Samson's Life — Charles Anderson

Samson's Life — Charles Anderson

You will perhaps have noted that the calendar says that today is the 22nd of March. It is one of the few days of the year I remember besides the day I was born, in that day. And the reason I remember that, as you've already suspected, is because when I asked my wife if she would marry me, she said, we can't do it, I don't think, until spring.

I said, fine, that'll be good for me, we'll make it spring, so spring was yesterday, did you notice it? I didn't lose any time. The 21st was spring, the 22nd we got married. I think that it's certainly fitting, I want to pay tribute to what she has meant in my life and in our family.

We owe so much to those of you who have that honored title of mothers in the raising of our children. I suppose they spend, our kids spend more time with you as a mother than they ever do with a father.

That was certainly true in my case, busy, busy about the Lord's business. They spend a great deal of time with her. God gave us four boys, and all of them are serving the Lord. The boys are very grateful tonight.

Our oldest son, after spending some 20, 25 years as a missionary in the Hispanic countries and the last dozen years or more in Spain, is now the International Director of the Pocket Testament League. Our second son, who was for some years assistant to me in my ministry in northern New Jersey, is now the pastor of the chapel on the hill in the town of Verona, New Jersey.

Our third son has felt the call of God to serve him in a fundraising business for Christian institutions. So for 20 years he has moved about the country raising money for institutions, many times bailing them right out of almost disaster, but always involved with Christian institutions.

Our fourth son is pastor of the Wooddale Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a tremendously marvelous church growing beyond belief. He now preaches to more than 25 ,000 to 100 ,000 to 3 ,000 people on Sunday mornings.

And only the other day, and I'm sure he'd be angry with me if he heard me say what I'm going to say now, but I'll risk it, he told me that he had received a telephone call asking if he would be willing to take Dr. Warren Wiersbe's place as a steady, regular Bible teacher on the backs of the Bible Hour.

Apparently Dr. Wiersbe is preparing to retire, but least feels called of God to stay as a pastor. So he's doing that, and God has enlarged his ministry. I think we're very favored people. God has been good to us.

We do not brag or boast. Sometimes we wonder, what did we do that was right? We know what we did that was wrong, but we wonder, what did we do that was right? We were talking at the table this evening.

You know, as parents, we don't get two times around. We only get one turn. And when it's over, it's over. And it's almost impossible to correct your mistake. If you look back, you say, if I had to do it again, yes, I wouldn't have done things that way.

Maybe not. But you do the best you can, and try to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And if they turn out to be His servants, or if they walk with Him, whether they're serving Him or not, they walk with Him, you are forever grateful to God for that.

If they do not, and still maybe are walking away from God, let me say to you, my friend, the final chapter is not yet written. And it is almost impossible for a boy or a girl to get away from the prayers of godly parents.

Praying for Children Who Have Wandered

And I urge you strongly. In fact, I was almost tempted tonight to shift gears in my preaching and speak to you from the word of God on a man who could not escape his father's prayers. But in looking at my records, I found I did that last year.

You might think I'd run out of my barrel. I'd run out of my steam, and I didn't have anything left. But I found it most encouraging as I moved around the country, because I think that the judgment of God upon America has not come to us by natural calamity, by plague.

No, not even by financial disaster. But somehow, I think that the hand of God has been laid upon this godless nation, blighting its youth. And that's a terrible judgment. And in the process of the disasters that have occurred to our young people, many, many, many Christian families have had heartaches and gone through the deep waters of disappointment.

You must continue to pray, because you see, I believe that God will answer the prayer of faith on behalf of our families. I think the Bible teaches household salvation, and that the plan of God is that all of our families should be in heaven.

Now, Mother, Dad, you may die and not see the answer to your prayer, but God hasn't forgotten, and he will answer. You must dare to believe that. Well, if I'm not careful, I'll be doing that anyhow. I'll be preaching anyway along that line.

Forgive me for that. We have been, in these evenings thus far, we've been looking at God's picture album, and we've selected some pictures of characters and sought for some lesson that might be gleaned from the pictures we see.

We, for instance, looked for a while at Joseph, saw his interpretation of the adversities of his life, how God meant, God had his meaning, as indeed the brethren of Joseph had their evil meanings. God had good meanings.

