Samson's Faith that Glorified God (Judges 13:1-5)
Rev. Myung-sin Choi
“1 Again the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. 2 Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. 3 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, 'Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. 4 Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. 5 For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.' ”
Introduction
I read a news article and in that article, it was about a man named Henry Page, a famous man. This man conducted an air show and while he was performing one of his air shows, there was a strange noise that he heard while flying. He inspected it carefully and surprisingly, a rat was biting through one of the cords of the plane. If the cord was cut off, then it could cause severe damage to the plane. At that time, Page started praying to God. While he was praying, he had a resolution and confirmed in his heart that he needed to entrust all things to God. So, with reassurance in his heart, he decided to fly higher. In that plane, he started flying higher and higher and while the plane was flying higher, he stopped hearing the noise. What had happened was the rat died from a lack of oxygen. While reading this, many thoughts came to my mind. While we live our walk of faith, we may experience many things and when that happens, if we look up to God alone then God will guide and protect us. Through today’s message, it is a message about Samson. We read in today’s Biblical passage, there was something interesting regarding Samson. Samson, he was the last judge among the 12 judges in the book of Judges. Compared to other judges, there were many things recorded about Samson in the Bible. Why did God allow many recordings to be recorded about Samson from his birth to his death?
1. The Birth of Samson the Nazirite
1) Samson the chosen man
This was because when Samson was born, the spiritual state of Israelites was in the worse period. We read this together, but it could be seen that Samson’s mother’s name was never recorded in the Bible. This shows that she was just an ordinary woman. And, she was an anxious woman who was barren and could not have children. When you couldn’t have children back then, you were seen as a woman who was not blessed by God. This was also showing that at that time, the Israelites were living a life separated from God. Just like having no children, the Israelites were living a life without hope, without God. The Israelites were completely separated from God, not knowing God at all and had no hope. There was also a point in time when Samson killed many Philistines. At that time, the Philistines got angry that they came before the Israelites with a huge army to destroy the Israelites. When the Israelites saw this, they were so surprised and taken aback, and said that they didn’t do anything wrong against them and were asking why they bought an army to kill them.
Judges 15:11 “Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, 'Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?' And he said to them, 'As they did to me, so I have done to them.' ” - At that time, the Philistines said a man named Samson killed many of their men, and as a result, they were there to kill the Israelites as revenge. At that time, the Israelites were so taken aback that 3,000 angry Israelites came before Samson. They were criticizing Samson for causing a problem with the Philistines when they were doing fine and no problem was between them. In order to avoid being killed by the Philistines, they decided to capture Samson and bring him before the Philistines. They persecuted Samson and bought him before the Philistines. In other words, in order to save the Israelites, God sent them a judge, Samson, but as a response, the Israelites persecuted, captured Samson, and brought him before the Philistines to be killed. When God saw this, He thought this was not how He wanted the Israelites to respond after He raised a Nazirite.
2) God's plan with Nazirites
Verses 4-5 - God comes before the mother of Samson and tells her exactly what to do. Why did Samson’s mother told not to drink wine? Why did God give Samson’s mother a command first? God was telling Samson’s mother to first live the life of as a Nazirite, to be a role model. And when the child is born, she was commanded not to drink wine and to raise her son as a Nazirite.
Numbers 6:2-7 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the Lord, 3 he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink; he shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink; neither shall he drink any grape juice, nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. 4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, from seed to skin. 5 ‘All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the Lord, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 6 All the days that he separates himself to the Lord he shall not go near a dead body. 7 He shall not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head.” - There were 3 commands that God to the Nazirites to keep. The first command was not to touch anything that is dead or a corpse. Secondly, it was not drink anything that was produced from a wine. The third thing, it was not to put a razor to his hair, not to cut his hair. This was how God distinguished and raised Nazirites back then. What you need to hold onto from this was that there were 3 covenants that God commandments the Nazirites had to keep. It was not about how to be better educated, how to raise a genius, or a fierce warrior but what God wanted was for them to hold onto God’s covenant from the beginning. God said that He will use Samson as a Nazirite. After He spoke these words, God allowed Samson’s mother to bear a son, Samson. If you look in the Bible, you can see that Samson lived a life of a failure. He failed to keep God’s three commands of a Nazirite.
