Learning To Listen to God

Samson – Disaster With Delilah

•The Dangers of Character Flaws

•Samson was not even born when God chose him to lead Israel.•God demanded that Samson’s mother meet stringent requirements to prepare Samson for the Nazirite vow.

•Samson had certain character flaws…

•As he grew to adulthood these flaws became apparent.•Ultimately they resulted in his disaster with Delilah.

•What is a Nazirite?

•Requirements established in Numbers 6:1-27

•Abstinence from wine or fermented drink•No drinking grape juice•No eating raisins, grapes, grape seeds or anything from the grape vine.•No razor used on his or her head.•Separation for the Lord – complete holiness.•No contact with a corpse of any kind.

•Known Nazirites

•Samson is the only Nazirite mentioned by name.

•Yet: Amos 2:11-12 – “I also raised up prophets from among your sons and Nazirites from among your young men. Is this not true, people of Israel?" declares the LORD. "But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy

Samson’s Flaws – Breaking The Vow

Judges 14:1 -- Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman….

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

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

•The result of the first relationship… (14:5-18)

•He tells a riddle to the Philistines – winner gets 30 sets of clothing.•His wife cries for seven days: You hate me! You don’t really love me!•If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer….

The First Breaking of the Vow

Samson kills a lion

Eats honey out of the corpse of the lion

Result of the second relationship --

•People of Gaza surround the town ready to kill Samson.•Samson takes hold of the gates of the city with its posts and carries them to the top of a hill.

A Man of Vengeance

Slays 30 Philistines for 30 garments

Tied 300 foxes together and burned grain fields

Killed a thousand men with a donkey jawbone

Result of the Third Relationship…

“Show me the secret of your great strength…”

Betrays him three times, but he comes back for a fourth.

Shaves his head and he loses his strength.

Second part of the vow broken.

God Working Through Disaster

Judges 16:21 -- Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison.

Samson blindedSamson boundSamson as a beast of burden

The feast to Dagon

16:23-24 -- Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, "Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands."  24 When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying, "Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands,        the one who laid waste our land        and multiplied our slain."

Samson brings down the house!

His prayer: “O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

What did Samson know?

He knew God had called him to be holy.13:5 – “…the boy is to be a Nazirite, set

apart to God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines."

He knew the Spirit of God moved him.13:25 – “…and the Spirit of the LORD began

to stir him while he was in Mahaneh Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.”

What can we learn?

James 4:7 – “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Proverbs 1:32-33 – “For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety        and be at ease, without fear of harm."