WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.940 Alright, let's read together from Judges, the Old Testament book of Judges. 00:00:06.940 --> 00:00:11.540 Chapters 14 and 15, we're going to read some sections. 00:00:11.540 --> 00:00:19.240 So we'll read verses 1 to 4, and then from verse 10 to chapter 15 verse 13. 00:00:19.240 --> 00:00:22.620 So I'll say it again as we come to it. 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:29.920 So chapter 14 verse 1 to 4 to begin. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:34.600 Samson went down to Timna, and at Timna he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 00:00:34.600 --> 00:00:38.000 Then he came up and he told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:39.880 Philistines at Timna. 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:42.600 Now get her for me as my wife. 00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:46.159 But his father and his mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:52.560 your relatives or among all our people that you must go take a wife from the uncircumsticed 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:53.560 Philistines? 00:00:53.560 --> 00:00:58.840 But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. 00:00:58.840 --> 00:01:03.640 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity 00:01:03.640 --> 00:01:05.600 against the Philistines. 00:01:05.600 --> 00:01:08.960 At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel. 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:15.520 And then jumped down to verse 10. 00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:20.640 Samson's father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:25.480 young men used to do, and as soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be 00:01:25.480 --> 00:01:26.480 with him. 00:01:26.480 --> 00:01:29.560 And Samson said to them, Let me now put a riddle to you. 00:01:29.560 --> 00:01:34.519 If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I 00:01:34.519 --> 00:01:38.920 will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:42.519 But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 00:01:42.519 --> 00:01:43.519 changes of clothes. 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:47.280 And they said to him, Put your riddle, that way we may hear it. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:52.320 And he said to them, Out of the eater came something to eat. 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:54.599 Out of the strong came something sweet. 00:01:54.599 --> 00:01:58.400 And in three days they could not solve the riddle. 00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:03.640 On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:08.080 is, lest we burn you in your father's house with fire. 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:10.520 Have you invited us here to impoverish us? 00:02:10.520 --> 00:02:14.879 And Samson's wife wept over him and said, You only hate me. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:16.400 You do not love me. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:17.960 You've put a riddle to my people. 00:02:17.960 --> 00:02:20.159 You've not told me what it is. 00:02:20.159 --> 00:02:24.800 And he said to her, Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:26.120 you? 00:02:26.120 --> 00:02:29.680 She wept before him for the seven days that their feast lasted. 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:34.080 And on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:36.120 Then she told the riddle to her people. 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:40.040 And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What 00:02:40.040 --> 00:02:41.040 is sweeter than honey? 00:02:41.040 --> 00:02:43.319 What is stronger than a lion? 00:02:43.319 --> 00:02:47.759 And he said to them, If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:48.759 my riddle. 00:02:48.759 --> 00:02:51.879 And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. 00:02:51.879 --> 00:02:55.159 And he went down to Ashkelon and struck down 30 men of the town. 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:59.359 And he took their spoil and he gave the garments to those who had explained the riddle. 00:02:59.359 --> 00:03:02.799 And in hot anger he went back to his father's house. 00:03:02.799 --> 00:03:07.039 And Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man. 00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:11.240 And after some days at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young 00:03:11.240 --> 00:03:12.240 goat. 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.159 And he said, I will go into my wife in the chamber. 00:03:15.159 --> 00:03:17.080 But her father would not allow him to go in. 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:21.320 And her father said, I really thought that you utterly hated her. 00:03:21.320 --> 00:03:23.480 So I gave her to your companion. 00:03:23.480 --> 00:03:26.400 Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:27.400 Please take her instead. 00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:31.400 And Samson said to them, This time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines 00:03:31.400 --> 00:03:32.960 when I do them harm. 