2. Samson's Life
1) Samson's life of failure
Judges 14:8-10 “After some time, when he returned to get her, he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion. And behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the carcass of the lion. 9 He took some of it in his hands and went along, eating. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them, and they also ate. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion. 10 So his father went down to the woman. And Samson gave a feast there, for young men used to do so.” - The first command that he failed to keep, when he was getting married, he met a lion. When he met that lion, he killed that lion and tore it apart. He was so strong to the point that he was ripping the lion apart. When he returned to the same roads, he saw the corpse of the lion and didn’t leave the corpse alone but went to the corpse and ate honey that was inside the lion’s corpse that was made from the honeybees. This was the first command that Samson broke.
Samson got married and back then, when you get married, you would have a feast for a week. With his friends, he celebrated by drinking wine. What God told him not to do, he disobeyed God and put wine to his lips and drank it.
Thirdly, it is written in Judges 16:19 “Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.” - He fell into the temptation of Delilah. He revealed the secret of his power to Delilah. Because Samson did that, while Samson was sleeping on Delilah’s lap, Delilah cut off Samson’s hair. He failed to keep the third command of God. Even though Samson was a Nazirite, he disobeyed and completely failed to keep God’s three commandments. He held onto God’s commandments with a light heart. He didn’t think that he would lose the source of his power after cutting his hair. God continued to wait on Samson but Samson failed to keep God’s commandments till the end so God punished Samson.
As you know Samson experienced a lot of suffering after this in his life. When you look at this Biblical passage of Judges 16:19, after his hair was cut off, he lost the source of his power. There is something that we must look at. Where did Samson’s power come from? Did it really come from his hair? No, not at all. His hair was a reference to God’s covenant between Samson and God. The source of his power was not from his hair, but it came from him by holding onto and keeping God’s covenant.
2) Samson's life of restoration
Judges 16:20- 22 “And she said, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson!' So he awoke from his sleep, and said, 'I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!' But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. 21 Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison. 22 However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.” - You can see why that is in this Biblical passage. The fact that he lost his power was because God had departed from him, not because his hair was cut. What was important was that he lost hold of God’s covenant. He did not have God’s covenant. Through the temptation of a Philistine, he lost hold of God’s covenant. The moment he lost hold of the covenant; his hair was cut. Not only that, but his eyes were also gauged out and he was tied and dragged around like a cow. The moment you lose hold of God’s covenant, Samson had no choice but to live a life like a cow being tied and dragged around. The Bible was not just simply talking about Samson’s life but it was talking about how the Israelites lost hold God’s covenant. God was showing the Israelites' spiritual state. The Israelites who were chosen by God, they were living without any power at all. They were living like cows, being dragged around.
But an amazing message was given in Judges 16:22 - What does this mean? Samson’s faith was being restored. In other words, God’s covenant was being restored in Samson’s life. Imagine how many times Samson repented and begged before God. He lost his power and his eyes were gauged out, and he became the most pitiful man. When a child of God loses hold of their identity and status as a child of God, then you will live a life being dragged around by nonbelievers. You become a toy to the nonbelievers. The Philistines were basically toying around with Samson and tossing him around. Even though many people died in the hands of Samson, after he lost his power, he became the most pitiful man in their eyes and became a laughingstock to them. They dragged Samson around to make him the laughingstock for the city. At that time, the child that was dragging Samson around, he asked the child to help him go through the pillars of a building.
At that time, he prayed to God in Judges 16:28, 30 “Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, 'O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!' 30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.” - When he prayed earnestly before God, God gave him his power back and allowed the building to collapse. When the building collapsed, the men that he was able to kill was more than the Philistines he killed in the beginning. At that time God heard Samson’s final prayer and answered him. God received glory from Samson’s prayer. This was the story of Samson. Through Samson’s story, there is a gospel message that we must hold onto.
