Let the Shepherd Lead

Intro:

• Sophocles, the ancient Greek philosopher and playwright said, “Children are the anchors that hold a mother to life”.
• From the child’s perspective, Henry Ward Beecher stated, “the mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.”
• Perhaps more appropriate for us today as we consider Samson are the words of Mark Twain, who remarked “My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.”
• Some of the best words I have read concerning mothers are those of a 19th century Presbyterian pastor who wrote a book called Homemaking. The book, written by J.R. Miller in 1882 attempts to describe the unique qualities of a Christian home. Listen to it…
  • “O mothers of young children, I bow before you in reverence. Your work is most holy. You are fashioning the destinies of immortal souls. The powers folded up in the little ones that you hushed to sleep in your bosoms last night are powers that shall exist for ever.       You are preparing them for their immortal destiny and influence. Be faithful. Take up your sacred burden reverently. Be sure that your heart is pure and that your life is sweet and clean. The Persian apologue says that the lump of clay was fragrant because it had lain on a rose. Let your life be as the rose, and then your child as it lies upon your bosom will absorb the fragrance. If there is no sweetness in the rose the clay will not be perfumed.” (108)
• As you have read the account of Samson, have you wondered, what must his mother have thought?
  • After all, it was to her in verse 13:5 that the Angel of the Lord appeared and promised that Samson would lead Israel’s deliverance from the Philistines.
  • As we look at the disappointing events of chapter fourteen and at the beginning of this chapter, I am sure that his mother’s heart must have ached.
  • In my sanctified imagination, she must have prayed and prayed that somehow, God would keep his promise to her, and transform her son.
  • I wonder how many of the mothers and fathers in this room have repeated prayers like that of Samson. “God, change my child’s stubborn heart. Bring my child back to you. Open my child’s blind eyes. Let my child see all the good you want to accomplish through them. Help my child surrender to your will and way.”

Hook:

• Friends, for most of us, we would say that surrender is not an option.
• As Americans this sentiment is engrained in our thinking, so much so, that John Boulton, former Ambassador to the UN wrote a memoir with that as its title. Americans do not back down, and we certainly do not surrender to someone else’s rule.
• But today, I want us to consider if that is the right posture when it comes to the Lord.
• While not all of us had a believing mother, consider with me today your mother calling upon you to stop fighting for yourself and your way. Consider your mother calling you to believe that surrender is an option, because she knows that there is a better way.
• Today, my prayer is that I can encourage you in the three points from this passage that surrender to the Lord is the preferred option for a believer.

Message Points:

