Samson Didn't Fight Against his People, but against his Enemies

From: March 6-12, 2007 Study: # 484

TOPIC: “Samson Didn't Fight Against his People, but against his Enemies” Judges 15:9-20, Ephesians 6:12 Our war is not against men, it is not against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. We will live this life fighting against many enemies that rise against us. If we are fragile and we recognize this, God will become greater in us. God is the powerful one. The more we know the Scriptures the more we will conquer in this life which is a war. Some people think that because we are humble that this means that we are weak. But, it’s because we depend on God for everything. God will deliver those who believe in him. The Holy Spirit is who fights for us. We must never allow the Holy Spirit to leave us. We must not be guided by our own steps, because we will only be able to win if the Holy Spirit fights for us. If we do the fighting ourselves, we will lose. The biblical story in the Book of Judges tells us that the Philistines invaded Judah. God raised Samson as judge for Israel since he was in his mother's womb and told her that he was to be separated as a Nazarene, and kept away from common foods and drinks. God began to work in Samson in a different way compared to others; Samson always worked alone. The Philistines were groups of bandits who intruded among the Israelis to oppress them. Samson didn't need help from anyone to defeat those enemies. A righteous that is called by God doesn’t need human intervention, because God is with him. Samson burned their crops because they had done so much harm to Judah and for this reason the Philistines were after Samson seeking revenge. We must be careful not to become enemies of God but friends. Who ever interfered with Samson interfered with God. Nobody can hurt us because we are the children of God; it would be getting involved with God. Both the Philistines and the Jews were looking for Samson. The first thing we can find in a coward is betrayal. Vs. 11 The men of Judah came to the Philistines to unite forces against Samson, and they looked for Samson to surrender him to the Philistines. We must learn to recognize when there is a war. We should investigate the circumstances, this is not a sin. They lacked love, because love believes it all. We must never judge without knowing well, because for this reason Judas took Jesus to the cross, betraying him. There are moments when a righteous hides in a cave to avoid a war. There was an army looking for a man and it is the same way with us; an army, powers and principalities rise against us, and there is nothing we can do with our own strength. The best thing we can do is to put our trust in God and his power. This army rose against a single man to destroy him. There are great struggles. We must be the best because there is much to struggle for and to learn so that we can teach others. We must understand how great our struggle is, we will then be able to understand who the enemy is in this world who only seeks to destroy us. We must not live as ignorant but recognizing what we are fighting against. We must invade all the ground in order to conquer it. We must come out of the cave.

They knew where Samson was, for this reason they went to Judah, but Samson himself was an entire army. We are an army, we are nobody’s slaves. We should clearly see that we are an army. Those of Judah in a cowardly act turned Samson in. Samson was one of there own, from Israel, there was no reason to surrender him to the Philistines. When there is love in us we do not betray anyone. They preferred to be oppressed by the Philistines than to be delivered by Samson who was one of them, from the tribe of Dan. They were filled with terror because the Philistines were many. Sometimes we seek the easiest way to solve our problems. The men of Judah forgot all the damage that the Philistines had done to them. We must analyze how things really are; we must understand when we enter the battle. The men of Judah agreed with the Philistines instead of joining Samson to destroy the enemy. Here is where we demonstrate that we are real warriors of God. We must enjoy time with God each day in order to get the strength we need to win this war. Samson allowed them to tie his hands with new strings, but he was not afraid because the power of God was great in him. He knew who he was fighting against. The devil always seeks for ways to have Christians fight each other so that they won’t be able to see who their real battle is against. Samson had so much strength and courage, but he was not going to use it against his brother’s of Judah. Sometimes we use our strength against the righteous. We must be careful! God had chosen Samson as judge for His people, but now he seemed weak to them. He gave them a lesson of humbleness although in that moment he seemed weak. Samson knew before whom he should surrender and we must also know it. Samson was not going to fight against his people; God did not call him to fight against Judah but to fight against the Philistine enemies. Neither was He going to let them kill him. Samson represented what God was; this is the fear of God. The man that stands in breach receives power and authority which are not given to exercise against his own people but against the principalities and the power of the devil. Samson could have defended himself and Jehovah was going to support him, but the thought of harming his own people is not in a man who is separated by God. The covenant was not in the rope that tied him, but in the covenant of the Holy Spirit, in his hair. He clearly understood who he was fighting against. We must understand clearly who we are fighting with. As fine thread those strings were undone. When our hands are free to praise Him and to recognize His power the demons have to flee. Our best weapon is prayer. Sometimes we fight the wrong battle. Some people would like to see us drag ourselves, and in sickness, for this reason we need prayer. Prayer is like the jaw that Samson used as a weapon to give strokes; we must not let it go. All those shouts of joy as they saw Samson tied up soon turned into terror because Samson defeated them all. When they thought they were going to have a great celebration, they ended defeated. After that Samson wrote a poem. No victory belongs to us but to Jehovah. We must be careful when we speak. In his great thirst Samson had to depend on God. How great is our fragility. His body experienced a normal reaction after experiencing the power of God so that he would not forget that the 1,000 were destroyed by God with his power. We must depend on God for the great problems that we face as well as for the small things. In all our needs Jehovah becomes great. We depend on God to receive His favor so that He will deliver us from our enemies and to help us with something so simple as our thirst. Amen.