Samson’s Potential (Judges 13)
Few people in the Bible were born with more potential than Samson. Like John the Baptist’s parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, in Judges 13 we learn that Samson’s parents had been unable to conceive for many years. Then God sent his angel to announce that they were going to have a son. The angel told Samson’s mother to abstain from unclean food and fermented drink and to never cut the boy’s hair because he was to be a Nazarite. Nazarites were dedicated to God’s service from birth and were raised under strict conditions. They had stringent dietary regulations, could never cut their hair, couldn’t come in contact with anything that was dead, etc.
Along with the general pronouncement that the boy would be a Nazarite, the angel also declared in verse 5 that God had already chosen Samson to begin the specific mission of delivering Israel from the hands of the Philistines, who had oppressed them for forty years. Verses 24-25 tell us that God’s hand remained on Samson throughout his youth—“he grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him…” As Samson grew, he began to realize that God blessed him with supernatural physical strength. God had given him this gift of strength to help him fulfill his destiny of delivering Israel from the Philistines.
An angelic announcement, a declaration of destiny, a miraculous birth, a loving family, a godly heritage, supernatural strength, and the divine blessing of God upon his life! Samson had everything anyone could ever hope for! He had all the potential in the world! You would think that he would be the one to deliver Israel once and for all, but he was about to flush all of his potential down the proverbial toilet. He had a triumphant childhood, but he was about to have a tragic midlife!
Do you know anyone like that? Do you know anyone who has had all the potential in the world but failed to live up to it? Do you know anyone who has been blessed with incredible talent, but they threw it away? I think about people like Lindsay Lohan. As a teenager, she showed promise of becoming a great singer and actress, but she traded her capabilities for cocaine. I also think of Plaxico Burress. With great size, strength, and speed, he could have become one the greatest wide receivers in NFL history. But he was more interested in waiving a handgun around a night club. He traded his skill for a jail cell.
God has blessed many of you here today with great potential to serve him and others. He has blessed many of you with loving families, godly heritages, and tremendous talent! I have seen it! Use it! Don’t make the same mistake that Samson made. Don’t waste what God has given you!
Samson’s Selfishness (Judges 14)
Samson’s tragic demise begins in Judges 14 when he leaves his hometown of Zorah and traveled to the Philistine border town of Timnah. He met a Philistine woman there and it was love at first sight. He immediately returned home and told his father that he wanted to marry the girl. This seems like a beautiful fairy tale love story to us today, but when we consider the cultural background, we discover that it is actually a story of selfishness and manipulation.
The regular custom in ancient Israel was arranged marriages. People did not choose their own spouse like we do today; parents picked their children’s spouses for them and arranged it with the other family. In this culture, to choose one’s own spouse was an act of selfishness and disrespect for one’s parents. In verse 3, we see that Samson’s parents vehemently oppose Samson’s choice. They knew that when you flirt with the enemy, it is only a matter of time until you get burned! They had seen other Israelite boys run after Philistine girls and be dragged into idolatry, and they certainly didn’t want this to happen to their son, especially a son with such potential. But in spite of his parents’ protest, Samson asserts his will and demands to marry her.
In verse 5, we see Samson fall deeper into selfishness and sin. As he approached the vineyards of Timnah, he was coming dangerously close to breaking one of his Nazarite vows to not eat any food that was grown on a vine. He made a conscious decision to flirt with temptation once again. But while he was off the road by himself, God sent a ferocious lion to warn him against this deadly path, but instead of heeding God’s sign, Samson used the great strength that the Lord had given him and he tore the lion apart.
Sometime later, when Samson was going down to marry the girl, he went back to see the lion’s carcass. He discovered that a swarm of bees made some honey in the carcass. Again, his appetite overtook him and he broke another Nazarite vow by touching a dead carcass. He knew that his actions were wrong—that is why he didn’t tell his parents where he got the honey.
How many times have we seen and experienced this same pattern in our lives? God has given us everything we need, yet we become infatuated by that which is forbidden? How many of us flirt with sin by putting ourselves in compromising and tempting positions? Do you allow your carnal appetites to rule your life?
How many young people disregard and disrespect their parents and make selfish decisions? It is all about what they want now and they don’t care what anyone else says. Like Samson, a rebellious attitude toward parental authority usually indicates a rebellious attitude toward God. Who rules your life—God or you?
Samson’s Arrogance (Judges 14:10-20)
Well, Samson made sure he got what he wanted! He married the Timnite girl, but he as soon as they sat down to eat the reception meal, he was already getting bored. Somewhere between the cutting of the cake and the dollar dance, Samson decided to become the life of the party by introducing a riddle and a wager. Riddles were common entertainment at parties in the ancient world. He arrogantly bet 30 Armani suits with his 30 groomsmen that they wouldn’t be able to figure out his riddle. They told him, “Bring it on!” But when he posed his riddle: “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet”, they were completely stumped.
Samson had given them until the end of the reception to figure it out (wedding feasts lasted seven days in ancient Jewish culture), but on the fourth day, the Philistine groomsmen went to Samson’s wife and threatened her. They told her that they would burn her and her father to death if she didn’t coax her husband to give the answer to the riddle. So, she went to Samson with great sobs and a sob story and manipulated him into revealing the riddle. On the last day of the feast, he finally confided in her, and she secretly gave the answer to the Philistines.
