The History, Mystery and Tragedy of Samson - Part 4 — Ian Paisley

During these last Lord's Day mornings we have been meditating upon a most intriguing subject, the history, mystery, and tragedy of Samson. We have looked at the lesson of Samson's generation. We have looked at the lesson of Samson's education.

Samson’s Association and the Danger of Going Down

We have looked at the lesson of Samson's separation. And we have looked at the lesson of Samson's motivation. Now we come to the lesson of his association. And I want you to turn with me in the book to chapter 14, the 14th chapter of the book of Judges.

There is an old saying that a man is known by the company he keeps. And alas, in the sad story of Samson's tragedy, we see that his association led to his temptation and eventually to his degradation and ruin.

Now you will notice a very suggestive phrase in the 14th chapter, verse 1. Samson went down. I just underline that little word, went down. And when you go down the chapter a little farther, you will find in verse 5, then went Samson down.

And then if you look at verse 7, and he went down. So that very suggestive phrase occurs three times. Three in scripture is the number of completion. So we have the complete downgrade of Samson suggested in that phrase.

Then would you look with me at the place he went down to. He went down to Timnath. The word Timnath means the place of the vineyard. Samson was a Nazarite. He was not in any way to associate himself with the fruit of the vine or the juice of the grape.

But here we have Samson going down into the very place of temptation, to the very trees that were forbidden him, to the very place where there grew the fruit of the vine and where the fruit of the vine was pressed for the making of wine.

He went and associated himself to a place of dangerous exposure to sin. Dear believer, if you're going to live maintaining your separation unto the law, if you're going to live in a God honoring way, if you're going to tread the highway of holiness and the path of truth, then you must not go down and make associations in dangerous places with the world, the flesh, and the devil.

For if you do so, those associations will lead to temptation and those temptations will lead to your ruination before God. We have to flee from all appearances of evil. I know no chapter so sad as the chapters that record the descent of God's people in backsliding.

If you turn to the book of Genesis, you will find in that book the fact that Abraham went down into Egypt. It was a going down. It was retrogression and not progression. Egypt in the Bible is a type of the world.

And I tell you the world's no friend to grace to help us on to God. I want you to notice secondly that in his association the flesh prevailed. You see he decided that he was going to enter into a mixed marriage, that he was going to take as his wife a woman of the Philistine.

Mixed Marriage, the Unequal Yoke, and the Rule of Self-Pleasure

No good ever comes of mixed marriage and mixed marriages. And could I say to every young person in this congregation what I heard T .C. Hammond, the great Protestant protagonist, perhaps the greatest that our island has ever seen in this generation.

In my opinion certainly he was. And he used to say to young people, Marry your own. Marry your own. We need to re-echo that to the ends of Ulster today. No good comes of mixed marriage. Could I carry it one degree farther?

If you are a believer and you know Christ as your Savior, then you should only marry in the Lord. For any other marriage is a mixed marriage and an unequal yoke. And God cannot bless it or God cannot honor it.

So young people should be guided by the clear instructions of the book. You will notice that there was one thing that prevailed upon Samson. It wasn't the good pleasure of God or the approbation of the Almighty.

But if you look with me at verse 3, he kept saying, She pleases me well. He put his self-pleasure and gratification before the commands of God Almighty. If we elevate the flesh, if we allow the flesh to dictate our pathway, if we allow the flesh to govern our minds and our hearts and our wills and our line of conduct, then we are heading for ruin and total and absolute disaster.

So we learn the lesson of Samson and his association. He went down. He went into the place where he was exposed to danger in the vineyard. He adopted plans for a mixed marriage. He allowed the flesh to prevail.

His motivation was not the Spirit of God, but the fact that this woman pleased him well. Having briefly dealt with the lesson of his association, I want to turn now to another lesson, the lesson of his prefiguration.

Old Testament Types and Shadows Pointing to Christ

We come now to one of the most interesting parts in our study of the life of Samson. Could I say just a word of instruction in regard to the study of Old Testament types and shadows and symbols? The Old Testament characters, many of them, are types of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But there is one thing you need to keep clearly before you in any study of Old Testament characters as a type of Christ, and that is that they're never a type of Christ as far as their characters are concerned.

Because Christ is the holy, sinless, spotless, crimeless, faultless Son of God. And everyone else are stained and soiled and scarred and marred with sin. So never in their character are they types of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Always keep that before you, and that will keep you steady as a rock in your interpretation of Old Testament characters as types of Christ. How are they types of Christ? They are types of Christ in their circumstances only.

Samson’s Temptation and Christ’s Victory in the Wilderness

And we find in four circumstances that Samson is a beautiful type of Christ. Turn with me to chapter 14. And in chapter 14, we find in verse 5 that as Samson was there in Timnath in the vineyards, behold a young lion roared against him.

The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand. This incident in the life of Samson is at the beginning of Samson's career. In that parallel to the life of Christ, what was the first thing in Christ's career after his baptism?

It was his temptation in the wilderness. The lion of hell roared against the blessed Son of God. Samson had nothing in his hand. The Lord Jesus Christ had nothing in his hand when he met the devil in that great temptation in the wilderness.

