The Strength of Samson

Judges 13-14. 

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Transcript

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Hey, good afternoon, everyone. This is Chapman Boyles, and welcome back to Soldier for Christ Podcast. So this is episode 25 now. I mean, it's amazing. This is a milestone right here. It's incredible. And I'm going to be preaching today, talking to you all today, about the strength of Samson. Gosh, yeah, he's probably one of my favorite characters, honestly, in the entire Bible. The reason I'm I'm picking Samson is that this is kind of a special week in the army in the 101st. And we are doing like kind of like a soldier, a lot of soldier events and soldier appreciation and family appreciation, all that kind of stuff. And Samson is, I would call that he is the quintessential soldier in so many ways, so many ways, because he he just he just personifies everything that I think soldiers go through in their entire lives. And I want to pick him because he, to me, is one of the most intriguing characters in the entire Bible. He gives me a lot of hope. Samson is, I mean, be honest, he's one of the most flawed characters in the entire Bible. But it just shows us that God can God always uses, by the way, flawed people. Like he always uses people that really, you know, are not what I would call super qualified and just just not um perfect in any sense of the any sense to do. I mean, he uses those kind of people to do the most amazing work possible. Um, he makes extraordinary out of the very ordinary, or honestly, the very broken. And I love that about the Lord. I love that God does, He takes weak things and makes them strong. And that is really like the story of Samson. So this is another message uh to give you hope and encouragement and and to make you realize that the Lord has a great plan and purpose for your life. Um, Samson, of course, uh being an amazing guy, really, uh, the history of him is an ancient history. So he is from the book of Judges, and it's actually Judges 13, if you want to follow with me. But he is about a he's about 3100 years ago altogether now. So he's a lot, you know, in the ancient time, ancient days, 3100 years ago, uh back in ancient Palestine, ancient Israel, uh, when the Jews were living uh in the book in the time of the judges. And what are they, by the way, when you read that we go through the book of Judges in the Old Testament, um, what you are reading essentially is you're reading about these different men and women, actually, too, that judged or kind of had a trite tribal leadership in a sense over the entire nation of Israel for a certain period of time. And judges were different uh in the respect that oftentimes God used them to conquer the enemies of the Jews as well. They often warred with the Philistines, right? The the Philistines, which were the sea people, the sea warlike people that were always the mortal enemies of the Jews, um, in some ways still are, right? Um they have different names today. But anyway, so the the the ancient Jewish uh nation and the ancient Philistine nation constantly in conflict, constantly fighting each other, and constantly hating each other as well. Um, and oftentimes, you know, God used the Philistines oftentimes uh to punish the Israeli nation uh when they began to slip and go back into the ways of idolatry and sin and decadency and grieve the Lord. Because I want you to always remember that the Lord is a jealous God, he is a God that wants you bad, he wants your love and attention, he wants your your your faith, your your your your fidelity, he wants to have genuine relationship with you. I keep you know hammering that again and again because that's so important to know. Um and if he if he can't you know speak to you directly, then uh he'll move you in other ways sometimes, and sometimes in difficult ways, right? So God will discipline the ones he loves and oftentimes uh completely uh make us eat the humble pie when he really wants to get us get a hold of our attention. And that's what he did oftentimes with the the the nation of Israel. Um so okay, so Samson. Let's go into him a little bit here. So who is this amazing guy, Samson? And by the way, this is gonna be uh, I think at least a two or three part series because there's a lot of things on back about him. Um so Samson, the name Samson actually means like the sun or face like the sun. It's an old, old Hebrew name right here. Um actually Shimshon. Shimson is his name in Hebrew. Um he was probably a very handsome guy, right? Probably maybe one of the most handsome men that ever lived. Um, but it's absolutely the strongest human being in the history of the world. Why? Because he had a supernatural strength that came directly from God Himself. Um, terrifyingly strong. Like, I mean, would absolutely crush any CrossFitter bodybuilder today. Not even a question, because he had, you know, supernatural strength. Uh his parents uh were from the tribe of Dan. Uh his father, his name was Manoah, which is funny because that name actually