The Riddle of Samson

One of the reasons we do not see More of the Holy Spirit's supernatural activity is we do not operate consistently in its fullness. Dr. Tony Evans says the Spirit's power flows through surrendered hearts. You can't be full of the Spirit unless you're fully submitted to His control. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.

Tony Evans.

Sometimes the Lord starts working in our lives long before we realize it, arranging circumstances, shaping our story, and setting us apart for His purpose. Today, Dr. Evans looks at Samson's life to show how God's calling isn't based on our own perfection, but on His power and plan. Let's join him as he begins. When God's people repented, God would raise up a civil servant.

He was called a judge. Mm-hmm. And his job was to deliver God's people from. the enemies who had oppressed them when they had come back to God. We have now gotten to a man named Samson.

The angel appears to Maniah's wife. In chapter 13, verse 3. You are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and give birth to a son. By the way, Conception and birth are normally linked in the Bible, conception or birth, because the expectation was: if there was a conception, there would be a birth. Why?

Because there's life from conception to birth. And so he tells her, you're going to be a mother.

So she is barren. Let me make another point here.

Okay. Oftentimes, when God leaves things barren, in other words, Things that ought to be happening aren't happening. You're not able to produce. Because you can be barren not only when it comes to a pregnancy, but you can be barren when it comes to a career. You can be barren when it comes to an opportunity.

You can be barren because things that ought to be connecting aren't working out for you.

Well, the reason in this case there was barrenness is because there was a sovereign supernatural purpose.

So always ask God when you are ongoingly barren. God, are you doing something special in this situation? that I need to be aware of. Give God the right. In the disappointment of being barren, like Sarah was barren.

she was barren because God had a supernatural plan at work.

So, don't just look at the circumstance. Talk to God about what the plan might be. In the baroness.

So says of Samson or We'll find out in Samson, verse 4. Be careful not to drink wine or strong drink nor anything unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, no raisins shall come upon his head. He shall be a Nazarite. A Nazarite was an Ishmaelite.

who took a special vow of total commitment. For a special service to perform or task to achieve. And therefore, he was set apart to this unique work and made certain commitments. Those commitments are spelled out in Numbers chapter 6, verses 1 through 8, but they're spelled out here as well. She goes back and tells her husband in verse 6, a man comes to me.

Like an angel of God, very awesome. I did not ask him where he came from. He said to me, Behold, you shall conceive and have a son. And he'll be a Nazarite, verse 7. Maniah entreated the Lord And said, O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent Come to us again.

So, men, if your wife says God said something, before you dismiss it, because it doesn't sound real or doesn't sound right, you best go to God. and get verification. Because he may want you to know something. And so he asked God to return the man again. God listened to the voice of Maniah and the angel comes back to the woman.

So she's sitting in the field. Maniah is not with her. Verse 9.

So the woman runs quickly and she goes gets her husband and Then Maniah arose. He follows his wife in verse 11. And when he came to the man, he said to him, are you the man who spoke with the woman? He said, I am.

So when are these words going to come to pass? that you spoke.

So the angel of the Lord said to Maniah, let the woman pay attention to all that I said. She should not eat anything that comes from the vine or drink wine or strong drink. And he goes into the instructions for this process.

So Verse 15. Then Maliah says to the angel of the Lord, please let us. detain you so that we may prepare a young goat for you.

So a sacrifice. The angel of the Lord said to Maniah, Though you detain me, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, because you're going to offer it up, Maniah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord.

Now in verse 18, but the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name, seeing it is Wonderful. Yeah. The angel of the Lord is Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Because he's not an angel of the Lord, he's the angel of the Lord. The Greek word for angel, Hebrew word for angel, is messenger.

So Jesus Christ was the The optimum formal messenger. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. St. John 1:1 says.

So Jesus is God's final messenger. Even in the Old Testament, because he goes all the way back for creation.

So when the Bible says, And God said, Let there be light, Jesus is speaking. Because he's the word of God. He's the official voice of the Trinity. He says, my name is wonderful. What does he mean by wonderful?

So, verse 19: So, Maniah took the young goat with the grain offerings and offered it on the rock to the Lord, and he performed wonders while Maniah and his wife looked on.

So, wonderful means I'm a wonder-working person.

So when you call God wonderful. You're talking about a wonder. performing person. Jesus Christ is a wonder performing person.

So that's what you mean by wonderful. In other words, He does wonders. He shocks you. He blows your mind.

So he gives him his name. And then he accepts the sacrifice. Came about when the flame went up from the altar toward heaven, verse 20, that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar. When Maniah and his wife saw this, they fell on their faces to the ground.

Now we've seen the angel of the Lord.