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:36.800 So Samson went and he called 300 foxes and he took torches. 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:41.000 And he turned them tail to tail and he put a torch between each pair of their tails. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:45.240 And when he had set a fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing corn 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:46.240 of the Philistines. 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:51.919 And he set fire to the stacked corn and the standing corn as well as the olive orchards. 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:54.039 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? 00:03:54.039 --> 00:03:58.240 And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:00.319 given her to his companion. 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:03.800 And the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:10.080 Samson said to them, If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:11.960 And after that I will quit. 00:04:11.960 --> 00:04:15.400 And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow. 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:19.240 And he went down and he stayed in the cleft of the rock of Ytom. 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:25.040 And then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:27.960 And the men of Judah said, Why have you come up against us? 00:04:27.960 --> 00:04:32.720 They said, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:37.520 Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Ytom and said to Samson, Do 00:04:37.519 --> 00:04:40.839 you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? 00:04:40.839 --> 00:04:43.439 What then is this that you have done to us? 00:04:43.439 --> 00:04:46.719 And he said to them, As they did to me, so I have done to them. 00:04:46.719 --> 00:04:50.519 And they said to him, We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:52.039 of the Philistines. 00:04:52.039 --> 00:04:56.560 And Samson said to them, Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. 00:04:56.560 --> 00:05:00.959 They said to him, No, we will only bind you and we will give you into their hands and 00:05:00.959 --> 00:05:03.319 we will surely not kill you. 00:05:03.319 --> 00:05:07.480 So they balanced him with two new ropes and they brought him up from the rock. 00:05:07.480 --> 00:05:16.600 This is God's holy word. 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:22.439 So tonight we are, we're cutting on with our, our series within a series. 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:25.279 We're looking at judges or we have been the last few weeks. 00:05:25.279 --> 00:05:30.639 And over three weeks we are looking at Samson and the last judge in the book. 00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:34.839 And really these few chapters are just saying again, and what we have been saying the last 00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:38.399 few weeks in the middle of hopelessness. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:44.759 That is where God brings hope for people who think that they can escape or work out of their 00:05:44.759 --> 00:05:46.000 own trouble themselves. 00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:50.079 God says, No, no, hope really begins with him. 00:05:50.079 --> 00:05:55.839 And, and in ways that seem impossible, that that is exactly how God comes to you and gives 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:57.639 you what you need to. 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:02.000 And in some ways we're cutting on with that idea tonight. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:07.680 We've read parts of chapter 14 and 15 and I think, I think we're glued to this story 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:11.399 really with every verse you wonder what is going to happen next. 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:13.240 What is Samson going to do now? 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:18.680 That is the question constantly on our minds as we, as we read this story. 00:06:18.680 --> 00:06:23.479 We'd introduce to him as a very impulsive person. 00:06:23.479 --> 00:06:26.360 He sees a woman and he wants her simple as that. 00:06:26.360 --> 00:06:29.480 That is the first thing we know about Samson. 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:32.280 So he tells his parents to get her for him. 00:06:32.280 --> 00:06:35.160 He's going to organize this wedding feast. 00:06:35.160 --> 00:06:41.439 And at this wedding feast, he puts this riddle to the Philistines just for his own enjoyment, 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:42.520 just to wind them up. 00:06:42.520 --> 00:06:47.160 If they guess it, he will gift them expensive clothing that they cheat. 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:54.680 And so he goes down, kills 30 men, steals their clothing and uses that to pay off his, 00:06:54.680 --> 00:07:01.400 if that's not enough, his wife is given away to his best man by Samson's father-in-law. 00:07:01.400 --> 00:07:02.639 So what does he do? 