Throughout the annals of history, Samson has become legendary for his strength and proverbial prowess. This superman, who could destroy a lion with his bare hands, was the talk of his town and the pride of his nation. More than that, he was the scourge of the Philistines and the dread of Israel's enemies. But despite his strength, Samson had serious weaknesses. And one of these was women.
When it was time for marriage, Samson decided to defy divine instruction. The Deuteronomic code had stated, "Do not intermarry with them (heathen nations). Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other gods, and the Lord's anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you" (Deuteronomy 7:3, 4).
Israelite and Philistine
But Samson visited Timnah and tell in love with a Philistine. Returning home, he told his parents, "I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife" Judges 14:2). His parents were astonished. "Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people?" they asked (verse 3). The reply of the stubborn youth was, "Get her for me. She's the right one for me" (verse 4).
The marriage was an instant fiasco. The groom gave a riddle, and the Philistines pressured the bride to get the answer from her husband. When the bridegroom discerned the treachery, he stormed away to the home of his parents. But when his anger was over and he returned, he discovered that his wife had been married to the bestman of his wedding.
Things got from bad to worse for Samson as he found another Philistine woman. This time, it was a prostitute in the city of Gaza. However, when his enemies surrounded the city to capture him, he took away the doors and the posts of the city gate.
But time was not his teacher. Bent on the pursuit of his promiscuity, this man placed himself in the arms of a third Philistine woman. Her home was in the valley of Sorek, and her name was Delilah. Her name means "flirt," and she lived up to that name! It is evident that Samson had become an addict. His addiction was Philistine women. Over and over he got hooked on the wrong woman. He was living a life of dissatisfaction while driving on the highway to destruction.
Road to Disaster
When the Philistine lords heard of the Delilah connection, they were excited. Approaching the flirt, they offered her an irresistible reward 5,500 pieces of silver, the cost of 275 slaves! "Entice him" they urged. "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength" Judges 16:5). Soon Delilah began her enticement, and Samson played the game. He told her to tie him with fresh cords, then to tie him with new rope, then to weave the locks of his head into the fabric on the loom. But each time he made a fool of her.
Applying all her romantic pressure, she cried, "How can you say, I love you when you won't confide in me?" (verse 15). Day after day she intensified her appeal until his resistance crumbled. Finally, he told her the secret. "If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other men" (verse 17). Delilah was delighted. Putting him to sleep on her lap, she had his braids cut off, and when she had summoned her countrymen, she declared, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you" (verse 20).
Without resistance, they captured him. They tortured and blinded him, chained and imprisoned him. Once a superman, he was now a prisoner in a dungeon. He lost his eyes, his hair, his health, his strength, his manhood, his senseo direction. He was soon to lose his earthly life, and he almost lost eternal life. The union of Samson and Delilah is a sure prescription for disaster.
Incompatibility
What a price to pay for infatuation with a Philistine! What an awful reward for a rendezvous with the Wrong woman! The hard fact is that an Israelite and a Philistine are not designed for each other. Their values are different, their religious concepts are different, their philosophies of life are different. They are incompatible!
The Scripture asks the rhetorical question: "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" Amos 3:3, NKJV) A successful marriage requires compatibility of Partners in a variety of areas. But the Why is this so? Because every person is controlled by a spiritual force-the evil spirit of Satan, or the Holy spirit of God. And whenever partners with opposite spirits live together conflict is certain, and chaos is sure.
That is why in the New Testament, as in the Old, God's command is clear. "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?'" (2 Corinthians 6:14, 15). Samson and Delilah spell disaster! And as in marital life, so in spiritual life. Truth and Error cannot live happily together. From Genesis to Revelation, the history of God's people tells the same story. When Truth marries Truth, there is success. When Truth marries Error, there is failure.
Two Systems
In the beautiful Garden of Eden, all was peace. After God united man with woman on the sixth day, He united man and woman with Himself on the seventh day (Genesis 2:1- 3). So marriage is Truth, and the Sabbath is Truth. After sin entered our world, God added to the requirements of worship. In addition to the Sabbath of Jesus, man needed to show faith in the blood of Jesus. Adam was instructed to kill a lamb claiming salvation through Calvary's Lamb, Jesus Christ. But in the first two sons of Adam and Eve, two systems of worship appeared. Abel stood for be Truth while Cain took his stand for Error (Genesis 4:1-5).
