Samson—The Foolish Man - Judges 16

                            

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Samson keeps getting drawn to the Philistines; he finds it hard to stay away from them. In Samson's story, we need to remember he’s a Nazirite, a man dedicated to God, set apart as God’s man. However, Samson’s filled with strong desire for Philistine women and makes his way to Gaza, the capital city of the Philistines and spends the night with a prostitute.

Someone sees Samson come into the city and visit the prostitute and tells the leaders of the city that Samson’s there. Samson, instead of staying all night, knowing he’s a persona non grata with the Philistines, gets up in the middle of the night and leaves. Samson mocks the Philistines by taking their massive city gates to the top of a hillside outside the city and plants them in the ground there. Samson seems untouchable; able to do what he wants, when he wants. Then he meets a girl and falls in love.

Samson loves another Philistine woman. The Philistine leaders know of her as they come to see her when news gets out that Samson is seeing her. The Philistine rulers offer her big money to betray Samson, each of them offering her eleven hundred shekels of silver if she agrees to find out and tell them the secret of Samson’s great strength. Delilah’s seduced by their offer and tries to seduce Samson’s secret out of him. Once again Samson has a secret and it seems he hasn’t learned his lesson about the strength of a woman’s pleading. A game begins between Samson and Delilah. You have to wonder why Samson plays along. Delilah asks Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Why would Delilah need to know how Samson can be tied up and subdued, why doesn’t Samson ask himself these questions?

Archaeologists, studying ancient Philistine cities have found iron tools and weapons. Israel had no such technology; they were still very backward in many ways, like country cousins. Philistine cities give evidence of careful town planning. The olive industry of Ekron included about 200 olive oil installations. Engineers estimate that the city's production may have been more than 1,000 tons, 30 percent of Israel's present-day production. Even simple things like household pottery was designed to look good, often painted with red and black geometric designs on white backgrounds. Certainly, the sophisticated Philistines represented the latest in technology and culture. Samson’s a leader in Israel and wants to be recognized by the people who were socially and culturally ahead of them.

But Samson forgets God. He embraces the Philistine culture, much of it good, but he leaves God behind. Samson enters into Delilah’s game, “If anyone ties me up with seven fresh thongs that have not yet been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” Seven’s a magical number and the idea of un-dried leather thongs which bind Samson even tighter as they dried sounds right. Delilah takes seven thongs and ties Samson up and then calls out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Samson gets up and the thongs do nothing to hold him, but Delilah tries again.

Samson plays a dangerous game here, telling Delilah that new ropes will hold him. There’s an echo back to when ropes failed to hold him when the men of Judah handed Samson over to the Philistines. Delilah ties Samson up, calls out, Samson flexes and the ropes break like string. Delilah doesn’t give up and Samson comes close to revealing the secret of his strength, telling her that if she weaves his hair, the sign of his relationship with God, into a loom, this will make him weak. Samson’s becoming a slave to the game, it’s becoming an addiction to see how far he can go.  

Finally, Samson can’t take the nagging anymore and tells her the significance of his hair and how he’s set apart to God. Samson belongs to God and now the Philistines know exactly who he is. Delilah convinces the rulers of the Philistines to come one last time and get rid of this barbarian threat once and for all. Delilah lulls Samson to sleep; there’s a play on words here, Delilah sounds like the word for “the night” and now Samson lies in “the night’s bed” and while he’s sleeping, she arranges for his hair to be cut off and the Lord withdraws his strength from Samson the dedicated one.

Samson has now completely broken all his Nazirite vows. He discovers there’s a price to pay for failing to remain pure: the loss of his relationship with God. This time when Delilah calls out, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you,” Samson’s taken prisoner. Samson is weak because of his addiction to Philistine women and the adrenaline rush of fighting the Philistines. As Charles Spurgeon writes, “The secret of his strength lay in his locks. Not that his hair made him strong; but that his hair was the symbol of his consecration, and was the pledge of God's favour to him. While his hair was untouched he was a consecrated man; as soon as that was cut away, he was no longer perfectly consecrated, and then his strength departed from him. His hair is cut away; the locks that covered him once are taken from him, and there he stands a shaveling, weak as other men.”

Reverend Timothy Keller writes about Samson, “sin and grace function on two completely opposed bases. In grace, God takes even our weaknesses and failures and uses them for us, but in sin, we take even his gifts and strengths and use them against him. Our sinful hearts will find ways to use even God’s blessings to ruin our lives.” Samson is dedicated to God from birth, set apart by God to begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines. The Spirit of the Lord has come on Samson multiple times in order to confront the Philistines and yet Samson’s shown little desire to follow God in his life; his heart’s filled with passion for foreign women and rage against the Philistines; driving his choices. Samson’s unable to resist his passions; addicted to lust and rage. I’ll admit, as I’ve reflected on Samson’s story over the past few weeks, I’ve begun to feel sorry for him, he became such a slave to his passions and they lead him into such brokenness!

Addiction’s hard, it drives us to the very things that are hurting us the most. We find ourselves in situations where the things we first turned to in order to help us cope with life begin to wrap their chains around us, slowly making us slaves, but slowly so we don’t recognize it until it’s too late. Having a family member who struggles with addiction, having walked with many who have wrestled with addiction, it’s hard. Every story is different yet everyone who struggles with addiction wanted to become addicted; it snuck up on them. There are huge similarities with sin; no one wants to sin when they’re a follower of Jesus, yet sin slowly and often without notice, wraps our hearts and minds with chains that are hard to break.

