[0:00] The Lord's Blessing Judges chapter 13, the very last verse of the chapter.
[0:37] And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtol. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move him, that's began to move Samson, at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtol.
[1:00] Now a couple of weeks ago we began to look at the life of Samson, one of the greatest of the judges of Israel.
[1:12] And he was raised by God to bring to an end the 40 years of Philistine domination over Israel. And we saw just briefly how this was a pattern in the life of Israel that for some time after they settled in Canaan, they began to decline spiritually.
[1:35] And at these points God would raise some particular people or nation and they would gain the ascendancy over them. And then when they became conscious of their oppression, they would repent and they would turn to the Lord and God would raise a deliverer for them.
[1:51] And Samson was the man raised against the Philistines. And all these judges were remarkable men. And in their work of liberation or redemption, they typified the great Messiah who was to come, for he is ultimately the Redeemer and the Liberator of Israel.
[2:10] And despite Samson's infirmity, and we'll come in the following weeks to see that he was a man with infirmity and a man who strayed towards the end of his life, nonetheless he typified the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:26] And he did it, first of all, by his early consecration in his life, the way in which he lived such a remarkable life of holiness.
[2:37] And then, secondly, in his ministry of strength. By his use of power, he showed the Lord's strength, that the Lord is greater than all the power of evil.
[2:50] And the strength which Samson wielded by the Holy Spirit is to remind us that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. And the power of God is always greater than the opposition of the power of Satan.
[3:07] Now, we saw his early life last time, how he lived in obscurity for some 20 to 30 years of his life. I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, it was probably 30, and it would be nearer 30, somewhere between 20 and 30 years he lived in obscurity in the tribe of Dan.
[3:27] But although he was in obscurity in one way, still he was noticed by those around about him, even as the Lord was in his own years of obscurity in Nazareth.
[3:38] And Samson was well noted simply because he was a Nazirite, and he was only one of four Nazirites from the womb. In the whole Bible, sorry, three, in the whole Bible we only have three, and Samson was one of them.
[3:55] In other words, from the time he was born, in fact, even when he was still in the womb, his mother was forbidden to drink the fruit of the grape. And by the way, that reminds us of the sanctity of the child still in the womb.
[4:11] It is not a thing. It is a child. It is a person. Even when Samson was in the womb, his mother was forbidden to drink the fruit of the grape.
[4:21] And ever since he was born, his hair had never been cut. And so as a man growing up, he was marked out and distinctive for 30 odd years as a man who was consecrated to God.
[4:35] And his hair was a visible sign of that. Now we mention that, how the long hair in seven distinct locks, because we're told that in chapter 16, the seven locks of long hair spoke of his obedience towards God.
[4:51] His long hair was a covering for him. It was a sign that he was under the authority of God in a particular way. And it was in seven locks, because it was the Holy Spirit who took possession of him, and was the Holy Spirit who made him that obedient, and who gave him such a consecrated life.
[5:11] So there were seven locks of hair. And that spoke of his remarkable life. And you'll notice that we're told here in verse 24 of chapter 13, that the woman bare a son and called his name Samson.
[5:25] And the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. The very words that are recorded about Samuel, the second Nazirite from the womb, and John the Baptist, the third Nazirite from the womb.
[5:40] They grew up remarkably under the hand of God, visibly seen to be blessed and marked out and separated for a high calling and for a high destiny.
[5:51] And those people who love to tear away at Samson's character, would do well to remember that for 30 years of his life, he was marked out in that way.
[6:02] And never once are we told that he put a foot wrong. Although he was unlike the Savior, he was a sinner. Still, he was marked out by his obedience. Now, I want to turn tonight with you towards his ministry of strength.
[6:18] And we'll see how this ministry, right from beginning to the end, is a glorious ministry, and one which typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, his ministry was one of deliverance.
[6:32] Deliverance from what? Or from whom? Well, deliverance from the Philistines. Now, they seem originally to have been a people closely connected to the Egyptians.
[6:44] And it's hard, really, to trace their origins exactly. All that's known of them is that they came in considerable numbers to the land of Palestine. And by the way, they gave their name, eventually, to that land.
