Take a break from our studies in the book of Ephesians. God willing, we'll return to that in a month or two. We'll do some random things on Sunday nights over the summertime. We looked at Judges 15, two weeks ago, Samson's victory over the Philistines at Jawbone Height.
Tonight, we see Samson's victory over the Philistines at Gaza. So Judges chapter 16, I'll begin reading in verse one.
Scripture Reading: Judges 16
Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there and went into her. When the Gazites were told, Samson has come here, they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night saying, in the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him. And Samson lay low till midnight.
Then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gate posts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron. Afterward, it happened that 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, entice him and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him. And every one of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.
So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies and with what you may be bound to afflict you. And Samson said to her, if they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. So the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, and she bound him with them. Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room.
And she said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he broke the bow strings as a strand of yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. Then Delilah said to Samson, look, you have mocked me and told me lies.
Now please tell me what you may be bound with. So he said to her, if they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man. Therefore, Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them, and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And men were lying in wait, staying in the room.
But he broke them off his arms like a thread. Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom, So she wove it tightly with the batten of the loom and said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson.
But he awoke from his sleep and pulled out the batten and the web from the loom. Then 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 have not told me where your great strength lies. And it came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death, that he told her all his heart and said to her, no razor has ever come upon my head, for I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb.
If I am shaven, 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 for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart. So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for 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. So he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free. But
Yahweh Departs from Samson
he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison. However,
The Return of the Lord
the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven. Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their God, and to rejoice. And they said, our God has delivered into our hands Samson, our enemy. When the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said, our God has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land, and the one who multiplied our dead.
So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, call for Samson, that he may perform for us. So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them, and they stationed him between the pillars. Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them. Now the temple was full of men and women.
All the lords of the Philistines were there, about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, O Lord God, remember me, I pray. Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may, with one blow, take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
And Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life. And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtael in the tomb of his father Manoah.
He had judged Israel 20 years. Amen. Well, let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our God, again, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, that it's profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. And may we see here in this passage the glory, the strength, the power of God Almighty, enabling His servants to serve Him well. We ask that You would guide us by the power of Your Holy Spirit.
Again, forgive us for all of our sin and unrighteousness, and bless our time together now, we pray. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Well,
Introduction
this is the last section in the Samson cycle. So the Samson cycle is chapter 13, verse 1 to chapter 16 and verse 31. And basically you have the birth of Samson in chapter 13. Go back there for just a moment.
We can see what the nature of his particular mission would be in terms of his judgeship over Israel. Remember the judges at the time of the judges were not like, you know, Judge Wapner at the People's Court banging his gavel, listening to sort of minor complaints within the civil polity. But the judges functioned in sort of a kingly or monarchical manner. They protected Israel.
There are cycles that you see throughout the book of Judges. The people of God sin against God. God then chastises them by raising up a foreign oppressor. And then the people repent or cry out over the pain and the distress, and then God raises up a judge to deliver them.
So that's the function of the judges in Israel. It's more kingly than it is circuit court. So notice what Judges 13 says concerning the mission of Samson. Verse five, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son and no razor shall come upon his head.
For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. The judges in general are typical of our Lord Jesus. They prefigure the salvation of God that we find in the new covenant. Samson specifically is a type of our Lord Jesus.
You could compare this with Matthew chapter one and verse 21 concerning the birth narrative of our Lord, for he will save his people from their sins. That's precisely what the nature of Samson's judgeship is. So chapter 13 deals with his birth. Chapter 14 is his marriage in Timnah.
Chapter 15 is his betrayal and then his victory over Philistines in jawbone height. And then we have that same pattern here in Gaza. So in the last lesson or the last message in chapter 15, the end of chapter 14, you see victory. Samson savages the Philistines.
And according to Samson, the only good Philistine is a dead one. And he kills a bunch of them at the end of chapter 14. Well, then he's betrayed in chapter 15 by his father-in-law, but even worse by Judah. Judah gives him up to the Philistines.