My brother tells me that ‘just saying no’ doesn’t work unless you’re connected to Jesus and surrounded by a group of people who compassionately care and challenge you to stay connected to Jesus and walk with you through the hard times when you fall, because falling will happen. But knowing that Jesus doesn’t give up on us and won’t abandon us is a huge source of hope and strength felt through the presence of caring believing people around us. Through the cross, Jesus offers forgiveness and healing. As the catechism says, “Jesus is our only High Priest, who by the one sacrifice of his body has redeemed us, and who continually intercedes for us before the Father; and our eternal King, who governs us by his Word and Spirit, and who defends and preserves us in the redemption obtained for us.” This is hope and source of strength we can hang onto, something that is repeated over and over again through the stories of Israel’s judges: God remains faithful to his people even when they’re not faithful in return.

Samson’s a loner which makes his addictive behaviour that much more dangerous, we’re not created to walk alone; we’re created in God’s image, to be in community as God is a community; three in one. Yet in Samson’s death, we see that he’s not alone. Surrounded by thousands of mocking Philistines, Samson turns to God and asks for strength one last time. He’s looking for revenge, but as we’ve seen in his story earlier on, God works in and through broken people, and gives Samson the strength to collapse the temple of Dagon, killing thousands to Philistine leaders, showing Samson’s God is the most powerful God. When we get to the book of Ruth, we discover the Philistines are no longer in control, Samson’s self sacrifice leads to Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines, as Jesus’ sacrifice leads to our deliverance from sin.

Through the cross, Jesus defeats sin and death so that we can have eternal life and hope, even in the darkest of times, and have the strength to walk with those who are walking through their own times of darkness because we know the Spirit is with us always. Jesus came to show us how to be God’s people in the world, but to bring healing and hope into our brokenness.

Telling Our Children God’s Story - Psalm 78

             

Baptisms are so special, a beautiful sign and seal of God’s grace, a symbol of belonging and acceptance. Baptism is a reminder of what Jesus accomplishes on the cross, a going down into death and rising up into new life, a sign that Alaric is part of our church family and that Jesus has gone to the cross for him even before he can choose Jesus. Adam and Heather chose Psalm 78 as their passage for today because it emphasizes the importance of telling the stories of God, the stories of faith to our children, a reminder to parents to lead their children into a relationship with Jesus, teaching them trust and faith in Jesus as they hear and learn the story of salvation.

Psalm 78 is written by Asaph, called a prophet by the Jews. In this psalm, Asaph tells us to tell the stories of God and the history of God’s people with God so that they may be faithful to the Lord. Asaph does a deep dive into Israel’s history, remembering the stories of God’s power and deliverance of his people, the slide of Israel time after time into unfaithfulness to God, and then God’s faithfulness, mercy, justice, and forgiveness, all leading to the gift of a faithful king in David, servant to the Lord, pointing to the hope of God’s people, a hope fully realized in the coming of Jesus.

Listening to the stories of faith reminds us of who we are and why we can trust in God. The stories also remind us of who we are not supposed to be, stubborn and rebellious, instead we are called to be loyal to God who is always loyal and faithful to us, an echo back to our series on the Judges of Israel. Dr. Cullen Story talks about how remembrance in terms of Psalm 78 means geographical and historical anchors such as Egypt, the fields of Zoan, the sea, the desert, Shiloh, and Jerusalem. Remembrance means persons as well, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, and David.

Asaph tells the stories of the Exodus when God freed his people from slavery to the Egyptians, even dividing the waters of the Red Sea so Israel could escape from their slave masters on dry ground, and then drowning the Egyptians by allowing the waters to return to their place once Israel was safe. In verse 42, Asaph laments that Israel doesn’t remember the Lord’s power and the amazing signs he did in leading them to freedom. He lists the 10 plagues in Egypt that God sent to show Egypt and Israel who the true God is. In the 10 plagues, God defeats 10 of the main Egyptian gods, culminating in the plague of death, showing that even Pharaoh is weak and unable to protect his people from Israel’s God. There’s no God like Israel’s God!

Asaph tells the stories of the wilderness, the stories of how God provided for his people. They asked for water, he gave them water. They asked for food and he gave them manna, bread from heaven. They asked for meat, he provided them with quail. Asaph writes, “They ate till they were gorged—he had given them what they craved.” For 40 years God provided for his people and still they whined and complained, even mourning at times that they had left slavery in Egypt because there they could eat melons. Not all of the stories of our relationships with God are happy stories because our hearts are full of sin. Like Israel, we often end up chasing God’s blessings and loving them more than God, looking to what we don’t have rather than what we do. Is it any wonder then that in the stories of God and his people that there are times that God acted out of anger, allowing them to experience the consequences of their ungratefulness, at times even death? And still, “in spite of all this, they kept on sinning; in spite of his wonders, they did not believe. So he ended their days in futility and their years in terror.”

God is a God of justice, sin and rebellion have consequences, but we discover in the stories of God and his people that God is also a merciful God, a God of grace. Verses 34–39, “Whenever God slew them, they would seek him; they eagerly turned to him again. They remembered that God was their Rock, that God Most High was their Redeemer. But then they would flatter him with their mouths, lying to him with their tongues; their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant. Yet he was merciful; he forgave their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.” God remembers their weaknesses, and ours, and this stirs God’s mercy and forgiveness. This is part of the trademark of the Christian faith; God remains faithful to his covenants with his people even though we’re unfaithful over and over again. As Paul reminds us of this great hope in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Psalm 78 reminds us of a covenant of forgiveness and new beginnings; a covenant that calls God's people to faith and obedience. 

