Friday, March 16, 2018

weakest man alive



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.
Judges 14:4

The story of Samson is a story of the sovereignty of God over sinful human choices. It is about God’s strength and man’s failing weakness. Samson has little regard for the Law or for his Nazirite vows. This is seen from very beginning of his story when he insists on arranging a marriage to a gentile woman in violation of God’s Law. His parents have tried so hard to raise Samson to be devout, but he already as a young man will have none of it. He wants a Philistine woman. And God will use even this wrong in Samson to deliver the nation.

Later in this same chapter Samson violates his vows by touching the dead body of a lion in order to scrape honey from the carcass. He kills 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a dead donkey. He is selfish and careless with the covenant. In Samson’s world it was all about what he wanted, and his emotions ran unchecked.

He would go on disobeying God with relationships with Philistine women. He would eventually break every one of his vows until God finally allowed his humiliating capture by enraged and afraid Philistine oppressors. By that time Samson had racked up an impressive body count of dead Philistines in his wake. Yet Samson would die an angry, blind sacrifice, dying not for the nation, but with a desire for his own vengeance driving him, as clear an example as how not to live as anyone could ever be. His story is not heroic. It is tragic. Samson is not any kind of hero. God is the deliverer in the Samson story. God shows Himself strong as His Spirit does the work in a very pathetic weak man.

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