The Life of Samson Series
It Was the Worst of Times
Judges 13:1
The wise man Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 7:8, "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." In other words, it is better to end well than start well. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow expressed the same thought in the words, "Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending." It is not how we leave the starting gate that matters the most. It is how we cross the finish line.
Tonight I want us to begin looking at the life of Samson. His beginning was with so much promise and potential. With the kind of start he had, Samson would have been the one voted most likely to succeed. He started well, but the end was marred by so much of the promise and potential of his life unrealized and unfulfilled. Samson reminds us that it is better to end well than start well.
Charles Spurgeon said, "Samson is, in many respects, one of the most remarkable men whose history is recorded in the pages of inspiration." Indeed, Samson is, in many respects, a remarkable man. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of Samson's life, the feature for which he is best known, was his strength. His strength was of such measure that he could kill a lion with his bare hands, slay a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey, and could lift massive pillars and gates from their foundation and carry them miles away.
Yet, in spite of his remarkable strength, he was a man of remarkable weakness. He could conquer others, but he could not conquer himself. He could slay the enemy without, but he could not slay the enemy within. His was a life of strength and weakness.
Before we began to actually look at the life of this remarkable man, we must look at his times. His story begins, not with who he was or what he did, but when he lived. It begins with the words of Judges 13:1, "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years."
Charles Dickens in the opening words of The Tale of Two Cities wrote: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." In the days in which Samson stepped into the pages of history and the Scripture, there was only the worst of times. I want us to consider these times and draw from them some very poignant lessons for each of us.
First, we see:
1. God’s Deliverance
In the words "the children of Israel" we see a people that had been redeemed by God. Their history is defined by the night God delivered them from Egyptian bondage. Their deliverance is symbolic of the redemption that all God's children have experienced.
They Had Been Brought Out of a Life of Bondage. The Bible says in Exodus 2:23 that the cry of the children of Israel "came up unto God by reason of the bondage." Israel spent four-hundred years in Egyptian bondage. Their years in bondage are a picture of the bondage that all of us were in before we were saved. All of us were in bondage.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:2-3 that we were in bondage to three elements.
First, there is the bondage of the world.
Eph. 2:2a
We were in bondage to the world. We lived our life after this world. The word "course" literally means "age." We not only lived after this world, but we lived as this world. We lived according to the age, or to say it another way, according to our times.
For example, I have been around long enough to see a lot of styles come and go. Many of you, like me, grew up in the 70's. Do you remember those bell-bottom pants? And how about the neck-ties we wore. They were so wide that when it rained you could use them as an umbrella. Who can forget the Patton leather shoes. I had a pair of white ones. I looked cool, man! Of course, there was the hair style of the 70's. Long hair was in. It was the age of the hippie movement. Now, short hair is the style. The way fellows style their hair today is by going to bed. When they get up it is styled.
Now we wouldn't be caught dead in dressing like we did in the 70's. But back then we thought entirely different. It was the style. It was our age.
It was the course of the world. The truth is the course of this world often influences and dictates how we live, think, and act. As the Bible says, we walked after this world because we were in bondage to the world.
Not only that, there is also the bondage of the devil.
Ephesians 2:2b
When the Bible speaks of Satan as a "prince," it is speaking of him as a ruler. He is an evil, wicked, merciless ruler that enslaves the souls of men, and has only one goal, and that is sending men and women to hell.
Thirdly, there is the bondage of the flesh.
Ephesians 2:3
The desires and lusts of the flesh have pulled many into a bondage that placed them in chains to the very things they craved and fulfilled. Just ask the drug addict or alcoholic if the lusts of the flesh don't lead to bondage.
So just as Israel was in bondage, we were in bondage. It is possible that some here are in bondage. But praise God, Jesus can deliver you from bondage. The Psalmist said in Psalms 136:10-11, "To him that smote Egypt in their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for ever: And brought out Israel from among them: for his mercy endureth for ever:"
On the Passover night God brought them out. He mightily and miraculously delivered them from their bondage. To say that we are saved is to say that we have been delivered from spiritual bondage.
