How the History Channel Miniseries "The Bible" Botches the Story of Sampson

and since we're going to be doing an extended look at the story of Samson as it was laid out in the

History Channel mini -series, The Bauble, I think it's important that we play our History Channel mini -series, update music, here we go.

Yeah, we got a real easy listening groove going on with that update music.

So, okay, let's kind of set this up for you. What I'm going to do right now is

I'm going to go back through some of the audio from the History Channel mini -series, The Bauble, and basically walk you through what they did with the story of Samson, okay?

The reason I'm going to do that is I want you to hear what they do to it, and then I'm going to switch gears, and we're going to go to Saddleback Church out there in Lake Forest, California.

Now, this past Sunday, Rick Warren did not deliver the message for part two of their five -part sermon series entitled

History Makers. In fact, it was Buddy Owen who delivered the sermon, so he's like Rick Warren's second in command out there when it comes to teaching.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to listen to part of, not the whole thing, part of Buddy Owen explaining the theology in this segment regarding Samson because, keep in mind,

Buddy, just like Rick Warren last week, is preaching from the History Channel mini -series,

The Bauble. So they were playing, you know, they were showing video clips of The Bauble out there at Saddleback, and Buddy was giving us the important purpose -driven theological salient points for us to understand in this story.

So the idea is this, is that rather than me telling you what their theology is, I'll let you hear first from the movie,

I'll then let you hear Buddy from Saddleback's interpretation of the theology of the story, and then what we're going to do is we're going to open our

Bibles and we're going to take a look at the story of Samson. Now, I feel like poor

Samson, he gets dealt with a lot here at Fighting for the Faith. We've dealt with him two or three times within the last year and a half, so I apologize if any of what you're going to be hearing in the extended biblical teaching portion of this seems redundant, but it's necessary to go through because I think it's important for you to understand the story of Samson biblically.

Then what we'll do when we're done with all that, we'll take a break, and in hour number two, we're going to be heading out to Oklahoma City to LifeChurch .tv,

and we're going to be listening to a sermon entitled, Alter Ego, Alter Ego by Craig Rochelle from LifeChurch .tv,

where he narcogets ridiculously, and this, by the way, I think it's alter ego self -image, something to that effect, but what we're going to be listening to is him narcoget the story of Gideon, which is another famous purpose -driven biblical twisting tactic, because apparently it's all about you, but it's really not.

So, with that, let's change gears here, and we're going to be listening to a series of bites that I've chosen from the

History Channel mini -series, The Bauble, in order for you to understand what they did with the story of Samson.

Now, remember, the important thing has nothing to do with whether or not the actor playing

Samson was black, brown, green, yellow, who cares? He could have been played by a

Martian. The theology is where the action's at. So, put all that aside and let other people argue that.

It's completely not even a point. But let's go back to the opening narration from the story of Samson, from the

History Channel mini -series, The Bauble. Here we go. A hundred years after Joshua, the twelve tribes of Israel have spread out across the promised land, but hostile neighbors surround them.

Better trained, the Philistines are the deadliest threat. Without great leaders like Moses or Joshua to unite them, the

Israelites must rely on local heroes called judges, people like Samson.

Okay, so the problem is Israel entered the promised land and they've spread out, but they still have enemies on every side, and they don't have any really big leaders like Moses and others.

And so they have to rely on local heroes that are called judges like Samson.

So that's kind of the setup there. And then we meet Samson. He's in the middle of a fight and whatever.

But as the story develops, we go forward a little bit to learning how

Samson apparently received a special purpose from God at the time that he was conceived, and there's a particular duty that he is supposed to fulfill.

Samson is a purpose -driven guy. In fact, he has a special and unique purpose from God.

His job is to discover that purpose and then execute on it. And what we find is that unfortunately,

Samson doesn't do that. Instead, he becomes distracted from his purpose. So here is

Samson's mother explaining to him what his duty is. And this is kind of a long little segment, but I'll let you hear it.

Here we go. Your strength comes from God.

Your duty is to drive the Philistines away. Okay, that's the important part.

So what we're learning here about Samson is that he has strength that was given to him specifically by God, and his duty is to drive the

Philistines away. That's his purpose. Instead of fighting the

Philistines, Samson falls in love and marries one.

So rather than getting rid of the Philistines, Samson falls in love and marries one. Keep a note of this in your mind here, because when we go and look at the biblical narrative regarding Samson's first marriage, there is an important note in the biblical text, and that that is that this was from God himself.

So the way they've set up the story is that Samson has a purpose. He has all this incredible strength because God has a special and unique purpose for him, and his duty is to drive out the

Philistines. But then rather than fulfill his purpose, well, he marries one.

