The Weakness of Samson

You know something is a God when you look to it as your ultimate source. And Dr. Tony Evans says there's a price for flirting with a substitute God. What many people don't know is they're canceling out the true God because of their insistence on holding onto an idol. This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr.

Tony Evans.

Sometimes we can drift so far from God that it feels like he's left us altogether. But as Dr. Evans explains, even when we've lost our strength, our sight, or our way, it's never too late to turn back to the Lord. Today, he draws powerful principles from Samson's fall, repentance, and ultimate restoration, reminding us that God's grace can still write the final chapter. His story is Powerful, profound.

and also sad. He is a Nazarite. Who has been set aside for a specific purpose of God? And so there were certain commitments that Nazarites had in order. to be set apart for their special purpose.

Samson was set apart to be Israel's deliverer against the Philistines. And we left him in chapter 16. at Jawbone Hill.

Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there. And he is reflecting Israel in chapter 2, verse 17, chapter 8, verse 27, chapter 8, verse 33. All those verses say, and Israel played the harlot. On God.

So we have Samson now going into a harlot.

So this theme of Forsaking God. to an idolatrous culture. They took the gods of the culture.

So when Samson goes into this prostitute, This Philistine prostitute, he is interfacing. compromising with the culture, which is what Israel did, which is why that same term is used in those other verses of what Israel did to what Samson is doing, that is compromising with the pagan culture. Verse 2 says, When it was told to the Gazites, saying, Samson is come here, they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. And they kept silent all night, saying, let us wait until morning light. then we will kill him.

So the plan is to kill him. and they lock the gate at night so that he can't escape. Oops. Because now Samson lay until midnight, verse 3, and at midnight he rose and took hold of the doors of the city gates. These are thick city gates.

And the two posts, so he takes the doors and pulls the post up. Along with the bars. Then he puts them on his shoulders and carries them up to the top of the mountain. Which is opposite Hebron.

So then he takes the gates up, takes them off their post, including the button, and runs them up a mountain. We can't run him down a block. He runs him up the mountain.

Okay. Because he still possesses. Even though he's outside of the will of God in what he is doing. God has not left him. Yet Keep the word yet in mind.

So God covers him even in this situation. But this sets the stage for the famous woman we are aware of. Delilah. He's going on a downhill spiral.

So verse 4: After this, he came about that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek. whose name was Delilah. It is not clear whether Delilah is a Philistine woman or not. But we do know she has a Philistine heart. Because she's going to cut a deal with the Philistines.

So Verse five.

Okay. The lords of the Philistines came up. to her and said to her, Entice him. and see where his great strength lies. And how we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him.

then we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver. It came about that she pressed him daily. Translation got on his last nerves. With her words, and urged him that his soul was annoyed to death.

So he told her, verse 17, all that was in his heart, and said to her, A razor hath never come on my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I will become weak. and be like other men. which means he was not like other men. When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she called the Philistines, Come one more time, we got him now.

Verse 18.

So they came and they brought money. She's still collecting. And called for a man. and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him and his strength left him.

Here's the sad part, verse 20. The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as the other times. And shake myself free. But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

God had gone and he didn't even know it. God was gone. His Human relationship. trumped his divine calling.

Well, when God is no longer in the equation. Satan then controls. The situation. Perhaps you've experienced that when you've wandered from God and now Satan is telling you what to do. Satan is controlling you.

Look at verse 21. Then the Philistines seized him. and gorged out his eyes. Can you imagine that? And they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains.

and he was a grinder in prison. It cost him his eyesight. It cost him his gift. It's cost him his usefulness. And now the enemies of God were controlling his every move.

because they made him what they wanted him to be, a grinder. You know, he's just... He's a he's a workhorse now. They have to put him on this wheel 'cause he can't see anything, so he has to just kind of go in a circle to do this this grinding job. But then verse twenty-two.

However, The hair on his head began to grow again. After it was Shaved off.

Now Why would we need to be told that? Obviously, if your hair is cut, It's going to grow back. But he wants to make a point. About this hair growing back. Of course, the hair was the secret to his strength.

We know that. The hair got cut off because he had wandered from God down to the Philistine, down to Delilah. You know, he had wandered from God. The point being made here, with God telling us in the word that his hair was growing back. was to let us know.

That he was. repentant And now coming back to God. reflected by his hair growing back. which will show up. In his prayer, he's getting ready to pray in just a moment.

