Would you join me on our way
to the 16th chapter of the book of Judges? Stop by Hebrews chapter
11. Sometimes, and as I heard read
the other day, there's a passage in 1 Peter about, it isn't burdensome
for me to remind you, and it's a constant job that we do when
we open the scriptures, when we read the scriptures, when
we hear the scriptures preached and taught, people are reminding
us of what we have in Christ. And for me to finish up with
the 16th chapter of the book of Judges with Samson and What
happens to him? I had to stop by Hebrews chapter
11, and there in verse 32, because it is in this verse of scripture
that we have a commentary on this man that we've been reading
about, this man that has eye problems. He keeps seeing strange women.
He has eye problems. Now in the 16th chapter, he has
that eye problem taken care of. they poke his eyes out. He never
again has any trouble with the womenfolk. In what we have looked
at, though, we have seen that several of those instances is
a type of Christ looking at his bride who were unfaithful, and
then his compassion to go find them, save them, bring them.
And I had the opportunity just today to share with a person
about that poem that you often see all over in junk stores and
on walls of parap... Christian paraphernalia stores,
the two tracks in the sand, which is not scriptural at all. It
tells only when you get into trouble, is there only one track.
Then we're in trouble all the time, because there is only one
track in the sand. He carries his sheep. That is
a blessing that we have. All right, here in the book of
Hebrews chapter 11, and it tells us there in verse 32. Now, there
are several people mentioned in this verse of scripture, we
could say it has the same weight as those lengthier passages with
regard to Abraham, Moses, or any of the other people mentioned
in this 11th chapter. Just because there is a short
passage about Gideon and a short passage about Samson and Barak,
doesn't mean that they are lesser. It just means, as the apostle
Paul was led by the Spirit to write, he says, and what shall
I more say? Don't ask me to prove that this was Paul's writing,
okay? And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, of David
also and Samuel, and of the prophets. Now, we have as much time given
to Samson as we do to David. And we say, well, look at David,
he did so much more. Well, he may have, but the same
amount of time is given to Samson as was to David and to Samuel. So it's not the amount that's
here, it is the quality that is here. And Samson was mentioned
here. He is a person of faith, faith
given to him in the covenant of grace, faith given to him
by the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord's faith that was
given to him. So he is a faithful servant of
God. He is a judge that God raised
up. Now he does some things, but
I have to also be reminded that the Lord, when he brought out
in that wonderful message, he taught that we have no words
there except we have the Old Testament, is he showed his disciples
all the things in the Old Testament concerning himself. And I can't
help but think that he didn't spend some time here in the book
of Judges with these four chapters and with Samson. He's there on
purpose. And he is, whatever happens,
happens according to the grace of God. All right, from that
point of view, let's go over to the book of Judges, chapter
16. In Judges chapter 16, here we have the final episode of
the history of Samson. He's been quite a guy. We've
appreciated how The story started, how the angel of the Lord appeared
unto his parents, and how his promised son, he's going to be
a Nazarite. He's not even gonna bring that
up in our lesson tonight. He's going to tell one of the
women that he's with that he is a Nazarite. All right, this
is the story of the end of Samson, and the judge, the deliverer
that God raised up, is going to do more in his death than
he did in his life. And that was, he's gonna take
out more Philistines in his death than he did in his life. And
that's the ministry that the Lord gave him, to deal with the
enemy. Now, when we look at the Lord
Jesus Christ, he did a lot. I mean, that's a very poor word. Lot, a lot. It is very undescriptive
of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ before he went to the
cross. He dealt with a lot of sinners
and he dealt with a lot of sin. But when he went to the cross,
he dealt with it in a very special way to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. He put it away. He healed people
that were sinners. He raised Lazarus, who was a
sinner. All of those things. So we can say, as Samson did
more in his death than he did in his life, it's so easy just
to transfer that over to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the ministry of Christ and say, look at those years, three
and a half years of his ministry. What happened before that? We
have very little to go on. But during that three and a half
years, He was constantly healing people of different maladies.
