The following message is from the Audio Teaching Library of the Briarwood Pulpit, a ministry of the Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Our speaker is Dr. Harry Reeder, Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. It is our hope and prayer that this message will equip and encourage you in your walk with Christ. And as a result, you will be used by our Lord as an instrument of change to further his kingdom and bring honor and glory to the name of Christ. Here now is our pastor teacher, Harry Reader. Now, if you've got your copies of God's word, would you open them? I want you to do two areas. I want you to go to Open your Bibles to Judges chapter 13, keep your finger there, and then turn over to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. If you'll do that as well. Thank you. So I've been doing these kind of B characters, of course. Bruce was asking me, he said, Harry, when we get to heaven, I want to be there when you go up to Samson and tell him he was a B character. But I do consider him such for a couple of reasons. People have asked me to characterize Samson, and my best characterization is I would say that Samson is the Clint Eastwood of the Bible. He's a saved brute. And if there's such a thing as barely saved, he's barely saved, but I think he is saved. I'll try to tell you why. It's very much like Gideon when we looked at him last week. And, but I say the Clint Eastwood is a little bit, I'll give you a couple of the lines from Clint Eastwood. Of course, he had the Dirty Harry movies, but yeah, the Dirty Harry movies. One of my best friends, who I had the privilege to lead to Christ in Miami, Florida, was a Clint Eastwood aficionado, and he and I would talk about it. He actually looked like Clint Eastwood. He actually talks like Clint Eastwood, and he's got just the dialogue from every possible movie. He and his lady friend were living together. They came and visited church. They came to Christ. I had the privilege to separate them, go through counseling, and then they got married, and they've become good friends forever since then. We've just enjoyed our relationship. And he told me one day, he said, we're bringing all of these young couples, these couples with us on Sunday. Is that okay, Pastor? I said, yeah. And he said, well, I wanted to make sure, he said, because most of these are kind of in the same living arrangement that we were when we came. He said, is it OK if I bring them? I said, absolutely. I said, is it OK if I tell them about Jesus? He said, that's why I'm bringing them. And he said, now, but I don't want you to get mad at me or embarrassed. He said, because when they come, I'm telling them who you are, and then I want them to come hear my pastor. I call him Dirty Harry. So anyway, we would have these interesting conversations. Maybe perhaps one of my favorite quotes is when Chief George is talking with Clint Eastwood in the movie Josie Wales. You can get a kind of a Christian version of that. And when he's talking to him, and he says to him, he says, he said, Clint Eastwood, as Josie Wales says, well, Chief, I just get to liking somebody, and they're not around very long. And the Chief looked back and said, I notice when you get to disliking people, they're not around very long. And that's Samson. That's Samson. Not like Gideon. He didn't lead any big armies. But boy, he dispatched a lot of Philistines. Thirty here. A thousand here. Fifteen hundred there. The jawbone of a donkey. Anything he could put his hands on. He was very creative in his lethal reign as a judge. And he was a man that loved riddles. In fact, I would suggest to you that Samson's here not only revealing to us in the study of him how much he loved riddles and used riddles, but Samson's somewhat of a riddle for us as well. Now, how does he make Hebrews 11? Would you turn there with me to Hebrews 11, and then we'll get to the section on Samson. Now, look with me in Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 32. And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets." Then he begins to these little lists that he's put together here. He begins to tell you some things about them. Who through faith conquered kingdoms. Who through faith enforced justice. who through faith obtained promises, who through faith stopped the mouths of lions, who through faith quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, there's Samson, become mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Here is this interesting list that is put together. Notice it's not chronological. It's put together, and it's interesting, he doesn't point out Deborah. In fact, Gideon, Barak, Samson, pulled out of the Book of Judges, and yes, I confess to you, I have used this series as an opportunity to spend time in the Book of Judges, as you've seen. Deborah, we've looked at Deborah. We've watched, taken a look at Gideon, and now tonight, Samson. Opening up some of these characters, and I love to be in the book of Judges. It's that transitional moment. God's people have been delivered from Egypt. Moses' leadership has brought them up to the promised land. They've been brought into the promised land with Joshua and Caleb at the helm. They have been put throughout the promised land. They did not yet completely evacuate the promised land of all of those that they were told to bring judgment upon in Canaanite nations. They left cities and high places. And now we find in the book of Judges how all of that paganism in the high places starts coming down into the lives of God's people as we see this rhythm