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:07.960 Gets 150 pairs of foxes, ties them by the tail and sends them off with the torch between 00:07:07.960 --> 00:07:09.920 them to light up the crop. 00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:15.879 Absolutely wrecks the economy as all that Samson is doing in this chapter. 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:23.079 The Philistines come to attack the Israelites, but they bind up Samson and they tie him up 00:07:23.079 --> 00:07:27.560 and they send him off ready to be killed by the Philistines. 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:31.519 And we didn't read the end of the story, but it's not until right at the end, it's not 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:35.319 until that very last verse that Samson prays. 00:07:35.319 --> 00:07:40.639 After all of this, he prays, as if he's making up for everything that's happened. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.199 It's a humorous story in some ways when you read it. 00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:45.839 It's a very engaging story. 00:07:45.839 --> 00:07:50.360 As you'll see, it should be on Netflix, probably. 00:07:50.360 --> 00:07:53.600 As you follow Samson and watch all that he does. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:58.240 And yet as humorous as it is and as engaging as it is, it's probably one of the most devastating 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:01.160 stories in the Bible. 00:08:01.160 --> 00:08:06.080 And it's one of the more devastating stories because no one in these two chapters does anything 00:08:06.080 --> 00:08:09.120 good. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:14.439 It's a story of action and reaction, almost everything that is done and said and all that 00:08:14.439 --> 00:08:18.240 we've read is evil. 00:08:18.240 --> 00:08:22.160 From the moment Samson lays eyes on the Philistine women. 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:27.639 So we have the Philistines, these evil tyrants taking over the land, reeling over the Israelites. 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:33.879 We have the Israelites, they are called to live differently to the rest of the world. 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:36.919 You see in this chapter, they really don't want to do that. 00:08:36.919 --> 00:08:38.480 They'll do anything but that. 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.960 And then you have Samson, apparently the hero of the story. 00:08:41.960 --> 00:08:45.519 He breaks just about every rule possible. 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:49.720 He's meant to be a judge, he's meant to be the one who saves them and yet he only operates 00:08:49.720 --> 00:08:54.360 the whole time out of self-interest. 00:08:54.360 --> 00:08:58.559 The world that we are reading about as funny as it seems, the world that we are reading 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:00.360 about is a complete mess. 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.199 And judge is 14 and 15. 00:09:03.199 --> 00:09:08.879 And yet God's answer to it all is still the same as it's always been throughout this book. 00:09:08.879 --> 00:09:14.639 God's answer is still about saving his people. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:18.559 God's work is still to bring hope out of hopelessness. 00:09:18.559 --> 00:09:24.960 There's so much going on here and we've missed parts of it out. 00:09:24.960 --> 00:09:29.439 We don't have time to look at every verse itself and we're going to skim through these 00:09:29.439 --> 00:09:33.319 two chapters and we're not going to think about every scene. 00:09:33.319 --> 00:09:41.720 But the clearest thing in this episode in Samson's life, the clearest thing is that 00:09:41.720 --> 00:09:47.279 God's big answer is to save his people despite their disengagement. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:51.759 That is the clearest thing in these two chapters. 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:56.800 So just on that, God's answer to our disengagement, two points. 00:09:56.800 --> 00:10:02.680 How we can diagnose, how we can think about how we might be disengaged as Christians. 00:10:02.680 --> 00:10:04.720 And then secondly, God's big answer to that. 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.279 So firstly, how we can diagnose our disengagement. 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:13.399 James in his letter in the New Testament, he gives us an idea of what this means and 00:10:13.399 --> 00:10:17.319 really he summarizes who Samson is and he says this, 00:10:17.319 --> 00:10:22.319 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks internally 00:10:22.319 --> 00:10:24.319 as natural face in a mirror. 00:10:24.319 --> 00:10:29.720 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 00:10:29.720 --> 00:10:34.600 To be disengaged in terms of the Christian life is simply not to love God and not to 00:10:34.600 --> 00:10:38.720 obey him like we've been told to. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:41.399 And Samson is a picture of what that looks like. 00:10:41.399 --> 00:10:46.440 Samson is very much a man who could look in a mirror and walk away and forget what he 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:47.440 looks like. 00:10:47.440 --> 00:10:52.879 He's chosen by God to be the judge, a savior to his people and immediately he walks away 00:10:52.879 --> 00:10:58.680 and all you see is he just forgets who he is called to be. 00:10:58.680 --> 00:11:01.600 He does many things here, says many things. 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:06.560 It's all very strange when you read these verses. 00:11:06.560 --> 00:11:13.200 But the writer, the way he lays out these two chapters, he wants us to see that Samson 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:18.560 is doing a lot of saying and a lot of doing. 00:11:18.560 --> 00:11:23.360 He wants us to be clear in that, that he is completely disengaged from who he is meant 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:24.360 to be. 00:11:24.360 --> 00:11:29.800 So just a few ways the writer shows us that, becomes clearer as we work through it. 00:11:29.799 --> 00:11:34.439 The structure of these chapters, it keeps on highlighting as we've said, what Samson 00:11:34.439 --> 00:11:38.359 does, what he says, what he thinks. 00:11:38.359 --> 00:11:46.679 In such a dense story we're meant to see that he lacks control over his impulses. 00:11:46.679 --> 00:11:51.479 So he sees a Philistine woman and immediately he just wants her. 00:11:51.479 --> 00:11:54.599 That is the first line of the story. 00:11:54.599 --> 00:11:57.000 And he demands his parents to organize his wedding. 00:11:57.000 --> 00:12:02.200 At the wedding he tells the Philistines this riddle they cheat, so he just simply goes 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:06.879 and kills 30 men and steals their clothes. 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:13.480 His father-in-law won't let him see his wife, goes and burns their source of income. 00:12:13.480 --> 00:12:16.919 Very little thought in what he is doing. 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:23.519 There is no sense here of Samson being just in any of these actions. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:24.799 He sees and he does. 00:12:24.799 --> 00:12:27.639 He has no control over his impulses. 00:12:27.639 --> 00:12:34.240 And actually what makes us harder is what he says in chapter 16. 00:12:34.240 --> 00:12:37.679 He says he's in Nazareth, which we looked at last week. 00:12:37.679 --> 00:12:40.439 He knows this strict code that he's meant to live by. 00:12:40.439 --> 00:12:42.000 He's fully aware of it. 00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:48.639 And yeah, he just goes on acting on impulse and doing what he likes. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:54.120 The whole way through Judges, we've watched the Israelites become more and more used to 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:58.120 living under the rule of the enemy. 00:12:58.120 --> 00:13:01.080 The Judges have saved them over time from that. 00:13:01.080 --> 00:13:07.879 The first thing Samson does is he goes after the daughter of the enemy. 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:10.679 He's very much being steered by his desire for this woman. 00:13:10.679 --> 00:13:15.399 And he knows where she is from. 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:19.759 And there is distrust between his people and hers, but he wants it anyway, despite all 00:13:19.759 --> 00:13:22.759 the suspicion. 00:13:22.759 --> 00:13:24.399 You know, Elvis thinks about this. 00:13:24.399 --> 00:13:28.399 He struggles to cope in a tense relationship. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:31.919 And he says, we can't go on like this with suspicious minds. 00:13:31.919 --> 00:13:33.240 Samson is completely opposite. 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:37.240 He's very happy to go on in that case. 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.960 Doesn't matter if she likes his people or he likes hers. 00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:49.879 He doesn't even get the picture when her father tries to keep her from him. 00:13:49.879 --> 00:13:52.200 Samson is completely disengaged with his calling. 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:58.840 He's so controlled by violence and his desire that he will marry the enemy if he wants. 00:13:58.840 --> 00:14:07.200 He will stop at nothing to get the women if he wants her. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:12.800 Another place we see this disengagement, and it's in verse 3 of chapter 14. 00:14:12.800 --> 00:14:15.720 His parents try and warn him that this is a bad idea. 00:14:15.720 --> 00:14:18.759 He probably shouldn't marry this woman. 