Yeah, let me back this up. Yeah, here we go again. Instead of fighting the

Philistines, Samson falls in love and marries one.

Now that was Samson saying to his Philistine bride, let me talk to my wife, my mom. Okay, I'll explain this all to her.

Does love not come from God? What would you have me do? Reject the woman

I fell in love with just because she's a Philistine? Will your love protect us from them?

So he's now justifying his marriage to a Philistine, because remember, his unique purpose is to drive out the

Philistines, and rather than do that, he's now distracted. He's fallen in love with them, and his justification is, doesn't love come from God?

And so now his mother's concerned, well, will your love for this woman that you've just married save us from those angry -looking, mean old

Philistines standing over there giving us the hairy eyeball? We need to send these

Israelites a message, make it clear to them, they cannot take our women. Yeah, that would be the evil

Philistines, if you can't tell by the sound of the ominous music in the background. So now we've got the leader of the

Philistines upset, we need to send a message to those Israelites, they can't take our women.

Now I find it interesting that the way they've rewritten this biblical story, all of a sudden now it's the

Philistines who are really not into intermarrying, although the biblical command for not intermarrying is there in the

Mosaic text, so this is all backwards. Apparently the Philistines have more common sense than the

Israelites do, Let's make it clear to them, they cannot take our women. Our people should never mix.

Okay, so the way the story of Samson now is laying out, he has a specific purpose from God, he's to drive out the

Philistines, but he's not doing his purpose, he's now distracted, fallen in love with one of the very people he's supposed to be driving out, and so what do the

Philistines do? They're angry that the Philistines, that these

Israelites are intermarrying and taking their women, so they end up murdering Samson's wife, and Samson, in order to avenge the death of his wife, kills some

Philistines, and the Philistines are really upset, and so Samson has become an outlaw, he doesn't even live in town anymore, he's out living in a cave somewhere out in the wilderness, and the leader of the

Philistines has decided that he's had enough of this killing that Samson is doing, and so what he's basically done is taken

Israelites hostage, and has said that he's going to kill a hostage every day until Samson shows up.

In fact, here's the important dialogue there in the story of Samson as retold from the

History Channel miniseries, The Bauble. Here we go. And that was a

Philistine killing a hostage. So we've got a hostage crisis now that's become part of the story of Samson, where every day an

Israelite is going to be killed until Samson turns himself in. Well, never worry, never fear, the intrepid

Israelites go out into the wilderness and they find Samson's cave, and they're going to try to talk some sense into Samson.

Here's the dialogue with the people of Israel trying to talk sense to Samson so that he can turn himself in, so that the hostage crisis can end back home in the town there.

That's his mother speaking. For every

Philistine you kill, two more appear seeking revenge. As they do to me, so I have done to them.

The Philistines are our rulers now. Everyone must do what they think is right. Now listen to this ethic here.

This should give you the willies. Hang on. No, Samson. You must do what is right for your people.

Yeah, let me play that little dialogue again without any interruption and tell you where you need to go in order to understand what's ticking behind this statement.

The Philistines are our rulers now. Everyone must do what they think is right. No, Samson.

You must do what is right for your people, not for yourself.

You must give yourself up, Samson. So yeah, this should worry you, and the reason why this should worry you, and if you don't know what it is that we're dealing with here, that was a little dialogue there with a very interesting moral standard.

Samson says you must do what you feel is right, and then the argument back to him from the people is that no, you must do what is right for your people, for the community, not for you as an individual.

Okay? This ethic, by the way, if you're not familiar with what this is, go back into the archives of Fighting for the

Faith and listen to my lecture from May 11th of last year, 2012, entitled

Resistance is Futile. You will be assimilated into the community. You will then understand what this particular ethic is.

I just point it out for you and send you on your way if you want to discover what's going on there, but no, no, you must do what's right for your people.

You're expected to sacrifice yourself for your people, for your community.

We continue. Is this what

God wants? So now Samson's confused. He's asking his mother if this is what

God wants for him. I'm not sure. Sometimes God leads us in ways we cannot see.

God will guide your choices. So God guides us in ways we cannot see and she assures him that God will guide his choices.

Now we fast forward. He turns himself in. He goes with his people, his community, and does his duty to sacrifice himself for the community.

That's just bizarre. Keep in mind, this is a guy who's purpose -driven.

We go back now to a reprisal of what his purpose is again.

Here's Samson. When he turns himself in, by the way, they have him in shackles.

Because of his great strength, he breaks the shackles and begins to wage war all by himself against the

Philistines by the use of a jawbone.

But what we're going to hear at this point is Samson actually receiving a direct vision from God regarding his duty, his purpose.

So here's Samson in the shackles receiving a vision from God and it comes to him in a form of remembering something that his mother said.

Your duty is to drive the Philistines away. Is that you?

So he has a vision and he's wondering, is that you God? He breaks the bonds and then starts just killing

Philistines left and right with the jaw of a donkey. And when he's done doing that, he stops for a minute and asks

God a question. Here's what he asks. Is this what you want from me?

Guide me please. And he sees a woman behind him, gets a drink from her.

Thank you. What is your name?

My name is Delilah. And then they go to a commercial break. But when they come back now, keep in mind, this is a story of a guy who has a purpose, who is distracted from his purpose.

His job is to get rid of the Philistines or Philistines.

And well, he's not doing his purpose, his unique God given purpose. And that really sets up the narration as they come out of the commercial break where they had just introduced

Delilah. Here we go. Samson was given great strength to drive out the

Philistines. But now he is distracted by Delilah.

So Samson has this great strength, but now he's distracted by Delilah. So this is a cautionary tale of somebody who was supposed to be purpose driven, but is distracted away from his purpose.

And then as the story unfolds, Delilah is basically asked by the leader of the Philistines to find out what his great strength is.

And they offer her a large amount of silver in order to betray Samson. She, during pillow talk, is able to divine from him what the source of his great strength is.

She tells them, and then they come and arrest him. And Samson looks completely perplexed, like he can't believe that she betrayed him like that.

And well, when you read the entire story of Samson, that's completely bogus.

Samson lied on several occasions to Delilah regarding where his great strength was, and it was very clear what her intentions were.

And yet Samson kept playing with fire in that particular case. But anyway, so what ends up happening is they arrest him, put his eyes out, and then like you listened to yesterday's edition of Fighting for the

Faith, he sacrifices himself, but never really lived up to his, well, purpose.

Yeah, so that's how they told the story of Samson on the History Channel miniseries, The Bauble.

We're going to take a quick break, pay some bills. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the

Faith, you can do so. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com, or you can subscribe on Facebook.

It's facebook .com forward slash PirateChristian, or follow me on Twitter, my name there, at PirateChristian. When we come back, we will then play for you

Buddy Owen from Saddleback's interpretation of the segment from the

History Channel miniseries, The Bauble. Stay tuned, don't want to miss it. We'll be right back. Living a life of purpose can't save you.

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Thank you for your support. Warning, beware of Bible teachers and pastors in miniseries that say that Samson was a purpose driven guy who was distracted from his purpose.

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Now, what we're going to do here for this next segment, since we're already well into our discussion of how the miniseries,

The Bauble, mishandles the story of Samson, it's important to note that Saddleback Church, that's where Rick Warren is the leader, and he was the primary.

Based on evidence given to us in statements made by Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, Rick Warren was the guy on their theological advisory board who was emailing them on almost a daily basis to advise them theologically regarding the filming of the miniseries,

The Bauble. So, I consider Saddleback to be the definitive, if you would, theological interpreter of the miniseries,

The Bauble. Now, this particular sermon, though, by the way, this is week two from their History Makers sermon series, this was not preached by Rick Warren, like I've noted, this was preached by Buddy Owens out there at Saddleback, he's the second in command when it comes to teaching out there at Saddleback, and the sermon itself is entitled

Lessons in Freedom, and what I'm going to do is play for you a little bit from the opening of the sermon so that you get the idea of what the setup is.

I happen to have the sermon notes in front of me, and so this is Lessons in Freedom, History Makers, part two.

Here's the opening to the sermon so you at least get the setup of what it is they were trying to accomplish in this particular sermon.

Here's Buddy Owens. Hi, everybody. You can be seated. Nice to see all of you here today.

Welcome to Saddleback Church. We're continuing a series that we started last week on History Makers.

Oh, while I remember, I want to say hi to everybody in our venues, our regional campuses, and I want to send a special shout out to Pastor Stephen Lee and the

Saddleback Congregation in Hong Kong. They're watching today. Everybody say hi to Saddleback Hong Kong. So we're in our series on History Makers, looking at the lives of all of these various people in the

Bible, and the fun thing for me about doing this series, as many of you know, I grew up in church, so the people that we're looking at were, you know, the heroes of my

Sunday school lessons when I was a little kid, and so my sister, who's a couple years older than I am, and I always remind her that she's older than I am.

So my sister and I, when we were kids, we used to reenact the stories of the people in the Bible. So like, she got to be

Moses, and I had to be Pharaoh, so she could dunk me in the pool, you know, when the

Red Sea crashed. But then I got to be David, and she was Goliath, because she was bigger than I was.

But my mom, she didn't take too well to me throwing rocks at my sister in the house. But my favorite one was when

I played Samson, and she was Samsonetta. I couldn't let her be

Delilah, because that'd be kind of weird. So she was Samsonetta, and because, you know, Samson was blinded by the

Philistines, so we would put blankets over our heads, and we would have these epic wrestling matches in the living room as Samson and Samsonetta.