[6:58] It's still called, by many people, Palestine. They came to that part in Canaan that constitutes the coast, the southern coast of it.
[7:09] And they settled there in considerable numbers around 1500 AD. Now, that's around about, say, a couple of hundred years before Samson himself.
[7:23] And they had five major cities in that part of the Promised Land. And they were well known for their power. They were fearsome in war.
[7:34] And that is why they were often used as mercenaries. Other countries at war would often hire soldiers from the Philistines because they were such a warlike and fearsome people.
[7:47] Now, interestingly, when Israel entered the Promised Land and they began to drive out the nations, they did not drive out the Philistines.
[7:58] And although they were commanded to drive all the people out, they stopped short of driving out the Philistines and some other Canaanites, groups of them here and there.
[8:09] But the Philistines were more or less untouched. Now, God allowed that to be so. And, in fact, the Old Testament, Judges chapter 3, tells us that God had a particular purpose in doing so.
[8:21] He left the Philistines and a small remnant of Canaanites there to test. Now, this is remarkable. To test the obedience of the Israelites.
[8:33] To see whether they would keep his commandments or not. How are we to understand that? Well, I think we should understand it like this.
[8:46] That these people left around about them were to serve as a kind of touchstone as to what the spiritual life of Israel was like. In other words, if they relaxed their own allegiance to God, and if they began to be attracted towards the practices and the customs, and even the worship of the heathens around about them, then God would raise up these nations and he would allow them to subdue the church or to subdue Israel.
[9:15] In other words, when the church was strong, those nations feared her. But when she became attracted or conformed to them, God allowed them to become more powerful so that they subjected the church and that they were able to trample upon the church until, again, they called upon God in their weakness.
[9:39] So, if you copy your enemies, God will make you weak and he will give your enemies the ascendancy over you.
[9:49] And that's precisely what has happened here. The Philistines have come in because Israel has relaxed her commitment to the Lord. She has begun to copy the ways of the heathen and so God raises the heathen to influence.
[10:06] And the Philistines have come in on the western part of Israel. Now, the westernmost tribes were Dan and Judah. That is, in the southwest.
[10:17] So, if the Philistines were going to come in to the country, the first two tribes they would meet with would be the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Judah. And already, we can tell from judges that they have entered these places and they have colonized some of their towns and cities.
[10:34] So, that Philistine culture and the Philistine way of life is ruling over these places in Israel. And notice, Samson belongs to the tribe of Dan.
[10:48] And so, his tribe is one of the first affected. And it is from that tribe that God raises up the Deliverer. Now, before I leave this particular point, I just want to emphasize something.
[11:00] When I say that the church was subject to the Philistines, I want us to understand that it's a strange kind of subjection. Because at one level, the church had peace.
[11:15] In other words, if you were to take a walk through Dan and Judah, you wouldn't discover that anything was wrong at all. You wouldn't see hundreds of Philistines marching around their arm to the teeth.
[11:27] You wouldn't see that. In fact, life carried on pretty much as normal, even though the Philistines had the upper hand. But what was true was this.
[11:39] That even though the church had peace, she bought that peace at a price. And the price at which she bought the peace was this. That she lost her influence.
[11:51] And that she lost her spiritual strength. In fact, everything that mattered had passed into the hands of the Philistines. They were in control and they were ruling.
[12:05] There's one little detail. This is later on, but I think it brings out the kind of thing I'm talking about. For example, in 1 Samuel chapter 13 and verse 19, we're told this.
[12:19] Now, listen to how remarkable this is. 1 Samuel 13, 19. Now, there was no smith. Now, that's a blacksmith. No worker of metal.
[12:31] No worker of iron. There was no metal worker or smith found throughout all the land of Israel. Because the Philistines said, In case the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.
[12:46] So all the Israelites went down to the Philistines to sharpen their axes and their mattocks. In other words, anything that they were using, their forks and their axes, even for their ordinary day-to-day work, they went down to the Philistines in order to get them sharpened.
