POTENTIAL VS. REALITY. Judges 14 Samson had every advantage at home. His background was solid because he had two faithful parents and a good start with God's promises to support him. Some blessings come with responsibilities. "To whom much is given, much is required." What we do with what God gives us is really up to us. With all our privileges, if we are not careful, we can end up wasting all that God has provided. We can live well below our potential if we do not discipline ourselves and wholeheartedly commit to the Lord. Godly parents and a godly home do not guarantee godly children or a righteous life. Many Christian children squander their potential because they are drawn to a worldly "Philistine" lifestyle.
Samson had great potential to bless Israel, which was then controlled by the Philistines. However, Israel was compromised by intermarriage and cultural assimilation. The people were adopting the customs of the Philistines. Under God's guidance, Samson had significant potential. He came from a godly home, was born miraculously, and led a unique lifestyle. He was empowered by the Holy Spirit, who enabled him to kill the lion and defeat thirty men. Yet, Samson was a self-centered, self-pleasing young man. What made him happy was more important to him than his calling to serve God. This same attitude was common throughout much of Israel during the time of the judges.
This mindset of “me first” is the first step toward disobedience to God. Even though He wants the best for His people and His way leads to satisfaction, peace, and a meaningful life, the deceitful hearts of sinful people lead us further into failure and spiritual decay. God has given us great resources: the new birth, the Holy Spirit, and Himself in Christ. When God's people live complacent and apathetic lives, we must ensure we don't send the wrong message to our children. If they think we reject divine authority, they might be inclined to reject ours. Parents who practice self-discipline and family discipline may find that their children do the same, at least to some extent. Believing parents do not guarantee believing children. We cannot make our children be who they are not.
For some reason, Samson was driven by his passions and was the kind of person who did whatever he wanted, despite his godly parents' influence. One person described Samson's flaw with the words, "He was a he-man with a she weakness." He ignored his call and openly disobeyed God's Word. He dismissed the authority of God's Word and his parents. He was "doing what was right in his own eyes." He refused to practice self-discipline; his passions ruled him; he was content with ritual obedience (a legalist at heart) but lived in license. The Philistines were Israel's biggest enemies, yet Samson was drawn to them and their way of life.
This is common today as well. If I do not discipline my life, I quickly lose my strength. Almost anything can start to replace the Lord. Even good and beautiful things in their proper place can cause harm. Self-discipline means submitting to God's will and timing. We may warn and teach our young people that "the world, the flesh, and the devil" are our enemies, yet they might still ignore what we teach. Christianity has advanced to the point that even true believers are drawn to modern forms of religion as long as there is entertainment and pleasure involved. However, God, through His authority and power in His divine providence, works to fulfill His purposes.
Samson had good parents and great strength, yet he wasted his potential. Having strong abilities in one area doesn't make up for weaknesses in others. Samson didn't get what he wanted, but the real tragedy was that he never became the man God intended him to be. He used his special gifts for selfish reasons. He had everything going for him at home but didn't value the godliness that could have prevented his failures. Even though Samson was disobedient, God still fulfilled His purpose. We are responsible for our failures and can't justify sin, but through God's plan, His purposes will be accomplished. Samson's sin set him on a destructive path that his parents wanted no part of.
Godly parents watched with sorrowful eyes their son: miraculous in his birth, with his long hair symbolizing separation, and obvious strength given by the Spirit of God to begin the deliverance of Israel. But they realized that a godly home doesn’t guarantee a godly son. Believing parents who have had dealings with God don’t guarantee an obedient son. A special ministry given by the Spirit of God and empowered by the Spirit of God has great potential to benefit many people.
The first act of disobedience Samson committed was to marry a Philistine woman. All he cared about was, “She pleases me well.” Marriage within the covenant was important to the people of Israel. Contract marriages with unbelievers were forbidden according to the covenant Israel made with God. Joshua had warned them just before entering the promised land not to intermarry with the idolatrous people of Canaan. By the time Samson appeared, the tragic pattern of decadence and unfaithfulness was characteristic of the Israelites.
A significant flaw in character becomes clear when a man’s weakness for women surpasses his calling from God. A strong man with a weakness for women is a clear sign of personal disaster. Despite this failure, the Spirit of God can still use that person in unexpected ways to fulfill a divine purpose. Samson’s strength was not diminished, and he still had the divine power to do God's will. God was still able and willing to use him to start delivering His people because the potential was still there. Samson disobeyed the Word of God and rejected divine authority for selfish reasons, doing what was right in his own eyes and being driven by his passions. He could have exercised self-discipline. He did experience power over animals and men. He learned that God can take away what a person selfishly desires in devastating ways. Sadly, he wasted his potential.
We who live under the new covenant are told to marry “only in the Lord.” Confusion and discontent often occur in homes where one partner is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other is not. When the blessings we receive from Christ's cross-work lose their appeal, we start drifting away from God, and the world draws our attention. Once we step back from the place God has assigned us and from His people, our affections become vulnerable to being attracted to the wrong person and the wrong goals. This departure doesn't happen all at once. One mistake leads to another. The first thing we lose when we stray from God is our spiritual vision. Then our character suffers, and our freedom diminishes.
