In His Power

Judges 16:29-30 "And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life." ESV

Power. The world puts a lot of value into the word. For us power can mean many things; the amount of influence a person has or the amount of physical capability a person possesses. It can mean how much a vehicle can move or haul, or the ability to influence world politics. It can mean many things.

I know a lot of people who are sports fans. Whether you are a fan of football, baseball, hockey, or soccer. Some people are fans of boxing, although I will admit I am more of a fan of UFC then boxing. And for every person who is a fan of a certain sport, they also have favorite teams and players. Big-time fans will be able to quote all sorts of statistics to 'prove' that they're player or team is the best, and a big deal is made of all of that.

If you're a sports fan, and you watch ESPN or read Sports Illustrated or even casually follow sports online with Facebook or news apps, you have probably heard about the bout that is coming up next month between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Without getting into too many stats, let's just say that both of these fighters are top of their game, and each are very formidable opponents. They are very mighty men, powerful men, and needless to say, I think it will be a very interesting fight. But that's all they are, powerful men. The may be fit, strong, quick. They can definitely take a punch, and their knockout records certainly show they can dish one out as well. But in the end, that's all they are. Mighty men. And the same could be said of any other athlete, soldier, warrior, king, or giant in our history. They're mighty men. Cool. But how much power do they really have? How much power does anyone really have, especially of themselves?

In Judges 13 we read the story of a man and woman who desired a child, but they could not have one. They plead and pray and, long story short, God finally blesses them with a baby, but with stipulation. The baby would be a Nazarite. Nazarites were laypeople in the Jewish religion who had take an oath of separation. In many ways they were the most devout laypeople in Judaism, and certainly the most disciplined. The oath really had three special stipulations: you could not touch anything dead, you could not touch anything that grew on a vine, and you could not cut your hair. If you failed in any of these things, there were elaborate cleansing rituals you had to complete to restore yourself to a pure state. You can read about them in the Book of Numbers, chapter 6.

The baby was named, Samson, and I think most people have heard at least a little about him. Most people remember that he was really strong and really good at killing Philistines. He was probably the most powerful man in the Bible, at least from a physical standpoint. Let's put it into context; Goliath, the Philistine from the story of David, held off the entire nation of Israel's army. He was huge and terrifying, and strong. His coat of armour alone weighed 5000 shekels, which is about 125 pounds. Samson, on the other hand, took out 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey as his only weapon. He followed that up by ripping the gates of the city off the wall, together weighing about 700 lbs, and carrying them 40 miles away. He was pretty impressive. Honestly, he was a beast! But we'll get to all that.

When Samson grew up, he had a choice ahead of him. Right from the beginning, God had blessed him with miraculous strength. It was God's gift to him, his talent, and with it, God desired for Samson to bless His people. The same could be said for all of us. God has blessed each of us with different gifts and abilities, with the hope that we will use them to impact the world for God, to reach the lost and to spread the truth. But here's the thing, anything done in the physical realm, here in this world, done in your own power, with your own talent, amounts to nothing. No matter how much people praise you, no matter how much money you make, no matter how many friends you have, anything done in your own power is pointless, because it's all temporary. The only things that echo for all eternity are things done for the glory of God and done in His strength and will. And let me say, while I try not to be a doom and gloom person, let me say that if you claim the name of Christ and openly rebel against Him, you do it tempting your own destruction.

Let's look at our text. In Judges 14:1-9 we see the beginning of Samson's rebellion. As a devoted member of Judaism, Samson was well-aware of the fact that he was to be separate from other people, and that the Jewish people were not to intermarry with other tribes of people. Nevertheless, he told his parents that he wanted this, and so they went to set it up. Along the way, they are attacked by a lion, and he rips it apart and kills it. With his bare hands. Wow! God used him to defend his parents, but instead of continuing in the Spirit, he quenches it a few days later. He passes by the carcass of the lion, and not only touches it, he eats out of it. Picture that; it says he scrapes the honey out of the carcass of the lion. Mmmm! Honey glazed guts...

