The Life and Times of Samson
A Life of Strength and Weakness
Judges 13:25
When I read Judges 13:25, I think of Charles Gabriel's hymn Pentecostal Power:
Lord, as of old, at Pentecost,
Thou didst Thy power display,
With cleansing, purifying flame,
Descend on us today.
Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power!
Thy floodgates of blessing, on us throw open wide!
Lord, send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power!
That sinners be converted and Thy Name glorified!
If there is anything we need it is the old-time power of the Spirit of God. Someone has written:
God makes his ministers a flame of fire.
Am I ignitable?
God, deliver me from the dread asbestos of "other things."
Saturate me with the oil of thy Spirit that I may flame.
Make me thy fuel, Flame of God.
A.J. Gordon tells about how an American was viewing Niagara Falls with an Englishman. "There," he said, "is the greatest unused power in the world!" His friend replied, "Ah, no, my brother. The greatest unused power in the world is the Holy Spirit of the living God."
In our last study we looked at Judges 13:24 and how the Bible says "the LORD blessed" Samson. As we closed, I mentioned how one of the ways God blessed Samson was His power was on Him. Samson knew something of the power of God.
We need God to bless us with His power. We need to know what it is to live life in the Spirit. As we continue looking at the life of Samson let's learn from his example about life in the Spirit.
Samson was:
1. Encountered by the Spirit of the Lord
"And the Spirit of the LORD began to move him." Samson was born with a divine purpose. There came the time in his life when God began to work in His life to bring that purpose to pass. There came a time, I would guess in his late teens or early twenties, when he began to experience encounters with the Spirit of the Lord.
Oftentimes in the Bible we see those who experienced such encounters. For example, in the book of Judges we find several who the Spirit of Lord was upon them. In Judges 3:10 the Bible speaks of Othniel and how "the Spirit of the LORD came upon him." In Judges 6:34 the Bible says "the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon." Also, in Judges 11:29 we read, "Then the Spirit of LORD came upon Jephthah."
Notice how personal that is. It was the "Spirit of the LORD" who encountered Samson. This was not something but Someone who came upon him. This was God Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit.
I remind you that the Holy Spirit is not some kind of strange and mysterious force floating around, but a divine person.
John 16:13-15
Jesus used the personal pronoun "He" when speaking of the Holy Spirit. He did not say "it will guide you into all truth" or "it shall show you things to come," but "He shall guide you into all truth" and etc.
When the Bible says that "the Spirit of the Lord began to move" Samson, it is speaking of how the blessed Holy Spirit, the third person of the trinity, God the Holy Ghost, was moving him.
It was personal and it involved a process. The word "began" indicates there was an initial encounter. From the time Samson was born he had been told by his parents that God had a special purpose for his life. They had made him live different than all the other boys and girls.
There were things they would not let him do because God had made it clear that he was to be a Nazarite from the time of his birth to the day of his death. All of his life he had been made aware that at some point in his life God planned on using Him. Then, at some point in his life, there was a day when the Spirit of the LORD came upon him for the first time.
The word also indicates that there were increasing encounters. The word "began" speaks of the start of Spirit of the LORD moving him and how thereafter, time and time again the Spirit of the LORD moved him.
After that initial encounter, more and more the Spirit of the LORD came upon Samson.
What Samson experienced we need to experience.
Ephesians 5:18
In New Testament terms, Samson was filled with the Spirit. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, moving him, filling him.
What does it mean for us to be filled with the Spirit? In these modern times when there is so much that goes on in the name of being filled with the Spirit, I think it is important that we understand what the Bible really means.
First, I want to say that being filled with the Spirit is not some experience where you speak in tongues or enter some heavenly ecstasy. Being filled with the Spirit simply means that the Holy Spirit takes control and is in control of your life.
The verb "filled" was used to speak of wind filling the sails of a ship, thereby carrying that ship along. We could say that being filled with the Spirit is being moved by the Spirit. The word is primarily used in the Scripture of being under the total control of something, such as being filled with sorrow (John 16:6), fear (Luke 5:26), anger (Luke 6:11), and faith (Acts 6:5). To be filled with the Spirit is to be under the control of the Spirit.
A group of men in a certain city were meeting to discuss having a city wide crusade. Many of them recommended D.L. Moody.