The four downward steps in Samson's spiritual journey began with his violation of his vow. Then, he came into contact with a dead carcass. Perhaps he was knowingly guilty at the drunken party because, as someone under the Nazarite vow, he was not supposed to drink strong drink. The riddle he gave was not the act of a Spirit-filled man. It went further, illustrating his downfall through compromise. He had two bitter lessons to learn: when you marry a woman, you marry her family, and it is difficult to resist a woman's tears. He lost his honor, his bet, and his wife. He was a stark contrast to Samuel, another Nazarite who changed the nation's course.
Eight times in Samson's life, as recorded in the book of Judges, we read of "going down." He went down first and then saw what he wanted. The tribe of Dan had failed to take their inheritance in the valley, so the Philistines claimed both it and the city of Timnath. One failure leads to another. Samson's first downward journey was to that city, and he saw what he wanted because it appealed to the "lust of the flesh." He first "saw her," then "talked with her," and "she pleased him." The closer Samson got to the Philistines, the farther he moved from his godly parents. He demanded of them, "Get her for me." He found his pleasure in her instead of what was righteous.
When we forget who our true enemy is, we begin fraternizing with the world, catering to the flesh, and find ourselves under attack by the devil, who comes as a roaring lion. One thing leads to another, and we end up in places we shouldn't be, doing things we shouldn't do, and becoming involved in matters that are none of our concern. As a result, we are defiled, and this defilement affects our fellowship with God and His people. That rift causes division, and division leads to deception. Still, we must remember that failures and weaknesses do not prevent God from carrying out His will.
Despite Samson’s disobedience, the Lord used his defiant wish as a way to begin defeating the Philistines and to open the door for the Israelites to find some relief from oppression. In this chapter, we read twice that "the Spirit of the Lord" came upon Samson. Despite his failures, wrong view of things, and the lifelong Nazarite vow that bound him, the Lord remained in control. "It was of the Lord" because God permitted the start of Israel’s deliverance. He was near the vineyards, close to what was forbidden to him. While there, the young lion attacked him, and he killed it with his hands. Later, he touched the dead carcass, which he should not have done. Still, despite his faithlessness during these failures, God remained faithful to him.
A guilty conscience and shame can lead us to hide what is wrong. In that situation, we may accuse others of being deceitful while we're deceitful ourselves. So-called Christianity can take a non-confrontational approach to the Gospel and even fundamental doctrines until it realizes it cannot win the battle of the mind for people's souls. When God works, He can use the most unlikely of men and the darkest circumstances to produce the results His sovereign will has designed.
When the Spirit of God works through a person of faith, He empowers them to do things they couldn't achieve on their own. Whether it's an act of great strength, speaking God’s word, or some other God-given task, it’s not achieved by our might or power but by the Holy Spirit working in and through an available servant. The filling of the Spirit came upon the people of the Old Testament for a specific purpose. In believers today, the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, guides us to fulfill God’s will through His teaching and direction.
This account has a certain structure, with Samson’s first encounter with a Philistine balanced by his last encounter with another Philistine woman. What occurs in this narrative foreshadows his final encounter that ultimately ends his life. Between these key moments, the men of Judah try to appease the Philistines by capturing Samson and handing him over. God saves him from dying of thirst, and Samson escapes Gaza by carrying the city's gates to a hill overlooking Hebron, the main city of Judah.
Even though Samson was a mighty man of faith, he was not immune to the sinful temptations of human flesh. It reminds us that the Lord sometimes uses our human weaknesses to fulfill His will and bring praise to His name. The lion emerging from the vineyards of Timnath symbolizes the Philistines coming out of a place of temptation to deceive someone under the vows of a Nazarite.
A woman in Timnath, a prostitute in Gaza, and a woman in the valley of Sorek cannot stop God's work — even when they use tears to plot evil against a child of God. The riddle, the reward, and the threat were all tools used by the Lord to begin delivering the children of Israel. The story of the lion is a sad foreshadowing of Samson’s end. He was the eater, and he was strong. The Philistines got that from him at the end of his life. The object of Samson’s sexual desire became his downfall. Beauty and cunning are enemies to overcome. There are steps downward in the spiritual journey that start with carelessness from someone approaching the border of the world. The men of Ashkelon were the first to fall in the Lord's plan to free His people.
God’s enemies will always use any means possible to make a separated child of God doubt their faith and abandon their calling. This world under its "god" is never in favor of being compatible with godly people who follow the scriptures, serve God, and want to please Him with all their hearts. It may wear a pleasing guise to hide dark intentions, but God knows what we do not know.
We are responsible for our failures. We cannot blame others, circumstances, or God for what we did wrong or what we did not do at all. We should practice self-discipline and recognize God’s power in life's difficult situations, but we also have choices. We know God has plans to fulfill within us; we know He can bring a wayward child back to the path of righteousness, and we must not waste our potential.