• Now, as we look at Samson, we can certainly say that surrender was likely the furthest thing from his mind.
  • Samson was a man like most of us, who wanted to do things his way, and in order to ensure that he decided to go off by himself and camp in the wilderness.
  • Verse eight tells us that he went off to a cave in the rock of Etam. This locates Samson very near to Bethlehem on the Dead Sea side of the Judean hill country.
  • As I shared with you a while back, Zorah, Samson’s hometown is a border town between two tribes, Dan and Judah in Israel. The Bible tells us that Samson’s father was from the tribe of Dan. The Rabbis surmised that Samson’s mother was from the tribe of Judah.
  • The wadi – that ditch that was a river when it rained, but a highway when it was dry – upon which Zorah sat extended all the way to the hill country near to Etam and Bethlehem.
  • So Samson, having done everything he could to do things his way, chose to travel that wadi further into his mother’s territory, closer to her people, the Judahites.
  • While you may not like camping, I am sure that most of you can identify with Samson. Maybe your alone time is hunting in the woods, or out fishing – in silence – on a lake. Perhaps you have a shop where you go to piddle around on things or a garden or yard you like to tend. Maybe you choose to go off shopping or to the spa.
  • Moms, when you have faced a long day at work and come home to whiny difficult children take those minutes to get off by yourself. The point is, we like Samson, should go off by ourselves when circumstances challenge us.
    • In those moments, we can collect our thoughts and begin to understand how foolish our actions have been.
    • The solitude helps us to remember the loving words of parents and friends who only want the best for us.
    • Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
    • Our time alone may not clear our lives of all our weaknesses or failures, but it can certainly remind us of God’s presence and power.
    • It is for this reason that if you are a believer, it is important that you regularly spend time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.
    • This devotion or quiet time allows you the time to reflect and allow God to remind you of options you had forgotten.
• The Philistines, knowing that Samson had refused their attempts at justice and reconciliation, in verse nine form a posse to try to capture the rogue Samson.
  • We know this was an official contingent of the Philisitine militia by the the text “camped in Judah, spreading out near Lehi”. These words are utilized primarily for military maneuvers in the Old Testament.
  • Lehi was the closest town in Judah to Etam. It was on the other side of the hill country.
  • The Judahites, alarmed at this Philistine army put together their own troops and go out to negotiate with the enemy.
  • In verse 10 they discover the only reason the Philistines have come is to “do to [Samson] as he did to us”.
    • Now remember Samson had burned their grain and grapes, but the Philistines had seen that as a just escalation of Samson’s conflict with his would-be father-in law.
    • But Samson had also killed many of them who had executed Philistine justice upon his would-be in-laws. It was this that led the Philistines to muster, track, and now demand his life.
  • The three thousand man Judahite army agreed to help the Philistines capture Samson in verse 11.
    • They find him at Etam and remind him that the Philistines were rulers over them.
      • Do not miss this. Judah, like all of the other tribes of Israel were commanded to drive out the idol-worshipping nations of the land according to Deuteronomy 7:22-26.
      • Instead they chose to help the Philistines trading their foreign rule to being ruled by Almighty God.
      • The Judahites under-reacted to the incursion of the Philistines.
    • And Samson in words that mimics the Philistines shows that he still has trouble distinguishing the Philistine way from God’s way.
      • Yes God says in Exodus 21:24 “eye for eye; tooth for tooth” but that command was meant to restrict Israel from the type of escalating justice of the nations around them.
      • God also says “Vengeance is mine” in Deuteronomy 32:35 which was intended to remind Israel, that He was to be the focus and the recipient
      • Samson over-reacted to the rule of the Philistines, trying to give them the kind of escalating justice they had shown to him.
    • As a church as we face current circumstances and realities we can under or over react like Samson and the Judahites.
      • Consider for a moment the increased attention given to an issue like church shootings.
      • Some church’s answer is to have everyone packing while other churches act as if there is no problem.
      • It is easy for us when faced with such a current event to forget the truth that God can use the evil intentions of people to do something good for us (Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28). God tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry about our life but to seek first his Kingdom and righteousness. That said, verse 34 reminds us that our anxiety should only be over what we can do today, not for what we should do tomorrow.
      • It is also easy for us to trade away Christ’s command to love God; love our neighbors and make them into disciples (Matt. 22:37-40; Matt. 28:18-20) in order to have a more secure building.
      • Pray friends for our Safety Planning Committee that is meeting right now.
        • Pray that they will remember God’s ability to bring good from evil. Ask that God will help them to make reasonable plans that prepare us to face the needs of any day.
        • Pray that they will remember Christ’s commands to show love to neighbors and guests in order to make them into disciples.
        • Pray that God would give them the wisdom to make plans that keep us safe, but also that help us accomplish our mission from Christ.
        • Pray that they would surrender their own desires to those of Christ.
• That leads us to our first point this morning. When surrender is and option, God has a chance to display his strength. (15:9-13)
  • Something has changed in Samson. While he still insists he was justified, he does not just destroy his mother’s people.
    • He chooses instead to talk, another change.
    • Most surprising he strikes a deal with them to surrender. He does not offer a riddle, or a quip about justice, or even a covert plan.
    • All he asks for is promise that the Judahites will not kill him. And then he even submits to being bound.
    • In spite of all his flaws, this choice of Samson’s finally brings his mother’s hopes to fruition. Finally Samson surrenders to the Lord’s will. He puts himself in the Lord’s hands. If God does not intervene, no man, even the strongest on earth could break those “new” ropes that bound Samson.
