The Samson Syndrome

“The Samson Syndrome”

(Sunday Evening November 1st, 2009)

Passage: Judges 16:18-22

O.S. I Want You to Try to Imagine if You Can What It Would be Like to be an Incredibly Gifted Person, Intelligent, Handsome and Even Famous

To Begin With, Let’s Just Say, for Example, That You Were an Only Child

And While Your Parents Did Not Intend to Spoil You, It Just Sort of Worked Out That Way, Because You Didn’t Have Any Siblings Who Were Also Vying for Their Attention

Your Parents Were Not Exceptionally Wealthy, But They Were Hard Working Folks; Therefore, You Grew Up Getting Just About Whatever You Wanted

In Addition to This, You are Now in Your Mid Twenties, and You are a Great Athlete; in Fact, You are the Star Half-Back on a Division I Football Team

But There’s More, You are Not Only the Star Half-Back on Your College Team; You are the Best Half-Back on Any College Team

You are Not Only a Good Athlete You are a Gifted Athlete; and You Have Already Won the Prestigious Heisman Trophy Award

And So, of Course, a Multimillion Dollar Contract With the NFL is Forthcoming, and Your Future Looks Very Bright Financially

Ah, But There is Still More, You are Also Incredibly Handsome, Exceptionally Intelligent, and Extremely Popular, and Women Find You to be Irresistible

Q.n = Now, Wouldn’t That be a Great Life?

Ans = Well, Not Necessarily

It Would be a Great Life if You Were Spiritually Mature Enough to Handle It

But if All of These Things Were True About You, You Would Face Some Dangers and Temptations That Most People Rarely or Never Have to Face

You Would Have to Deal With Sexual Temptation, for Example, on a Daily Basis

And, You Would Also Have to Face the Greatest Danger That Any Man or Woman on the Face of This Earth Can Face, THE DANGER OF PRIDE

St = Now Listen, When Most of Us Think About Samson, We Think About His Problem With Lust, and He Certainly Did Have a Problem With Lust

But His Problem Actually Went Much Deeper Than This, Samson’s Real Downfall Was His Pride, and Pride is the Source of Almost Every Spiritual Downfall

Proverbs 16:18 Says “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling”

Pride Was the Source of Satan’s Rebellion Against God, and It Caused Him to be Cast Out of Heaven (Isaiah 14)

Pride is What Caused King Saul to Usurp the Prophet Samuel’s Authority, and This Caused Him to be Rejected by God and Ultimately Dethroned

Pride is Also What Caused Simon Peter to Overestimate His Spiritual Strength, and as a Result of This He Denied Christ

Of Course, I Could go on and on, Because the List of Those in the Bible and Those in Our Modern World Who Have Been Destroyed by Pride is a Long One

Now, Let Me be Careful to Say That There is a Such Thing as Positive Pride

It is Not Wrong, for Example, to be Proud of Your Family Name, or to be Proud of the Fact That You are a U.S. Citizen, or to Have a Justifiable Self-Respect

But Sinful Pride Could be Defined as “Having an Inordinately High Opinion of Your Own Dignity” or “an Exaggerated Attitude of Self-Importance”

It is What the Apostle Paul Described as “thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think”; It is Being “Egotistical” and “Arrogant” (Romans 12:3)

T.S. Now, That is What I Believe Was Samson’s Problem

He Had It All, But He Couldn’t Handle It

And I Believe That All of Us are More Vulnerable to This Sin Than We Realize

So, With This in Mind, I Want Explain What I Have Chosen to Call “The Samson Syndrome” This Evening, and I Want Us All to be Reminded of Just How Dangerous Pride Can Be

I. His Was a Chosen Life of Promise

1) Samson Had Godly Parents

We are Told in Judges 13:2 That Manoah’s Wife Was Barren

This Was Considered a Curse in That Day and Time, and Many a Couple Might Have Become Bitter Towards God Because of This

But Not Manoah and His Wife, They Continued to Serve the Lord Faithfully

And So, God Decided to Reward Their Great Faith by Giving Them a Very Special Child