Redeemed how I love to proclaim it,
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
Redeemed by His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.
But think about this: being delivered from bondage is just half of the story. God also brought them into a life of blessing.
They had not only been brought out of Egypt, they had also been brought into Canaan. Canaan in the Bible is symbol of a blessed and full life. God brought us out of a life of bondage into a life of blessing. Jesus said in John 10:10, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
The song writer said:
What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought
Since Jesus came into my heart!
I have light in my soul for which long I had sought,
Since Jesus came into my heart!
I have ceased from my wandering and going astray,
Since Jesus came into my heart!
And my sins, which were many, are all washed away,
Since Jesus came into my heart!
There are a lot of things that changed when God saved us. Our bondage has been replaced with blessings. Our slavery has been replaced with salvation. We have a new life and a new Lord.
We are a people delivered by God. We have been brought out and brought in! Hallelujah, we have been set free.
When the Americans first occupied Manila, many prisoners that had been imprisoned for "political offenses" were set free. One of these crimes, according to the Spanish government, which then ruled the Philippines, was reading the Bible.
One day a man came to Dr. Homer Stuntz, and asked to see him in strict privacy. He then asked in a whisper if it were true that he could now read his Bible without danger of imprisonment. Dr. Stuntz took him to the door and asked him to look at the American flag floating nearby.
Then he said, "So long as you see that flag floating over your country, you can sit on the ridgepole of your house, if you want to, and read the Bible, and no one can molest you."
As for us, we can point to the cross. The cross is the symbol of our freedom from the bondage of the world, the flesh and the devil.
So first of all there is God’s deliverance.
Then think about
2. God’s Discernment
Notice Judges 13:1 again.
They were a redeemed people but they lived as anything but a redeemed people. They were God's people, but you would have never known by the life they were living.
Before we look at how they were living, I want to draw your attention to the words "in the sight of God." The Bible says in Jeremiah 16:17 "For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes." Jeremiah was saying that God sees each of us and knows the sin that is in our life.
The Bible says in Hebrews 4:13, "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
Many times we try to hide our sin from others. We work to make sure that no one knows what we are doing. However, we forget that we cannot hide anything from God.
John Butler said, "We are prone to make our conduct as impressive as possible when certain people are watching us. But it does not seem to occur to many that God Almighty is always watching us." He knows everything that we do. He knows every place that we go. He even knows everything we think. Everything we do and all we are is "in the sight of God." Our life is an open book to God.
Is there some secret in your life? It is not a secret to God. Is there some sin in your life? God sees it. Is there something about your life that is not right? God knows all about it.
Look with me at Proverbs 5:21: "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings." All of our ways are before the eyes of God!
What did God see when He looked at them? We are told that He saw “evil”. The word "evil" is a definite article meaning that a specific kind of evil is meant. What is that evil? Over and over again in the Book of Judges we find the statement that "the children of Israel did evil in sight of the Lord." In the other occasions we learn the specifics of the evil God saw.
Notice with me Judges 2:11-12.
The evil God saw was their acceptance of false gods. Baal was a pagan god of the Canaanites. He was worshipped as both the sun and storm god of the Canaanites. Their evil was idolatry that not only a false god, but also abandoned the true God. When they embraced the worship of Baal, they turned their back of God. They "forsook the LORD God." I don’t know if there is anything more evil than turning your back on God, especially after having known His graciousness and mercy.
And yet we are told in Judges 2:12 that they "followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them." I wonder how many people there are in church Sunday after Sunday who have turned their back on God. There was a time when they lived for God and put Him first in their life. But at some time they put other gods before the Lord. Oh, I am not talking about gods of stone and marble, but perhaps the god of pleasure, recreation, business, making money, to just name a few of the gods of a people who know not the Lord.
These things began to occupy the throne of their heart rather than God himself. The result is that God is now abandoned.
Notice carefully what is said about their evil conduct. We read, "And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD."
Notice that it was not only that they committed evil, but they "did evil again." They had got away from God time and time again and suffered the consequences. Now they have left God again.
