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I just can’t give up now...

Judges 16: 23 – 30

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 05 Nov, 2006

TODAY IS Guy Fawkes Day, when the English burn effigies of the bomber on bonfires to celebrate the failure of the plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament and end Protestant rule.

I understand how people like Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plotters felt driven to desperate deeds to end a corrupt regime. The Stuart kings certainly didn’t live out a genuine Christian faith, or enforce justice in the land.

So people plotted to rid England of its entire Government.

Samson also struggled against a corrupt government. He was far more successful than Guy Fawkes. He tore the building down with his bare hands.

Samson’s birth

You read about Samson,

You read about his birth

He was the strongest man

That ever lived on earth...

Samson was one of the miraculous births in the Bible. His mother had no children, and wasn’t expecting any. She was hurting. She was desperate. She really wanted her own baby. But she had none.

Then the angel came.

³ The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said, “You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. ⁴ Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, ⁵ because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

So many people have asked me what I think their gift or their ministry is. I can give general information, like, "You have good maintenance leadership ability — you show care for people in a group and ensure that everyone is included,’ or “You have a fine mind and are great at processing your feelings and working out the real issues.” But everyone has to find his or her own calling and purpose in life.

Repeatedly, the Bible shows by example and by direct teaching that God knew us before we were born. Didn’t he form us in our mother’s womb? Doesn’t he have a plan and purpose for each life? Jesus said,

I have come so that they may have life and have it more abundantly,

So a major part of his ministry is to release you and me to do what we are called to do.

Samson was born with a very definite purpose, and that purpose was to be strong and bold. He was made just to deliver Israel from Philistine oppression.

That took a special kind of dedication. That took a Nazirite level of commitment and training. Samson was to be a Nazirite from birth. No hair cuts. No alcohol. No touching of anything unclean.

We Christians don’t need to avoid all alcohol or never get our hair cut. But the Nazirites were separate from the culture and customs that surrounded them. And we, too, need to be separate. Not by being hermits or withdrawing from society, but by modelling our lives on Jesus, by dying to this world, by taking up the cross and following the Lord.

“Come out from among them and be separate,” Says the Lord.

It’s still true.

Like Samson, our strength is never in conforming to the world, it is never in being just like everyone around us. It is in being different for the sake of Jesus our Lord.

Jesus said,

^{MAT 16:24} ...“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

Under a cross, we are all outsiders. That is not the world’s way, but it is Jesus’ way.

Samson’s strength

One day as Samson was walking alone

He looked down on the ground

And he saw an old jaw bone

He lifted up that jawbone

Swung it over his head

And when he got to movin’

A thousand was dead

Everything we read about Samson tells of a physically strong man. He killed a thousand Philistines with an ass’ jawbone. He tore a lion with his bare hands. He caught foxes, tied their tails together and lit their fur so that they set the fields ablaze. He was a strong man, a physical man.

That strength came from his separation. Not everyone who is separate will be physically strong, but there is an inner strength in learning to stand.

The American revivalist, Charles Grandison Finney, was a famous preacher. But he was also independent in Christ. He refused to preach to segregated congregations, even when louts burnt down his church. He took risks as an evangelist that most preachers would not have dared take in those days. He stood for his beliefs despite considerable opposition.

Once, he visited a factory run by a man who was not a Christian.

Finney looked into the factory. One girl saw him and broke the thread she was using. She burst into tears, then the others started crying. They knew what Finney stood for.

In minutes, they were all in tears, and the factory owner had to shut down the mill. Finney spoke briefly to them. Soon most of the workers were disciples, and, within a week, so was the owner.

Most prophets came as outsiders. They were men separated from the mainstream of their societies.

It’s the same with many of history’s great preachers. Francis of Assisi, Kathryn Kuhlman, Billy Graham. People who can stand firm and not be swayed by the world have a strength to do things the world can hardly believe!

But his strength had another source, and that is the Holy Spirit’s power. We read,

As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. ¹⁵ Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.

But Samson had a problem. He thought that his strength was guaranteed. He didn’t realise that it was a gift from God from beginning to end. God’s Spirit is not a conditional gift for disciples, but his empowerment is always conditional on obedience.

Samson’s weaknesses

Delilah she was a woman

She was find and fair

She had lovely looks

And coal black hair

Delilah she crept up on Samson’s knee

Said, “Tell me where your strength lies

If you please...”

Samson’s strength came from his outsider’s position and the Holy Spirit. But Samson was also weak. He was undisciplined. He did what he wanted instead of what God willed. He presumed on grace. He thought it was cheap.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Grace is free, but it is never cheap.”