What had the Lord? He had the Word of God. And with the Word of God, the greater than Samson took the young lion of hell and tore him asunder. And where the first Adam fell, the last Adam triumphed. And where the first Adam turned a paradise into a wilderness, the second Adam turned a wilderness into a paradise.

Samson’s Betrayal, the Jawbone, and the Power of Preaching

Why? Because we have here a foreshadowing, a prefiguration of Christ. The second prefiguration you will find in chapter 15, verses 9 to 20. Samson is to be betrayed. Who betrays him? The man of Judah, verse 11.

Who betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ? Judas or Judah? Notice the careful parallel. The man of Judah came to betray Samson. Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord. But what happened? When Samson was delivered into the hands of the Philistines, he reached for the jawbone of an ass.

And with that jawbone, he slew heaps upon heaps of Philistines and there was a great slaughter and a great deliverance. Tell me, what is the power that Jesus Christ uses to slay his enemy? It was the jawbone of an ass.

It is the preaching of the word of God that slays the enemies of the gospel. To those of the world, the preacher is only an ass. He's only a donkey. They think that he's a fool. For it is pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to see of them that believe it.

But God has ordained that by the preaching of his word, heaps upon heaps of the enemies of God will be subdued by the power of the gospel. And you will notice something else. That after Samson had slain the Philistines, you will notice that God cleaved a hollow place that was in the jaw, verse 19, and there came water thereout.

And when he had drunk, his spirit came again and he was revived. What is it that revives the preacher after the battle? None other than the precious water from the very word that he has been preaching himself.

Samson’s Escape from Gaza and Christ’s Triumph over the Tomb

That is the refreshing drought or draught that slakes his thirst. A wonderful prefiguration of the work of Jesus Christ. Then the third one you will find in chapter 16. The men of Giza, they have barred the gate.

They have closed the door. They think they have Samson imprisoned forever. He is a type of the tomb. The Lord Jesus Christ lay in the tomb and the door was shut, the great stone. And the pillars were sealed with all the military prowess that Rome and the Pharisees could muster.

And it seemed that Samson was going to perish and it seemed that the body of Christ would be held in prison forever. But as the mighty Samson rose after midnight and walked towards the gates and laid the bar and the posts upon his shoulder and the door and carried them up to the hill of Hebron, so the mightier than Samson went to the door of the tomb and burst forever the doors of death and laid the bar and the posts of death upon his shoulders and carried them up to the hill of God.

And at the girdle of Christ today there hangs the keys of hell. For Jesus is the victor over the tomb. And let me say the doors of the tomb are burst forever for the people of God. Death cannot keep her praise, Jesus my Savior.

He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph for His foes. He arose a victor from the dark to me. He lives forever with His saints to reign. Hallelujah! Christ is alive and is alive forevermore.

And up in heaven today at the chariot wheels of the mighty there lies the monument of death smashed and broken and conquered for His people forevermore. And when did He arise? He arose after midnight, very early on the first day of the week.

Samson’s Death among His Enemies and Christ’s Atoning Death

The fourth prefiguration you will find recorded in the last great act in the drama of Samson's life, chapter 16, verses 26 to 30, the death of Samson. Where did Samson die? He died among His enemies. Where did the Lord Jesus Christ die?

He died amongst His enemies. Samson had only one friend in that great crowd and that was the little lad that led him. Christ had only one friend on the cross and that was the dying thief who said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Jesus Christ made His grave with the wicked. So did Samson make His grave with the wicked. But in His death the temple of false religion adversary. So by His death Jesus Christ pulled down forever the temples of paganism and the Christ and false religion.

And as He died He cried, It is finished! And the work was done. And done from among the ruins, the tender hands of Samson's friends took out His body for burial. From the ruin of the cross, Macadamus and Joseph of Arimathea took the precious body of the Lord.

They laid Samson in a special tomb, the tomb of his father. They laid my Lord in a tomb where never man was laid. Christ had a virgin birth and Christ had a virgin burial. He lay in a tomb where never man had yet been laid.

Of Samson it was said, He slew more in His death than in His life. And of my blessed Savior it can be said, It was by His death that life and immortality have been brought to light through the Gospel.

May the Lord teach us the wonderful lessons of the prefigurations of Christ in the life of Samson. And if there be someone amongst us today sitting in this congregation and you as yet have not learned the secret of divine redemption and forgiveness, thank God by coming to Christ and trusting in His blood, you this day can pass from death to life and from the power of sin and Satan unto God.

The Call to Redemption and Preparation to Meet God

Immediately after this service, just before the communion service, I will be in this room on my right-hand side in your lap if you'd like to counsel with me concerning the things of eternity. I'm here your servant for Jesus' sake.

Make sure you're saved. Make sure you're redeemed. Make sure that you're prepared to meet your God. Let's bow our heads. Father in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy presence and we thank Thee for Thy power.

And we pray that Thou wouldst work upon our hearts now and bless to us richly Thy precious and holy Word. Those not saved, lead them to Christ. Those without Christ, bring them truly to Him and grant that they'll be rejoicing in heaven today over sinners coming to the Savior.

Bless the Bible class, the Sabbath school. Bless as we travel down to Larne to preach the Word of God to that apprentice boys of Derry service. Grant, Lord, that in all things the Lord Jesus Christ shall be honored and glorified.

And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter be with us all now and forevermore and the people of God said amen.