One Day an Angel Appeared to Manoah and His Wife, and He Told Her That She Would Give Birth to a Son (By the Way, This Was What Bible Scholars Call “a Theophany”)

This Child Came Just as God Had Promised, and Manoah and His Wife Decided to Name This Boy “Samson” Which Means “Sunshine”

Now, Even Though Many in Israel at This Time Had Begun to Compromise Their Convictions and Conform to This Pagan Culture That Surrounded Them, Samson’s Parents Did Not do This; They Were “From the Old School” We Might Say Today

· They Kept the Law of Moses

· They Were People of Prayer

· They Kept a Kosher Kitchen

And They Diligently Sought God’s Wisdom and Guidance Regarding How They Should Raise This Very Special Child

Judges 13:8 Says “Then Manoah entreated the LORD and said, ‘O Lord, please let the man of God whom You have sent come to us again that he may teach us what to do for the boy who is to be born.’” (Elaborate)

Now Listen, if You Have Been Raised, or You are Being Raised, in a Home Where Your Parents Love God, and They Love You; You are a Blessed Individual

Just Think About It, You Have Probably Not Been Physically or Verbally Abused or Neglected, and Your Parents Have Probably Made Some Sacrifices for You

Psalms 112:2 Says “His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed”

2) Samson Had Great Potential

The Angel Told Manoah That God Wanted Their Son Samson to be “Set Apart” From the Womb

He Was to be a “Nazirite,” and the Word “Nazirite” Means “Separated”

It Was Not Uncommon for an Israelite to Take a Nazirite Vow That Was Temporary, But Samson Was to be a Nazirite All of His Life

And We are Told in Numbers 6:3-7 That There Were Three Things That Nazirites Were Not Allowed to Do

i. They Were Never to Eat Grapes or Drink Wine

ii. They Were Never to Touch a Dead Animal or Dead Person

iii. And They Were Never to Cut Their Hair

This Was Because Nazirites Were Intended to be Like Walking Sermons

They Were Walking Reminders of the Fact That God Had Called the Israelites to Live “Holy” and “Separated” Lives

Now, as We All Know, Samson Was Also Given Superhuman Strength

In Those Days, the Spirit of God Did Not Operate as He Does With Believers Today

Today, the Holy Spirit Dwells Within All Believers at All Times

But in Those Days, the Spirit of God “Came Upon” Certain People at Specific Times

And When the Spirit of God Came Upon Samson, He Was Able to do Some Amazing Things Physically

Ex. In Judges 14:6, We are Told That Samson Tore a Lion Apart With His Bare Hands

Ex. In Judges 15:15, We are Told That Samson Killed a Thousand Philistines With the Jawbone of a Donkey

Ex. And in Judges 16:3, We are Told That Samson Took Hold of the City Gates in Gaza, and He Carried Them Up to the Top of a Mountain and He Left Them There. (Now, This Was Amazing - Huge Gates - a Distance of 38 Miles, UPHILL!)

Q.n = Why Did God Give Manoah and His Wife These Special Instructions About How They Were to Raise Their Son?

Ans = For One, God Obviously Wanted Samson to be an Example of How He Desired for All Israelites to Live Separated Lives (We Don’t Hear Much About Separation)

By the Way, It Must Have Been Fairly Difficult for Samson’s Parents to Get a Boy Like Samson to Tow the Line Like This.

In Fact, I Think That We Can be Reasonably Sure That Samson Challenged His Parents on a Few Occasions; I am Sure That He Asked Them Questions Like…

“Why Can’t I Cut My Hair? All the Other Boys in Israel Can, and They Make Fun of Me; They Say That I’m ‘Weird’ and ‘Strange’, and I Don’t Like It One Bit!”

“Why Can’t I Eat Grapes? All the Other Israelite Boys are Allowed to do This.”