[13:05] And these things were a reminder, or should be a reminder certainly, to the more spiritual among them, that the Philistines were ruling over them, and that they were lords.
[13:17] And how humiliating that was. And the saddest thing of all was this, that the people got used to it, to the point where they reckoned that it was better for the Philistines to rule and for them to have peace, rather than for them to try and usurp the Philistines with the end result of war.
[13:43] Now, you can easily understand how a person can reason like that. And in fact, that's why, later on, when Samson begins to deliver the Philistines, the men of Judah come to him and say to him, this is remarkable, this is the church of God talking.
[14:00] And this is them saying to Samson, do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? And we have come to bind you and to put you into the hands of the Philistines.
[14:13] Why? Because it was cheaper, more peaceful, less costly, to put the troublemaker into the hands of the Philistines and to leave themselves in a peaceful kind of subjection.
[14:27] What kind of church is that? It's a backslidden church. It's a church that is not praying. It's a church that has stopped fighting. It's a church that has ceased to be holy as God has asked her and called her to be holy.
[14:41] It is a church on the retreat, a church on the defensive, and a church that you would hardly recognize to be in the hand of God. And it is that kind of church that Samson came to arouse and to shake.
[14:56] No, I can't help but feel that there is a remarkable parallel between the church in his day and the church in our own. What are we if we're not lukewarm?
[15:08] Have the Philistines not been raised up by God and have they not asserted themselves over us? There was a day when the church of God had influence in the land, when the church of God had real spiritual power, when she spoke, and the rulers of this nation trembled when the church of Christ spoke because she had her hair long and she was marked out in subjection to God and she was recognized as the servant of the Lord.
[15:39] And when she spoke, she was heard. But we've lost our strength and we've lost our influence. We've lost our power and almost everything that matters now is in the hands of the Philistines.
[15:54] Tell me, who makes our laws? Who makes our laws? Who is it that is about to bring legislation again before us to lower the age of homosexual consent from 18 to 16?
[16:09] Why are the Philistines so strong? Why? Who is it that dictates what programs we watch on TV? Who makes the documentaries? Who forms the news?
[16:20] Who prints the newspapers? Who guides your opinion? Who is determined to force it down one channel and to force it away from another channel? Who is it that writes the syllabus for the schools?
[16:32] Who is it that tells us what history we should study? What English literature we should study? What science we should study? Who tells us? Is it God's people? Or is it the Philistines?
[16:45] Who tells us? And is it the case that we all sit and are content to have it so? Is it the case in many areas in your life and in mine that I would rather sit in an uneasy peace and pick up the crumbs that fall around rather than I try to attain the high ground and to do what God has asked me to do?
[17:06] Because there's nothing impossible if we but look to God. But that is not how we live. That is not how we live. Everything seems to be in the hands of the Philistines.
[17:18] Not seems, is. I know as well as you do that God is in control. But let that be no cheap excuse for me and let it not be for you. Because at the end of the day it is not God's word that is ruling and guiding the rulers of our nation.
[17:34] It is not God's word that is shaping our universities and our schools and our legal system. It is not God's word that is ruling in the House of Commons. Where has the knowledge of the Covenanters gone?
[17:46] Who in here knows about them? Who knows about them? You may know about the Second World War. Do you know about the Covenanters? The Reformation? What does John Knox mean to you?
[17:56] God would but awaken us to recognize what our situation is. That we would call to him to restore our bondage. That he himself would return.
[18:09] It's interesting even to think will you take the time when the whole patronage question was at issue and when the freedom of the church was at issue. And the free church fathers first stood up and began to contend for it.
[18:23] There were few newspapers on our side. Few newspapers on our side. What did the church do? She took out a newspaper. She took out the witness. And Hugh Miller spent night and day producing the witness newspaper.
[18:36] And that witness paper grew. And its circulation grew. And became one of the most widely read and respected papers in the country. Where is our vision to do that? No, we're content to let other editors and other people dictate what we should think and what we should read.
[18:53] Ah, my friend, that the Lord would give us vision. That we would seek his exaltation. We've got no smiths in the land. We just send everything to be sharpened by the Philistines.
