Samson

Sunday I'm preaching a sermon on Samson and as of now I am not anywhere close to being prepared. In fact, I've spent all day just trying to get started, which I haven't really succeeded as of now. But I thought it might be helpful for me to write some of my thoughts down as I work through them. So forgive me if this post is a bit scattered and poorly written - it may not make sense or it may just be obvious observations.

I plan on touching on the entire story of Samson's life, but specifically dealing with the most famous section of Samson and Delilah. The first thing to strike me about Samson is just how unheroic he really was. Samson was tremendously violent and vengeful man. He was more or less a sexaholic (why do we tell this story to children?) who especially had a thing for Philistine women (i.e. "non-Christians). He was proud, he completely abandoned God and God's laws. He was shallow in his relationships, and he falsely believed himself to be indestructible. I guess I would put it this way: Samson was trying to be his own savior. This is very apparent in v. 20-22,

And [Delilah] said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him. And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. And he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

I mean, Samson had to have known his head had been shaved! Why did he tell Delilah his secret in the first place? Because he thought it wouldn't matter. Samson had already disobeyed all the other Nazarite vows. He had touched the dead carcase of a lion and a donkey's skull. Even though we're not specifically told, we can assume he drank alcohol when he got married to his pagan wife, seeing how marriage ceremonies in that culture would have been 9 parts partying and 1 part ceremony. You see, Samson didn't care if his head was shaved. He didn't think it would make any difference. He truly believed that he could take the Philistines without his hair and without God. And isn't this what sin is? Sin is being your own savior instead of looking to Jesus. It's relying in your own strength to be good and moral to save yourself. Or it's relying in your own strength of being popular and cool and accepted. It's attempting to find acceptance and comfort and happiness on our own, instead of though Christ.

And, isn't it amazing how patient and gracious God is though all of this! Samson breaks every one of God's rules except the hair cutting one, and God stays with him - blessing him through his strength. Then, even when God allows Samson to be captured by the Philistines, he quickly forgives Samson in the end of the chapter. Even God's seeming abandonment of Samson was a gracious act, causing Samson to turn to God in repentance and thus saving his soul.

So the moral of the story is don't be like Samson. Find your strength in God. But even if you mess that up, God is quick to forgive. Wait. No. We can't end it like that. How do we do all that? How do we fight sin and temptation? How do we rely on the Lord instead of our own strengths? Ed Clowney writes,

God had shown that He could deliver Israel with an army of willing volunteers; He had also shown that He could save with as few as three hundred...But when the Spirit of God came upon Samson, the Lord showed that He had no need for even three hundred. He could deliver by one. (The Unfolding Mystery, p.137)

But Samson only delivered Israel from Palestinian rule. Israel's troubles were far from over, even after this victory. But there was a greater Samson to come who like Samson dies alone to save his people.

• Samson dies with the Philistines;
  
• Jesus dies with thieves.

• Samson’s greatest victory came when he was at his weakest - eyes gouged out, a prisoner with all of his strength gone, ridiculed, and surrounded by people who hated him.
  
• And like Samson, Jesus also won through losing - won by becoming despised and rejected.
  

• Samson triumphed over his enemies through his death.
  
• Jesus defeated sin and the devil through physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual death.

• Samson was crushed by the temple because of his iniquities.
  
• Jesus was crushed by God for our iniquities.

• Samson calls out to God to remember him in his time of need and God answers to show that he is with him again.
  
• Jesus calls out on the cross and the Father ignores him, so that we might, like the thief on the cross next to him, be remembered.

The way to stop being my own savior is not trying hard - it's to look to Jesus - the real Samson - the real hero of this story.