I Can’t Say for Sure That This is What It Was Like for Manoah and His Wife to Raise Samson, But My Best Guess is That Samson Did Complain About Some of These Unusual Restrictions

Ans = Now, as I Already Stated, God Obviously Wanted Samson to be an Example of How He Desired for All Israelites to Live Separated Lives

Ans = But in Addition to This, I Also Believe This Would Have Helped to Keep a Young Man Like Samson Out of Trouble

For You See, All of Our Children are Going to Challenge Our Boundaries, But I Believe That Those Who are Given Boundaries are Less Likely to Get Into Serious Trouble

I Believe It is Important for All of Us Who are Parents to Set Some Boundaries for Our Children

And Listen, I Believe That This is All the More True if We Have a Child Who is Intelligent or Naturally Gifted and Physically Attractive

Because He or She is Simply Going to be More Vulnerable

We are Told in Genesis 39:6, for Example, That “…Joseph was handsome in form and appearance”

And I am Sure That This is One Reason Why Potiphar’s Wife Tried to Seduce Him

II. His Was a Corrupted Life of Pride

1) Samson Was Too Proud to Listen

Judges 14:1-3 (Read)

Now, It Seems Very Obvious to Me That Samson Was Being Motivated by Lust Here, Because What He Said to His Parents Was Very Revealing; He Said, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me” (Obviously, a Physical Attraction)

But Listen, What Manoah and His Wife Said to Their Son Also Reveals the Fact That Samson’s Pride Was Part of the Problem

And It is Possible That He Felt He Was Just Too Good for Any of These Hebrew Girls

Now, We Really Have No Way of Knowing Whether Samson Was Handsome and Muscular or Whether He Looked Like Barney Fife

One Thing is for Certain and That is That His Supernatural Strength Did Not Come From His Muscles; It Came From God

But We do Know That He Was Intelligent and Witty, He Was Clever, and We Can be Reasonable Sure That He Was Used to Getting What He Wanted

So, I am Only Speculating Now, But It is Possible That These Hebrew Girls Just Weren’t a Challenge to Him Anymore

The Philistine Girls on the Other Hand Were Flashier and More Enticing and Daring, and Most of All They Were Forbidden Which Made Them Even More Exciting to Him Sexually

Now, to Their Credit, Samson’s Parents Tried to Give Him Some Good Advice, But Samson Was Too Blinded by His Lust and Too Proud to Listen to Them

Proverbs 13:10 Says “Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice” (NIV)

Listen, Many a Young Person Has Refused to Listen to Their Parents at This Point, and They Have Lived to Regret It (2 Corinthians 6:14 – Elaborate)

And Young People are Not the Only Ones Who Refuse to Listen to Others

2) Samson Was Too Proud to Learn

Now, When We Study Samson’s Life Carefully, We Discover That It Was a Life That Was Filled With Almost Constant Danger and Sensual Escapades

The Only Exception Came When Samson Decided to Take a Walk Thru a Vineyard

But of Course, This Was Strictly Forbidden.

As a Nazirite, He Had no Business Going Near a Dry Raisin Much Less Walking Through a Vineyard Full of Fresh Grapes

And as He Walked Through This Vineyard, a Lion Attacked Him

Now, I Must Admit That My Only Plan Would Have Been to Escape From This Lion; But Amazingly, the Bible Says That Samson Fought This Lion

The Bible Says That the Spirit of God Came Upon Samson, and He Tore This Lion Apart With His Bare Hands

Then Later, Samson Came Back, and He Discovered That There Was a Bee Hive in the Carcass of This Lion

Now, This Was Very Unusual, Because Bees do Not Usually Build Hives in the Carcass of a Dead Animal

And at This Point, Samson Decided to Break the Second Part of His Nazirite Vow by Reaching Into the Carcass of That Dead Lion and Taking Out Some Honey

Samson Not Only Sinned by Touching a Dead Animal; He Joked About His Sin

At His Wedding Party, Samson Turned This Sin Into a Riddle, and This Set in Motion a Whole Series of Tragic Events

Samson Invited 30 Groomsmen to His Wedding Party, All Philistines, and He Offered Each of Them a New Set of Clothes is They Could Solve His Riddle Which Went Like This:“Out of the eater came forth meat Out of the eater came forth sweet”

Q.n = Now, Why Did Samson Invent This Riddle and Make This Bet?