So that was my upbringing with all of these characters in the Bible. It wasn't until many years later that I discovered that not everybody in the

Bible is to be imitated. There are some people that you don't want to imitate their lives.

In fact, there's a verse I want to sort of use to set the scene here today. It's up here on the screen. It's 1

Corinthians 10 -11. The Bible says that these things happened. It's talking about the Old Testament. These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.

So some were examples and some were warnings. So they were examples and written down as warnings for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

So today we're going to look at four lives, two of which are examples and two of which are warnings.

We're going to look at the life of Joshua, we're going to look at Samson, we're going to talk about Saul, and we're going to look at David's life.

So let's just jump right in and start with Joshua. Take out your message notes. Okay, now I'm going to pause right there.

He said that the basic idea here is that 1 Corinthians 10 -11 says that there's people in the

Bible that are there as examples and some that are warnings. Well, let's take a look at the context of that.

And we'll start at 1 Corinthians 10, starting at verse one. Here's what it says, I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed to the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all ate and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was

Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did.

Do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in a single day.

We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.

Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. Now, I'm not trying to quibble, but quoting 1

Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11 and saying that this is indicative of all of the stories of the

Bible, although in some sense true, that's not exactly in the immediate context the point that Paul was making because Samson here is not listed as somebody whose example we should not follow.

Okay? This comes into play here, so I'm basically trying to make the point that I think that Buddy Owens here is not exactly doing the right thing.

His premise is off. Let's just put it that way. It's just a bit screwy. So he's going to start off with the story of Joshua, and I'm going to fast forward now to his handling of the story of Samson so we can hear from Buddy Owens himself how

Saddleback is interpreting the theology. And again, this is a sermon series based upon the miniseries

The Bible. So let's fast forward to Buddy Owens' theological interpretation as the story of Samson is a warning to us.

Here we go. Now let's move on to Samson's life. Joshua was an example of fearlessness.

Samson's life is a warning about carelessness. Samson is a warning about carelessness.

About 300 years after Joshua had finished leading his people through the conquest of all of the promised land, they have settled in.

Now the people began to compromise. They began to intermarry with the nations around them.

And it had nothing to do with racism. God didn't want them to do that because the nations around them were not following the

Lord. They worshipped other gods. They were idolaters. And as God's people began to intermarry and began to compromise the purity of their own faith, they started to adopt the ways of the cultures in the world around them.

And God had warned them, if you do that, you're going to get yourself in trouble. And that's exactly what happened.

They came under the dominance of those powers that were around them. In Samson's days, the enemies that were ruling over them were the

Philistines. And so God raises up this man named Samson, miraculously gives him supernatural strengths, and sent him to be the conqueror, to bring freedom for God's people.

And we can read in the book of Judges about all of these amazing feats of strength that Samson was able to perform.

And how he single -handedly was defeating the Philistines. But here's what happened to Samson. Is that after so many victories, after so many spiritual highs, seeing

God come through, Samson let his guard down.

And he allowed himself to be distracted. He was distracted by a Philistine woman, an enemy.

Her name was Delilah. Samson's problem was that he believed that he could flirt with temptation.

That he could go ahead and just play with the idea of temptation, but he really wouldn't get himself in trouble.

Samson had reached this place where he thought, God is doing so many great things through my life.

And I am so important to God's plan that there's no way that God would allow me to fall or to fail.

So Samson is a warning to us that you cannot play with sin.

Sin is not a game. Sin is a war. And it's a war for your soul.

And Samson made a fatal miscalculation by thinking he could just back off from the instruction that God had given him.

And he began to take for granted God's blessing on his life. He began to take for granted

God's glory and his grace. God had given Samson instruction, actually had given it to Samson's mother before Samson was born.

And he had told Samson that you are never to cut your hair. Now, it's not that there's something magical about Samson's hair.

It's that it was a sign of obedience, a pretty simple thing. It was a sign of obedience.

And as long as Samson obeyed God, the glory of God rested on Samson's life.

As long as he obeyed, God gave him strength. Well, as we come on the scene that we're about to watch,

Samson has told Delilah the secret of his strength.

Now, remember, Delilah is a Philistine. She's an enemy. And she has made a deal with the

Philistine rulers that she's going to try to find out the secret to Samson's strength, and she's going to sell it to the

Philistine rulers. And so while Samson slept in Delilah's arms,

Delilah cut off his hair. It's like every clip is a compromise.

Every lock of hair that falls to the ground is a promise of God that Samson has just let go of.

And finally, when his hair is cut off, Samson is now stripped of his power. And with that, the commander of the

Philistines puts Samson's eyes out with his own hands. Now, they showed the clip, but then they cut it out of the audio.

Okay. So apparently Samson, according to Buddy Owens, is a warning about carelessness.

Now, you know, you saw the recurring theme when we play the clips from the miniseries itself as distraction.

So distraction or carelessness. And we don't get the whole story of Samson.

We just get him being, well, betrayed by Delilah.

So with that, let's take a look at the story of Samson. If you have your Bible, I need you to head on over to Judges 13.

We're going to be reading quite a large section of scripture here, and I'll be making a little bit of commentary along the way.

But let's test now this reworking of the story of Samson from the clear, simple to understand biblical text.

And we'll point out along the way, again, all scripture is really about Christ, how

Samson is actually prefiguring Jesus. I know that might sound crazy, but that is in reality the case.

Samson is a type of Jesus in the Old Testament. And in Hebrews 11, he makes an appearance in verse 32, in the great hall of faith.

In fact, scripture doesn't give us a warning about Samson. Instead, Samson's great faith is held up for us as an example that should be followed.

Hebrews 11, verse 32, and what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell you of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David, and Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms and forced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.

Yeah, Samson isn't listed as somebody that we should, well, avoid in the great hall of faith passage.

In fact, he's held up as somebody as a great man of faith. That being the case,

Judges chapter 13, verse 1, the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, so the

Lord gave them into the hand of the Philistines for 40 years. See, Israel committed idolatry.

They started whoring after other gods, and they did what was evil, and God put them under the hand of the

Philistines to punish them, to discipline them. There was a certain man of Zorah of the tribe of the

Danites whose name was Manoah, and his wife was barren and had no children, and the angel of the

Lord," by the way, in this particular case, the angel of the Lord here, this is Jesus himself.

This is a theophany. This is pre -incarnate Jesus showing up. You'll see why that's the case in just a few more verses, but let me tell you the story so you understand who's meeting with Samson's mother here.

So, the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Behold, you are barren and have not born children, but you shall conceive and bear a son.

Therefore, be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean. For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son, no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a

Nazarite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the

Philistines. So, we could say that yes, Samson has a unique purpose.

And let's remember always as we read this what that unique purpose was. His calling was to begin to save Israel from the hand of the

Philistines. It doesn't say that his job was to set Israel completely free. His job was to begin to save Israel from the hand of the

Philistines. So, then the woman came and told her husband, A man of God appeared to me, and his appearance was like the appearance of the angel of God.

Very awesome. I did not ask him where he was from, and he did not tell me his name. But he said to me,

Behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. So then drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean.

For the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. So then

Manoah prayed to the Lord and said, O Lord, please let the man of God whom you sent come again to us and teach us what we are to do with the child who will be born.

And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field.

But Manoah, her husband, was not with her. So the woman ran quickly and told her husband,

Behold, the man who came to me the other day, he's appeared to me. So Manoah rose and went after his wife and came to the man and said to him,

Are you the man who spoke to this woman? And he said, I am.

See, I'm just telling you, when he says I am, that should cue you in here as to what's going on.

The reason why is because you know that the I am here. Well, that hearkens us back to the

So then Manoah said, Now when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life?

And what is his mission? The angel of the Lord said to Manoah, Of all that I have said to the woman, let her be careful.

She may not eat anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink or eat anything unclean.

All that I have commanded her, let her observe. So Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, Please let us detain you and prepare a young goat for you.

And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, If you detain me, I will not eat of your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, then offer it to Yahweh.

For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. And so Manoah said to the angel of the

Lord, What is your name? So that when your words come true, we may honor you. And the angel of the

Lord said to him, Why do you ask me my name, seeing that it is wonderful? So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the

Lord, to the one who works wonders. And Manoah and his wife were watching. And when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the

Lord went up in the flame of the altar. Now Manoah and his wife were watching and they fell on their faces to the ground.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to no more to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that it was the angel of the

Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, We will surely die for we have seen God.

Exactly. That's why this is Jesus. This is a pre -incarnate appearance of Jesus himself. We've seen

God, which by the way, the History Channel miniseries, the Bible gets wrong.

They have the one giving the instructions, basically your grassroots garden variety angel type.

But this was none other than Jesus. Now they realize what happened. Manoah is afraid he's going to die because he's seen

God. And his wife talks some sense to him. She says, But his wife said to him, If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all of these things, or now announced to us such things as these.

And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the young man grew and the Lord blessed him.

And the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him and Mahana Dan between Zorah and Eshtoel.

Next chapter. So now he's born. He's got a special call in his life. This is a special birth, right?

