Tuesday, November 20, 2007
By Faith... the Judges, Part 28 of 62
TEXT: "What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32).
IDEA: When we think we are strong, we may be at our weakest.
PURPOSE: To help listeners see that strengths may turn to weakness and lead to temptation and to sin.
In 2 Corinthians 12:10 we read, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”
What do you think the apostle Paul meant by that?
I. Samson’s fall seems to have begun because of his overwhelming strength.
He had several encounters with the Philistines in which by his overwhelming strength he defeated them.
He had tried to marry a Philistine bride. When the Philistines cheated him, he killed 30 of their men.
He had slaughtered a group of them when the Philistines had burned down the house and killed his Philistine wife and her father.
When the Philistines tried to capture him, he took the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand of them.
Judges 16:1 states, “And Samson went to Gaza.” What was “Gaza”?
The Philistines had five major cities: Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. Gaza was a stronghold of the Philistines.
The Philistines in Gaza were well aware of Samson, and he was hated. It would be similar to an American president walking the streets of Baghdad.
Samson deliberately exposed himself to the enemy with a self-confidence and a carelessness in both his spiritual and physical worlds. What was it like?
Role-play the following with sound effects:
Imagine Samson entering the city through its massive gates. He mingles with the crowds in the crowded streets. Descriptions of Samson probably had circulated among the citizen of Philistia. Mothers may have threatened their children that if they didn’t behave, Samson would get them. Tales of his exploits were conversation when men gathered to drink wine together.
People could easily identify him by his long hair and would stand aside for him as he strolled leisurely through the bazaars, haggling with their merchants over the price of cloth. See him watching the storytellers and the snake charmers gathering crowds around them. Then the crowd dispersed as Samson stopped to listen. Perhaps Samson also visited the temple devoted to the god Dagon. He must have enjoyed the attention of the crowds as word spread quickly to the officials that he was in the city (16:2).
II. Samson seemed to rely on his strength to deliver him when he played into the hands of his enemies.
Judges 16:1 states that Samson spent the evening with a prostitute. She probably wasn’t a street-walker but a society courtesan who held a noticeable position in her community (similar to Rahab in Joshua 2).
The fact that the Philistines placed watchers “around” her house implies that she was wealthy and didn’t live in the poorer section where one hut joined another.
Why did Samson do this? Do you think Samson knew he was putting himself in danger?
Samson was probably motivated not only by lust. He was displaying his power and his disdain for his enemies. There was a widely-held belief that a man who ravished another person’s wife or harem showed power over his enemy.
When Absalom tried to usurp the throne of his father, David, his first executive decision as the new king was to have sexual intercourse with his father’s concubines in public view (2 Samuel 16:21). By one bold, daring move he flaunted his power in the face of his enemies.
III. Was Samson’s strength an asset? Or was it a liability?
His strength enabled him to overcome the Philistines, but the same strength caused him to disobey God in Gaza.
Can our strengths contribute to our spiritual weakness?