[19:04] And we ought to be humiliated that that is so. And when God sends Samson, he sends Samson to begin the deliverance but also to rouse the church back to separation and to witnessing for God.
[19:22] Because the two things are needed. You need a separation, a holy separation. And you need to go in there as separate people. That is what is required. You need a distinctive church that will go into the world and that will bring the gospel.
[19:38] Not a church that has so merged and become worldly that it has ceased to give anything. But a separate holy church that will conquer in the power of God.
[19:49] And it is in that way that Samson's ministry begins. Look at the words of the text right at the end of chapter 13. And the spirit of the Lord began around 30 years of age to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshterl.
[20:06] Now notice, God's calling him to it and God is equipping him for it. God is going to call Samson to begin to deliver and to rouse the people of Israel.
[20:20] Now when God sends a soldier out, any soldier, in his army, he doesn't send him out at his own expense. He gives him armor to fight. And God gave him the spirit.
[20:33] And has God not given you precisely the same thing? Has he not called every one of us to be spiritual fighters for himself? Geared on your armor, he says in Ephesians 6.
[20:44] Put it on. Go out there and bring the gospel to the lost and to the needy. Go out there and resist the power of evil and the power of wickedness that the gospel may have hold and that the gospel may take root and Christ's kingdom may grow and flourish.
[21:00] He has equipped us with the Holy Spirit to do precisely that. And at this point in his life, Samson is suddenly moved and directed by the Holy Spirit. Where?
[21:11] Well, look at chapter 14, verse 1. And Samson went down to Timnath. Now, I would urge you to connect this verse with the last verse of chapter 13.
[21:24] You remember that these chapter headings are not actually in the Bible. They're not inspired. men have just put them there to help us identify parts of the Bible. But really, it's just one long narrative.
[21:37] And the first verse of chapter 14 should be read with the last verse of chapter 13. In other words, the spirit of the Lord began to move them and Samson went down to Timnath.
[21:48] This journey that he took to this city was by the spirit of God. And he went to Timnath. Now, Timnath was atoned still in the tribe of Dan.
[22:02] It was an Israelite town. That's important. But you notice there are Philistine settlers in it. And he is drawn to this woman of the Philistines, one of the daughters of the Philistines.
[22:16] And he chooses her to become his wife. And he makes his journey home. And he tells his parents that he has seen this woman.
[22:26] And he asks them for her as a wife. Now, what I would assert, and I know you've got objections, or many people have objections to this, but I would assert strongly that it is the Lord's guidance that is upon Samson at this point.
[22:45] It is the first act of his ministry under the moving of the spirit. He goes down and he selects this woman. Yes, she's of the heathen.
[22:56] We'll come to that in a moment. And he chooses her to be his wife. Now, I know there's lots of objections. For example, the standard interpretation here is that Samson, right at the beginning of his ministry, just puts a foot wrong.
[23:10] In fact, the standard interpretation of Samson's life is that Samson does nothing but put his foot wrong all the time. That is not so. We are carefully led by God here to recognize this as the movement of the spirit upon him, this journey to Timna.
[23:27] It was not a carnal attraction that he had for her. When his father, when the father of this woman offers her sister to him as a bride because she is more beautiful, Samson does not accept it.
[23:41] Notice, he is not guided by physical beauty. He is guided here by the choice that the Lord makes for him. Now, I'm just going to raise one or two objections that people have to this and I'm going to raise them quickly and then pass over them.
[23:57] First of all, people point to his language in verse 2. Now, let's look at that of chapter 14, verse 2. And he came up and told his father and his mother, I have seen a woman in Timna of the daughters of the Philistines.
[24:13] Now, therefore, get her for me to wife. Now, people say, well, that sounds as though he's lording it to his parents, but it's far more harsh in the English than it is in the Hebrew.
[24:24] The expression in the Hebrew is just a standard one that any man would use when he is asking his parents for their consent in taking a wife. Take her for me to wife.
[24:37] There is nothing rash in this statement at all. Then again, people point to the words of his parents. Is there not a woman, they say in verse 3, among the daughters of thy brethren, that you are going to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?