And then, last evening, we looked at Daniel and what Daniel's life taught us about prayer, some rather unusual aspects of prayer as reflected in Daniel. Now, tonight, I want to have you turn with me to a very pathetic character in the Scriptures.

Samson in Judges 16

He is a man who you must feel a little sorry for, even though you may feel also a bit of disgust at the way he behaves himself. And the moment, the high moment of his life, maybe the most pitiful sight of his life, is the moment that is described in the book of Judges.

And I invite you to turn to the 16th chapter of the book of Judges. You may already have suspected whose photo we're looking at this evening. It's this man's sample. One of the strange characters of the Old Testament.

And when you come to the 16th chapter and to this fateful moment in his career, he is having a dialogue with this wicked woman Delilah. And he's fooled her on several occasions up to now, and deceived her, and her patience is running out.

She finally has one feminine while left in her quiver, and she uses it most effectively against Samson. Please notice, we'll begin reading a little bit of this story at the 15th verse of Judges chapter 6d.

She said to him, How canst thou say I love thee, when thine heart is not with me? Fellers, you've felt that before, haven't you? You know, when she says, If you love me, you'd buy me that fur coat. If you really loved me now, you wouldn't do this for me.

Watch out, man, the trap is strong. And you're going to get caught. She says then, How can you say you love me when your heart is not with me? You've mocked me these three times. You haven't told me wherein thy great strength lies.

And it came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words. See, that's a feminine approach too. Nagging to death. Nagging, nagging, nagging. Until he finally said to herself, probably, Oh, shut up.

I'll have to tell her after all. And urged him so that his soul was vexed unto death. Can't you feel it? Now she worked this man over. So he told her all his heart. He said, There has not come a razor on my head.

For I've been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man. And when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up this once, for he has shoved me all his heart.

Then the lords of the Philistines came up unto her and brought money in their hand. And she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head.

And she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, The Philistines be on thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep. Ah, look at him now. What a pathetic person he is. And he said, I'll go out as at other times before and shape myself.

And he wished not that the Lord was departed from him. But the Philistines took him, and they put out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grind in the prison house, howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

Samson as an Illustration of the Church

Now Samson was God's champion for that hour. He was the man that carried the cause of Jehovah God in a day of paganism and in a day of spiritual declension, as far as the people of God was concerned. And now that champion is weakened to the point where he is, like anyone else, unable to lead God's people any further in victory.

And somehow I think Samson stands here in the Old Testament as an illustration, I won't call him a type, an illustration of God's champion in this century, in this generation, which is this church. Now the church may indeed have its faults, and it has many of them, but nevertheless the church is God's chosen and elected people whom he has selected for himself.

And through the church God speaks to the generation in which we find ourselves. But sadly, tragically, and we hinted at it this evening in the song we sang asking for a touch from God that we can call revival.

And we all desperately feel that need of some refreshing from the Lord, something that will stir up the faith of God and give us, once again, the kind of power and witness which the early church in its first century, in the first century of this era, enjoyed.

And it's right at this moment, if you'll forgive a slight detour, that people often ask me, do you believe that there will be any kind of a worldwide or even a nationwide revival before the Lord comes back again?

Now, with all my heart, I wish and would hope that that would take place, but I must be frank with you when I say I do not believe that it is in God's plan to happen, nor do I see any sign in our nation of a national revival.

For instance, whatever one may think of the evangelist Billy Graham and there are differences of opinion to be sure, but here's a man whom God obviously raised up for this generation and who has done a phenomenal job of witnessing through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's a man, if we look at him from the natural point of view, purely from the natural point of view, he's tall, he's handsome, he's attractive in personality, he is able to communicate clearly and well.

Our world admires a man like that. If he were five feet tall and weighed 467 pounds and was bald-headed, I have a feeling that the world wouldn't even go out to hear him, but he's got a natural ability.

And over these many years, his life has been exemplary. In a day when evangelists and leaders have fallen left and right, here's a man who has stood head and shoulders above them all, almost impeccably, right?

Even his critics, his sharpest critics, admit to the cleanliness of his life and the fact that he is a man who's been honest and true. I was telling some of the friends here that I heard one evening, some time ago, Mr. Johnny Carson.

