HERO'S OF THE BILE: Samson

So, the children of Israel left Egypt.  They wandered in the desert for 40 years.  Finally, the time had come for them to go into their new home: the promised land.  The land they were to inhabit was called Canaan.  God had helped the Israelites conquer Canaan, which had been inhabited by a host of wicked nations.  As they settled into their new home, they changed the name of the land to… Israel.

However, Israel began to compromise.  They began to entertain sin.  They intermarried with the wicked people.  They became idolaters.  Before long the Israelites became captives.  Out of their desperation they begged God to rescue them.  In faithfulness to his promise and out of his loving-kindness, God would raise up a judge to deliver his people and, for a time, there would be peace. That’s what the book of Judges in the Bible is about.  Judges is a book about heroes—12 men and women who delivered Israel from her oppressors.

One of those Judges was named Samson.  His story is one of the most famous in the Bible.    Judges 16 shows how he compromised with sin and how it led to his downfall.

Judges 16:1 (NIV) One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her.

Samson was a he-man with a she-weakness.  He was incredibly strong.  There was a powerful anointing on his life.  But he lacked character.  He had a lust problem (1 John 2:16).

Judges 16:4 (NIV)  Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 

Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah which became the beginning of his demise.

Four Life Lessons From Samson's Life

  1. We will all be tempted by sin 

Samson’s downfall was not temptation.  Every human to ever walk the earth has been tempted by sin (James 1:13-14).

If Satan tempted Jesus, you can believe he will tempt us also.  Additionally, because we all have a sinful nature, temptation is a part of our existence here on earth. 
   
2. Sin has its kicks

I’m sure Samson had a ball frolicking with the Philistine chicks.  Sin can be fun.  If it weren’t fun, we wouldn’t be tempted by it.  We wouldn’t do it.  Sin does not come to us in some ugly package.  It is always very attractive.

2 Cor. 11:14 (NLT)  Even Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light.

3. Sin has its kickbacks

Samson continually and deliberately went back to the same sin over and over again and it cost him big time.  I wonder if he knew that his lifestyle would result in him having his eyes gouged out and grinding grain in shackles, that he still would have ever started fooling around with Philistine women? 

4. God can still use you

There are many whose sinful choices have done irreparable damage to their life.  Yet God still uses them.  He can still use you.

1 John 1:9 (NLT)  But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.