Finally, one spoke up and said, "All I have heard is Moody this, Moody that. Why we ought to get D.L. Moody. Does Moody have a monopoly on the Holy Spirit?" Another spoke up and said, "No, but the Holy Spirit has a monopoly on D.L. Moody."
That's what I am talking about. To be filled is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit having a monopoly on your life. Let me also say, that anyone who knows anything about really being filled with the Spirit knows there was that time when they were filled for the first time. It may have been during a time of crisis in their life when they were driven in desperation to God, for after a lengthy time of prayer when their thirsty soul kept them on their knees until God did something in their life, or in a moment when they gave everything to God.
Have you ever been filled with the Spirit? I am not talking about some charismatic experience, but a time when you met God in a very special way and God filled you with His Spirit? If you have you know it. If you haven't you need to be. I will say more about why you need to be a little later, but in my opinion, it is the utmost need in our life.
Let me point out one more thing before I leave this text. The tense of the words of Ephesians 5:18 "be filled," means that we are to be continually filled. That is, it is more than being filled once, but being filled again and again. The Spirit of the LORD began to move Samson indicating that time and time again the Spirit of the LORD moved him.
David said in Psalm 92:10, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil." We need FRESH oil. Yesterday's oil is not sufficient for today. I need a new touch.
You need fresh oil. You can boast about some experience you had twenty years ago, but the question is whether or not you are filled today. Have you encountered the Spirit of the LORD in your life? Has the Spirit of the LORD ever moved you? Is the Spirit of the LORD moving you? Oh, blessed moment, the moment when one experiences such a divine encounter. How blessed the repeated encounters that follow.
There is so much more I could say here. This is so needful in our day and time. It is so needful for preachers, teachers, deacons, leaders, and every Christian, but I must move on. Secondly, we not only see how Samson was encountered by the Spirit of the LORD, but also how Samson was:
2. Endued by the Spirit of the Lord
In those early days of his life, the power of the Holy Spirit rested on his life.
I will be brief on this point, but if there is anything we need it is God's power on our life and Churches. I am not convinced that our generation fully understands how necessary the power of the Holy Spirit is to us, but it is our urgent need. We need to be endued with power from on high!
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 6:19, "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" If you have been saved the Holy Spirit lives in you. Your body is His earthly temple--His dwelling place. What an amazing thought--God lives within me by the person of the Holy Spirit.
Do you realize that since the Holy Spirit lives in you that He is always with you. There is never a moment when He is not with you. He goes wherever you go. Now, that may not be a comforting thought to some. It may be disturbing to some to realize that wherever they go, they are taking the Holy Spirit with them, especially when it is places they know God would not be honored in their being there.
But there is more to experience than just the Holy Spirit's presence in us. There is also the Spirit's power on us.
I mentioned D.L. Moody a moment ago. After he died, R.A. Torrey preached a sermon entitled Why God Used D.L. Moody. It was later put in a book. In the opening of the sermon, Torrey said, "The whole secret of why D. L. Moody was such a mightily used man you will find in Psalm 62:11: "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that POWER BELONGETH UNTO GOD."
I am glad it does. I am glad that power did not belong to D. L. Moody; I am glad that it did not belong to Charles G. Finney; I am glad that it did not belong to Martin Luther; I am glad that it did not belong to any other Christian man whom God has greatly used in this world's history. Power belongs to God. If D. L. Moody had any power, and he had great power, he got it from God."
The secret to any person's or Church's effectiveness is the power of the Holy Spirit. I shared with you last Sunday Zechariah 4:6 where the Bible says, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts." It is never by our might or power.
The word "might" refer to our resources. The word "power" refers to our abilities.
How often we as a Churches depend on our resources to do the job. How often we as Christians depend on our abilities to do the job when neither is sufficient. It is by God's Spirit! For this reason, as I have already said, we need this power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit on our life.
Why is the power of the Holy Spirit so important to us? In closing think with me of not how Samson was encountered and endued by the Spirit of the LORD, but also how he was:
3. Enabled by the Spirit of the Lord
The feature Samson is best known for is his strength. He was the Charles Atlas of the Bible. Samson's strength is legendary. He could kill a lion with his bare hands and lift the gates of the city off their foundations and carry them away. I am not sure that his body was bulging with muscles, but he was a man of extraordinary strength.
