March 5 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him. Judges 16:20 This verse is the most tragic in the entire book. “How could Samson be so stupid?” we wonder. I suggest he knew Delilah was no good, that he knew Delilah was setting him up. I mean, he had already seen that three times previously. He wasn’t dumb. But I believe what was happening in his mind was the same thing that happens in ours. You see, God had told him that, as a Nazarite, he must not touch grapes, must not touch carcasses, and must not cut his hair. He touched grapes - and nothing happened. He touched a carcass - and nothing happened. So, he must have thought that if he cut his hair nothing would happen. So too, we think “Maybe the Bible isn’t really as strict as it sounds. Maybe it doesn’t really matter if I compromise a little here and a little there. Maybe I can get away with it. Maybe it’s okay.” But it’s not, and we won’t, for it doesn’t work that way. What a shock it must have been to Samson when he suddenly found himself weak, helpless, wiped out. Although Samson missed a fantastic opportunity, we read in Hebrews 11 that he is one of the few men who were inducted into God’s “Hall of Faith.” This means that, although in our estimation, Samson might be described as mediocre, God saw something in Samson which placed him in a very select group that made him a giant in God’s economy. I suggest to you that Samson plays a monumental role in God’s economy because he portrays the Person of Jesus Christ in a most wonderful way. “How can this be?” you ask. “Samson ignored the counsel of his godly parents. He was ensnared with Philistine women. He was proud and arrogant. How can it be that he is a picture of Jesus?” In Matthew 12:40, Jesus reached back to the story of a mediocre man named Jonah and said, “As Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights, so will the Son of Man be in the center of the earth, buried. And even as Jonah was spewed out, so will I rise again.” In other words, Jesus was able to reach back to Jonah and say, “This guy pictures My resurrection.” And I suggest He could do the same with Samson. I suggest He could say, “Samson pictures Me - not My resurrection, but My death. As he stood with his hands outstretched, pushing against the pillars, saying, ‘Let me die that the enemies of Israel might perish,’ so too, with arms outstretched, I died that the hordes of hell might be beaten back.” with Jon Curson joncurson
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 11:31:58 +0000
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