“HAVE YOU EVER FAILED AT SOMETHING YOU HAD PLANNED DESPERATELY TO BE a success at? HOW EMBARRASSING WAS IT? WERE YOU EVER ABLE TO finally ACHIEVE your goal or purpose planned? ”

 I’m Dennis Finnan, host and speaker on the World, the Word & You! Broadcast and in a moment we’ll talk about a man from the Old Testament who had such promise of greatness, but failed miserably and disappointed many. Yet in the end rose above that failure…

…The time of our story is centered in the Twelfth Century B.C., when God's people, Israel , were under the heavy oppressive hand of their enemies the Philistines, and at the lowest point in their spiritual life.  You see, the Book of Judges reveals that sin and compromise had seeped into the lives of God people and as a consequence, God’s judgments fell on them.  You see, God allowed the warring heathen nations to rule and oppress Israel . God did this in order to get Israel ’s attention and come to their senses and “repent.”

God indeed, planned to deliver them from their oppressors in His perfect time.  The time came, and God raised up one man for this very purpose. Who was he? Well, his name was “Samson.”

Now after we take another moment to refresh ourselves with a bit of joyful music, I'll return to talk about Samson whose life was a unfortunately a great “lesson in failure,” we all should take heed to avoid. So stay tuned…

…Today we're going to review the life of a Bible character named Samson.  Practically everyone has heard about the exploits of this man. In fact, the Bible says much about him as recorded in the Book of Judges. It is here God devotes four whole chapters covering the time of his conception to the moment of his death.  Now why does God give such an abundant coverage to one man?  I believe it is because his life is a wellspring of lessons, on how not to live, and how to avoid failure and judgment.  It is in the Book of Judges, chapters 13-16, where we are to learn of these things. I’ll begin by reading selected verses,

Judges 13:1-14   “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. 2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said ... "you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines." 6 Then the woman went to her husband and told him... 8 Then Manoah prayed to the LORD: "O Lord, I beg you ... teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born." ... (and)  what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?" 13 The angel of the LORD answered, "Your wife must do all that I have told her..."

Well, here we see a childless couple was given a revelation by God that He was going to intervene in their lives. This child to come was a special child though, since Manoah and his wife were sterile. The Bible says, God intervened and allowed conception for His sovereign purposes. Additionally, we also are told that this child they named Samson, meaning “sonshine,” was to be consecrated to God from birth throughout his life. Samson was therefore to become a Nazirite, that is a man dedicated to special service of God.

Now the wife of Manoah was also to live under such Nazarite vows, but only temporarily during gestation of the baby. Now the early days of Samson are not mentioned in Scripture, except God does say in,

Judg 13:24 (NIV)  The woman gave birth to a boy and named him Samson. He grew and the LORD blessed him,

Thus, we can assume that from the earliest age, this young man was told of his role in life and God's special place of blessing, and he obediently followed.  Now the word “Nazarite” itself means -  “to separate or withhold.”  Samson was to live separated from the godless world-system of life around him. This separation was to be seen outwardly in some specific areas of his life.  For instance, God describes the Nazarite separation and vows for us.

#1 A NAZIRITE WAS NEVER TO DRINK ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AND EVERY
 PRODUCT OF THE VINE (Numbers 6:3)  - Under God's Old Testament laws even priests were to obey this Nazirite vow when they entered the Tabernacle for service. God said that if they did, they would be punished with death. In this context, this first call to separation was that Samson was to keep himself from WORLDLY AND ADDICTIVE STIMULATIONS, that could potentially lead him astray from God’s special calling and purpose. How appropriate for Christians to consider today. We live in a world that is filled with artificial stimulations, many actually designed by Satan to lead people away from God. You only have to today’s journalism and fiction writings, turn on your radio, television or watch almost any Hollywood film, to sense this pressure to defile yourself spiritually, physically and socially.  God in effect, said “Samson, I want you to be different! I want your whole life to be lived away from the stimulation of the world's lures to sin, so you can stay healthy, clean and useful to me.” 

