A Flawed Journey: The Rise and Fall of Samson

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Hey to our listeners, thank you for tuning

in and joining us for another episode assumingly of the

Bible Guys.

Are you going to sing?

Nope?

Not today, and I can do good morning? No, good morning? Okay?

Come on, all right, well maybe maybe next week. People,

I was trying to get you started.

I was planning to see so you like to know

this really black visions?

Come on, moning, come on, okay.

I think I want to withhold. I think I think

I want you to.

Marry right, So, so all of our listeners that love

it when Chris sings he's forcing you to fast this week? Yes,

and maybe next week maybe maybe if you're really good,

if you're really really good.

Does anybody really like the fact that I see James?

Oh? They love it.

There's like three people.

Okay, Well today Desiree has for us one of our

favorite segments. Yes, Who's most likely? I do like this segment,

Who's most likely?

Who's most likely? And really we just have to instinctively,

as you know.

Fast as we can, Yeah, fast as we can top

of our head.

Answer yep, and we usually agree.

That's right. We usually do because we're very similar.

Yeah.

Yeah, I haven't read these yet, have you yet?

So there's five of them. I'll do number one. Here

we go. The first one says, who's most likely to

spontaneously decide to build a d I Y project without

reading the instructions? You? That's me, for sure.

That is you. It's not me.

Yep.

I don't do DIY projects, so it doesn't do any

good to read the instructions.

I recently took some days off and did a little

staycation for about four days. Yeah, and did did some

serious DIY projects.

It's is good. Yes, I am terrible at DIY projects. One.

I'm a starter, not a finisher, so that's a problem.

And then I usually cut myself, hurt myself, break a thing.

It's twenty five trips to home depot. Right, it's just

a miserable. I'm just better off letting experts do. I'm

good at some things. I'm not good at the DIY projects. Yeah,

terrible at them.

Oh that's great.

So I'm comfortable with that. I'm secure in my manhood

to be able to say I'm not good with power

tools or which.

By the way, my best friend Jeff Miller, he always

talks about the difference between himself and myself. So I

did landscaping right, and I actually like had two yards

of black malts delivered, went out and just did all

this preparation, trimmed everything, cleaned everything, and shoveled all this

malts into wheelbarrows. It took me hours and hours and hours.

Then I sent him a video and I was like, hey,

look and he's like, yeah, he goes, I made a

phone call and I said, I said yeah, I said,

I spent about one hundred and twenty dollars would you

spend He said, I wrote a check for three thousand

and the end results and the end result was the same, The.

Same is the same, yep, yep, yep. Okay. So here's

number two. Who's most likely to try and talk their

way into a VIP event with a completely fabricated backstory.

That's you.

That is one thousand.

How many times have you actually done it?

Oh, I'm not even exaggerating. I'm not even kidding when

I say this.

It's over one hundred, over one hundred times you've gotten

into VIP events. Yeah, at least you're the wedding crash

there was.

There was. Weddings are easy. Yeah, I'm not even talking

about that. I'm talking about I had a reputation and

I'm not even kidding. I remember one time we went

to you know, Christian concerts, you know how it is, right,

like like like they're only popular in the Christian world, right,

But we went to like main venues, like almost like

Pine Knob.

Type venues, especially back when CCM was really rocking, right,

it was big and there's thousands of people showing up

with these big concerts.

Yes, so we went to this like big venue that

was very much like DT Pine Knob and if you

live in the.

Detroit area, oh door Amphitheater.

That was with my youth group, and at the time

I was a youth pastor. I had such a reputation

of doing exactly this that I remember Gus Morgan, one

of my teenagers, looks over at the crowd and says, Okay,

he goes, everybody knows you're going to find a way

to go, you're going to get backstage illegally, and you're

going to shake the hand of the artist, he goes,

So go ahead and do it. And I said, okay,

And I just saw it as a rise of a

challenge because I've done it so many times before, and

I said, just watch and learn. So, like, literally, they're

all standing there, and within seconds there was a crowd

of people who had paid to meet backstage. You know,

they were the people with the passes. Yeah, and I

went over to them. They had opened the door and

I had walked over and I had pretended like I

was talking to somebody that I held the door, and

just when the security guard turned his back, I snuck

in there. And I just left my.

Kids there you go.

And then and so literally they were they were outside

waiting for me. They had no choice. Okay, I waited out.

They waited outside like almost an hour.

So back in the nineties, that was really cool. Now

the FBI is watching you, you know that, right.

I think that nobody cares.

