Acting By Faith With The Wrong Motivation

 Like most people, Samson’s problems were primarily the result of his own decisions.  He had chosen to ignore God’s law time after time.  His efforts to rip off the wedding guests had resulted in his murdering thirty Philistines, and his walking out on the wedding ended up in his bride marrying someone else.  Angry about that, he killed over a thousand people, resulting in the Philistines seeking to kill him.  His infatuation with Delilah led to his imprisonment and subsequent slavery.   In spite of all that, God had not forgotten Samson.  When a person violated their Nazarite vow, they were to shave their heads and start it over.  Samson was to be a Nazarite from birth, but he had broken his vow several times.  When the Philistines shaved his head, he effectively started again.  Judges 16:22 tells us, “Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.”

 

For twenty years, Samson had led the resistance against the Philistine overlords.  He had personally killed more than a thousand of them.  His arrest and imprisonment was as exciting to them as the killing of Osama Bin Laden was to the Americans.   A few weeks later, the leaders sponsored a celebration of his arrest, praising their gods for his arrest, in Judges 16:23-25.  “Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.   And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, which slew many of us.  And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.”

 

When the Spirit of the Lord departed from him Samson was no different than anyone else, and had been easily overcome.  The Philistines had then blinded him to prevent his being able to do much harm.  Now they publicly humiliated him, confident he could not cause any serious problems.  Part of the humiliation was that because he couldn’t see, he was forced to go where a little boy led him.  Samson asked the little boy to lead him over to the support pillard so that he could lean on them and be sure he wouldn’t fall down, in Judges 16:26.   “And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.”   I’m sure the Philistines thought it hilarious that the man they once feared had to hold on to something to keep from falling down.    

 

What they didn’t realize was that Samson’s sufferings had forced him to trust in rather than his own strength.  They were holding their celebration in huge building and the roof was supported on huge pillars, providing a second level where people could stand to observe their leaders.  Samson had seen the building and knew how it was constructed.  He deliberately asked the boy to show him where those pillars were.  As Judges 16:27 tells us, there were about three thousand people on the upper level.  “Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.”  There were probably twice that many inside the building at ground level. 

 

Although Samson had been forced to recognize his had to depend on God, his underlying attitude had not changed.  He asked God to give him his strength again, so that he could get even with them for putting out his eyes.  He also asked that he could die with them so he didn’t have to live without his eyesight, as Judges 16:28 describes.  “And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

 

Knowing god had chosen him to destroy the Philistine’s power and that he would answer his prayer, Samson pushed the two main pillars apart, causing the building to collapse, as Judges 16:29-30 tells us.  “And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.  And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.”

 

Samson was one of the most gifted men in the Bible, with one of the greatest opportunities to deliver Israel, but because he insisted on doing things his own way, his gifts accomplished little.  By pulling down the building, Samson disrupted the Philistine government for a while but they had recovered and took over Israel by the end of Eli’s term as judge, ruling for twenty years before being defeated in I Samuel 7.  By comparison, Gideon, a much less gifted man, defeated a much larger Midianite army, and they never recovered.   Only God knows what would have happened if Samson had been trying to please Him instead of getting his own way.   By faith Samson took action and God used his selfishness to accomplish his will, even though he wasn’t trying to accomplish God’s purpose.  We need to understand God isn’t limited by our motivations or those of others. 

 

Samson died as relatively young man, after only twenty years as judge.  Judges 16;31 tells us.  “Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.”