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:29.080 And what does he say, get her for me, for she is right in my eyes. 00:14:29.080 --> 00:14:36.519 Disengagement in the Christian life, coming away from who you are meant to be, is to act 00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:45.000 in a way that we have not been told to because it is right in our eyes. 00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:48.879 This saying is common in this book, to be right in their eyes. 00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:53.000 It's usually the writer saying that the Israelites are the ones who are doing what's right in 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.000 their eyes, and the judge comes and saves them from that. 00:14:56.000 --> 00:15:01.759 Well, in this case, it's the judge who says it. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:05.360 And Samson says it twice just to let us know where he really sits. 00:15:05.360 --> 00:15:07.919 Whether God wants it or not is another thing. 00:15:07.919 --> 00:15:09.720 Samson wants it. 00:15:09.720 --> 00:15:17.240 He will behave how he likes because it's right in his own eyes. 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:23.399 We said last week, you know, the story of his birth, it really gets us excited thinking 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:28.639 that this is going to be the judge who's really going to make everything right. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:33.200 It's devastating when you realize that he is hardly different at all to the typical 00:15:33.200 --> 00:15:36.200 Israelite. 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:37.840 He behaves in exactly the same way. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:39.320 He does what he thinks is right. 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:43.000 It doesn't matter how God sees it. 00:15:43.000 --> 00:15:45.480 It's how he sees it. 00:15:45.480 --> 00:15:52.680 He looks in the mirror, he walks away and forgets who he is. 00:15:52.680 --> 00:15:59.160 One more place we can see this coming away from who he is meant to be, this disengagement. 00:15:59.160 --> 00:16:02.520 And it's not in Samson himself, it's in his people. 00:16:02.520 --> 00:16:05.840 It's in the Israelites. 00:16:05.840 --> 00:16:09.879 After he gets his revenge on the Philistines for killing his wife, his own people come 00:16:09.879 --> 00:16:13.360 to arrest him and we read it just towards the end of that reading. 00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:16.519 It says in 15 verse 11, this is Israelite speaking. 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:20.920 Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? 00:16:20.920 --> 00:16:25.960 What then is this that you have done to us? 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:27.600 You see what they are saying. 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:31.360 They are happy to submit. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:35.000 They are happy to surrender. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.759 They are more than happy to give in to the people who have captured them than trust the 00:16:39.759 --> 00:16:43.799 one who has been sent to save them. 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:47.600 Samson for all his faults has been chosen by God to deliver the people and they won't 00:16:47.600 --> 00:16:48.600 have it. 00:16:48.600 --> 00:16:53.679 Instead they bind them up and they send them off. 00:16:53.679 --> 00:17:01.480 In 1973, a convict on parole with one of his friends, he attempted to rob this bank 00:17:01.480 --> 00:17:02.639 in Stockholm. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:08.119 The two of them take these four bank employees hostage, hold them at gunpoint over the course 00:17:08.119 --> 00:17:13.359 of six days and the police are outside the whole time working at how they are going to 00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:18.359 get in, how they are going to save these people, how they are going to capture these convicts. 00:17:18.359 --> 00:17:22.920 Over those six days, what the police aren't realizing is that the four people who are 00:17:22.920 --> 00:17:29.279 held hostage are actually beginning to form a bond with the people that have captured 00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:30.279 them. 00:17:30.279 --> 00:17:35.079 It turns out these hostages didn't really want to be saved at all. 00:17:35.079 --> 00:17:38.879 One woman in particular who was being held hostage, she was allowed on the phone partway 00:17:38.879 --> 00:17:43.920 through these six days to the prime minister of Sweden. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:49.359 She said, I'm not desperate at all. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:54.399 What I'm scared of is that the police will attack and cause us to die. 00:17:54.399 --> 00:17:58.799 The captors have been very nice, she says. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:04.960 In the middle of them being held prisoners, they mistook these small hints of freedom 00:18:04.960 --> 00:18:07.960 for true freedom. 00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:11.519 That is the first known case of, well, it's called Stockholm syndrome. 00:18:11.519 --> 00:18:16.039 That's the first known case unless you read the Judges 14 and 15. 00:18:16.039 --> 00:18:23.159 The Israelites have gotten used to the little freedom that they have and they're willing 00:18:23.159 --> 00:18:25.919 to give up on it when someone comes. 