Ans = Pride. He Wanted to Prove That He Was Intellectually Superior

St = Proverbs 13:20 Says “…a companion of fools will be destroyed”, and Samson Learned That Lesson the Hard Way

His Groomsmen Resorted to Treachery; They Couldn’t Solve the Riddle; So, They Decided to Threaten Samson’s Fiancee (Elaborate)

But When They Told Samson the Answer to His Riddle on the Last Day of the Feast, He Became Furious, Because He Knew What They Had Done

He Said to Them,“You would not have answered my riddle if you had not plowed with my heifer”

By the Way, Let Give You a Little Pastoral Advice, Don’t Call Your Wife a Heifer

Samson Retaliated by Killing Thirty Philistines, and He Used Their New Suits to Pay This Gambling Debt; and Then, Samson Left for a Few Days

Later, He Had a Change of Heart, or Perhaps Just a Resurgence of Lust; and So, He Brought a Young Goat to His Fiancee (Like Bringing Flowers and Candy)

But This Time His Father-in-Law Would Not Let Him Come In, and He Informed Samson That His Bride Had Been Given to His Best Man

So, Samson Retaliated by Capturing 300 Foxes, Tying Them Together and Setting Their Tails on Fire so That They Went Running Through the Fields of the Philistines

Then, the Philistines Retaliated by Burning Samson’s Father-in-Law and His Fiancee to Death

And Then, Samson Responded to This by Killing an Unknown Number of Philistines

Judges 15:8 Says “He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam”

Pt = Samson Should Have Simply Walked Away Saying “I Have Learned My Lesson,”and I Have No Business Associating With These Ungodly Philistines

But Instead, Samson Reacted in Anger, and He Took Revenge

He Was Simply Too Blinded by Pride to Learn This Lesson

3) He Was Too Proud to Lead

Behind This Whole Story of Samson’s Life, Something is Obviously Missing

Never Once Did Samson Assemble an Army and Attack the Enemy

Samson Should Have Done What Deborah and Barak Did in Judges Chapter 4 and What Gideon Did in Judges Chapter 6

He Should Have Assembled an Army, and He Should Have Led Them Into Battle Against the Philistines

But Samson Was so Blinded by His Own Pride That All He Ever Seemed to Care About Was Getting His Own Personal Revenge

You See, This is All Part of the Samson Syndrome

And Some Men Will Use Anger Like a Tool

They Might Use Anger to Intimidate Other People Into Giving Them What They Want (Elaborate) or They Might Use Anger to Their Advantage on the Football Field (Guard) or on the Tennis Court (McEnroe), or Even in the Business World

But James Tells Us That the Anger of Man Never Accomplishes the Righteousness of God (James 1:20)

And the Writer of Proverbs Says “A fool always loses his temper, but a wise man holds it back” (Prov 29:11)

Pt = These Little Personal Victories That Samson Attained by Vengeance Represented Far Less Than What God Ultimately Desired to Accomplish Through Him

And It Was His Pride That Kept Him From Seeing the Big Picture (Samson Was a Lone Ranger, and a Self-Centered One)

Ex. In This Sense, Samson Reminds Me of a Half-Back Who is so Proud of His Own Athletic Ability That He Forgets That He Needs an Offensive Line to Succeed

Ex. Or a Business Man Forgets That There is No Such Thing as a Self-made Man

Ex. Or a Pastor Who is so Full of Pride That He Fails to See How Much He Needs Dedicated and Faithful Church Members in Order to Succeed.