And there are times there were lots of people that he healed,
but he healed more in his death, spiritually speaking, than he
did in his life. Without that given life, without
that given his life, a ransom, there would have been no purpose
in the rest of it. So let's go over here and in
the book of Judges chapter 16, and it says, beginning with verse
4. We looked at verses 1, 2, and
3 last time. And it came to pass afterward
that he loved a woman in the valley of Zork, whose name was
Delilah. Now I read this afternoon that
this place is not too far from his hometown. Whether it's 10
miles or five miles or one mile, I couldn't find out, but it's
not too far. And it says, and the lords of the Philistines
came up unto her and said unto her, now he has been a thorn
in their flesh ever since he's been identified as a judge by
God. He has, I just think of those
foxes that came to him and backed up so that he could tie their
tails together and he lit the flames, they took off, did exactly
what God intended for them to do. Why? Because they did the
things that God intended for them to do. And we find all of
the things that Samson did to destroy the Philistines, to keep
them off balance, and he destroyed many. He destroyed 30 to get
the clothes for his best man at his wedding. A thousand here,
a thousand there, and he's been a thorn in their flesh, and they've
been after him for some time. Last time we noticed that he
went into a town and he went to sleep and they're going to
take care of him. And he uprooted the gates and the gate posts
and hauled them off and demonstrated, you know, you're just puny compared
to me. And we find out that that's such
a picture of the strength and power of our sovereign God over
all things, and particularly putting away sin and the resurrected
glory that we have in Christ Jesus. All right, the Lords of
the Philistines came, verse five, and came up to her and said unto
her, entice him and see wherein his great strength lieth, and
by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind
him to afflict him, and we will give thee, every one of us, 1,100
pieces of silver. I read a commentary and I thought
this was cute. However, in the case, it seems
more to represent the power of incessant nagging. Four times, four times, she tries
to get his strength. Now, it is all in the sovereign
purpose of God. I am so thankful, and I was telling
a fellow today, I'm so thankful for Romans 8, 28. Because sometimes
that's my nail to hang on. It's just, I get to go there
and say, you know, I don't understand this. I can't figure it out.
I can't comprehend it. But I can go to Romans 8, 28
and hang on that and say, God worketh all things. All things
work together for the good of them that love God to those who
are the called according to his purpose. So I'm going to hang
on that nail. I don't understand some of the
many things that go on. My family's life, my life, my
children's life, I just don't understand it. I wish I could
help them more, but I know that this is falling out for the purpose
of God. If you will go with me to another
verse, keep your finger right here, and it's easy for me to
do that tonight. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter
29, book of Deuteronomy chapter 29, Now this is a verse of scripture
that is becoming more and more worn in my Bible because it shares
with me as we follow the life of Samson. He goes unto another
woman and the goal of that woman is to find out his strength.
Where is his strength? Where does it lie? So that she
can betray him to the Philistines and he can have what they want
to do to him. All right, here in the book of
Deuteronomy 29, verse 29, we read these words. The secret
things belong unto the Lord our God. Now, there are times that
we run into verses of scripture in the Bible and we just shake
our head. Go to this verse. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words
of this law." So the Lord gives us the insight that there are
things that just belong to God. He's working them out. He's carrying
out his purpose. He has people in mind with his
purpose, but he has the only one that knows the secret of
it. And that's fine because he is God. We don't want a God that
we can figure out. We don't want a God that is in
our level. We don't want a God that's just
above our level. We want a God that is in the
heavens, that has created heavens and earth out of nothing. We
want that God. All right, going back to the
book of Judges chapter 16, we find that they're looking for
the strength of Samson. It tells us here in Delilat verse
6, tell me I pray thee where in thy great strength lieth and
wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. Tell me where
your strength lies and how we can beat you up. Now so many
people And I have thought that myself. So many people believe
that Samson's strength lies in his hair. But you know, it doesn't. There
is a relationship that he has with God that is symbolized by
his hair, but his strength does not lie in his hair. Turn with
me, if you would, back to the book of Judges 14 and verse six. In the book of Judges chapter
14 and verse 6, we read here these words, and we're going
to see, I think there's three or four times in this book of
Judges, in a very short period of time in Samson's life, we
can find out what his strength is. And that strength is the
strength that God gives his people today. It says there in Judges
chapter 14, verse six, it says, the spirit of the Lord came mightily
upon him and he rent him, and this is that lion, He rent him
as he would rent a kid. And he had nothing in his hand,
but he was told not his father or his mother what he had done.