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:31.400 They're willing to give up their true freedom when someone comes along to deliver them. 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:39.039 The problem at the heart of the Israeli way of life is that they do not want to be any 00:18:39.039 --> 00:18:40.480 different from their oppressor. 00:18:40.480 --> 00:18:45.519 In fact, they've got quite used to living underneath these people and going by their 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:46.519 rules. 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:55.080 In every way, they want to fly under the radar when Samson begins to disrupt this relationship. 00:18:55.079 --> 00:18:58.879 The idols, the values that the Philistines hold, their way of life. 00:18:58.879 --> 00:19:04.519 God's people want it for themselves. 00:19:04.519 --> 00:19:09.639 In many ways, they want to get rid of the distinction between them and the rest of the 00:19:09.639 --> 00:19:10.639 world. 00:19:10.639 --> 00:19:14.359 All throughout these two chapters, all we're saying is all throughout these two chapters 00:19:14.359 --> 00:19:23.679 that it's complete disengagement between who these people are meant to be and who they 00:19:23.679 --> 00:19:24.679 really are. 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:31.600 It is a disaster when you read these stories. 00:19:31.600 --> 00:19:36.720 All you can do when you come to this, all you can do when you come to these two chapters 00:19:36.720 --> 00:19:42.440 is ask yourself the question, is this me? 00:19:42.440 --> 00:19:47.000 Is there disengagement between who I am meant to be and how I really live? 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:55.359 Do I look in the mirror like James says and then go on and forget who I really am? 00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:01.920 Do I forget that I am meant to completely love God and obey Him, or do I go on and forget 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:05.759 all about it? 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:11.599 A few ways we can diagnose that much more precisely, which we've done already in these 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:12.599 verses. 00:20:12.599 --> 00:20:17.599 Do I act on impulse is the first question. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:21.799 Are there areas in my life where I do very little to control my sin? 00:20:21.799 --> 00:20:28.079 Are there areas where I don't think I just act? 00:20:28.079 --> 00:20:32.079 You don't have to have the same desire or outbursts as Samson does, but the question 00:20:32.079 --> 00:20:34.279 is still open. 00:20:34.279 --> 00:20:40.839 Are there habits in my life that I know I have that are incompatible with my calling 00:20:40.839 --> 00:20:41.839 as a Christian? 00:20:41.839 --> 00:20:46.799 Do I just leave them and not try to fight them? 00:20:46.799 --> 00:20:51.439 John Owen, the Puritan writer, we've heard it a million times, he says, kill sin before 00:20:51.439 --> 00:20:54.079 it kills you. 00:20:54.079 --> 00:20:57.959 Do I act on impulse without even trying to control my faults? 00:20:57.959 --> 00:21:04.879 Do I let my failings go unchecked? 00:21:04.879 --> 00:21:09.439 Do I do what is right in my own eyes? 00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:13.960 Other days where I do what I want because it suits me regardless of what God says about 00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:14.960 it. 00:21:14.960 --> 00:21:22.240 Another way of wording that is to ask, do I make an excuse for my behavior? 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:25.080 Regardless of how God sees it, I'm just being me. 00:21:25.080 --> 00:21:27.840 It's just who I am. 00:21:27.840 --> 00:21:30.400 It's fine in my own eyes. 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:37.000 It's closely linked to being impulsive, but the difference is you're going a step further 00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:41.759 and you're justifying your behavior. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:54.519 Or like the rest of the people in this story, do you compromise on your faith? 00:21:54.519 --> 00:21:58.960 Are there ways in which I give in to the values of the world around me and give up the distinction 00:21:58.960 --> 00:22:00.720 I have as a Christian? 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:05.079 Are there things that I am afraid to say to my friends, even if they ask me? 00:22:05.079 --> 00:22:10.960 Are there parts of my faith as a Christian that make me so different to the rest of the 00:22:10.960 --> 00:22:18.319 world that I compromise on them to not be so different? 00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:28.639 Or are there attitudes to work and to lifestyle and to justice and to mercy that I take on 00:22:28.639 --> 00:22:34.439 because I feel pressured to? 00:22:34.440 --> 00:22:38.640 One might say from the start of the Bible that his people are completely distinct from 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:40.120 the rest of the world. 