III. His Was a Chastened Life of Pain

1) Samson’s Humiliation

In 1 Peter 5:5-6, the Bible Says “ …GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time”

Those Verses Tell Us That God Empowers Us More and More When We Humbly Say, in Essence, “God I Know That Without You I am Nothing” “God I Recognize That My Gifts and Abilities Have Come From You, and That I am Totally Dependent on You”

Those Verses Also Tell Us That God is Opposed to the Proud

And This Means That He Will Allow Things to Come Into a Proud Person’s Life That Will Humble Them and Bring Them to Their Knees

And That is What God Allowed to Happen to Samson

In Judges 16:1, We are Told That Samson Went to See a Harlot in Gaza

Here is a Man of God, a Nazirite, Who is Supposed to be Separated for God, and He is Having Relations With a Prostitute

The Bible Says That the Philistines Learned About This, and They Surrounded the House Hoping to Capture Samson

But in What Must Have Been a James Bond Like Escape, Samson Got Away, and He Took the City Gates With Him

Q.n = By the Way, Why do You Think Samson Carried These City Gates All the Way Up to the Top of Mount Hebron?

Ans = I Believe the Answer is Pride

When You Think About It, This Was Overkill, Wasn’t It?

Apparently, He Carried Them Up a Mountain Next to Mount Hebron, Because He Wanted to Make a Statement

St = After This, We are Told That He Began to See a Woman in Sorek by the Name of Delilah

And I am Sure That Most of Us are Familiar With the Details (Elaborate)

Q.n = Why do You Think Samson Told Her Everything?

Ans = I Believe He Really Began to Feel That He Didn’t Need God

You See, Pride Will do This to a Person

Pride Will Cause a Person to Believe That They are Totally Self-Sufficient

Pride Will Cause a Person to Say “I Don’t Need That Church” “I Don’t Need a Preacher” “I Don’t Need to Hear Any Sermons” “I Don’t Need a Support Group”

Q.n = Now, Do You Remember What the Three Nazirite Vows Were?

Ans = Never to Drink Wine, Never to Touch a Dead Animal, Never to Cut His Hair

Finally, in Judges 16:20, We Find One of the Saddest Verses in the Bible “She said, ‘The Philistines are upon you, Samson!’ And he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him”

There is a Literary Device Used in the Next Verse; the Repetition of the Word“AND” is Supposed to Tell Us to Slow Down

And So, if We Read This Verse the Way It is Supposed to be Read, It Should Fill Our Heart With Great Sorrow (Read Judges 16:21)

One Preacher Said That This Verse Describes for Us the Blinding, and Binding, and Grinding Effects of Sin, and I Believe That is True

In John 8:34, Jesus Said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin”

And Many a Proud Man Has Had to Learn This Lesson the Hard Way

Pt = I Don’t Care How Gifted or Talented a Person is Sin Always Brings Consequences

Ex. Ben Johnson (Gold Medal), Martha Stewart (Prison Time), Jimmy Swaggart (Lost His Ministry), They Still Had to Bear the Consequences of Their Sin

2) Samson’s Hope

While He Was Grinding This Grain Like an Ox, the Bible Says That Samson’s Hair Began to Grow Back, and I Believe That is a Picture of God’s Grace

Samson Humbled Himself During This Time, and He Began to Pray

Then, as the Philistines Brought Samson to the Temple Where They Planned to Praise Their False gods and to Mock Samson and his God, He Got an Idea

He Asked the Little Boy Who Was Leading Him to Take Him to the Two Primary Pillars in This Temple; and Then, Judges 16:30 Says “And Samson said, ‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ And he bent with all his might so that the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed in his life”

Samson Finally Got It Right

He Humbled Himself Before God

And Because He Did This, God Allowed Him to Accomplish More at the Time of Death Than He Had Ever Accomplished in His Entire Life

And One of the Most Beautiful Things I Believe We Can Learn From Samson’s Story is That Our God is the God of the Second Chance (Elaborate)

Because of His Sin, Samson Never Reached His Full Potential for the Glory of God

But Because of God’s Grace, Samson Didn’t Die as a Failure in Life Either

Invitation: Now, I Can’t Study Samson’s Life Without Recalling What Jesus Said in Luke 12:48; in That Verse, He Said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required”

Jesus Was Not Only Refers to Our Gifts and Abilities, He Was Also Referring to Our Exposure to the Truth, and in That Sense Some of Us Have Been Very Privileged

And Listen, Every Time You Hear the Gospel Preached, You Become Even More Responsible for Responding to It