literally means calm and peaceful. So his father, and he was actually a very calm, gentle, kind sort of man. Uh his mother's name is not mentioned in the Bible. Um, but I think Samson, in some ways, was more like his mother than his father, because his mother was a little bit more uh radical and ambitious in some sense. So um anyway, his parents uh were um were unable for a long time to have children. His mother was barren for a long time. And they had a visitation from, I believe, from Jesus. So oftentimes on the Old Testament, uh, there are these moments where Christ, who is not named at this point, but he he appears, and one of these moments is when he actually so give you an example. Like there was a moment where Christ, we believe, appeared to uh Joshua before the uh the nate, the nation of Israel is about to invade uh the promised land and conquer and take it over. Um and there's a moment here in in Samson's parents' life where it says the angel of the Lord. So oftentimes when you read that that that phrase angel of the Lord, that let it's a pretty bad English word, English later, but what it means is that the voice of the Lord or the messenger of the Lord, which oftentimes we believe I believe is was was Jesus, right? Because Jesus always does the work of his father, and he is the physical manifestation of God. Um, when God shows up, he shows up through through his son. So he is uh we we so we believe that Jesus had a moment with the parents of Samson. And let me just read, I'll start in 13. I'll probably skip around a little bit. I really wanted uh we're gonna go hard into chapter 14 today because I really want you to understand the strengths of Samson, right? So his, you know, what made him a great man in God's eyes. And I'll talk about next time the weaknesses of him, too, because he definitely had both. But it's important that you know that God used this extraordinary guy in all of his strengths. Um, because we all have, but by the way, this is very important you know this. Every Christian has strengths and weaknesses. And God will, and by the way, God gave you both, and God will always use your strengths and your talents and your abilities that he gave you for his purpose. So it's like the apostle Paul says, you know, we are like there's a body with many parts, and all the parts of the body, you know, make up what the body is. And he's talking about the church. He says there are some of you that are like arms and legs and so forth, and they're all important. They're all you can't you can't function without the entire body. Um, so it's it's important that you we also understand that don't ever think of yourself as being useless or not valuable to God, even if you're not, let's say, a great public speaker, or you have some insecurities, or you have some weaknesses, or whatever. Um, God can use you in extraordinary ways. If you the the fact of what you have to have is you have to have faith, you have to trust the Lord, and you have to realize that he has given you abilities and strengths, and a lot of those strengths and abilities will not manifest, will not actually come out until they are tested, until they are brought to a point where you will have to use them. Okay. All right, but let me go into the story of Samson here. So this is this is Judges chapter 13. I'm gonna take it from the top from verse 1. It says, Again, the Israelites say what is evil into the Lord's sight, and the Lord handed them over to the Philistines who oppressed them for 40 years, long time. In those days, there was a man named Manoah from the tribe of Dan, and he lived in the town of Zorah. His wife was unable to become pregnant, and they had no children. The angel of the Lord, so again, that interpretation there, the voice of the Lord, appeared to Manoah's wife and said, Even though you have been unable to have children, you will soon become pregnant and give birth to a son. So be careful, you must not you must not drink wine or any alcoholic drink or eat any forbidden food. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut, for he will be dedicated to the Lord as a Nazarite from his birth, and he will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines. So, what's very important you know about Samson is that even before he was born, God had a plan and purpose and predestine him for greatness to fight the Philistines, to rescue Israel, and he had a special vow he was supposed to take before the Lord, the Nazarite, the Nazarite vow. What was the Nazarite vow? So God took particular men like Samuel and Samson and so forth, and he instructed them to be dedicated to God, uh, of course, spiritually, but also physically, to show a dedication to the Lord, to the entire nation. It sort of set them apart. Okay, the Nazarene, Nazarite vow had three stipulations to it. One of those was simply that they could not cut their hair. So you can imagine how long Samson's hair uh honestly must have been. Um so he could not cut hair, and he had to never drink alcohol or even eat anything that could have uh could be fermented. Um