Samson: The Accidential Deliverer Judges 14: October 30, 2016

Samson: The Accidential Deliverer Judges 14:1 15.20 October 30, 2016 Introduction: During the 1960 s and 1970 s a series of highly popular films were made starring the late, great Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau. These comedies centered around Clouseau, a French detective who was terribly inept and incompetent at his job as police investigator. During his hunt to track down the bad guys, Clouseau repeatedly knocks down priceless vases, falls down stairs, mistakenly clubs fellow police officers, and mispronounces words, all to great comedic effect. Yet in spite of his blundering klutziness, Inspector Clouseau still ends up catching the bad guys by the end of the movie, although it is accomplished far more by accident and luck than by any skill or competence on his part. I thought of Inspector Clouseau as I was preparing for this morning s sermon on Samson, not because Samson is clumsy or funny he s not! but because like Inspector Clouseau, he manages to get the job done in spite of himself. For a man appointed to be a judge over Israel, Samson carelessly and cluelessly did just about everything wrong and yet in spite of this, God still used him to accomplish his will. Samson turns out to be a deliverer, but only an accidental deliverer, one whom God used in spite of his serious moral failures and significant character shortcomings. So let s consider this tragically flawed and morally reprehensible final judge of the book of Judges by opening your Bibles with me to Judges 14, which can be found on pg. 214 of the pew Bibles if you are using one of those. We re going to be looking at chapter 14 and 15, which relate a series of events that follow one another like falling dominos. Samson s decision at the very start of the passage will begin a series of events that will eventually lead to the slaughter of a thousand Philistines by the end of chapter 15. But as we walk through the story, we re going to observe just how sinfully self-centered Samson is. God may have used Samson to accomplish his will, but he certainly isn t an example for any of us to follow. So we ll begin with our first point which is 1. Samson the lustful (14:1-4) Follow along as I read v. 1-4 of chapter 14. Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife. But his father and mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. Our first introduction to Samson finds him catching sight of a Philistine woman who he finds attractive and decides that she s the one he wants to marry. Now we need to 1

remember that the Philistines are the enemy; they re the ones oppressing the Israelites. Samson should be fighting them, not marrying them! But Samson doesn t care. Even when his parents try to impress upon them that he should marry a nice Israelite girl, Samson dismisses them saying, Get her for me, she is right in my eyes. For Samson, his personal desire is the only thing that matters. He finds this Philistine chick to be hot and he wants her, regardless of what God or his parent have to say about it. Doesn t matter if she is a pagan Philistine: Samson wants what he wants. It s alarming to hear that his judge who was to save Israel from God s punishment for them doing that which was right in their own eyes is himself doing what is right in his eyes. So perhaps a quick point of application: Beware of unbridled lust, especially in terms of the question of marriage. All that glitters is not gold. I don t care how hot she is or how cute the guy is, don t marry an unbeliever and for the love of all that is good, listen to the wisdom of your parents if they raise words of caution about your chosen fiancé. Doing what is right in your own eyes when it comes to picking a spouse is a sure way to gain short-term pleasure at the cost of long-term misery. Your earthly mother and father and your Heavenly Father have much wisdom: don t be a fool and ignore it. But having said that, it comes as quite a surprise to read v. 4 doesn t it? We re told that his father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. Now that doesn t mean we should imagine that God was forcing Samson to do something he wouldn t have otherwise done. All throughout Samson s story, along with the other judges we ve encountered thus far, he makes his own choices that he s responsible for. God s not forcing Samson to find this woman attractive, but he s using it to accomplish his will, even if Samson is oblivious to it. The author of Judges is reminding us that even as Samson goes off the rails in his sin, God is still active to bring about his purposes to fruition. God is not responsible for our sin, but he does stand as sovereign over our sin, using it along with all things for our good and his glory. Well, Samson s parents give in to his request and so we need to move on to the next aspect of Samson s character, which is that of 2. Samson the irresponsible (14:5-9) Please look back in your Bibles at v. 5-9. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes. After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. 2

