MPC, 3rd November 2002.Judges 13-16 - "Dare to be Different"
Andrew Richardson MPC, 3rd November 2002.
It can be difficult to be different. If you're like me you hate standing out.
When I was a kid we lived in Bangladesh. And over there we were different. Different skin colour, different language, different culture.
We'd go for a drive. And we'd stop in a village for a few minutes. To get a drink maybe or change a tyre. And suddenly there's 20 or 30 people crowding around the car to have a look. We're so different it's almost like the circus arriving. People come running from all directions to see the weird white kids. It used to happen all the time. And I hated it. Wished I was just like everyone else. It's tough to be different.
Which is exactly what the Israelites are finding back in the time of the Judges. They're supposed to be different. When God gave the them the promised land he told them not to be like everyone else. He wanted the Israelites to follow him exclusively. To stand out from the Canaanites and the Amalekites and the Philistines who were living round them.... who all had their own idols. God wanted the Israelites to be set apart... as his special people. And he told them not to make treaties with the other nations. Not to get married to them. And most of all. He told them, not to follow their gods.
But as we've seen in Judges, if you can remember back before the holidays, being different was too hard for the Israelites. They just couldn't resist the temptation to fit in. To assimilate. To make treaties and follow whatever gods they came across. It's happened time and again. Even the judges haven't been able to keep them different.
And when we get to Samson. The last judge. Things in Israel have got to a really sad stage. You can see it if you compare Samson with the other judges. You might remember there's a pattern the judges follow. It goes like this. Israel sins. God punishes them, by sending someone to oppress them. Then Israel cries out to God for help. And then he sends a judge to rescue them. That's the basic pattern we've seen throughout the book. But this time it's different. One part of the cycle is missing. The Israelites don't call out for help. Have a look at the beginning of the story in ch 13 v 1. "Again the Israelites do evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivers them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years."
That's the same old pattern... But in v 2... Where you expect the Israelites to cry out for help, you're introduced to Samson's Dad. God has to take the initiative. Raise up a judge without being asked. The Israelites are so caught up with their idols they don't want to be saved anymore. They've decided living under the Philistines is better than living as God's people. At least they don't have to be different...
But God's not going to leave the Israelites living under the Philistines. Fitting in with their pagan culture. Following their idols. God wants the Israelites to be his special people. And so he gives them a judge even though they don't want one.
He gives them a judge who's destined to be different. A judge who should be a living picture of what it means to be set apart for God... That's what the angel says to his mum. When he comes to announce that she's going to have a son. V 4 The angel says to her, "Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because 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."
To be a Nazirite was to be different. It was a special vow Israelites could take. And it made them stand out. No haircuts. No alcohol. And absolutely no contact with anything dead or unclean. It was a kind of walking picture of what all Israelites were supposed to be. Set apart to God. And it's what Samson is going to be. Right from birth.
At least he should be. The tragic thing about Samson is, he's like me when I was a kid. He doesn't want to be different. Just like all the other Israelites. He wants to fit in with the Philistine's. Settle down with them. And deny the difference.
Things are bad right from the start. The first thing Samson does is to try and marry a Philistine woman... Something no Israelite should do, let alone a Nazirite. But in Ch 14v 1. Samson goes down to Timnah and sees a young Philistine woman... And he likes what he sees... Because in v 2, When he returns, he says to his father and mother, "I've seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife."
Doesn't matter that she's a Philistine. She's good looking. And that's all he cares about. He's got a real eye for the ladies, Samson. Especially Philistine ladies. He finds them irresistible. Keeps courting them all his life. When his first marriage doesn't work out, he tries again. Look over to chapter 16 v 1 One day Samson goes to the Philistine city of Gaza, where he sees a prostitute. And again he can't resist. He goes in to spend the night with her.
And it's the same story in v4. He falls in love with another woman, whose name is Delilah.... And with Delilah, we see what Samson really finds so attractive about Philistine women. We see for Samson, loving Philistine women is all about being normal. It's about being like everyone else.
You might know the story. It's a bit like a James Bond movie. Beautiful woman sent to seduce the hero and get secrets out of him. The Philistine leaders offer Delilah a huge reward to find out the secret of Samson's strength. And so she starts asking him about it. At first he plays hard to get. Gives her the wrong answer. And when they try to capture him he gets away easily. But finally she gets fed up and puts the whole relationship on the line. In v 15 she says to him, "How can you say I love you when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength."
If you really love me, she's saying, you'll tell me your secret. And so Samson's got to choose. Keep Delilah or keep his secret. Keep Delilah or keep the hair that makes him so different. And in ch 16 v 17 he makes his choice. He tells Delilah everything. he says "No razor has ever been used on my head, because I've been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and", literally, he says, "I'll become weak and be like any other man."