[24:53] And that would be your argument. Why is it necessary to take a wife from the daughter of the Philistines? But that is overlooking this. It is overlooking this, that there is every possibility when Samson was twice speaking to this woman and we'll notice the emphasis laid on talking to her and her pleasing him, that she was willing to turn and to be belonging to the people of Israel, to turn to Samson's people and to be a member of the covenant people of Israel.
[25:26] Remember Moses, he was commanded to take an Ethiopian woman as his wife. Remember that in Numbers chapter 12 and Aaron didn't like it and Miriam didn't like it and they spoke against him and God came down and struck Miriam with leprosy and she was excluded from the camp for seven days because she did not recognize that God had commanded Moses to take this Ethiopian woman as his wife.
[25:56] In fact, Hosea is commanded to take a very disreputable woman as his wife because God has a great lesson to teach to Israel through it.
[26:07] An extraordinary thing, an unusual thing, but an appointment of God. And here we find the same thing. Notice, for example, verse 4 of chapter 14.
[26:20] Look again at what the Spirit tells us here. But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the Lord, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines.
[26:33] For at that time, the Philistines had dominion over Israel. They didn't understand that Samson was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.
[26:44] And it was in that seeking that the Holy Spirit sent him down to Timnath and identified this woman as the woman that was going to begin the process that was going to liberate Israel from the yoke of the Philistines.
[26:58] It was a thing into which the Holy Spirit of God led him as the first act of his ministry. And I think we should look at it just like this.
[27:10] But Samson knows from the beginning, although he might not understand why this woman was particularly chosen, Samson knows that God is going to use it and he's going to use it to bring deliverance.
[27:25] In fact, God is, through this marriage, going to show Israel what Philistines are really like. Not to be deceived by their apparent peacefulness, but to recognize what the Philistines are truly like.
[27:39] Now then, Samson is going to go into this marriage knowing that he's going to reap hardship out of it himself. And that would indicate, I'm sure, that Samson would have fear in his own heart.
[27:54] And there's no doubt he does. But he's not paralyzed. He's determined to bring his parents down with him to Timnath, down there to the marriage. And the parents go with him.
[28:06] And you'll notice, and this is important, on the way down to Timnath, God gives him a sign. And he gives him a sign to encourage him and a sign to strengthen him.
[28:19] And that sign comes in the form of a lion. Look at this in verse 5 of chapter 14. Then Samson went down and his father and his mother to Timnath and came to the vineyards of Timnath.
[28:36] And behold, a young lion roared against him. And the rest of the narrative you know that the lion roared and at the moment at which he roared, the Spirit of God came upon Samson.
[28:49] And he tore this lion apart just as he would have torn the kid of a goat. It was as easy as that. It was almost nothing to him to take this lion with his bare hands and to tear him apart.
[29:04] But he didn't tell his mother or father what he had done. What had happened was this, that they were walking together down to Timnath and when they reached the valley of Zorek where there was a large number of vineyards, Samson took a detour into the vineyard and there suddenly the lion sprang at him and the lion roared at him.
[29:24] And there he killed it. And Samson then caught up with his parents but didn't tell them what had happened. And then again in verse 8 there's a sequel to that.
[29:36] In verse 8 after a time he returned to take his wife. Now what that means is that after they had been to Timnath they returned home and some months later they went down for the actual wedding feast itself.
[29:51] And then he turned aside. He took the same path into the vineyard to see the carcass of the lion and when he did there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass. And he took some of that honey in his hands and again he gave it to his mother and father but he didn't tell them where he had found it.
[30:12] Now it's important to understand that all this is a sign to Samson that God is with him and that the very beginning of his ministry when he's just going to tackle the Philistines for the first time that God is for him and if God is for him nothing can be against him.
[30:34] Now that's a marvelous truth friends and it's a great truth for us all when it comes home to us with power and let me say to you that God would never have given Samson this sign if everything he was doing was wrong.
[30:46] If he was going out of the way and if the spirit was not leading him God would never encourage him like this but the fact of the matter is just when he's about to be baptized into his own ministry and to begin God gives him a marvelous sign of what he will do that he will slay the lion.