God brings Israel into the Promised Land. You would think that with everything God has done for his people that they would be the most faithful people ever, but history tells us differently, instead they keep testing God, testing his patience and faithfulness to them. We’ve just finished journeying through the judges in Israel where we saw how the people loved other gods, how they were disloyal and faithless towards God time after time, and unreliable in leading the nations to a greater knowledge of God. Yet God raised up judges to lead them out of slavery to the nations and their gods over and over again.

Asaph doesn’t hide the hard stories of his people, showing how they keep walking away from God, but showing just how merciful and loving God is to his people. Because God loves his people, he doesn’t ignore their sin; he punishes them in order to draw them back to himself and lead them into becoming the people he’s calling them to be. God turns his back on Israel at times, but he doesn’t abandon them, instead withdrawing his blessings from them when they chase after other gods. Like a parent who loves their child but hates something they’ve done, they punish their child so their child is reminded of the person their parents expect them to be.

The psalms are Hebrew poetry, using metaphors, similes, and hyperbole, meaning that the psalmist often uses extreme language and images to describe what they’re writing about. Here Asaph uses hyperbole to show us the hurt and pain our faithlessness causes God, “When God heard them, he was furious; he rejected Israel completely. He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among humans. He sent the ark of his might into captivity, his splendor into the hands of the enemy. He gave his people over to the sword; he was furious with his inheritance. Fire consumed their young men, and their young women had no wedding songs; their priests were put to the sword, and their widows could not weep.” In his faithfulness, God does not break his covenant with Israel, he does not abandon them, but he does allow them to know his anger and disappointment with them.

God doesn’t stay angry forever, Asaph describes God as waking up as from a sleep, beating back the enemies, choosing the tribe of Judah, building his sanctuary like the heights, and choosing David his servant to be the shepherd of God’s people. This is where knowing the stories of God helps. We know Judah is one of the sons of Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, and God chooses Judah as the line through which the promised Messiah is going to come, even though he’s not the oldest son. God raises up a shepherd, faithful David, to lead his people as their king, pointing us to the Good Shepherd Jesus who comes and saves us from our sin by remaining faithful to God, taking on our sin and taking it to the cross where it’s washed away through Jesus’ faithful sacrifice and obedience to God.

We get a glimpse here of what the doctrine of unconditional election looks like, the doctrine where we confess that God chooses his children, not based on how good or special they are, but because he chooses. This is a doctrine of comfort and hope because it’s all about pure grace. We don’t know who God has chosen, so we offer the good news of Jesus to everyone, inviting them all to follow Jesus with us, generously sowing the seeds of the good news wherever the Spirit leads us, especially in our children. These seeds are planted through telling the stories of who God is and his faithfulness to his people, what Jesus has done, and how Jesus offers us his Spirit to guide us and remind us of who he is, shaping our life stories into stories of redemption, renewal, and hope.

Samson—The Angry Warrior - Judges 15

                         

Two weeks ago, we looked at Samson’s wedding and the riddle about the lion he had killed which he had given his companions. They had turned his riddle back on him, “What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?” Today we’d say the answer to their riddle is love, and there’s a feeling in the story that Samson does love his Philistine wife. Samson, after his anger has cooled down, goes back to his father-in –law’s house to claim his wife. Imagine Samson’s surprise to find out his wife is now married to another man, to one of his companions at his wedding! Samson’s father-in-law then makes things worse by offering his younger daughter as a replacement wife for her sister. God, through Samson, now takes the next step in confronting the Philistines and delivering his people from the influence and power of foreign gods.

Samson reacts in anger. “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines;” admitting here that his killing thirty men before probably wasn’t right, but now he feels justified “to get even with the Philistines.” Samson wants revenge and decides to harm the Philistines by destroying their fields and harvests. This will hurt them all winter long. He catches three hundred foxes, ties them together in pairs, and ties flaming torches to their tails, terrifying them, and setting them loose in the fields, vineyards and olive groves, creating chaos and huge losses to the Philistines. This has religious overtones because the main god of the Philistines is Dagon, the god of the harvest and prosperity, and now an Israelite defies Dagon. The battle between Israel’s God and Philistine’s gods is on.

Samson’s difficult to punish, but his father-in-law and Samson’s wife are easy targets for the Philistine’s vengeance.  Since Samson had burned their fields and vineyards, they burn Samson’s in-laws, including his wife. Samson reacts viciously, attacking and slaughtered many of them. The Philistines can’t ignore Samson anymore, so God’s plan to confront the Philistines now begins in earnest. The Philistines gather 3,000 men and march into Judah where Samson has gone to take Samson captive and punish him.

Israel has given up and accepted their bondage to the Philistines. The men of Judah grovel before the Philistines, “Why have you come to fight us?” The answer likely doesn’t make the Israelites feel any better, “We want Samson so we can do to him what he’s done to us.” The men from Judah swallow their fear; gather the remnants of their courage and three thousand of them go to Samson. They go to the Nazirite, the man dedicated to God, to rebuke him for stirring up their masters and not respecting them. The Israelites who are bound in slavery bind Samson to hand him over to those who have control over their slave chains. God’s presence and hope seems to be pretty well gone in Israel.

It’s sad that Samson even has to ask his fellow Israelites not to kill him, but just to bind him. While they bind Samson in ropes, they don’t even realise that they’re bound in even stronger chains of slavery, hopelessness, and idolatry. They take Samson, bound in new ropes, to the Philistines. The Philistines come shouting, intimidating the men of Judah, but Samson isn’t intimidated and the Spirit of the Lord comes on him as the Spirit did when the lion attacked him. The ropes, while strong, when compared to the strength of Samson because of God, become as feeble as charred flax and fall from his body as if they aren’t even there. Samson stands before the Philistines as God’s man as God’s Spirit gives him the strength to show the Philistines that Israel belongs to God and their gods are nothing compared to Yahweh.