of the book of Judges, peace, apostasy, peace, deliverance, apostasy. And then in the book of Judges you have what I think is some discussion and some debate among the commentators. You know, by the way, this is just to let you know, this is a little bit of a challenge. One of our members who preaches for us here and teaches for us, was an editor of the Old Testament of the English Standard Version, and so he's sitting here tonight evaluating what I've got to say, and I'm going to tell him if he doesn't like it, he needs to go back and check his notes, because that's where I got a lot of it from, and what he's written on it. It's a little bit of a challenge. I'm grateful for Dr. Paul House, and I'm also grateful for the Modern Reformation Study Bible and the ESV that I think maybe treat the Book of Judges better than any of the other study Bibles that are available. Of course, you can get some good commentaries as well. But if you're going to a study Bible, those two probably handle this better than anything. I had a professor at Westminster who convinced me that in the Book of Judges years ago that the Book of Judges actually contains twelve judges. Now, there's debate among the commentators, but I think it's twelve. I think when you study the Book of Judges, you're going to see six major judges, six minor judgments, and I mean minor in the sense not much material is given to us about them. Of course, all the kids love to hear about Ehud. And they'd love to hear about the left-handed sword and losing the sword inside of a man that's so big that you can almost hear the kids in Sunday school, ooh, I can't believe that. And so you've got an interesting study. You have one, you have, I think, of the six major, you've got three of the judges that are given to you with virtuous presentation. And the top of the three is Deborah. That's abundantly clear. And then you've got three of the six major presentations that are not, Samson being one of those, Gideon being another, that have a mixed report of their life of faith. Not everything, by any means, is commendable. You probably noticed how Gideon had a great start, stuttered, and then finished poorly. You can see him as he puts together all of the gold for the golden ephod that sets up idolatry and that idolatry is restored through his bad choices. You can see what's in his heart by what he names his illegitimate son from outside of his marriage relationship, Abimelech. The name means my father is king. Now, if Abimelech's name means my father is king, who gave him the name? This isn't hard, folks. His father, who is Gideon, who tells you how Gideon really saw himself and what he anticipated. But God was not about to let that happen. In fact, part of what God is doing in the book of Judges is setting you up for the king that he promised all the way back in Genesis 17. That promise was given five different times. That promise was that God would give a king. He even identified the tribe from which the king would come. The scepter would come through the tribe of Judah. And the Book of Judges is showing you what the people did, as it repeatedly says and ends the Book of Judges with the statement, the people did what was right in their own eyes because there was no king in Israel. Their king was God. It was a theocracy, but their eyes were not upon the Lord. And so God had promised a king and God is about to send him a king. But in the meantime, in this transition, God is highlighting their need for a king. God is highlighting how he can raise someone up to deliver them. And what would it be like for that person not to be simply a judge, but a king? And there's an anticipation of it. And of the twelve, not only are six minor, six major, three of the six are virtuous, three are not virtuous. They have virtuous moments. As I said, Gideon starts, doesn't end well. Samson doesn't start well, does sputters along with some good moments, three of them I'm going to point out to you tonight, and then finishes. relatively well, unlike Gideon. And you find both Samson and Gideon here, along with Beric. Remember, he was the one that, if it weren't for Deborah, we would know very little about him. But he was not able to step up. Now, he wasn't even a judge, but he's included in this hall of faith. But notice the hall of faith is not a hall of faith because all of their life was virtuous faith. Notice this list that I just read for you. They by faith did specific things. There were virtuous moments in their life where they had called upon the Lord and the Lord had enabled them to do that which he was using them to accomplish. So what is it that we are to see in this one of Samson? Would you take your Bibles and go back with me to where Samson appears in Judges at his birth, chapter 13? And as you do, one more point about these Judges. I said there were 12. The last one is Samson. The book of Judges is introduced with actually two introductions in chapters 1 and 2. They have an introduction and then another introduction. And then whoever wrote the book of Judges by the Spirit of God, there's some debate on this authorship, but the author was moved of the Lord to be a Presbyterian pastor because not only does he have two introductions, he's got two conclusions. 