  • Friends what circumstances seem to bind us right now? What I mean by circumstances that bind you are those situations that you can do nothing about. Situations that only God could change.
    • Right now one of the families in our church discovered that the father will have to have bypass surgery.
      • They have in the span of a few days been faced with the need to surrender to the doctor’s wisdom and skill and are trusting that God will make the treatment effective.
      • That is a circumstance that binds us.
    • I am sure in a congregation this size that some of us are dealing with debt.
      • The minimum payments take up a large portion of our income and at times feel like they are strangling us. Bankruptcy might seem like an option, but something does not feel right about it.
      • But God said to us in Romans 13:7-8 “Pay to all what is owed to them” and then “Owe no one anything but love”.
      • We surrender to the payments each month trusting that God will help us pay everthing off in time and then with his help to owe only love to others.
      • That is a circumstance that binds us.
    • Circumstances that bind us remind us that we have little power to do anything to change them, and we must trust that God can change them.
      • The greatest of all these circumstances is that of our own sin debt.
      • Our choices to sin have a payment that is due for them. We must pay for our sins with our life.
      • We can try to fight that circumstance.
        • We can ignore it, but ignoring a trial does not mean that we will not face its consequences.
        • We can try to do as much good as we can, but the consequence for a crime is not removed by good deeds.
      • Jesus died, giving his own life on our behalf. He is willing to offer this payment for sin to us if we would just surrender and trust his payment.
      • Surrendering to Christ is confessing that we owe the debt for our sin, and that Jesus can pay that debt.
      • Only God can change our situation, both in Samson’s day, and in our own day.
• This leads us to consider the next few verses quickly.
  • Verse fourteen tells us that when the Philisitines saw Samson they rushed upon him with a battle cry. At that moment God showed up as the Spirit of the Lord overcame Samson. The ropes that bound him fell away.
  • Verse fifteen tells us he finds a donkey’s jawbone and begins his attack with it, slaying 1000 men.
  • Then in verse sixteen we again see Samson’s quick witt using the hebrew word for donkey and the Hebrew word for heap to create a rhyme.
    • One commentator, Moffatt, translated the verse this way, “with the jawbone of a ‘King James donkey’, I piled them into a mass. With the jawbone of a ‘King James donkey’, I have assailed the assailants.”
    • The NIV has nicely smoothed over the crassness of Samson with its rendering “with a donkey’s jawbone, I have made donkeys of them, with a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men”.
  • Verse seventeen then tells us that the place was called Ramath Lehi. Lehi was at the base of the hill country so it seems that Samson’s name “Jawbone Hill” refers to the heap of Philistine enemies he destroyed.
• So our second point is that “God’s strength working in us both demolishes barrier and brings deliverance”
  • First notice that our narrator wants us to recognize that Samson’s victory was really God’s victory.
    • Had God not demolished the barriers upon Samsons wrists and arms, He would have fought no one.
    • Further, had God not allowed the jawbone of the donkey to be an effective weapon in his hands, Samson would have surely succumbed.
    • God worked in Samson to accomplish the victory.
  • Then notice with me who gets the credit in the text for the victory. Is it God? What does this teach us.
    • The real barrier that must be demolished is our pride. In just a few verses we will see God bring humility to Samson again. But that is the barrier that must be overcome for most of us to truly surrender to the Lord.
    • Similarly, the real deliverance that we need is not from outside oppression, but from what most naturally comes out of us.
    • Listen again to a quote from J.R. Miller’s Homemaking
      • What we want to do with our children is not merely to control them and keep them in order, but to implant true principles deep in their hearts which shall rule their whole lives; to shape their character from within into Christlike beauty, and to make of them noble men and women, strong for battle and for duty.         They are to be trained rather than governed. Growth of character, not merely good behavior, is the object of all home governing and teaching. Therefore the home influence is far more important than the home laws, and the parents’ lives are of more moment than their teachings. (107)
      • Samson’s mother though not mentioned in this text finally saw her son trust the Lord and begin the deliverance from the Philistines. Again, I believe she was praying for something more. I believe she was praying for his deliverance from his own passions and weaknesses. She wanted him to surrender to the Lord’s will in the same way that she had years before.
• That leads us to consider this final few verses.
  • In verse 18 Samson gets very thirsty, and to whom does he turn? He turns to the Lord.
    • He acknowledges the victory is from the Lord, I confesses his need for God’s help if he is to survive. He even refers to himself as God’s servant, he acknowledges his surrender to the Lord.
    • God opened up the rock and brought forth water as he had with Moses. It is then that we read in verse twenty that he judged Israel for twenty years, during their long difficult struggle with the Philistines.
    • Samson was not a perfect man. He was not a perfect judge of Israel, but he was a man who finally began to understand God’s strength and surrendered to him.
• That is our third point. Once we begin to see God’s strength, we will prefer to surrender to him.
  • Friends think again of mothers. Mothers are an example of godly surrender. By giving their very lives to their children, mothers trust that God will show himself strong to them.
    • Mothers surrender their bodies for their children.
    • Mothers surrender their time, effort, and treasures to nurture those children.
    • Most important mothers surrender their hopes and dreams for their children to the Lord, offering prayers that he will turn their hearts towards Him.
  • Mothers do not have a guarantee that their children will turn out as they hope, but they do have a guarantee that God who is far stronger than them will pursue their child to transform them even when they are not able.

Conclusion:

• When a mother sees God’s strength and relentless pursuit to save souls, what better can they do than surrender their children into his care.
• But similarly, when you see God’s power and his work to redeem and transform sinners, what better can you do than surrender yourself into his care.
• Surrender your life to Christ today.