Now let me ask you, “has God changed in His thinking for modern believers?” Hardly, for the Bible says,

Eph 5:18 (NIV)  Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

2 Cor 6:17 (NIV)  "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you."

Now there you have God’s call to Christians today. Yes, God wants every New Testament follower of Christ to stand upon similar vows. Christians are not to be drawn away by the seductive and sensual enticements of our world, or the temptations of settled life without God. If we submit, we too can lose our power to serve God, and our witness appeal to the lost. Yet how many Christians claim their "liberty" in these areas, and carouse socially with the fortified strong wines and alcoholic beverages that deaden the brain, and corrupt many a man's good sense and will. You know, the Bible has no good words for those who revel in their “right” to drink, and be a poor example to others. Instead, warnings abound in Scripture as to where alcoholic drinking takes you. Now the second vow or separation of the Nazirite is found in,

#2 A NAZIRITE WAS FORBIDDEN TO CUT AND TRIM THE HAIR ON HIS HEAD (Numbers 6:5)   During the entire period of a Nazirite vow of separation, no razor was to be used on the head. We learn that God required this of Samson, so he could be used for greatness. The question we have today is what does long hair have to do with separation and holiness to God? Many Christians today feel long hair on men is a sign of rebellion. Well, the answer is it was nothing more than a striking outward symbol of personal difference and obedience to God. By having such long hair, the Nazirite would be noticed wherever he went, and it would be a dramatic sign that he didn't fit in with the common world of his day.  God wanted him tob e different from the norm of the world! How sad today in the world of Christianity - it seems that the emphasis is to be like the unsaved crowd in dress, speech, and in likes and desires. We parade our personalities and our achievements to be noticed and accepted by them. Why for example our Christian publishing and music houses today glorify people rather than our holy perfect God. Record albums show the singers and book jackets prominently display the authors. Where is God?  How we sin today by such self aggrandizement and glory, to the detriment of God's call to be a mirror that reflects Him rather than our unworthy selves.

Now this second part of the Nazirite vow may seem to be confusing to many Christians today, because God clearly seems to contradict this Nazirite calling. How? Well in other Scriptures we seem to be told that a man is not to have long hair!

1 Cor 11:14 (NIV)  Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,

How can we reconcile this? Well, the problem comes from how long is long and how short is short.  If we examine the whole teachings of Scripture we find that the principle of God's distaste for a man having “long” hair is that God has uniquely made us male and female. He therefore has definitely decreed that we publicly display our differences in our appearance and clothing.  Yet today we flaunt God's teachings and purposely blur the sexes especially by our dress and decor. Why just look at the unisexual hairstyles, clothing and jewelry that obviously are designed to blur our gender appearances. This is essentially what the text condemns.

Because of this, I personally believe that men today should wear their hair short enough that no one wonders if he is a man or a woman; likewise for a woman, she should have hair long enough to clearly identify her with the beauty of her female state. It's a disgrace these days to see young men with effeminate hairstyles, and dainty earrings; and, also see women dressed in masculine clothing, wearing butch hairstyles. Now I know this is “fashion,” by my friend it is also the devil's plan to destroy the concepts and plan of God's creation. Indeed, I think Satan’s accomplishing this too with the number of gender confused young men and boys turning to homosexuality and young women and girl’s to lesbianism. These are individuals who have had no clear training in their gender directives from God and grow up confused about themselves.

Now back to Samson. The last two vows we see are the third and fourth aspects of a Nazirite vow. We find the third was,

#3 A NAZIRITE WAS FORBIDDEN TO HANDLE ANY DEAD BODY, EVEN THAT OF ONE’S NEAREST RELATIVE (Numbers 6:6,8) -   The point here was also symbolical. A dead body was unclean, contaminated and those who touched it would become the same. As Samson was dedicated to be a Nazirite unto the Lord, he was to carefully keep himself in body and spirit from anything that would defile or contaminate him which God called unclean and unholy. In Samson's day there were many unholy practices, people and places.  For instance, God told the Hebrew people that marriage outside of the faith was forbidden by God.

