Strength Made Perfect in Failure

This morning, we're going to look at the story of Samson. The account of Samson in the book of Judges spans four chapters across the book, which makes it one of the longest accounts of one of Israel's judges. The story begins in chapter 13 with that phrase that we've become very familiar with: the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord gave them into the hands of their enemies, the Philistines. We see God coming to a barren couple in chapter 13, promising them to have a son.

God tells them that their boy will be set apart for the Lord, that he was to be given a special task. This dedication vow would make him a Nazirite, a special service to God. As such, he was not to drink wine, he was not to eat anything non-kosher, unclean, nor was he to cut his hair as an outward sign of his vow. In the story of Samson, the spirit of God comes upon him and he is given incredible strength. In his first recorded act, Samson tears a lion apart with his bare hands.

On another occasion, he kills a thousand Philistine enemies with the jawbone of a donkey. And at the start of our passage this morning, chapter 16, we see him ripping off the city gates to the Philistine capital Gaza, carrying them for miles and placing them on top of a hill. Chapter 15:20 says that Samson is a judge and a ruler of the people of Israel. And he was one for twenty years. But if you know the story of Samson, and many of us do, we are also aware of the intrigues of his life.

That although he has incredible strength, he has incredible moral weaknesses. He's a man controlled by lust. Lust for women, specifically, Philistine women. He's arrogant, self-centred, abuses the gifts that God has given him to meet and satisfy his own personal goals. It ultimately costs Samson his freedom, his life.

Because although Samson could strangle a lion with his bare hands, we see that he cannot even handle the seduction of a single woman. And that is where we find ourselves this morning, in Judges chapter 16 starting from verse one. This is the account of Samson and Delilah. Now Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went in to her. The Gazites were told, "Samson has come here."

And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night saying, "Let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him." But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts and pulled them up, bar and all. And he put them on his shoulders and he carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. After this, he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.

And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, "Seduce him and see where his great strength lies. And by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver." So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength lies and how you might be bound that one could subdue you." Samson said to her, "If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man."

Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. Now she had men lying in ambush in her inner chamber and she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." But he snapped the bowstrings as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, "Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies.

Please tell me how you might be bound." And he said to her, "If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man." So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber, but he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread. Then Delilah said to Samson, "Until now, you have mocked me and told me lies.

Tell me how you might be bound." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my head with a web and fasten it tight with a pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man." So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom and the web.

And she said to him, "How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times and you have not told me where your great strength lies." And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart and said to her, "A razor has never come upon my head for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man."

When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines saying, "Come up again, for he has told me all his heart." Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him and his strength left him.

And she said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had left him. And the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles and he ground at the mill in the prison. But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice. And they said, "Our god has given Samson, our enemy, into our hand." And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, "Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country who has killed many of us." And when their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson that he may entertain us."

So they called Samson out of the prison and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests that I may lean against them." Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there.

And on the roof, there were about 3,000 men and women who looked on while Samson entertained. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, "Oh Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once. Oh God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes." And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. And Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines."

Then he bowed with all his strength and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years. Chapter 16 is the climactic end to the life of an enigmatic man named Samson.

For years, Samson had been a serious thorn in the side of Israel's latest enemies, the Philistines. At the start of chapter 16, however, where do we find Israel's great saviour? We find him in the Philistine capital, Gaza. Is he waging war against the Philistines? Is he battling to overcome them and to capture the enemy city?

No. We find him in a brothel in the arms of a prostitute. The Philistine leaders find out that he's in the city and they plan to ambush him. Samson somehow finds out about this, sneaks out in the middle of the night, ripping the doors of the city gates off its hinges, carries them for miles. Why does he do this?

To humiliate the Philistines. A city without its gates is a laughing stock. The gates to a city mark the city's strength. A city without gates is seriously vulnerable to attack. And after causing the city to be vulnerable, does Samson attack?

He doesn't. We find Samson going to the next door valley and becoming obsessed with a Philistine woman named Delilah. But the Philistines have been mocked one time too many. The power of his lust and sexual attraction, well, that is absolutely terrifying and destructive. Samson has played with fire one too many times, and this time, this fire will consume him.

The leaders of the enemies talk to Delilah, they make plans offering her thousands of pieces of silver. 1,100 pieces for each lord of the Philistines. We're talking in today's currency, millions of dollars to betray Samson, to find out the source of his strength. She is going to be a national hero for the Philistines. She is going to save her people from the scourge of this Israelite.

