Judges 16: Even on the Worst Day... It's Not. Over.

The “Real Housewives” of the Old Testament… that is what the Book of Judges could called. It could also be called “The Tiger King of Canaan.” Chuck Swindoll says the “primary message of Judges is that God will not allow sin to go unpunished.”” I completely agree. The key lesson to be learned is Don’t Be Stupid, follow God. The cycle of sin stinks. Don’t Do Life Your Way. Do Life God’s Way.” In the pages of the book of Judges, we have the most outrageous stories in the Bible. This is what happens we people abandon the Lord and go their own way.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Mission
• 0:59 Community Updates & CTA
• 2:10 Setting the Stage: Judges Theme
• 3:16 Gaza Night & Gate Miracle
• 4:35 Delilah’s Plot Begins
• 6:20 Deception Cycles and Arrogance
• 8:10 The Vow, The Hair, The Truth
• 10:10 Fall, Captivity, And Blindness
• 11:20 Hair Grows, Hope Returns
• 12:20 Temple Showdown & Final Prayer
• 13:35 Redemption, Consequences, Mercy
• 15:07 Takeaways, Prayer, Closing Charge

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Hey everyone and welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. In this podcast, we will be breaking down the Bible one chapter a day. Whether you are a new believer or have been following Christ for a while, we believe that you will learn something new and fresh every single day. So thank you for joining us. Let's get into breaking down the Bible together.

SPEAKER_01: 0:23

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Judges chapter 16. And there were so many titles I could have done with this one. We're going to call it Even on the Worst Day, it's not over. That was the nicest one I could come up with, and it really is the best one. We could have also said the worst haircut ever. Could have talked about if you play with fire, you're going to get burned. You're going to talk about there's a reason why nobody likes Delilah. There's so many things. But we're just going to jump in and we're going to enjoy this one. This is very interesting. But before we do that, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Also, if you are listening on the podcast, leave us a five-star review. That is the best way for us to get the word out on both of those. We are unashamedly on the road to 1,000 subscribers, and we are almost halfway there because of your help. So thank you so much for spreading the word. Got so many things we want to do. And I want to hear from you. Go to the Rallying Point for All of Us, which is the Facebook discussion group on the Facebooks, and it's called Bible Breakdown Discussion. And I want to hear from you. I want to do some interviews when we get to that level about just how to interact with God's Word at different stages of life. Got this idea. I'd love to get maybe our children's pastor and talk about how to engage with your children, with God's Word, how to engage with students, you know, middle school, high school students with God's Word, how to engage with God's Word as a man of God, as a woman of God, as an empty nester, just all of that. And I'd love to know from you what would be some interviews you would like for us to have as it relates to a lifestyle of reading God's Word. Because, man, I'm gonna tell you, the more we dig, the more we find. And it's so great to learn from one another, which is what we're doing every day as we listen to the podcast. And so if you got your Bibles with me, you want to open them up to Judges chapter 16, we're gonna finish the story of Samson today. Now, if you haven't been with us the past couple of chapters, you know, Samson was one of the many judges that were born because, you know, the overall theme of Judges is don't be stupid, follow God. And the reason why the nation of Israel needed to remember that is because they were not following God. And they were constantly getting into this cycle of sin. And so God would raise up a judge to get them out of the mess and hopefully not get back into the mess, but they would invariably get back into it over and over again. And finally, there's this guy named uh Samson who is born. And from the very beginning, he is a unique individual, and God is using him, but he's unique. And last time we were together in the last chapter, he is killing a thousand people with the jawbone of a donkey, and he's bragging about it, and God is using him, and it said that he judged the nation of Israel. So he kept the nation of Israel on the path toward God for 20 years. But now, as you're getting toward the end of 20 years, he's getting a little bit older now. You would think he's getting wiser, not so much. We finally find him in this moment that he is now unfortunately famous for the haircut that changed it all. So let's jump into this. We're gonna read God's word, stop along the way as we do, as we just enjoy God's word together. Here we go, chapter 16, verse 1. One day Samson went to the Philistine town of Gaza, and he spent the night with a prostitute. Pause. Lord help us. Right out of the gate. Listen, what the Bible describes, it does not prescribe. Samson's got 99 issues. Okay. Let's just keep reading. Verse 2. Word soon spread that Samson was there. So the men of Gaza gathered together and waited all night at the town gates. They kept quiet during the night, saying to themselves, When the light of the morning comes, we'll kill him. But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up, took hold of the doors of the town gate, including its two posts, and lifted