Application from the Life of Samson
Samson is a reminder that my greatest enemy is the one that looks back at me in the mirror each morning. What can we learn personally from his life?
I need to guard against following characteristics:
• He was Impulsive
• He was Compromising. Samson treated the commands of God very casually.
• He was Unteachable.
• He was a Loner. He had no community and no accountability.
• He was Demanding and Self-Serving.
• He was Selfish. He used the strengths and gifts God had given him for his own selfish purpose.
Strengths and gifts should first be used to glorify God.
Then they should be used to serve and help others.
• He was Proud. Samson assumed he would never lose his strength.
Did Samson Do Anything Good?
The answer is Yes.
Samson Fought. He was always ready to fight. God honored that. Samson was a fighter. For me, I need to fight sin and temptation and impulse. Jesus says I am more than a fighter. More than a conqueror. What do I fight? What do I fight FOR?
He cried to the Lord in his most desperate moments. I need to do this.
Theological Lessons of Samson’s Life:
• God often uses situations and methods that we cannot understand to bring about His good purposes.
• What Samson could not do, Jesus can.
Samson ruled and judged in Israel for 20 years, but he did not provide deliverance for the Nation of Israel. Israel needed a deliverer greater than the strongest man the world has ever known. Samson was mighty in battle and powerful to defeat more people than any one individual has ever defeated. He looked to be the perfect Savior and deliverer but he had shortcomings that are as glaring and powerful as his strengths. Israel needed a greater deliverer, and we need the same deliverer. Samson's strength faded and perished. But the strength of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ conquered temptation, sin, death, the grave and all of our enemies.
• Like Samson, Jesus was betrayed by someone He loved. He was handed over to pagan Gentiles who tortured him. Jesus was bound, mocked, and tortured to be made the object of entertainment.
• In the moment of his death rather than defeat, he brought the greatest victory.
• If Samson could not succeed at life in his own strength, neither can I.
There are many ways Jesus is not like Samson. Jesus was not put into chains and bound because of His own sin, but rather because of our sin.
Samson was a strong man made weak because of his sin. Jesus was and is Almighty God and yet He humbled Himself and took on the weakness of human flesh. For our sake He became weak so that He might save us from the chains of sin.
We might be like Samson, compromising, demanding, selfish, proud, impulsive AND rebellious. But thanks be to God that Jesus was stricken and beaten, made the object of suffering so that we might be set free from the chains that bind us. It is when we behold Jesus and see Him in His glory and recognize Him as our Savior that we can be set free to live in Christ, and not in our own selfishness.
That is true freedom and we can live in that strength!