In fact, Samson probably suffered from a serious personality disorder.

Four psychiatrists have diagnosed him as having an antisocial personality disorder. A 4Therapy Network report says,

...antisocial personality disorder is described as a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. The condition is often associated with lawbreakers and con artists, but can also, experts say, be found among successful mainstream individuals politicians, for example.

Remember this, because it shows that God can use you and me regardless of disabilities or shortcomings. Did you miss the education you wanted? Do you have a mental illness or disorder like depression or anxiety? Have you failed and fallen? God used a gutter crawler, a criminal, a killer, a brawler, a man who cared nothing for others, not even his parents. God protected Israel through him. God raised him up to lead the Israelites.

I am not pleading for sin. I am proclaiming grace. Don’t be defeated by falls. We can change the world if we let God use what we have. He will do it. He redeems brokenness. He makes things work again.

God says,

My strength is perfected in weakness.

When we are weak and admit it, he uses us to his own glory.

Samson’s failure

She talked so fine

She talked so fair

Samson said, “Delilah,

Cut off my hair!

Shave my head just as clean as you hand

And my strength will be like a natural man!”

But I want to warn us that a weakness yielded to leads to failure and being sidelined from God’s purposes.

And here we see Samson. He has developed a relationship with Delilah. It looks like he visited her pretty regularly. They were close to each other; but Delilah didn’t really love Samson — a bit of pressure and she gave him up to the Philistines. And Samson was infatuated with her. If she said, “Do it!” he did it. He no longer stood against the world. Compromise after compromise after compromise added up. Soon Samson had no secure place to stand. He blended in with the world, and nothing distinguished him any more.

And once he was there, he was defeated and bound and carried away as a captive.

The Philistines shaved off his hair. They bound him. Delilah called him,

“Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”

And we read one of the saddest statements in the Old Testament.

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

He didn’t know that the LORD had left him.

The Philistines blinded him. They took him to Gaza to grind grain in the prison. They brought him out to entertain the rabble, to laugh at him, to heap abuse on him.

You can imagine how they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. You know how his captors slapped him. You hear the mockery: “He saved Israel, but he can’t save himself! Let us see his strength now! He trusted in his God. Let Yahweh of Israel rescue him now if he wants him!

And all Samson could do was take the mockery while they praised Dagon, their false god, and thanked him for delivering Samson into their hands.

Samson failed, and was defeated.

Samson’s triumph

If I had my way

If I had my way in this wicked world

If I had my way

I would tear this building down...

So often, defeated Christians stay defeated. We should be the most resilient people in all creation. But are we as we should be?

Sometimes we have to take courage. Sometimes we need to lift up the hands that hang down, and not be defeated.

Samson prayed when there was no human hope. He was at the end of possibilities. We read,

²⁷ Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. ²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

There is an old saying, "Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” When we have nowhere else to turn, that’s where we will meet God if we turn to him in faith.

The story started with Samson’s mother, who had nowhere to turn. At the end of her tether, God met her and she became pregnant with Samson. Now, at the end of his life, Samson has nowhere to turn, and he reaches out one last time to God. And that is where God meets his need.

He puts his hands against the two main posts supporting the deck with the men and women sitting on it, and the roof above with the non–paying audience. He leans against the posts, one hand on each, and he pushes. He pushes with all his might. He can feel his hair hanging on his bare shoulders, the hair that has grown back.

He pushes the pillars, and here’s the story:

²⁹ Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

God used him once more, and the results were glorious for the suffering Israelites.

When we decide that we can no longer make it all happen, when we call on God as a final desperate act, God will do what he wills, and the glory will be great!

Conclusions

You may feel inadequate. You may feel a failure. You may know every weakness you have only too well.

God knows your inadequacies. God knows your weaknesses and your failures. He knows the ones you don’t know about.

But he has called you, and he will use you, if you are willing for him to do it.

Each of us has to make a decision, though. Are we willing to stand outside our society? Are we willing nakedly to follow a naked Christ, as one Church Father wrote? Jesus told us to take up our cross and follow him. That in itself separates us from our world and its values. But that is the only place where the Spirit of God can fully use us.

Are we ready for the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, to infill and equip and empower us? That was Samson’s secret. There are many long–haired people. But they are not separated for God, and they are not infilled by his Spirit, so they have no extraordinary strength at all.

When we are at the end of our tether, when we feel we just haven’t got it, that is when a cry to God for help will transform the situation and bring his great blessings upon us and all whom we serve in Jesus’ name.

God bless us as we take that path!

AMEN!

Song: If I had my way. © Rev Gary Davis (c. 1927.

© Peter R. Green 2006. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)