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Let us now return then to Judges
chapter 15, to that chapter we read earlier. We have taken a
short break from the book of Judges, but the last time we
looked was in chapter 14, and we noticed there Samson, and
we noticed the disappointment that his parents would have felt
when Samson went down to Timnath and chose for his wife a woman
of the Philistines. But we are of the opinion that
ultimately this was certainly used of God and indeed may have
been directly influenced by God in order that Samson might have an occasion to begin
to deliver Israel from the Philistines. And we left the story of Samson
with Samson being somewhat disappointed because his wife or the lady
that he wanted to be his wife was given to another. And we
are told that he went up to his father's house But now we want to begin at chapter
15 and to take up the story again of Samson. And there are, we
do believe, one or two lessons for us in this period in the
life of the last judge. A wee bit of history might help
us to understand what's going on here. A bit of background
might help us to appreciate more what Samson did. By the time
of Samson, the period of the judges was drawing to a close. It was coming to the end. And
from our reading in verse 20 there, we know that Samson judged
Israel for 20 years. And we do believe that these
20 years coincided with the 40 years that the Philistines oppressed
the people of Israel. We are distinctly told in the
scriptures that during this time, the Philistines had the Israelites
in oppression for some 40 years. And we are led to believe that
Samson judged Israel in the latter part of that 40-year period. Samson ruled between the Battle
of Aphek, you may well remember that battle, It's recorded for
us in 1 Samuel chapter four. And the battle of Apec in which
Israel was defeated and the Ark of the Covenant captured. When
the sons of Eli were killed and when the news came to Eli that
the Ark had been captured, that he fell backwards and died. Well, Samson ruled between that
battle and between the battle of Mizpe, in which Samuel crushed
the Philistines. And that's recorded for us in
1 Samuel chapter 7. So it was during that period
between the two battles, between the battle of Aphek, when one of Eli's sons, when one of his son's wives give birth to
a child. And when she found out it was
a son, she said, Ichabod, she called him Ichabod because the
glory had departed from Israel at this time. And therefore it
was at a very dark time when Samson began to rule and when
he began to bring about the deliverance of the Israelites from the hand
of the Philistines. And Samson would have grown up
during the time of Eli's ministry in Shiloh. Now we do know that
Eli was a good high priest, but his sons were far from it. And it's during that time that
Samson would have grown up. And he began to lead Israel in
the west of the country. when Jephthah, who we dealt with
earlier, was active in the east of Israel. And about the time of Eli's death,
and he continued until the prophet Samuel rose to the leadership
of God's people. So that's some history, some
background to help us to fit Samson into a chronological order. And whatever our views are on
Samson, we must remind ourselves that he was a man of God. He was a man of faith. There are three chapters, I do
believe, three or four chapters in Judges that are concerned
with Samson. And this chapter that we read
here is a chapter when Samson is reigning, he is ruling, he
is judging. And we know that he was a faithful
judge and he was without doubt God's man for that particular
time and occasion. We know, and certainly we'll
look at it in chapter 16, we see something of Samuel's faults
and failings and sins. That is true, and we can learn
something from that, and we will do. But we must also learn something
of Samson's life, that he was a man of faith. And why do we
say that? We say that because, friends,
that's the verdict of the word of God. We go to the book of
Hebrews, there in chapter 11, where the heroes of faith are
outlined for us. And he's one of the heroes of
faith. In Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
32, the writer says, what shall I more say? For the time would
fail me to tell of Gideon, that's Gideon, and of Barak, and of
Samson. He's among the heroes of faith. Yes, he's not a perfect hero. Yes, he's not one that we follow
perfectly, but he had faith. And of course, faith, friends,
in a biblical sense, faith in a salvation sense means he had
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ ultimately. And the book of Hebrews
goes on to say, and these all having obtained a good report
through faith received not the promise. I don't know about you
friends. I don't know about you, but in
the light of what we said earlier on today, Would it not be a wonderful
comfort to all of us to know and to realize that the Holy
Spirit might say this about our lives, obtained a good report
through faith. That's what Samson achieved. That's what's recorded of him
despite his shortcomings. Despite his evident clear sins,
he obtained a good report through faith. And surely this is something
that we should all seek to have, and we can have it, friends,
only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, only by having
Him before us. And as we look at Samson, the
clear lesson from his life is that he points to another great
deliverer, even the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he does. Samson indeed is a bit of a enigma. He's a bit of a mystery. But
surely as we look at Samson, as we look at his life, is it
not a picture of Israel at the time that when he was judging
them? What do I mean? Well, we know
that Samson was a Nazarite. He was devoted to God. This was
not something that he chose himself. This was something that God had
ordained. He was to be one who would be
totally consecrated to God, not for a time, not for a season,
but for all of his life, absolutely completely and utterly devoted
to God and to his service. His hair would not be cut. He
would not drink wine or strong drink or not even the grapes
itself. He was forbidden to eat that.