They're gonna know they think you're a terrorist or something.

You know what I always used to say, I would say,

what are they gonna do? Throw me in like in

music jail?

Yes, right, yes, And if they do so, well, they

should have Okay, wow, so lots of times, and I mean, dude,

you have like a hundred of those kind of stories.

I've heard so many crazy stories. Okay, I am not

that guy. I wait in line if I didn't pay

my way, I just assume I'm not supposed.

To do the thing.

I've never done it one time, never. Wow, Yeah, I

am that guy. Wow. Okay. Who's most likely to get

stuck in a public place because they're too busy talking

to someone to notice they were locked in? Me? Yeah,

that's that's me. That's you, that's me.

That's really funny. They were too busy talking to someone

to notice they were lucky.

Yeah, there's been so many times just chit chatting and

suddenly realize there's nobody here.

All right. Number four. Who's most likely to build an

elaborate fort out of furniture and then insist on spaying

the night in it.

I've actually done that.

I've done that one hundred times as well.

Yeah it might be us.

Oh let's vote for we we yes? Yeah, so we

used to have this couch with huge, firm, large cushions

that were perfect for doing this. I currently still have

holes in my ceiling in my living room because my

daughter Tory, who was dating her current boyfriend, Like, and

we're talking like high school stuff. We're talking like she

was like junior year of high school, and she goes, Dad,

can you build us a fort to watch TV in?

And so I put nails in the ceiling and hung

bed sheets to the nails and created this elaborate like

fourth that turned into a massive tent that enclosed the TV. Yeah,

and they had to and the only way to get

to it was you had to crawl through a tunnel

on the carpet, through this big long tunnel and then

it just sort of turned into this massive cave.

That's super cool. Yep, super cool. Yes. Number five, number five.

Who's most likely to accidentally create a viral video by

doing something completely unexpected in a public You? That's me

as well, Yeah.

Because because remember I'm standing in line doing what I'm

supposed to do.

Yeah, I'm and I'm I'm usually wanting to do pretty

crazy things.

Yeah wow.

Yeah.

Okay, So there you go, just another little insight into

the mind and reality of Chris and Jeff. Yes, yes, wow, thrilling,

thrilling stuff. Yeah, well that one wasn't you know, I

elaborated a little bit, but we probably need to move on. So, well,

here's what I would say, is we could keep this

up and really impress people with our really amazing stories,

or we could get into, you know, the life of Samson. Yeah,

and so which do you think would be better?

Oh, let me think, let me pray about it. Yeah Samson. Okay,

so we're in.

We're just going to go through the four chapters of

Samson's life right there, because his life is spread over

four chapters. Starts in Judges thirteen ands and Judges sixteen,

So we're reading fourteen. Now he had the announcement of

his birth and his parents committing to raise him to

honor God. That's in chapter thirteen. Then in chapter fourteen suddenly,

now he's an adult. Right, So between thirteen and fourteen

a lot happens, but we don't know what it is.

Yeah, probably at least teenager or above.

Right, Yeah, I think he's inn. I think he's an

adult adult.

What do you think thirty?

Yeah? Really, Well, he wants to get married, and usually

Israelite men getting married would have been in their thirties. Okay, yeah,

But anyways, one day, here's what it says in Judge's

fourteen one. One day when Samson was in tim No.

One of the Philistine women caught his eye. When he

returned home, he told his father and mother, a young

Philistine woman and tim had caught my eye. I want

to marry her. Get her for me. His father and

mother objected. Isn't there even one woman in our tribe

or among all the Israelites that you could marry? They asked,

we must Why must you go to the pagan Philistines

to find a wife? But Sampson told his father get

her for me. She looks good to me. His father

mother didn't realize the Lord was at work in this,

creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled

over Israel at that time. As Samson and his parents

were going down to Timna, a young lion suddenly attacked

Samson near the vineyards of Timna. At that moment, the

spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he

ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. He

did it as easily as if it were a young goat,

but he didn't tell his father and mother about it.

When Samson arrived at Timna, he talked with the woman

and was very pleased with her. Later, when he returned

to Timna for the wedding. He turned off the path

to look at the carcass of the lion, and he

found that a swarm of bees had made some honey

in the carcass. He scooped some of the honey into

his hands and ate it along the way. He also

gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it,

but he didn't tell that he'd taken the honey from

the carcass of the lion. As his father was making

final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timna,

as was the custom for elite young men. When the

bride's parents saw him, they selected thirty young men from

the town to be his companions. Samson said to them,

let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my

riddle during these seven days of the celebration, i'll give

you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.