When they explained the riddle and won the bet, Samson immediately knew that he had been tricked. In verse 18, he called out the men for cheating with another riddle, “If you had not plowed with my heifer you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.” As heifers don’t plow, neither should they have been able to figure out the riddle. To pay off the debt, Samson secretly ventured into one of the prominent Philistine cities and killed thirty men, stole their expensive clothing, and gave them to the men who solved his riddle.
Samson’s arrogant attitude led him down the path of destruction. His selfish desire to be the center of attention led to his bragging about his sin in the riddle. Bragging about his sin set him led him to make a wager that he could not pay. And when he could not pay, he had to kill 30 men and steal their clothing to pay his debt.
When we have an arrogant attitude, we are led down that same path of destruction. Do you ever have a selfish desire to be the center of attention? Do you ever find yourself bragging about or glorifying your past sins? Do you say things to show your superior intellect? Do you ever find yourself making wagers you can’t pay or making arrogant promises you can’t keep? Like Samson, when our hearts are filled with arrogance and we try to take advantage of someone, it is only a matter of time before someone will take advantage of us.
Samson’s Anger (Judges 15)
Samson was so angry with his wife for betraying him and making him lose the bet that he went to spend some time with his father. After his temper settled down a little, he went back to be with her. He didn’t have two dozen roses and a bottle of wine, but he did bring her a young goat (an appropriate gift in this culture), but he returned he discovered that his father-in-law had given his wife to his best man.
When he realized that he had been manipulated again, his anger drove him to tying torches to the end of foxes tails and burning all of the Philistines crops. When the Philistines discovered who had done this and why, they burned Samson’s wife and father-in-law to death. Samson poured out his revenge on the Philistines by using a donkey’s jawbone as a form of brass knuckles and killed 1000 Philistines. Samson went on to lead the Israelites for 20 years.
Samson’s Fall (Judges 16:1-22)
During his 20 year rule, Samson still exhibited character flaws and spiritual weaknesses that would eventually lead to his final demise. He was selfish, arrogant, impulsive, hot-headed, vengeful, violent, and he always had a weakness for women. One day he put himself in great danger by sleeping with a Philistine prostitute in the region of Gaza. When the Philistines discovered where he was, they devised a plan to kill him when he woke up in the morning. But he outwitted them by sneaking away in the middle of the night and destroying their city gate.
By this time you would think that Samson would have learned his lesson about women (at least Philistine women), but he was a slow learner. He was all brawn, no brains, and sometime later he fell in love with another Philistine woman named Delilah. When the Philistine leaders found this out, they made a deal with Delilah to discover the source of Samson’s strength. She would be paid handsomely for seducing Samson’s secret.
So, on three different occasions, Delilah tried to manipulate Samson into telling her his secret, but each time he tricked her. If you ever want to see a good example of a manipulative relationship, read Judges 16, especially verse 15 when Delilah says “How can you say you love me when you won’t confide in me?” Samson finally succumbed and told her that the source of his strength was his long Nazarite hair, even after she tried to kill him three times.
After he told her his secret, she lulled him to sleep by placing his head on her lap and running her fingers through his long hair. She had already arranged for the barber to shave his head. His Nazarite vow was completely broken and God took away his strength. With this, the Philistines captured him, bound him, gouged out his eyes, and forced him to work the grinding mill in prison, a job usually reserved for donkeys. This is truly a tale of triumph to tragedy!
Samson’s weakness for women finally caught up with him. Like muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger is learning right now, Samson learned that illicit relationships will cost you your strength. Do you hear what God is saying in this?
Samson’s Triumph (Judges 16:23-31)
As Samson suffered in the grinding mill day after day, the Philistines held a celebration to give glory to their god Dagon for helping them to capture their enemy. They humiliated Samson by calling for him to perform for their rulers in the pagan temple. Since he was blind, they didn’t think he was a threat, even though his hair had grown back.
While he was entertaining, he could hear the noise around and above him and he realized that he was at the center of the temple. Samson finally humbled himself by asking his servant to help him locate the central columns. He humbled himself again by praying to God to remember him and restore his strength one last time. Then he pushed the pillars and dislodged them from their bases, making the whole temple collapse. Although Samson died in the wreckage, he had his greatest triumph in destroying the pagan temple and killing over 3000 of the most important Philistines. He killed more in his death than in his life, and thus, fulfilled his destiny that the angel pronounced to his mother—that “he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” (13:5)
Samson’s life was filled with great tragedy and great triumph! God has given us this story to remind us that he is sovereign over all things, including false gods and human weakness. Let’s face it, Samson was a screw up! He had incredible potential, but he allowed selfishness, arrogance, anger, and illicit relationships get in the way. He is definitely not a model for behavior, but he is an example of God’s incredible grace. God chose to use him in spite of his flaws and failures! He was even a forerunner of our Lord Jesus, who by his death brought down our great enemy and delivered us from the penalty of sin. There was great tragedy and great triumph in the cross!
There are two things I would like us to take away from Samson’s story. First, let us learn from Samson’s mistakes! Listen to your parents! Don’t be selfish! Remember, the world doesn’t revolve around you! Don’t go through life with an arrogant chip on your shoulder! Control your appetites! Beware of manipulative people and illicit relationships! Take your vows to God seriously! Keep him at the center of your life! Don’t waste the potential he has given you!
Secondly, remember God’s sovereignty and grace! Like Samson, we all have flaws and have experienced failures. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but he gives us his grace. He overcomes our faults and is more powerful than our failures. In his great sovereignty, he even uses them to advance his kingdom. If God can use a screw up like Samson, he can certainly use people like you and me!