so yeah, so no hair, so I'm sorry, so all lots of hair, no alcohol. And the last thing was he could not touch any dead bodies or dead carcasses at all. Okay, so had to keep the hair long and beautiful. Uh, he had to make sure he was no alcohol whatsoever, and nothing of nothing that was dead or decayed or carcass at all. Okay. So, and those were things that both protect them, their health and so forth, and then of course make them distinct in the whole nation of Israel and set them apart. By the way, as Christians, you also have a vow in a sense to the Lord, right? Which means that when what God sets up, what He sets you apart or makes you holy from people, that means that your language, your lifestyle, okay, your purity, uh, all of that is it's all different, it's all set apart from the world, okay? Christians, I mean, should look so distinctly different from non-Christians or non-believers. Christians should be filled with love and patience and kindness and goodness and self-control. Their language should be different, their attitudes should be different. So these are all just, you know, we still, in a sense, are dedicated to God, right? And it's true, before we were born, by the way, God has already pre-designed. God knows your destiny, he knows the plans, he knows everything about your life before you even existed at all. He has set you apart, he has planned a purpose and a destiny for your life, just like he did with Samson right here. Okay, so I'm gonna continue on. So verse six, it says the woman ran and told her husband, A man of God appeared to me. He looked like one of the angels, terrifying to see. Terrifying. She's used the word terrifying, because the angels are actually, and God himself is truly amazing and terrifying to see. I didn't ask where he was from, and he didn't tell me his name, but he told me you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you must not drink wine or any alcoholic drink or eat any forbidden food, and your son will be dedicated to God as a Nazarite from the moment of his birth until the day of his death. Then Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, Lord, please let the man of God come back to us again and give us more instructions about the son who is to be born. God answered Manoah's prayer, and the angel Lord appeared once again to his wife as she was sitting in the field, and her husband Manoah was not with her. So she quickly ran and told her husband, The man who appeared to me the other day is here again. Notice she says man, right? So he looks like a man, okay? Um, distinct, no, no, no angel wings on him. He looks distinct like a man, like the son of like like that's why I believe this is Jesus here. Manoah ran back with his wife and asked, Are you the man who spoke to my wife the other day? Yes, he replied, I am. So Manoah asked him, When your words come true, what kind of rules should govern the boy's life and work? The angel of the Lord replied and said, Be sure your wife follows the instructions I gave her. She must not eat grapes or raisins or drink wine or any other alcoholic beverage or eat any forbidden food. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please stay until we can prepare a young goat for you to eat. I will stay, said the angel of the Lord, but I will not eat anything. However, you may prepare a burnt offering as a sacrifice to the Lord. Manoah didn't realize it was the angel of the Lord. Okay, so oftentimes, by the way, this is interesting that um this, I believe, of course, as I mentioned before, this is Jesus talking to them. They don't realize that this is, in fact, uh the angel of the Lord, or this is this is actually God in the flesh right here, because oftentimes uh angels can actually, as we we, as the book of Hebrews says, we can entertain angels in disguise, that they can walk around just simply looking like people. Um and Christ, of course, right now is sitting at the right hand of the Father of heaven. But oftentimes when he showed up from the Old Testament, he looked just like a human, like a man, until he revealed himself in his divine form, right here. But we believe now, why again I believe this is Jesus is that this particular angel of the Lord is allowing them to sacrifice to him and to the Lord. So, and angels do not allow, they do not allow people to worship them or to sacrifice to them. But this particular angel of the Lord, this messenger of the Lord, this voice of the Lord, is allowing that. And this is a very curious thing here. It says 17, then Manoah asked the angel of the Lord, What is your name? For when all this comes true, we want to honor you. And he said, 18, Why do you ask my name? said the angel of the Lord. It is too wonderful for you to understand. So that is why I really believe that this is Jesus talking, because Jesus has not revealed his name yet. The name Jesus, of course, means God saves, right there, or God's salvation. That's his human name. But his divine name is the name that we don't even know that the language of heaven is, is too uh is too hard for human comprehension to understand. Okay, so uh any anything, and I mean we we the the scriptures and all the parables that Jesus said, they've been really dumbed down to us on a human level so we can understand. Okay. But if we're really talking about heavenly things, even the language, even the names of heaven, um, there's no language on earth that can describe those kinds of names or things or treasures or sights and sounds, smells, and all that kind of thing of heaven. It's just too beyond compreh our comprehension, right there. So that's why, again, I truly believe that this is Jesus. 19. Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered it on the rock as a sacrifice to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife watched, the Lord did an amazing thing. As the flames from the altars shot towards the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the fire, so went up with the flames. And then Manoah, then Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell with their faces to the ground, and the angel of the Lord did not again appear to Manoah and his wife. Manoah finally realized it was the angel Lord, and he said to his wife, We will certainly die, for we have seen God, right? Oftentimes people would say that in the Old Testament because um, when God when Moses asked to see God's face, he said, No man should see my face, for they will certainly die right there, right? And God in his in his truth and his true divine form. Um, and that was God the Father, we believe, speaking to Moses right there, because yes, you cannot see the Father without coming through the Son first. Okay, you cannot face him, you can't even look at him because he would surely die in all with all his power and holiness. Um, but the angel, I'm sorry, but the wife said, if the Lord were willing to kill were going to kill us, he would not have accepted our burnt offering and grain offering. He would have appeared to, he wouldn't have appeared to us and told us this wonderful thing and done these miracles. So his wife's saying, you know, toughen up, like we're not going to die uh because we've we've given this offering to the Lord, and he appeared to us and he did this wonderful thing. So obviously we have a plan and purpose, and a lot of that is to have a son and to name him Samson. So I like that. His his Samson's mom was a pretty, pretty tough woman right there, and kind of told her husband to buck up, right, and get tough. 24 it says, and when the son was born, uh, she named him Samson, okay? Meaning like the sun or beautiful like the sun. And the Lord blessed him, blessed him even at birth. And as he grew up, the spirit of the Lord began to stir him. I love that. That means that the God began to move in his life even from a very young age, right there, and and awaken him to spiritual things so that he could understand God. And when he lived in, and then he lived in Menedin, which is located between the towns of Zora and Eshkel. Okay, now I'm gonna go into 14, because this is some of the most important, this is probably one of the most important chapters of the whole life of Samson right here. And this is very this is the quintessential stuff that I want you to understand about Samson's strength. So it says here, one day, chapter 14, verse 1, one day when Samson was in Tima, one of the Philistine women caught his eye when he returned home. He told his father and mother, a young Philistine woman and Tima has caught my eye. I want to marry her, get her for me. Now, this is pretty amazing because he has no idea who this woman is, never met her before, doesn't even know her name, but she's very apparently a very good-looking woman because it caught he when she caught his eye, and he just immediately wants to marry her. So this is part of what we will really expound on next time. Samson has great weaknesses, and one of his great, great, probably his greatest weakness was simply his eyes. His eyes. The lust of the eyes. He loved beautiful women, he loved women in general, and this was a serious problem for him. Because his three, his mother and father objected, saying, Isn't there even one woman in the whole, all of our tribe amongst the Israelites that you can marry? They asked, Why must you go and marry a pagan Philistine to find a wife? But Samson told his father, get her for me. She looks good to me. That's just it's very much like a soldier right there. She just get her, she looked good. His father and mother, and this is very interesting here, is father and mother didn't realize that the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines who ruled over Israel at that time. What does that mean right there? Now, that that is a very important little bit of scripture right there. That means, as the Apostle Paul would probably explain it like this, that all things work together for the good of those that love the Lord and are the called according to his purpose. So we're gonna see what I would call a wedding from hell, a terrible wedding, an absolute disaster because it's just a disaster. And the