Samson knows what's at stake. And he chooses Delilah. Just like he chose all the other Philistine women. He chooses to give up being set apart to God, so he can settle down like any other man. Being different isn't part of his agenda. He doesn't care about being an Israelite and he certainly doesn't care about being a Nazirite.
And it's not only in his love affairs. One of the other things that made Israelites different was they weren't supposed to touch dead things. It made them ceremonially unclean. And Nazirites in particular took a special vow to stay away from corpses. They had to go through an 8 day cleansing ritual if they came into contact with one. But not Samson. He spends half his life surrounded by corpses. And it doesn't worry him.
First there's the famous lion incident. Where he kills a lion with his bear hands. That's enough to make him unclean by itself. But in ch 14v8, some time later, when he's on his way to marry his wife, he turns aside to look at the lion's carcass again. And there's a swarm of bees and some honey in it, which he scoops out with his hands and eats.
Contact with a Corpse. No worries for Samson. Especially if he's hungry.... Or if he needs some money. In v 19 he kills thirty Philistines and strips their corpses to pay off his betting losses. And in chapter 15v15 he kills 1000 Philistines with a fresh jawbone from a donkey.
Just like with his love affairs. When it comes to corpses, Samson's nothing like a Nazirite. He's not even like a normal Israelite. The way he lives, he might as well be a Philistine.
In the last Star Wars movie Anakin Skywalker's mum gets killed. And it drives him into a huge rage. He can't control himself and he uses his Jedi powers to slaughter the raiders who'd killed her. For Anakin this is a dangerous step in the wrong direction. He's misusing his power. And you know it's his first step on the road to becoming Darth Vader.
But that's the way Samson lives his whole life. In a huge rage. Carrying out personal revenge. Abusing his special power. Just look at the times Samson goes into battle.
Ch 14 v19. When the Philistines cheat to answer his riddle, he goes out and kills 30 of them. Ch 15v3. When his wife's given to another man. He says, this time I've got a right to get even with the Philistines; I'll really harm them. And he goes out and burns down all their grain using the old torch tied to a fox tail trick.
Ch 15 v 7. Same again. This time because they've killed his wife. He says to them since you've acted like this I won't stop until I get my revenge on you. And he attacks them viciously and slaughters many of them.
And Ch 16 v 28. Right to the end of his life. As he's standing in the Philistine's temple, with his eyes gone. He's still only got one thing on his mind. He prays '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.'
Revenge...revenge...revenge. That's all Samson wants. He couldn't care less about what God's plans. Not interested in delivering the Israelites. Not even once. All he uses his strength for is to get even.
Which is just like the Philistines again. Because they're into revenge as well. When he burns down their crops, they burn his wife. When he kills them, they cut out his eyes and make him a slave. With all his revenge, Samson's just treating the Philistines the same way they're treating him. There's no difference.
And that is the pattern of his whole life. Set on denying the difference. With his love affairs, his ceremonial uncleaness, his angry revenge. He could just as easily be a Philistine hero as an Israelite judge. Instead of a picture of how to be different, Samson's a picture of how to be the same. And it's a tragedy. It denies everything God had planned for him.
And it leaves you wondering, with leaders like this, where's Israel going to end up? How are they ever going to be different? How are they ever going to live as God's special people?
What they need of course is a leader who's going to be different. A leader who'll be set apart for God and who'll call them to be different. And with that in mind it's interesting to have a look at what Jesus has to say in Matthew ch 5. Because he wants followers who'll be different. Matt 5:13:
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Jesus wants his followers to stand out. And in the rest of the Matthew 5 he goes on to say how. He says they won't commit adultery. Even in their minds. They won't murder. Even with angry thoughts. They won't lie. They won't be out for revenge. They'll love their enemies. They'll act the way Jesus himself acted when he died on the cross.
And people committed to living like that are going to be different. It'll be obvious they're God's people. Not like Samson. Full of lust, murder, revenge... Acting just like everyone else. You won't be able to miss Jesus' followers
So what about you? If you're a follower of Jesus are you committed to being different. Because if you're committed to avoiding lust, if you're committed not to not being angry with people, if you're committed to the truth and to loving your enemies, you are going seem very strange in today's world. Just as strange as a Nazirite back in the time of the judges.
A couple of weeks ago there was one of those terrible neighbour stories on Today Tonight. A woman's neighbour who's building too close to the fence. And this woman's furious. Ringing up the council. Putting up big signs. Shouting at her neighbour. Threatening to get in one night and knock it down. It's so normal. Exactly how you expect people to act. But wouldn't it be tough to be a follower of Jesus in that situation? Wouldn't it be hard to be different? Not to get angry? Not to take revenge? To love your enemy? Samson wouldn't have. But what about you?