Judges 13-16; Judges 13:1-7

“Again, the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years. ² Now there was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren and had no children. ³ And the Angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Indeed now, you are barren and have borne no children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. ⁴ Now therefore, please be careful not to drink wine or similar drink, and not to eat anything unclean. ⁵ For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.’

⁶ So the woman came and told her husband, saying, ‘A Man of God came to me, and His countenance was like the countenance of the Angel of God, very awesome; but I did not ask Him where He was from, and He did not tell me His name. ⁷ And He said to me, ‘Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. Now drink no wine or similar drink, nor eat anything unclean, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'”

Over the past few weeks, we have looked at the way that God brings us victory in the midst of the trials of this life. We began by exploring 2 Corinthians 2:12-17 wherein verse 14 Paul tells us this,

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Paul tells us that God “always leads us in triumph.” This is the promise we have from the Lord. If He is leading and we follow, we will always be led into Triumph. The Triumph was a procession that was held for returning Generals that had conquered the enemies of Rome. They would be paraded down the center of the city on the way to the capital, where they would be celebrated. The people would be shouting as the General is brought in along with his soldiers and also the spoils of war. It was a spectacle that may only happen once in the life of a General. But Paul tells us that God always leads us in Triumph in Jesus. For us, this could happen over and over again as we follow and obey the Lord.

We looked at several scenarios over the past few weeks, like what if your family is your greatest enemy? We looked at the life of Joseph in Genesis 37-50, and we saw the hatred and jealousy that his brothers had for him; they plotted his murder and eventually sold him into slavery. Over the next 13 years, God brought about a great Triumph in Jesus. Joseph ended up being accused of attempted rape, ended up in prison, and from there went on to be, for all intents and purposes, the Pharaoh of Egypt. He saved his brothers, the very men who wanted him dead, and he provided for them and their children. He came to the conclusion in Genesis 50:20 that they meant what they did for evil, but God meant it for good. Joseph left a legacy for God that lasted 400 years until Exodus 1.

Last week we looked at Job; we explored how God can bring you into Triumph even when Satan is deliberately attacking you. Job, a godly man, one who loved God and shunned evil, was put in Satan’s hands by God to be tested. Satan took his wealth, killed his kids, and then took his health. Later, some friends came by to torture Job with their observations that ‘bad things only happen to bad people.’ They spent a long time beating Job up; they called him a sinner, a liar, full of pride, that his words were just ‘hot air,’ and on we can go. But in chapter 42, God provided an ‘after this’ (Job 42:16). God restored Job’s wealth and health, gave him back 10 kids, and stood up for him to his friends. God gave Job a great Triumph.

Today, we will look at Samson and explore how God brings great Triumph even when we are our own worst enemy; and Samson is a good example of that.

• Samson, a chosen child, Judges 13:1-7

Samson was a chosen child. We find often in the scriptures that a child was or is born with a specific purpose. Here in verse 5, we are told that Samson would begin to deliver the nation of Israel from the Philistines. In Jeremiah 1, we find that this prophet was called from the womb. In the New Testament, we see John the Baptist sent to introduce Jesus to the world, and then Jesus, who was born to take away our sins.

Before we go further, let us clear up an issue that is very prevalent here in Southern Ontario in many Baptist churches; that is the issue of predestination or Calvinism. These are heresies. One of the most important parts of being created in the image of God is that of ‘free will.’ God knew what Samson would do, but He did not make Samson do it. God knew that Jeremiah would be a great prophet, but He did not make Jeremiah do it. Even in Jesus’ case, He chose the cross for us of His own free will.

In John 10:18, Jesus says, “No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”

Again, in Hebrews 12:2, we read this: “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus joyfully bore the cross for you and me. He did it because He wanted to, not because He had to. God does not owe us anything. God does not create some to go to Hell and others for Heaven. The Bible tells us that God is not willing that ‘any should perish.’ If He made some for Hell, then He is willing that many should perish. That is a lie. God knew what Samson would do, so He called him. He knew how Samson would fail, and He still made sure it got into the Cannon of Scriptures so we could learn and grow and trust Him even when we fail. It is always God who brings the Triumph.

• Samson has a problem with women, Judges 14:1-5, 16:1, 4

Samson had an issue with women; he liked a lot of them. More often than not, he liked the wrong kind of women; unsaved Gentile women. There are plenty of saved Gentile women in the Bible, Rahab and Ruth the most famous of them. But Samson had a weakness for women, and one of them, Delilah, was the source of his downfall.

Samson was not the only man of God with women problems. David had 7 or 8 wives, and we are all familiar with the story of Bathsheba. Solomon had 700 wives and many mistresses, and these wives turn him against God in his old age (1 Kings 11:4). Many of us cannot understand how God can call David a ‘man after his own heart.’ If David showed up to most of our churches with his 7 wives, we would not draw the conclusion that he loved God and was a faithful man, used to write a large part of the Psalms. We could not fathom that a man with 700 wives could be used by God to teach on wisdom and even about marriage and intimacy, like in The Song of Solomon.