Deu 7:3-4 (NIV)  Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you.

Now did Samson obey this command for believers and followers of the Lord? The Bible tells us differently,

Judg 14:1-3 (NIV)  Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. 2 When he returned, he said to his father and mother…"Get her for me. She's the right one for me.”

Here we find that young Samson began to stray from the Lord as evidenced by his willful and arrogant disobedience to this part of the vow to remain separate from all unclean practices, people and places of his world. Samson physically hungered for the forbidden sexual world around him. He particularly sought to frolic in the godless pleasure places of the Philistines and sought unholy relationships of the unsaved people around him, even the unholy marriage of a believer and an unbeliever, which is still forbidden to Christians today. Samson’s sin here is he didn’t respect God’s law of separation  nor the sanctity of His own people, Israel .

How like many Christians today, who have thrown off the yoke of separation from unholy things that either ruin or shatter their testimony of living for Christ. Our forefathers of the historic faith taught that, rules and standards for the believer are necessary to maintain our testimony and our usefulness to God. Thus many churches set up vows for membership that included refraining from things that defiled the body, soul and the spirit -- things such as smoking, drinking alcohol for pleasure, drug abuse, indulging in immorality, and sinful compromise with pleasures that draw one away from loving and serving God.  However, today many modern churchmen laugh at this and say it is simply “legalistic.” My friend, such vows are not legalism if this call to consecration comes from an obedient love for God, that wants to remain unstained by the world without God around us. 

Why look today at how many Christians are falling into the sinful lifestyles and the flesh pots of the unsaved world.  We see today there is little difference between the saved and the unsaved when it comes to divorce, sexual immorality and its perversions, drunkenness, and lifestyles of immoral, spiritual and social compromise. It's frightening to see God's people whom He has called out of the world under judgment, to be set apart for His glory now so compromised and essentially useless to God. Well, Samson is God's warning of similar failure, for he began his adult years compromising his unique calling, by lusting after things God forbid him to have and be a part of. Now what characterized Samson's life as found in these four chapters in the book of Judges? Well, it is found in two words: INDISCIPLINE and DISOBEDIENCE.

I believe God's main purpose of showing us his downward spiral of life was to show where an undisciplined life is destined to end. Samson's rich potential and usefulness was thwarted by His pride, selfishness and uncontrollable fallen heart and desires.  Now Samson’s days of growing up are remarkably similar to today.

Samson lived in a PERMISSIVE SOCIETY, where "every man did that which was right in his own eyes."  In Samson's day, God was forgotten, ignored or unknown. Likewise today, our world laughs at the Christian perspective and calling for life. Our public “Philistine” schools ridicule God and his teachings and have cast out any semblance of God’s existence. In His place, our nation has encouraged abortion, glorified homosexuality, taught the benefits of euthanasia, boasted in its ability to wallow in unrestrained immorality. What God says about our ways of life and living are now passed by as simply irrelevant.

Yet, how sad that many Christians are following this deadly path, only to end up as Samson did  with a “saved soul and a wasted life.”

Now if you read all the Scriptures in Judges 13-16, you'll find that Samson's whole life was one of tempestuous disobedience to almost all the commands of his Nazirite vow. He plainly rejected God for his daily living, thinking because he was born one of God's chosen people, he had God's special favor, and that this blessing would always be with him.  Amazingly, God tolerated many years and much disobedience, before He judged Samson's sins.  Samson repeatedly, indulged himself in wicked relationships with the low life of society. He sought godless women for marriage, and enjoyed partying and living it up among the Philistines, often destroying them to his fancy and temper. 

Of course, we all know his downfall don't we? It was through the woman Delilah, a Philistine courtesan, who seduced Samson to reveal the secret symbol of his miraculous strength. The Bible tells us that Samson's strength was still with him because of his vow to not cut his hair. Samson selfishly kept this vow only because it served him. We also find that God refrained from removing His blessings of power for a long time; until, Samson broke this last and final vow of the Nazirite that no razor was to come to his head.

When Samson told Delilah of God's power of strength given to him through not having a razor come to his head, he fully repudiated all that God had given and blessed him with. It was at that moment God chose to leave him - the Scripture says in,

Judg 16:17-19 (NIV)  So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me… 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

Yes, When Samson revealed God’s symbol of his power to Delilah, the Spirit of God and His miraculous strength that was given him to deliver Israel , departed from him to leave him with the godless life he chose. When Delilah cut off the locks of his long hair, he was powerless. We find that following this, the Philistines gouged out his eyes and sent this helpless man to grind grain in the mills as an animal (Judges 16:21). Samson lived in disobedience to God, and flouted His calling, only to end his days in this state of miserable failure.

Now what a warning this is to you and me! If you are a believer today, God has also called you to be holy and separate from the world system without God around us. This means we are to keep ourselves physically, spiritually, morally and socially away from anything that will defile us or taint, blunt or dissipate our love for and desire to serve God wholeheartedly. Failure to maintain this separation will bring us down too, to a similar slavery and imprisonment as Samson found himself in. 

Yet the story does have a redeeming ending.  As a blind man, the Philistines hauled Samson out of the prison granary and displayed him before all the leaders and people. At a great feast, the Philistines, rejoicing in Samson’s compromise and capture, pitifully displayed him as their trophy (Judges 16:23 -24). Indeed, the world lured him and now laughed at him. So likewise it will do to every Christian who dabbles in it to the disgrace God. The Bible tells us in Judges 16:23-31 how his life ended.

Before all the Philistines, in their huge temple court, Samson stood as a circus animal, where they taunted him to perform his godly feats of power. Alas, Samson was helpless; however, we are told that Samson repented! He cried out to the Lord. He asked God to give him one more moment of supernatural strength. The Bible says, God looked kindly on His servant Samson’s desire to return to God and to all our amazement, the Lord enabled Samson even in his dying sinful moments, to fulfill God's prophesied will for his life.  Samson felt the Spirit's power come upon Him and fortunately standing between the two main pillars of the great temple of Dagon , we read,

Judges 16:30    "...  Samson pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more Philistines when he died than all the while he lived.

Do you know that archaeologists findings, affirm that the entire Philistine temple of Dagon collapsed some time in the ancient past, and fell upon the feasting Philistines? Thus, God's will still was accomplished to deliver Israel from the oppression and power of their enemies. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people and their leaders were gathered in that temple area, and when the pillars came crashing down, they all died that day. I'm confident that Delilah was there also, to be honored and fittingly she perished too. Now what's the lesson we can learn from this failure of this godly man? I believe we can say the following,

1)      Samson's life and story is God's warning to every believer not to toy with things in this life that He has forbidden to us. Moreover, failure to obey God's call to be separate in things that count for God, will ultimately bring us down to humiliation, destruction and eventual death too.

2)      Samson's life proves SIN ENSLAVES ALL WHO DABBLE IN IT - God's Word says in John 8:34 "...  everyone who sins is a slave to sin." We cannot compromise our calling of God without consequences in this life. The failure of Samson, God's chosen servant, challenges every Christian to see that his or her talents, and spiritual gifting from God, are a trust to be used for His glory and not our own.  Failure to use our graces and giving God the glory, may result in temporal and eternal losses. 

Yes Samson ended his days tragically, but remember it was by his own choice.  Perhaps this broadcast finds a listener who has been living sinfully and in disobedience to God's moral laws of life. If so, God is the only one who can release you.  Like Samson, you need to look up into the face of heaven and call upon Jesus Christ to rescue you and save you from your sins.

Yes friend, Samson's life was indeed a warning of failure, But our Savior, Jesus Christ' life of OBEDIENCE and DISCIPLINE is the Bible's illustration of true reward and blessing. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God and Savior of all men use this story from history, for His glory and grace in your life too, Amen.