00:22:40.120 --> 00:22:47.320 When I'm with my friends, when I'm with my family, when I'm with my work colleagues and 00:22:47.320 --> 00:22:51.680 see the sort of freedom that they have, the sort of freedom they seem to have to do whatever 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:55.720 they want, am I really happy to be this distinct? 00:22:55.720 --> 00:22:57.279 Or do I compromise on it? 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:05.960 The real judge is 14 and 15, and you see how bleak it is because it asks these questions. 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:13.720 And the answer is at times, most likely yes. 00:23:13.720 --> 00:23:15.879 We don't always love God like we're meant to. 00:23:15.879 --> 00:23:21.720 We see who we are in the mirror, and we come away from it and we forget. 00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:26.759 Whether we act on impulse, whether we do what is right in our own eyes, whether we compromise 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:33.680 on who we are and what we believe. 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:38.839 It's really easy, you see, to diagnose this problem. 00:23:38.839 --> 00:23:44.440 It's easy to understand their own disengagement. 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:47.920 God's big answer to that, our second point. 00:23:47.920 --> 00:23:52.920 God's reply to that, and it's the only hope we have really in this story. 00:23:52.920 --> 00:23:56.160 It's in verse 4 of chapter 14. 00:23:56.160 --> 00:24:02.440 His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for he was seeking an opportunity 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:05.840 against the Philistines. 00:24:05.840 --> 00:24:09.960 If you are backwards in this story, you see it all comes back to this verse. 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:15.040 The Philistines want Samson because he slaughtered their people. 00:24:15.040 --> 00:24:18.320 But he did that because they murdered his wife. 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:20.880 They murdered his wife because he burnt their crop. 00:24:20.880 --> 00:24:25.920 He burnt their crop because his father-in-law gave his wife away. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:29.680 His father-in-law did that because of his outbursts. 00:24:29.680 --> 00:24:32.519 He has outbursts because he doesn't get his way at the wedding. 00:24:32.519 --> 00:24:33.519 Why is he at a wedding? 00:24:33.519 --> 00:24:36.080 Because he sets his eyes on the wrong woman. 00:24:36.080 --> 00:24:41.400 And you're right at the start of that, is this verse. 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:47.519 God uses it all as an opportunity against the Philistines. 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:52.440 He uses every single action in this story, as awful as every single action is. 00:24:52.440 --> 00:24:59.519 He uses all of them to keep his people separate from the rest of the world. 00:24:59.519 --> 00:25:06.840 It says in chapter 13, we looked at it last week, Samson begins to save the people. 00:25:06.840 --> 00:25:08.880 He begins to defeat the Philistines. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:14.400 This is the start of what's going to take hundreds of years in the Bible to happen. 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:18.279 And God uses every action. 00:25:18.279 --> 00:25:21.080 The big question is over the wording of this verse. 00:25:21.079 --> 00:25:24.839 Why is it written as if God has encouraged all of this to happen? 00:25:24.839 --> 00:25:27.359 He doesn't encourage it to happen. 00:25:27.359 --> 00:25:33.399 It's just saying that he uses the weakness and the evil that has overcome this part of 00:25:33.399 --> 00:25:36.319 history. 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:41.279 He has used this man who's completely neglected his calling as judge. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:49.839 He has used this point in history, a completely broken place, to work out his salvation. 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:55.359 If Samson is really going to chase the daughter of the enemy, which results in all this chaos, 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:58.519 God will work in that, he says. 00:25:58.519 --> 00:25:59.720 And what is his plan? 00:25:59.720 --> 00:26:02.119 What is his plan in all of it? 00:26:02.119 --> 00:26:06.079 God's big plan, all you can look at in this story is God's big plan. 00:26:06.079 --> 00:26:11.559 And his big plan is to save his people, no matter the cost. 00:26:11.559 --> 00:26:14.199 His people, whether they like it or not, are separate. 00:26:14.199 --> 00:26:15.519 They want to be like the Philistines. 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:21.639 No, he won't have it because he loves them. 00:26:21.639 --> 00:26:28.720 He will come and even if he has to, he will use the most horrendous behavior to bring 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.279 his people to himself. 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:36.519 Where does he show that fully? 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:42.839 You see in Peter's sermon at Pentecost, in Acts 2, Peter says, this Jesus delivered up 00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:48.720 according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:50.959 of lawless men. 00:26:50.959 --> 00:26:58.319 The reason that you can look forward to tomorrow is because this Jesus was put on a cross and 00:26:58.319 --> 00:27:01.079 came up again three days later. 