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We all like a super-hero. If only there was a superman, Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman or the incredible hulk to save the day we could all go home, snuggle up in front of the TV and feel safe. Well, today we take a brief look at an incredible hulk. As I understand it, when Bruce Banner gets angry, he becomes the Incredible Hulk. Samson was slightly different, when he became angry and the Holy Spirit was on him, he was invincible, capable of mass killing! Not really what you expect from the Bible. But Samson is one of the Chosen Few – the Judges of Israel.
We need to understand a little history (not too much!)
Joshua died around 1350 BC, Saul is made king around 1050BC – a period of 300 years or 15 generations. Today we begin around 1118 BC which means Joshua is as long ago to Manoah and his wife as the American war of independence and James Watt inventing a Steam Engine is to us. Gideon and Deborah were a 100 years ago. To us that is as close as WW1. Eli has just become High Priest. The Midanites had ceased to be a problem but the Philistines were growing in power.
So what is the story of Samson. Well here it is in summary, and it is not a pretty sight.
Lets read 13:1
Again the Israelites
did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of
the Philistines for forty years.
Evil has consequences. We cannot play around with God. The Covenant God made with Israel, specified that if they followed idols they would be handed over to their enemies. And that is what happened time and time again.
We have a different covenant based on the finished work of Jesus. It is a covenant of grace where God forgives our sins because Jesus dies on our place. We are offered new life and the Holy Spirit to live with us so that we don’t slip back into sin. Sin becomes a break in our relationship with Jesus because he suffered for every sin we commit.
So God raises up a rescuer. A leader for Israel. And this is how he does it.
Read Judges 13:
There is something compelling about this couple struggling to come to terms with angels, pregnancy and the Nazirite thingy. Let me explain the Nazirite thingy.
In Numbers 6:2-21 we have a prescription for taking a
Nazirite Vow.
What is unique here is that Samson was a Nazirite from conception and for life.
But step back a little and get the bigger picture, God is going to all these lengths for Manoah & his wife to raise Samson who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.
That is the plan and it took in Eli, Samuel, Saul and David to complete the task. It took 100 years.
But God starts here. But only he knows how it will work out but it will work out. Look, none of us have had angels turning up with prescriptions for our unborn children but each of us is called for a purpose and we muddle through our bit of destiny and God is proceeding with a plan. A plan that has eternity in mind and you are part of it. Samson was to start what David was to finish. He was a flawed leader but God used him. And it all began with this couple trying to make sense of God’s word.
Listen to Paul in 1Corinthians 1:26-31
26 Brothers
and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were
wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble
birth. 27 But
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak
things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God
chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things
that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so
that no one may boast before him. 30 It
is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom
from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who
boasts boast in the Lord.”
God’s way is to start with the poor and the weak, in this case, the childless to demonstrate his power. What we need is not superman gifts but the stirring of the Holy Spirit.
24 The
woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the Lord blessed
him, 25 and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him while he was in
Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Have you been stirred up by the Spirit of God? My concern is that we have been busy living and have neglected seeking God. We have our security and our pensions and our health care but we are not stirred up by the Holy Spirit. We have our vision for mission but we need the love of Christ burning in our hearts. Pray for the Holy Spirit to stir up this week. Be warned he might call you out of your comfort zone place you in difficulties so that you have to depend on his resources rather than your own.
When Samson was stirred up things got complicated for Israel. Samson was a one-man band against the Philistines and appears to have failed to raise an army at all. He had to go it alone. The rest of Israel preferred to live in subjugation to the Philistines and actually hand Samson over to them to placate them.
Twice in this story we are told that Samson lead Israel for 20 years. That is probably because there are two sources that have been put together to produce the record but most of what we read about is not Samson leading Israel but Samson chasing women.
There are three women mentioned in Samson’s life. The lady from Timnah, a prostitute in Gaza and Delilah. Hey were all Philistines. He made a habit of sleeping with the enemy. His affairs were disasters. He marries the lady from Timnah against his parents wishes and plays a riddle game which unravels when he spills the answer to his new wife who is under intense pressure to get it from him. He foolishly tells her what he hadn’t told anyone. And even if she had wanted to, she wasn’t going to keep is secret. That provokes him to kill 30 men.
He doesn’t give up and goes off to see his wife only to find she has been married off to a friend. That enrages Samson so he sets about destroying the Philistine harvest. In revenge the Philistine kill his wife and her father, so Samson kills many of them.
The next escalation is that the Philistines advance on Judah. (Samson was a Danite so they did not have such close blood-ties) and threatens them so they persuade Samson to let them hand him over bound. When the Philistines turn up to collect him he breaks free and kills a 1000. Although God works round Samson’s impetuousness he would not approve of his behaviour. God uses flawed Christians so that his glory can be revealed.
In ch16 we have this crazy visit to Gaza – yes it is the same Gaza you have been seeing wreaked by Israel on TV- for a one night stand. Gaza at that time was the hub of Philistine power and he not only comes and goes as he wishes, he walks off with the gates of the city. Again the sad thing is that it revolved around his demand for sex.
Then Delilah enters the story. Again he falls for one of his enemies but he can’t see the trap. She is under pressure to get a result which is to find the secret of his strength. The logic here is that putting yourself in a situation of temptation and not taking the exits when you can will inevitably bring about your downfall. In Samson’s case he betrayed his Nazirite rule.
If you examine this story carefully you discover that each bit of the Nazirite rule is broken at some point. That leads Samson into deeper trouble each time. Now his hair which has never been cut is cut and the Philistines get their man and gouge out his eyes., shackle him and set his remaining strength to work on corn grinding.
In the final episode the Philistines attribute their victory to Dagon – you can read more about Dagon in 1Samuel 4-5. God will not tolerate rivals and now we discover that God has a plan, they have Samson out for sport but Samson is now, for the first time in the story , praying. He is not impetuously using the gift that God had given him, he is asking for the gift to be returned that he might wreak havoc in the middle of their challenge to YHWH , God of Israel. The Philistines have chosen Dagon, God has his man leaning on the two pillars that hold up the temple. There is no contest, God hears the prayer of his Chosen One and the celebrations are cut short as Samson brings the house down not with his entertainment but with the power that God gave him.
You can read on in 1Samuel how the contest developed. The Philistines produce their own Incredible Hulk called Goliath but he is brought down by a shepherd boy with a sling and 5 stones. If you challenge God, you lose.
WE can misuse and abuse the gifts of the Holy Spirit whether they be physical strength, in the case of Samson, or the teaching or leading or healing or speaking in tongues and use them in the wrong way but God is sovereign and he will take even a flawed hero like Samson and he will pursue his plan. Samuel, Saul and David continued the process. God was at work.
God is at work. He is looking to couples who are struggling to make sense of his word. He is looking for leaders even though they are flawed and he will use even our folly to bring about his plan of salvation. But never lose sight of the fact that Samson’s failure was that he went lusting and it clouded his view of what God wanted him to do. We can’t suggest what might have been because God does not have an alternative plan. But maybe if he hadn’t been chasing sex, we might have learnt more about his 20 years of leading Israel.