And he would have no contact with a dead body. These were
the marks of the Nazarite. Because that person was to be
totally consecrated and dedicated to God. And friends, when Samson
lived out these vows. When he maintained these conditions,
he was strong, he was powerful, he was mighty, he was a great
judge in his day and in his generation. But when he did not, he was just
weak as any other. And is this not a picture of
Israel? Is it not true in some sense the Bible tells us that
Israel is God's son? And if Israel was consecrated
and dedicated to the Lord, they would be in some sense invincible? And the very fact that the Philistines
were ruling over them at this time showed that they had turned
their backs upon the living God. that God who had taken them out
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, with an outstretched
arm and a mighty hand, and who had destroyed seven nations before
them and brought them into the promised land, the land that
flows with milk and honey, when they were dedicated and when
they were consecrated and when they were serving the living
Lord, friends, then they were a nation to be reckoned with.
It's only when they embraced idolatry and when they turned
from serving Jehovah, it's only then when the decline came and
they began to be ones who were under the servitude of others. That's all very well, minister,
is it not? We're not looking for history
lessons. Is that not true? Well, there
is a clear lesson for us. There's a clear lesson for every
Christian. We're only strong. We'll only
fight against the enemy successfully. We'll only live a victorious
Christian life the more we cling to the Lord Jesus. The more He
is closer to us, the more He is before us, the more that we
submit unto Him. It's only then will we experience
the victory of the Christian life. And is this not one reason
why many of us are not what we should be? How long have we been
on the road? How long since we first embraced
Christ? How long since we were united
to Him by faith? How long since that wonderful,
glorious change came upon us? and we became sons of the living
God and the life of God came into our souls. Yet friends,
are we not living lives of like spiritual paupers? Should we not be in the clouds
in some sense? The Lord Jesus Christ He's mighty
to save. He will save to the uttermost.
We are told to resist the devil and he shall flee from us. We
are strong in the Lord Jesus. The devils had to obey the Lord
Jesus. Death itself had to give way
to the Lord Jesus. And friends, this is the Savior
we have. This is the one who's mighty
to save. And we should, as Christians,
be living a victorious Christian life. Oh, I'm not talking about
health and wealth and prosperity. Far from it. I'm talking about
spiritual realities. Are we crucifying our spiritual
sins? Are we crucifying our pride? Are we crucifying our lusts? Are we crucifying our slothfulness? What about our lack of love to
the Lord Jesus? Is it not true, friends, that
we come to occasions like this? We come unto the means of grace. We come to the house of God.
And our hearts are not warm. Is it not true that the radiator
will be warmer than our hearts? And is it not true when we come
to this place and the radiator's off, our hearts will be colder
than the radiator? Friends, there's victory in the Lord Jesus. Samson was invincible. Israel would be a mighty, strong,
powerful nation, fearful of nothing or of no one if they remain close
to the Lord. And had Samson maintained these
vows, he would have been a far better judge than he was. Although he did serve very well
for at least 20 years. Well, what else can we learn
from this chapter here? We notice that Samson, after
he found, in chapter 14, after he found that
the guests had discovered the riddle by getting at his wife. He left his own wedding reception
and went back to his father's house in a rage. But chapter
15 tells us after some time had passed, he had in some sense
cooled down and he wanted to be restored. and to make things
up with his wife. In modern terms, he would have
gone to her with some flowers and some chocolate or some gift. Instead, he goes with a kid hoping
to make it up, hoping to rekindle the relationship. And what do
we find? We find that his wife has been
given unto someone else, one of Samson's companions. And when
his father hears the request of Samson, his father would not
let Samson go in and consummate the marriage. And instead he
offers the younger sister instead. Samson obviously then feels this
and he begins to take revenge against the Philistines. He goes
and catches 300 foxes and ties their tails together and puts
fire in between them and sends them out onto the fields of the
Philistines to burn their crops. And when the Philistines find
out what has happened and who did it and why it happened, they
go and burn the house. of his wife and their family. Well, there is a lesson there
for us, a very clear and simple lesson. His wife pestered Samson that he might
explain to her the riddle. in order that she might tell
the Philistines. Now, why did she want Samson
to explain the riddle to her? Well, she wanted Samson to explain
the riddle to her because the Philistines had said to her,
if you don't find out from your husband what the riddle is, we're
going to come and burn your house. And instead of trusting Samson,
she began to get at him and to provoke him and to annoy him
to the extent that he gave in to her and revealed the riddle. And hoping that she would escape
fire, she gives the riddle to the Philistines. But of course
she didn't. Because later on, the Philistines
did eventually burn her and her father's house. And her fault
was she should have trusted her husband. She should have realized
