A Contradicted Man, Samson, I Am Part 5

Posted on September 17, 2015 by America's Keswick in Freedom Fighters

A Contradicted Man, Samson I Am. Part 5

“Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.” Judges 16:27-29 (ESV)

The first recorded words of Samson are, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now go get her for me as my wife.” I don’t know old he was when he made this demand of his parents but in this day and age if my son, who is zoning in on 16, came up to my wife and I and made that demand…I would have to pick him up off the floor after his mother let him have it. You see my wife, Kathy, and I made a promise to God that we would break the chains that held us so that our children would come to know Christ. Now we may not have had the visit by an Angel of the Lord, like Manoah and his wife did, but we both were done with Gaza/Egypt.

Samson makes this journey to see this Philistine beauty that is “right in his eyes” and kills a lion. After a few days Samson and his parents make a return trip to visit this beauty when Samson catches a glimpse of the carcass of the lion he killed. He sees honeycombs and then scraps out the honey from the dead lion. So far up to this point, Samson has skimmed violating the Nazirite Vow that he had bestowed upon him from conception. He touches the dead and is not keeping himself separated, but the funny thing here is that God allows these things to occur so that He could seek an opportunity against the Philistines and their fish god, Dagon. Interesting!! I wonder if Samson understood his purpose.

Things kinda settle down after Samson sees a jawbone, kills a whole bunch of Philistines and realizes that his thirst can only be quenched by God who, by the way, opens up a hollow place for him to drink the water that renews his spirit. But then we turn the page to read, “Samson went to Gaza, and there saw a prostitute, and he went in to her.” And now an ambush is in place to capture him because it has been decided by the Philistines that Samson needs to be killed. But it doesn’t happen that way does it? Instead Samson lies in wait, pulls the city gates and their posts from the ground, drags them up a hill in front of Hebron…and then comes Delilah.

I believe that the Delilah we face in our lives can be renamed SIN. It looks like a lot of fun until it takes us farther than we want to go, keeps us longer than we want to stay and ultimately costs more than we can afford to pay. In Samson’s case it cost him his eyesight. In the light he saw things as a Nazirite but in the dark he saw things as Samson. I suspect that at the end of Samson’s life the grapes of the field clouded his thinking and that allowed his spiritual enemies to seize the moment. But to the credit of his story, God intervenes and Samson’s hair grows back and that God uses him one last time against the Philistines.

Samson had one moment of deep repentance and reflective spiritual understanding and God renewed him. I believe that the Lord allows us to wander to bring us to the same moment or moments in our lives even though we may have to bear the scar of His displeasure with our sin. I know I may have my scars that were done by my own disobedience, but praise be to Jesus Christ for winning a victory that cost Him more than we can afford. It is my prayer this morning that we all can be disciplined enough to keep that covenant with our eyes beyond what Job did concerning other women. I pray that he try our eyes away from the Gaza/Egypt in our lives and look upon the work of the Cross. And then may we see truth!!! Chris Hughes is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy and blogs weekly for Freedom Fighter. You can email him at cphuges515@verizon.net

Daily Bible Reading: Amos 1-3; John 7:1-27

Think About This: “See the fatal effects of false security. Satan ruins men by flattering them into a good opinion of their own safety, and so bringing them to mind nothing, and fear nothing; and then he robs them of their strength and honour, and leads them captive at his will. When we sleep our spiritual enemies do not. Samson’s eyes were the inlets of his sin, (Jgd 1:1) and now his punishment began there. Now the Philistines blinded him, he had time to remember how his own lust had before blinded him. The best way to preserve the eyes is, to turn them away from beholding vanity. Take warning by his fall, carefully to watch against all fleshly lusts; for all our glory is gone, and our defense departed from us, when our separation to God, as spiritual Nazarites, is profaned.”  Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary

This Week’s Verse to Memorize: Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. Psalm 32:10