Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 3
So John is asking, can you please reveal to me the meaning about the Samson and Delilah story?
Speaker 1
Yes, I love the story. We did a full discussion of it in another video video last season. I think it was where we talked about how much the story of Sampson really connected with the life of Jesus. And since he was kind of a preview of what Jesus would be like, except there was one thing that really doesn’t fit well with Jesus’ story. Right. And that’s how Samson messed up so badly. His life. He was a child of promise. He was a miracle baby. And then he messes up and loses it all, loses his life, loses his eyes. So let’s talk about that. What is the significance? Why is this story in the Bible? So Besides the fact that it was supposed to be the story telling us about visas, but he failed greatly, why is he here? Why should we connect with it? So I want to start with Judges 14, verse one. And here it gives us this idea of how this promised child’s life is going to be turning out. How is he doing? He’s being blessed by God. Judges 14, verse one. It says, Now Samson went down to Timna and saw woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines.
Speaker 1
He goes to the he’s hanging around, he’s a woman and he sees a woman and they’re like, hey, I just saw a woman. No big deal. No, this means he saw a woman. He caught his eye, he staring. And if you read the story later on and tells his dad, dad, I want that woman as my wife, why not get an Israelite woman? Dad know, I want that woman. And that began sort of the downfall we see of Sampson where he’s just chasing his lust, his passions going with whatever earthly desires he has. If bad things end up happening, he ends up not marrying. I think he does marry her, but then divorces her. She sent off to another man. Crazy story. A lot of Phil scenes died real. Like, yeah, good. A lot of them died. But really it’s just him messing up big time. And he continues because we read now, Judges 16, verse one. So, you know, a lot of these chapters start off verse one with Now Samson went and saw a woman. So this one is Now Samson went to Gaza and he saw not just a woman, a harlot there and went into her.
Speaker 1
And if you read the NIV, it says he went into the building. Just to clarify what that means, they’re less part of the sentence. And he starts dating this woman, attracting her. So now he’s hanging out with Harley. He’s just again fulfilling his passions and desires. And it ultimately leads to him now being pestered by this woman. Verses 16, sorry, chapter 16 versus 16 to 17. And it came to pass when she pestered him daily this is talking about Delilah with her words impressed him so that his soul was vexed to death. I bet you hear guys almost say, oh, I could relate to that. Pick the wrong person. Who are you hanging out with? Samson? Why are you still there? And in verse 17, and he told her all his heart, he poured out his heart to her and said to her, no razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazareth to God from my mother’s womb. He shares the secret of his superpowers. I mean, this is like Superman telling one of these evil women, like, oh, yeah, Kryptonite is my weakness. Please don’t use it against me.
Speaker 1
And of course, we end up he also shares, like, yeah, if I’m shaving, my strength will lead me, and I shall be weak like any other man. And sure enough, the Lily doesn’t care about him. Goes tells the guards, he then gets his head shaved. He gets his eyes poked out. Judges 16, verse 21. This part is so sad, right? The Philippines took him and put out his eyes and brought him to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison. So they just had him doing this horrible manual labor. Yeah. So, I mean, it’s just most miserable of existence now. You can imagine it goes from being the judge, the ruler, kind of Israel, to now being this worse than slaves and blind and everything. And so what is this? Blindness? Even the Bible always talks about blindness all the time in a spiritual sense, too. And I think Samson became physically blind to sort of illustrate even how spiritually blind he was. He was looking seeing women, and he didn’t have his eyes on Christ. He wasn’t looking to God. What was God’s will? What did God want him to do?
Speaker 1
He was doing what I feel like doing what will make me feel good in the moment. And because of that, he lost his strength. He becomes imprisoned, he becomes bound. He becomes weak and physically blind. Just all these things. So sad, right? So sad. And then we ended with Samson calls out to the Lord, saying, oh, Lord, God, remember me. I pray, strengthen me. I pray just this once, oh, God, that I may, with one blow, tape vengeance on the Philippines or my two eyes. I don’t know if that’s the right reason. Right. God, please let me kill a bunch of people because they hurt me. I wouldn’t necessarily say mimic that, but the idea of taking out the Philistines was God’s will, right? And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and one on his left. And by the way, Tina pointed out last time, Ellison, ball like, this is like Christ that blew my mind. And then Samson said, Let me dive to Philistines and he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the Lord and all the people who were in it.
Speaker 1
So the dead that he killed in his death were more than he killed in his life. So even in his terribleness. His mistakes, God was kind of able to make some good out of it. But even still, that was tragic. It’s just tragic in every way. And I think Samson is there to just show you. Don’t be like Samson. Don’t follow your laws. Don’t just be focused on killing people. If SAMHSA’s heart was Lord, restore me, Lord, I want to be a ruler again of your people. Lord bail me out. God probably would have answered him because God was always there for Samson. God never left Samson. Samson left God. And even in the end, God came back and was there for Samson. So I think Samson is there to give us hope too, to know, like, okay, here’s a guy who was the highest person in Israel at the time, who was given the Holy Spirit in abundance even back then and who was a promised child. He was an angel. Promised his mom. Oh, yeah, this kid is going to come. He’s very special. And he’s still screwed up. Still screwed up. Right.