Yet, God used these men, and their legacy is with us until this day; and the record of what God can do with fallen, broken, and sinful men is eternally written in the Holy Scriptures. It is God who gives the Triumph in all things. Now, I am not advocating that we start marrying multiple wives; what I am saying is that God is greater than our sinful weaknesses.

• Samson liked to live dangerously, Judges 14:4-6, 12-20

Samson liked to pose riddles to the men around him and see if they could figure it out, and this usually ended up in battles where a lot of Philistines died. But it was sport to him. He took that a bit too far with Delilah. He gave her riddle after riddle and eventually the truth. He took it too far and ended up losing big time. Samson forgot that it was the Lord who gave him the strength and not himself.

Sometimes, God allows you to fail to get you back into your right mind. He did not abandon you; He just let you hit the ground. He is there for you and helps you back up, but falling is not failure. Samson failed and paid a serious price for his failure; he was captured, was blinded, and then used as an animal to grind corn or wheat. Oh, how the mighty had fallen, from deliverer to blinded and made fun of.

• Samson’s God still loved him, Judges 16:22, 26-31

Samson was called by the people so they could celebrate the win by their god, Dagon. Little did they know that the true and living God was about to show up. Samson petitioned God one last time for strength. God allowed his hair to grow back, and the Philistines forgot to cut it.

We all know the story; Samson asked a young man to put his hands on the main pillars of the temple of Dagon, and in one last act, Samson killed 3,000 people of the leadership of the Philistines and died in the endeavor. His body was recovered and buried by the Jews, and he was remembered as a great Judge of Israel. But there is more. How did God see him? We are given a view of that in Hebrews 11:32.

“And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets.”

God listed Samson among the Hall of Faith and listed him in the same verse as great men like Samuel. Samson was God’s faithful servant; this is the highest title we can receive in the kingdom. God did it; God took a sinful man and made him into a great servant. God did it. God is the one who gives us the Triumph in all things.

Maybe, just like Samson, you and I struggle with fleshly failures and sinfulness, and at times there is a great price to pay for our sinfulness. But God has not abandoned us, and in Him, we can have great victory. We are still talking about Samson thousands of years later, and there is an eternal record of what God did.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

Job 1-2, 42; Job 1: 13-22

“Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; ¹⁴ and a messenger came to Job and said, ‘The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, ¹⁵ when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!’

¹⁶ While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!’

¹⁷ While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!’

¹⁸ While he was still speaking, another also came and said, ‘Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁹ and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!’

²⁰ Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. ²¹ And he said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ ²² In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”

Last week, we looked at the life of Joseph as we explore the life of victory that we are promised in Jesus. When we began 2 weeks ago, we looked at 2 Corinthians 2:12-17. In verse 14 of that text, the apostle writes that God ALWAYS gives us the Triumph in Jesus. The Triumph he was referring to, according to many scholars, was the processional that a conquering General would have received as he came back from some decisive victory on behalf of the kingdom of Rome. This processional would include the whole city, Senators and political leaders leading the way, loud and boisterous shouts along the way, and eventually, the General hoisted up was brought in and celebrated.

Maybe you can recall the scene in the movie Gladiator where the crowd is chanting, ‘Maximus! Maximus!’ as Russel Crowe’s character becomes more and more popular. Imagine that being the whole city, not just a coliseum.

Paul is telling us that, in Jesus, God will give us the Triumph. Jesus is the victor, but we are a part of the processional; we are there walking behind the victor, enjoying the great victory that was had.

In the last lesson, we looked at victory even when your family is your greatest enemy and how Joseph’s own brothers plotted to kill him. Yet God protected him, walked with him, and eventually promoted him so he, Joseph, could rescue the very brothers that tried to kill him. He described his life in Genesis 50:20, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” Today, we are going to look at Job and what happens when you are deliberately attacked by Satan himself. Can God still bring the Triumph from that?

• Satan Attacks Your Family and Money, Job 1:13-22

Satan, a son of God, simply meaning an angel, a created being that was among the angels who came to report to God. God called him out and asked if he knew Job? Of course, he did. Job was wealthy, he had 10 children, and he was secure. Most importantly, Job served God faithfully and loved the Lord. God makes this assessment of Job in verse 1,

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.”

God makes this same assessment another time in chapter 2. There is no doubt about Job and the kind of godly man he was. Yet, God allowed Satan to attack him. This time around, Satan was allowed to kill his kids and take his wealth. Satan wasted no time attacking Job. He did it all in one day; Job lost all his kids and the vast majority of his wealth in one day. In the last few verses of chapter 1, we see Job’s reaction; he understood that God did not owe him anything. God was not under any obligation to make him wealthy nor to keep his kids from harm.

All too often today, there is a sense of entitlement in the Lord’s churches. There is this idea that the Lord owes me. How far from the truth that is? We deserve death (Romans 6:23), BUT the gift of God is eternal life. Even salvation is more than we deserve. We have it because God is good, not us. Job understood that God had the right to give and take away. And, we are told that Job did not sin in all this as far as charging God with wrong. Job knew he was a sinner, but in that case and in this circumstance, he did not sin.

