The Life and Times of Samson
A Baby Named Sunny
Judges 13:1-7
A pregnant woman gets in a car accident and falls into a deep coma. After 6 months, she awakens to discover she is no longer pregnant. She frantically asks the doctor about her baby.
The doctor replies, "Ma'am you had twins; a boy and a girl! Your brother from Arkansas came in and named them."
The woman thinks to herself, "No, not my brother... he doesn’t have a lick of sense!" She asks the doctor, "Well, what's the girl's name?"
"Denise."
"Wow, that's not a bad name, I like it! What's the boy's name?"
"Denephew. "
According to babynames.com, the top five baby names for girls in 2011 were Charlotte, Sophia, Olivia, Amelia and Ava. The top names for baby boys were Liam, Noah, Aidan, Jaxon and Caleb.
In Judges 13:24 we find the birth of a boy who is named Samson. The name Samson means "sunlight, sunny." Although names were given for various reasons in the Old Testament, it is not known why they called their son Samson. Whatever the reason, the name they gave him has become one of the most familiar names of the Bible.
SO far we’ve looked at the times and circumstances that the nation of Israel was involved in at the time of Samson’s birth as well as a little bit about his parents and the visit God paid to them to announce his birth. Tonight we finally get to Samson himself.
In this verse there are three things I want to point out to you and hopefully draw some truth from them for our own lives.
The first thing I notice about Samson is that he was:
1. A Child of Promise
Judges 13:24 begins with the words, "So the woman bore a son."
There is a very vivid reminder of a timeless truth in that little phrase and that is God keeps His promises. The promise was given in Judges 13:3 and now we see it fulfilled in verse 24.
The Bible says in 2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises." God has given us many wonderful promises in His Word. I don’t know for sure how many promises there are in the Bible. I would estimate it is in the thousands. But I do know He has given us "exceeding great and precious promises."
Joshua said unto the children of Israel, "There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass" (Josh. 21:45) Not one promise God had made to them had failed to be fulfilled. Every promise God made to them came to pass.
God keeps His Word! G. Campbell Morgan said, "I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them." God's promises are so reliable and trustworthy that you can venture eternity on them. You have heard people say, "A man's word is his bond." It is definitely true that God's Word is His bond.
You never have to fret that God will not keep His promises. You never have to fear that a promise is not true. Just as God kept His promise to Manoah and his wife, He will keep His promise to you.
A.B. Simpson wrote:
There are some who believe the Bible,
And some who believe in part,
And some who trust with reservation,
And some with all their heart.
But I know that it's every promise
Is firm and true always;
It is tried as the precious silver,
And it means just what it says.
It is strange we trust each other,
And only doubt our Lord;
We will take the word of mortals,
And yet distrust His word;
But, oh, what light and glory
Would shine o'er all our days
If we always would remember
That He means just what He says.
Vance Havner said, "We are sitting on the premises, when we ought to be standing on the promises."
We can believe God's promises with the assurance that they are true. And there is a companion thought that goes along with that: He not only makes promises, but He has the ability and power to keep His promises.
That’s not always true with people. A lot of people make promises. Sometimes we make promises that we cannot keep. But God has never made a promise that He could not keep.
Manoah's wife was barren. For some reason she was physically incapable of having a child. However, her physical problem was not a problem with God. As Luke 1:37 says, "For with God nothing shall be impossible." Not even a barren womb is a problem with God.
Built by Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Ireland, at a cost of $7.5 million, the White Star Line's R.M.S. Titanic was a marvel of her age. At nearly 883 feet in length, Titanic was longer than the tallest structures on Earth at the time. When the infamous Titanic was launched in Belfast, May 31, 1911, a White Star Line employee was overheard to say, "Not even God Himself could sink this ship."
I would not say that God sank the Titanic, but I will say that one is certainty foolish to make the claim that there is something that God cannot do. God said to Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Gen. 18:14). God's question to Abraham was actually a declaration that there was nothing too hard for Him.
God will not only keep His promises, but He CAN keep His promises. The fulfillment of the promise of the birth of Samson was a demonstration that God has the ability to keep any and every promise He has made. We never have to fret that God will keep His promises and we never have to fear that He can't keep His promises.
Secondly, I want you to see about Samson that he was:
2. A Child of Progression
Notice the phrase, "and the child grew."
Now the most obvious application there is physical growth. Once Samson was born, he began to grow physically. I do not know if Samson was a six or seven pound boy. But as normal with a newborn baby, there was growth. It was not long and Samson was eight pounds, then nine, ten, and etc.
Over time he cut teeth like all babies do. In a few months he began to walk and talk. Someone has said that we spend the first eighteen months trying to get our children to walk and talk and then spend the next eighteen years trying to get them to sit down and shut up.
But I think there is more in that phrase than just physical growth. I think there must have been spiritual growth.
Some commentators believe that what we have here is a variation of the words of 1 Samuel 2:21, "And the child Samuel grew before the LORD."
I think it safe to assume that when the Bible says that Samson grew, it is speaking of how he not only grew physically, but he also grew spiritually.
Just as physical growth is normal, spiritual growth is normal in one who is saved. Physical growth is a sign of physical life. Dead people do not grow. Spiritual growth is a sign of spiritual life.
Remember back in Judges 13:8 we find Manoah asking God, "teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born."