them bar and all. He put them on his shoulder and carried them all the way to the top of the hill across from Hebron. Now, this would be once again a miracle, because it would have been way too strong for one person to carry. Verse 4. Sometime later, so we're talking probably years after the fact, you know, at least, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the valley of Sorek. The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, Entice Samson to tell you what makes him so strong and how he can be overpowered and tied up securely. Then each of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. So Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me what makes you so strong and what it would take to tie you up securely. Samson replied, Well, if I were tied up with seven new bowstrings that have never been dried, I would become as weak as anyone else. So the Philistine rulers brought Deliah seven new bowstrings, and she tied Samson up with them. She had hidden some of the men in one of the inner rooms of her house, and then she cried out, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. But Samson snapped the bowstrings as a piece of string snaps when it is burned by a fire. So the secret of his strength was not discovered. Afterward, Delilah said to him, You've been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now, please tell me that you can be tied up securely. So Samson replied, Pause. Okay, now listen. This woman just tied him up in a way that he said, This is how you can kill me. This is how you're going to be able to find a way so that I can lose my strength. She does that. He breaks out of it, and then she starts to pout and he tells her how to do it again. Like, if you keep playing with fire, eventually you're going to get burned. If somebody tried to kill me, I'm going to leave. But either he was just so taken with her or so arrogant at this point that he really didn't care anymore. So here we go, verse 11. Samson replied, Ah, if I were tied up with brand new ropes that had never been used, I would be, I'd become as weak as anyone else. So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them. The men were hiding in the inner room as before, and Delilah cried out again, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. But again, Samson snapped the ropes from his arms as if they were thread. Then Samson or Delilah said, You've been making fun of me and telling me lies. Now, tell me how you can be tied up securely. Yet again, she's trying to kill a fool. And Samson says, Ah, if you were to weave the seven braids of my hair into the fabric on your loom and tighten it with the loom shuttle, I would be as weak as anyone else. Now remember, the reason why he's got 99 miles of hair is because he has a Nazirite valve from his birth, and that is, he's not supposed to ever cut his hair. So this guy has never cut his hair, and he's at least 30, 40 years old at this point, at least 40, probably. So man's got some long hair. So while he slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into fabric, and then she tightened it with the loom shuttle. Again, she cried out, Here we go. Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. Samson woke up, pulled the back of the loom shuttle, and yanked his hair away from the loom and the fabric. That's supposed to be really, really hard to do. Then Delilah pouted, How can you tell me I love you when you don't share your secrets with me? You've made fun of me these three times, and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong. And she tormented him with her nagging day after day after day after day until she was sick, until he was sick to death of it. Finally, now instead of saying, hey, maybe this isn't this relationship isn't gonna work out, nope. Finally, verse 17, Samson shared his secret with her. My hair has never been cut. In other words, the Nazirite vow. That's what it was a symbol of. If I, for I was dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth, if my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else. Now, pause. If you remember a couple of days ago, we said there were three main things that he couldn't do. He couldn't drink anything from grapes, he couldn't touch a dead body, couldn't cut his hair. Well, you know, it's likely at all of these feasts and stuff he was at, he probably drank some alcohol or anything with grapes. Number two, we know from that lion a few chapters ago, he touched a dead body. This is the final one that holds this uh promise he made to God intact. So it wasn't his hair, it was what it symbolized. And so finally he realizes, or she realizes this is the truth. So Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth. So she sent for the Philistine rulers and said, Come back one more time, for he has finally told me his secret. So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands. Delilah lured Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and she called uh to it, she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him. Then she cried out one more time, Samson, the Philistines have come to capture you. And he woke up and he thought, I will do as before, and I will shake myself free. But he didn't realize the Lord had left him because he had betrayed that promise he had made to God. So, verse 21, so the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and forced to grind the grain in the prison. But listen to this, verse 22. But before long his hair began to grow back. Wow. God was renewing his promise to him. So