What is a ‘sundew’? How do Eskimos kill a wolf? And what do they have to do with Samson let alone with how I live out my faith as a Christian today?
In our Australian bush grows a little plant called the “sundew.” (Diasora ). It has a slender stem and tiny round leaves fringed with hairs that glisten with bright drops of liquid as delicate as fine dew. Woe to the insect, however, that dares to dance around it in the sunny air. For while its attractive clusters of red, white, and pink blossoms are harmless, the leaves are deadly. The shiny moisture on each leaf is sticky, and will hold any bug prisoner that touches it. The struggle to get free is often futile, for the movement of the insect causes the leaves to close even more tightly. This innocent‑looking plant actually feeds upon its victims if they do not quickly wriggle out of the entanglement.
The account of how an Eskimo kills a wolf is grisly. First the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood. Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait he licks it, tasting the fresh, frozen blood. He begins to lick faster and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare. Feverishly, harder and harder the wolf licks the blade in the Arctic night. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf doesn’t notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his tongue nor does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His carnivorous appetite just craves more – until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!”
What do they have in common? They offer fresh insight into the consuming, self‑destructive nature of sin. How easy it is to find ourselves tricked or seduced into terrible danger.
That’s the lesson we find as we walk with another of the ‘kings’ of Israel. Today we walk with Samson – yes, I know he is not really a king. Indeed, he lived before Israel had kings. He was a Judge – one called by God to, nonetheless, rule over Israel as a deliverer and protector. He was a precursor of the Kings in a real way. Here we are confronted with a godly leader surrounded by a seductive culture; a man who has much to teach us about true religion, about how we live out our faith in the world.
But, like many other believers, he was one who found himself weakened in God’s service, being seduced by the culture he was meant to impact. From Samson we are reminded of:
1. Our Calling
Samson was a unique child. His mother had been childless for many years. The news that she was to have a son was given to her by the Angel of the Lord. He was to be seen as dedicated to the Lord form the womb, and was to show it in his life – as a Nazarite. A Nazarite vow was taken, usually for a year, to express complete dedication to God. During this time no alcohol was consumed, and the hair on the head was not cut.
He was born at a time when the majority of God’s people were rebellion against God, and found themselves under the rule of the Philistines.
In the past when dominated by another nation the people “cried unto the Lord” (3:9, 15; 4:3; etc). But there was no such cry this time. As Sproul says, ‘Unlike previous invaders, the Philistines were cultured and not terribly oppressive; thus, Israel relaxed under their domination and did not cry out to the Lord.’ They’d settled down to a peaceful co-existence.
Samson’s ministry was to stir up God’s people and to call them back from an infatuation with the Philistine culture, to deliver them from the Philistines and turn them back to God’s worship and ways. In other words, he was to influence his culture for God. To do this God gave him incredible physical strength, but linked it to his not cutting his hair.
Three times we read of Samson that ‘The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him’ (14:6,19; 15:14). This is where his real strength came from. His hair, in other words, was the outer symbol of his consecration to God and his strength, but the source of that strength was the Spirit of God.
Like Samson we are described as a ‘holy’ people. Like Samson we are called to influence our culture for God. Like Samson, we are not powerless, we have the Word of God and the strength of the Spirit.
In Matt 5:13-16 we read the classic passage on this: Jesus tells us that we are to be “salt of the earth” and “light of the world”. Salt was used to hinder the rotting of food which unchecked would lead to the disease of dysentery. Light was used to dispel darkness and promote safety. Together they tell us that we are called to slow down the moral decay of the kingdom of man and to show the way to God’s kingdom.
In Matt 28:19-20 we are told to go out into all the world and making “disciples” – with what in view? That they may be taught all that Christ has taught us; that is, to establish them ways taught by the Bible.
2. Our Conflict
Everything seemed to be going fine. Samson progressively set Israel free from the Philistines, who became increasingly fearful of his incredible strength. Israel was starting to rally behind him and to live again unashamedly in God’s ways. It didn’t seem possible for anyone to defeat him, no matter what the odds.
The last thing we expected was to learn that Samson would flirt with losing the strength that God had given and used.