And she will also just happen to be fabulously wealthy. And for all his brutality and his raw power, we see that Samson is actually a very mischievous man. In chapter 14, he frustrates people with riddles. He taunts his ambushers by stealing their gates. And now he begins to tease Delilah.

This time however, the stakes are higher. Four times she asks Samson for the source of his strength. Each time he tells her some zany secret trick that will bind him down. But each time he breaks free. Now we're left with a question: does Samson really know what's going on here?

I mean, come on Samson, four times. Surely you know what's going on. Is Samson really such a deep sleeper that Delilah can tie him up three times with things like bowstrings and new rope? Can Delilah weave his hair into a tapestry in a loom without his knowledge? Or is he really that dumb not to realise something is afoot here?

I mean, really, Samson, you may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but surely you can't be this thick. Well, I think Samson knows exactly what's going on. But he gets a thrill out of frustrating Delilah, the Philistines. Samson believes that he is untouchable, but he doesn't realise that he has played one game too many with God. A few weeks ago, my little nephew Freddie, who's almost one now, was bought a little gift by his mum and dad.

It was one of those Jack in the Box toys where you have a little lever that you turn and it plays a little song, and then all of a sudden out pops a little rabbit. As soon as he got this, as soon as my brother played this little tune for him and up popped the rabbit, Freddie burst into laughter. Like that really deep cute belly laugh that babies can have. And it was absolutely amazing to us and hilarious to us every time that happened. Didn't matter how many times we played that game, every time Freddie would laugh.

And because it was so hilarious to Freddie, it became hilarious to us. Time and time again, we would wind that little lever just to hear him laugh. But can you imagine an alien standing outside of this spectacle? A whole family of us crowded around this little Jack in the Box and Freddie, just to see what his reaction would be. An alien standing outside, you'd think, are these people stupid?

The rabbit pops out every single time in the same spot with the same annoying "round and round the mulberry bush." The toy is cheap, the song is repetitive, what's the deal? It's because we love playing the game. And Samson loved playing his games. But this time, it was one game too many.

His time had come. His chance was up. Samson let slip the key to his strength. Now, there's debate whether the strength really lied in the hair. Was it the hair that was some sort of magical totem for Samson?

I dare say there was nothing magical about Samson's hair. Samson's uncut hair was simply the sign that he was dedicated in the service of the Lord. I'm not even sure Samson really believed that cutting his hair would really be the final nail in the coffin. I think he thought this was just another round of games. I mean, Samson has all the hallmarks of a man who has become so confident in his own strength and ability that he had that terrible thought that we can have as well.

"I'm the one in control here. I predict, project my destiny." With the shaving of his head, however, the Nazirite vow of Samson is broken. The Bible says that the spirit of God leaves Samson. When the Philistines do come and they grab him, he tries to break free and to his horror, he realises he has no more strength.

And in final, utter moment of humiliation, his eyes are gouged out. He is forced to grind grain as a slave, and he's routinely brought out in the public to be mocked by the Philistines. That is the story of Samson. Now if you've grown up in church, if you've grown up in Sunday school, you've probably heard the story of Samson. But if I was to ask you to retell the story and to then tell me the moral of the story, what would you say?

What would you tell? So many times, I think we end up saying something like this: Samson was a powerful man who wasted God's gift. He was reckless, he had no self control, and because of this, he failed to live up to his purpose. So we will say the moral of the story is don't be like Samson. Now there's perhaps some wisdom in that.

There's definitely some hard hitting truth here about the power of lust and sexual addiction. It has brought many, many men and women to self destruction. I mean, the irony is that a man with all the power of Samson is no match to the power of lust. So in a sense, the moral failure of Samson is a big part of the story here. Yet, in all of the children's stories of Samson, and in fact, sermons that I've heard of Samson, I never heard mention of this particular verse also found in the story.

And it changes the whole story. Have a turn with me to Judges chapter 14, verse one. "Samson went down to Timnah. And at Timnah, he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah.

Now get her for me as my wife." But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all our people that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes." Verse four: "His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord, for He was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines.

At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel." It is this little verse, verse four, that adds a completely different dynamic to the story of Samson. But it's also a verse that makes the story so complex that we probably don't want to teach the story of Samson to our kids in Sunday school. I mean, think about it. Samson tells his parents that he's going to marry a Philistine woman.

This is something that is strictly forbidden under God's law. God told the Israelites just before they entered into this promised land that they were living in now. He told them this, Deuteronomy 7:1 and 3: "When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of, and clears away the many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons.