So in his hair growing back, it's him coming back. Is what I'm saying.

So he is in a repentant mode because sometimes God has to take you as low as you can possibly go to get your undivided attention.

Sometimes we can be so rebellious. that God lets things Unravel And we're at the bottom because he's at the bottom now. He wasn't at the top, he's at the bottom. But his hair is growing back.

Now the lords of the Philistines had assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their God. and to rejoice. For they said, Our God has given Samson our enemy into our hands. When the people saw him, they praised their God. For they said, our God has given our enemy into our hands.

even the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us. Their god's name, the god of their society, chief god in charge, was Dagon. What has happened? Is now the battle. Watch this.

has become Theological. Not merely personal. Yeah, they were after Samson. But notice they were crediting They're God. Verse 25.

So it happened when they were in high spirits. I mean, they'd been drinking. Call for Samson. That he may amuse us. We're going to play with him out here.

So they call for Samson from prison. And he entertained them. And they made him stand between two pillars. Not a good idea.

Now the house was full of men and women. and the lords, the leaders, of the Philistines were there and there's about three thousand men and women on the roof looking on while Sampson was amusing them.

So he's going along with him as best he can as a blind man. But verse 28.

Okay. Then Samson called to the Lord and said, Oh Lord God. Please remember me. And please strengthen me just this time. O God, that I may at once be avenged of the Philistines.

For my two eyes. Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested. braced himself against them, the one with his right hand, the other with his left. And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bent with all of his might.

So that the house fell on the Lord's and all the people who were in it.

So the dead whom he killed at his death was more. than those whom he had killed in his life. He went south when he yielded to pagan culture. He repents. And because He was at the point of death.

Repentance Is the road to restoration at whatever level God allows it? except when it's the point of death. There's still forgiveness, but there's not restoration in history. What is Samson supposed to emulate for us? He's supposed to emulate the power of returning.

That is, letting your hair grow back out. Because he did more at the end.

So, you can literally leave here with a blaze of fire in spite of the ups and downs along the way.

Now It didn't give him his eyes back. Didn't give him his freedom. Because there were consequences. But what it did give him. Was a closeout that God recognized.

Since none of us knows when that time comes. then it's important that from this point on, We go for it with a blaze of glory. giving everything we have. to God. Dr.

Evans will continue our study of the book of Judges when he returns in just a moment. Don't go away. Pain, uncertainty, and division seem to be everywhere you turn these days. until you look to Jesus. And now more than ever, the world needs to hear the hopeful story of the kingdom of God transforming hearts.

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Or give us a phone call at 1-800-800-3222. to take advantage of this limited time offer. I'll have our contact information for you again after the second part of today's lesson. Let's get back to doctor Evans now, as he continues to unpack the Book of Judges for us. We now have finished with Samson.

And now we come to From here to the end of the book. 17 to 21, we're going to run into this problem. Of Levites. Levites were the priests. We dealt with the judges.

Now he's going to come with the priests, and we've got to. Horrific story. This is one of the most horrific stories. individual stories and all in the Bible. But we're introducing ourselves to the Levites here.

and how they contributed to the downfall of the nation. There's a man, verse one, of the hill country. Of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. He said to his mother, The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my Hearing, behold, the silver is with me. I took it.

Okay, so he stole from his mama.

So he said, Mama, here's your money back. And his mother said, Blessed be my son by the Lord.

So she shifts from a curse to a blessing, probably because it was her boy. Then he returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver. to his mother.

Now, watch this. And his mother said, I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord. for my son to make a graven image and a molten image.

Now, therefore, I will return them. To you.

Okay, wait a minute, we got a little issue here. She curses. He comes back. She blesses. She blesses in the name of the Lord.

She dedicates her silver to the Lord.

So that her son can make a graven image. You shall not make a graven image. That is an image you look to As your source.

So notice what she's doing. She's got God and an image. She's got God and an idol. It's called double-mindedness. I got God, but in case he doesn't do everything I want him to do, I need an image.

So I'm going to give the money to the Lord so I can make another God.

So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith, who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah. Problem. What's the problem?

Okay, let me show you the problem. Verse three: I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord. His mother took 200 pieces. How many pieces did she have? She said, I'm a holy giver to the Lord.

She said, I'm going to give it all to the Lord. She gives 200 of it.

Well, now we know how Micah learned to steal. He stole from her, she steals from God, everybody's stealing.