Well, that's the vantage point by which he then slays a thousand Philistines. Same sort of thing happens here. God uses Delilah and this betrayal to bring Samson into close contact with these Philistines that he brings death upon. So
Three Heads of Judges 16
I want to look at chapter 16 under three heads. First, the removal of the city's gates in verses 1 to 3. Second, the departure of the living God in verses 4 to 21. And then finally, the destruction of the enemies of God in verses 22 to 31.
Now, let's look first at the removal of the city's gates and hopefully disavow you of the notion that Samson is, in the language of a popular and very much utilized Old Testament introduction. The book by Dillard and Longman, it's an Old Testament introduction, probably used in conservative seminaries, conservative Bible colleges all over the world. They say of Samson, he is full of self-indulgence and refuses to control his sexual appetite. That's not what we find when we look at Judges 13 to 16.
Of course, some suggest that he goes into physically, in a conjugal manner, this harlot at Gaza, but that's not what's happening here in chapter 16, verses 1 to 3.
Samson at Gaza: A Covert Mission
Notice in the first place, it is, in fact, the city of Gaza. It's a chief city of Philistia. Notice in verse 1, Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there and went into her. Again, that is a convention utilized in the Bible to speak of sexual congress, but not every instance.
It's not always the case that that language suggests that there has been sexual activity. The fact that he went into her, the fact that persons assume that he was sexually unfaithful, the fact that Billard and Longman write he is full of self-indulgence and refuses to control his sexual appetite, is to read into the text a meaning, or to read into the text an idea, or to read into the text an assumption that we carry to it. When we look at this phrase used throughout the Old Testament, again, it can mean that, but it doesn't necessarily mean that. And I would suggest, leaning on a fellow by the name of Gordon Hugenberger, he has a great essay in a book called From Creation to New Creation, Biblical Theology and Exegesis.
It's called Samson and the Harlot at Gaza, Judges 16, 1-3. He argues that he was not sexually unfaithful. He argues that the going in here was similar to the spies at the time of Joshua 2. Remember in Joshua chapter 2, Joshua sends out two spies to do what?
To conduct a reconnaissance mission of the city of Jericho to find out whether or not they would be able to gain victory there. And so the two spies go to the city of Jericho. They end up at the house of a harlot and they go into that house. When they go into that house, I don't think of any Christians believe that they sort of engaged in sexual permissiveness there.
I don't think any Christians would argue that those two spies were unfaithful to Yahweh and engaged in some sort of sexual sin. Well, when we read that Samson goes into her, it's not necessarily the case that it was sexual or sinful in nature. Consider the following pieces of evidence in terms of Joshua 2 and Judges 16. The narratives are introduced with the sequence of went and saw.
The woman to whom they come is identified as a woman, a prostitute. The expression came to and went into is used to describe what the spies and Samson did with reference to the woman. The report of the presence of the spies in Samson is given in the same words. The spies in Samson are in the city during the night.
In both instances, mention is made of the city gate, which plays a prominent role in the futile attempt to keep the spies in Samson out of the cities. The spies in Samson lie down in the home of the harlot. The spies and Samson both leave for the hill country when they depart. When there's that many parallels between passages, we ought to assume that it's telling us something.
It's the same convention. It's the same situation. Samson, the defender of Israel, is not there to engage in sexual sin. Samson, the defender of Israel, is there to engage in warfare against the Philistines.
And the activity that he undertakes evidences that to be the case in terms of the city gates.
Hugenberger's Parallel to Joshua's Spies
Hugenberger says Samson's intention for coming to the harlot at Gaza was deliberately the same as the intention of Joshua's spies for coming to Rahab, the harlot at Jericho, to take an appropriate step that would enable the divinely approved work of dispossession to begin. He's fighting for Israel. He takes cover in an unlikely place. Though the Gazites, the Philistines heard that he went there.