So when that lion came after him, it wasn't because he had
long hair that he was able to take this lion. It is because
the spirit of the Lord came upon him. The Lord was his strength,
and that is the same with us. You know, the Lord is our strength.
It doesn't matter how much we read the Bible. It doesn't matter
how many times we go to church. The Lord is our strength. Now,
we may go to study the Bible to find out greater truths about
the Lord is our strength, and we may hear it in preaching and
teaching, greater things that the Lord is our strength, but
we will never find that he is not our strength. The Lord is
our strength. He is our Lord God Almighty. So Samson's strength lied in
the fact that the Holy Spirit came upon him. Now it's going
to be interesting when we get to reading about him over in
this passage of scripture that the Spirit of the Lord left him.
So then his strength has left him. We'll read that in a moment,
but let's turn with me to 14, verse 19. Chapter 14, verse 19
says, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went down
to Ashkelon and slew 30 men of them and took their spoil and
gave change of garments unto them that expounded the riddle.
And his anger was kindled and he went up to his father's house.
So when it came time to pay his debt, He went down to Ashkelon
and the Lord gave him strength. The spirit of the Lord came upon
him and he went down there and slew 30 men and got their clothes
and brought it up and handed it to the people who had found
out about his riddle through a woman. All right, so it's the
Spirit of the Lord was his strength. The Spirit of the Lord is his
strength. Now, the Spirit of the Lord is only going to reveal
the glory of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Remember what Jesus said
about the Spirit when he has come? He will testify of me. Now, it doesn't mean that there
is a order, a descending order in the Godhead. I think some
people almost believe that there's a descending, the Holy Spirit,
that's number three. Son's number two, God is number
one. In the covenant of grace, it
was determined, this is known unto God, it was determined,
and we can read in the scriptures that they all are co-equal, co-powerful,
co-omniscient, omnipresent, everything about them has that equality. They are on a plane of their
own and there is no little notches downwards. The Holy Spirit isn't
the third person in the Holy Trinity because he is lesser,
and Jesus is the second because he is a little lesser than the
Father, and the Father is superior. They are all superior. but they
coveted together to put this into a realm that would work
out the free grace in saving people from their sins. The son
became subordinate to the father in redeeming his people. The
father chose those people. Now the father has never asked
anybody to bow down and worship the father. You know how we worship the father?
by worshiping the Son. How do we worship the Holy Spirit?
I have a friend that just tells me he's gonna go over to this
church because they're worshiping the Spirit. I said, that's not
biblical. The Bible does not tell us to
worship the Holy Spirit. When we're worshiping the Son,
we're honoring the Spirit. When we're worshiping the Son,
we're honoring the Father in an equality that is unknown to
us, unbeknownst to us, and not able to figure out, but that's
how God is determinative. In their covenant of grace, this
is how it's going to be. And if we don't go through the
Son, we'll never get to the Father. It will not happen. He is the
one that reveals the Father. That's what he said. And that's
what we find the word that Jehovah means. He reveals the Father.
And the Holy Spirit gives us the inside dope of this great
covenant of grace in salvation. All right, it goes on here in
the same book, chapter 15. Chapter 15 and verse 14. We read
these words, and when he had come into Lehi, this is again
of Samson, the Philistines shouted against him, and the Spirit of
the Lord came mightily upon him. Chapter 15, verse 14. The Spirit
of the Lord came mightily upon him, and the cords that were
upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and
his bands loosed from off his hands. Not one word in these
three instances shares that it's his hair. His hair is symbolic of being
a Nazarite, separated to God. All right, let's go back to the
16th chapter, and here we read verse seven. Delilah's already
said, where's your strength so we can afflict you? All right,
and then it says, and Samson said unto her, if they bind me
with seven green whiz that were never dried, then shall I be
weak and be as another man. So the lords of the Philistines
brought up to her seven green widths, which had not been dried,
and she bound him with them. Now there were men lying in wait,
abiding with her in the chamber. And she said unto him, the Philistines
are upon thee. Now, if you read Robert Hawker,
you know what he's gonna say about this? This is pretty simple,
we don't have to comment too much. He is amazed at the desperate
situation, condition that mankind is in as represented here. There
is not very much difference between Samson and Israel. All Israel gone after the gods.
Samson's gone after every woman he could see. So there's not
a lot of difference except for grace. You know, we've said this,
but it's so true. There's not a nickel's worth
of difference between Peter and his denial of the Lord and Judas. The only difference is grace. All right, it goes on to tell
us here, the Philistines, be upon thee, Samson. And he break
the whiz as a thread of toe is broken when it touches the fire.
So his strength was not known. And Delilah said unto Samson,
behold, thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I
pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound? And he said unto her,
if they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied,
then shall I be weak and be as another man. Delilah therefore
took new ropes and bound him therewith and said unto him,
the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And there were liars
in weight abiding in the chamber, and he break them off his arms
like a thread. Bet you can't guess what Delilah
had to say. Delilah said unto Samson, Here
are the two thou hast mocked me, and told me lies. Tell me
wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, If thou
weave the seven locks of my head with the web. And she fastened
it with a pin, and said unto him, The Philistines be upon
thee, Samson. And he awaked out of his sleep,
and went away with the pin of the beam and with the web. And
she said unto him, how canst thou say I love thee when thine
heart is not with me, that thou hast mocked me these three times,
and hast not told me wherein thou hast thy strength lieth? Three times, he is a slow liar. but he is God's judge. He is a slow learner, but he
has been given the faith of Jesus Christ. He is not an outcast. He is a child of Abraham. Aren't you thankful that God
does not grade us on our faithfulness, but He grades us on His faithfulness. I'm glad He doesn't grade me
on my sin because if He did, who can stand? If God should
regard iniquity, who can stand? But since the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ had no iniquity, and he laid down his life, a
ransom for the church, and paid every debt of their sin debt,
every particle of it, every atom of it, then we have no sin hanging
over us, even though we know that we did enough today to be
damned to a devil's hell seven times. All right, as we go on,
it tells us here, and when Delilah saw that he had told her all
his heart, she, oh, verse 17. Verse 16, I'm sorry. And it came
to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged
him so that his soul was vexed unto death. You don't love me,
because if you love me, you would tell me. You don't love me, because
if you loved me, you would tell me. And it went on and on. Well, that he told her all his heart
and said unto her, there hath not come a razor upon my head,
for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. I have been set apart by God
from my mother's womb. You know, in many respects, every
person that God ever has saved has had that same thing, set
apart from our mother's womb, even before that, even before
that 10 generations back in the council halls of eternity, in
the covenant of grace, He has known all those that he is going
to save. From my mother's womb, if I be
shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall look weak
and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he
told her all his heart, he sent and called for the lords of the
Philistines saying, come up this once for he has showed me all
his heart. And then the lords of the Philistines
came up unto her and brought money into their hand. I don't
know how long this took from beginning to end, but it's been
some time. It was according to God's eternal
purpose. It fell out just as God determined it. It was the
deep things of the Lord belong to God. He has it worked out. It's going to be perfect. It's
going to work out just as if it were designed by the thrice
holy God. That's what it was designed by.
And it says she made him sleep upon his knees. I read one commentary
says she gave him some sleeping pills or something like that
for him to have that kind of sleep. And she called for a man
and they caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.
And she began to afflict him and his strength went from him.
And she said, the Philistines be upon thee. And Samson, he
awoke out of his sleep and said, I'll go out as other times before
and shake myself. And he was wist not that the
Lord had departed from him. that strength that he had had
departed from him for a season. What would we be like if God
took his restraining hand back? We find out by following other
saints in the Bible what happens when he takes his restraining
hand back. It doesn't take us very long
after the flood to find out what Noah did with his restraining
hands of God away from him. He found grace in the eyes of
the Lord and had great faith to build an ark. And all those
critters came to him and he stayed in that ark and had great composure
and trust of the Lord, gets out of the ark, plants a vineyard.
You know, every time I go to Hood River and see that brand
new vineyard along the highway, I think of my friend, Noah, planting
the vineyard and getting drunk. Why? The Lord raised his restraining
hand for just a moment. He lets us know from time to
time how frail we are. Look at David, look at Moses,
the restraining hand of the Lord moved for just a second. Now
in God's eternal purpose, that is exactly what he has purpose
to do. But from our view that we can't see all of that taking
place, we find out just how weak we are if we do not have God's
restraining hand over us all the time. And so we find that
the restraining hand of God is pulled back from Samson for a
moment, and the gray locks of hair, you know how old he is,
30 years old maybe, 25, 20. He hasn't had a haircut all his
life. I think he washed it from time
to time. But he hasn't had a haircut all
his life. And all that hair is taken off of his head. He is
a different person. for a season. You know, as we
follow this out, we find that it just comes to pass what we
read there with regard to Romans 8, 28, and also over there in
the book of Deuteronomy. This entire passage here is in
preparation for Samson doing what he was called by God to
do. Now let's just jump over here
to verse 30 of this chapter. Several things are going to take
place in Samson's life before this happens, but it says, Samson
said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all
his might and the house fell. Now he's just asked to be moved
over there. Verse 29, Samson took ahold of the two pillars,
middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was
borne up of the one with his right hand and the other with
his left hand. And Samson said, let me die with
the Philistines. And he bowed himself, or bowed
himself with all his might, and the house fell upon the lords
and upon all the people that were therein. So the death which
he slew, the dead which he slew at his death were more than they
which he slew in his life. Now, how did he do that? The
spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. One more time. The fourth time, Samson gives up and tells Delilah. Three other times she brings
that up. And you know, how often do we find in the life of the
Lord Jesus that people bargained over the life of the Lord Jesus?
How many times do we find that they are in a discussion about,
he must die. He's a trouble to us. And at the right time, he was
betrayed just like Samson, sold out, tried, and crucified. Christ had set his face as a
flint to go to Jerusalem. All of those things were just
things that happened in his life. And here we find that these things
happened in Samson's life that he might carry out his ultimate,
most important, most valuable thing, and that was the destruction
of the Philistines. He was brought into their house.
Now let's go back over here and we'll read just the in-between
parts here. It says, the Philistines took
him, verse 21, put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza
and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the
prison house. Now, this was a slave's job.
They had a grain grinder there that was man-pushed. And he's
there, albeit the hair of his head began to grow again after
he was shaven. And then the lords of the Philistines
gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto
Dagon their God, and to rejoice, for they said, our God hath delivered
Samson, our enemy, into our hand." Now, we find this over almost
word for word, at least in the minds of those who took the Savior
and crucified Him, not realizing that the taking of him and the
crucifying him was what he needed to do to begin with. And we find
that with Samson. He is going to do what God purposed
him to do, and that is to take care of the Philistines. When
the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said, our
God hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer
of our country, which slew many of us. And it came to pass when
their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson, that
we may make a sport." Isn't that about what they did
with Jesus Christ? Mocked him, slapped him, put
a crown of thorns on him as a king and a purple robe on him as a
king, mocking him, slapping him and said, who was that? Who was
that? goes on to tell us, and Samson said unto the lad, verse
25, and it came to pass, when their hearts were married, they
said, call for Samson, that he may make a sport. And they called
for Samson out of the prison house, and he made them sport,
and they set him between the pillars. And Samson said unto
the lad that held by, that held him by the hand, suffer me that
I may feel the pillars wherewith the house standeth, that I may
lean upon them. Now the house was full of men
and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there.
And there were upon the roof about 3,000 men and women that
behold, while Samson made sport. And Samson called upon the Lord
and says, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee. and strengthen
me, I pray thee. Only this once, O Lord, that
I may be at once avenged of the Philistine for my two eyes.'
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the
house stood, and on which it was borne up, and the one with
his right hand, and the other with his left. And Samson said,
Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all
his strength, might, bowed himself, and the house fell upon the lords
and upon all the people that were therein, so that the dead
which he slew at his death were more than they that he slew with
his life. Then his brethren and all the
house of his father came down and took him and brought him
up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtiol in the burying place
of Manoah's father, and he judged Israel 20 years." What a judge. Four chapters are dedicated to
him in the book of Judges. When we first read it, we say,
oh, what a rascal. And then we realize he's God's
rascal. He's God's man. He's God's judge. He did exactly what God ordained
him to do. When we find out at the very
beginning, he was gonna be raised up to put out the Philistines. Well, we're going to stop there
tonight and we'll pick up chapter 17 next time. I'm thankful to
go through these four chapters and have a much different view
of Samson than I've ever had. And particularly that verse over
there in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, it just sent waves
at me to read that in the book of Hebrews. So we'll stop there
tonight.