- Now we actually do skip three judges to save time. There are continual hints of the society's spiritual collapse, with evidence of greed and polygamy (the people have been influenced by the culture around them, rather than the people of God influencing the culture for good)
- Judges gives detailed stories of only a few of the judges: Ehud, Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, and Samson (to this point)
- Constable calls this the sixth apostasy (He includes the time of Othniel as the first)
- How is the time of Gideon different from other times?
- Who is the oppressor and what is their status at the end? The Philistines are the oppressors and they continue until the time of David
- Samson leaves Israel worse off than it started, although he did provide a short time of peace
- The people do not cry out for a deliverer. God provides a deliverer that Israel may have not wanted
- Typically, a Nazirite vow was voluntary and temporary
- There are three conditions for a Nazirite vow
- Abstinence from wine (no foreign substance would control his mind)
- Long hair (public testimony of his separation to God)
- Could not touch a corpse (he was never precluded from worshipping)
- Why does Manoah want to hear the angel of the Lord so badly?
- He says he wants to bring up his child correctly
- Maybe he did not believe his wife
- The angel adds nothing new (in fact, he leaves out some details the second time)
- Indication that God's word was not well understood
- APPLICATION: Samson's story is an enigma. He shows strength because of the Spirit, but weakness because of his sensual lusts. And the end result is that little is done for Israel. So, even being selected by God for a special calling and filled with God for power, is no guarantee of a spiritual life. One must make the choice to serve God on his own initiative.
- Verses 14:1, 5, 7, 19; 15:8 repeat the phrase "went down" which is indicative of Samson's life
- What drives Samson's life?
- 14:1 "Samson … saw … a young Philistine woman …"
- 14:2 "… now get her for me as my wife"
- 14:3 "… Get her for me. She's the right one for me." (phrase means "right in his own eyes")
- 14:7 "… he talked with the woman, and he liked her."
- What is the problem here?
- Samson is driven by lust (saw her)
- Samson doesn't even know her, but she's the right one. He only talks with her after he has already demanded her as his wife
- Samson "finds the right person," but Samson is not the right person (Chip Ingram reference)
- It is not a sin to marry outside of the faith, although it would have been under the law. Mixed marriages have a bad history in the scriptures. But God permits this in verse 4. Verse 4 explains why this is happening--what does it say?
- I think God never sees Samson as his champion
- God uses Samson to create conflict with the Philistines. But why?
- The people never cried out
- The people were satisfied with the relationship with the Philistines
- The Philistines were technologically advanced (had iron, probably from the Hitites); they had a system of Government set around five major cities; they worshipped Dagon after their victories
- APPLICATION: The Israelites were being consumed culturally by the people around them. Evil was a lot more fun than the law
- Where did he get the honey?
- From the carcass of a dead lion (a corpse). Technically that would have broken his Nazirite vow and is probably why he did not tell his parents
- If that did not break the vow, then the clothes off of 30 dead bodies would clearly have broken the vow
- Why did Samson break his vow (the first time)?
- He wanted the honey
- This is the second of his problems, Samson lusted after food just as he lusted after women
- The story tells of something else that Samson lusted after, what is it?
- Fancy clothing which depicted wealth and status during that time
- 1 John 2:15-17 (NIV) Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
- Samson lusted after sex
- Samson lusted after good food
- Samson lusted after those thing which gave an indication of power and status
- So what is Samson's basic problem?
- Samson is a man who loves the world!
- APPLICATION: Samson had great potential. God specifically chose him for a major work. But Samson loved the world more than he loved God. As a judge, Samson is the least effective (as we will see) of all the Judges, and only manages his greatest victory in his death
Judges
13:1-5, 8-14 (NIV) Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so
the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.
2 A
certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife
who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to
her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to
conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other
fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will
conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because
the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin
the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."
. . .
8 Then
Manoah prayed to the Lord: "O Lord, I beg you, let the man of God you
sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be
born."
9 God
heard Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman while she was out
in the field; but her husband Manoah was not with her. 10 The woman hurried to
tell her husband, "He's here! The man who appeared to me the other
day!"
11
Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he said,
"Are you the one who talked to my wife?"
"I
am," he said.
12 So
Manoah asked him, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule
for the boy's life and work?"
13 The
angel of the Lord answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her.
14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, nor drink any wine
or other fermented drink nor eat anything unclean. She must do everything I
have commanded her."
Judges
13:24-14:7 (NIV) The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew
and the Lord blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him
while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
14:1
Samson went down to Timnah and
saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father
and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me
as my wife."
3 His
father and mother replied, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your
relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised
Philistines to get a wife?"
But
Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She's the right one for
me." 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was
seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were
ruling over Israel.) 5 Samson went
down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached
the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The
Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart with
his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his
father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
Judges
14:8-20 (NIV) Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside
to look at the lion's carcass. In it was a swarm of bees and some honey, 9
which he scooped out with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined
his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them
that he had taken the honey from the lion's carcass.
10 Now
his father went down to see the woman. And Samson made a feast there, as was
customary for bridegrooms. 11 When he appeared, he was given thirty
companions.
12
"Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can
give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty
linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can't tell me the answer,
you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes."
"Tell
us your riddle," they said. "Let's hear it."
14 He
replied,
"Out
of the eater, something to eat;
out of
the strong, something sweet."
For
three days they could not give the answer.
15 On
the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband into
explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your father's household
to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?"
16
Then Samson's wife threw herself on him, sobbing, "You hate me! You don't
really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the
answer."
"I
haven't even explained it to my father or mother," he replied, "so
why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the
feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to
press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18
Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
"What
is sweeter than honey?
What
is stronger than a lion?"
Samson
said to them,
"If
you had not plowed with my heifer,
you
would not have solved my riddle."
19
Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon,
struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave
their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he
went up to his father's house. 20 And Samson's wife was given to the friend
who had attended him at his wedding.
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