I know it s easy to focus on the strength of Samson, such that he was able to kill this young lion with his bare hands, but it s what transpires afterward that s important for us to notice. A few days after he kills this lion, he comes across its carcass full of honey. He scrapes some of the honey out, eats it, and then gives some of it to his parents to eat. Now the problem with this is that Israelites would become ceremonially unclean by contacting a dead body. Furthermore, Samson was a Nazarite and he especially was to have no contact with a dead body, so his actions here are grossly irresponsible. He carelessly disregards his Nazarite vow and then makes his parents unclean by giving them honey to eat without telling them where it came from. You ve come to a low point in your life if in your sin, you have complete disregard for others. Many people can try to justify their sin by saying, It s not harming anyone. Even if it doesn t, it doesn t make the sin right, but at least the person is trying to limit its effects. But it s another thing to say, I don t care what hurt my choices cause others, provided I get what I want. This is perhaps most pronounced when it comes to the sin of stealing. When you steal, your sin very much affect those from whom you steal. Or take gossiping: you re willing to tear down another person s reputation for the sake of you making yourself look better. Samson s actions here are irresponsible towards his parents: he s causing them to become unclean, but it doesn t bother him one bit. He wants what he wants, regardless of how it may affect others. Well, this then sets up the events that will transpire at the wedding, so let s look at yet another aspect of Samson s sinful character with our third point 3. Samson the greedy (14:10-14) Look in your Bibles again and follow along as I read v. 10-14. His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes. And they said to him, Put your riddle, that we may hear it. And he said to them, Out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. And in three days they could not solve the riddle. Whether you re Gollum or Samson s companions, it seems everyone is a sucker for a good riddle competition. Since Samson was an out-of-towner, it seems groomsmen were selected to accompany him during the wedding feast. But Samson sees in these men an opportunity to make some easy money. He wagers thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes that they can t answer his riddle. Since clothing in the ancient 3

world was a valuable commodity, this was a significant reward for Samson to receive if he won. And he had every reason to think he would win. His riddle was not one that any of them would have known. The whole incident with the honey in the lion carcass was known to Samson alone, and since bees don t normally make their hives in the carcass of an animal, they wouldn t even by lucky guess be able to get it right. In short, it wasn t a fair riddle. Samson was taking advantage of these men. In his greed, he saw a way to gain easy wealth in the form of clothing by giving them a riddle they couldn t possibly solve. It was a money-grab, pure and simple; a deal that was fixed in his favor from the start. The Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil and this passage is an apt illustration of just that. Samson would cheat these men by making an offer he knew they had no chance of winning just to gain wealth. But perhaps we should focus on our own hearts. How much to we love money or material things that we would lie, cheat, or steal in order to gain them? Were we in Samson s shoes and saw a way to make easy money at the expense of some strangers, would we do it? Again, Samson is best used by us not as a hero to follow but as a cautionary tale. Have we sunk so low in our sin that like Samson we do what s right in our own eyes, even to the extent we knowingly hurt others by unfairly cheating them? Well, Samson s ploy backfires on him, so let s see how his companions outfox him by moving on to our fourth point 4. Samson the hot-headed (14:15-20) Please follow along as I read v. 15 to the end of the chapter. On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us? And Samson's wife wept over him and said, You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is. And he said to her, Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you? She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle. And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In hot anger he went back to his father's house. And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. 4