So notice what happens in terms of verse two. When Gazites were told Samson has come here, they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night saying in the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him. They must have read Dillard and Longman.
They must have thought that Samson was there for sexual reasons. They must have thought that Samson would be there all night long indulging his sexual appetite. Pre-critical commentators do not make this link. The Geneva Bible says they went there because she was a victualer.
She had food. The historian Josephus says, after his fight, Samson held the Philistines in contempt and came to Gaza and took up lodgings at a certain inn. They don't believe, or they don't teach, or they don't think that Samson was unfaithful with reference to this particular woman. And then notice that the Gazites learn of his presence, they surround the place, and they purpose to kill him in the morning.
Again, thinking he's going to be there all night, satisfying and gratifying his carnal lusts. But that's not what happens. That's not his intention. That's not his purpose.
That's not his strategy. That isn't his tactic. He's there to kill Philistines. He's there to try to rouse the interest of Judah to participate with him in the killing of Philistines.
Look at verse 3. Samson lay low till midnight. They weren't expecting that. They thought he would be there, tucked in, till morning.
And then they would seize him, and then they would kill him. Which, again, follows if he's a man driven by sexual lust. But if he's a man driven by the glory of God and the protection of Israel, then his actions make perfect sense. So Samson lay low till midnight, then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
This was a Herculean task. You ask, well, how does he do it? I don't know. The man that was able to kill all those Philistines with the jawbone of an ass?
The man that was able to tie those torches to the foxes and burn down the standing rain in Philistine country? I don't know. God's power was upon him such that he was able to do this. But the act itself is absolutely positively significant.
The fact that he takes away their gates Ancient cities had gates. They didn't have open immigration policies. They didn't just let anybody wander in and then confer upon them the benefits that were requisite to persons that did such things. No, they defended their cities.
So what do you think is communicated when Samson takes these city gates, marches 40 miles up on a hill, and then he faces toward Hebron? He's communicating to Judahites, come and help me, let us dispatch these Philistines in Gaza. Genesis 22, 17, blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.
And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.
Possessing the Gate of the Enemy
The fact that he possesses the gate of his enemies shows his power over them and again shows that he is Israel's leader and they should follow behind him. Hugenberger again says, in keeping with the general symbolism of Genesis 22.17 and 24.60, the removal of the gates to the summit of a hill in the direction of Hebron was an unmistakable demonstration of the subjugation of Gaza before Samson and his lord. You take the city's gates away, you won. You bested them.
You beat them. You're victorious over them. He says, it was perhaps also a sign of the consequent vulnerability of the inhabitants of the chief city of Philistia to the inhabitants of the chief city of Judah, which tribe was responsible to dispossess Gaza. If only they would accept the leadership of Samson.
But instead of accepting the leadership of Samson, they can't stand him. Why? Because they quite liked life under Philistine oppression. They quite liked life under that particular regime.
They got comfortable with the culture that was prevalent. And so instead of backing Samson in the defeat of the Philistines, they betray Samson and hand him over to the Philistines in chapter 15. And here we see, when it comes to do business with the Philistines, there's no Judahites present. They probably saw him holding those city's gates, but they didn't run to his aid.
They didn't say, oh look, he subjugated Gaza. Let's come and assist him in dispossessing that city of those wretched Philistines. So Samson did not go into the harlot at Gaza. Samson went there for the purpose of a covert operation to take those city gates and to communicate the fact that God was going to bring judgment to bear upon that city and that Judah should stand behind him.
Departure of the Living God
Now notice next the departure of the living God. This is a sad account. This is a sad situation. This is what we know, you know, probably remember the best of Samson.
It's Samson and Delilah. Now, before we proceed, it's not wrong for Samson to have another wife. Now, brethren, I'm not suggesting Samson was without sin. I'm not suggesting he was wholly harmless and undefiled like our Savior, according to Hebrews 7.