He was asking God how they should rear the child He was going to give them. God made it clear that they were to rear their son to be separated and consecrated to Him. He was to be raised a Nazarite.
No doubt they taught Samson the law of God. They taught him how and why he should not defile himself by coming into contact with anything dead. They would have been some of those strict parents who would not let him eat or drink anything from the vine.
He was brought up in a Christian home where God, and the things of God, was paramount. Each day he would have been learning about God and God's purpose and plans for his life. As he grew he would learn that God had brought him into the world for a special reason.
I think we ought to take some time every so often to evaluate whether or not we are growing spiritually.
The Bible in Ephesians 4:15 speak of how we should "grow up into Him in all things." 2 Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." As Christians we are to be growing spiritually.
Over the past few years there are a couple of movies that have come out based on The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of fantasy books for children written by C.S. Lewis. Lewis wrote seven in the series.
In the second, Prince Caspian, the character Lucy visits Narnia (a fantasy land) again. She sees Aslan the lion figure, who in Lewis' series represents Christ. It has been a while since she has seen him and she says, "Aslan, you're bigger now." Aslan replied, "Lucy, that's because you are older. You see, Lucy, every year that you grow, you will find me bigger."
It is true that as we grow spiritually Christ will become bigger and bigger to us. The more we grow spiritually, the more we will love Christ, the more we will worship Him, and the more we will see Him for all and Who He is. How big is Jesus to you? How big He is says something about your level of spiritual maturity.
There is a third and final thing that I want you to see about Samson that Judges 13:24 speak of, and that is that he was not only a child of promise and progression, but he was also:
3. A Child of Prosperity
Look at the closing words of verse 24: "and the LORD blessed him."
There was not only progression in Samson's life, but there was also prosperity. The Lord blessing Him speaks of how he was prospering spiritually.
Genesis 1:26 tells us about how God created Adam and Eve and blessed them. Genesis 9:1 says, "And God blessed Noah and his sons." In Genesis 12, we find God promising to bless Abraham and his descendents. The Bible says in Genesis 24:1, "And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things."
Genesis 25:11 says, "And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac." In Genesis 35:9, "And God appeared unto Jacob again...and blessed him." There are other times in the Bible when it speaks of God blessing someone.
Can you think of anything greater than God blessing our life? As for Samson, the narrative does not say specifically how the Lord blessed Samson. But, I believe there are two particular things that are associated with God's blessings on his life. First:
-The Presence of God was with Him
The Lord blessing Samson was an indication that God was with Samson. God was active in his life. God was working in Samson's life. The presence of God was real in the life of Samson in these early years of his life.
It is true that God is always with a person if they are saved. God said to Moses in Exodus 33:14, "And He said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest." As God's children, we can be assured that God's presence goes with us. He is in us and He is with us.
But there is a sense in which God's presence is with us in a unique and special way. His presence is more than a fact in our life. It is a force! It is not just a presence that accompanies us, but is a presence that affects us.
The Bible says of Joseph in Genesis 39:2-3, "And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all that he did to prosper in his hand." Joseph's Egyptian master saw that God was with Joseph. He saw God at work in Joseph's life.
I like Nehemiah's description of God's presence with him in Nehemiah 2:8: "And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me." Nehemiah was speaking of how God was with him. I want God to bless me. I want God to be with me. I want his hand to be upon me. How about you?
Secondly, the Lord's blessings on Samson's life also involved:
-The Power of God was on Him
Look for a moment at Judges 13:25.
We will look at this closer in our next study, but I point it out to you today because it speaks of one of the ways God blessed his life. The power of God was on Samson.
There is nothing any more important to a Christian than God's power being upon us. We might as well try to fight back the tide with a pitchfork than to do God's work without His power. Zechariah 4:6 tells us that it is, "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts." It is not by our might. It is not by our power. It is by His Spirit upon us!
I think of D.L. Moody. Even though he has been dead for over 100 years, his name is still recognized by Christians. His ministry still continues on. He was led to Christ by his Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball. When he went before the deacons of a church in Boston to become a member, he knew nothing about the Lord and the Bible.
One of the deacons asked him, Son, what has Christ done for us all--for you--which entitles Him to our love?" The teenage Moody replied, "I don't know. I think Christ has done a great deal for us, but I don't think of anything in particular as I know of."
His Sunday school teacher, Kimball said of him, "I can truly say that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday school class. I think the committee of the church seldom met an applicant for membership who seemed more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of gospel truth, still less to fill any space of public or extended usefulness."
However, God used Moody as much as anyone I have ever read about. In fact, Moody heard someone say, "The world is yet to see what God can do with one man who is wholly yielded unto Him." Moody said, "By the grace of God I will be that man." And perhaps he was.
What was the secret to his usefulness? It certainly wasn't his education--he had very little. It certainly wasn't his talents or skills. What was it? God's power was upon him!
There was that momentous day in the life of Moody when God filled him with His Spirit. Moody described the day: "My heart was not in the work of begging. I could not appeal. I was crying all the time that God would fill me with His Spirit. Well, one day, in the city of New York--oh, what a day!--I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name. Paul had an experience of which he never spoke for fourteen years. I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand."
When God is blessing our life, His presence will be with us, and His power will be on us. Again, can you think of anything greater than the Lord blessing us?
The Bible says of Samson, "And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him."
Let the same be said of us.