With nothing more that the jawbone of an ass which Samson picks up from the ground, again breaking his Nazirite vows, he strikes down one thousand Philistines. The Lord shows his power and his protection of his people through Samson. Israel may be hurt and enslaved, yet God doesn’t sit back and do nothing, he shows his people that his faithfulness to his covenant with them remains, even though they’re unfaithful to him.

Samson boasts after his victory over the Philistines, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have made donkeys out of them. With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men.” It’s all about Samson, no mention of God anywhere. Samson’s a picture of Israel. Time and again, Israel is seduced by the gods of the nations around them, and time and again, Yahweh shows Israel that he’s the God of gods, King of Kings, and Lord of lords. After the battle, Samson cries out for water, and God provides water and refreshes him, even as his cry to the Lord sounds much like Israel’s complaining attitude in the wilderness, coupled with a sense of entitlement.

What’s struck me in reading through Samson’s story is how often the Spirit of the Lord comes on him and God gives him what he needs to defeat the Philistines in the moment. We see Samson as a powerful hero, someone we dream of becoming, at least if you’re a boy. Some of us might see Samson as a broken hero, yet in Samson’s stories, we when we look closely at Samson, we see a sinner that God remains faithful to, a reminder of how God remains faithful to us in our own sin. We’re able to see other people’s sins much more clearly than our own; the problem is that we see some people’s sins as more acceptable than others because we admire them. Because we want to see Samson as a hero, we accept his sins while rejecting other peoples’ sins because we see their sins as being much worst for many reasons.

Al Wolters, one of my professors at Redeemer, wrote a book called Creation Regained where he lays out how sin taints every aspect and part of our lives and souls, making us all equally distasteful to God. When we look at someone else’s sin and fail to see how we are equal to them as sinners, often, subconsciously, we’re using their sin to make ourselves feel better about our own sin, justifying that we’re not as bad as they are. We fail to realize that even the best and most godly areas of our lives are still infected by sin; sin has a deeper hold in some parts of our lives than others, but it has a hold in every part. This is why Jesus comes and takes all our sin to the cross.

This is why we’re given the Holy Spirit, to guide, encourage, and even push us into becoming more Christlike as we work with the Spirit to grow the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. What does that look like? Paul writes in Galatians 5, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

 The gift of the Spirit is for the common good, in Samson’s case, the gift of the Spirit is to lead Israel into freedom, but we never see evidence that Israel finds freedom from the Philistines under Samson. It’s in the book of Ruth, set near the end of the judges, that we see that they’re free again. When Jesus appears among his disciples after his death on the cross for our sin and his resurrection from the grave, John tells us, “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Here the disciples are given the gift of the Spirit to equip them for the work of establishing the church and sharing the good news of Jesus. In order to do this, we also need to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in our own lives because our lives are part of the gospel story, a testimony to the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our own lives.

The Lord remains faithful to his commitment to Samson and Israel all while Samson and Israel consistently reject the Lord. The question that kept popping up to me is, “If the Spirit of the Lord is coming on Samson so often, shouldn’t we see some evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in his life?” Jesus told his disciples that he’s going to send them the “spirit of truth, who will guide us into all truth”. The Spirit guides us, but we’re called to follow the Spirit’s leading, to listen and obey. It takes trust in God, a trust that Israel had lost because they’ve become so much like the nations around them. A friend, Peter, on his deathbed told me how thankful he was that Jesus had given him his Spirit to help him become more like Jesus, it gave him peace through the most difficult times. I had mentioned to him once that Jesus accepts us for who we are, but loves us too much to want us to stay who we are, which is why we’re given the Holy Spirit. Peter recognized just how amazing the gift of the Holy Spirit is, I pray you do too!

 

Amazing - Joshua 3:1-6

                                     

It’s great to see all of you cadets here this morning with your families here in Bethel. It’s Cadet Sunday, a special Sunday when we get to share some of the things we’re doing, learning, and thinking about God. We’re going to be talking about amazing things this morning and we’re going to look at a pretty amazing story this morning about the people of Israel crossing through the Jordan River without even getting their feet wet, but before they do that, Joshua has a special command for them, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."

Do you know what the word consecrate means? It’s part of our code, but it’s a word that we don’t hear used very often anymore. Consecrate means that you make yourselves ready to be used by God to do special things for God. The people would do this by washing themselves and their clothes so they were all clean and then they would pray to God to make their hearts clean too. They’re told to consecrate themselves because “The Lord is going to do amazing things among them.”

The next morning the people get up and get ready to cross the Jordan River, but the water is flowing by really fast and really deep. Joshua now tells the people that the priests are going to carry the ark of God and walk right into the fast-flowing river that’s too dangerous to cross at that time of year. What happens? As soon as the toes of the priests touch the river, it stops! Heaped up in a pile! The people of Israel simply walk across without even getting their shoes wet. Imagine that, if you can! That’s amazing!

Now everybody’s on the other side of the river with dry feet, but there’s another problem, there’s this city called Jericho surrounded by huge strong walls and they don’t want these new people in their land. How would you try to tear down the huge strong walls of a city? Use dynamite? Dig away at the foundations till they crumble? God has a better idea. Just walk around the city seven times, then blow trumpets and shout. The Israelites trust God so that’s what they do and those huge walls crumble and fall down, so the Israelite army can just walk right into the city. That only happens in video games, not in real life unless God’s involved! Amazing!

Consider the Monarch butterfly. Do you know that they migrate from our area all the way to Mexico for the winter. Now butterflies don’t look all that strong or tough, but if you’re going to fly all the way to Mexico without an airplane, you need to be strong and able to keep flying a long time! What an amazing creature, created by an amazing God! God’s created many amazing creatures!