For they would turn away your sons from following Me to serve other gods." Samson's parents seem to have come to some vague cultural attachment to this law, perhaps reflecting the weakness of Israel's faith at the time. His parents half-heartedly tried to persuade him not to go down that path. Samson instead marries this Philistine woman anyway. And yet even as Samson breaks God's law, we hear this.

Neither mum nor dad nor Samson knew that this was from the Lord. Samson's humiliation is cruel and ironic. Samson's eyes were the things that got him into so much trouble. I mean, he looked at everything and everyone around him. But now, at the end of his life, it's Samson's eyes that are gouged out.

Samson's strength was twisted and used for his own purposes and glory. Now his enemies mock his weakness. Samson took pride in being invincible. Now he is in chains, grinding grain like an ox. Samson, untouchable warrior, is now paying a price for his sin.

And perhaps we think that's fair. But what happens? God allows Samson to redeem himself. Samson prays, "Oh Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once more. Oh God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes."

Is that a model prayer of repentance? No. If you're ever asking God for forgiveness, please don't pray like Samson. And yet God listens to that prayer. Verse 30 poignantly says that after Samson being placed in a pagan temple in order to worship Dagon, the Philistine god, and how he has won a victory over Yahweh, Israel's God, through the humiliation of Samson.

Samson pulls down these two pillars that bear the weight of the temple, killing thousands of Philistine leaders. Verse 30 says, "So the dead whom Samson killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life." In that final moment, Samson deals a crushing blow to the Philistine enemy. And so there is peace again in the land. Now Samson's death is again a classic plot or theme for a good movie.

I mean, you can see this in a Hollywood movie, I'm sure. Our movies are full, at the moment at least, of these anti-heroes that sort of redeem themselves at the end. Like Yondu Odonta from Guardians of the Galaxy Volume Two, the Marvel movie, I recommend it. Yondu is a space pirate, a hardened, gruff man. He's also got blue skin for some reason.

And somehow also a thick redneck accent. But he has a shady past. A very shady past. But one of the most touching scenes in the whole Marvel movie franchise in my opinion, Yondu redeems his many bad decisions with one ultimate act of sacrifice to save the protagonist, the hero of the story, Peter Quill or Star-Lord as he prefers to be called. His final words to Peter, who he always had a soft spot for despite his gruff exterior, is, "I'm sorry, I didn't do much of it right, but I'm lucky that you're my boy."

And the man once a grubby pirate dies a noble death. A great moment in that story. We love good redemption stories. We love a story where a questionable past can be overcome by one great honourable act of sacrifice. And we see that in the story of Samson.

And yet, I am troubled by the story of Samson. Why? Because we see that God uses immorality and evil in order to accomplish His purposes. From the beginning, Samson had been set apart for God, by God. He was given amazing ability for God.

He was commanded to remain faithful for God, yet he ignores all of this, goes to the Philistines to chase women, plays games with them for his own amusement, and if it wasn't for one verse, I wouldn't know what to make of this story. But they didn't know that this was from the Lord. Without this sort of narrative input in our lives, a heavenly narrator that will just say, "K J decided to do so and so and he made this incredible mistake. But he didn't know. His family didn't know that this was from the Lord."

Without this sort of knowledge, you and I will be tempted to think, tempted to ask, who's really running the show here? When a church leader falls into sin, or someone we respect like a mum or a dad falls, someone who we've placed a lot of hope and meaning into, people perhaps that exemplify or are meant to exemplify the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can wonder who is really in charge here? Who's running the show? I know people that walk away from the faith saying, "If that is the god that he or she worships, that god is either immoral or there is no god." Without the narrative line over our lives saying, even this is from the Lord.

Those moments that you've been praying for, moments of breakthrough. "God, please save. God, please heal. God, please rescue." And then what happens is the absolute opposite of what you've asked for.

Without that narrative line, you will wonder who is really in control. When hopeful starts are squandered, when promising relationships break down, when terrible pain keeps lingering, and we're all left with bitter disappointment without the knowledge of "even this the Lord knew and directed." Without that, we will be tempted to think who's really steering the ship. My friends, I want to tell you, it's the God of Samson. This is the same God who sent Joseph into Egypt as a slave through the murderous envy of his brothers.