But he's not the guy that Dillard and Longman suggest he is. He's not the guy that so many Christians suggest that he is. He's not the guy that so many pagans suggest that he is. He's simply a man of God, charged with defending the people of God from the enemies of God.
For him to have Delilah as a love interest isn't necessarily sinful. He had been married lawfully initially, and what happened to his wife and her father? They were burned to death by the Philistines. If he doesn't go into this harlot at Gaza, he's not engaged in any sexual infidelity.
It's not wrong for him to love Delilah. We're not even sure that she was necessarily a Philistine. Delilah is a Semitic name. It could be the case that she was a Jewess.
Could be the case that she wasn't even a Philistine. So let's look at the departure of the living God.
Delilah and the Philistine Bribe
Notice the background, his love for her, according to verse 4. Afterward, it happened that 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, entice him and find out where his great strength lies. And by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and every one of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.
Now Davis says whether she was a Philistine or Israelite does not matter. It didn't even matter to Delilah. All that mattered was Philistine money. In the former account, they threatened to burn his original wife, or his first wife, and her father.
Now, they're enticing her with money. And this is a great deal of money. The Philistines offer her a positive incentive, which highlights the great threat posed by Samson. So this would have been 5,500 shekels of silver. per Lord to this woman to betray Samson into their hand.
Now, as we move through this, there's some puzzling stuff, not least of which is verses 6 and 7. So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies and with what you may be bound to afflict you. I think I ought to shut down that conversation right then and there. What do you mean to afflict me, honey?
That's not pillow talk. That's not anything I'm used to. That's not something I'm, you know, down with. This right there shows you the weakness of Samson isn't Philistines.
Even a thousand of them at jawbone height. The weakness of Samson isn't even 3,000 Philistines in the temple of Dagon. The weakness of Samson is a pretty woman. And this is what's going on in this particular exchange.
There are unsuccessful attempts, three of them. You see it in verses 6 to 9, verses 10 to 12, and then verses 13 to 14. And the fact that she has the wherewithal, the chutzpah, as the Jews might say, to say, why are you mocking me? Why aren't you telling me the truth?
Why aren't you doing what I'm asking you? In light of the fact that Philistines had been there to capture him, in light of the fact that they wanted to take him away and destroy him, If anything, Samson is quite the long-suffering fellow. Samson is quite patient. Samson has a degree of virtue that I think few men actually possess.
He's not the man that Dillard and Longman says. He's the man that most of us kind of wish that we were. Who of us have that ability to not lash out in anger and say, off with you, woman. I want nothing more to do with you.
So
Three Failed Attempts to Bind Samson
there's three unsuccessful attempts to try and bind him on the part of Delilah, plying him. Now
The Fourth Attempt and the Confession
notice the successful attempt, the fourth time in verses 15 to 28. Verse 15, then 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 have not told me where your great strength lies. Again, brethren, this is a patient fellow.
What would you be doing at this point? Are you kidding me, lady? Are you absolutely out of your mind? This is nutty?
You are out of your gourd if you think that I'm going to tell you where my strength lies. Notice as well the persistent pestering, and I think this is what wore him down. Well, the text says so. It came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his soul was vexed to death.
Go back to chapter 14 for just a moment. Samson has this riddle and the Philistines, again, threaten his wife to find out the riddle. And in 1415, it says, but it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband that he may explain the riddle to us or else we will burn you in your father's house with fire. Have you invited us in order to take what is ours?
Is that not so? Then Samson's wife wept on him and said, you only hate me. You do not love me. You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people, but you have not explained it to me." And he said to her, look, I have not explained it to my father or my mother.
So should I explain it to you? Now she had wept on him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it happened on the seventh day that he told her because she pressed him so much. A commentator by the name of Daniel Bloch says, Samson may be able to uproot the gates of a major city and carry them 40 miles uphill, but he cannot withstand the wiles of a woman.