God’s so amazing, he created everything, the whole universe was created by God, that’s amazing! From the furthest heavens above to the depths of the seas, God’s created some really amazing creatures and places that show everybody that there really is a God because there is no way all the different things in the universe could have happened by accident. I find space amazing, there are some amazing pictures that we’re now able to take because of our newest space telescopes. I love the NASA website, here are a few of the pictures I found amazing. In Isa 40:26 we read, "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." What an amazing God!

What are some things that you find amazing? Are there any people that you think are amazing?

There’s one person in history that I find totally amazing, that’s Jesus! He did some really amazing things. He healed people that nobody else could heal. There’s a lady who was bleeding and nobody could heal her for years and all she had to do was touch his clothes and she was healed! There’s a boy who kept throwing himself into the fire and even the disciples couldn’t heal him, but Jesus did! Jesus healed lepers by touching them, he healed people far away by just saying they were healed. Jesus raised a mother’s dead son back to life while they were on the way to the grave. Jesus raised the daughter of Jairus from the dead. Jesus even raised up his friend Lazarus from the dead after being in the grave for 4 days!

God had told the people of Israel more than 1,000 years before that he was going to send us a saviour who will come and save his people, and he did, he sent Jesus. What God says, he does. God says he will be with you, and he is; he says he loves you, and he does. Amazing!

Jesus did something even more amazing, something so amazing that he’s the only one who could do it, Jesus loves us so much that he took all our sin and washed it away on the cross. It’s like coming back from the snow derby and you’re all smelly from the campfires and when you got home your mom told you to take a shower or bath to get clean because you smelt. Our sin makes us stink and Jesus washes the stink of our sin away because we can’t. To me, that’s the most amazing thing ever because sin keeps us far away from God, but God wants to be close with us because he loves us so much. He even created us in his image, amazing!

Amazing fact: we live on a miniature dot in a huge universe, and being micro-mini dots on that planet, God knows each one of you cadets. He made you; he knows you; he loves you. He sees you and watches over you. Now that's amazing! And he has plans for you and will do amazing things not only among you, but through you. Commit yourself to Jesus, follow him, and who knows how many scientists, doctors, nurses, long-haul truck drivers, caregivers, teachers, artists, musicians, missionaries, farmers, mechanics, or software and video game creators, or other amazing things will come from our cadre. God is in the business of doing amazing things, even in and through you.

Samson-Doing it His Way - Judges 14

                         

Samson’s a person of contrasts and it’s sometimes hard to believe that God uses him to deliver Israel, or would use someone like Samson who seems to deliberately turn his back on who he’s supposed to be; a Nazirite, dedicated completely to the Lord, as we learn in the previous chapter.

Samson’s a young man with all the desires of a young man. He goes to Timnah, a Philistine city where a young Philistine girl catches his eye. Samson goes to his parents and tells them, “I’ve seen a Philistine girl in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.” His parents try to talk Samson out of this because God had forbidden the Israelites to marry those who worship other gods. God knows that when we marry someone who doesn’t believe, it’s easier for the follower of God to drift away from God. But how often don’t we act on our feelings or wants before considering what Jesus wants?

The author of Judges writes, “His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel”. God’s provoking a confrontation with the Philistines through Samson’s desire; beginning the work of delivering his people.  It’s not unusual for God to accomplish his plans using our rebellious nature, knowing us better than we often know ourselves. God simply uses Samson’s rebellion to accomplish his will, also allowing him to experience the pain that will come from his actions. God uses Samson’s wrong desire to fulfill his promise to Samson’s parents to save Israel. Even though God uses Samson’s wrong desires, God wishes to accomplish his plans through our obedience. There’s less pain and hurt in God’s way.

Samson and his parents go to Timnah to do some wife arranging. On the way to negotiate for his bride, a young lion jumps out of a thicket and attacks Samson. We wonder at Samson’s strength as he grabs the lion and tears it apart with his bare hands. But it’s because the Spirit of the Lord comes on Samson; this is all about God working, not about what Samson can accomplish; even his extraordinary strength is a gift, a blessing from God. Samson and his parents continue on to Timnah where they arrange for the young woman to marry Samson.

When Samson goes back to marry his wife, they walk by the place where Samson killed the lion. Samson slips away to check out what happened to the body of the lion. When he comes to the place he left the carcass, Samson finds that bees have made the body of the dead lion their hive and there’s even honey inside the lion’s carcass. In Israel, especially the really dry areas, the heat and dry air dry out a body extremely quickly without decomposing, so that they become like mummies. This is likely what happened since bees normally avoid dead bodies.

But Samson now acts without thinking. Samson scoops up a handful of honey from the lion’s body and eats it, giving some to his parents too. The problem is that according to the rules God gave to the Nazirites, touching a dead body made them unclean. This is a violation of the vow his mother had made for him. A Nazirite also could not cut his hair or drink from the fruit of the vine to show he was in training, while the call to not touch something dead was about being set apart for God. For Samson, God is there for his use, not to be followed or obeyed, an attitude all too common still today.

Samson has been dedicated to God, but his life isn’t reflecting this. Samson acts and lives just like everyone else, just like Israel is doing. God chose them to be a blessing to the nations, to be set apart and different, with different values and a different way of living. Samson has chosen to be like everyone else. He wrestles with relationships and his walk with God just as we do.

Are we much different from Samson. We may not have his strength, or experience the opportunities and adventures Samson does, yet our daily lives are filled with hundreds of practical choices that show others where our hearts are, whose values we embrace. How many opportunities to allow God to use us to bless others do we let pass by? How often do we allow our decisions to be shaped by what we want, or what others say we should want, instead of what God says is best for us? How different are we really from Samson, from the people of Israel that Samson represents?