It kind of hearkens in a way to John the Baptist, if you would. Now, keep in mind, his special mission is to begin to help the people of Israel be set free from the

Philistines. He's going to begin the task of setting the people free from the hand of the

Philistines. So Judges chapter 14. Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the

Philistines. Then he came up and told his father and mother, I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.

But his father and mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives or among all of our people that you must take a wife from the uncircumcised

Philistines? But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.

This is the important verse. His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord. For he, the

Lord, was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel.

So what's happening here, this first marriage of Samson, who orchestrated it? None other than God himself.

This wasn't Samson being distracted from his purpose. This was all part of Samson's unique mission in life.

We continue. So then Samson went down to his father and mother in Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah.

And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. So then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat.

But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. And then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes.

Remember, God's the one who set this up. After some days he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion.

And behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion and honey. And he scraped it out into his hands and went on eating as he went.

And he came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate. And he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.

This would have made them ceremonially unclean, by the way. Verse 10. So then his father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there for so the young men used to do.

And as soon as the people saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. And Samson said to them, let me now put a riddle to you.

If you can tell me what it is within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then

I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes.

And they said to him, put your riddle that we may hear it. And he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat, out of the strong came something sweet.

And in three days, they could not solve the riddle. So here is the seven day long wedding feast.

Now they got this riddle out there and 30 changes of clothes are on the line. And this is the days before Walmart and places like that or Kohl's or whatever.

And clothing was an expensive commodity, if you would. And so 30 changes of clothes, that's going to be a lot of money back in those days.

And it's all over this riddle that's supposed to take, you know, that they've got the bet going on. Verse 15.

So on the fourth day of the feast, they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to tell us what this riddle is.

Lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us?

And Samson's wife wept over him and said, you only hate me. You do not love me.

You've put a riddle to my people and you've not told me what it is. And he said to her, behold,

I've not told my father nor my mother. And shall I tell you? And so she wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted.

And on the seventh day, he told her because she pressed him hard. And she told the riddle to her people.

And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, if you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle.

And then the spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson and he went on to Ashkelon and struck down 30 men of the town.

And he took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle and hot anger.

He went back to his father's house and Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man.

So did you note how the spirit of the Lord rushed upon Samson and he went down and killed those?

Yeah, this whole thing was set up by the Lord. That's what the text tells us.

Samson doesn't seem to be distracted from his purpose. He's not being careless regarding his purpose, is he?

No, he's fulfilling it. The spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. It said chapter 15.

Now, after some days at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife with a young goat.

And he said, I will go into my wife in the chamber, but her father would not allow him to go in. And her father said,

I really thought that you had utterly hated her. So I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she please take her instead.

And Samson said to them, this time I shall be innocent in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm.

So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and he turned them tail to tail and put a torch between each pair of tails.

And when he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchard.

When the Philistine said, who has done this? They said, Samson, the son -in -law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion.

And the Philistines came up and then burned her and her father with fire. Now note here,

Samson's first wife didn't die because the Philistine leader was angry that Israelites were taking

Philistine women for their wives. No, she died because her father had given her to his companion and Samson had taken vengeance upon the

Philistines as a result of it. He was wronged. So Samson said to them, if this is what you do,

I swear I will be avenged on you. And after that, I will quit. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow.

And he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. So then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi.

And the men of Judah said, why have you come up against us? They said, we have come up to bind

Samson and to do to him as he did to us. So then 3000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, do you not know the

Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you've done to us? And he said to them, as they did to me, so I have done to them.

And then they said to him, we have come down to bind you that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.

And Samson said to them, swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves. So they said to him, no, we will only bind you and then give you into their hands.

We will not surely kill you. So they bound him with new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

Now notice here, he's bound up, right? But this was his own doing. And he just made them promise, don't kill me because Samson's got a plan.

So when he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the spirit of the

Lord rushed upon him and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that had caught fire and his bonds melted off of his hands.

And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and put his hand and took it.

And with it, he struck 1000 men. And Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey,

I have struck down 1000 men. And as soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand.

And the place was called Ramath -Lehi. And he was thirsty and he called upon the

Lord and said, you have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant. And shall

I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised? And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi and water came out from it.

Little miracle here, a little water miracle. And then he drank, his spirit returned and he revived. Therefore, the name of it was called

Enhachor. It is at Lehi to this day. And he judged

Israel in the days of the Philistines for 20 years.

Okay. So now we've got Samson who was a judge in Israel during the time of the

Philistines for 20 years. He's won a great battle. He's killed a thousand of them because the spirit of the

Lord rushed upon him and he took them and killed a thousand of them with a jawbone of a donkey.

Now we come to 16. Now, does this sound like a Samson is somebody who's distracted with his purpose or from his purpose?

You know, he was, he was supposed to do something against the Philip, but he, he fell in love with when he wasn't supposed to do that.

