I please the Lord to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Judges, chapter 16, and we'll read verse 20. The
book of the Judges, chapter 16, and reading verse 20. And she said, the Philistines
be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep
and said, I will go out as at other times before and shake
myself. And he wished not that the Lord
was departed from him. The life of Samson is not only
an interesting life, But it is also an instructive life. And there are many things to
learn from the life of Samson. Samson was an unusual child. He was unusual because the angel
of the Lord had come to Menah's wife and told her that she should
have a son. and that he was to be a Nazirite. That means one that was not to
drink alcohol and one that was not to have his hair shaved. And she was told likewise to
operate that in her life. And then that position was repeated
because Manoah, he wasn't there at the time and He wasn't sure,
but it was true. And then the angel of the Lord
appeared again. And this time, Manoah's wife
went and fetched Manoah, and he realised that that which had
been spoken was indeed true. And he desired that he might
prepare some food for this angel of the Lord, but he was not allowed
to. And he was allowed to make a sacrifice, a burnt offering. You may know a burnt offering
is a thanksgiving offering. So he was allowed to make a burnt
offering and the angel of the Lord ascended back to heaven
as the flames ascended. So that was really a very remarkable
beginning to this life of Samson. Now Samson was to be one of the
judges And as we read, he was a judge for some 20 years. And
he was blessed with exceedingly great strength. And the account we have in Judges
gives us some detail of some of the things that he did. He
destroyed a lion, a young lion, by himself with just his hands,
which was an amazing feat indeed. He killed a number of Philistines
and on one occasion he killed a thousand Philistines with a
jawbone of an ass. So he was a very remarkable character
and then as we read together in this 16th chapter, in Gaza,
they waited for him to try and catch him and kill him and he
went away with the doors and the gates of the city, and carried
him up to the top of a hill. Well, I'm sure we can appreciate
somewhat how heavy they must have been in those days. Just
think of a door today, it's heavy enough to carry just a door.
But with the gates and the frame and everything, and he carried
him up to the top of a hill, gave us some impression of the
immense strength of this man. So we have there, therefore,
the physical side of what he was like. But we also see that
he was really vexed with a great weakness. We might perhaps categorise
him as a womaniser. And that of course is not a good
thing. And we know that very early on
he went into a prostitute. And that was obviously very clearly
a wrong thing to do. And then he took this woman Delilah
to him. Well, that wasn't right either.
He loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. Again, not an Israelite, a Philistine. Again, someone who he should
not have gone into. Previously, his parents had spoken
to him and told him it was wrong. but he'd ignored them and he
wanted to have his own way. Again, we have a very strong
lesson here to learn with regard to partners in life and not to
go and to seek partners in an alien situation, outside world.
And by that I mean this, a believer should always desire to have
believers as a husband or a wife, no matter how naturally attractive
someone might appear. And quite clearly, in the earlier
case, this woman of Timnath was very attractive naturally, and
therefore Samson's mind was set on her, and he was determined
to have her, and of course it came to pass, but it wasn't successful.
And we will prove, if we walk contrary to God in these things,
that we're not proved to be successful, and how necessary it is that
we are marriage to a godly people. The Bible tells us very clearly
not to be unequally yoked together. Marriage is something which ties
us to one another. We don't want to be yoked to
unbelievers. Well, that was the sad situation
which existed in Samson's life. And here he was, then he took
this woman Denial. And Denial was obviously a very
covetous person. Because, you may say, why was
that? Well, we read together, the Lords of the Philistines
came up unto her and said to her, Entice him, and see wherein
his great strength lieth, and by what means we may prevail
against him, we may bind him to afflict him, and we will give
thee, every one of us, 1100 pieces of silver. So there was a tangible
situation here for Delilah. And clearly she loved money rather
much more than she did Samson. And she was very prepared therefore
to find Samson's secret and to give it to these Philistines
so that they might be able to come and attack him and to keep
him and arrest him and to kill him if possible. And so we have
the evidence of these various occasions that she asked Samson. And Samson, he wasn't prepared
to begin with to divulge his secret. His secret was his long
hair. The secret was that no razor
had come upon his head. And he produced other possible
solutions. And on each occasion He showed
that it was not true, he was so strong, he broke the ropes
and everything else, and so Delilah was indeed very frustrated that
he had not told her the truth. And she was very clearly devalued
in the eyes of the Philistines, who virtually came to the conclusion
that she wasn't worth taking any notice of. But eventually,
he gave in. He gave in, really, because of
the continual nagging of this woman. It came to pass when she
pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul
was vexed under death. We see here the great danger. Here he was with this woman.