Samson and his parents reach Timnah and the marriage celebrations begin. Samson holds a feast there and is given thirty companions, showing that this is a wealthy Philistine family he’s marrying into. Samson plays a game with the 30 companions assigned him, telling them a riddle about the lion he killed and the honey he later found in it. This was a normal part of the entertainment at a feast. Samson raises the stakes as he adds a challenge, a new set of clothing for each of them if they win; otherwise, they each need to buy him a set of clothing. The young men are confident that they can figure out any riddle a Jew can think up, but they get a surprise and have no idea what the answer could be, so they pressure Samson’s wife with threats to her and her family if she doesn’t co-operate, so she pleads with Samson for the answer. Finally, Samson tells his wife the answer and she tells the companions. With smirks on their faces, the companions approach Samson and give him the answer.

 Samson’s furious and he stalks off. Samson honours the bet by going to the city of Ashkelon and kills thirty men for their clothes and gives the clothes to the men who figured out his riddle. Samson gets his super-human strength from the Spirit of the Lord who comes on him in power. Samson goes home without his wife and the father offers Samson’s wife to one of his companions. Samson’s betrayed by both his wife and his father-in-law and the Philistines now realise Samson’s a threat, a powerful man capable of great destruction. Samson’s filled with anger, but it’s directed towards the Philistines and not his wife.

Twice already, the author has written, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him...’ and both times Samson’s given great physical strength. The Lord’s beginning to deliver Israel from the Philistines through Samson. We hear an echo to the “Spirit of the Lord” coming down in the baptism accounts of Jesus. The Spirit of God comes on Jesus and leads him into the wilderness to be tested, and giving him the strength to resist Satan and to stay true to his Father’s will. Jesus stays true to his calling to save his people from sin through training himself in the wilderness.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean we don’t struggle. It isn’t easy for Samson living under the Philistines. It isn’t easy for Jesus being tempted by Satan. Jesus saves us from our sins and is with us in whatever’s going on and gives us the strength to follow his way through his Spirit. We’re responsibility for who we’re becoming and our relationships with Jesus and each other. Spiritual training is key to becoming who we are as followers of Jesus. Looking at Jesus, we see that quiet times talking to God the Father are important. We’re part of a community of faith, so learning together, sharing with each other what the Spirit is doing in our lives, helps us to recognize how the Spirit is working in us and our community. Looking for ways to serve and be generous reminds us that Jesus came to serve rather than be served and how generous God is to us. Creating beauty gives us a glimpse of our creator God who created us in his image. Even how we work and play is shaped by the Spirit’s leading and work in us.

Jesus delivers us from slavery to sin, but we still need to train like the Nazirites to be God’s people; we need to do our part too. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9:25, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever,” and Peter writes, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”

If we become complacent, we’re in danger of being more like Samson. The Spirit of the Lord is in us; this is the promise of Pentecost. We’re dedicated to God, claimed by Jesus, and this is the source of our strength. Listen to the Spirit who lives in your heart; training us, trusting that Jesus gives us the strength we need to be true to him and be his kingdom builders here.

 

Jephthah—The Foolish Vow - Judges 11: 1-6; 14-40; 12:7

Jephthah’s story begins in chapter 10, “Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They served the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the Ammonites, and the gods of the Philistines.” God allows the Ammonites to conquer Israel and make life miserable for them. It helps to know a little something about these gods that may help us understand Jephthah’s vow a bit better.

Baal’s the most powerful of the Canaanite gods. Baal defeated the other gods, such as the god of the sea and the god of storms, and the Canaanites believed he even defeated death. This was repeated each year when he returned from the underworld and brought rain to renew the earth’s fertility. Asherah is Baal’s mistress and was worshiped near trees and poles. Baal worshipers tried to satisfy him by offering sacrifices, usually sheep and bulls. During times of crisis, however, Baal’s followers sacrificed their children, usually the firstborn. Another important god is Chemosh, a war god who demanded child sacrifice. These are the gods Israel’s now worshipping.

Jephthah’s introduced as a mighty warrior, echoing back to the first judge, Othniel, a mighty warrior and faithful follower of God. Jephthah’s father is Gilead but his mother’s a prostitute. His brothers want nothing to do with him and throw him out, echoes now of Abimelek. Jephthah gathers a gang of scoundrels and becomes so good at fighting that the elders of Gilead ask Jephthah to save them from the Ammonites. They ask him to be their commander and tell Jephthah that if they win, they’ll make him head over them all. Jephthah agrees, but makes them repeat this promise at Mizpah before the Lord.

Jephthah’s smart. He realises that diplomacy’s a lot safer than fighting and he sends the Ammonite king a message, asking why they attacked Israel. The reply comes back saying that it used to be the Ammonites’ land 300 years ago and they want it back. Jephthah gives the king a history lesson. Israel never fought Ammon for the land; they stayed out of their land when they were wandering through the desert. But the Amorite King Sihon fought Israel and the Lord gave Israel their land. Jephthah makes this a god-level fight. God gave us the land, he says. If you think the land should be yours, let Chemosh give it back. The king of Ammon ignores Jephthah; the nations aren’t afraid of Israel’s God like they were in the time of Rahab. 