[31:04] Now what does the lion represent? Well it represents the Philistines. It represents the mind and the power of the Philistines.
[31:16] And that comes through in different ways. For example it comes through in a kind of play on words even in the chapter itself. You'll notice at the end of verse 5 here we're told that a young lion roared against him and the spirit of the Lord came upon him and he tore him as he would have torn a kid or a young goat.
[31:47] Now it's amazing that you find almost exactly the same thing in chapter 15 except this time it's not a lion it's the real Philistines. In chapter 15 and verse 14 and when he came to Leahy the Philistines shouted at him now it's almost the same idea it's a word that means roaring the Philistines shouted at him and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and the cords upon his arms became like flax burnt with fire and he found a jawbone of Hanas and he put forth his hand took it and with it he slew a thousand men.
[32:32] Now friends we ought to notice the parallelism. The lion roars the spirit comes upon him he kills the lion. That is God just saying to him you live close to me and when the true lion roars he says I will come upon you and you shall defeat the Philistines and you shall give liberty to my people.
[32:53] it's the Philistines the lion. But what else does the lion represent in the Bible? Well you know that the lion represents the power of evil the power of the devil.
[33:06] The Philistines speak of the power of evil the power of the world and the power of the devil. And we're told in 1 Peter 5 that your adversary the devil is a roaring lion going up and down seeking whom he may devour.
[33:26] And the devil himself is like a lion because of his strength and his power. Because of his desire to destroy you, to swallow you in death, to make ruin and havoc of your soul.
[33:38] That is why he is comparable to a lion. And it is this lion that Samson takes and defeats. Now there are wonderful things in this conflict and I just want to bring one or two before you.
[33:51] first of all, notice this, that the lion roars at him. Now what's the significance of that? Well I'll tell you what the significance of it.
[34:02] It's this, that the lion was not roaring at the rest of the people at all. The Philistine lion wasn't roaring at Israel.
[34:14] It was just prowling around and that was enough to keep them quiet. But the minute somebody stands up to actually antagonize the lion, he opens his mouth and he roars.
[34:29] What is the lesson? The lesson is this, that if you're not troubling the devil, the devil will not trouble you. That is the lesson. But the lesson is this, you trouble the devil and the devil will trouble you.
[34:46] You make it your business to cast a blow against the power of darkness. You make it your business to fight God's fight and to do something to extend his kingdom and the lion will show himself to be a lion.
[35:01] He will roar at you and this is a young lion. It's not a whelp. It is a lion in the prime of its strength and that's how Satan will come at you if you're attempting to do God's work.
[35:14] He'll come at you just like that, like a roaring, strong lion. Now it's an amazing thing but when the world is just gaining the ascendancy over you, you don't feel it's too dangerous at all.
[35:29] I mean, I suppose many of you will even look at the things I said earlier and you'll say, well what are you talking about? We don't know hostile governments. We don't know governments that persecute us and oppress us.
[35:40] Well tell me how far do you think we are from that? And I'll tell you how far I think we are from that. It is a hair's breadth between a democracy and a tyranny.
[35:51] A hair's breadth. And it would take little for the world that can begin to treat the church with disdain and contempt to begin to stamp upon it at the same time.
[36:05] It would take little. It would take little for them to consider that Christianity is what needs to be obliterated. and that evangelical reformed people are better just out of the land than they are in it.
[36:17] It would take little. And if you or I don't understand that then we have learned nothing from the history of the world and nothing from the history of the church of Christ. Nothing at all.
[36:29] Once it gains the ascendancy if you begin to fight it will roar. And that's why Christians have been persecuted through the centuries. Because when God came in with them and they began to fight the lion roared.
[36:45] And I wonder if we should ask ourselves if we know the adversary or is he content with our weakness and with how little we seek to do for himself.
[36:56] Something else about Samson's fight with the lion is this. Notice this interesting expression in verse 6. We're told that the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.
[37:07] This is of chapter 14. And he rent him as he would have rent a kid. And he had nothing in his hand. He had nothing in his hand.