interesting thing about this is can God use disaster in our life? Can he use brokenness? Can he use devastation? Can he use divorce? Can he use um I mean, a heartbreak? And can he use this big mess in our life? Yes. This is this so the most amazing thing about God is that nothing in our life is wasted to God. Okay. Um even our failures will be learning lessons and tools and everything that God will use in developing us to create character and faith and wisdom and and and and even in Samson's case, vengeance and and and all that. It's all this is the most mysterious, amazing thing about the Lord to me. And in fact, a lot of people will ask me often, like, why do why do bad things happen to good people? Why does God allow sin? Why does the devil even exist at all? Okay, really good. I mean, really hard, but very good and very fair questions here. The reason that God allows the devil to exist, allows sin, allows bad things to happen to people right there, is that he creates opportunities for you to have faith. And he creates opportunities for his grand purpose and design for all of humanity and the world, right? Um, God is not a God of chaos, he's a God of order. He allows bad things to happen so he can show and prove himself to you, and so he can test your faith. Oh, and I know that a lot of people sometimes don't like hearing that, right? They don't like, you know, like like I don't want to go through the fire, I don't want to go through the pain or the divorce, or I don't want to go through the misery and so forth, I don't want to go through that testing, you know, like Abraham being test. I don't I don't want to go through all the storm and the giants and so forth, but. God does that. It's part. I mean, can can love be real if it's not tested? Right? Can faith be genuine if it doesn't come to a genuine test? I mean, when you go to school and you and you study, uh, you study because eventually you're going to be tested on the material because they the teacher wants to know, did you do you know this stuff or not? Okay. But in God's world, your test is always a test of your faith. Do you say yes or no? Do you do you choose Jesus or the world? Okay. Um so he's he uses things. He uses e the devil is still God's devil, and he uses this. So he's about to use, I mean, I'm telling you, a disaster here in Samson's life. Uh, because Samson is not making a good, I mean, I'll be honest, he's making a terrible decision. Terrible decision. Um, I mean, his parents know it, but he's still going to make it. So it says here at verse 5, it says, as Samson and his parents were going to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. At the moment, at that moment, the Spirit of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. It's amazing to me. Just took his, took this the mouth of this lion as the lion was trying to bite him and jump on him. Just took his jaws and just ripped the jaws apart. He did it as easily as it was for a young goat. Like it was absolutely nothing at all. But he didn't tell his father and mother about it. Now, this is interesting because God allowed Samson walking to Timnah on his going to his wedding. He allowed this young lion coming to come into his path. Okay, as he's walking through a very nice vineyard and going through this, it's interesting because he's not supposed to drink wines or even eat grapes at all. So he's walking through, he's walking through a vineyard where they're making wine. A lion comes out and attacks him. He doesn't realize his strength, how strong he is, right here. He doesn't know how powerful he is until God's Holy Spirit comes upon him. The moment God's Holy Spirit comes upon him, faced with this test with a lion that is about to kill him, he rips the lion apart. And it kind of I think it kind of freaks him out a little bit because he doesn't tell his mom and dad about it. He's just kind of stunned that he literally took the the the jaws of a lion and just ripped him apart right there. And he's not injured, his hands are not bloodied up. Um he's he's he's he he is doesn't this is amazing about the Lord, he doesn't realize who he is unless he's faced with a lion. Okay. God will put lions in your path. Hear me real good. They'll roar at you, they'll attack you, they're gonna they're gonna get nasty, and he does that because you won't realize the strengths you have until the lion attacks. Okay, just like we talked about with David and Goliath. Goliath was the best thing that ever happened to David. Why? Because it was the opportunity for him to show his faith and prove his strength. And all the people saw that, and all the people realized, and they were like, wow, like David has a heart of God, God man after God's own heart. Same thing with Samson here. He doesn't know how strong he is. The lion jumps upon him, he rips him apart. And then he realizes that God has given me this power, this strength, okay, that he's going to use, by the way, as well. Now, is God gonna allow bad things to happen to you? Yeah, he will. Is God gonna allow a heartbreak in your life? Yes. Probably more than likely. Will he allow financial disaster? Probably will. Will he allow sickness? Yes, he probably will. Why? Because it will make you that that is what will make you strong. God is developing your character, your faith, and the opportunity for you to continuously grow stronger. So faith, as Jesus always describes it, is like a mustard seed, very small. It starts at very, very, very small, but it grows to a tree. It produces fruit. It is it becomes something powerful and strong over a long duration. You know, I've been I've been preaching a long time, been a chapter for 10 years. I didn't start this way. I didn't start preaching every Sunday. I didn't start as a senior pastor. I didn't start uh you know doing all the programs I do. I didn't. I I God had to develop me along the way with all my failures, with all my weeks, with all these things. He developed my faith so that today, because of all the trials and tribulations, all the tests, all the pain I've been through, I can now preach directly, I can talk direct to you and have the and doing this podcast and the sermons and everything else in a senior pastor because it's part of his great, amazing process. Okay, that's why God allows bad things to happen to good people. Okay, I beat that up enough. Let's go on. Says seven, when Samson arrived at Timnah, he walked, he talked with the woman, and he was very pleased with her. Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of a lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. He scooped up some of the honey in his hand and he ate it along the way. Now, why was that a problem? Well, of course, he was not supposed to touch dead things. Now, this is a this is a carcass of a lion. This is, of course, a dead lion. But the curious thing is that there is a there is a swarm, there's a there are bees living inside the carcass and lion, and they made, they made a home and they made a they made some honey, honeycomb. And Samson, probably hungry. Um, he thought, because you know, sweet honey was a big deal back in that day. He grabbed some honey from the carcass. So he touched the carcass, which he wasn't supposed to do, and he took some honey, and it says here, and he scooped some of the honey into his hands, he ate along the way, so he's enjoying it. And then he gave some to his mother and father, and they ate it. But he didn't tell them they had taken the honey from the carcass in the land, because he was not supposed to do that. Now, this is important because this is this is kind of a symbol of his life here. Samson's strength is going to produce a sweetness to others. Okay, he is a sweet blessing, he will be a sweet blessing to many, but he he's doing it in a way that he's not supposed to. He's not supposed to touch the carcass. He does it anyway. Samson is an enigma. Samson is going to be a wonderful blessing on everybody's life. He's going to defeat the Philistines and so forth, as we're going to see right there. But he is an enigma because he's he's a retrobate. He's he's not doing it the way God, I would say that the way God has uh desired him to do it. Um, but nevertheless, God has still had plans and purposes that nobody can thwart and break in his life right there. Um so he's doing things in an unorthodox way, a way that is not uh frankly is just sinful and disobedient, but he is still, nevertheless, a blessing for everybody in his life. And that is very important you understand that just because you've messed up and you have failures in your life and you've lived a very unless they unorthodox life, and a lot of things you probably couldn't even tell people in your life has happened to you, that's okay. God is going to use you as a blessing to many. As long as you have faith, as long as you love Jesus, as long as you are willing to do your best to obey him every day, God can God always uses broken people. If God only used perfect people, then nobody would ever serve the Lord and nobody would ever be saved, right? And Jesus wouldn't have to die for us because there are no such thing as perfect people. God only uses broken people. Okay, Tam, let's read on. So as his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timno as a custom for all the elite young men. And the bride's parents saw him, and they selected 30 young men from the town to be his companions. Okay, and Samson said to them, Let me tell you this riddle. If you solve my riddle within these seven days of celebration, they really like to party back on that day, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and and thirty sets of festive clothing. But if you can't solve it, then you must give me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing. All right, they agreed. Let's hear your riddle. So he said, Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. Now, this riddle of a course is the riddle of what Samson had done with the lion. The whole thing is about the lion, that the lion was the eater who came to eat him. But him being the strong man defeated a lion, and out of that, out of that uh victory came the bees, right? And then the honey. So out of the strong, out of Samson came something sweet. By the way, this is kind of curious because Samson's entire life is a riddle. Like I said, his entire life's an enigma. And his entire life is all about being an eater, being someone the devil wanted to, well, the devil wanted to eat him up, but that he ultimately would be triumphant, victorious because he was strong, and he would be a blessing to his entire nation, right there. The devil was not allowed to destroy him, not allowed to eat him because God had a purpose for him, and he being the strong man, especially strong in his faith, much more than his physical strength, was a blessing to everyone right here, to the nation right here. So it's both the riddle about the lion and the riddle about his entire life, right there, because again, Samson's life was nothing but a riddle. Now, three days later it says, when they were trying to figure it out, they could not, on the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Okay, now it took by the way, these these marriage ceremonies took a long time, ancient days, a long time. It was a party for a long time before they were ever uh before the nuptials were ever uh let's just say done. And at the end of this party, um they, I'm sorry, on the fourth day of this party, they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband to explain the riddle for us, or we will burn down your father's house with you in it. And this is getting pretty, pretty serious and dramatic. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor? So Samson's wife came to him in tears and said, You don't love me, you hate me. You have given my people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer. Samson said, I haven't even told the answer to my own mother and father. He replied, Why should I tell you? And she cried, so she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day, he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men. Hmm. So I want you to notice something about that right there. Samson was so strong, so physically strong, but he could not bear a woman's tears or a woman's manipulation or a woman's emotions. And it it got to him. This this betrothed wife, almost wife, tormented him, nagged the crap out of him. It was made made him so crazy that finally he just like, okay, fine, fine. Okay, I'll just tell you so you stop bothering me. Okay, he couldn't handle, he couldn't handle that. Um, and 18 says, before the sunset on the seventh day, when the men of the town came to Samson with their answer, and they said, What is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion? And Samson replied, If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my riddle. That's the way of saying, if you hadn't messed with my woman, which is funny because he called her a heifer. I would never call my wife a heifer now, but she said, if you hadn't plowed with my heifer and messed with my woman, you wouldn't have figured it out. Then the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. Now notice whenever Samson gets a little angry, or a lot angry, um the Holy Spirit comes upon him, and he went down to the town of Ashkelon and he killed 30 men, took their belongings, gave their clothing to the men who had solved the riddle. But Samson was furious about what happened. He went back at home to live with his father and his mother. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson's best man at the wedding. Oof. That's bad. So what happened here was that Samson got so mad that these guys manipulated his wife that he killed 30 Philistines from the city of Ashkelong and just took their bloody clothes and gave them to the man. By the way, I guess, you know, fine linen clothes and that kind of thing was a big deal back in ancient times. Big deal, of course, big deal. Um God used this to provoke Samson, used his entire marriage. Now he wasn't actually entirely married, just lose his entire wedding to provoke him. Okay, and then you will see further provoke him. Um, but Samson, his his marriage ended up in disaster, his own best man. That's not that's a that's a that's a deep betrayal, in my opinion, right there. His own best man ended up marrying his wife. That's that's that's awful. Um, and he goes and lives with his parents for a while. So I'm gonna I'm gonna pause here because this is there's so much good stuff we're gonna get into in the 15 and 16 and so forth. Um here's what I want you to take away from today. Okay. Was Samson strong? Yeah, yeah, he was. He was very, very strong. He was set up by the Lord predestined before he was born, just like you, just like me, to accomplish God's purposes. Okay, you have to know you did not choose God, God chose you because God loves you. God has a plan, a purpose for your life. One of his great plans and purpose for your life is heaven. Heaven is for real. You're going there. If you believe in Christ as your son, as your savior and your Lord, that's your home. Not this earth, okay, not your house. No, nope, no, that's no, that's it. This is a temporary residence, and don't get caught up on all this stuff. Do not get caught up in the world or the money or the economics or the politics or whatever, because it's all going away. Okay. It's as temporary as a lily in the field, as a as as smoke in the air. That's how that's how quick your life is gonna be. I mean, it's so quick and fast. It's it's it's crazy fast. Um, your home is heaven. Your family is the family of God. Okay, that's first that's the first thing you gotta know about God's plan for your life. And then, secondly, you have to know that this time on the earth, although it is very important, has also been predestined or planned out from God. Every step you take, good and bad, God planned it out. Okay. Even your worst things, maybe your worst addictions, your worst fears, your worst heartbreaks, your worst divorce, whatever, whatever. God has set all of it up. Anybody asks, you can, you know, people always ask why, why, why? Because it's a test of your faith. He is creating character, he is creating wisdom, he is creating opportunities for you to live for him. God uses all your failures to make you the man or woman of God that you are today. And not that you should go back and repeat those failures, by the way. The Lord wants you to learn from failure to become great in his sight. Okay. If you want to become great in God's sight, you have to have great faith, great obedience, okay? Great faith, great repentance, great faith, great fidelity. You have to say no to the world, yes to Jesus every time, right here. God uses broken people. Samson is a broken guy. His strength was when the lion came, when hard times came, when the lion roared, when death came a knocking, and it looked like an impossible situation. I mean, is I I would never want to fight a lion with my bare hands, I'll tell you that. Um, I wouldn't want to find a lion with a with a gun, to be honest. Uh Samson didn't run away from the lion, he just took his hands and ripped him apart. Okay? No fear. Faith is always the opposite of fear, by the way. No fear of the lion. Absolutely none. Tore him apart. And then used even the blessing of the lion, which was the honey, the sweetness that came from the lion, to feed his parents. Because Samson's life would be a blessing because of his incredible faith, his incredible strength, okay? God wants to use the faith that he's given you, the strengths that he has given you, the abilities he has given you to bless others. That's the story of Samson's strength. He is a riddle, no doubt about it, okay? He is out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet. Even his anger, God used. By the way, God can use your anger in the right ways. If you are angry with your sin, the evil of the world, and the injustice and so forth, that's good. You should never hate people. Hear me, real good. There's an old adage love the sinner, hate the sin. And that's actually pretty accurate. That's pretty good. Uh, as a Christian, we are not to hate anyone, even our enemies at all. We are to love and forgive every single person, okay? But should you hate sin and evil? Yeah. It's okay to hate sin, especially the sin in your life. Okay, that should always gross you out right there. Don't touch sin, don't even go near it, okay? Don't flirt with it. Um, Samson, unfortunately, yeah, he didn't learn that lesson right there. He always messed with sin right there. But out of the eater came something to sweet. I'm sorry, out of the eater came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. God is gonna make you strong. He's gonna make you to the point where you are a blessing for others, just like Samson was. Okay, I'm gonna pause it there. I went to I went kind of long today. God bless you. Let me pray for you. I hope this was an encouraging story about Samson, his early life right there. But let me pray for you. And then next time we're gonna continue on this exciting story for actually for two more times. I'll make it a three-part series altogether. Let me pray. Thank you, Lord Christ, for a wonderful day. Lord, uh, bless us as we continue to grow in our faith. Thank you, Lord, that you give us all these opportunities, even our worst failures, Lord, and our setbacks and our our pride and our our weakness and our divorces and the pain and the suffering and the trials. And Lord, I know we know that all things work together for those that love you, Lord, are called according to your purpose, just like you called Samson. I pray that everyone listening today would know that you love them. You have a plan for them, that they have to trust you and they have to walk towards you, Jesus, and obey you, Jesus, and not be afraid of the lions and the giants and the storms and their life, Lord. Help us, Lord, to make wise decisions, stay away from sin, to live holy, set apart lives unto you, Jesus. We give you all the honor and glory and praise and praise in your holy name. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. God bless you. Talk to you next time. Thank you. Bye bye.