here we go, verse 23. The Philistine rulers held a great festival, offering sacrifices and praising to praises to their God, Dagon. They said, Our God has given us this victory over enemy Samson. And when they saw, the people saw him, they praised their God, saying, Our God has delivered our enemy to us. The one who killed so many of us is now in our power. Half drunk by now, the people demanded, Bring out Samson so he can amuse us. So he brought, they brought him out from the prison to amuse them, and they had him stand between the pillars supporting the roof. Samson said to the young servant who was leading him by hand, place my hands against the pillars that hold up the temple. I want to rest against them. Now the temple was completely filled with people. All the Philistine rulers were there, and there was about three thousand men and women on the roof who were watching as Samson amused them. Then Samson praised to the Lord, prayed to the Lord, Sovereign Lord, remember me again, O God. Please strengthen me this one last time. With one blow, let me pay back the Philistine, the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes. Then Samson put his hand on the two pillars that held the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, he prayed, Let me die with the Philistines. And the temple crashed on the Philistine rulers and all the people. He killed more people when he died than he had during his lifetime. Later, his brothers and other relatives went down to get his body, and they took him back home and buried him between Zora and Eshtol, where his father, Manoah, was buried. Samson had judged Israel for 20 years. Wow. What an ending to a complex man. What I love about this story, and to me, the the number one takeaway from this are so many things, and we could have a lot of fun talking about whatever you do. Don't get your hair cut while you're asleep. You know, uh, we could do all of that. But what I love about it is Samson did the worst things, right? I mean, he made all these promises to God, and promises were made for him, and God had used him in great ways. But then he turned his back on those promises, and the unfortunate result was devastation. He lost everything. What I love about that story, the Bible said while he was in the lowest moment of his life, his eyes have been gouged out, he is in the prison of his enemies, he's grinding grain, in other words, he's going around and around a circle until he collapsed every day. Worst moment ever, his hair began to grow back. So, in other words, the promise started to grow inside of him again. And what I love about that is maybe you're listening to this, and maybe there was a time in your life when you made promises to God. God, I will never, God, I will always. And through time, trouble, unmet expectations, difficult experiences, a thousand things. You didn't keep your promise. Maybe you didn't do what you said you were going to do, and devastation was the result. And really you would find yourself maybe not in the worst place you've ever been, but not a good one. You're you're really struggling with some things, and maybe there's even that thought of, well, I've messed up now. Well, I've I had my chance and I've I've blown it, and there's there's never gonna be another chance. Do you know? I wonder if Samson thought that. I wonder if for a while, as he was, you know, couldn't see and just going around and around, he thought, Well, I've I've lost my chance. Well, I've I've embarrassed my family, I've I've lost my my job, my role, my title, my respect. I've lost everything, and I've I've most importantly, I've I've let God down. And I wonder if he thought that, and he thought that and thought that until one day, as he got up for another grueling day of shame, he felt something on his shoulder. And he thought maybe it was a bug or a fly, and so he goes to, you know, dust it off and realize, no, it's not that either. It's his hair. And for the first time he remembered God's faithfulness. He remembered the whole time that it wasn't him who had done all those things, it was God through him that had done all those things. And now he had hope. And I want to tell you that God is with you more than you can imagine. And God is not a God of the second chance, He's the God of the third chance and the fourth chance and the fifth chance and the 999th chance and all of that. And so He is never gonna give up on you. Yes, you may go through seasons where you have to pay penalties and pay prices for the sins that we do, but even then God is with you, and God is slowly growing you and wanting that healing for you. So my encouragement for you today is to not give up because God hasn't given up on you. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you, God, that you are with us even in our darkest moments. Yes, Lord, maybe maybe the reason why we are where we are is absolutely our fault. But what I love about you is that you never stop working in our lives and making something out of us. Thank you for being with us and for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Don't forget, the reason why all of these dumpster fires keep happening is because Judges 17, verse 6 says, In those days, Israel had no king. All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes. So the lesson for us is don't do life our way, do life God's way, God's way. Or you might find yourself with your eyes gouged out in a temple of Dagon pushing up against a pillar. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Judges chapter 17.