• Satan attacks your health, Job 2:1-10

We do not know how long the break was between chapters 1 and 2, but Satan is back again reporting to God, and God asks about Job. Satan is bewildered that Job has stood steadfast, and he asks for a bit more leeway to attack Job. God grants it. This is a very important lesson to learn; nothing can happen to a saved person that God has not permitted. That includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. We are God’s children (1 John 3:1), and He oversees all that comes our way.

Another important lesson to learn is that Satan cannot see the future. He was astonished at Job’s reaction, and if he had known the inspiration that Job would become to the world for the past 4,000 years, Satan would probably have left him alone, and no one would know who Job was. Nonetheless, Satan is given permission to attack Job’s health, and he wastes no time. Immediately, Job is struck with boils from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, and he is in agony. He uses a broken piece of pottery to scrape his body, then he covers himself in ashes, both as a sign of mourning and also as a salve for the itch on his body.

Job’s wife gives up. She did not say anything when the kids died and the money was gone. But seeing her husband in agony was too much, and she lashed out, ‘just curse God and die.’ Accept the fact that God has turned on you, Job. He is not on your side any longer. But Job maintains his integrity and does not curse God. He tells his wife to stop behaving like a ‘foolish woman.’ She knew better, but the sorrow and the grief got the better of her.

We can all get there, and eventually, Job would get there as well. He did break and began to question God, and in chapters 38-41, God begins to ask Job some rhetorical questions to simply confirm the fact of who is God and who is not. But in all of this up to the end of chapter 2, Job did not sin. He kept the faith and did not speak rashly about God or call into question God’s character.

• Satan attacks your character, Job chapters 3-37

If Satan did not send these friends, he probably wished he did. These men, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, came to comfort Job, or so we thought. We do not truly understand the kind of destruction that was done to Job by Satan until they arrive, and they are so astonished that they could not speak for 7 days. They simply sat in silence.

I am a preacher and a talker; I have never been silent for 7 straight days. What kind of damage was done to Job that none could even speak for a week? Most of us have never been through this kind of suffering.

But they did begin to speak. In the case of Job’s wife, she gave up on God, saying, “Curse God and die.” She knew her husband and his character, but it was God who had abandoned Job. These three men who came to Job attacked his character (for the next 43 chapters). The basic premise is this: ‘bad things only happen to bad people.’ You are bad, Job, because bad things are happening to you no matter what you say. They accuse him of pride, of speaking hot air, of perverting justice, and on and on. Job, you are a bad, bad man. But God said this of him repeatedly,

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.”

This was not Job’s assessment of himself; this was God’s assessment of Job. These friends were relentless; they attacked and attacked and hit Job below the belt often. Let us not fool ourselves; this same mentality happens and is prevalent among the Lord’s people even today – ‘bad things only happen to bad people,’ thus you are bad if bad things happen.

In Psalm 73, we find Asaph, David’s chief musician, asking why good things happened to bad people. God, he pleaded, they have money, their kids are well, they live to ripe old ages and never have any cares. It was not until he went to the house of God that he understood their end; their wealth was useless in the next life.

I have known and know of many of the Lord’s people who are very ill. I have a dear brother who is suffering from old age, needs dialysis 3-4 times a week to live, is often tired, and it seems that every mission field he and his family have been on has been fraught with lies, betrayals, and the like. Yet, he is faithful and the first one to shout out God’s praises. I have another dear brother who is suffering from cancer yet finds the time and energy to be out in front of abortion clinics offering alternative solutions to murder, even leading some of these young ladies to Jesus. Some days after chemo, he is tired and hurting, but he is out there, and he praises God for the opportunities. I can go on and on, but Job has been an inspiration to millions of broken souls throughout the years.

• God provides the ‘after,’ Job 42

No matter how long Satan attacks you, there will always be an ‘after.’ Whether we die and go to heaven where there is no pain, no suffering, no loss, and no Satan – or if by God’s grace, the pain is stopped on this side and we get to live a better life until we see Jesus – there is ALWAYS an ‘after.’ Satan is temporary, and God is eternal. Satan is limited and God unlimited.

One of the hardest things to learn and accept as a child of God is that we are bought with a price, and we are not our own. God has the right to allow both good and bad in our lives, and we need to accept that. But what He does also guarantee is that there will always be the ‘after.’ God gave back to Job 10 kids, and it is stated that his daughters were the most beautiful women in the area. He doubled his wealth, and more importantly, God stood up for Job to his friends.

No matter what you are going through, God knows you, and He will bring you through. Can you imagine the millions of people who have met Job in heaven, knew his life and testimony, and gave God the glory because of it? What about you and me? Last week we talked about how Joseph’s legacy lasted for 400+ years, but Job’s has been more than that. What legacy to Jesus are you and I leaving? Is it a life of Triumph in Jesus or a life of quitting on God? The choice is ours to make.

Remember, Job did not go through these things because he was bad, BUT because God trusted him with hard times. God trusted his testimony and boasted about him. Can God trust us with hard times and suffering? Will we live as victims or victors in Jesus?

“And he said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/ (under construction)

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca