In Death Samson Defeats the Philistines

God's Urgent Call
Called to Be Strong

Samson's Call

Judges 16:23-31 The Message

23-24 The Philistine tyrants got together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They celebrated, saying,
Our god has given us
Samson our enemy!
And when the people saw him, they joined in, cheering their god,
Our god has given
Our enemy to us,
The one who ravaged our country,
Piling high the corpses among us.
25-27 Then this: Everyone was feeling high and someone said, “Get Samson! Let him show us his stuff!” They got Samson from the prison and he put on a show for them.
They had him standing between the pillars. Samson said to the young man who was acting as his guide, “Put me where I can touch the pillars that hold up the temple so I can rest against them.” The building was packed with men and women, including all the Philistine tyrants. And there were at least three thousand in the stands watching Samson’s performance.
28 And Samson cried out to God:
Master, God!
    Oh, please, look on me again,
    Oh, please, give strength yet once more.
God!
    With one avenging blow let me be avenged
    On the Philistines for my two eyes!
29-30 Then Samson reached out to the two central pillars that held up the building and pushed against them, one with his right arm, the other with his left. Saying, “Let me die with the Philistines,” Samson pushed hard with all his might. The building crashed on the tyrants and all the people in it. He killed more people in his death than he had killed in his life.
31 His brothers and all his relatives went down to get his body. They carried him back and buried him in the tomb of Manoah his father, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
He judged Israel for twenty years.

For Reflection

"With Samson, you always get a little bit of good, and then a lot of bad. He seems to have been a mixed bag in almost everything that he did."* Samson seemed to do what he thought was good.  In this modern culture, there is a presumption for us to do what we think is right.  We celebrate this entitlement as freedom when in fact it may be a sign of enslavement to the cultural norms.  Many times such thinking ignores the common good and leads to spiritual blindness.  It is the worship of self-determination and the rejection of a superordinate obligation to the good of a community.  Being accountable only to one's self is the ultimate idolitery.

Pray

Pray that you will acknowledge the attraction and seduction of the pressure to conform to the material world. Pray for the courage to strengthen your faith and reject cultural conformity in times of temptation.  Pray, "Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil. Preserve my soul."

*Richard T. Ritenbaugh, Sermon: Samson And The Christian (Part 6)