that this was her husband and she should have put her trust
and her faith upon him that he would deliver her. And although
the Philistines had threatened to burn her and her father's
house, she should have relied upon her husband. What is the lesson then? What
can we draw from this for ourselves? Well, the lesson is quite clear,
friends. Many shall perish. Many shall
be lost on that great day Why? Because they trust in man and
not in the living God. She should have realized that
before her was God's man and he was worthy of her trust. Instead, she trusted in the Philistines. And truly, friends, there is
a lesson for all of us there. We must have our faith and trust
upon the Word of God, and the Word of God would lead us to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when all around will tell
us that we're not to trust in Him, what's the point in trusting
in someone who has suffered and died on Calvary's tree? Surely
your faith and hope is not upon that one who was crucified? We, friends, are to say yes. We trust in Him. It may indeed
be foolishness to the Greeks. It may be a stumbling block to
the Jews. But oh friends, the scripture
tells us it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And no matter
how foolish the world may say, think of us. Friends, our faith
and our hope is on upon the word of God and upon what we find
in the scriptures. And if your faith is in anything
else, you will be sadly disappointed. Therefore, let us be stirred
up and let us have this faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As we go through this story then,
we notice that Following the fact that the Philistines burnt
the house of Samson's wife and her family, he uses that situation
to further humiliate his enemies. In verse 8 of chapter 15, And
he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he went
down and dwelt in the top of the rock Edom. Here the Lord used this situation
to stir up Samson. They had destroyed his wife and
her home. Samson then was going to get
at the Philistines. And of course, friends, this
is all of the Lord. that he might bring about a deliverance,
that he might subdue the Philistines, and that the people of God might
be saved from their enemies. And you see, friends, how the
Lord uses this loss to promote his own cause and to bless his
own people. For Samson brought about a great
deliverance that day, and many were brought to recognize that
he was the judge that God had appointed to deliver Israel out
of bondage. And friends, we want to notice
here too, as the story goes on, that after this great slaughter,
the Philistines then come to the men of Judah. And they wonder, what has happened?
Why have you come to Judah? Why have you come against us?
Verse 10, and they answered, to bind Samson, or we come up,
and to do to him as he has done to us. And the men of Judah entertained
the Philistines. And instead of resisting them,
3,000 of them go up to the mount where Samson
was, and they bind him and take him
and deliver him to the Philistines. What a disgrace it was for the
once proud tribe of Judah. This tribe that had been so large
and so notable and had been so heroic on many occasions, They
succumbed to the enemy. They recognized that the Philistines
were over them. And again, they didn't recognize
that Samson was the God-appointed judge, whom God had set in place
to bring about their deliverance, that they might escape from the
thralldom of the Philistines. They were so happy, in some sense,
with the servitude they were under, that they were prepared
to bind their deliverer. and hand their deliverer over
to the Philistines in order that they might do to him as they
deemed what they wanted. Well, again, is there something
that we can draw from this, from ourselves? Well, we certainly
can, friends, because From the tribe of Judah came the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the book of Revelation describes
him as the lion from the tribe of Judah. And this is a very
apt description of Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ came And
he came that he might deliver his people from their sins. And
there was tremendous opposition against the Lord Jesus. But the
Lord Jesus, like a lion, who's the king of the jungle, A lion
is an animal that does not retreat from anyone. And so it was with
the Lord Jesus. He did everything necessary,
everything possible to bring about the salvation of his people. And so unlike the people of Judah
who handed over their deliverer to the enemy, instead the lion
from the tribe of Judah He defeated our greatest enemy. And friends, we are to have faith,
we are to have hope, we are to have confidence in this great
and this glorious savior, this one who is mighty to save. I'm not quoting it accurately
or verbatim, but in the book of Colossians in chapter two,
it talks about what Christ did on the cross. And it says to
us that there on the cross, he spoiled principalities. That's what it says. And that's
a reference, friends, to the fact that there on the cross,
when he was giving up himself, when he was suffering in our
place and in our room, there, friends, he spoiled principalities. In other words, in modern words,
he made a fool of the devil. For that reference to principalities
is a reference to the devils. There, you see, friends, as they
were gathered around the cross, there as the invisible host of
heaven around the cross, they were all in glee. They were all
absolutely delighted. There was the Son of God suffering. There was the Savior about to
expire. There was the Savior about to
go into the grave. And they thought they had the
victory. Instead, we might say the last
laugh was upon the Lord Jesus. For he most certainly did die.