I don't listen to him regularly, but I was awake and couldn't go to sleep, so I figured I'd listen to him. Maybe he'd put me to sleep. And so I listened to Johnny Carson, and he had a, as usual, one of the actors or actresses, I've forgotten which, on this evening, and he said in the course of his discussion with that character, he said, Do you know who I had on my program last evening?

No. Who did you have? Billy Graham, said Johnny Carson. And the attitude of that actor or actress, as I say, I forgot, changed. He became sort of sneering and critical. And they said, you could feel it in the voice and in what they asked.

They said, Did he ask you if you were saved? And I waited almost restlessly for Carson's response. And Johnny Carson said, after just a moment of hesitation, he said, Yes, he did. And you want to know something?

I would have been very disappointed if he hadn't. Isn't that great? There's a testimony. Oh, I say, this man has reached the hundreds of thousands. One would think, from a natural point of view, he would be the natural channel that could bring revival in our time.

But despite all of that, I do not believe that our nation is any nearer to God or to godliness than it ever was before. So, I don't quite believe that there will be a national revival. But I can expect a revival here and there, in your life and mine, among our own fellowship, or maybe in a smaller circle, but on a national level, I'm skeptical.

The Church’s Loss of Divine Power

Now, why is it that God's champion, then, seems to be so powerless? You see, the problem with Sanson was that he was unaware of the fact that the Lord had lifted his hand from him. It says distinctly, he wished not that the Lord had departed from him.

And so, the modern Sanson, God's champion today, is almost ignorant of the fact that God's hand has been lifted from us, generally. We're like the Laodicean church. We boast of our assets, and it says, and we know not the people of Laodicea knew not, exactly like Sanson, they knew not that they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind.

Now, there must be some reason why it is that we lack divine power. In our preaching, and in our ministry, we ride along the highway, and rather facetiously, Mrs. Anderson will say to me, my, look at all these people going to church.

They're not going to church, not in our country, they're going everywhere else but to the house of God. Why are we in small, pitiful little assemblies? We meet together, we pray, we enjoy the ministry of the word, but our impact upon our very own neighborhood, people living within the shadow of our chapels and our assemblies and our churches, are untouched and unaffected.

If that offends you, let it be, but it's the truth nonetheless. They're not much affected. Why is that so? May I suggest a couple of reasons tonight, which I think Sanson's life illustrates. Let me say that the first I will call the matter of loose living.

Loose Living and the Loss of Christian Witness

Now, Sanson's problem was his unholy alliances. You see, he did say to Delilah, I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. Though you may know this, let's go back and review what that means, as is spelled out in Numbers chapter 6.

What was a Nazarite? Not a Nazarene, not a person who came from Nazareth, but a person who bore the title or the label of a Nazarite. It could be from any location in Israel. What was a Nazarite? Well, Numbers 6 says, I'll speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when either man or woman shall separate themselves, to vow a vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto Jehovah, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grape, nor eat moist grape nor dry.

All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the heart. All the days of the vow of his separation, there shall be no razor come upon his head until the days be fulfilled in the which he separated himself unto the Lord.

He shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. All the days that he separates himself unto the Lord, he shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, his brother, or his sister when they die, because the consecration of his God is upon his head.

All the days of his separation, he is holy unto the Lord. Now, obviously, a person might vow such a vow with its restrictions for a short period of time, if you wish. He may have had some spiritual objective in mind, and so he would assume the vow of a Nazarite, and maybe he would practice this for three months, six months, a year, or three years.

In Samson's case, however, he was a Nazarite from his mother's womb. He was born a Nazarite. That means he was born separated from the culture, the practices of the society of his day. He was a separated man.

That made him different. Of all other people around about him, do I need to stress this? We haven't assumed a vow of separation as believers. The church is born separated unto God. There's no choice in the matter.

We are a different people. We ought to be separated. Once in a while, there are those who object to the idea of the printing of separation, and I am using the term rather generally here for the moment, but I think you know what I mean.

Separated from the world, and from worldliness, and worldly practices, and worldly things. And there are some people who say, That's too negative. You are negative in your approach. Well, did you notice how many times the negative was stressed in the recital of that vow?

Separated, separated, separated. There shall touch eat nothing that is made of the vine tree. Shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink. Neither shall he drink any liquor of grape, nor eat moist grapes, or dried, and so on.