“The Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah.” God never gives up on Israel and gives Jephthah his Spirit to go up against Israel’s enemies; God remains faithful to his covenant with his people even if his people keep turning back to idols. Jephthah doesn’t quite trust the Lord’s Spirit to stay with him, so he makes a deal with God. “If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord’s, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.” Jephthah tries to buy God’s favour, he doesn’t trust that God’s love is unconditional, he doesn’t trust God’s commitment to his covenants with Israel to be their God with Israel his people. He doesn’t realize that he doesn’t have to buy the Lord’s favour. Israel’s forgotten that God desires a relationship rooted in trust and faith; not in fear or manipulation.

God blesses Jephthah and the Ammonites are chased from Israel back into their own country to lick their wounds and reflect on the power of Israel’s God. There’s no doubt about whose God is the God of gods! Jephthah and the army head home to enjoy peace with family and friends. As they travel down the road to Jephthah’s home, there’s singing, laughter, and likely loud boasting. Our only question is, “What’s going to be the first thing to greet Jephthah as he returns home?”

Now the story takes a horrible twist. They approach Jephthah’s home and “who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her, Jephthah had neither son nor daughter.” Immediately Jephthah remembers his rash impulsive vow to manipulate the Lord into helping him. He’s heartbroken as he tells his daughter what he’s done. Jephthah’s daughter’s sacrificial faith shines through, “My father, you have given your word to the Lord. Do to me now as you promised, now that the Lord has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request, give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry.” How can her father say no to her request? After the two months, she returns and Jephthah did to her as he had vowed.

God has never desired human sacrifice; he speaks strongly against human sacrifice in Deuteronomy 12, “You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” Israel’s becoming more like the nations around them then they realize, embracing their values and ways over the ways God gave them to shape them into his people with his values and ethics. Would God allow Jephthah to go through with such a gruesome sacrifice after all the times God told Israel never to do such repulsive nauseating things. This is something pagans do, not followers of God.

God’s the giver and protector of life, which is why we so strongly support the Pregnancy Center and want to help women and families to have their children instead of an abortion. Yet even Jephthah’s daughter urges her father to honour his vow to God because God has saved Israel. She has a twisted picture of who God is; she doesn’t understand God’s grace. How can she when her father doesn’t. She’s worried about God’s wrath against her father, not understanding that God has no desire to see her sacrificed to him.

Jephthah’s daughter is willing to be sacrificed to save her father. Jephthah’s daughter dies because her father doesn’t understand his own God. Jephthah’s been so influenced by the cultures of the nations around him, that he doesn’t understand grace anymore. It’s a sad commentary on Israel at that time about how much they’ve been influenced by the cultures and nations around them. Trusting in God alone was too big a step for them to make.

Jesus died on the cross to show us just how great God’s grace is, how committed Jesus is to each of you. We get God’s wrath at sin because he’s a just and righteous God. His unconditional love and grace feel harder to understand because we live in a world where sin and brokenness is all around us, a world where many of us have experienced betrayals and hurt from friends and loved ones, a world where we’re told that we’re only accepted for what we bring to a relationship, not simply because of who we are. You’re precious simply because you’re created in the image of God who gave us life through his own breath.

This is why Jesus spends so much time teaching about and showing grace to the people he walked with during his time here on earth. People need to see grace in action before they can trust Jesus’ words. This is why the stories of the Samaritan woman at the well and Jesus’ willingness to treat her as someone with value, the story of the woman caught in adultery and Jesus’ question asking “Who here is without sin” and then protecting her before telling her to leave her life of sin because he cares about her, and then of when Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house, a hated tax collector and thief, are so important for us to know. Jesus shows us that God is a God of grace, a God we can trust in, a God we don’t have to make deals with. Jesus isn’t forced to go to the cross, he chooses to go for us simply because he chooses us for his own.

In spite of Jephthah’s failings and weaknesses, he shows up in the list of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11 as one whose weakness was turned into strength; and who became powerful and routed foreign armies, another sign of God’s grace. Jephthah, raised in a culture that has moved far from God, still looks to God for his blessing. His faith may have been only the size of a mustard seed, yet God sends his Spirit on Jephthah to help him save his people. God uses him to save Israel. God accepts him, weaknesses and all. We can trust that God is a God of grace who has chosen us and never gives up on us, even in our times of doubt, even in our sin. Jesus loves us so much that he calls us to leave our lives of sin, to leave our other gods behind; to trust in his way, trust in him, giving us his Spirit to help us become more like him.

 

Abimelek—The Thornbush - Judges 9:1-15; 42-57

We’re back into the book of Judges and we’ve entered the second half of the time Israel spent under the judges. Gideon is a turning point in Israel’s history at this time. As we journey further into the book of Judges, Israel is beginning to look more, and act more like the nations around her. The account of Abimelek is a particularly ugly story of power, greed, and revenge; it’s a brutal story of blood lust. Gideon dies after 40 years of being a judge. Israel offers him the throne as a king, but he turns them down, telling them, “The Lord will rule over you.” We also see how Gideon is influenced by his times and uses gold given to him in gratitude to create a gold ephod. This ephod becomes an idol to Gideon and his family, and even Israel as they begin to worship it. Gideon has created something new to worship alongside the Lord, a common temptation for all of us.

Gideon has 70 sons through his wives, and 1 son through a slave concubine from Shechem. After his death, Israel returns to worshipping idols, but they also forget Gideon’s family and fail to show them any kindness after their father’s service. Abimelek, Gideon’s son through the concubine, a disgraced son, goes to the leaders of Shechem and makes a plan to put him on the throne instead of one of Gideon’s legitimate sons; after-all, he’s from Shechem, not an outsider. They agree and give him silver from the temple of Baal-Berith to make it happen. Abimelek uses the money to hire reckless scoundrels to follow him and they murder 69 of his half-brothers on a stone at his father’s home in Ophrah. Only the youngest son Jotham escapes Abimelek’s murderous spree. Abimelek’s crowned king and Israel is looking like, and acting like the nations around them instead of the people God wants them to be; a people shaped by his laws and festivals. The pattern in Judges of the people being drawn to idol worship continues. Our hearts keep searching out new idols to worship.