Here was this woman desiring to know his secret so that she
might get the money. And she pestered him day after
day and urged him. And eventually he was so angered
and so vexed and so troubled, I suppose, and annoyed with this
continual nagging of this woman that he told her all at his heart. We can almost see, can't we,
how he was so fed up with this that he said, oh well, here you
are, this is the secret. And he gave away. the secret
of his strength. He gave it away. You may think
perhaps of another occasion when someone despised the blessing
of God and that was Esau. Esau in his life was with Jacob
and there was that time when he came in and he was very hungry
and Jacob was making some soup or making some lentils into pottage,
and he was just so hungry and thirsty, and he said, give me
some of that pottage. And Jacob said, well, in words,
well, the price for me to give you that is for you to give me
your birthright. And what did he say? He said, well, this birthright
is of no value really. I give it to you. And we're told,
therefore, he despised his birthright. That, of course, is a very sad
position because we know that then Jacob received the blessing
which was to be for the firstborn. And he's sort of given away his
birthright and Jacob had received it. Well, there's a situation
with someone despising what God had given him. Here really was
Samson in this situation. He was pressed into a corner
and fed up with the words of Delilah, so that he told her
all his heart. And he said, There hath not come
a razor upon mine head, for I have been a Nazarite unto God from
my mother's womb. It's very sad to hear what he
says, because he knew that here he'd been a Nazarite unto God. Don't forget that. Unto God. That was his wonderful position. That God had anointed him to
this place and here he was really despising that which God had
given him. There hath not come a razor upon
mine head for I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb.
If I be shaven then my strength will go from me and I shall become
weak and be like any other man." And when Delilah saw that he
had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords
of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for it showed me
all his heart. Then the lords of the Philistines
came out unto her and brought money in their hand. Oh, sad,
isn't it? And she made him sleep upon her
knees. We're not sure how that was accomplished,
whether she gave him some drink which had some draft of sleeping
potion in or not. In any event, she made him sleep
upon her knees to such a degree that when she called a man to
come and to shave off his locks, he didn't wake up. And then those
locks, his hair was shaved off and she began to afflict him
and his strength went from him. And then we read, And she said,
the Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his
sleep and said, I will go out at other times before and shake
myself. And he wist not, the Lord was
departed from him. What a tragic picture, isn't
it? What a sad situation. Here was this man of God. He didn't realise what had occurred. He didn't really appreciate what
he'd done. We're told he wished not. That
the Lord was departed from him. Well, how we need to be very
aware in our lives. that the Lord has not departed
from us. Nothing worse, is there, than
being left to ourselves. You know, David, in his life,
he realised what it was to be left. Left himself. And not a dissimilar situation,
was it, in David's life. when David went and took Bathsheba
and committed adultery to her, or with her. And then of course,
arranged for the death of Uriah, her husband, so that his sin
might be hidden. Well, sin cannot be hidden. God knows. God knew about David. God knew about Samson. And we
read in David's life, his confession. And what he tells us is this.
Having sinned, having fallen, he comes to this position. He
says, cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. What a good desire that is. And
how we ought to pray that. Very similar, is it not, to the
words the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples when they said,
Lord, teach us to pray. He taught them the Lord's Prayer
as we describe it. And in there, there are these
words, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. and again how needful it is that
we are able and willing and desirous to pray such a prayer as that.