He gave up the ghost. He voluntarily gave up of himself
and he went to the tomb and he was there for three days. But
as we know, for this is a wonderful and glorious cardinal truth of
the scriptures, the death could not hold him. The coldness of
the grave could not hold him. He had to rise again. And all those who thought they
had seen the last of Christ, and who were in some sense rubbing
their hands at his death on Calvary's tree, got a rude awakening when
he rose victorious over the grave. The people of Judah here, the
men of Judah, did not act like men at all. They should have
embraced Samson. They should have heartily welcomed
him. They should have signed up beside
him and to do all that they possibly could to encourage him. Instead,
they bound him and handed him over. How so unlike the Lord
Jesus Christ. Lion from the tribe of Judah. This one who would not be distracted. This one whom Peter said, you
will not go to the cross. It shall not be. This one who
was resolute and determined to suffer in our room and in our
place. But this lesson also teaches
us that as the men of Judah rejected
their Savior, so friends, it is true that when the Lord Jesus
Christ came, the lion from the tribe of Judah, the God-appointed
Savior, when he came, he knew this rejection. He knew it in
his own people. We are told in John chapter 1,
he came unto his own and his own received him not. Can you imagine it? The Jews
longing for the Messiah to come and Jesus Christ showing by his
life, by his witness, by his testimony, by his miracles, that
he is the long appointed and awaited Messiah, yet they reject
him. It is amazing to us. We can hardly
comprehend it. But you know, friends, it's true
in our own experience. It's true even of the Christian.
Because once upon a time, you were not a Christian. Once upon
a time, you were an unbeliever. Once upon a time, you were dead
in trespasses and sins. And what happened, friends? The
gospel came with power to you. The gospel came. You were convicted
of your sins, and what did you do? Did you embrace the Lord
Jesus? No, you did not. You resisted
him. You said in some manner, in some
way, I will not have this man. And God came again by his Holy
Spirit, and you were freshly convicted. And you were brought
to realize you're a lost sinner in the hands of an angry God,
and Christ was presented to you as a savior from sin? And did
you open up your arms and did you embrace him? Well, you may
have, but more than likely, you rejected him. Did this not happen on many occasions? It certainly happened once. Because
friends, no one, no one receives Christ the first time. There's
always some kind of resistance, some more than others. But thanks be to the wonderful
grace of God. Grace is able to break the most
hardest of hearts. so that those who are once prime
rejecters of Christ, those who are just like the men of Judah,
who would tie the hands of their savior and say, be away with
you. They come to that experience
when they embrace him. When they open up their arms
and they welcome him, And they wonder how foolish they have
been for years, that they have resisted the spirit of the living
God, and they are amazed at the grace of God, that God should
persist with such an individual. Maybe you're resisting tonight. You don't need, in some sense,
a preacher. You don't need to be told about
the Lord Jesus. You don't need to be reminded
of your sin. You know that. You know old age
is coming if you're spared. You know death is coming. You
know there's going to be a day of judgment, not just because
what the minister says, but because it's in your heart. Eternity
is written in your heart. It's stamped upon your heart.
You know these things. You know you'll have an audience
with God. You know the Lord Jesus is the
only God-appointed Savior. You know He will save. You know
because others have been saved round about you. Families and
friends have been saved. You have seen their lives being
transformed. But you're still resisting. You're still pushing away the
Savior. Friends, what a dangerous position
that is to be in. The Scriptures tell us, I will
not always strive with man. God will not always, as it were,
knock on your door. He will not always prick your
conscience. Maybe you come to the house of God and
you hear sermons like this, when once upon a time you would be
terrified. Now it goes over your head and
maybe you have a wee snooze. What a dangerous position. Friends,
Awaken. Awaken yourselves. Don't resist the only Savior. Don't turn your back upon Him. Don't send Him away. Embrace Him. Come. Receive Him. Come and follow Him. Come and Ask that your conscience again
might be stirred up. That you might feel your sin. That he would save you. Save
you from the stupid of this world. Save you from sleeping unto death. Save you. Make you alive. that you would see the wonder
and the glory and the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. May God bless his word
to us. Let us pray together.
Samson A man of Faith
Series Sermons From Judges
| Sermon ID | 8211615155110 |
| Duration | 38:48 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Judges 15 |
| Language | English |
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