Again, this doesn't underscore he's a bumbling fool with ungoverned lust. He loves this woman. He is long-suffering toward this woman. Notice he now confesses his secret in verse 17. that he told her all his heart and said to her, no razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb.
If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man. Now, he acknowledges a vow that he had taken. And if you survey the scene, and if you've listened to me at any point during this sermon and the one two weeks ago, again, Samson's not without sin. Samson is not wholly harmless and undefiled.
But what was the sin here? I think the sin goes back to his judgeship. If his task as a judge is to protect Israel and to deliver them from Philistine bondage, if his task is to kill Philistines, then he better not give away his secret. He better not jeopardize that particular mission.
He better not call into question his ability to serve out and carry out the function of the Lord. Because if you ask the question of the text, why does the Lord depart from him? Again, many people out in the Christian world would say, because he's a wretch and he's governed by his sexual lusts. No, he's not.
Is he any more wretched than any other man that's ever led people? No, he's not. In fact, he's probably a lot more virtuous than a whole lot of men that ever led people. I mentioned the other time, four times in the Samson narrative, we find that the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him.
There's just not many people in the Bible that get that kind of favor from God. Not suggesting that we don't get favor from God, but four conspicuous references to the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Samson. So when we ask the question, why does Yahweh depart from him? Because he jeopardized his function, he jeopardized his role, he jeopardized his task in the protection of the people that he was charged to protect.
So that's why we find the departure of Yahweh later on in the narrative. But if we go back to verse 18, when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines saying, come up once more, for he has told me all his heart. And then notice in verse 19, she lulled him to sleep on her knees and called for 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. So he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. That's a sad and pathetic scene, isn't it?
When you look at this man, this hero in Israel, this judge who rules for 20 years. See, it's easy to read the very end of verse 31 and just glance over that. A rule, a reign, keeping a people peaceful and safe for 20 years? That is a monumental task that he engaged in.
So at this point, when God departs from him, it is a real tragedy. It is a real tragedy that he's betrayed by the woman that he loves, and then Yahweh departs from him. And then notice, with reference to that departure, Verse 21, it says, then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters and he became a grinder in the prison.
They treat him with the sort of contempt that you would expect for them to treat him with. This is the Philistine response to their enemy. This is the Philistine response to one who is struck at their economy in the burning of their grain, who is struck at their religion in the burning of the grain that Dagon is supposedly or allegedly over, and in terms of getting rid of so many of their fellow Philistines. They want to destroy him.
And so the gouging out of the eyes, the binding him with the bronze fetters, and the making of him a grinder in the prison That's the way Philistines dealt with Samson at that particular time. And
Destruction of the Enemies of God
that brings us thirdly and finally to the destruction of the enemies of the Lord. In each step of the way, when Samson wants to marry the woman from Timnah, his parents object. But the narrator tells us this was from the Lord. Why?
Because at every step of the way, the Lord is getting Samson closer to the enemy. If Judah's going to be a cowardice people, if Judah's not going to go into battle, if Judah's not going to take up the mantle and dispossess the land of the Canaanites, somebody's got to do it. Somebody's got to obey God. So God brings Samson into this close connection each and every time with the Philistines so that he can do it.
And that is precisely how the narrative flows in this place. Notice in the first place, under the destruction of the enemies of the Lord, the return of the Lord in verse 22. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven. It's a sermon by Ian Paisley called Haircut in the Devil's Barbershop.
And when he says or when he rehearses or just cites that text, it's pretty inspiring. I just commend that to you. If you want to listen to that sometime down the road, it's a pretty rousing sermon on Samson here. But notice, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.
This is a message of hope for we the reader. Why? Because the hair was magic? As long as he had hair, he was able to defeat the Philistines?
No, the hair wasn't magic. In fact, Davis says, not that there was any magic in Samson's hair. His strength came only from Yahweh. However, his hair was the sign of that strength, and we must not sever the sign from the reality which it signifies.
