Samson # 1
- revdavid9
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
A lesson in how the purposes of God prevail in our lives despite our failures
As we start this new Message Series, some people might be thinking, “oh yeah, I was told the story of Samson in Sunday School”
Let me say this politely, no – Samson is NOT a story
A story is something that is made up
A story is fiction
A story is not true
One of the reasons that many young adults don’t go on with the Lord is because when they were children in Sunday School, they were told Bible ‘Stories’
Bible Stories about Noah, about Jonah, about Samson, and stories about Jesus and when those children got older and became young adults, they didn’t believe those ‘Stories’ any more
Why?
Because young adults know that a story is made up, it's fiction – it's not true
Santa Claus is a story, it’s made up, it's fiction - it’s not true
Star Wars is a story, it’s made up, it's fiction - it’s not true
The Lord of the Rings is a story, it’s made up, it's fiction - it’s not true
Whereas Samson is NOT a story, it’s NOT made up, it’s not fiction – it's true
Let’s be reminded, Psalm 119: 160a ‘All of Your Word is truth’ NLV
Today we are doing an Introductory Message in the Book of Judges which records the history of Israel from the time of the death of Joshua to the time when Samuel the prophet appointed Saul to be the first king of Israel
Joshua 1: 1-2; 1 Samuel 10: 1 (1360-1084 BC)
The Book of Judges surveys the leaders that God raised up to defeat the enemies of Israel – these leaders were called judges
Judges 2: 16 ‘Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers.’
There is a common pattern throughout the Book of Judges which is summarized in Judges 3: 7-11
Israel sinned against God by worshipping images and idols of other nations
Judges 3: 7
God punished His people by giving success to Israel’s enemies
Judges 3: 8
Israel called on God to save them
Judges 3: 9a
God raised up a judge to save Israel
Judges 3: 9b
God mightily empowered the judge to defeat Israel’s enemies
Judges 3: 10
Israel had peace again and the judge dies
Judges 3: 11
The Book of Judges surveys a total of 12 judges that God worked through for the purpose of honoring His promise to Abraham that He would protect and bless Abraham’s descendants so that they would be a blessing to the nations of the world
Genesis 12: 1-3
All 12 judges served the Lord as Old Testament Christ Types that were raised up by God to save His people from their sins
Judges 3: 15; Matthew 1: 21; Judges 6: 34; Matthew 3: 16; Judges 5: 31b; Matthew 11: 28-29
The last judge and the most prominent Christ Type of all the 12 judges was Samson whose prophetic likeness to Christ is quite remarkable!
Hebrews 11: 32
Like Christ, Samson’s supernatural conception was announced to his mother by an angel
Judges 13: 3 Luke 1: 26-30; Matthew 1: 18
Like Christ, Samson was set apart by God to live a holy life
Judges 13: 4-5 Luke 1: 35b
Like Christ, Samson was supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit
Judges 13: 25a Luke 4: 14a
Like Christ, Samson was rejected by his own people
Judges 15: 11-12 Matthew 27: 25
Like Christ, Samson was mocked and abused by those who condemned him
Judges 16: 21, 25 Matthew 27: 27-31
And like Christ, God’s purposes were fulfilled in His death
Judges 16: 28-30 John 20: 30
Now, let’s begin - Judges 13: 1 ‘Again the Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord handed them over to the Philistines who oppressed them for forty years.’
So, who were the Philistines - Originally, the Philistines came from Egypt and eventually they settled in a narrow coastal strip north-west of Egypt all the way to Gaza
Genesis 10: 14 ‘Egypt was...the ancestor of the Philistines’ CEV
Exodus 15: 14
The location became known as Philistia
The Philistines were living there before the time that Abraham arrived to take possession of the Land which at that time was called Canaan
Genesis 10: 19; Genesis 12: 1-9; Genesis 20-22; Genesis 26
(Canaan was the son of Ham, who was the son of Noah, and whose descendants settled in what later became the Promised Land
Genesis 9: 18)
Now, jumping forward to the 5th Century BC (500-401 BC), the conquering Greeks borrowed the name Philistia and renamed the whole Land Palaistine and during the Roman Period (146 BC – 476 AD) in 132 AD the Emperor Hadrian conquered the 2nd Jewish Rebellion (led by Shimon Bar Kokhba) and renamed the Land Syria Palaestina - He did this to mock the Jews and destroy their sense of ‘belonging’ in their own homeland
After the Roman Period the Land was conquered by Arabs, the Crusaders, the Mameluke Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire who all used variants of the term Palaestina to name the Land
And in 1948 following the Holocaust of the 2nd World War the Land was repossessed by the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and was renamed The Jewish State of Israel
Today those who continue to mock the Jews persist in calling the Land Palestine, and the people that falsely claim that the Land belongs to them, call themselves Palestinians
Finally, let’s go back to our introductory verse, Judges 13: 1
Why did the Lord ‘hand’ His people over to the Philistines?
Because God used the Philistines to punish Israel when they sinned against Him Judges 10: 7; 1 Samuel 4: 2; Ezekiel 16: 27; Amos 9: 10a
But, when the people of God called out to the Lord to save them, He had mercy upon Israel and raised up a mighty judge called Samson who despite his failures would fulfil the purposes of God in his life and save Israel
Judges 14: 19 Samson killed 30 Philistines in Ashkelon and took their clothes to repay a debt
Judges 15: 8 Samson killed many Philistines in revenge for killing his wife and father-in-law
Judges 15: 15 Samson killed 1,000 Philistines who came to arrest him
Judges 16: 26-30 In his last act of deliverance for Israel Samson killed about 3,000 Philistines
Lord let this new series of Messages remind us that despite our failures your purposes will prevail in our lives – in Jesus wonderful Name we pray, AMEN
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