As the centuries came and went and multitudes chose the path of wrong, God chose the nation of Israel to reveal His way of life to the world. After their miraculous deliverance from Egyptian bondage, Christ led His people to Sinai where He organized the nation, instituted a system of worship, and codified His commands. There He declared, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8, KJV). That word, "remember," tells us that the Sabbath was given before. It had been given to Adam in Eden some 2,500 years before Moses! But while Israel expected to uphold this Truth, worshiping the God of heaven on His holy day, heathen nations were participating in the Error of idol worship and sun worship. So, the Lord gave a stern warning to His people that anyone who "contrary" to this command "worshiped other gods, bow- ing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky" would incur His divine wrath (Deuteronomy 17:3,5).
The Marriage
Knowing that as long as Israel remained with Truth the nation was safe, the devil engineered a plan to put "Samson" in bed with "Delilah." It happened literally, and Numbers 25:1 tells the sad story. "While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women." Right on the borders of the Promised Land promiscuity and pandemonium broke out.
But this was not only a marital calamity; it was also a spiritual disaster. The heathen women invited the Israelite men to idol worship, and they "bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor. And the Lord's anger burned against them" (Numbers 25:2, 3). Horror of horrors, Truth and Error got married! Sorrow of sorrows, Sabbath worship and sun worship united!
With the passage of time, young King Josiah confronted this appalling iniquity. "He did away with the pagan priests" in Israel who "burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon." Then he destroyed the chariots that were "dedicated to the sun" (2 Kings 23:5, 11).
Ezekiel atrocity also witnessed the atrocity. "He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and at the entrance of the temple between the portico and the altar, we're about twenty-five men. LORD, With their backs toward temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east" were God's people in God's temple (Ezekiel 8:16). Incredible! Here practicing the heathen act of sun wOrship! "They worshiped the sun," and God described their ac tions as "abominations" (verses 16, 17,XIv). It was for such idolatry that they had been taken to captivity in Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:14-21).
It is important to note that when Truth and Error lie together, their bed becomes Babylon for "Babylon" means confusion. The fact is that Truth and Error cannot live in happiness together. The union of Samson and Delilah is a certain pre- scription for disaster!
Conflict
One day, in the little town of bethlehem, a Baby was born. They called Him Jesus. Dedicated in Jerusalem, exiled in Egypt, and reared in Nazareth, the Savior ministered n Ndea, Samaria, and Galilee. He was Rome and the Romans engaged in Truth personified.
The government of the day was the error of sun worship. Mithraism and other forms of worship of the invincible sun" abounded in the empire. In fact,it was Rome that gave planetary names to the days of the week, and in keeping with its sun cult, it gave to the sun the position of prominence, calling the first day dies solis, day of the sun, later to be termed, Sunday. But what was the custom of Jesus? Luke 4:16, KV, tells us that "as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day" He had nothing to do with Error. He spoke Truth and He lived Truth for He was the Truth. He declared, "T am..the truth" (John 14:6). Because Truth and Error are incompatible, Rome was often in conflict with Jesus. From Bethlehem to Calvary, Rome harassed the Savior. It was Herod, a Roman monarch, who issued the warrant for His death in infancy, and it was Pilate, a Roman governor, who declared the decree for His death in manhood. In response to Jewish hatred and bigotry, Roman soldiers nailed Him, a Roman spear pierced Him, and a Roman cross disgraced Him. But on that resurrection morning, Roman power bowed to Christ's superhuman power. The Roman seal crumbled to pieces. The empire's soldiers fell as dead men and demons fled in terror. Christ Jesus rose as conqueror.
No Compromise
Forty days after His resurrection, Christ ascended to heaven and His church on earth continued to honor His Sabbath truth. Some say that the New Testament changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in honor of the resurrection. But the church has never had authority to make such a change. Any such change would have had to be made by the Author of the Sabbath, Christ Himself. Instead, He declared, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them" (Matthew 5:17). He called Himself "Lord of the Sab- bath" (Mark 2:28, NKJV).
Then, if such a change were made, it would have been recorded in the Scripture. But there were no such record! There are three principal New Testament texts that are used to support the concept of Sunday worship. The first is John 20:19. There, the disciples were in an assembly. But it was not for worship; it was for security. They had gathered with "doors locked for fear of the Jews."