So you see, this is a great indicator, a message of hope to us, the reader, that Samson has got his strength back and Samson is going to deal a death blow to these Philistine enemies.
The Folly of Pagan Worship
Notice the sacrifice to Dagon. Look at pagan worship in verses 23 to 27. Now, the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and to rejoice. Why? because they have bested Samson.
And look at the language our God has delivered into our hands, Samson our enemy. On the one hand, what a great testimony concerning Samson. On the other hand, what a miserable testimony concerning Judah. Philistines are afraid of one man from the covenant people of Israel?
The Philistines are in danger from one man out of that nation? Where's Judah? So much of this narrative is not only designed to promote the glory of God, to show the faithfulness of Samson, but to serve as a rebuke to those cowards that inhabit the nation of Israel that don't foray out into battle against their enemies. And then notice, when the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said, our God has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land, the one who multiplied our dead.
He was a great threat. But look at their heresy here. Was Samson captured because of the glory of Dagon? Absolutely, positively not.
Samson was captured because of the departure of Yahweh. This is God's project. This is God's government. This is God's providence.
They're celebrating victory by the hand of Dagon when we know in reality it is victory because of Yahweh of Israel. And again, it's ultimately demise for these Philistines. Notice the vindication of God's honor in verses 28 and following. Well, back to verse 25.
It happened when their hearts were merry that they said, call for Samson that he may perform for us. So they called for Samson from the prison and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars. And Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple so that I can lean on them.
Now, the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there. About 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Why do you think that part of the narrative?
To show us the glory of God! To show us the wisdom of God! How do you get rid of a bunch of Philistines? Bring them together to rejoice in Dagon.
Remember Jehu calling all of the Baalists that lived in Israel? Why don't we all get together and have a love fest toward Baal? What happens when they all get together? Jehu has his troops around the place and they execute all the Baalists.
So bring them together for a worship service, let them get into their frenzy, let them praise Dagon from whom all blessings flow, so that they're under one location, so that God, through Samson, can deal the death blow upon their heads.
Samson's Prayer and Final Act
Notice Samson's prayer. Go back to his prayer in chapter 15, just for a moment. Notice in chapter 15 he kills a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. And as you might imagine, he became very thirsty, according to verse 18.
So he cried out to the Lord and said, you have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant. And now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised? So God answered. He split the hollow place that is in Lehi.
Water came out and he drank and his spirit returned and he revived. Back to our text in 1628. Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, O Lord God, remember me, I pray, strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes." Now, before we say, well, you know, that's pretty greedy. That's pretty selfish.
All he's concerned about is his two eyes. He's concerned with the glory of God. He's the judge of Israel appointed by God. The gouging out of his eyes show the victory of God's enemies.
And as far as Samson's concerned, that cannot stand. As far as Samson's concerned, he's gonna offer up one more prayer. Just this once, God, hear me and answer for your glory. Samson's eyes here are indicative of the glory of God most high.
And we know that because of the response of God. God doesn't thunder out from heaven and say, it doesn't matter about your eyes, it matters about my glory. God answers him. Verse 29, Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
Then Samson said, let me die with the Philistines, and he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life. Before we go thinking that Samson committed suicide and what a wretched man that he was, this isn't suicide, this is war. It's not suicide when a man jumps on a live grenade to protect his fellows in a combat situation.
It's not suicide when a man takes out the enemies of Yahweh in order to protect the children of Israel. Listen to John Gill on this text. He says, as for his own death, he did not simply desire that, only as he could not be avenged on his enemies without it. He was willing to submit to it, nor did he lay hands on himself and cannot be charged with being guilty of suicide, and did no other than what a man of valor and public spirit will do.
I love that phrase. Listen to what Gill says. This is what a man of valor does. He doesn't hide.
He doesn't run. He doesn't, you know, cry and snivel and only value himself. I saw a video this week of a stabbing in Toronto on a subway. And when this fight broke out, everybody around just ran.