It was not just that they got away from God, they stayed away from God. In spite of the fact they were a redeemed people and were God's people, they willfully chose to follow after false gods and forsake the true God.
I have seen this time and time again through the years. I have seen people come to the altar and supposedly make things right with God. You will see them for a few weeks, but then they are out of Church again; like the children of Israel who would get away from God, come back, and then get away again.
The final words of Judges 2:12 say that the children of Israel "provoked the LORD to anger." If we are God's people, we don't get away from God without consequences.
Thirdly, we see
3. God’s Discipline
Judges 13:1
We will see later in our studies that God raised Samson to call the people back to God. But when we look at them at the present, we see a people that the chastening hand of God is upon.
In our day and time when everything is aimed at making people feel good about themselves, we don't hear much about the fact that God disciplines and chastens His children who do not live for him.
In fact, the Bible is very clear about this matter; that one of the evidences that we are truly saved is that the Lord chastens us when we get away from Him. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:6-8, "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons."
Did you get that? The Bible tells us that if we are not chastened it is because we are not God's child. I don't go around whipping your kids, and you don't go around giving a whipping to someone else's children. Why? They are not your children. God only chastens His children. Chastening is the evidence that we are saved.
When God's children get away from Him, He disciplines them. The ole-timers used to say, "God takes you to the woodshed."
I think about a Christian lady wanted a parrot that could talk. She looked in several shops before finding one. The owner told her, however, that the parrot had been previously owned by a bartender and though he could say anything, he also on occasion used profanity.
She told him she would buy him anyway and teach him to say good things. Everything went well for about a month. He learned to say "Praise the Lord" and a number of other Christian words and phrases. One day she forgot to feed him and when she came into the house she heard him cursing. She grabbed him up and said, "I told you not to talk that way. I'll teach you never to do it again."
So she put him in the deep freeze and shut the door. A few minutes later she took him out and asked, "Have you learned your lesson?" The bird shivered and replied, "Yes, ma'am." She asked, "Are you going to talk that way anymore?" The parrot replied, "No, ma am."
6. About seven months went by and not a bit of bad language. Apparently the bird was cured of his rascally habits. Then one day she forgot to feed him, water him, or change his cage. When she returned home that day he was carrying on worse than ever. She grabbed him and put him back in the freezer but forgot him for some time. He was almost frozen to death when she thought of him. She put him in his cage to thaw out.
Finally he began to move and talk a little and she asked him again, "Did you learn your lesson?" "Yes, ma'am," he retorted. Then he sat there quietly for a few more minutes shivering and said, "Can I ask you a question?" She answered, "Yes." The parrot said, "I thought I knew all the bad words there were, but just what did that turkey in there say?"
If I can say it this way, if we do not live for God, He may put us in the freezer.
In closing look at the discipline they received from God. God delivered them "into the hand of the Philistine forty years." The Philistines comprised a small segment of the land of Canaan. Israel should have easily subjugated them, but they became the instrument in the hand of God to chasten them.
God chastening can come in various ways. It can come through sickness and suffering. Let me be clear and say that all suffering and sickness is not chastening, but sometimes God uses suffering and sickness to chasten us.
God can use troubles in our life to chasten us. God can stir up a storm like He did with Jonah to deal with our waywardness. God's Philistines come in many ways.
This you can be certain about, if you are saved, and you get away from God, God's Philistines will come. As we saw earlier, if they don't, it indicates that you are not saved.
Just as God delivered the children into the hand of the Philistines, He will chasten those who turn from Him.
Let me close with this: In Psalms 119:67, the Psalmist said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word."
Did you get what the Psalmist said? Before he was afflicted he had strayed from God. But after being afflicted he kept God's word. Affliction had been the tool that brought him back to God.
This is always the motive of chastening--to bring us back to God. God never chastens us to punish us. He chastens us, first because He loves us, and secondly, because He want us to live for Him. His purpose is to bring us back to Him.
As I said in the beginning, it was the worst of times. They were away from God and suffering the consequences of their sins. May we all learn from their story.
Let’s pray