The vow of separation may have seemed like a negative thing, but from God's point of view, it was very positive. And beloved, I submit to you that today in our church life, we have obliterated almost all the lines of separation that should mark us as believers.

The level of living is loose among God's people. In fact, it sometimes is quite difficult to discern a Christian from a non-Christian. The world has become so churchy, and the church has become so worldly, that it's pretty difficult to tell the difference.

It's old-fashioned to insist upon a standard, or standards, of separation. There are those who cry out immediately, Legalism! Well, I want to tell you, I'm a legalist, especially when I get in my car and drive down the street.

I hope everybody else is a legalist. By that I mean, I hope they stay on their side of the road, and I can stay on my side. And I hope they stop at red lights. That's the law. That's legalism. There's a lot of other areas of life in which we may be called legalists.

But don't squirm at that term. Don't let it bother you. Be more bothered about the fact that we've become so loose and flabby in our standards of Christian living, that our world is almost unimpressed about us as Christians.

Some years ago, you know, our church was located there in North Jersey, before they put a big highway nearby, on a main drag. And it was still pretty heavily traveled, with traffic. And the more the traffic got jammed out in front of the church, and it often did, backed up for several blocks, the happier I was.

The more frustrated the police were trying to get it untangled, the more I enjoyed their frustration. I didn't want to help them out one single bit. I wanted that neighborhood to know that this is a Baptist church, that preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ, and things are happening in that church, and the places happen so much that everything is jammed up.

This isn't the Holy Name Society. This isn't St. Mary's of some place. This is a Protestant church that preaches the Bible. And we want these people to know it. Well, I didn't make the neighborhood altogether happy.

Our son was then my assistant. After church, he and his wife went to a little ice cream parlor for some ice cream after the service was over. And they sat down, and there was a man who was on the stool at the counter, and he was angry.

And he exasperated about that church around the corner. He was talking to the man who waited on people, and he was saying how miserable it was. He couldn't get to his house. On Sundays, the services, the traffic was jammed, and, boy, he was mad.

He didn't know, of course, that the guy sitting next to him was in his pants in the church. So he went off. And finally, the fellow behind the counter said to him, did you ever attend that church? Did you ever attend any of the services?

And this man said, nah, never have. Don't attend. Said the fellow waiting on him, why not? And then he got silent for a moment. And Paul said, my son said, you know, Dad, for a moment he seemed to kind of wilt a little bit.

His antagonism melted. He said, no, I don't dare go to that church. You want to know why? Because I might learn that 45 years have been useless living, and I've been wrong for 45 years. Thank God for a church that's got a witness that makes men feel uncomfortable because of its message, and because of the lifestyle of its people in the neighborhood.

Well, you can run down through the scriptures, and you can see how this matter of compromise in our living has brought terrible results. Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh, and the result was he lost out.

Jehoshaphat made affinity with Ahab. And when he was finished, he was a finished man, ruined man. Israel made a compromising affinity with their neighbors round about, and Ezra has the house cleaned. In fact, the matter is, the prophet Ezekiel complains in the 16th chapter of his prophecy that Israel, by her loose living, by her compromising, by her failure to stand for solid moral standards, she had created a climate of consent for the godless peoples that lived round about her.

The Faded Imperative of World Evangelization

Isn't that an indictment? That we may have created a climate of consent among those round about because of our loose living? There's a second reason why I think the champion of God has lost his power, and that is what I'm pleased to call the fated imperative.

What's that? The Lord's commandment. His final commandment. The very last spoken words of our Lord Jesus Christ, apart from the book of Revelation, are found in Acts 1A. And do you know what the very last clause, the last phrase Jesus uttered on this earth before he ascended to his Father's right hand unto the uttermost part of the earth?

You shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and Samaria and in Judea and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Our Lord still has a compassionate heart toward those who are lost outside of Christ, and especially, I think especially, those living in areas where they never had a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what care we about this? Very little. It's shocking to learn that the per capita giving for foreign missions, for world evangelization among Christians in America, amounts to $3 a year per Christian.

Think of that. You can blow that one night in McDonald's. We're not too much disturbed about it. The commandment of the Lord Jesus, this imperative of Christ, has faded almost out of our consciousness, our awareness.

I wonder what the heathen would think if they knew all that we know and they don't have the gospel still. Some years ago I was down in the island of Mindanao. That's one of the wildest parts of the Philippines.

