The Victory of Samson

The Bible doesn't become less important as church history goes on, or our lives go on the bottle becomes more important because it's the only touchstone we have of what's true of what's God's will, of what is pleasing in his sight to study and embrace what the Bible teaches, even those parts we might find discouraging books like judges, for example, concludes with these words in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it judges is also where we find Israel's most morally corrupt judge Sampson that God you Sampson to carry out his sovereign will. Today I'm Renewing Your Mind, Dr. Robert Guthrie recounts the final moments of Sampson's life, and reminds us why it's vital that we cling to God's word so that we know what is pleasing in his sight. What we return now to the thing finish the climactic ending of Act IV of Sampson's life, we see how he had betrayed the Lord and the Lord had abandoned him for a time, but the Lord never abandons his own permanently. Whatever the sufferings we may plunge ourselves into. And so even in prison. Sampson is not forgotten taken out to be mocked publicly. The Lord hears his prayer we talked about that prayer.

Last time, not a personal prayer of vengeance but a prayer vindication for God's cause and God's people, as well as for Sampson and the Lord hears the prayer the Lord answers to prayer the Lord restores the strength of Sampson and there at that great final moment I he's able to push the pillars of the temple, holding it up out and the whole temple collapses and the Lords of the Philistines and all the people there are killed in the collapse of this temple and the book of Judges itself says in his death he killed more than he had in his life so his death is a greater victory for the Lord brings more glory to the Lord. Then his life had and so this is really a way in which Sampson is foreshadowing Christ.

Sampson is at the same time a sinner in need of Christ but also at various times in the story.

He is a type of Christ pointing forward to Christ and just as the angel at the beginning of the story was consumed in the flame pointing to death, bringing life so here at the end Sampson is consumed.

Death bringing life and again that the song that would be recorded of the Savior seal for his house has consumed him in the real sense that's true here. Sampson himself, and we might think of Psalm 99 verse eight has a as almost a banner verse for the whole story of Sampson, really, in a sense for the whole history of Israel.

Psalm 99, eight says, oh Lord our God, you answered them you were a forgiving God, to them, but in the venture of the wrongdoings.

So God is always loving and always just and we see elements of his justice in the story and we see elements of his love in this story and Sampson dies, he dies as he says in verse 30. Let me die with the Philistines know what is that amount to Sampson dies amongst the uncircumcised Sampson dies outside the land of promise. Does that mean that Sampson dies outside the grace of God and the answer is no, it doesn't because the very ending of the story is important. His family comes to take his body and to bury it in the promised land with his father's and one of the remarkable writings of John Calvin that I read recently was his commentary on Joshua and it's the very last commentary, Calvin wrote.

She literally dictated the end of it from his deathbed and as he gets closer and closer to the end. The commentary becomes briefer and briefer. It's clear he's running out of energy running out of strength and the last number of verses in the book of Joshua are all about people dying and being buried and Calvin sort of rights very briefly about all of these verses. Wherever we read in the Old Testament about people dying and being buried. We are encouraged to think of the final resurrection. Those are his last words on his deathbed. He's thinking about final resurrection and here to when we read about the death and the burial of Sampson or mine should go forward to the final resurrection that awaits him so he was not defeated. He did not fail, the Lord accomplished its purpose but is also the last judge in the book in a certain sense the institution of the judges is shown to be inadequate and the last five chapters of the book of Judges, where there are no judges reinforced that message very very powerfully to say, Israel is all right and Israel is going from bad to worse.

If the judges themselves declined in spiritual fidelity. Now the people are left to themselves and will go from bad to worse and basically there's two big stories told in these last five chapters of Judges we do want to look at it in detail because it goes beyond the Sampson story, but it rounds out the Sampson story in the sense of this is what the book of Judges as a whole is all about.

To show the calamity coming to Israel because of their sin and their disobedience because of the kind of selfish individualism we saw in Sampson from time to time in his life and in the first episode is about Micah and his mother don't know much about Micah. It's a little like Sampson and his mother at the beginning except they dedicate themselves to idolatry and then Micah has not only built an idol and built a shrine, but he wants a priest for a shrine and he finds a Levite from Bethlehem now who's born in Bethlehem.

This is a test to famous people born in Bethlehem, Jesus and David so again were drawn sort of not very explicitly, but implicitly to David, but were also shown how far Israel is wondering so that we discover that the Micah sets up his idol and is shrine and is prettiest and then those are stolen from them by the tribe of Dan in their sinfulness and only right at the end of this episode at the end of chapter 18, or we told who this priestess Levite is that has been turned into a priest of an idol and who is it and the people of Dan set up the carved image for themselves and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses and his sons were priests of the tribe of the downlights until the day of the captivity of the land so they set up micros carved image that he made as long as the house of God was at Shiloh Moses grandson or descendent of waste is the priest of the idol.