3. The Gospel Message Through Samson
1) God's unlimited love
Giving realization - What we can find from Samson's story is God’s unlimited love. Samson was born as a Nazirite. Samson’s mother was barren but through God’s grace, she was able to bear a son. What does this mean? The means that the Israelites were living as slaves and bound by captivity but in order to save the Israelites, God bought forth a Nazirite and the event of the Exodus to free the Israelites. But even though Samson received great blessings from God, he lost hold of all of them. This was the same thing that happened to the Israelites. The Israelites received great blessings from God, but they ended up living as slaves to the Philistines. Through Samson’s death, God was showing that He was alive. They were able to see that God was alive. This was not a message just for the Israelites, it was message that God is also giving to us. We must hold onto this as well. When we accept Christ, we receive our great identity and status as a child of God. But we lose hold of the identity and status a child of God and live as slaves to the world. We need to discover that God is alive from this message. We need to discover that God is watching over us and we need to repent before God once again.
Endless love - God is also showing us His endless love. What is the main theme and content of the book of Judges? If you commit a sin against God, you will be judged but when you call out to God then God will send you a judge to save you. God bought a judge before the Israelites to save them. Due to the Israelites’ sin, they suffered and started crying out to God. When God heard their pleas, God sent them a judge to save them. But in the book of Judges, it didn't mention anything about the repentance of the Israelites. This was their way of saying that they were okay without God, and they could live without God. You can see that God’s punishment and judgment had no choice but to come upon the Israelites. But despite all of this, God still sent them a judge, a Nazirite to them. This was unbelievable. This shows God’s endless love. The Israelites who couldn’t repent before God, God still had pity on them and sent them a judge. When you hold onto this, if anything happens to us, there is no need for us to be disappointed because God’s love is endless.
Giving hope - God gives us hope. We read about Samson today but we can see that Samson lost hold of God’s covenant. He received God’s judgment but despite that, when Samson cried out to God, God allowed His grace to come upon him. When Samson cried out, he received more grace that he had ever received. This is astounding. Through this, what must we hold onto? When we live our walk of faith, we may fall and fail but don’t be disappointed, come before God again. Just like Samson, with your lacking state, when you call out to God and pray, then God will return all things back to the original state and will answer you. This shows that no matter what problems comes to us and what sin befalls upon us, God will allow us to kneel before God again, repent, and pray to Him. Through this, we can gain hope. No matter what disaster comes to us, we have hope. This is because we can come before God. Even if darkness comes upon us, we have hope. The moment you pray to God, God will lead you with His light. Enjoy this blessing.
2) The gospel which we must enjoy
Through Samson’s story, we must hold onto Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” - When God called us, he didn’t call us when our spiritual states were at our best, but he called us when we were sinners. God died for us. When we accept Christ with faith, God’s everlasting love comes upon us. Hold onto this first covenant.
Romans 1:17 “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'The just shall live by faith.' ” - The way to live is through faith alone. When we live with faith, then God will lead us to blessings. This is God’s message. To live by faith is spiritual science.
2 Corinthians 4:9-10 “Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” - Are you suffering of your darkness? Are you having difficulty or challenges in your life? You will not perish. Why is that? Inside of us, the life of Jesus Christ who died for us lives. The power of the Holy Spirit is inside of us, which means that we will never perish, and we will never face death. No matter what problem or crisis comes to us, there is no way we can perish. This because we are imperishable. Why is that? The everlasting life of Jesus Christ is inside of us. Truly be victorious. This covenant of God is the message of the covenant that God has given to you today.
Conclusion
Hold onto once again of Matthew 11:28 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” - No matter what burden or what problem comes to you, it doesn’t matter. Samson faced absolute failure and lost hold of God’s covenant, but the moment Samson came before God, he received more things. He received greater blessings and God’s grace came upon him. God is saying if you come before Him, then God said that He will give us rest. Hold onto God’s covenant and be victorious.
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