So The man Micah had a shrine and he made an ethod where you Determine God's will with this ephod that you wore to help determine God's will and household idols. and consecrated one of his sons that he might become his priest.

So he got idols in the house, and the household idols. Because you know you want to idol bless your house and all that. Then we get a statement that's made a number of times. in the last few chapters of the book. In those days, there was no king in Israel.

Every man did what was right in his own eyes. But let me put it another way. There was no divine standard operating in Israel.

So everybody created their own. He's not just talking about a human king, he's talking about a representative of God. There was no representative of God there, and so everybody. Came up with their own gods. That's why the context of this statement is household idols.

So everybody making their own gods, doing their own thing.

Now there's a young man from Bethlehem. Judah. And he's a Levite, verse 7. He departed from the city, from Bethlehem to Judah. to find a place.

In other words, he's looking for a ministry to serve in. find a place to serve because he's a Levite, he's a priest.

So, a priest is looking for like a parish to serve because priests served in towns like a parish, so that you can have them in small parishes or big parishes.

So, they would look for places to serve.

So, we've got this young Levite priest who's looking for a place to serve.

So he comes to the hill country to Ephraim. to the house of Micah. Micah said to him, says to him in verse 9, where do you come from? He says, I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I find a place, wherever somebody can use my services, my priestly services. I'm going to hang out there.

Micah then says to him, Dwell with me and be a father and a priest to me. And I will give you ten pieces of silver. I will hire you to be my priest. A year, a suit of clothes, and your maintenance. I got you.

I'm going to cover you.

So the Levite went in. He now has a job as the priest of Micah's house because everybody is doing what they want to do. The Levite agreed to live with him in verse 11, and the young man became to him like one of his sons.

So he's like the priestly father for Micah and Micah is like the earthly father for him.

So Micah consecrated the Levite. And Micah is an idolater. And the young man became the priest and lived in the house of Micah.

Now Micah said, Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, seeing I have a Levite as a priest. Called prosperity theology. I got God to bless my house. Because he says, now I know the Lord's going to prosper me. Because I got the Lord, I got the preacher coming over to dedicate the house.

And he's going to work for me. He's going to be my own personal. My own personal priest.

Well, this is going to unfold a whole series of events. This one little thing. of this one preacher, this young preacher. in Micah's house It's going to open up a can of worms. And by the time this can of worm ends, as we go through this.

It's going to be just horrific. And the horrifying thing is the illegitimate mixture. of the true God with idols. See? If you still go to church.

And you kind of worship the true God. Then you leave church and you go back to the idols.

So that you mix gods. That's an unholy mixture. And thou shalt have no other God before me. Don't bring another God up in my face. And remember, You know something is a God when you look to it as your ultimate source.

Whatever your ultimate source is, is your God. People thank God and praise God for this. While they still stay attached to the idol, and here's the key: you want to know: when you are talking to the true God, praying to the true God, worshiping the true God. But you got one hand on this idol. Everything you've discussed with the true God has now been canceled.

You've canceled.

So, what many people don't know is they're canceling out the true God because of their insistence on holding onto an idol. You've got to let the idol go if you want the true God to hear you and respond to you. Because you don't like get half God, half idol. It's the true God unmixed. And when the true God is unmixed, then you can hear from the true God.

Once He's mixed, you can have. A false god. completely. Dr. Tony Evans with important words about maintaining an undivided allegiance to the one true God.

Today's lesson is part of Tony's impactful series on the book of Judges. For a few more days now, we are offering the complete two-volume 12-message collection. On digital download as well as on either C D or USB flash drive. packaged along with his powerful book, Kingdom Authority. This comprehensive set is our gift to you.

when you make a contribution to help keep Tony's teaching on this station. Just visit Tony Evans.org to get all the details and make your request. or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. where team members are available twenty four seven to assist you. and be sure to ask about upgrading your package to include the Companion Kingdom Authority Leaders Kit.

designed to help these truths take root in your life and in the lives of others. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. or online at tonyevans.org. When God's people lose sight of His authority, It doesn't take long for false gods to fill the void. Tomorrow, Dr.

Evans traces the insidious progression of compromise. Showing how idolatry can quietly infiltrate our hearts and communities. It's a disturbing look at the reality of sin and our desperate need for redemption. And a word of caution, the themes covered tomorrow are not suitable for children and listener discretion is advised.