Judges is one of the Bible's more difficult books to fully understand! It tells the story of God's people in an era when "everyone did what was right in his own eyes." The lack of strong leadership - political and spiritual - leads to some terrible sins and atrocities which are explained with this line - "In those days, Israel had no king." The implication is that there was no one to guide the people, no to challenge them, no one to restrain evil with law. One of the people introduced to us in that book is the man Samson. As I read his story, I see so many parallels to the way many people live in our time! He was a man controlled by his appetites, a man who lacked the ability to say, "No," to his darker desires. He wanted a woman, he took her! He was hungry, he ate whatever was available, whether ritually acceptable or not. He grew angry and killed people who stood in his way. He desired exotic entertainment, he went and found it. Samson had no restraint! Yet, we learn that he was a man born by the promise of God and a man who, from time to time, experienced the Presence of the Spirit of God in powerful ways, literally. What this man could have done if he had disciplined himself would have been amazing. What he actually did is too often stupid and tragic. His is a legacy of missed opportunities and self-destruction.
For many reasons too numerous to explore this morning, America is becoming a nation of 'Samson's.' We are unbelievably blessed with strength, resources, and opportunities but we seem to be increasingly in the grip of our emotions and impulses. We want what we want and we demand it now! We seem to think that our desires, whatever they may be, must be satisfied. We are gripped by a mindset that insists that delayed gratification is bad, that saying "no," to something today, so we can obtain a greater goal tomorrow, is a terrible sacrifice too great to bear. Evidence of our lack of restraint is everywhere.
-More than half of us are so fat we are damaging our health! And why? Because we don't know when to push away the plate and we like the foods that are loaded with fat and sugar. We know we should eat less and that we ought to eat better quality foods, but we don't!
- Many of our children are being born to unmarried mothers, which undeniably complicates things and, in many cases, leads to social problems for those children down the road. The facts are clear on this, but our culture has thrown away sexual restraint anyway.
-We won't allow our kids to be challenged by tough assignments, preferring to let them watch endless TV and play computer games. Then, we blame the educational system for failing them.
-Divorce, in most cases, is a terribly destructive thing. Life long marriage is proven to be beneficial in every way, and yet nearly one half of marriages will end in divorce because a couple is unwilling to press through the difficult moments and learn to love deeply and self-sacrificially.
Even our national policies show evidence of our demand for immediate gratification. We are consuming energy at prodigious rates, polluting the globe and producing climate change. Could we change that? Sure, if we wanted to, but we don't care! Imagine the outcry if our national leaders implemented policies to cause us to drive cars that were smaller and more fuel efficient! Everyone in America knows that our health care system is broken by sky-rocketing costs and demand for doctors to heal problems brought on, in too many cases, by our own poor choices, but we won't begin to diet and exercise. It's easier, so we think, to demand a pill for the problem. No one is leading us to envision a new way of providing care to the poorest in our rich nation. The Social Security system is headed for a crisis, but our leaders won't solve the problem because the solution would cost them votes from people like me who would have to bear a greater tax burden.
Ah, friend we need to read the story of Samson all the way to the end! He enjoyed his strength for a while. He slept with prostitutes, went on rampages, and toyed with Delilah - apparently without consequence for a time but then - one day he went too far. The Bible says, "... he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him." (Judges 16:20, KJV) What a declaration! God said, "enough!" and then He removed His blessings and Presence from Samson's life. The man ended up a slave to those he had tormented and exploited. The end of his ungoverned life was tragic.
Believer, you and I can change because we have Someone who lives in us that gives us wisdom, insight, and discipline. If we are alive in Christ, if we respond to His call to let Him lead, here's the result.
"With the Lord’s authority let me say this: Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness; they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong, and they have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed.
But that isn’t what you were taught when you learned about Christ. Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus, throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy, and true." (Ephesians 4:17-24, NLT)
Amen
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