Same God who sent Israel into the wilderness, pressed between the Red Sea and a charging Egyptian army. Same God who caused a woman named Esther to be married to the king of Persia even as he signed a decree to kill all the Jews in his kingdom. Yes. Even the God who sent Judas into the ranks of Jesus and his closest disciples. It makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Who's in control? But friends, let me tell you the hardships of our failures, they aren't the ends of the story. And you realise that there is a narrative line over our lives that says, they didn't know that even this was from the Lord. In the hands of God, your failures are turned into victories. You see, if God hadn't sent Joseph into Egypt, even through the murderous envy of his brothers, he and his brothers would have died of starvation.

If God hadn't sent Israel out into the wilderness, they would never have witnessed the power of God to part the sea. If God hadn't sent Esther into the palace of the Persian king, the Jewish people would have been eradicated. And if God hadn't worked through the greed of Judas, the jealousy of the Pharisees, the injustice of Pilate, friends, then you and I would still be in our sin with no chance of forgiveness. And all these things, we need to know this morning. That despite all of this evil in the world, even here, this truth remains.

They didn't know that it was from the Lord. Joseph, at the end of his life, realised this when his brothers came to him in Egypt. Now as the prime minister of Egypt, after all those many years, all those many years of suffering, Genesis 50:20, he says to them, "What you intended for evil, God meant for good. To accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." If we look at the life of Samson and we think that the moral of the story is don't be like Samson, then we've misunderstood the story.

The hero of the story is never the judge. We've come to know that now. But the rest of the Bible, it's still the same. The hero of the kings, David, Josiah, they're never the hero. It is always God.

And the encouraging theme from the Bible stories that we come to again and again is this point: failure is not final. You and I are able to rest in a mighty God who in all things, through moral failures, through disease and illness, through death, and yes, evil that is worse than death. We rest in a God who in all things brings out the good for those who love Him and have been called according to His purposes. With awe-inspiring potential at His fingertips, Samson was almost invincible. He was all-sufficient.

He was a one-man army, a thousand people, a thousand men killed with the jawbone of a donkey. But he turns out to be a bitter flop, a dud. And sure, he does some things and especially at the end, deals a major blow against the Philistine enemy. But you have to wonder, what could Samson have done if he was faithful? For the Israelites and for us, this part of the Bible shows us that a better leader was needed.

And the leader who came could not have been any different to Samson. You see, while Samson's outer strength hid a fatal weakness within, the Lord Jesus' outer weakness hid infinite power. Samson manipulated God-given strength to chase ungodly passions. Christ veiled His strength to fulfil God's purpose. Samson was betrayed for thousands of pieces of silver.

Jesus was betrayed for 30. A lifelong spiritual blindness led Samson's eyes to be gouged out. Meanwhile, the righteous redeemer died innocent of any sin. Samson prayed for revenge at his death. Jesus prayed for forgiveness for those who knew, or didn't know rather, that they were killing the Son of God.

In his final moment, Samson kills many of his enemies. Jesus died to save His. If you find yourself holding on to disappointment, that deep seemingly endless failure that haunts you, perhaps a failure you think you can never ever recover from. And if you're left with that lingering question, who really is in charge here? I want to say to you, even these things in your life is from the Lord.

If you will see that and if you will take hold of that, your entire perspective on your life will change. So I want to invite you, let that pain fall away. Drop it. Stop carrying that burden of regret and place your trust in the one who through incredible mercy caused the worst kind of evil to fall upon Him. So that in His victory, we may win.

And so don't be like Samson. It's probably the opposite of the story. We are like Samson. We have squandered many things, but like Samson, our redeeming grace is, even this is from the Lord. So that God may have victory over our enemies and our sin.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you that in this powerful story of final redemption, we can see a beautiful forerunner, at least in contrast to Your wonderful Son, Jesus Christ. And we pray, Lord, that as we reflect on this story and as we see just fingerprints of Your activity and of Your grace in this story, Lord, I pray that we may remember and believe that there is a narrative line over our lives that simply states, even in this situation, they may not have known that the Lord was in this. Lord, I pray for those wrestling with deep and lasting regret. Lord, I pray for those perhaps in this church who will one day make mistakes that will cause deep and lasting regret.

May all of us, Lord, find the grace stored up in Jesus Christ to forgive and cleanse, to redeem. That even after all these mistakes, even after You have painfully made it aware to us, well, that You also give the grace for us to turn back from those things, to repent and to believe that Jesus Christ is sufficient. Lord, allow us to live a life in honour and worship in Him. Lord, will You protect us from things that are powerful, even the sins of lust, sexual addiction, pride, arrogance. And Lord, help us to find our rest, our comfort, our satisfaction in You.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.