00:27:01.079 --> 00:27:10.679 And through the most evil intent of the people around him, to kill a man who did no harm whatsoever, 00:27:10.680 --> 00:27:15.279 he made it so that you could know God and understand his love. 00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:21.880 God's purpose in the book of Judges is to save his people for himself. 00:27:21.880 --> 00:27:25.960 Even where it looks like there is no good whatsoever, he works in Samson, a man who 00:27:25.960 --> 00:27:32.240 forgets his vows, a man who only prays when he is desperate. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:35.720 God works to keep his people separate from a world which is crumbling. 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:37.720 It's mysterious. 00:27:37.720 --> 00:27:40.080 I think it's all we can say. 00:27:40.079 --> 00:27:46.319 It's mysterious, but it's the hope he gives us in chapter 14. 00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:52.559 God's answer to your disengagement, God's answer to your failings this coming week is 00:27:52.559 --> 00:28:01.039 to bring about an end where he is at last with you and you're with him. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:03.679 God loves his people. 00:28:03.679 --> 00:28:09.480 And like in the days of Samson, he loves them so much that he promises to at last save us 00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:14.360 fully even despite who we are. 00:28:14.360 --> 00:28:20.400 The writer, Dale Ralph Davis, he's a Bible commentator and his commentary on Judges, 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:25.160 he's called it, such a great salvation. 00:28:25.160 --> 00:28:33.839 And all you can say at the end of chapter 15 is such a great salvation. 00:28:33.839 --> 00:28:39.399 If you spend this week at times acting on impulse, if you find yourself doing what is 00:28:39.399 --> 00:28:45.879 right in your eyes, if you feel tempted to compromise just to keep the peace with the 00:28:45.879 --> 00:28:54.639 world around you, Jesus went to the cross and made it so that even at times when you 00:28:54.639 --> 00:28:59.919 are disengaged, you will one day see him and he will be with you. 00:28:59.920 --> 00:29:04.279 That's how much he loves you. 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:14.200 As God's big answer to your disengagement, such a great salvation is all you can say. 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:20.920 Couple things, just to close, couple things you can do or think about this week. 00:29:20.920 --> 00:29:23.200 We have to say in light of that. 00:29:23.200 --> 00:29:28.039 On the other side of that, we have no excuse to carry on like this. 00:29:28.039 --> 00:29:31.599 That's not what we're saying at all. 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:35.519 This passage doesn't say much about our freedom to do what we want. 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:40.839 It says God is sovereign and nothing will stop him completing his plan of redeeming 00:29:40.839 --> 00:29:41.839 his people. 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:45.879 The reality all the way through the book of Judges is that people still face the consequences 00:29:45.879 --> 00:29:48.440 for their sin. 00:29:48.440 --> 00:29:52.159 The people still suffer because they continue to worship idols. 00:29:52.159 --> 00:29:55.359 And that theme is taken up throughout the Bible. 00:29:55.359 --> 00:30:02.199 In Hebrews it says God reminds us of our need of him by humbling and disciplining us. 00:30:02.199 --> 00:30:09.399 So even though you know you're at end, your shortcomings, our shortcomings, don't go unchecked 00:30:09.399 --> 00:30:11.959 by God as the reality. 00:30:11.959 --> 00:30:12.959 That's one thing to remember. 00:30:12.959 --> 00:30:20.519 The other thing to do is to pray really specifically that you would find joy in obeying God's 00:30:20.519 --> 00:30:23.279 word. 00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:27.359 And one says that the person who lives according to God's word, the one who delights in it, 00:30:27.359 --> 00:30:33.319 the one who looks in the mirror and remembers who he is throughout the rest of the week, 00:30:33.319 --> 00:30:37.200 that person is like a tree planted by streams of water. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:45.799 There is stability for the one who knows their tendencies and yet who takes joy in obeying 00:30:45.799 --> 00:30:47.440 God's word. 00:30:47.440 --> 00:30:52.240 Even in the middle of struggle, you see that that's not the case in Judges for people who 00:30:52.240 --> 00:30:53.440 do not trust in him. 00:30:53.440 --> 00:30:57.000 They struggle on, they live in fear. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:02.839 God gives stability even in the middle of heartache to those who take joy in obeying 00:31:02.839 --> 00:31:05.440 his word. 00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:23.400 That is where God promises you stability until you see Jesus.