Now, the angel of the Lord did not appear to Maniah or his wife again. Then Maniah knew. that it was the angel of the Lord. And what did he say? We have seen God.

Because the angel of the Lord was God in the second person of the Trinity.

So that's how we make the link. Between the angel of the Lord and God. Of course, Jesus Christ became flesh. And now we recognize him. As the Son of God.

and Son of Man.

So she gives birth to a son, verse 24. She gives him the name Samson, which means son, by the way, as she wins. He gives him the name Samson. The child grows up and is blessed by him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him.

So he's being stirred up now. The life of Samson begins to unfold. Then Samson went down to Timnah and saw a woman in Timnah. One of the daughters of the Philistine. First thing we find about it.

So Samson sees a woman from the Philistines.

So he came back and told his father. That? I saw this. Fun. Sister.

Told his father and mother, I saw a woman of Tamnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines.

Now, therefore, get her for me as a wife. Then his father and mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives? Or among our people, that you go take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistine. But Samson said to his father, Get her for me. For she looks good to me.

The key issue here is that she's a Philistine woman. Samson has been sent to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

So he wants to pick a woman of the enemy. to be his wife. Of course his father and mother Are quite concerned. But we throw the curveball here in verse 4. Big curbo.

However, his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord. For he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.

Now, at that time, the Philistines were ruling over Israel. We get a curveball here. It's a whopping curveball. The biblical principle is to not be unequally yoked together with non-believers. The second word then 614.

Okay, to not being equally yoked.

So Christians should marry Christians.

So that's the principle.

So, his father and mother are basically operating on the principle. They were told throughout the Old Testament. to not marry the uncircumcised, which means the unbeliever.

So they're told that all the time. What you have here is a divine exception. Dr. Evans will unpack the concept of God's divine exceptions when he continues in just a moment. First, though, I want to take a moment to share a special resource package we are offering to our listeners.

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Find out more at TonyEvanstraining.org. TonyEvanstraining.org. Oftentimes in the Bible, God makes exceptions to his rules. He doesn't change his rules from being his rules, but the exceptions are that he has divine prerogatives. that are not necessarily our prerogatives.

In other words, God gives a rule. Boom, that's the rule. He has the authority to trump the rule. Because of his position.

So, there is something spiritual or theological or missional that God is doing when he creates exceptions. But my point is, he does create exceptions because it clearly says in verse 4, God. was seeking an occasion against the Philistines.

So he was using This lady in Samson's life. to create. A deliverance for his people. Through Samson.

So he wants to provoke the Philistines.

So he begins this process.

So Samson goes down with his mother and father. And a young lion comes up on him. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him mightily.

Okay, because he's been elected by God for a supernatural purpose. The Spirit of God comes upon us, so he tears him as one tears a young goat. Though he had nothing in his hand, this is a bad boy here. But he did not tell his father and mother what he had done. And when he returned late in the day, he turned aside and he looked in the carcass of the lion, and behold, a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion.

So the bees had made a bee nest there and they got honey coming up out of this carcass. He scraped the honey into his hands. and he went up and he's eating the honey from the carcass of this lion Coming to his father and mother, and he gave some to them.

So he kills this lion. This honey and bee, the bees create the honey inside the lion. And now he comes. The context is verse 10. And Samson made a feast there, for the young men customarily did this, like an engagement party kind of thing.

Samson said to them, Let me now. purport a riddle to you. If you will indeed tell it to me within seven days of the feast, And find it out, then I will give you. 30 linen wraps and 30 changes of clothes. Changes of clothes in biblical days was a sign of honor and dignity.

You would give away clothes. But if you're unable, then you'll give me the clothes.

Okay, so he makes this deal.

So he says, out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet.

Well, they couldn't figure out the riddle because they didn't know he slew the lion and the lion, and then the bees got in there, and the bees made the honey and all that.

So, that was the riddle. But of course, they didn't know what he was talking about, so they couldn't figure it out. It came about on the fourth day, verse 15, that they came to Samson's wife. Entice your husband.

so that he will tell us the riddle. Or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. They wanted that clothes bad. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Because we're going to lose all of our money to buy all these nice clothes.

Is this not so?

So Samson's wife weeps before him and says, You only hate me. You don't really love me. And you do not love me. You have propounded a riddle to the sons of my people. and have not told me.

And behold, I have not told it to my father. He says that, oh, my mother, should I tell you?

So she weeps before him for seven days and he can't take it no more. And on the seventh day, he told her. because she pressed him.

So then She told the riddle to the sons of her people. The Spirit of the Lord comes upon him mightily, verse 19. He goes down, he kills 30 of them. Because of what they had done by threatening to kill his wife and burn down his. father's house And he took the spoils and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle and his anger burned and he went up to his father's house.

But Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his friend. You would call it his best man.

So The wife is taken by the father, given to the best man, because now, Samson's a killer 30 guys, and Samson's not happy with her.

So the father steps in to take her, and she gives him to the best man. This is called drama. This is drama. Chapter 15. But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a young goat and said, I will go into my wife in her room.

But her father did not let him enter.

So her father said, I really thought that you hated her intensely because of what she did.

So I gave her to your companion. Is not her youngest sister more beautiful than she? Please let her be yours instead. Drama.

Okay, so he's trying to finagle this situation that he finds himself in, because he doesn't want to make Samson mad either. Samson then said to them, This time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines. When I do. them harm. Samson without And caught 300 foxes.

Now this is one you want to see on the movie. and took torches. and turned the fox's tail to tail. And put one torch in the middle between two tails. When he had set fire.

to the torches. He released the foxes into The standing grain of the Philistines. Thus, burning up both the chucks and the standing grain. Along with the vineyards and the groves. Why does he do this?

Because the Philistines had interfered with his harvest. His ability to have a child.

So he's going to destroy their harvest. Which, of course, is all part of God's judgment. In allowing him to connect with the woman, because remember, God was the one behind him connecting with the woman.

So, all of this, God is using all of these ins and outs as part of the judgment to deliver his people, which says you never know how God's going to do something. Cause nobody's gonna predict 300 foxes on fire. as a means of judgment.

Okay, that's just not gonna be part of it.

So you you certainly can't put. God in a box. Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah. and spread out in Lei. Which means Jaw healed.

The men of Judah said, Why have you come against us? And they said, We have come up to bind Samson in order to do. to him as he did to us.

So the Philistines said we're going to pay him back. Then 3,000 men of Judah went down the cleft of the rock. And said to Samson, Do you know that the Philistines' rulers are coming against us? What then is this that you have done to us? You've brought now trouble on us.

And he said to them, as they did to me, so I have done to them. And so they said to him, well, we've come down to bind you. Cause you getting us messed up. And to give you to the Philistines. And Samson said to them, well, swear to me you won't kill me.

So they said, no, but we're going to bind you fast and we're going to bind you up. We're going to deliver you to the Philistines because they're coming against us. When he came to Leah. The Philistines shouted as they met him. Uh-oh, and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily.

Boop. You don't want the Spirit of the Lord to show up mightily.

so that the ropes that they had on his arms were as flack. That is burned with fire. In other words, they broke easily, and his bands dropped from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey.

So he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it. That's film number two.

So Samson, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, There was supernatural activity.

Now In the Old Testament, the Spirit of the Lord came upon for supernatural things, and they tended to be specifically related to events. In the New Testament, when the Spirit of the Lord came, it indwelt every believer.

So, the supernatural presence of God in our lives. is not related to the Spirit coming upon us. Which is what happened in the Old Testament, is related to the fullness of the Spirit within us.

So the Bible says, be filled with the Spirit. That is, fully under his control. One of the reasons we do not see more of the Holy Spirit's supernatural activity is we do not operate. Consistently in more of his fullness. And you can't be full of the Spirit.

unless you're fully submitted to his control. The filling of the Spirit is like being drunk with wine. It says, be not drunk with wine, Ephesians 5, 18, but be filled with the Spirit.

Okay, when a person is drunk with wine. They are acting outside of their normal Action. I mean, they're stumbling when they walk. That's not how they normally walk. They are underneath the influence.

Be not drunk with wine. Don't come under its influence because you will act outside of your normal self. but do come under an influence. Be filled, intoxicated with the Spirit. When spiritual intoxication occurs, you then function outside of your normal self.

So, when you say this is me, and it is outside of the will of God, that means. Filling has not consistently occurred yet. Because when you're filled or spiritually intoxicated, You're not acting in your normal self.

Okay, so that's the principle of being filled. With the Spirit. and therefore coming under divine control, therefore doing things outside of your normal self. Dr. Tony Evans, with encouraging words on how living under the Holy Spirit's control empowers us to do what we never could on our own.

Now, if you'd like to have a copy of today's message, to review on your own, or to pass along to a friend, just contact us for details on the title The Riddle of Samson. Better yet, get this message as a part of Tony's current two volume teaching series, simply titled Judges. Remember, right now, for just a few more days, you can get all 12 lessons in this collection as our gift. along with Tony's powerful book, Kingdom Authority. Just visit Tony Evans.org to get the details and make the arrangements.

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Well, on Monday, Dr. Evans reveals how repentance can restore what rebellion has destroyed. and how God's greatest work in your life might still be ahead. Be sure to join us.