This is how bad things are in Israel.

You can't even trust Moses family to obey the law. I mean, when you read this you read two chapters about this Levite is Levite distally like this idolatry. This idolatry this I don't defend then the big reveal at the end of the story. It's Moses grandson. How could that be. How is that possible, but what a sign of decline of faithlessness and idolatry is in the story. But wait there's more. It goes from bad to worse. But before we go to the next thing we need to notice that last word in chapter 18 Shiloh as long as the house of God was at Shiloh. This reminds us that in the whole book of Judges. This is the first mention of Shiloh Shiloh is at this time where the tabernacle of God has been erected. Shiloh is the place where the priesthood established by Aaron ministers. This is where the legitimate sacrifices to the Lord, are offered. This is where Israelites are supposed to go three times a year to worship and there's been no mention of Shiloh, there's no mention therefor of the tabernacle. There is no mention. Therefore, the priesthood, there is no mention of the sacrifices Israel is ignoring this whole institution doing their own thing and again I think the author wants a sort of to gasp at this point and say they're living their whole lives apart from the institution of God there living their whole lives apart from the place where God dwells among them apart from God's gracious provision took off her sacrifice for their sins. All of this has been abandoned by Israel to pursue their own religious interests in their own religious games and their own religious inventions and were meant to gasp and then were meant to pause and ask to ever do things like that make things up with the whole history of Christianity is sadly replete with things we've made up along the way to make us feel better, that God has not instituted and this is I think one of the most glorious aspects of our reformed heritage that reformed Christianity says we only want to do what God has asked us to do. We don't want to make things up. We don't want to improve on the word of God and we don't want just to have an individualism that says I'm going to do things my way really care what God's way is I wanted my way. It was probably a lot easier for Micah to have a little temple in his house instead of having to go to Shiloh after all. Worships worship gods or gods God should be thankful we pay any attention to them at all.

Right, he's lucky I use that word advisedly. No, that's not what God is interested in how we got to St. Israel is sought. If your life is somewhat disruptive three times in the year because you have to travel a journey of some distance to worship me. Maybe that'll make you think about me more and think about my will and my word more but what Judges is saying is having started off well. Israel without leader over the mall has just drifted aside as if this isn't bad enough to find Moses grandson, a leader of idolatry. We find something even worse in the last three chapters and it starts again with a Levite who has a concubine from Bethlehem. The author doesn't want us to lose sight of where we ought to be thinking about. They'd all been a lot better off if they stayed in Bethlehem, that sort of part of the message. Perhaps, and he travels with his concubine and the story so terrible you hardly want to even repeat it. She is raped to death in Gambia of Benjamin and the Levite demands justice and is not getting justice so he cuts her body into 12 pieces and sends the pieces to the 12 tribes of Israel, saying, look on the pieces of this corpse and realize nothing has ever been done so hideous in Israel. It may have been done in Sodom and Gomorrah by pagans, but it's never been done among the people of God and what we do about it and then Israel is sufficiently struck by this that they do indeed gather and they demand that Benjamin support the rest of the tribes in punishing give you and Benjamin refuses. Benjamin insists that they will defend Gambia and Israel finds itself on the verge of civil war. How Benjamin can have been so foolish as hard to tell but you know there is a there is a saying many of heard of blood is thicker than water. Know the origins of@what it means is family connections are more important than baptismal connections. Blood of family is thicker, more connecting more important than the water of baptism. So what it says is many people act not on the basis of what their religion would require of them, but in the interests of their family and that's what Benjamin does in the rest of Israel gets so angry that they swear of Val that when they're victorious over Benjamin. They'll never give to Benjamin any of their daughters as wives what the really pledging is the extinction of Benjamin there to wipe the tribe out and so this war takes place. Benjamin is defeated. There's a terrible price to pay in Benjamin and when Israel is finally victorious. There left with question auto. What now because we've taken a vow we have to keep the bow, but the Val is a foolish one because God doesn't want Benjamin to dial how we can to deal with this and again we hear little echo from earlier in the book of Judges we think of just those foolish vow that led to the death of his daughter and to the ending of his house and out appears another foolish while nobody ever learns anything from history, that's one of the frustrating things about being a historian is nobody seems to learn very much from history and now Israel was in this mess, so they come up with what when I was young used to be called a Rube Goldberg invention. How many people heard of Rube Goldberg, Rube Goldberg would come up with crazy machines of great complication to accomplish a simple purpose and that sort of what Israel does here. We can't break the Val we don't want Benjamin to die out so will lead the Benjamin boys come to Shiloh and kidnap women who were there worshiping. This is this is ancient dating of a very peculiar sort and at least it has the advantage of working I does finally preserve Benjamin.