But if you can't solve it, then you must give

me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.

All right, theakered, let's hear your riddle, So she said,

out of the one who eats came something to eat

out of the strong came something sweet. Three days later,

they were still trying to figure it out. On the

fourth day, they said to Samson's wife and Tys, your

husband explained the riddle for us, or we will burn

down your father's house with you in it. Did you

invite us to this party just to make us poor?

So Samson's wife came to him in tears and said,

you don't love me. You hate me. You've given my

people a riddle, but you haven't told me the answer.

I haven't even given the answer to my father and mother.

He replied, why should I tell you so? So she

cried whenever she was with him, and kept it up

for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the

seventh day, he told her the answer because she was

tormenting him or with her nagging. Then she explained the

riddle to the young men. So before sun set of

the seventh day, the men of the town came to

Samson with their answer, what is sweeter than honey? What

is stronger than a lion? Samson? If you hadn't plowed

with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my riddle.

That is a statement. That is a statement, that's a choice.

Then that was a choice. Then the spirit of the

Lord came powerfully upon him, and he went down to

the town at Ashkalan, killed thirty men, took their belongings,

and gave their clothing to the men who'd solved his riddle.

But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he

went back home to live with his father and mother.

So his wife was given a marriage to the man

who'd been Samson's best man at the wedding.

Well, so his wife was given in marriage to the

man who'd been Samson's best man.

Yeah. Yeah, so that means, you know, there would be

this long celebration before the consummation of the of a marriage,

and so until the consummation, it was just a commitment.

They were engaged, they were, but they were called husband

and wife. Yeah right, because this is the beginning of

the wedding. But he basically he divorced her before they

consummated their marriage.

Yeah, that's that's pretty unbelievable.

And that it's crazy.

Yeah, and if you hadn't plaid with my heifer, you

wouldn't have solved my Yeah.

Hey, you know on those things where people write in

and ask us big questions. Yeah, Chris, I'm curious, what

does that mean?

Plot with my heifer? Yes, well, you know it's uh,

it's my field, it's my cow. Righth you went into

my barn. You you uh, you know you that's you're

you're in your that's what he's saying, right, I mean,

there's not a sexual thing.

He's calling his wife a heifer, a cow.

Yes, yes, yes, that's that's Uh, that's unbelievable. And and uh,

you know what you know, the funny thing is here

is that it says that God was going to use

this idea that Samson wanted a wife with the Philistines.

But at the same time, Uh, wasn't he forbidden? No,

he was. He wasn't forbidden to.

All of the Israelites were forbidden.

That's what it was. This wasn't this wasn't a condition

of the Nazarites. That's right, right, So he wasn't forbidden

by God. This wasn't the disobedience to God.

Yes it was. It was against God's.

Law, against God's law to be a part of that.

So Exodus thirty five, Deuteronomy seven, he said, don't marry them.

Oh, don't talk to them, don't.

Live among them. So that's a standard law. But it's

not a Nazarite boo issue. It's it's the law of Israel.

You cannot marry people from other nations. You must marry

within your own nation, with your own people.

Isn't it interesting how God could take something out of

disobedience and he's going to use it for good? And

isn't that the way that God does? Sometimes he takes

our mistakes, he takes our bad choices, even things that

are you know, not good. And what He's going to

do sometimes is You'll have to find a way to

bring beauty from ashes.

That's right. So I think it's a it's one of

those deals that it's not that God made him sin, right,

which is the sin. It's a sin to break God's law.

Wasn't that God made him sin, It was that God

was going to use this bad decision to the war

because he's he's he goes and kills thirty guys, right, Philistines,

And this is the beginning of Samson establishing among the Philistines,

you cannot defeat me, but you're gonna pay. I'm going

to exact a heavy price. But it shows a lot

about his character and I look at this when I

read those first few verses, I just think, what a

snotty brat.

Right, she looks good to me, Go get her?

Yeah, he demands it, right, right, a young Philistine woman

in tim to cut my eye. I want to marry

get her for me. He doesn't say please, he doesn't

say is it okay, He doesn't look for counsel. He

just makes a demand. His father goes, don't go to

the pagan Philistines to get a wife. Right? You know

his father just asked the angel, you know several years before,

how do we how do we rais ing? What do

we do? We want to go God's way, That's what

he's saying. So he knows the laws of God and

then he but he doesn't bring it up. This is

a sin against God. He's just saying he's talking poorly

about the Philistines. Instead of he's talking about the negative.