17 and 18 is a conclusion, and then 19 through 21 is a conclusion. But the last judge is Samson. The last judge is Samson that stands before us. And I mentioned to you today an interesting thing. Again, I'm indebted to my professor of of church history at Westminster, his name is Robert Godfrey, in his analysis of the Book of Judges. And one of the points that he made with us, and the various things that the Lord used him to convince me of, was when he was trying to help us understand what the Lord is doing, and not as he's including some of these who have this mixed report of their life. I mean, Samson is a brute. Therefore, he is in orthodox synagogues is not read. They don't read this. It's in the Old Testament, but they don't read it. Because he's such a brute, he's not, and we quote the rabbi as he was quoted as he said this to Dr. Godfrey, and I'm indebted to him for its accuracy. He said, we don't quote, we don't read him because he has nothing to commend to us. as to how we ought to live. Well, I think there are some things in Samson's life that are commendable to us, otherwise he wouldn't be in Hebrews chapter 11. But here's the other insight. This is whenever you have a religion that's based on works and your salvation is by, now watch this, by achieved righteousness. Hopefully none of you here think you're going to heaven because of your personally achieved righteousness, which at best is filthy rags. We're going to heaven because of an alien righteousness, that is, a righteousness that's not ours but has been given to us from outside of us. That's the great gospel news. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile, for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God. We have an alien righteousness that God has secured and given to us, not an achieved righteousness. So if I'm trying to tell people you work your way to heaven, I can see why you wouldn't go to Samson. There's a sure enough mixed report on his achieved righteousness. But I believe that Samson's in heaven not because of achieved righteousness, but because even though his faith faltered many times, just like yours, just like mine, maybe not as spectacular as his, but there was the evidence of faith calling upon the Lord. And that is my only hope. that I am saved by faith in the God of glory, in the work of Christ, and I have His righteousness by faith. That's why He's in the hall of faith. Not because of achieved righteousness, but because of the evidence of faith, sputtering at times, up, down, sometimes in almost We find him being the picture of Romans 7, the good that I would do, I don't do. I see myself practicing the very evil I don't want to do. The Bible is honest about it so that we can see it in his life. So I think that's why we read him. I can understand anybody that thinks you're working your way to heaven, don't read Samson. That's not a good example of achieved righteousness. But if you're going to heaven by faith, now you can look at Samson, because it's also encouraging his imperfections. Don't create room for me to sin, but does create encouragement to me that when I falter, I can flee to Jesus and he will bring me to himself in his righteousness. And that's where my faith is focused, not in my works, but in the one who worked for me. taking my sins away in the righteousness given to me. So if you look, let's see how Samson appears. You find him appearing just like all the rest of the judges. A time in which they need to deliver. This time it's not a seven year as in the days of Deborah. This time it's extensive. Look at chapter 13, verse 1. And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. So the Lord gave them into the land of the Philistines for 40 years. So here they are doing that which is evil in the sight of the Lord. But the Lord is going to be gracious and send a deliverer. Here's where I think you can begin to learn about Samson. Samson loves riddles. Samson is a riddle. Here's the riddle of Samson. What people faltered into sin, but God persistently kept delivering them from it? his covenant people. And one of their deliverers was a living model of the people he was delivering. In other words, Samson is a model of Israel. And I would suggest, to some degree, a model of each and every one of us. So what can we learn about him and from him? This deliverer who was very much like the people he was delivering. This deliverer God brought as an instrument of his grace to deliver his people. A deliverer that needed God's grace to be delivered himself. So here is they call upon the Lord. They've now the Philistines. Now, I think I've said this to you before in the last couple of weeks, but let me just make sure in case I in case I forgot to do that. The Philistines, of course, came from the Aegean Sea. They used to be way up north. And while Israel is down there in Egypt in slavery, they migrate down to what today, every time you pick up your paper in here, the Gaza. or you hear Jericho, I mean you hear Joppa there from Joppa out to the plain of Sharon on down to what's called the Gaza is where the Philistines lived there in the promised land They were a warlike tribe, and they were one that was so warlike that when God brought his people out of Egypt, he said, I'm not going to take you by the Philistines. You're not ready for them yet. I'm going to take you a long way, but it'll be a better way for you. And so that's the Philistines, and they are constantly in the book of Judges showing up. Now, they're not the only They're not the only Canaanite nation that's giving them a problem that shows up in the book of Judges, but they're pretty regular, and they certainly are in the context of the days of Samson. Look at verse 2. There was a certain man of Zorah, now that's the location, of the tribe of the Danites. That would be the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah. His wife was barren and