Jotham comes out of hiding to challenge the people of Shechem on their odious choice to help Abimelek become king through murdering his 69 brothers. Rev. Dave Warnock writes, “Verses 7-15 are a parable told by Jotham to highlight the worthlessness of King Abimelech. In the parable, the trees are looking for a king and start by asking the most valuable, most productive, most important tree, which in that culture was the olive. Each tree that is asked refuses to become king because what they produce is too valuable to be abandoned for kingship. After the olive, fig and vine have all refused the kingship they go to the thornbush…. The thornbush offers shade, just as a king ought to offer protection to his subjects, but then concludes with the threat of destruction by fire.”

I wonder if Isaiah had Jotham’s parable in mind in chapter 9, “For wickedness burned like a fire, consuming briers and thorns; it kindled the thickets of the forest, and they swirled upwards in a column of smoke.” Jotham curses them, if they have not treated Gideon and his family honourably and in good faith, “may fire come out from Abimelek and consume you… and let fire come out of you… and consume Abimelek.” Jotham then flees, knowing that there’s no place left for him among the people his father had fought and risked his life for.

Abimelek rules like a middle eastern tyrant, using power and force to make the people obey him. Life is all about satisfying the king’s lust for power; treating him like a demi-god. Abimelek creates a ton of hatred between himself and the people of Shechem; hatred stirred up by God because of Abimelek’s murderous spree to gain the throne and Shechem’s part in helping him; God’s avenging the crime against Gideon’s sons. Both Abimelek and the people of Shechem are going to suffer the consequences of their horrendous actions.

The people of Shechem begin fighting back against Abimelek and Abimelek responds by taking his men, the reckless scoundrels, and goes to war against Shechem, destroying the city and scattering salt over the land to make it worthless. He then goes up against the citizens who have taken refuge in the temple of El-Berith and murders them by burning them out, about a 1,000 people die this way. More brutality from a brutal king. How can these be God’s people? Jotham’s curse against the people of Shechem has come true; how’s the curse against Abimelek going to play out?

Abimelek isn’t satisfied with destroying the people of Shechem, he now moves against the city of Thebez, besieges it, and captures it. Inside the city is a strong tower where the people of Thebez have now barricaded themselves in. Burning the people of Shechem to death worked well for Abimelek, so he uses the same approach here, approaching the tower to set it on fire. As Abimelek approached the tower, a woman drops an upper millstone on his head and cracks his skull. Abimelek, worried about his reputation, calls his armourbearer to him, “Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” We hear an echo here back to the foreign general Sisera and how Jael killed him with a tent peg.

Abimelek is dead, Jotham’s curse is fulfilled, and Israel learns that you don’t mess with God. God’s judgement comes unseen through various people’s actions, but God is at the root of Abimelek and Shechem’s destruction. The judgement doesn’t come right away, God allows the evil to fester long enough to become so bad that the only outcome are horrendous acts of vengeance, greed, and pride. As we read though and reflect on this story, it’s hard to see anything positive in such an horrific bloody story of betrayal and vengeance. Why put such a horrible story in the Bible?

I’m thankful for a couple of theologians and a rabbi who gave me some insight into where to find some hope in the story of Abimelek. We see God’s wrath towards evil in the destruction of Shechem and the death of Abimelek, but it’s what comes afterwards where we see God’s grace at work. The writer of Judges tells us about the two judges that come after Abimelek: Tola and Jair. We learn very little about them except for how long they led Israel, Tola led Israel 23 years and Jair followed after Tola and led Israel 22 years. After the chaotic and horrific time of Abimelek, God gives Israel 45 years of order and peace under these two judges; a time when Israel returns to following the Lord again.

Abimelek brings evil and chaos into Israel, this what the people of Shechem enabled. Those who are filled with broken pride and ambition bring brokenness and chaos into other people’s lives. Abimelek, an outsider in his own family, is filled with bitterness and anger, and combined with pride and arrogance and ambition, he acts quickly in the leadership vacuum in Israel after Gideon’s death. He’s a broken king who creates an evil environment that brings horror and brokenness. It’s a hard time during Abimelek’s rule.

It can be hard for many people today. Chaos can so often and quickly come into our lives due to the effects of sin. The brokenness it brings is always hard. In such times, we look for healing, hope, or peace while simply trying to get through each day as best we can. Having walked with victims of abuse, with refugees, and others hurt deeply through hate and anger, sometimes all they hope for is to make it through the day.

For them, Jesus comes as a good king, as we’re reminded in this time of Epiphany when we remember the Magi’s journey to see the king that the heavens themselves revealed to those wise enough to understand God’s heavenly message. Jesus comes as the King of kings, the Prince of Peace, the Messiah who has come to save his people. Jesus comes to a world of chaos and darkness, to people shaped and hurt by sin, to a world where evil exists, even within our own communities. Jesus comes to bring order out of chaos, to bring light into the darkness, to offer us the grace and healing our hearts are yearning for, to offer a community of hope and acceptance.

Jesus comes with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” a kingdom of shalom, a kingdom where creation flourishes and reconciliation between God and humanity, and between people brings healing and hope. In the kingdom of heaven, Jesus summarizes the law as, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second is like it, love your neighbour as yourself.” This is followed up with one more law that, because we love God and our neighbour, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Our king is with us, never abandons us and brings salvation from the chaos created by sin. Jesus invites you to come to him and experience his peace and to go and be people of reconciliation and healing.