Instead of elevating God's word, he could have elevated God's Hey,

God has a better way. Hey, we know what God's

word says. Let's go God's way. He doesn't do that. Instead,

he's like, oh, stinking Philistines are pagans. Why would you

want right? So he's kind of attacking the girl that

Samson wants instead of elevating God's words in law right.

And so then Samson's argument is again back to the girl,

making it.

Sound like it's good advice as opposed to commandments, right, right, like, hey,

it would be better advice to do this.

And he's attacking the philistine people. Is the way that

Samson would have taken it. He's pagan philistines as opposed

to elevating the importance of God's word.

Right.

So God's word isn't anti others, it's pro what's best, right,

That's what's happening. And so I think sometimes parents are

tempted to go after and talk about how bad that

friend is or rather than elevating God's better way, right,

does that make sense? And so this what they do

and instead, so then his argument he comes back and

he argues for her as a person, right, she she

go get it for me. She looks good to me.

And so this is what happens, is he gets what

he wants on this. He's just kind of snotty, which

I think is a temptation. They couldn't have a baby,

They couldn't you know, they were barren for so long.

He's an answer to their prayer. So in some ways,

you know, they're very curious and excited to raise him

the way that God said to raise him, and the

other way they spoil him rotten.

Right, certain that way.

Well, so all we know is they named him Samson

and the next verse is he demands what he wants.

Now he gets it.

There's another thing here where he touches the dead carcass

of a lion. Yeah, and yet it says that he's

not supposed to touch anything.

Dead that would be. That's so it wasn't in the

declaration from the Angel of the Lord, but that is

in what we know from the Nazarite bows mentioned in

the law. So the law highlights what a nasaray would be,

and that would be one of them is that they

couldn't touch a dead a dead animal.

It doesn't it doesn't say that when the when the

angel uh No told manah oh oh. Yeah, he just

says razor wine and food and forbidden food.

Yeah, I don't eate the forbidden food.

Okay, So I'm using my other knowledge here.

Yeah, yeah, your other knowledge deep deep nine deep cross

referencing here.

Yeah, Well, I didn't. I wasn't realizing even about mirroring

outside of your tribe here. And then then I looked

at the Life Application study notes you referenced Excess thirty

four and Deuteronomy seven. I was like, wow, that looked

and I was like, oh, he's all right there. But

you know what, the fact that he was able to.

Reach good resources makes you look smart.

Yes, yes, well, I mean that's the reason why we encourage.

The Life Application said about them. That's exactly right, that's

exactly right. But anyway, so he so he disobeyed. It

seems like he's sort of not being respectful to his parents.

He's he's going outside of God's law but wanting to

marry philistine. What we know about in an azard, he's

not supposed touch anything dead or and clean. And he

reaches reaches into the carcass of a lion, right, and

guess what it's all about what pleases him?

And he's being sneaky's not telling his parents, right, he's not, Dude,

you just killed a lion with your bare hands, and

you're not going to telling your mom and dad.

And by the spirit of the Lord coming upon you, huh, Right,

Like like a glory to the God's story and so

and so it's all because she looks good. It's all

because hey, that honey looks sweet to me. Right, and

so not only does he partake of the honey himself,

but then what does he do is he gives it

to his parents and doesn't tell him because I have

a feeling him being as right. Had he said, hey,

I get this from the day carcass of a lion,

they would they probably wouldn't have accepted it.

Right.

So there's there's all sorts of sermons in here, but

it's really in this moment seeming like whatever pleases him,

that's what he wants, that's the season of life he's in.

Well, this is there's another out here in the life

Afication Bible says Samson impulsively used the special gift God

gave him for selfish purposes. Right, And I think about that,

you think of sometimes you and I are amazed or shocked.

And Christians in general tend to be shocked. Even the

world lost people tend to be shocked when they see

a pastor flame out. There's been several famous pastors here

lately that have gotten themselves in trouble.

Lately. Right, Yes, it's every generation, every Yeah, kind of

a young superstar pastor from a couple of years ago,

hanging out with celebrities, super cool guy everybody.

Wanted to be and he was cooler than all the

rest of us.

And now there's a series on them.

Yeah, exactly, And and I mean it's it's one after

another after another. It's a temptation to take these supernatural

gifts God gives and use them for our own benefit.

So you know, you can talk about, say the pastor

that is referencing incredibly attractive person, magnetic person, just draw

that's a gift from God and it's supposed to be

used drop people to Jesus through the message. That a

pretty good communicator, right, he's a great networker's he's a

person that can help move people forward and do.

