty, had victory over Satan, death, sin and hell.
Contentment
Samson, exhausted in victory, cried out to the Lord to sustain him. God opened a hollow place, and a fountain sprang open. His strength returned, and he revived. God enabled his appointed deliverer to have victory, and God sustained his appointed deliver.
And we read the last statement in this chapter:
And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines. (Judges 15:20, NKJV)
Conclusion
Anyone who knows about the Gospel of Christ will understand how Samson as deliverer was a precursor to Christ, born in Bethlehem many years later. When we celebrate the birth of Christ, we hear the message:
“Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10–11, NKJV)
He is your Deliverer, He is your rock, He is the living water. He is your Saviour. Take up your cross and follow Him.
Amen.
Sermon preached by Red D. Rudi Schwartz on Sunday 9 December 2018
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