Brethren, instead of running, we probably should try to help people once in a while. or all the videos that we have of these horrific fights. I've got a bit of encouragement. Put your phone down and go help people. It doesn't matter to get a viral video while somebody's getting their head pounded in when you should put your phone down and come to their rescue.
Gil doesn't say, oh, Samson, what an ethical dilemma. Did he kill himself? This is what a man of valor does. This is what a general leading troops does.
This is what a king does. The monarch is out leading the troops. He's not hiding in his castle. He's not sniveling behind his wife's skirts.
He's out there fighting. He's out there dispatching Philistines. He's out there doing the job that God called him to do. There is a lack of bravery in our world today, not just in the church, but certainly in the church as well.
We need to put down the phone, quit looking for the viral video, and actually help people who are getting pummeled to death. He goes on to say, who for the good of his country will not only expose his life to danger in common, but for the sake of that will engage in a desperate enterprise, when he knows most certainly that he must perish in it. Besides, Samson said this and did what he did under the direction and influence of the Spirit of God. And then I love this last statement because it's so perceptive.
And herein was a type of Christ who freely laid down his life for his people that he might destroy his and their enemies. Huh? You mean Samson does something that Jesus would later do? Absolutely, positively.
He's a type. He's a savior in Israel. He's come to vindicate his people. He's come to free them from Philistine oppression.
That he dies in the midst of it is heroic. It is absolutely virtuous. We shouldn't Monday morning quarterback and say, oh, that was a suicidal act. Turretin, the Reformed faith, the tradition says, no, it wasn't suicide, it was an act of valor.
And then notice how the text summarizes him. His brothers and all his father's household came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtael in the tomb of his father, Manoah. He had judged Israel 20 years. This was an effective, bit of godly service on the part of a spirit-filled man for the vindication of the glory of God and for the protection of people in Israel, even cowards, even sissies, even Nancy boys, that instead of going behind him in battle against Philistines, would betray him and give him over to the enemies of God Almighty.
Application
In conclusion, we ought to appreciate, in the judge's narratives as a whole, the grace of God. They sin, the oppressors come, they cry out for help, and the Lord brings deliverance vis-a-vis through the earthly judges, through these men that are tasked with protecting Israel from their foreign enemies. God's grace in the midst of the book of Judges is absolutely amazing. I mentioned this this morning when we're in the confession study.
He is long-suffering. If you doubt that, read Judges. Read the book of Judges and see these continual cycles of sin on the part of the people of God. And as I mentioned when we're in chapter 15, they get to a certain low point in chapter 15.
Because prior to that, in the various cycles, when the oppressor came, they would cry out. They didn't like Midianite oppression. They didn't like the fact that when they sowed crops, the Midianites would come and basically decimate everything. They would cry out to God.
We get to this Philistine oppression. They don't cry out to God anymore. They like Philistine oppression. They don't like Samson because he's going to upset the apple cart.
He's going to ruin the wonderful sort of situation that they have. And yet, in the midst of this, God uses Samson to bring judgment to bear upon their enemy vis-a-vis the Philistines. As well, notice the folly of idolatry. I know that's not the main emphasis.
I know that's just a bit of a snapshot. It's a bit of background. It's a bit of a, here's how they all got together. But to ascribe praise to Dagon, who's a fake, for victory over Samson, who's a threat, shows how foolish idolatry is.
Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. And that is well illustrated in the Samson narrative. Get him near the Philistines because Samson knows the only good Philistine is a dead one.
And when he's around them, he gets rid of them. And that's what God does throughout the Samson cycle. The Philistines attribute Samson's capture to Dagon's power. The Philistines sing praises to Dagon.
Brethren, I would imagine they did so with unction, or with gusto, or they did so with earnestness. I love the singing in our church, I think it's wonderful, but I've been in other churches, it's like, you want to look, are we here to sing? What are we doing? Open your mouth, open your book, and sing praise to God.