It churismatic, magnetic, yep, and very compelling.

And instead he wound up using it for himself and

wound up hurting his marriage, hurting his ministry, hurting tons

of people who looked up to him. Right, and this

is what you see. You watched the series, No, I

never watched any of those things. I don't listen to

the podcast. I don't I already know bad stuff happened.

I watched, I watched the whole thing, and my wife

and I did, and it was it was what a

good what a good heart this guy had. He just

he flamed out, Not because he was I don't think

caught up in his own fame. I think he flamed

out because the pressure broke them. It just broke them.

So that's easy, that's an easy out. But I can

tell you he used the supernatural gifts God gave him

to sin Yep, So I can tell you. You know,

Samson could say, well, there's a lot of pressure on me.

I was really tough, and the Philistines were. I'm telling you,

if I was going to make a documentary about myself,

that'd be the same argument. Yeah right, Well, when you're

trying to re establish your fame, yeah, dude, he put

it on Netflix. So when you're trying to re establish

your frame and get some back of what you used

to have, you're gonna have all kinds of excuses as

opposed to just admitting I used the gifts God gave

me from myself and I chose to do the wrong thing.

Samson never does that. Samson doesn't do that. Samson never

confronts his sin until the end, and he barely does

it then. Right, And so what happens is God has

these supernatural gifts, and he goes out and just walking

along the way, just kills a lion so he can

have it. He gets ticked off because these thirty guys

figured out his riddle, so he goes and kills thirty Philistines,

steals their clothes to pay off the debt that he owes.

He's just using these extra ex ordinary gifts that God

gave him for himself. Right. And I'm not saying that

you're wrong or you're bad on that. I'm just saying

it's really easy when I'm trying to re establish my

reputation to go on Netflix and tell people a gentler

way as to why I got into sin as the post,

admitting I used my own gifts. And in this I

think it's important for us to not look for excuses

but to accept responsibility.

Yeah, there's no doubt what you're saying is right, but

then there's the belief the best side too, where because

that's obviously the negative side, right, you can say, well,

that's why he did it, but there's probably a sense

to where he feels like he let so many people down,

He let the world down, right, in a lot of sense,

he feels that way. So what he wants to do

is he wants to you know, talk about God's grace,

God's repentance, you know, how God can redeem somebody. He

wants God to get the glory somehow through this thing

that he did that was so bad, right, and so

he wants to bring good out of bad. So he figures, hey,

God has given him the opportunity to send the message

of grace and forgiveness through this, through this Netflix thing,

and maybe people will come in, and you know what,

it's another way to perhaps you know, show the side

of a pastor.

If I had multimillion dollar book deals and all that

kind of stuff, and I also had a PR firm,

they would tell me to do exactly the same thing

and to find something other than my own response.

I agree, I agree, right.

What Samson didn't have is he didn't have a PR firm,

and he had no interest quite honestly, in fixing his reputation.

He just lived for himself. And that I think is

the danger right as we look at the at the

thing at at Samson's life as opposed to, you know,

pushing people to go watch a Netflix thing. So in

this situation, what you have is you have a young

man and we see it today. This is why why

I brought up those other issues. You have a young

man who's choosing to use gifts from God for himself.

And I think that that really is the the lesson

for us to learn because we're going to go on

and he just spirals. He starts to spire a out

of control over the next couple days. When we pick

back up next week, and it's fair for us to say, God,

why am I doing it? Am I preaching so that

other people will listen to me? We're preaching to lift

Jesus high? Am I leading so that other people will

follow me? Or am I leading people to Jesus? And

it'd be the same for anybody, any Christian? Why do

I do what? You know? There are people out there

that are gifted at making money. Why why are you

making money for you so you can just buy a

bigger boat in another house. Go ahead, But maybe God

gave you that ability to fund his kingdom. Maybe there's

a deeper purpose that goes way beyond just your talents

that God gave you for yourself, and that is I

think the great lesson from Samson is it's not about you.

It never was about you. It's only about him and

his kingdom, and God is going to use Samson as

a tool. But Samson could have been so much greater.

He could have been the greatest of all of them,

and instead he flames out because he just lives for himself, right,

And that's my frustration with Samson. I love the story

of Samson, I hate the story of Samson at the

same time.

Wait, we are definitely at our time, so we gotta

wrap this up so hopefully we will see you next

time on the bubble guys.

Mhm m