A misconception is that his strength lay in his hair. That is largely due to the fact that when Deliah cut his hair he lost his strength. His strength was not in his hair. The reason he lost his strength when his hair was cut was because the cutting of his hair violated his Nazarite vow. When his consecration was defiled he lost his power. I remind you, God never fills a defiled or unconsecrated vessel.
His power was in the Spirit of the LORD! That was the secret to his strength.
All the things that Samson did as a result of his physical strength were because the Spirit of the LORD was upon him.
Look at Judges 14:6
His demonstrated physical strength when the Spirit of the LORD came upon him. His strength was God's strength. It was the Spirit of the LORD that enabled him to do what he did. That is a reminder of the source of our power.
Our strength is God's strength. Our power is God's power. When it comes to God's work, it is not a work we do, but a work He does through us. A. W. Tozer said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."
The early Church had nothing as far as earthly resources are concerned, but they had the power of the Holy Spirit and turned the world upside down. We have resources unlike any generation in Church history, but we do not have the power of the Holy Spirit, and the result is, the world is turning the Church upside down.
Thomas Aquinas, visited the City of Rome to pay his respects to the one who was then pope. In the course of his visit, the pope proudly showed him all the wonders of the papal palace, and took him to his treasury and showed him chests of silver and gold received from every part of the world.
With something of a smile on his face he said, "You see, Thomas, we cannot say with Peter, 'Silver and gold have I none.'" Looking the pope in the eyes, Thomas Aquinas fearlessly replied," "No, and neither can we say, 'In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.'
Notice again Judges 13:25
Zorah means a "prominent place" and Eshtaol means "valley." Think about how illustrative that is. There are times when we find ourselves in the valley and times when we find ourselves on the mountain. But regardless of where we are, we need God's power on our life.
As I said, Samson lost his power because he broke his Nazarite vow. We must guard our lives from that which will defile us and leave us powerless. If the power of the Holy Spirit is so vital to our being what we should be and doing what we should do, then one of our chief concerns is being consecrated to God so we can have God's power on us.
R.A. Torrey told about a time, July 8, 1894, that he said he would never forget to his dying day. It was the closing day of the Northfield Students' Conference, the gathering of the students from the eastern colleges. Mr. Moody had asked Torrey to preach on Saturday night and Sunday morning on the baptism with the Holy Ghost. On Saturday night he spoke about, "The Baptism With the Holy Ghost: What It Is; What It Does; the Need of It and the Possibility of It." On Sunday morning he spoke on "The Baptism With the Holy Spirit: How to Get It."
It was just exactly twelve o'clock when he finished the morning sermon. Torrey said to students, "Mr. Moody has invited us all to go up to the mountain at three o'clock this afternoon to pray for the power of the Holy Spirit. It is three hours to three o'clock. Some of you cannot wait three hours. You do not need to wait. Go to your rooms; go out into the woods; go to your tent; go anywhere where you can get alone with God and have this matter out with Him."
At three o'clock, they all gathered in front of Mr. Moody's mother's house and then began to pass down the lane, through the gate, up on the mountainside. There were four hundred and fifty-six in all. After a while Mr. Moody said: "I don't think we need to go any further; let us sit down here."
We sat down on stumps and logs and on the ground. Mr. Moody said: "Have any of you students anything to say?" I think about seventy-five of them arose, one after the other, and said: "Mr. Moody, I could not wait till three o'clock; I have been alone with God since the morning service, and I believe I have a right to say that I have been baptized with the Holy Spirit."
When these testimonies were over, Mr. Moody said: "Young men, I can't see any reason why we shouldn't kneel down here right now and ask God that the Holy Ghost may fall upon us just as definitely as He fell upon the apostles on the Day of Pentecost. Let us pray." And they did pray, there on the mountainside.
As they had gone up the mountainside heavy clouds had been gathering, and just as they began to pray, those clouds broke and the raindrops began to fall through the overhanging pines. But there was another cloud that had been gathering over Northfield for ten days, a cloud big with the mercy and grace and power of God; and as they began to pray, their prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the Holy Ghost fell upon them.
Again, that is what we need and we must make sure that we never lose that power.