Speaker 1
And so if you feel like you screwed up, you feel like you messed up. Just look at Satan, Samson. Look at Samson. Right. And even God will forgive him. And if you look in Hebrews, Samson is listed with those who have faith as an example for us. So we’ll probably see him in heaven someday.
Speaker 2
I think that’s a really good message. Sorry, my lighting is getting all weirded out. I don’t know what happened.
Speaker 1
Sunset and white balances.
Speaker 2
Yeah. I’m sorry. Imagine you’re on the beach with me. I apologize. I promise. I don’t have Jaundiced. But basically, I so agree with what you’re saying, Jay. And just something that came to my mind when I think of the story. Why is the story of Samson Delilah in the Bible? What is its purpose to us as people that would come after him is just like you’re saying, Samsung’s beginning before he was born, his mother was called to have him be a very special child, to be a deliverer of Israel. And his mom does everything right. She eats a special diet. She’s very careful with him. She raises him the right way. But he still chooses what’s wrong because he chose his selfish. He chose his selfish path. And I think for me, when I read that, I think of how many of us are raised in the Church, who are raised going in the truth. Growing up as Christians, we have those privileges that other people don’t have. And yet we can still end up messing up our lives. That doesn’t guarantee that we’re going to be this great success. Just because God has given us favor from our upbringing, we still have a decision to make.
Speaker 2
I think it always goes back to that. And so it doesn’t matter really the privileges you have growing up, it’s just, are you going to serve God or not? It’s your obedience and your willingness to serve him and to obey his word is going to determine your outcome in life. And so I think it’s an encouragement to those maybe who were not born in the Church that, hey, even if you were, it doesn’t mean things were going to go right every day, daily to die, daily to our selfishness and to live into the Christ. And so I just think for me, that’s an important lesson. As somebody who was born with the privilege of being a Christian and having a long lineage, I guess you could say, of Christians before me, my family had very strong connections in the Church, and yet I recognized that I still see also where people in the past and my family have made some good choices and some of them didn’t make good choices. And it didn’t matter that your grandma or your mother or whoever grandfather, they could have been Billy Graham or whoever. But it’s up to you.
Speaker 2
What are you going to do with your life and what are the decisions you are going to make for your Salvation and to spread the gospel and for the Salvation of others? So I guess to me, that’s the biggest thing. And yeah, don’t be deceived by bad relationships, because that is the surest path to destruction. I think that’s also a big red flag. Somebody once told me, how did the purest man, the wisest man and the strongest man all fall, which was the purest man being Adam, who had never sinned. He fell because of Eve. Who was the wisest man, Solomon. He fell because of all those heathen women. And who is the strongest man, Sampson? He fell because of Delilah. So, men, you have to guard your heart, especially because a woman can either be your greatest asset to your Salvation or your greatest means of destruction. Anyway, that’s my two cent.
Speaker 1
Well said. Yeah, I totally agree. Amen. Yes.
Speaker 2
And I’m glad you picked a good one. I approve.
Speaker 1
I would have to say that there’s only one spouse you should go with, and that’s the one God made and chose for you.
Speaker 2
Amen. 100%. Because when it’s the one God chose for you, even on days where the double attacks, you have that knowledge of God put us together. Let no man tear this under.
Speaker 3
And it just works so much better. Like, your lives just line up and things just make sense. And yeah, it’s so much better to have the one God, Jesus.
Speaker 1
Yeah. This verse is still like Delilah. It says she pestered him daily in her word with her words and pressed them so that his soul was vexed to death. I mean, you see at times so many unhappy people in marriages that sums it up and my heart goes out to them Because that is not the experience God wants you to have and that’s like a telltale sign you’re in the wrong relationship And I’m not telling people get divorced right. Maybe now there’s Proactive things you need to do to take care of it but if you’re dating, you’re looking for someone and that’s your experience, no, marriage will not make it better.
Speaker 2
Make it worse.
Speaker 3
Exactly.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
And what I see there also is like a woman who the needs of her heart weren’t met by the relationship. It wasn’t so she’s pestering him Because she’s not getting what she needed out of the relationship.
Speaker 1
She didn’t even want the relationship though in her case. Right. It’s a phony relationship that she was just trying to yeah.
Speaker 3
And that’s just it the needs of her heart weren’t being met and so she was acting out trying to get those needs met but he wasn’t the person to meet them and so it wasn’t good for either of them to be in that relationship.
Speaker 2
Yeah, and I think that that’s very true of a lot of people who are believers and when they fall in love with someone who’s not as they almost want to be their Salvation and I get things from my experience in my much younger days Dating somebody who I thought would become a believer and dating evangelism just doesn’t work. I mean, I’ve heard of some cases, but yeah, where I was just like, maybe if I’m nicer, if you’re not on the same level, It’s just not a good thing and I’m so grateful that God was patient and gave me the right person at the right time that he had in mind who loves God And that just makes me love and respect this spouse every single day. I love my husband more. I can’t even put in words but that’s only because we were equally yoked but when you’re in a relationship Where you’re not equally yoked, the more spiritual person Always ends up feeling this guilt and if I break things off, It’s going to hurt them or whatever and you just have to cut that cord and just say, you know, in the long run this is for what’s best Because in the long haul It’s just going to be a lifetime of misery.
Speaker 1
My heart goes out for those people in the wrong marriage or just wrong relationship too very hard.
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In His Service
BibleAsk Team
