The week was set up with several seminars, of which I attended a few and, whilst in them, took an anormous amount of notes. One particular series that I attended was about Samson, and I thought I would share some of these on my blog (as well as the other inspiring seminars!).
I went to Detling on Monday, so missed the first seminar by Jeff Lucas on Samson (presented on the Sunday). Each session could have easily been listened to just for the day, but for me, having listened to them throughout the week made each one even more powerful, as I hope will show through within these posts.
We start with the reading from Judges 13 verses 24 and 25."24 The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him, 25 and the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol. "
Jeff wanted us to read this first. Highlighting the use of the spirit: "the spirit of the LORD began to stir him." How many of us stir things? A cup of Tea or Coffee? Food in a saucepan? Do we all stir gently? How often is the motion of stirring seen as a gentle motion? Sadly, a lot of us have probably stirred quite quickly and viciously. This train of thought should be used when thinking of the Holy Spirit, when we ask fo it, we need to be prepared for the power and the shake that it can do.
Jeff quickly moved onto the next part of the Samson story.
Judges 14 read to the end. (This chapter will be used and broken throughout this post)
"1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
3 His father and mother replied, "Isn’t there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?"
But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me. She’s the right one for me." 4 (His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.) "
Samson, born to a nation, born strong and, as we saw, was stirred by the Holy Spirit. He clearly must know God and know him well. Isn't that why we see him normally as our hero? But he has gone down into the town, has just seen a woman, a woman who is known to be a philistine, the enemy, the oppressors, and has decided to choose this "unclean" woman to marry, against to the will of Samsons parents and God.
Now, we trust that as the Spirit is stirring in him we can also assume that God has decided that this woman is the right woman for him. But she isn't, clearly he is breaking the law, choosing a woman from the opposing side, from people who are unclean and uncircumcised. This ISN'T what God wanted.
As you will see in the next verse, or if you know the story, you will know that God continues to use Samson. But that still doesn't mean that it was the right and correct thing to do, or that God supported it. Just becuase God uses something does not mean he mandates it, we need to remember that God will work in the mess, the mess of our lives. You see this non stop throughout the Bible. God flips things around for us time and time again. We kept mucking up - He gave us Jesus His son. In response we gave Jesus the cross - He gave us a way of Salavation. That was His ultimate flip for us, but I am sure we could if we wanted, we could think and come up with a few more.
HE WORKS IN THE MESS - THE MESS OF OUR LIVES.
"5 Samson went down to Timnah together with his father and mother. As they approached the vineyards of Timnah, suddenly a young lion came roaring toward him. 6 The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands as he might have torn a young goat. But he told neither his father nor his mother what he had done. 7 Then he went down and talked with the woman, and he liked her.
8 Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. 9 He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass."
The spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him and, as written above, God continues to work in Samson. Even with Samson! Now, I know that is a bit of a turn around for me, just at the top I said he was our hero, now I am saying even God can use Samson. Clearly he isn't doing what God has asked of him, he is not living to what we would see as a honest life that we would expect a "christian" to live as, in other words, a really awful sinner.
I know a lot of people will disagree and argue with this statement, but Jeff Lucas states that Church is a place of vulnerability and immorality. I heard this, and with some recent experiences really saw where he was coming from and agree with his statement. The church is full of people that say "I love you", a place where we "place hands on each other", where some "hug" each other, are close with people in a way we never are in other places in life. Yet we are warned over and over again about the intimacy between men and women, of "inappropriate" friendships, affairs and relationships are forming and coming to a head. Without sharing too much (I was caught up in something similar recently and this really hit me hard hearing Jeff say this) Samson was no different, he had been with women, he had chosen someone who was unclean, someone not suitable. We saw at the beginning of the chapter that he was just walking around, and SAW her. How many of us are guilty or just reacting on our sinful instincts?
Samson continues to move about against God. Even after God gave him the power of the Holy Spirit, he goes back to his mother and father and doesn't tell them about it. As we will see he doesn't tell his wife about it. Some may see this as a humbling feature of Samson, one of our hero's finer qualities. But when you examine the verse see what occurs.
"10 Now his father went down to see the woman. And there Samson held a feast, as was customary for young men. 11 When the people saw him, they chose thirty men to be his companions. 12 "Let me tell you a riddle," Samson said to them. "If you can give me the answer within the seven days of the feast, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes. 13 If you can’t tell me the answer, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes." "Tell us your riddle," they said. "Let’s hear it." 14 He replied, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet."
For three days they could not give the answer.
15 On the fourth day, they said to Samsons wife, Coax your husband into explaining the riddle for us, or we will burn you and your fathers household to death. Did you invite us here to steal our property? 16 Then Samsons wife threw herself on him, sobbing, You hate me! You don’t really love me. You've given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer. I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.
18 Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?" "
Samson was not being humble, he started boasting, indirectly, assuming his authority over the group. Trying to allow them to think that he is more intelligent to them. He then even becomes rude to his wife "I haven't even explained it to my father or mother, he replied, so why should I explain it to you?" 17 She cried the whole seven days of the feast." WOW what a great husband, making his wife on her wedding day cry for then seven days and at the same time mocking and insulting her family by "promoting himself".
Birds are known to attack others birds, they pull their bodies back, bring their feet (talons) forward for an attack; this is often why we see an imprint of a bird in our windows. Even the video below will show you a bird attacking it reflection into a window.
Like the bird we often, like Samson, don't learn from our mistakes. We keeping attacking the thing that is hurting us, which is usually an action we are doing to ourselves. Especially when we are doing what everyone else is doing. We eventually get used to the idea that it is right to do. We often tell ourselves the same lie so much that we end up believing it. How often then is immorality married to deception?
The end of the chapter shows us two things:
"Samson said to them,
"If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle."
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon him. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. 20 And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast. "
Reinforces the idea that he was lying to himself: He had convinced himself that he was the one who was hard done by, the one who was hurt and angry. How dare they mock and abuse him! But as we saw he had many of opportunities, but he didn't listen, how often do we all do that with God? He went to the wrong women, through lustful thoughts and actions. He was secretive to his mother and father, and also disrespected their culture and beliefs, which in turn would have gone against God's commandments. This must have been a character traight of Samson's, only knowing this by the fact that he didn't have any friends. Where does it say in this chapter that he brought his friends to the wedding? The brides family provided him "company". He continues to boast of HIS power and not of God's, he mocks the party, insults his wife.
The second point we see is that he continues to make mistakes, he's hurt from his mistakes, which blow up into worse case scenerios (for himself and God), he continues to call his wife a Heifer ( a young cow, who especially hasn't given birth, with this implying that Samson doubts that she would be able to-truly insulting her womanhood), he then goes and kills 30 people (Are these the gift of company that the grooms family gave?) and left the wedding and his marriage, and gave up on his marriage that God granted him.
Finally, coming to the end. We should at times visit our dead lions. Samson was given the power of the spirit, one that we know from the very first verse is powerful and vicious in strength, he was given this to defend himself against the lion by God. God then filled the lion with Honey. You can see this honey two ways, which i like to think God meant us to see. One, that even through death of one of God's creatures, he will flip the good back to us and make us sweet honey to feed upon. But Honey is also used several times in the bible in reference to sexuality. Keeping in mind the weakness we see in Samson and his love of women through lustful thoughts, this should have been a reminder for him to change his ways. Check the verse again, on his way to marry her he TURNED AND SAW the honey, often we need to turn and see the things that we are doing wrong, we should stay looking forward on God's path, and certainly not allow our sinful thoughts to become boastful points where we can decieve ourselves.
We also need to think about the accountability Samson had. Did anyone stop him and say, yes Samson, God has provided you with sweet honey to eat ( the power of the Holy Spirit) but stop your lustful ways. No, no one did! That is because we see that he was alone. Church is full of immorality as we said before, but it is often also filled with christians yeilding the wrong types of sword: not a sword of the word of God, but a sword of judgement. Some may even become labeling machines ready to judge, labeling you as sinners, this making it more difficult to surround Christians who are feeling isolated with understanding friends who they could be accountable to. We should all make sure that we surround ourselves with investible friends, that we feel joined in heart with. We need to endeavor towards the heart of Christ within ourselves-no one should feel isolated within our communities.
And taking the quote from alfa romeo advert:
" Without heart we would be mere machines"
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