[37:22] Why emphasize that? Well he emphasizes that for this reason. That the only power Samson had was the power that God gave him.
[37:35] That's all. There's nothing else. he met that lion with his bare hands because he was dependent upon the spirit of God that had been promised to him, that had been covenanted to him.
[37:50] That is the strength in which he went out to meet this lion with his bare hands. Now there's a very important biblical truth there. Let me take you to another scriptural character.
[38:02] Take David. David had an important date to meet as a young man. He had Goliath to fight and he was a giant of a man. He represented the very devil himself, the very apex and pinnacle of the power of the Philistines.
[38:17] And there he came out every day with his armor roaring and we're told that when he came out the men of Israel hid themselves in the caves. This is the church you see. The church that has lost touch with its God.
[38:30] It goes around hiding in caves and in rocks. It can't take the sight of this man at all. But David comes out to meet him. And they try to dissuade David from fighting him.
[38:42] And in fact they mock him and Goliath himself mocks him. But you know David had had a previous encounter. Do you remember that? David went up to Saul and he said your servant was keeping sheep and I met a lion and I met a bear.
[38:59] And when you read that chapter 1st Samuel 17 you get the distinct feeling that when David says that he got a hold of the lion by the beard and slew it that David did the thing with his bare hands.
[39:12] But he had no weapon either. He had nothing. He just killed the lion with his bare hands. Took a hold of its beard he says and he killed it. Why?
[39:23] Because that was preparing him to fight Goliath himself. He had to do it. Not with armor. Remember Saul gave him his whole armor.
[39:34] Take his breastplate it's the best. Take my armor. Take the lot. Take my sword. Take my shield. And David goes out with that. And he can't move anything. And he takes it off.
[39:45] And he just takes five smooth stones from the brook. And he takes a sling. Let's make them the six items of the armor of faith. Let's make them the six items of God's armor that are presented in Ephesians.
[40:00] The helmet of salvation. The sword of the spirit. The bless blood of righteousness. The feet shod or shooed with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The belt girted belted with truth.
[40:13] That's what he goes out with. Not the weapons of this world. But the weapons that God gives him. And when he goes out to fight with these weapons he wins.
[40:25] And he prevails. 1 Samuel 17 verse 45. Look first at what the Philistines said to him.
[40:37] When the Philistines saw David he disdained him. Couldn't believe what was coming to him. Because he was just a youth. Ruddy man and of a fair countenance.
[40:47] And the Philistine said to David. Am I a dog? He says that you're coming to me with staves. And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And the Philistine said you come to me.
[40:59] And I'll give you flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. But listen to David. David says you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield.
[41:11] But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts. In the name of the God of the armies of Israel whom thou hast defied. And verse 47.
[41:23] All this assembly David says shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hands.
[41:34] And when he says that he takes the simple instrument that God gave him. And he fires it through the air and that stone goes as though it was his eternal destiny to go there and so it was and sinks into the forehead.
[41:47] Notice the crushed head of the serpent. It's the head that must be crushed because this is a symbol of the conquest of Christ. it is into his forehead right at the heart of his power.
[42:01] It goes in and Goliath is flattened by David in the armor of the Lord. And that is how Samson meets the lion. And that's who you are meant to fight too.
[42:13] And that's who I'm meant to fight. I'm meant to fight with faith in God. Believing in what God can do through the simple things. The simple things like prayer and the reading of the Bible and witnessing.
[42:27] The simple things. Not the complicated things. Not the endless labyrinth of complicated things and strategies but through the simple things that God has given us.
[42:40] That is my armor and that is yours. And what we could do if we would use that. How many are Goliath and how many are Philistine how many a part with their bare hands.
[42:52] That tells us that we need nothing of this world. We just need God on our side. That's all. It's interesting. Only one other point do you find Samson using a weapon.
[43:04] And it's the jawbone of an ass. And again that's the exception that proves the rule. Because when he uses that jawbone and I've come to that he uses something that stands for foolishness.