And my missionary host said, Would you like to preach the gospel in a barrio where nobody has ever gone before? You will be the first person to ever announce the good news of Calvary to those people. Would you like it?

I said, I'd love it. Let's go. We arose very early in the morning. We started out. I'm a penderful. Long before the sun got up high, I was done physically. But it was a long journey. About mid-afternoon, we arrived at a barrio way up there by the river.

Somebody must have run up ahead and told them we were coming. I would say a group of maybe 75, 80 natives gathered out there to see these peculiar people who were coming into their village. Since I was supposed to be a VIP, they brought the chief out.

I'll never forget that encounter with the chief. What a character he was. He was skinny, tall. He was naked all except for a string around his waist. And hanging on that string was a little brass container that had two compartments in it.

And the whole time I was there, he was lifting one of those compartments and taking something out and chewing it. I learned it was bean nuts. And then he would lift his finger and dip it in the second compartment and wipe it on his lips and on his gums.

That was life. When the accommodation was finished, his teeth were as black as coal and his gums and his lips were like they were raw, red, raw. And when he smiled, he only had a few teeth in the front.

What a picture. His head was wrapped in a dirty old towel. And then I noticed one more thing. Hanging on that rope was a wicked-looking machete. Filipinos use a machete for everything, cutting down bushes, bamboo, chopping off the heads of chickens and everything.

And there was a wicked blade hanging in his so-called belt. I stood there perfectly still as I was introduced. I didn't know what to say or do, so I stood still. He was chewing. And then his mouth, cheeks swelled up.

And without warning, he went, and a stream of black juice went right past my left ear. I could feel the spray as it went by. I'm like, what am I supposed to do now? I did nothing. I figured doing nothing is safer than doing the wrong thing.

So then he started chewing again. And this time the other side of his face puffed up. And he went, and another stream right past my right ear. And I said to myself, as he started chewing again, brother, I don't care whether it's caught a car or not.

When you spit, I'm done. You're not going to get to me. Well, by that time, apparently I had passed the test of some sort, so he didn't spit anymore. And then I looked at that machete. And it looked to me like he took it out of his belt and he waved it around a little bit to show me that he knew how to manipulate this thing.

And I just hoped that he would have bad aim and that that thing would stay in his hand. I didn't want it to come off and hit me. Well, we preached. Had a wonderful time for about an hour or so. That was time to start back with a long journey back.

They assigned a little Filipino boy to me. That kid traveled four times as far as I did all day long. He had so much energy, he'd run ahead, come back, run off here, come back. I'm having all the trouble I can, all the strength I can muster to stay on the trail.

About two, three o 'clock in the morning, we started out about two or three o 'clock. And 24 hours later, we paused for rest for a few minutes. And I sat on a log. This little boy sat next to me. And I shall never forget what he said.

Sir, you are a Christian. Yes. You come from America. Yes. Everybody in America is Christian. Yes. Oh, I said, no, not everybody. But there are many Christians in America. Yes. Well, there are many Christians in America.

Sir, how long you be a Christian? I don't know how long I had been then, but it was ten years. Fifteen. So I said, ten, fifteen. Uh-huh. He thought for a while. He said, sir, my burial is long way from here.

Up over the mountain. Down in the valley. And then over another mountain. And down in the valley again. And across the stream. And then up on the side of another mountain. A little burial. Sir, I only be Christian.

Very little while. Who needs to be Christian? Sir, my mother. She died five years ago. She not Christian. She not know how to be Christian. I not know how to be Christian. I cannot tell her. Sir, tell me.

My mother. Is she in heaven? Or is she in hell? There, fella. Try that on for size. How glad I was it was pitch black. And he couldn't see how I stumbled. In my effort to try to give him an answer. Then he said one more thing.

Sir, you come to my burial five years ago. My mother, she may be Christian. Why you not come? Why you not come? I tell you, friends, there are two and a half billion unreached, untouched, hidden peoples of our globe who might well be asking that question of you and me tonight.

Why you not come? You have the command of your master to go. You say you love him? He says, if you love me, keep my commandments. One of my commandments is go ye with the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth and preach it to every creature.

How come there are still that many people up into the billions who still don't know and haven't heard? The answer is because the imperative for the church has faded almost totally out of sight in our modern church.