Now, it may seem strange, but we have such an evil heart, such
a wrong heart, that sometimes we may not really want to pray
that. We may be willing to be led into
temptation, because it may be attractive to our flesh. Well,
if we should be tempted in that way, then my friends, the devil
hasn't changed and he's very able to tempt us and we are,
in John's epistle, he describes it as the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes. God's given
us eyes to see. Be thankful for it. but let not our eyes lead us
away in a lustful way which will not be God-honouring and could
easily lead to a situation like Samson, like a situation like
David. And never think that, well, I
wouldn't fall into a snare like that. Never think that you are
strong against snares like that. The devil is on the outlook for
fools who speak like that. Because we will then prove that,
perhaps not in that way, but we may prove just like Peter
who thought he was strong in himself. He would never deny
the Lord his master. But so easily faced with a slightly
difficult position he denied his Lord and Master those three
occasions. Now what is it on those situations? They didn't realise that the
Lord was departed from them. My friends, how tragic it was. And these conditions are here
before us in the Word of God to warn us today that our prayer might be, that
we might be kept, as the Apostle Peter says, kept by the power
of God. As David desires, take not thy
Holy Spirit from me. Do not be left. As the Lord himself
says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. These
are very real things. We live in a real world. And
we will live in a time of real temptation. And perhaps we live
in a world today when temptation is all around us. It's very great,
it's very positive. And we need the grace of God
every day to be kept and to then be thankful and to praise God
that we have been delivered that we have been kept, and it is
only by the power of God. Otherwise, we should be no better
than Samson, no better than David, no better than Peter. May we
be concerned then for our spiritual life, all of us, old and young,
especially the young people today, you young people, as you go out
into the world and there's many temptations. many temptations,
and you may need perhaps to be a Daniel, to stand strong, to
stand firm, indeed to dare to be a Daniel, and dare to stand
alone, because sometimes These situations involve standing alone
against the adversary, the devil. Such situations are not easy. But just remember what the Apostle
Paul wrote and how encouraging it is. The words he wrote to
the Philippians when he said, I can do all things through Christ
that strengthens me. And we have a great encouragement
in those words, to know that the Lord can and does support
us and strengthens us in our time of need. And so may it not
be our position that we are found as poor Samson was, not realising
that the Lord was departed from him. What a lesson he had to
learn. Poor Samson. My friends, we may
have to learn lessons. The Lord knows. Or perhaps, we
may have to learn. Samson, of course, had to learn
this lesson. And it was exceedingly painful
for him. What occurred in Samson's life? Well, let's just go back a moment.
What caused him to sin? What was his problem? His problem
was his lustful eyes. That's right, wasn't it? His
lustful eyes were the problem in his life. And therefore, what
occurred? his eyes were put out. He lost
his sight. He wasn't again going to be pestered
by those lustful desires. The Lord saw fit to bring this
about in his life so that his eyes were put out. It was a very
solemn judgement, wasn't it really? We need to think of that, don't
we, in our own lives today. The Lord looks down upon our
hearts and He sees our true condition. I know that we might be concerned
therefore to not be left to sinful desires, but our concern might
be to honour the Lord and to not find that through our lustful
desires the Lord has departed from us. And then to be dealt with in
a way like this, a very solemn way, wasn't it? His eyes were
put out. No longer was he able to have
those eyes to lust after women. No, the Lord saw fit to put an
end to that situation. How painful. But yet you see,
I believe the Lord was mindful of him. And the Lord did not
leave him. I know that Samson's life in
one sense is quite difficult to understand. But the Lord enables
us to come to a right conclusion by the statement in the 11th
of the Hebrews, where he's numbered with those who were blessed with
God-given faith. We're thankful we have that to
confirm the fact that David was one of the Lords. Now then, just
moving on in this little account of Samson. There he was, grinding,
grinding corn. Couldn't see what he was doing.
Oh, his life had changed, hadn't it? Lost his strength. What a
change. But, but, his hair began to grow
again. His hair began to grow again. What was the relevance of that?
The relevance was that once again his strength was going to be
restored. It was coming back to him. Let's
just turn that to a spiritual application. We may as it were
appear to have lost the blessing of the Lord. We may as it were
appear that the Lord has departed from us. It may have been, perhaps, the
Lord has dealt with us. But, what a blessing, if in our
spiritual life the Lord begins, as it were, again to bless us,
again to strengthen us in our soul. His hair began to grow
again. A blessing for us in our spiritual
life. The Lord doesn't leave us. He
didn't leave Samson. Samson didn't deserve any favour. Perhaps we have to confess that
we didn't deserve any favour. We don't deserve any favour.
But then to think, perhaps as it were our spiritual life begins
to grow, begins to develop again. Once again we are able to enjoy
the blessing of the Lord. Once again we are blessed with
that spiritual growth. We may consider Him the Lord
Jesus Christ. spiritual blessing, his hair
began to grow again. Now what were these Philistines
determined to do? Well, of course they were going
to worship their God, Dagon. Because they believed it was
Dagon that had delivered Samson into their hand. They didn't
realise that God was in this. They didn't realise that it was
God that had permitted this to occur for the destruction of
the Philistines. What a blessing it is to know
that God can bring good out of evil. You might think of those
words, all things work together for good. to those who love God
and those who are called according to His purpose. And Samson was
called according to the purpose of God. And Samson therefore was called
for. They thought they'd make sport
of Samson. They thought they'd bring him
up before them. They didn't realise what they
were doing. And so often we see the devil
oversteps his mark. You see, he thinks he's got the
victory, he thinks he's going to make a great play of it. And
he oversteps his mark. So he did here. Samson was brought
into the house of the Dagon. It was obviously a very large
building. We're not told how many people
were inside. We are told there were 3,000
people on the roof. We don't know how many people
there were inside, but we can imagine it as being a very large
building with these two pillars in the middle, supporting all
the roof and all the structure. And Samson coming and saying,
calling upon the Lord. See Samson hadn't forgotten the
Lord. What a blessing it is perhaps
in our life, when we deserve to be cast out. Yet the Lord
hasn't forgotten us and he brings us to call upon his name. Samson
here came and he called upon the name of the Lord. David came
and called upon the name of the Lord. Peter came and called upon
the name of the Lord when in fact when he went out and wept
bitterly. We see the gracious hand of God. So we see here,
in the life of Samson, Samson called unto the Lord and said,
O Lord God, remember me. Oh, how many times I'm sure a
true believer comes to that position and says, Lord, remember me.