And then, you know, right after he killed a bunch of them with the jawbone of a donkey, well, then he became distracted by Delilah and he never fulfilled his purpose.

No, he judged Israel for 20 years, the text says.

Now we come to chapter 16. Samson went to Gaza and there he saw a prostitute and he went into her and the

Gazites were told Samson has come here. And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city.

They kept quiet all night saying, let us wait till the light of the morning and then we will kill him. But Samson lay till midnight at midnight, he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and two posts and pulled them apart, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carry them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.

Now it's important to note here, um, this passage is not condoning sleeping with a prostitute.

This God, well, in his mercy forgives Samson and doesn't leave him.

Why? The text doesn't say, best not to speculate. We continue. So after this, okay,

Samson loved a woman in the valley of Sorok whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the

Philistines came up to her and said to her, seduce him and see where his great strength lies and by what means we may be able to overpower him so that we may bind him to humble him.

Stop. Okay. This is where the clearest portion of the

Christological parallels between Samson and Jesus come into play. Samson foreshadows

Christ. He does so here where he's to be betrayed and watch what he's going to be betrayed for.

And they will each give you a thousand pieces of silver. Okay. Samson is to be betrayed by someone he loves for pieces of silver.

In this case, a thousand of them. And in Jesus's case, Jesus was betrayed by somebody he loved, one of his own disciples,

Judas for 30 pieces of silver, which by the way, at that time was the common price of a slave.

Something to keep in mind. So here we begin to see these Christological types and shadows begin to come into play.

So Delilah said to Samson, please tell me where your great strength lies and how you might be bound so that one could subdue you.

Samson said to her, well, if they bind me with seven fresh bow strings that have not been dried, then

I shall become weak and be like any other man. So then the lords of the

Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bow strings that had not been dried. And she bound him with them and she had men lying in ambush in the inner chamber.

And she said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Samson, but he snapped the bow strings as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire.

So the secret of his strength was not known. So then Delilah said to Samson, behold, you have mocked me and told me lies.

Please tell me how you might be bound. And he said to her, well, if they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then

I shall become weak and be like any other man. So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, the

Philistines are upon you, Samson. And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber, but he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

So then Delilah said to Samson, until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.

And he said to her, if you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, well, then

I shall become weak and be like any other man. So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web and she made them tight with the pin and said to him, the

Philistines are upon you, Samson. But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin and the loom and the web.

Notice here that Samson doesn't seem to be shocked by any of this stuff going on. He seems to be flirting with danger here.

So she said to them, how can you say that I love you when your heart is not with me?

You have mocked me these three times and you have not told me where your great strength lies.

And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urged him, his soul was vexed to death.

And he told her all of his heart and he said to her, all right, a razor has never come upon my head.

I've been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man.

So when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the

Lords of the Philistines saying, come up again for he has told me all of his heart. So then the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.

And she made him sleep on her knees and she called the man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head.

And then she began to torment him and his strength left him. And she said, the Philistines are upon you,

Samson. And he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as other times and shake myself free.

But he did not know that the Lord had left him. And the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and brought him to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles.

And he ground at the mill in the prison and the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Now here, this is where the other part of the typology comes in place.

Samson is betrayed for pieces of silver, just like Christ is. And the Lord leaves or forsakes

Samson. Jesus cries out from the cross, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, if you're going to understand the typology here between Samson and Christ, you have to understand something else.

And that's this, that Isaiah 53 makes it clear that Jesus is one who we think is cursed of God and afflicted, okay?

That he was pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So when we look at Samson Christologically and from the point of view of biblical typology, he is the one who looks the most shameful of the

Christological types. And so the way I and others would talk about Samson is that this is kind of the shame and scourge and embarrassment that Jesus pictures for us on the cross, okay?

He, we considered him cursed of God because he's hanging, you know, because cursed is everyone who's hung on a tree.

So this Samson, the typological picture here then is of what Jesus looks like with all of our sin upon him.

And when you watch here, there's a clear allusion to the cross that's coming up here in this, in this sense, that Samson's victory over those who have enslaved

Israel comes by losing, by dying.

Same with Christ. Christ is victorious over sin, death, and the devil, precisely by dying.

So the Christological typology here is here in spades, but you have to see Samson, you're thinking this is the worst type of Christ ever.

Exactly. And the reason for that is because this is what Jesus looks like typologically with all of our sin piled on him.

Okay. So we continue verse 23. Now the Lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their

God, and to rejoice. And they said, our God has given Samson our enemy into our hand.

And when the people saw him, they praised their God for they said, our God has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country who has killed many of us.

And when their hearts were merry, they said, call Samson that he may entertain us. So they called

Samson out of the prison and he entertained them. And they made him stand between the pillars. And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars on which the house rests that I might lean against them.

