The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of Defeat

Samson: Part 1

6-14-09 

● This story was a “childhood favorite” of mine. As an adult, I must confess, it saddens me.

The history of God’s interaction with individuals and those he chose to enlist as partners in his purposes of restoring the world is not really as “romantic” as I had remembered from Sunday-School. 

● I am convinced that Samson is likely one of the characters offered to us in the unfolding drama of God who has benefited most from the “Children’s Pictorial Bible”. The stories I remember being told about Samson were apparently the “edited” versions, so as to not make our S.S. teachers have to explain some really ugly realities about life to some naïve and unsuspecting adolescents [“Kids, can you say, ‘Samson defiled himself with a prostitute?’”] 

● Of all the judges that fit the “super-hero” status or image, Samson is the most famous, the most notorious.

I’m also certain that the very mention of Samson conjures up some distinct mental images: impressive stature, his “Fabian-like” flowing mane and chiseled abs [was the guy at the family get-togethers who was always being asked to crush a walnut in his abs or bench-press uncle Ahab]. 

● I’m not sure how true these mental impressions are because we are reminded often in the narrative that the Philistines were always attempting to determine the secret of his strength. Nowhere in the story are we told how big he was or what he could “bench”. I’d like to think that he looked a lot like me, except with longer hair!

            The Philistines were convinced that his peculiarity or uniqueness lie in something other than his physicality or giftedness.  

● Historians tell us that Judges covers about one-fourth of the history offered to us in the OT (some 300 years) and that history seemed to involve some identifiable patterns which characterized humanity’s relationship with God.

The cycle of dysfunction looks like this:

            ~ We find ourselves in crisis (usually, oblivious to how we got there?!), which is typically the result of disobedience (either a willful rejection or seemingly innocent deviation). So, he allows us to experience the consequences of our choices in hopes that it will evoke repentance.

~ The crisis finally awakens us to our need of help and we “cry out”. Sometimes they cried out “to” God and sometimes they cried out “against” God. Be reminded that brokenness does not guarantee humility, it simply creates the atmosphere for it.

            ~ Grace-happens! God intervenes because what’s at risk is all that he has created and loved. He sends them a representative, a human who’s clueless and has their own issues, but with divine-authority, in response to the disorder.

            ~ A season of functionality and prosperity which often breeds complacency. It’s not even that things were ‘good’, just ‘good enough’.

            ~ Déjà vu. Not in the “eerie” and unexplainable sort of way, but in the frustrating and the predictable way.

Spiritually, morally and ethically, Israel has now “bottomed-out”.  

● As you scan through the book of Judges, you will notice that these cycles were not as linear as they were 3-dimensional.

You’ll notice in Judges there was an increasing level of depravity associated with each cycle. The people become less and less able to break free of the seductive influences of the society and became less and less effective in their God-designed mission. 

There is a phenomenon that occurs within people groups and communities which recognizes a trend toward decline.

►The first generation, if you will, is marked by dynamic activity. There’s typically some significant event which a people have experienced together which is characterized by growth and solidifies their involvement and sense of identity.

►Time passes and the next generation has not experienced dynamic activities of the previous generation. Faith becomes “nostalgic”. They’ve heard the stories and are somewhat sentimental at times, but they are most often content to ‘inherit’ what the previous generation struggled to realize. They seem content to “preserve” the current success, so there’s very little motivation to grow and build upon a previous generation’s experience.

►Even more time lapses and the stories of what God did become more and more distant and relegated to a fanciful past. They “didn’t know God or what he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). It doesn’t mean that they’ve never heard of God, just that he is irrelevant; they were not characterized as much by “disobedience” as they are “indifference”.

            They are a generation which begins to question their identity and their continued connection to the community because, apparently, they have little in common. They are characterized by “apathy” (loss of heart) and apathy is the death of any relationship. 

[i.e. Moses/Joshua entering and conquering, next generation content with what land they had and were content to share with the Canaanites, next generation couldn’t even recognize oppression because it was just the way things were]. 

(2) observations:

            1. Almost no reference to a return to God’s word (revealed desires and purposes) as a means of shaping and guiding the community.

            2. What is tolerated in one generation will become acceptable practice in succeeding generations. We lose the ability to discern. I’m not talking about “harsh judgmentalism”, but simply the ability to distinguish and be distinguishable. 

● What seems to resonate and prove frustrating is that God appears  ‘limited’ in his capacity to restore us as we continue to make room in our lives for that which proves to be ‘self-destructive’. 

It’s easy not to notice that we are in a battle; that we face constant opposition.

Even for me, it’s hard to talk about “spiritual warfare” in a way that I feel I will be taken seriously. We always seem to vacillate between “obsession” and “ignorance” (not stupidity, but choosing to disregard it).

Without spending a great deal of time attempting to define hierarchies of demonic spirits, we should understand these texts to be describing for us a massive and complex structure of evil currently at work in the world.

            We must admit that a biblical worldview not only allows for, but warns us about the presence of evil as personal, influential and often unseen.  

● The N.T. repeatedly places us in the context of conflict; a clash of “kingdoms”; competing ideals and values and systems with the focus clearly on humanity as God’s image-bearing creation.

We are not even (13) verses into the account of Mark than we are introduced to a confrontation between the Satan (progenitor) and the world of evil-supernaturalism and Jesus.  

● I was reminded that Jesus believed in the Devil. Sometimes the conflict appears more direct, but most often we find ourselves faced with the subtle suggestions from the un-transformed places in our heart and by the underlying motivation behind systems and structures developed by sinful people in opposition to God. John reminds us that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).  

● Did you realize that the most frequent “miracle” Jesus performed was ridding people of demonic spirits (supernatural personalities) who were exercising some level of influence over their lives? Interesting, in the texts regarding the presence of evil spirits, no one questioned their reality. 

I need to learn how to fight.

            Not in some weird and disconnected manner, but in a way that makes me even more aware of what’s going on; more relevant; more connected.  

● When I thought about it this week I realized that when I came into the Kingdom, I had little experience in opposing anything. My life was defined by this boundless pursuit of gratification; a world where resistance is both futile and unnecessary.

I didn’t need to battle impulses to lie--- if it suited me, I lied. I didn’t need to resist temptation, if it pleased me, I indulged myself.

Judges 3:2,4--- sometimes we need to discover what we’re up against and learn how to resist it; learn how to fight. The way I respond makes me most aware of what’s going on in my heart. 

Ephesians 3:14-21

We have been given a new heart, with new impulses, designed to respond to God in obedience, that obedience creates an experience of God, which translates into a deepening love for God, and that love for God translates into a deeper desire for him and that desire into a fidelity and devotedness toward him which will consider no other options. 

● But, Judges is not just about the cycle of sin and compromise, but about the relentless love of God which pursues humanity in order to break the cycle. 

What might “repentance” look like for us? How do we break the cycle?

            ~With a gratitude for the relative peace and prosperity we currently experience combined with a dissatisfaction for the status-quo.

            ~A return to the story of God which not only provides us with warm feelings of nostalgia for the past, but actually “forms” and “informs” our present.

            ~A dynamic (active; influential; potent) experience of  and with God which establishes a sense of identity in God and with his people.

            ~Be amazed again by grace; be inspired by love. Return from all that’s jaded your faith and made you cynical to the place where God first captured your heart.