JUDGES 14
In the history of Samson there is a very marked contrast between his exploits and his personal character. The Spirit of God would suggest to us that we must distinguish between what was done by Samson by divine power and the weakness that was in Samson himself. His personal weakness was a great contrast to his spiritual power. So it would seem as if his history is in two parts, which in a sense have to be looked at separately. We see in Samson something greater than the weakness that marked him as a man. Perhaps it would be well if we looked first at the incidents in his history which are characterised by spiritual actings; and then consider the other side, those incidents in which we see Samson beguiled again and again into utterly false positions.
It is noticeable that there are three occasions where it is said that the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him. There is a preliminary statement in the end of the previous chapter “the Spirit of Jehovah began to move him”, chapter 13:25. That is before he came out in public service; it was in his own home. He is moved by the Spirit before he undertakes any exploits. We see the principle of that even in the Lord; there were spiritual movements in Him before He came out in public service. The private precedes the public. We are apt to put what is public forward, but we see Samson in private moved by the Spirit of God; there are exercises that no one knows anything about. “The child grew” — that would suggest that he is growing up under the blessing of Jehovah and the Spirit moving him. I think the home circle is where spiritual movements will first be found. The prominent feature in Samson is strength; he is marked by power. What comes out in him is of the greatest importance to us in the last days.
In 2 Timothy stress is laid on power, and we learn there the character of the Philistines, those who are opposed to the testimony of the Lord, not so much outside as inside. Divine power is needed to overcome them, so there is repeated reference to power. “God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power”, and then, “suffer evil along with the glad tidings according to the power of God” — and in the last chapter, “the Lord stood with me and gave me power”.
[p. 174] We see the Philistine elements in 2 Timothy — persons who have come in amongst the people of God without any spiritual history. There is nothing vital about them; they have never learned how to solve the riddle. We have to learn to solve the riddle, and no Philistine can solve it. He may borrow it from others, but that is a Philistine dealing in borrowed or stolen goods.
Divine power works, first in the rending of the lion, and then in the swarm of bees who lived in the carcase of a lion — that is, life in death. That is the riddle we have to face. We have to learn that the lion has been rent by divine power. In this instance Samson is a figure of the Lord. The Lord “has annulled death and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings”, 2 Timothy 1:10. That answers to the rending of the lion. Paul looks at Nero as representing all the power of the devil against the testimony. He would have swallowed up the testimony if possible, but there was divine power there so that the lion could not devour more — Paul was delivered out of the lion’s mouth. The starting point of everything lies there, that Satan’s power has been overthrown in death, anti life comes out of that. No Philistine could understand that. It puts the saints in an extraordinary position to have derived everything through death; that makes nothing of me or of anything I could attach to myself. It is very reducing to learn that all strength and sweetness has come through death. We cannot bring the Philistine into death; if we do there is an end of him. There is a mutual working of the energy of life in the carcase of the lion; the bees are there and are making honey. If you and I have nothing but what we have derived through the death of Christ, we shall work harmoniously together in making honey. It requires the co-operative activities of love, and no Philistine can take part in it. The apostle speaks in 2 Timothy of certain turning away from him, and in turning away from Paul they had left the testimony. Phygellus and Hermogenes were not marked by life, but Onesiphorus was. The activities of life are needed in 2 Timothy days, and that is where divine power comes in; in that way we should have honey for the Lord when He comes into the midst. He delights to partake of the fruit of the mutual activities of love amongst His people. On the ground of the death of Christ such conditions can be brought about; we can have food and sweetness as the result of the mutual activities of love, and the first acting [p. 175] of divine power is to bring that about. The angel might well say his name was Wonderful.
Chapter 13 shows that all power in the last days will depend on Nazariteship — on separation to God. In Samson we see the power of God illustrated and we also see the enticing and withering influence of the world which is brought to bear on saints to rob them of their Nazariteship. We do not lose things all at once, but in the end Samson lost his Nazariteship. It is a shame for a man to wear long hair — if we leave the place of shame we have lost our Nazariteship. We begin with the principle that all strength and sweetness and all the activities of life flow out of death. Paul says, “If we have died with him, we shall also live with him” — he makes it the basis of everything. This works all through in a practical sense; we only touch life as death works on our wills and natural likings.
Samson turned aside to see the carcase of the lion. He was looking out for the fruit of triumph; he expected full fruit from his exploit. The Lord is looking on to see what is the fruit in us of His going into death; He did not intend it to be fruitless. The Lord came back in resurrection to eat the honeycomb; He came to see the fruit of His death, and He found the disciples together in love. Think of the risen Lord eating a piece of a honeycomb! Where there are the mutual activities of life, there support and strength are yielded, and there is sweetness. The honeycomb is the result of the mutual activity of love amongst the saints.
Samson is characterised by betraying secrets. There is no secret so precious as to cherish in one’s heart that one has nothing but what comes out of Christ’s death. Divine secrets are not published to everyone; they are only known by those divinely taught. Mystery is a characteristic word of Christianity. Think of people moving about this world with the secret that they derive nothing save through the death of Christ! A Philistine could never understand that. The test is that we are in the midst of people who admit the facts and assent to the doctrine of Christianity; some even are more intelligent than ourselves. Now have we a riddle that they cannot solve? A test is suggested in this chapter as to what is genuine. There is a divine proposal that if you can solve the riddle you will have a change of raiment. If we really solve the riddle spiritually we shall not only have a private source of sweetness and strength, and enjoy the mutualities of life with the brethren,
[p. 176] but we shall appear in a new style publicly. It suggests that we come out publicly in the features of 2 Timothy. Solving the riddle is the result of inward exercise, of learning in our souls that there is not a single thing that we attach the smallest value to that has not come to us through the death of Christ. That results in the mutual working of the company in love which produces food and sweetness. If we have solved the riddle we get a change of raiment; our external behaviour, character and associations are new. The spiritual instruction of this chapter is of vital importance if we want to take up things with divine strength in this day.
There was that in Samson’s private history that was not in keeping with the outward, for the Spirit of Jehovah had moved him in secret. We must have a new kind of life both inwardly and outwardly brought in through the death of the Lord. Any kind of religious life I could have as a child of Adam goes for nothing.
We see the second example of Samson’s power in verse 19, where he smites thirty men and takes their spoil.
The third example of power is in the next chapter, when his brethren would deliver him up and the ropes become as flax and he takes the jaw-bone of an ass and slays a thousand men. We see how little his brethren were in the secret that the power of God was with him. They were prepared to accept the rule of the Philistines, but if the power of Jehovah was with Samson it could not be of faith to accept the Philistine rule. This only served to bring out the greatness of the power there was in Samson. Divine power comes out in the use of instruments that men would not select for that purpose. Men would never select the jaw-bone of an ass as a weapon to meet a thousand men. The power of God, has manifested itself in selecting what is of no account. In 1 Corinthians we see that God chooses weak, base, foolish, despised things, and things that are not. We have to accept that as the way that divine power works. Paul had to be crippled as to his natural powers to make him serviceable.
The Spirit of God has sorted out the history of Samson for us by calling attention to the Spirit of Jehovah coming upon him. The Spirit has thus marked out certain features as being spiritual in character, and we have to separate them from the history of failures in Samson himself.