Now the house was full of men and women and the Lords of the Philistines were there on the roof. There were about 3000 men and women who looked on while Samson entertained.

And Samson then called to the Lord and said, Oh Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once.

Oh God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes. And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested.

And he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other.

What's Samson's arms doing? They're outstretched just like Christ's were on the cross.

Verse 30. And then Samson said, let me die with the Philistines.

He bowed with all of his strength and the house fell upon the Lords and upon all the people who were in it.

So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life.

Then his brothers and all his family came and took him and brought him and buried him between Zorah and Eshtal in the tomb of Manoah, his father.

He had judged Israel for 20 years. So did

Samson accomplish the mission that he had? Did he accomplish the mission?

Because remember his job, according to the angel of the Lord, would be to begin to help the children of Israel be freed from the hands of the

Philistines. His job wasn't to do the entire deed, if you would, but it was to begin to set them free.

Sounds like he achieved his mission. And that's why Samson is held up in Hebrews 11, the great hall of faith passage, as somebody whose faith is to be, well, noted, honored, emulated, followed.

Now that doesn't mean that Samson doesn't have problems. And like I said, he does typify, he's a typological shadow of Christ.

And let me quote one of the church fathers on this. I've quoted him before, but Caesarius of Arlis, here's what he writes.

He says, so what was the meaning of Samson? If I say that he signified Christ, it seems to me

I speak the truth. However, the thought immediately occurs to anyone who reflects, was Christ overcome by the flattery of a woman?

How was Christ understood to have gone into a prostitute? And then again, when did Christ have his head uncovered or his hair shaved himself, robbed of courage, bound, blinded and mocked?

Watch faithful soul. Notice why it is Christ, not only what

Christ did, but also what he suffered. What did he do? He worked as a strong man and suffered as a weak one.

In the one person, I understand both qualities. I see the strength of the son of God and the weakness of the son of man.

Moreover, when the scriptures extol him, Christ is entire, both head and body, just as Christ is the head of the church.

So the church is his body. And in order that I might not be alone, it is the whole Christ with the head.

Now the church contains within itself both strong and weak members. It has some who are fed on bread alone and others who must still be nourished with milk.

There is a further fact which must be admitted in association at the sacraments, the imparting of baptism or participation at the altar.

The church has both just and unjust people. At present, the body of Christ is a threshing floor, as you know, but afterwards it will be a granary.

While it is a threshing floor, it does not refuse to tolerate chaff, but when the time of storage comes, it will separate the wheat from the chaff.

Thus some things Samson did as the head and others as the body, but all the person of Christ.

And as much as Samson performed virtues and miracles, he prefigured Christ, the head of the church, and when he acted prudently, he was an image of those who lived justly in the church.

But when he was overtaken and acted carelessly, he represented those who are sinners in the church.

The prostitute whom Samson married is the church, which committed fornication with idols before knowing one

God, but which church afterwards united to himself. However, when she was enlightened and received faith from him, she even merited to learn the mysteries of salvation through him, and he further revealed to her the mysteries of heavenly secrets.

You see, the real story of Samson is far more interesting and has far more depth to it, and is far more, well, both alarming and comforting at the same time when you consider all of the details and the implications regarding it, and when you see it as pointing us to Christ in some way, typologically, and then you begin to tease out what really went on, well, there's some real warnings there for us and some real comfort.

Because, well, just like Samson, Jesus overcame his enemies, sin, death, and the devil, not through conquering them like an army, but, well, by bowing his head while his arms were outstretched and dying.

See, sin, death, and the devil were defeated by the death of Christ, and not just any death, one of the most shameful deaths known in all of human history, a death so horrific and horrifying that it was only, only held out for the worst offenders, and as a result of it,

Jesus was considered cursed, not blessed of God. Jesus was considered forsaken by God, and that's what he said on the cross, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And yet, Jesus at the end cries out, it is finished, and when he does so, he lays down his life, and he dies, and he conquers our enemies and his by doing so.

That's the real story of Samson, the one that really matters, the one that the History Channel doesn't even remotely understand, and others like those at Saddleback who were the theological advisors for the

History Channel's mini -series, The Babel, apparently are completely oblivious to as well.

Yeah, in other words, the book, way better than the movie, so much so that the movie isn't even worth your time.

Okay, we're up on our second break. If you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the

Faith, you can do so. My email address is talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com, or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com

forward slash piratechristian. Click on the subscribe button or follow me on Twitter, my name there, at piratechristian. Quick break, we'll be right back.

Sermon review going down to Oklahoma. Hear a sermon about your alter ego?

I don't know what that means. Stay tuned, we'll be right back. We don't need to rethink