BORN TO LEAD
Judges 15:9-20
INTRODUCTION
His Commission
Judges 13:2-5
2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, \”You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, 5 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.\”
Married in Disobedience
Judges 15:1-3
1 Later on, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat and went to visit his wife. He said, \”I\’m going to my wife\’s room.\” But her father would not let him go in.
2 \”I was so sure you thoroughly hated her,\” he said, \”that I gave her to your friend. Isn\’t her younger sister more attractive? Take her instead.\”
3 Samson said to them, \”This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.\”
A. From birth, God chose Samson to be the judge of Israel.
1. God gave Samson\’s mother strict instructions on how to
raise him.
B. Early in his life, Samson was a ladies man.
1. The troubles in his life were do to his pursuit of love.
2. Against the advice of his father, He chose a Philistine woman to be his
first wife.
3. The father of Samson helped him get the Philistine woman as his wife
in disobedience to the command of God. Judges 14:3
Deut 7:3-4
Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons
or take their daughters for your sons, 4 for they will turn your sons away
from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord \’s anger will burn
against you and will quickly destroy you.
2. The nation of Israel was under the control of the Philistines because of
their sins.
3. The Philistine father in law gave Samson’s wife to another man.
4. This set Samson in a rage to get even with the Philistines.
5. Samson took 300 foxes, tied their tails together in pairs with a fire
ball, and loose them on the Philistine crops which were burnt down.
6. Samson act of revenge was selfish, considering only himself and not
welfare of Israel
The Text
THE BATTLE FOR LIFE
V:9 The Philistines went up and camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi. 10 The men of Judah asked, \”Why have you come to fight us?\”
\”We have come to take Samson prisoner,\” they answered, \”to do to him as he did to us.\”
A. At that time, Samson had not begun to act as a leader to free Israel
from the hands of the Philistines.
1. God used Samson’s encounter with the Philistines to stirred up an anger
in him to become the leader he was chosen to be.
2. It is our imperfections that God works to grow our faith.
B. Israel had become accustomed to being under the control of the
Philistines.
1. They had forgotten that God designed them to be a free nation and
role models for His righteousness.
2. They did not see Samson as their leader because he was not acting
as a leader.
3. They readily gave him up to the Philistines rather than to stand and
fight before God.
REJECTED BY FAMILY
V:11 Then three thousand men from Judah went down to the cave in the rock of Etam and said to Samson, \”Don\’t you realize that the Philistines are rulers over us? What have you done to us?\”
He answered, \”I merely did to them what they did to me.\”
12 They said to him, \”We\’ve come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.\”
Samson said, \”Swear to me that you won\’t kill me yourselves.\”
13 \”Agreed,\” they answered. \”We will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.\” So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.
A. Samson was gifted with extraordinary strength.
1. This is evident by the 3000 men Israel sent to capture Samson.
2. In his early years, Samson was not known for his wisdom but
his boyish desire to please women.
3. God did not judge him for his sins, but allowed him to suffer
the consequence of them.
4. The death of his wife was the result of his disobedience to God’s
command.
5. However, even in his foolish, he was wise enough to persuade
his people not to kill him so he could fight the Philistines.
THE BATTLE IS NOT YOURS, JUST STAND
V:14. As he approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands. 15 Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.
16 Then Samson said,
\”With a donkey\’s jawbone
I have made donkeys of them.
With a donkey\’s jawbone
I have killed a thousand men.\”
17 When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and the place was called Ramath Lehi.
A. It was with the power of God that Samson was strengthened to single
handedly kill a thousand of Israel’s enemies.
1. This gave the Israelites confidence in Samson\’s ability to lead
them.
2. At the moment the battle was to be won, God laid aside the foolishness
Samson, and empowered him with the victory for Israel.
B. It was with the power of the Holy Spirit that ropes that bind him was
Changed to weeds.
1. The Holy Spirit put a song in his heart so he did the work of any army
defeating the Philistines.
2. Sometimes it is our selfish desires that place us in the battlefield of
life.
3. Samson said, “I killed”. He would soon learn that it was God who
killed using him as an instrument of His divine glory.
4. God’s plan for us is not changed by our foolishness.
5. Instead, God uses our foolish hearts to bring us to the place where he
can use us.
DESIRE THE LIVING WATER
V:18. Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the Lord, \”You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?\” 19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived. So the spring was called En Hakkore, and it is still there in Lehi.
20 Samson led Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.
A. It was Samson\’s thirst for water that brought him back to the reality, that
he needed God.
1. Sometimes it is our physical needs that bring us to the reality of the
spiritual enlightenment of the Word of God.
2. When we work hard we sweat which brings us to a need for God\’s
life giving water.
3. The source of the living water is Jesus Christ.
B. Our spiritual strength comes from the living water of Jesus Christ.
1. The living water is where we are, to refresh us in times of need.
2. When we wage a battle against Satan we will thirst for the water
of Christ.
John 7:38
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living
water will flow from within him.\”
C. Samson knew God because He had been taught the Word by his
parents.
1. He strayed away pursuing the desires of the world.
2. It was God who brought him back to the mission he was
born to do.
Prov 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not
depart from it.
3. He was blinded by the desires of the world, but God restored his sight
to lead Israel for 20 years.
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst Pastor Of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church
5510 West Sam Houston Parkway North
Houston, Texas 77041
For more lessons, follow me on facebook and visit my blogs;
Revmmitchell.com and goodnewsrevmitc.blogspot.com