It seems these thirty men weren t as clueless as Samson thought. They see what they are up against and play a trick of their own. They threaten to kill Samson s wife and her entire household if she doesn t tell them the answer to the riddle. That provides plenty of motivation for her to somehow coax the answer out of Samson, which she eventually does by pressing him about it over and over. Not that I advocate nagging your spouse, but it can work and this time it does. They get the answer and at the very last moment, on the seventh day as the sun is setting, they answer the riddle correctly. As you can imagine, Samson s not too happy about this. First, he gives them a rude reply saying, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle. I don t care what culture you re from, referring to your wife as a heifer is a huge insult. Samson knows she s the only one besides him who knew the answer, so it s not too difficult to figure out who they got it from. So in his anger, he insults her by implying she is nothing more than a fat cow. Very gentlemen like of him! But his hot-headedness extends beyond mere words to actions. He ll give them their winnings all right, but it won t come out of his pocket. Samson hurries down to a town called Ashkelon, kills thirty Philistines, plunders their clothing, and returns to pay his debt to the men. Then he huffs off in hot anger back to his father s house, leaving his wife to assume Samson has abandoned her, and so she is given in marriage instead to his best man. This is like a soap opera long before there were soap operas! Samson s reaction is driven by anger, pure and simple. In anger her insults his wife, in anger he unjustly kills thirty men just to gain their clothes, and in anger he leaves the wedding feast to go home and pout over his failed riddle attempt. Scripture warns us that in our anger, we should not sin. Anger is a valid emotion, but often we can become angry about things we have no right to be angry about like Samson or our righteous anger leads us to say or do unrighteous things. It s something we all have to be on guard for, and we can certainly see in Samson what the terrible results of unbridled anger can do. So then, one chapter into it and we have Israel s judge characterized as a lust-filled, irresponsible, greedy, hot-tempered man. Sounds like a great role model! But alas, we re only getting started. Let s move on now to three more characteristics we can add to our list that are found in Samson s continuing adventures in chapter 15. So our fifth point concerns 5. Samson the vengeful (15:1-8) After Samson has some time to cool off, he goes back hoping to continue on as if nothing has happened, but he s in for an unpleasant surprise. Please follow along as I read v. 1-8 of chapter 15. After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat. (I m assuming bring her a young goat was the ancient Israelite s equivalent of a box of chocolate!) And he said, I will go in to my wife in the chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her 5

instead. And Samson said to them, This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines, when I do them harm. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. And he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow, and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. While previously Samson was angry because he was out-smarted, this time he s out for vengeance. Obviously Samson wasn t the sharpest crayon in the box if he thought after his stunt he could just come back into town and pick up as if nothing happened. Unfortunately for him Samson returns to find his wife married off to his best man! So in vengeance, he catches 300 foxes, ties torches to their tails and sets them loose on the Philistines grain supply and olive orchards. In an agricultural society such as this, this was a very serious crime. Samson destroyed their food crops they were depending on. This isn t a cute little prank: without the food they were depending on, they could easily starve. So then we perhaps can understand the way the Philistines responded to this by blaming Samson s father-in-law for setting him off. They kill the man and his daughter which in turn drive Samson to avenge their death by striking them down. Once again, this is hardly the behavior of a godly man. We re to trust God for such matters: Vengeance is mine says the Lord. But Samson is far from a godly man. Anything done against him is met with brutal retaliation. Samson s motto is, I will make them pay for what they did to me. Once again, Samson is no role model. If anything, Samson illustrates for us what not to do. Vengeance is not ours to take. We re aren t to make people pay for the wrongs done to us. Instead, we re to entrust ourselves to the true Judge who will see that all wrongs are righted, either by eternal judgment or through the cross of Christ. Faith is demonstrated by entrusting your grievances with others to God s just hand, not taking matters into your own. Samson s behavior here is an act of self-centered vengeance that has only escalated the conflict. And to that end, we move on now to our sixth point where we discover 6. Samson the boastful (15:9-17) After enacting his vengeance, Samson fled and hid out in the wilderness to avoid what I m sure he knew would be aggressive retaliation by the Philistines. But instead of being found by the Philistines, it s the men of Judah who come and seek him out. Look now at v. 9-17. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? They said, 6

We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us. Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us? And he said to them, As they did to me, so have I done to them. And they said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines. And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. They said to him, No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you. So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. And Samson said, With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey have I struck down a thousand men. As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi. At this point, Samson s personal quest for vengeance has set off a war between the Philistines and Israel. In hopes to avoid open warfare, the men of Judah decide to turn over Samson to the Philistines rather than fight them. Now considering the big picture, this is pretty pathetic on Israel s part. They playing the part of a cowering dog who is afraid of getting hit by its master, the Philistines. They should be fighting against the Philistines but instead their armed men surround Samson in order to hand him over to them. So then, the Israelites are afraid to fight the Philistines and Samson their judge isn t much better, fighting them only for the sake of personal vengeance. And once again we see Samson s gross character flaws, this time in terms of his arrogant boasting. When the men of Judah come to him to inform him of what trouble his antics have caused his fellow countrymen, all he can say is, As they did to me, so have I done to them. No apology. No sympathy for their plight. Just a boast that he gave to them in vengeance what they first gave to me. But then once he is handed over and breaks his ropes binding him and kills 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey, his reply is a boast in song of his accomplishment. This is a far cry from the song of Deborah and Barak after their victory back in chapter 5 where they gave praise to God. No such thing for Samson. It s always been about him and so this song repeats the same theme we ve seen since we ve been first introduced to him: Samson has only a mind for himself, whether it is what his eyes want, what his greed desires, what his pride demands in retribution, or what his lips can boast of. 7

But there s one more aspect of Samson s character we need to consider before we leave him this morning. Our seventh and final point concerns. 7. Samson the demanding (15:18-20) Look one last time in your Bibles as I read v. 18-20. And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. What a bossy little brat! The only time we find Samson praying in these two chapters and what does he do? Implies God ought to go and give him something to drink! As if God were his waiter and he ought to be thankful Samson went through all the trouble to kill those Philistines on his behalf. Yet, amazingly God answers his request. Samson is given the water he essentially demands and lives to judge Israel for twenty years. So what do we make of that? Simply this: every success Samson enjoyed was done by God s grace alone. After reading through the past two chapters, was there anything you saw there that merited God s kindness to him? Not one bit! Samson was a man driven by lust, unconcerned about anyone but himself, greedy for gain, prone to angry outbursts, ready to take vengeance on those who wronged him, full of prideful boasting in his accomplishments, and was ungratefully demanding. All that Samson received, all the success he had against the Philistines, was only received by God s grace. In spite of his utterly despicable character, God mercifully used him to begin the work of Israel s deliverance from the oppression of the Philistines. Samson s story is a story of the astonishing grace of God that would use such a man to accomplish his will, not in any way because of his character but quite in spite of it. But perhaps we shouldn t be too surprised. Who among us doesn t know personally of what it is to be driven by lust and greed, to be ungrateful and demanding, to be quick to anger and prone to seek vengeance? God s grace knowns no bounds, and thanks be to God for it, lest where would a man such as I be today? Samson, while not an example to follow, is an illustration of the depth and magnitude of God s grace towards sinners, even one s as vile as Samson. Samson s story is best used as a contrast to better recognize God s amazing grace, not just toward him but to all of us sinners who need God to use us and save us in spite of ourselves. Conclusion So as we close, give thanks for the grace of God shown to you, oh sinful man or woman, and rejoice that God isn t quick to give us what our sins have earned. And be glad that Samson was not God s final word when it came to Saviors. Samson failed as a deliverer whereas Christ succeeded in every way. Never giving into the desires of the world, Jesus resisted temptation perfectly. Instead of seeking vengeance of those who hurt him, Christ 8

turned the other cheek. When captured and turned over to his enemies, he suffered silently without boasting, allowing himself to be humiliated for our sake. Instead of demanding his rights, Christ did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but took on the form of a servant to save his enemies. Rather than forsaking his calling, Jesus perfectly accomplished what the angel who announced his birth said he would do: he delivered his people from their sin. Samson failed, but God in his grace succeed through Christ Jesus our Lord. Let s pray. This sermon was addressed originally to the people at Grace Fellowship of Waterloo, IA by Pastor Rob Borkowitz. Copyright 2016. 9