Indeed, with the favour that bears unto thy people, visit
my soul with thy salvation. He called unto the Lord and said,
O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee. Strengthen me, I pray,
only this once, O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines
with my two eyes." And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars
upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of
the one with his right hand, and of the other with 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 Lord's
And upon all the people that were therein, so the dead which
he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his
life." So we see here really that Samson gave his life in
order that the enemies of the Lord might be destroyed. The Lord, Samson gave his life
and all these enemies were indeed destroyed. Now I believe we have
a picture here of Samson as a type of Christ. And we have a similarity,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, he gave his life, he gave his life for his enemies. Not that they should die with
him, in that sense, but he gave his life that they might live. What a blessing to think. The
Lord Jesus Christ. What did he suffer? What did
he endure? So much, didn't he? He went about
doing good. He didn't fall like Samson. He didn't do those things like
Samson. No. He kept the law. Yes, he was wonderfully kept,
wasn't he, by the Spirit of God in his human life. He sinned
not at all. He was holy, harmless and separate
from sinners. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
gave his life so that you and I might live, so that you and
I might receive eternal life. Samson gave his life, and the
enemies of the Lord were killed, they were taken away. My friends,
you and I, as an enemy of the Lord, deserve, do we not, to
lose our life. What a blessing to think that
the Lord Jesus Christ came to save us. to deliver us from our
sins. And I believe that you and I
won't be able to say, well, of course I'm not as bad as Samson. Samson was a very wicked and
evil man. When the Spirit of God chose
our heart, we won't say, well, he was far worse than I am. We'll
perhaps be like David and have to say, when that finger is pointed,
thou art the man. To recognise that we're no better
by ourselves. And if we have not fallen like
Samson or like David, to remember it's because of God's grace and
because of God's favour. And therefore, today, have we
caused them to praise and thank God for His keeping mercies? And yet to realise that, left
to ourselves, we're absolutely no better at all. And perhaps
we know something of what Samson experienced here. And he wished
not the Lord was departed from him. There may have been situations
in our lives when we have sinned, when we walk contrary to God,
and we may know what it was, to have known the Lord, to have
departed from us. We couldn't enjoy the blessing
of the Lord. Our hearts were hard. We were
rebellious against God. We understand the position that
Samson was in. Why can't we bless God today,
in our spiritual life, if perhaps it has been our case And the
Lord has, as it were, caused our hair to grow again. Has caused us once again to receive
His grace and His strength. And to go forth in His strength,
perhaps in a different way. Perhaps the Lord has maintained
to us many things that we didn't deserve. And we have caused today
to bless God. But what a favour if the Lord
has maintained us. We haven't been cut off. We deserve
to be cut off. The Lord has kept us and the
Lord is now drawing near once again. And once again, our heart
is warming towards the Lord. And we can bless God for it.
Perhaps we then come, like Samson, the Lord Remember me, I pray
thee, and strengthen me. We know how weak we've been.
May the Lord come and bless us, and I believe it will be only
when we view the Saviour. And when we see then what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, how utterly unworthy we are
of any favour, and to think that the Lord Jesus Christ gave His
life that we might live. He shed his most precious blood.
It will then bring to us the reality and the preciousness
of Christ's death and his shed blood. Perhaps we come to understand
what Jeremiah was who said, by these
things, Hezekiah By these things men live. And by these things is the life
of my spirit." Hezekiah was brought to that position, wasn't he?
Brought very near to death. And yet the Lord had mercy upon
him. And he was able to say, by these
things men live. We're thankful that the Lord
is merciful today. That brings us into some way
to understand the life of Samson. and also realise the favour of
God and the blessing of God as he may come and visit our souls
and bless us indeed. But oh may we fear, fear to be
left, fear to fall into this condition, fear this position
and he wish not the Lord was departed from him.