The second is found in Acts 20:7. Here, on the first day of the week, they met "to break bread." It was an evening service which went past midnight, and it was also a farewell service since Paul was traveling the next day. According to biblical reckoning, the night comes before the day, and the evening begins at sunset (Genesis 1:5; Leviticus 23:32; Mark 1:32). This was therefore a Saturday night service. Moreover, the breaking of bread carried no Sabbatical significance for in the early church this was done at any place on any day (Acts 2:46).
Finally, there is 1 Corinthians 16:2. Actually, no meeting is mentioned there. Paul was recommending a welfare donation
for the needy saints in Jerusalem. "On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collection will have to be made." Each believer was to put aside his gift individually, saving it up at home when the weekly family budget was prepared.
The truth is that in the New Testament Christians obeyed the Sabbath Truth. Paul like his Master, Jesus, had the same "custom." Acts 17:2 tells us that "as his custom, Paul Went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned witn them from the Scriptures." In Acts 18:4 we are told that "Every Sabbatt to persuade Jews and Greeks." So, he reasoned in the synagogue, trying the New Testament closed with Sabbat and Sunday in separate camps. Pagans worshiped the sun on Sunday. Christians worshiped the Son on Sabbath day. There was no compromise. To put it ditferently, Samson remained in the camp of Israel, Delilah remained in the camp of the Philistines. They did not meet, they did not match.
Another Wedding
This distinction angered the devil. and he devised a plan for another wedding. Just as he engineered a marriage to destroy ancient Israel, so he invented a wedding to devastate spiritual Israel. Satan knows that the union of Samson and Delilah is an effective prescription for disaster.
With the death of the last of Christ's 12 apostles, second century Christians began a Sunday celebration of our Lord's resurrection. At the same time, many pagans were being converted to Christianity, bringing with them their heritage of the worship of the sun on Sunday. As these two ideas met and mated, a new concept was conceived: Christ the Sun. It was the idea that Christians may worship Christ, the Son, on the pagan day of the sun.
A New Samson
There sat Samson in his own spiritual Babylon. There he lay in that dark Philistine dungeon. The devil fooled him, and failed him. He had bound him, and blinded him. Then he menacingly mocked him. But as the Savior looked upon Samson, He still loved him. With pity He wept for him. Tenderly He yearned over him. His heart bled for him. What a gracious, loving God! In the darkness of his night and the silence of his soul, Samson saw his Redeemer weeping. He felt His Lord caressing, and he heard his Savior whispering, I still love you." Gradually, that sinner began responding to the tender love of his Savior. Mysteriously, something started happening in his head. The inward experience involved a new mind and a new spirit. It produced new desires and affections, new emotions and decisions.
This inner mystery was accompanied by an outer miracle. "The hair on his head began to grow again" (Judges 16:22). Both outside and inside he was becoming was a new Samson. No more slaverv sin! No more addiction to adultery! No more desire for Delilah!
That's the miracle God longs to perform in human hearts today. He invites us to break wit Constantine and unite to Christ, for the two are incompatible. He asks us to separate Truth from Error, for they cannot live happily together. He urges us to reject Rome's Sunday and accept Christ's Sabbath, for these two are ir reconcilable. He appeals to us to separate Samson and Delilah.
Samson's Prayer
Samson's Prayer But we need strength to perform God's will. So did Samson. And he got it when he prayed. When they took him from the dungeon to make fun of him, Samson's mind was set. Without eyes, he looked to heaven, and with a penitent heart he uttered the painful cry, "O LORD God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God" (verse 28, NKJV).
Suddenly, as God's power mbined with Samson's strength, the giant arena came tumbling down. Three thousand lords and ladies were destroyed. The political right of Philistia was crushed. Wonder of wonders, God answered Samson's prayer.
God still answers prayer yours and mine. ln our darkest night and our deepest dungeon, He listens to our faintest cry. From our silent anguish and our bitter blindness, He hears our earnest prayer. Every desire of our hearts for purity and victory in personal, sexual, and marital life reaches His listening ear. Every long- ing of our souls for love and loyalty in spiritual life is borne upon His bosom. It is refreshing to remember that the God who answered Samson's prayer 1s ready to answer ours.
Let's have a coffee
Hari
Blessings....