What happened to Samson? In a word: Delilah. We do not know if she was a Philistine or an apostate Israelite. What is clear is that she was a Philistine at heart and counted herself as one.
It seems that Samson had a weakness for beautiful women, and the philistines enlisted her in their cause to defeat Samson. In this she proved very successful.
As a result of his flirtation with sin the Lord departed from him (16:20), and the ultimate flirtation cost him his strength.
When will believers learn that there are always enemies lurking nearby waiting for a moment of weakness so they can move in and destroy?
The key thing to notice here is that Samson was not defeated by a direct assault but by subtle means, by the subtle influence of the culture around him. Do you see that instead of Samson influencing his culture, it influenced him?
We need to remember that culture is never passive. It has its own agenda and preachers and is aggressively dedicated to resisting our message and spreading its own.
For a while many of us are faithful to God is standing against the agenda of the world – but the continual seductive wooing of the world’s Delilahs begin to wear down our defences, and before we know it we are thinking and talking like the world.
As Ellsworth says, ‘No, the unbelievers in this world are not wrong in everything they believe, say and do, but when they say ‘Live for yourself’ or ‘Live for the moment,’ or ‘There is no such thing as absolute truth,’ they are advocating doctrines that brazenly contradict the teachings of the Word of God.’
So we find Christian parents thinking of the future of their children in terms of finding a piece of this secure, materialistic, prestigious world, instead of finding grace and security from God.
Christian youth look for a life partner in terms of their beauty, sex-appeal, etc instead of whether of not they know God’s grace and show it in how they live.
Christians facing difficult decisions operate on what seems right at the time instead of what is revealed in the Bible.
But when we allow ourselves to be drawn away from the Word, like Samson we find ourselves robed of power and humiliated before a taunting world. We all need to take stock – and realise that our culture is not neutral and passive. It is very aggressive, and wants to draw us away from effective service of God and ultimately from God Himself.
The cost of failure to be alert and careful here is great. It was so personally for Samson – he became a sad object of ridicule. But it was also for God. For by putting Samson to pulling a grinding wheel they were declaring their god Dagon, the god of grain, was greater than the living God.
In the same way when a child of God falls to the lure of the worldly culture the unbelieving world is quick to gloat and to attribute our failure to an inherent flaw in Christianity.
3. Our Confidence
Though saddened by Samson’s failure, yet hope is to be discovered here. I found Ellsworth particularly insightful here. He points out that in the final analysis the Philistines did not overpower Samson because they were stronger but because he was faithless.
He applies this saying, ‘Christians sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that the pagan culture that surrounds them is their greatest enemy. Godless culture is, of course, an enemy, but only in a secondary sense. Our greatest enemy is ourselves.’
It is not that the world’s beliefs and lifestyle are stronger than we are, but that we are often faithless to the God who makes us strong.
Our calling is to be faithful! Have we been unfaithful? Well remember that like with Samson spiritual hair always grows back! God’s child maybe seduced by his pagan culture, but like Samson will eventually come back to the Lord and be renewed, and be finally vindicated.
A pilot was flying his small plane one day, when he heard a noise which he recognized as the gnawing of a rat. Wondering what its sharp teeth were cutting through, he suddenly realized with horror that it might be an electric wire. Then he remembered that rodents can’t survive at high altitudes. Immediately he began climbing until finally he had to put on his oxygen mask. Soon the gnawing sound ceased, and when he landed he found the rat – dead.
Do you want to destroy the power of evil in your life? Then read the Bible regularly, meditate upon its truths, and actively do God’s will. Sinful appetites can’t survive in such spiritual heights. Listen to the Heavenly Father as He calls, “Children, come up higher!”
As we look, then, at this godly leader, and those we are yet to consider, we are reminded that coming to faith in Christ does not bring us to the end of danger. Rather we see that we are facing another set of dangers – one unique to the Christian life.
In particular we are reminded flirtation with our pagan culture will lead to powerlessness, blindness and death. Do we not see this in the feebleness, blindness and deadness of the church today? Let us rather seek wherever possible to penetrate and influence our pagan culture for God.