When the pagans or the heathens hymn their God in a way that exceeds the people of God, that's sad, that's pathetic. We actually have a reason to sing praises to our living and true God. And as well, the Philistines, get this, they glorify a God who couldn't protect them in his own house. Where are they?
They're in this temple to Dagon. You'd surely think that with home field advantage, Dagon could stay the enemies of Philistia. You would surely think that with that home field advantage, Dagon would be successful in providing safety for these 3,000 Philistines, including the lords of the Philistines. I mean, after all, They're the lords of the Philistines.
We have to afford them special protection. They were the elitists then. You've got to make sure they don't get hurt. Dagon couldn't do it.
Why? Because he's a fake. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet mocks the Babylonian idolaters. They have to pick their gods up and put them on the carts.
They have to carry their gods. Brethren, it is good news that our God carries us, and we don't have to carry him. And then finally, the faithfulness of Samson. Samson appears in the book of Hebrews, the hall of faith in chapter 11, verse 32.
Paul says, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah. He looks at the period of the judges. A period when a lot of people roll their eyes because it's a lot of blood, it's a lot of guts, it's a lot of killing. I mean, Jeon, what does she do?
She drives a tent peg through Sisera's head. I mean, to me, that stuff is inspiring. But I guess there's some people out there that say, oh, we don't like that kind of Christianity. We don't like that kind of the advancement of the kingdom of God.
Interesting, because Deborah the prophetess composed a song after that, extolling her in the language that would be applied to Mary in the New Testament. Blessed are you among women. That is predicated of jail. The sturdy woman that took a tent peg, I'm guessing she was sturdy, to be able to drive this through Sisera's head.
One man actually calls that murder. I wouldn't want to be that man. Well, I'm not going to go that far, but that was not murder, brethren. Warfare is not murder.
We saw what murder is in Numbers 35. Malice aforethought, premeditation, enmity in your heart, hatred toward one another, standing in wait, lying in wait, actually going after them to try to... That's not war. War is legitimate homicide.
There's three instances of authorized homicide in the Bible. War, and that's another topic for another discussion in terms of what's a just war. War, self-defense, and capital punishment. Those are three instances of lawful killing that the Bible sets forth.
So to say that JL committed murder by driving a tent peg through Sisera's head? Sisera is extolled later. Sisera, we have every reason to believe that he engaged in rape of Israelite women. Tenpeg was the best thing happening for that fellow.
So when it comes to Samson, when it comes to the period of the judges, this was an expression of faith in the living and true God. His mission? He shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. His empowerment?
The Holy Spirit comes upon him to do the work that he engaged in. And then the victory of Samson. I quoted a lengthy quote from Davis a couple of weeks ago. I'll just pick up the last bit.
Say what you will about Samson. At least he knew who the enemy was. At least he knew Philistines were for fighting. At least he didn't roll over and play dead in the warmth of the status quo as the mighty men of Judah did.
Perhaps we will eventually get over our surprise at the kind of servants that Yahweh delights to use. And then the typical nature of Samson points us to the Savior King, points us to the one who shall save his people from their sins, the one who does so through his death on the cross, through his resurrection again the third day. And if we fail to see that in this Samson narrative, we need to see it. We need to understand that when he brings that temple down on these 3,000, And the text tells us he saved more through his death than in his life.
We need to hear Jesus Christ and his gospel in Judges chapter 16. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its clarity. We thank you for the fact that the people of God throughout the ages have expressed boldness and courage for God. They've been empowered by the Spirit to do these mighty acts.
And we praise you that we are in that tradition. Help us, Lord God, to be faithful. Help us, Lord God, to be persevering. Help us, Lord God, to embrace what you have given to us in each of our vocations and callings and cause us to bring glory and honor and praise unto you.
Go with us now. Watch over us in this coming week. Bless all of the brothers and sisters in this local church. And may you be worshiped and praised as we gather together and in our families.
And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation.