So Lord may graciously help me,
I turn your prayerful attention to the book of Judges and chapter
16 and the latter part of verse 30. Judges 16 and the last clause
in verse 30. So the dead which he slew at
his death were more than they which he slew. in his life. Judges 16 and verse 30. So the dead which he slew at
his death were more than they which he slew in his life. We have these chapters in Judges
that tell us of the life and the work of Samson. And some
of the things we read of Samson are very hard to understand and
sometimes we would perhaps hardly understand whether he was a child
of God with some of the things that he performed. And yet we know that he certainly
was in Hebrews 11, he appears. In that chapter of the faithful,
in verse 32, it says, and what shall I more say? For the time
would fail me, this is Hebrews 11, verse 32, fail me to tell
of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah and of
David also and Samuel and of the prophets. So we have clear
confirmation in the New Testament that Samson was a true child
of God. At this time of the year, as
we think of the birth of the Lord Jesus and the coming of
the angel to tell Mary of the fact that she would have a son
which would be the Lord Jesus Christ, the actual person in
the Old Testament that is most similar to that is really this
account of Samson being born to Manoah's wife. This was the
wife, this was a lady, that an angel came and told specifically,
and I believe I'm right in saying that that was not true of any
other woman. It was true of Zacharias. Zacharias was told that his wife
would have a child. But it wasn't Elizabeth that
was told, but here it was the woman that was told, just as
it was with Mary. Mary was told by the angel Gabriel
that she would be the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here, in the Old Testament, we have here this coming of the
angel. And the time that it was, was
a time that Israel was in captivity or overrun into the hand of the
Philistines for 40 years. This was a time when they were
overrun by the Philistines. They were being controlled by
the Philistines. And so it was in the time of
the coming of Christ, Israel was under Roman authority. They were not a sovereign nation
at that time. They were under the control of
the Roman Empire. But here, Israel, we read, was
delivered into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. But then this angel comes and
speaks to Manoah's wife. And the angel appeared unto the
woman and said unto her, behold now thou art barren and barest
not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son. And now, therefore,
beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine, nor strong drink, and
eat not any unclean thing. For lo, thou shalt conceive and
bear a son, and no razor shall come upon his head. For the child
shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb. And that meant
that they were to be separate from, they were not to cut their
hair, and not to have wine, and they were to be consecrated,
dedicated to the Lord. And this was true also of Samuel,
that was true of. But it wasn't, in that sense,
true of the Lord Jesus Christ in the sense that he wasn't allowed
to have wine, because we read specifically that he did. But
in the sense of consecration, he was set apart. Samson was
set apart for God and the Lord Jesus. was consecrated, was holy. There was a separateness you
see with this Nazarite vial. And the Lord Jesus was separate,
he was holy. That's one of the meanings really
of what it is to be holy, to be separate. To be separate from
the sinful world. So Samson was going to be this
Nazarite from the womb and we read here, and he shall begin
to deliver Israel. out of the hand of the Philistines. This work, God had given Samson
a work to do. He was going to begin to deliver
Israel out of the hands of the Philistines. There was a work
that he came to do. And this was foretold before
he was even conceived. that this work was there for
Samson to do to deliver and to begin to deliver Israel out of
the hand of the Philistines. Well, we've just been singing
of Jesus the author is of true and living faith. Jesus came
not to just begin to deliver his people. He came to finish
the work. He came to complete the work.
He came to do everything necessary to set his church free. But you see the types and shadows
in the Old Testament, they have glimpses of Christ and yet Christ
of course always is the one that excels. He is the altogether
lovely one and yet in these types we can see precious aspects of
the Lord Jesus Christ who came to seek and to save that which
is lost. And perhaps as you think of me
saying that Samson is a type of Christ, perhaps you immediately
think how can this be? His relationship with these a
number of women from the Philistines and so on, how can that be anything
to do with a type of the Lord Jesus Christ? But I just want
you to see it this way. If the Lord Jesus Christ is going
to have a bride, what sort of bride is she going to be? Is she going to be beautiful
in herself? Is she going to be honorable
in herself? Or is it a bride that is lost and ruined in the
fall? And you see, you notice these
women that Samson has an affection towards. Certainly two of them
are very deceitful and very unworthy of his friendship. and they're not, they're unworthy
to him, they're traitors to him. And how we see that's a picture
of something of the Church of God, that they're unworthy of
such a bridegroom. I know the picture's not complete
and there was much sin in Samson, and I'm not trying to say for
a moment that we should follow what Samson did ourselves, but
there is some beauty in the type of these things. But there isn't
time for me to go through all of Samson's life tonight. But I want to bring you one of
the things you can notice that, which we didn't read, but he
was, when he went to find this woman in, who pleased him well
in the Philistines, you see, his parents said, isn't there
somebody in Israel that could please you? But why would you
go, why would you go for that one? And perhaps we can think
of ourselves as the church of God. Why would God love us? What was there in me that could
merit esteem and give my creator delight? Tis even so far that
we ever must say, because it seemed good in thy sight. You see, the fact that his bride,
it was a strange bride. And in a sense, the fact that
we are linked to Christ. It's one of the wonders God alone
can do. Why should He do that? Why should
He love a people lost and ruined in the fall? A people that rejected
Him? A people that said, we will not
have this man to reign over us? A people that hated Him? The people that were enemies
to Him? Why would He do this? You see,
the Samson did it, but Christ did it. Christ did it to His
church. But on his way, you see, to meet
this woman, that's when the lion came. And we think of that as
Christ went to take his bride, how there was that Satan roared
against him. And Christ was able to overcome
that one, even Satan himself. But I want to notice another
thing in the life of Samson that is unique, really, to him as
I suppose you could say perhaps it happened to David when he
was fighting Goliath, he fought Goliath single-handed. But all
the other battles we have, like David went out generally with
his armies against the enemies, and they fought the enemies as
a battle, with many people. Not so with Samson. Whenever
you read of Samson and what he accomplished, he always accomplished
it single-handedly. He did it single-handedly. And
you see there's something of Christ here. I have trodden the
winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me. I looked
and there was none to help. This is Isaiah 63. And I wondered
that there was none to uphold. Therefore mine own harm brought
salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me." You see, there's
something in Samson of tremendous strength, and he did it alone. And that's what Christ did, with
tremendous strength. He broke the gates. You see,
at one of the times we read when Samson was in that city and they
were all surrounding him and they wanted, they didn't want
him to be, they said when he gets up in the morning we'll
close the gates and we'll have him then, we'll have the victory
over him. What does Samson do? And Samson
lay till midnight and arose at midnight and took the doors of
the gates of the city, the two posts, and went with them, bar
and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to
the top of a hill. That is a before Hebron. Supernatural
strength. Supernatural strength. So he
got hold of these city gates and took them. He didn't just
push them over and then run off. He lifted them and carried them
to the top of the hill. You see he was mighty. You see
we have a picture here. The wonders God alone can do. And you see in Samson he was
I don't think if you'd seen Samson normally, he would look like
a bodybuilder. I think he was just an ordinary man to look
at. And yet we read at times the spirits moved him. And how
Christ, you see, was, as far as we can tell, he was an ordinary
man. There was no beauty that we should
desire him. He was just an ordinary man. Yet, you see, he was the God-man.
Yet he could do what we could never do. And you see, this is
very beautiful when we see it as a picture of Christ and what
he accomplished. Supernatural strength and supernatural
victories that were done single-handedly. But he was judging Israel. Did Israel appreciate Samson?
I don't think they did much at all. If you look what we read in Judges
15 and verse 9, Samson had upset the Philistines. Judges 15 and
verse 9, Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah,
and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, Why
ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson
are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us. Then three
thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam and
said to Samson, knowest thou not that the Philistines are
rulers over us? They'd lost all their sense of
identity. Instead of siding with Samson
as their leader, instead of doing that, they actually joined the
enemy side and started wanting to capture Samson on behalf of
the Philistines. And you see here, there's a picture
of Christ here. This is a picture of what was
taking place when they were capturing Christ in Gethsemane. They were
capturing the chief priests and all those, they were capturing
their Christ, the Lord Jesus, to hand him over, to bind him. We read that they bound him to
give to the Philistines, and that's just what they did to
Christ. They bound him and gave him bound over to Pilate. Because
they weren't going to kill him, but they wanted Pilate to kill
him. And these were his own people. These are the ones that he'd
come to deliver. These are the ones that he was
fighting for. And yet instead of supporting him and going with
him and protecting him and being his subjects, they left him. They let him go his own way.
And they just delivered him back to the Philistines. You see here
a picture of He came unto his own, and his own received him not. They didn't receive him, they
gave him over. They gave him over so that they
could bind him and give him over. And he just agreed with them,
swear unto me that you will not fall upon me. And they spake
unto him, saying, No, but we will bind thee fast and deliver
thee into their hand. But surely we will not kill thee.
And they bound him with two new cords. He let himself be bound. He was a mighty man and let himself
be bound by his own people to be delivered to the enemies.
You see in Christ, bore this at Gethsemane, didn't he? And
then in the trial amongst the chief priests, they bound him
and gave him to Pilate because they weren't able to put him
to death, but they were going to get Pilate to do it for him.
And then we have, you see, and when he came, in verse 14 of
chapter 15, and when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted
against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon Samson. You think of Christ, he was bound,
you see, and yet, when he said, well, before he was bound, sorry,
but he said, whom do you seek? And they all fell backwards,
didn't they, when they said, Jesus of Nazareth, I am he. You see, he was mighty, and Samson
was mighty. And he came. And the Spirit of
the Lord came upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms
became as flax, that was burnt with fire, and his bands loose
from his hand. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth
his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith." It's
incredible, isn't it? What Samson did with single-handedly,
without really weapons. You don't really normally think
of a jawbone of an ass as a particularly good weapon. And yet, Samson
took those things which are despised, and he brought great victories
with those things. And how Christ, you see, he gained
the victory single-handedly over all these enemies. He'd been
betrayed, he'd been betrayed by his own people, who he was
supporting. And later on in that same chapter,
he says, and he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines,
20 years. But did Israel appreciate it?
Did they protect him? Did they help him? It doesn't seem that they did.
Well, you see here a picture then of how Christ fought alone. And there's something, I do think
there's something when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, there
was an aloneness about Christ, an aspect of Christ. He was alone. He trod. the wine press alone. If you read Isaiah 63, there's
a sort of a surprise in the prophecy. And I looked in amazement, and
there was none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. He was alone. You think of that.
All his disciples forsook him and fled. He was left alone.
But you see, He mightily gained the victory. And then as we come
on to what we read in the 16th chapter as he's then in the lap
of Delilah, again you think why ever would he give his love and
his kindness to this one who was so deceitful to him. She
was trying to get out of him, the secret of his strength, And
you think, well, why ever does he keep on telling her? Because
he knows as soon as he tells her that she immediately tells
the Philistines and she has no good intent. And indeed, we are
told that it was all for money. You see, the Philistines had
said they would give large money to her if she could find out
the secret of where his strength lay. Does that not have an echo
of Judas? An echo of Judas. He was given
money, you see, if he could betray his lord and master. He pretended
to be a friend. He went to Christ with a kiss.
He pretended to be Christ's friend. He pretended that, and so did
Delilah. She pretended to be a friend
of Samson. And yet she was really no friend
to him, was she? She only was seeking to bring
him down. And you see here that this takes
place then and eventually he does tell her the secret of his
strength. And then immediately he tells
her, she organizes it, she tells the Philistines to come with
all their full strength and to come and now Now he is going
to be taken, and they brought their money in their hand we
read. And then we have this sad account of Samson being taken,
his eyes taken out by the Philistines. Of course, the Lord Jesus did
not have his eyes taken out, but he was blindfolded by the
enemies. He was blindfolded and then hit
and said, who prophesy, who hit thee? But Then we move on in
this account and we see that I believe the last scene that
we have in chapter 16 of Judges depicts something of Calvary. We have here Samson alone in
the midst in the midst of the Philistines. Samson becomes the object of
scorn, derision, hatred, and gloating over. You see there's something of
what Christ was taking place at Calvary. There he was. He was now an object of shame.
They were wagging their heads at him. They were pointing their
fingers at him. They finally had him where they
wanted him. They finally had him in their
grip. They finally could laugh at him. They finally could do
every obnoxious and cruel thing to him, as no doubt they did
to Samson too. And he was at their power, it
seemed. And it seemed that he was utterly weak. it seemed that
he was utterly unable to deliver himself. And so I present to
you the scene at Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ made himself
a little lower than the angels for the sufferings of death.
And you see here, he became the object of their shame. And Christ
was. Even the The thieves on the left and the
right, they cast the same in his teeth. Everybody was ganging
up on Christ. And where was his followers?
Where was those who he was representing? Where were they? For the most
part, they were gone. They were gone for the most part.
And Samson, we do not read of one friend, really, of Samson
in that company. They were all against him. all
seeking and gloating over him and ridiculing him. But you see, little did they
realise that their gloating, that their glorying, that their
triumphing over Samson was short term. Little did they realise,
little did they realise that Samson was about to deal them
a tremendous death blow. Little, I believe, did Satan
realise what a death blow was coming to him at Calvary. The
whole Church of God were going to be delivered by
what was taking place at Calvary. The whole Church of God was going
to be set free from eternal damnation by this mighty, mighty Samson. This mighty warrior that was
going to crush the head of Satan. But Satan was going to bruise
his heel. And so as we see Samson here The Lord Jesus, the death
of the Lord Jesus was voluntary, wasn't it? No man taketh my life. I lay it down of myself. No man
takes it from me. That was true of Christ. But
in a sense it was true of Samson too. They didn't kill him. He
laid down his life in a sense. He was going to prepare to lay
down his life with what was going on. something of a type of the
Lord Jesus Christ and how he was going to, so I want to picture
this at Calvary of all the enemies and all the Satan and all his
hosts were surrounding and they were all laughing and jeering
at Christ and yet you see when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ
there were going to be those that were laughing and those
that were ridiculing and those that were enemies to Christ They
were going to benefit from what he was doing that very day. Some of them were. We read in
Acts of the Apostles, chapter 6, and a great company also of
the priests believed and were obedient to the faith. The priests,
those that were his arch enemies, they came to see that this one
Like the centurion, certainly this was a righteous man. This
is what happened to Christ. And you see, as we then look
at Samson and what he accomplished, as they were laughing at him,
as they were jeering at him, he asked to put his two hands
on the two pillars on which the whole house rested. And he was
then going to bring down that mighty enemy, that mighty deliverance
that he was going to accomplish. And as we have in our text, so
the dead, which he slew in his death, were more than they that
he slew in his life. He slew many in his life, Samson
did. But in his death, he conquered
far more. And we think that was also true
of Christ. Christ in his preaching and what took place, he gave
many death blows to Satan in his preaching. And he also cast
out devils, didn't he? And so forth. He did many blows
to Satan during his life. But ah, his death. What a difference. His death was the final blow
that was able to deliver his people from their sins. And so
it was, when Samson, you see, he cries out, and Samson called
unto the Lord and said, O Lord, remember me. I pray thee and
strengthen me. I pray thee only this once, O
God, that I may be avenged of the Philistines of my two eyes. And Samson took the two pillars
upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, of
the one on his right hand and of the one on his left. And Samson
said, let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all
his might. And the house fell upon the lords and upon all the
people that were in. So there was this mighty reversal. You see, Samson came to begin
to deliver Israel. He came to begin. But you see,
the Lord Jesus ended. He finished. He came to finish. the work. He came to complete
the deliverance. He came to give that death blow
to Satan and his kingdom and his hellish hosts so that they
may no more be able to gloat over the people of God and he
did it. And there were so many there that were jeering at him
and laughing at him that became those that also benefited from
his great salvation. The dying thief was one of them
of course because we read that earlier he had cast the same
in his teeth. But you see, there was nobody there to help
him, to help Samson. He was alone. And the Lord Jesus,
you see, when he has fought that great enemy, what he fought,
I think there's a hymn that says, and none of the ransomed ever
knew the depths of the waters crossed, nor how dark was the
night the Lord went through, or he found his sheep. that was lost. Nobody knew. And
Samson was alone. Samson was there on his own.
Where was Israel? Where was all his helpers? Where
was all the people he was representing? You see, when Christ went and
stood in the place of his people, there was darkness. From midday
to three o'clock in the afternoon, from the sixth hour to the ninth
hour, there was darkness. He was alone. He was alone. He trod the winepress alone. He was alone. And yet he did
it for his people's good. He did it that they might live. He did it that they might benefit
from it. We see here also in another time,
in verse 31 of chapter 16, 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 Eshter. You see, he had all that ignominy
and shame at his death. And yet Samson had an honorable
burial. So did Christ. He had all the
shame done to him at Calvary. And yet, he was buried with a
wretch in his death. He had that tomb wherein never
man laid. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus
came and took him with all dignity and love and placed him in that
tomb. Of course, the Lord Jesus did
not stay in the tomb because he rose triumphant for his people. He rose no more to die. But as
we think then of this time of the year, of the coming of the
Lord Jesus, there is pictures you see in the Old Testament
that portray something of what Christ was coming to do. He was
coming to do. His birth was, was manifest by
that angel. Samson was to begin to deliver.
It was a type, it was a shadow. Christ fulfilled it. But there's types, and there's
beauty in that types. And I think as we see something of what it
was for Samson, his loneliness and his difficulty, we can see
something of what Christ went through for his people. And therefore,
you see, we need to come and fall before him and speak as
we've sung of the wonders God alone can do, the wonders why
Samson was ever willing to do it, was ever willing to represent
Israel. And his humility, he doesn't
say, It doesn't appear a proud man at all, Samson. All is a
great conquest. He was humble. So was the Lord
Jesus Christ. But you see as he killed that
lion when he went to see his first lady of the Philistines. He killed the lion and we think
of that lion as a picture of Satan goeth about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. And out of the death of that
lion, you see, there was a bees that went in it. There was a
honey produced. The sweetness came out of it.
And as we think of what Christ accomplished in slaying the enemy
and all he accomplished at Calvary, it is so that there is sweetness
for the people of God. There's something sweet. There's
something beautiful. There's something that they delight
in. to think of him that loved us
and washed us in his blood. Well, maybe then as we see this
strange character really, Samson, and there's many things that
are hard to square with what he did, but yet if we see it
as a type of Christ, his love to a bride that didn't deserve
to be loved, and yet that's a picture of what we are. He saw me ruined
in the fall, yet loved me notwithstanding all. He saved me from my lost
estate. His loving kindness, oh, how
great. And he didn't do it with a big
army. He did it single-handedly so that he will have the glory. Worthy is the Lamb. It's going
to be the song throughout never-ending eternity. Worthy is. the Lamb, the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. May the Lord add His blessing.
Amen.