[43:22] It is part of an ass. In Isaiah chapter one we're reminded that the donkey or the ass is just proverbial for foolishness. Well he takes the jawbone of the thing and with it he slays a thousand.
[43:35] Because God with the foolishness of the gospel God with the simple things like a man or a woman on their knees actually does wonders. Wonders. That is our God.
[43:47] But we're so we're slow to use the right armor. We'll almost try anything that Saul can give us before we take the simple things that God himself has put into our hands.
[44:03] He only had his bare hands. We're told that he had nothing in his hand. But we're told this too that the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. That's his secret.
[44:15] And there he is fighting this liar. And with his bare hands he takes a hold of him. And his long hair is a sign that this is the spirit of God that's working in him. And he tears this liar.
[44:27] Tears him apart just as though it was a small kid goat. It is like that because God was with him. And it's as though God is saying you look to me in this journey.
[44:39] you follow me and you will succeed and the Philistines will be trampled under foot. Now before I finish I just want to look at one more thing with you.
[44:51] And I'll only look at a part of it tonight and I'll look at a part of it next time. There's a sequel here. Verse 8. Now the time's running out. Verse 8.
[45:01] After a time. Now this is the same way he went before.
[45:13] He turns aside to see the carcass of the lion. And he sees a remarkable thing. There inside the carcass there is a swarm of bees and the honey which they have just made.
[45:28] Now everyone here probably knows more about bees than I do but apparently bees cannot stand being near flesh rotting flesh.
[45:39] But remarkably here they are inside the carcass of a lion. Now it's possible that this carcass had so dried up that there was nothing as it were rotten about it was an absolutely dried carcass.
[45:52] That would depend on how much time had passed and how hot the weather was. But I think it's better in some ways to think of this as absolutely unusual that it was God's unique provision that inside this carcass there was a swarm of bees and they had made honey.
[46:11] And Samson scoops this honey and he eats it himself and he gives it to his parents. He doesn't tell them where he's got it and the reason for that is because he's already devised the riddle that he's going to put out at the wedding feast and he's not going to share that riddle and father but he doesn't tell them where it's from.
[46:38] I'll go into this in a little more detail next week but I just want to say this tonight whenever you have a spiritual victory you should go back and feed on it and you make sure that you do that and me with you I've lost track myself of the number of times that I have regretted not recording certain things that the Lord has done because our memory isn't perfect and we should revisit them you go back when you need a meal to where God helped you defeat a liar and you will eat honey from it every time you go back to it and be nourished by it because these victories and these tokens are given you to feed upon it time and time again Samson goes back to the sin blessing from it then again there's this whenever you do find precious honey which represents the blessing of God in the word we'll come to that next week whenever you find it give a portion to one and give a portion to the other he can't tell how exactly he got it but he'll share it with others are blessings not found to be shared and if
[47:52] God would give me honey honey which enlightens the eyes according to the Bible it restores the soul if God gives me honey should I not give honey to you and should it not be your duty as the Lord's people to scatter a little here and scatter there go back to the years of the right hand of the most high go back to victories to consecrated places go back to Peniel go back to Ebeneezers it with one another is that not what the Lord would have us do and last of all is God not saying this to Samson that if he but destroy the lion the land will again become a land full of milk and honey because right now the milk and honey has gone we look at our own country it's not a land like it once was flowing with milk and honey but you put on your armor and let me put on mine and let's begin to take a stand and who knows but that we may not out of the carcass get milk and honey for our souls and welcome back to this milk and honey especially in connection with this widow that
[49:07] Samson is going to put out at the wedding feast but may the Lord bless these thoughts on his word let us pray Lord we thank thee for tokens of kindness and mercy we thank thee for thy goodness and we praise thee for the strength that is found at thy right hand help us O Lord to walk in thy power not in our own for we are best when we are emptied of self and when we are filled with thee we are best when we are strengthened by our Lord Jesus Christ then we can do exploits and we pray that they would take us that then we might be more close to thyself that we would learn to walk with thee and speak to the lost who may be amongst us tonight that they may yield themselves to the Lord before they find themselves devoured by the lion who is the devil for
[50:07] Christ's sake Amenmi Thank you.