Sermon Central
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It Can Happen To Anyone.
Contributed by Mike Woodham on May 23, 2010 (message contributor)
Summary: Satan wants to take away your strength, your joy of the Lord, he wants to take away you song, and blind to the things of God and get you to the point where you can not discern right from wrong.
It can happen to anyone.
The fuller the cup the more easily it is to spill the contents.
The higher the spiritual the greater the need for lowliness of walk before the God.
This morning we are going to take a look at the life of Samson.
Samson was a hero of Israel known for his great physical strength as well as his moral weakness. He was the last of the "judges," or military leaders, mentioned in the Book of Judges, Samson led his country in this capacity for about 20 years.
Samson lived in a dark period of Israelite history. After the generation of Joshua died out, the people of Israel fell into a lawless and faithless life. The author of the Book of Judges summarizes these times by declaring, "There was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6; 21:25). The standard of Gods Word, His Law as handed down by Moses, was ignored.
Samson is a historic figure in the Bible---Samson's mighty physical feats are well-known. With his bare hands he killed a young lion that attacked him (Judges 14:5-6). He gathered 300 foxes (jackals; Judges 15:4, NEB) and tied them together, then sent them through the grain fields with torches in their tails to destroy the crops of the Philistines.
But in spite of his great physical strength Samson was a foolish man.
Another very important fact about Samson that people tend to forget was the fact that he was a Nazirite.
Nazirite--was a person who took a vow to separate from certain worldly things and to consecrate himself to God (Numbers 6:1-8). Among the Hebrew people anyone could take this vow; there were no tribal restrictions as in the case of the priest. Rich or poor, man or woman, master or slave-all were free to become Nazirites.
Nazirites did not withdraw from society and live as hermits; however, they did agree to follow certain regulations for a specified period of time. While no number of days for the vow is given in the Old Testament, Jewish tradition prescribed 30 days or a double period of 60 or even triple time of 90 to 100 days.
But there also was an exception to the rule—Three people are recorded in the in the Bible who were “Nazirites for life” or “perpetual Nazirites”-- Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. Before they were born, their vows were taken for them by their parents.
Once a person decided to make himself "holy to the Lord" (Numbers 6:8) for some special service, he then agreed to abstain from wine and other intoxicating drinks. This prohibition was so strict that it included grapes, grape juice, and raisins. Perhaps this was to guard the Nazirite from being controlled by any spirit other than God's (Proverbs 20:1; Ephesians 5:17-18).
While under the Nazirite vow, a person also refused to cut his hair, including shaving (Numbers 6:5). The purpose of this long hair was to serve as a visible sign of the Nazirite's consecration to the Lord (Numbers 6:7).
A Nazirite also refused to touch or go near a dead body because this would make him ceremonially unclean. The Nazirite could not even help to bury his own relatives. He could not even enter into the same house where a dead person’s body was.
The sad thing about Samson was that he seemed to be partially unconscious of the sacredness of his life. This was a major fatal flaw in his character as a servant in the walk of God.
His life was consecrated to God. Now what does that word consecrate mean?
Dedicated to a sacred purpose.
Just like Samson, when we become a Christian, our lives are consecrated to God and we shall see later, we can fall just like Samson did.
Samson forgot one important thing—his body was a temple--1 Corinthians 3:16 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?
It is so easy to forget that.
Samson's life was marred by his weakness for pagan women. As soon as he became of age, he fell in love with one of the daughters of the Philistines. He insisted on marrying her, in spite of his parents' objection (Judges 14:1-4). This was against God's law, which forbade intermarriage of the Israelites among the women of Canaan. On another occasion he was almost captured by the Philistines while he was visiting a prostitute in the city of Gaza.
Two Hebrew words are commonly used for prostitutes. One refers to priests and priestesses who performed sexual acts in the service of pagan gods (1 Kin. 14:24; Hos. 4:14). The other word refers to a common prostitute, such as the one Samson was consorting with.