He knows he's wrong for doing so, so he doesn't tell anyone about it. -We tend to hide our sin, and allow it to take root. It's a habit that goes all the way back to our beginning, with Adam and Eve. After eating the fruit, which they were commanded to not do, they tried to hide they're knowledge of sin by making clothes out of fig leaves. Funny thing about fig leaves, they contain an enzyme called ficin, which can cause severe skin irritation. Think about poison ivy and multiply that by 10. The sores stand out from the skin about an inch and can cause severe scarring. And that really goes to show the distance we will go to hide our sin rather then repenting and turning to God. And just like Adam and Eve found out, God isn't fooled. He knows, and He is waiting for us to come to our senses. The longer we try to hide in the dark, the deeper the root of our sin. Back to our text.

-Judges 15:20-16:1 Well, to sum up the bit we skipped, the wedding didn't go well. In fact, it didn't really happen. Samson gets mad halfway through the feast because his sin is uncovered and he flies off the handle, kills 30 people and goes home angry. Because he left the wedding half-way through, his wife is given away to another eligible bachelor. Samson comes back after the feast to get his supposed bride that he forgot all about and finds out she was married to someone else, so he flies into another fury and burns down a bunch of people's farms. His behaviour was erratic enough that his own people turned him over to the Philistines, and that is where the story about him and the jawbone of the donkey occurs. He strikes down 1,000 Philistines, escapes and seemingly calms down. It says in verse 20 that he judges Israel for twenty years, but he still has not surrendered to God. He is still doing all these things in his own strength.

All of the things to this point had been chaotic and messy, and they brought about bad results. The reason Samson seems like the bad guy to this point is because he is doing things for himself, not in the power and will of God. He's making a mess of things. So while he begins to finally fill his role as judge, the highest office over Israel at this time, he is still acting in his own strength, and his sinful nature again catches up to him.

Judges 16:1-6 "Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.” Judges 16:16-27 "And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she 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. Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained." ESV

The ultimate outcome of living in our own strength, according to our own desires. We have one foot in the church and one in the world, and our sin will destroy us. Galatians 6:7-9 "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." ESV

We will reap what we sow. God will allow us to destroy ourselves, if that is what we pursue. So often, we do this. We hide our sin, we devote the private times of our lives to sin and it grows and grows. We think that we can control it, but we can't. Any former drug or alcohol addict will admit they thought they could control it, but they couldn't. It controlled them. People think they can look at porn without it affecting their lives, but porn increases the chances of infidelity by 300%. People think they can sleep with multiple partners without repercussions, but 20% of Americans have some sort of STD. 20%! And 80% of abortions are performed on unmarried women. Samson thought that he could control his life, his sin. If anyone ever could control their lives by pure might, it would have been him. But look where he found himself.

Reread verses 20-27. It wasn't over. The finest stage of Samson's life was his final one. It was here, with his final prayer that he finally broke. He turned the mess of his life over to God. When all seemed lost, he called out to God, who was just waiting for him to come to his senses. Read 16:28-end. "Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years." ESV

A father watched through the kitchen window as his small son attempted to lift a large stone out of his sandbox. The boy was frustrated as he wrestled with the heavy object because he just couldn't get enough leverage to lift it over the side. Finally the boy gave up and sat down on the edge of the sandbox with his head in his hands. The father went outside and asked, "What's wrong, Son? Can't you lift that rock out?" " No, sir," the boy said, "I can't do it."" "Have you done everything in your own power to move it?" the father asked. "Yes, sir," the boy replied. "No, you haven't," the father said. "You haven't asked me to help you."

Just like the thief on the cross, Samson found himself at a point where he had to make a choice. To turn the remainder of his life over to God, or to stubbornly press on to his death in some vain attempt to 'die well.' And that's where we all find ourselves. Sure, I think it would be safe to say we may all have many years left. Hopefully we all do. But the decision still needs to be made. God gave us each our talents, our lives, everything we have. We can continue to live in selfish rebellion, going our own way in life, wasting potential, or we can give our lives to God, to use as He would and find our true potential. Let us choose not temporal glory and power, but to live in the eternal power and glory of God.