Few missionary sermons are preached. A decreasing number of young people are not feeling the call of God to give their lives for service for him in the regions beyond. The pressures of our society upon them are fierce.

The costs for support are astronomically rising. All of this is the device of the enemy to frustrate God's plan and purpose that every creature on this globe shall hear what Jesus Christ did for them on Calvary's cross.

Ruth Livingston, Samson's case, that is true. In the church of our day, there is a faded imperative. Now, I've gone over my time already tonight, and it's running out of tape. I know it well. I didn't have time to turn it over, so I've got to quit.

Samson’s Final Prayer and the Church’s Need for Renewal

I don't want to quit, but I've got to. If I should pass out a piece of paper tonight, and a pencil, and I should say to you, Would you draw a picture of what you think Samson looked like? I wonder what it would be like.

It would be like if he collected all those pieces of paper. I dare say the majority of you would draw Samson so that he would look like a Chicago Bears fullback. Big chest, huge shoulders, great muscles, nice narrow waist, and legs that make him a rock.

And you'd say, Boy, I'd hate to meet him in either the dark or the light. What a huge man. Nearly everybody thinks of Samson as looking like that. I don't think he looked like that at all. In fact, the picture I see of him here in the Holy Album doesn't give me any indication that that's an apt description for Samson.

Well, all right, smarty, how would you draw him? Well, first of all, I wouldn't make him any taller than five feet. He'd be a little shrimp. I think he would be more feminine looking than he would be nasty.

I think he would have a sort of a shallow complexion. I'm using my imagination at some point here. Don't come to me and ask me for a chapter and verse for all of this. I've got one. There's one or two things I can be sure of.

He did have long hair. You've got to admit that. Long hair, like a woman. Now, most of us would have Samson, I suppose, with when he put his hand up like this, he'd have muscles that would look like basketball.

Huge man. By Samson, when he put his arms up like that, I'd look and say, you got muscles? Stubborn. Little foggy parts of his flesh here. Come on now. Come on, sir. What are you getting at? What I'm getting at is this.

That from the physical point of view, when men looked at Samson and heard about and saw and learned the deeds that he did, they said, we don't understand this. This man has a secret. No man with his physical capability can do the things he's done.

He can't. He hasn't got strength enough to do anything but pull the jaws of lions apart. How does he do it? The answer is, he did have a secret. He had a secret from God. It was the touch of divine enablement and anointment upon him.

It was that that he lost by his compromising living, by his despising his Nazarite position, and came the moment of crisis, and he went out, as at other times, to shake himself and wish not that the Lord had departed from him.

That's exactly what we're doing. We go out to a generation that's asking for some answers. The church has got very little to say about this nuclear age. The church doesn't seem to have a message for the problems of youth today.

The church doesn't seem to have an adequate message on the question of divorce and remarriage that's wrecking tens of thousands of homes in America. We don't have any voice as far as the second coming of Christ is concerned.

We quibble and argue about it, but we don't have a clear-cut message for a generation that's lost its way. And we, like Samson, we go out and shake ourselves as at other times, and we pronounce all our shibboleths, and nothing happens.

And maybe it's because God has lifted his hand from us. So the story is not totally complete. You know, they put his eyes out, and this grinding corn, this man who used to strike fear into the heart of every disrelighted kid.

I imagine mothers used to say to their kids when they wouldn't behave themselves, Now you behave yourself or Samson will get you. He'll get you to go right to sleep. Because he was sort of the scary man of their time.

But now some kid is ruling Samson's life, and he becomes a pirate. But in the meantime, his hair began to grow. And this sign that he belonged to God was being slowly restored to him. And you remember the story and the conclusion of his life when he asked that little boy to take him into that house where the Philistine lords were having a celebration dinner.

And they were celebrating their victories over Israel. And finally somebody said, Let's go get Samson. We'll bring him in. He's a blind old man now. He used to scare the living daylights out of all of us.

But now he can't do anything. Bring him in, we'll make sport of him. And so they bring Samson in, and Samson says to the little boy, Tell me how this building is made. And the lad says, It's built on two big strong pillars.

He says, Lad, lead me to the pillars. And the boy leads him to the place where Samson can feel those pillars. On which the roof was supporting of this banquet hall. And then occurs one of those great prayers in the Bible.