They survive, but what a mess. What a mess. What a tragedy one or has been visited upon Israel so that they've turned on one another. They've murdered one another to defend murderers and now have to result to this crazy kidnapping scheme to try to keep a hold tribe from dying out its disaster is spiritually disastrous. Its nationally disastrous and you notice once again Shiloh is mentioned Shiloh's mentioned, the place where the priests are the place where the sacrifices are the place where the proper worship is they should have been going to Shiloh along. That's part of the problem and they all going to Shiloh as the Lord commanded them to go to Shiloh Abiomed huge difference, but we don't read of one of the judges going to Shiloh. We don't read of any of the people going Sean saying they never did is just I think part of the point of the book Shiloh hasn't had the role it ought to have had amongst the people got the law of God hasn't had the role it ought to have had amongst the people of God and all is coming crashing down and the book ends then with this amazing final sentence. Judges 2125 in those days there was no king in Israel.

Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

There was no king in Israel. Now, what's the what's the response of the reader.

When you read that sentence. Our response has to be.

Doesn't it. We need a king. We need a king and we need to repent of just doing what's right in our own eyes and that's very much what the next books of the Old Testament will be about the coming of the kings first Israel doing what's right in his own eyes and choosing a king. That's tall and handsome like the nations he looked good so I hadn't really gotten over the eye problem to great comfort. All of us who are vertically challenged and that being tall doesn't necessarily make you a good king and the that's the lesson that Israel learns in a very painful way and then finally find fun comes. David is not a perfect king, but the man after God's own heart, the one who really will begin the process of the movement to the final revelation of the Savior and and so this is really a marvelous book. The book of Judges, not marvelous because it's always inspiring or always telling happy stories, but it's a book that I think is so spiritually challenging and spiritually relevant to the times in which we live because it challenges us to think.

Are we who are Christians and have the privilege of knowing king Jesus, are we serving.

I think one could argue that a lot of the history of the church has been about bishops and popes and ministers who set themselves up in opposition to King Jesus, not may be intentionally on their part but that's the effect of what happened. They really establish their own religion instead of the religion that King Jesus came to teach is why we as Protestants have been so insistent about the importance of the Bible. The Bible doesn't become less important as church history goes on, or our lives go on the Bible becomes more important because it's the only touchstone we have of what's true of what's God's will, of what is pleasing in his sight.

It's the only standard we have to measure the desire of our lives and conclude whether it's true or not true pleasing to God or not pleasing to God.

And that's why it is so tremendously important for us to turn to the word of God to all the word of God to parts that are easy to read and parts that are difficult to read parts that inspire and parts that frustrate or disappoint parts of warn us to take a hard look at ourselves and our churches to be sure that we're living for the Lord, according to his word, and that's critical. And so Sampson. I think really is. As John Milton put a day, a mirror of our fickle state and a challenge to us. He challenges us in a way not to be like him, but he also challenges us in some ways to be like him and it's being like Sampson that is particularly highlighted in the book of Hebrews is the book of Hebrews that enables us to say with certainty. Sampson is an example of faith. Sampson isn't a failure. Sampson isn't lost he is in the bottom. He's a man of God, a very flawed man of God, but a man of God and so our last session. Next time is going to be on. What does Hebrews say about Sampson and how does Hebrews use Sampson to encourage us to be more faithful and more careful in living a Christian life and so will look forward to coming together to look at that final session next when we read about Sampson's life. We can't help but think that for the most part he was a failure.

He pursued his own interest, and in doing so he made a mess of his life. Even the violent nature of his death shocks us. Yet Sampson was God's instrument of rescue from the Philistines. The message we just heard is from a 10 part teaching series on the life of Sampson by Dr. Godfrey goes into great detail to show us that Sampson was a man of incredible physical strength, but debilitating moral weakness. We likely to have the series is contained in a two DVD set. Contact us today with your donation of any amount he will be glad to send it your way, you can make your request online@renewingyourmind.org or you can call us with your gift at 800-435-4343 think you also find table talk magazine to be a helpful resource if you'd like to further study on Sampson, then the judges of Israel.

There is a growing library of back issues online with thousands of articles available to you in a quick word search of Sampson brings up several resources, including an article by Dr. RC Sproul from November 2016. Subscribers to table talk are able to read every article online play shall receive the magazine in your mailbox every month.

Learn more and subscribe table talk magazine.com Sampson's life indeed was full of sin and tragedy as Dr. Godfrey pointed out that when we look in the New Testament book of Hebrews we find out that Sampson is right there in the hall of faith during the life of Sampson judges in the think well maybe Sampson wasn't worthy of the Lord, but the Lord sees things differently and Sampson for all his faults, was a sinner saved by grace.

Dr. Godfrey helps his view Sampson story in the light of the new covenant tomorrow here on Renewing Your Mind