she had no children, and here is a Christophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. This is not unheard of, is it? The Lord coming to give a prophecy of a supernatural birth to one who is barren, whether it's and then something even beyond a miraculous birth, but the virgin birth to Mary. And here is one that now comes to this, the wife of Manoah. And the angel of the Lord appeared, notice, not to Manoah, but appears to her. And he said to her, Behold, you are barren and you 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." Now notice he won't complete it, but he will begin it and he will give relief to them. Then the woman came and told her husband, A man of God came 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, eat nothing unclean, for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death." Now, Nazarite would be a vow. That vow would include a number of things. That vow would include a commitment not to cut your hair. That vow would include a commitment not to drink strong drink. Not only her, but him, that the one who takes the vow, from the womb he is to be a vow, and it was a voluntary womb. We immediately begin to see the problems that Samson has, don't we? Number one, Samson didn't volunteer to be a Nazarite. He was drafted. Nazarites volunteer. He was drafted. It actually begins during his mother's pregnancy. His Nazarite vow is initiated by her keeping of the essence of a Nazarite vow. Which, by the way, also tells you the sanctity of life. You can see where does Samson's life begin? In the womb. Not from the birth, but from the womb. And there his Nazarite vow is enacted and it comes forth in the womb. Secondly, the Nazarite didn't cut his hair. Did Samson get his cut? This is easy, folks. Yeah, you don't want his barber, I can tell you. Thirdly, doesn't drink strong drink. Go read what happens at his wedding feast. So he will break all of these vows that he is called to keep, that the Lord has called him to keep. 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. Now, Manoah isn't always a good model for us in this text, but here is one for us. Every parent here ought to do that. God, give us wisdom to raise our children for you. Give us wisdom. Come and teach us. And so he calls upon the angel of the Lord to come, this child who is born. God listened to the voice of Manoah, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field. But notice, both times he prays, but the angel of the Lord comes to the woman. And the second time, he comes to the woman. So here, this pre-incarnate appearance of Christ comes to Manoah's wife two different times in answer to two different prayers of Manoah. 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 has appeared to me. And 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. There is the divine name of covenant faithfulness, Yahweh. And Manoah said, now when your words come true, notice his faith, not if, but when your words come true, what is to be the child's manner of life and what is his mission? And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, of all that I said to the woman, let her be careful. She may not eat of anything that comes from the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink or eat any unclean thing. that I commanded her and let her observe. 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 the Lord. For Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the Lord. Of course, the Lord was there in front of him. And so, this one, this Jesus who is now in this pre-incarnate appearance is dealing delicately and instructively with Manoah. The angel of the Lord, and then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, what is your name? What is your, I'm sorry, I'm down to the next verse. And the angel of the Lord said to him, what do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful. Wonderful counselor, the mighty God. So Manoah took the young goat with the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the Lord. Now we see very clearly this is 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. The angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife, and Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord. And Manoah said to his wife, We shall surely die, for we have seen God. But his wife said to him, if the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering than a grain offering in our hands, or shown us all 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 in Mahana-dein, between Zorah and Eshter. And so now Samson is being stirred up and Samson is being moved by the Spirit of God. Now, folks, I don't have time to do it. In fact, I'm just about out of time now. But if I will, I will be more than happy to email to you, if you want it, the ten feats of strength and heroism that are accomplished by Samson in his ministry. Ten of them. The rest of these chapters that take us through up to chapter 17 and his death, they're divided up into ten acts of strength and heroism that Samson performs. I do want to read to you three of them as we come to a conclusion tonight. Three of them in which it is stated, the spirit of the Lord was upon him. Look with me, if you would, in chapter 14. Chapter 14, in verse 1, 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. You get the idea Samson might have been spoiled. But his father and mother said to him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives? Don't marry outside the covenant. or among all our people, that you must go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines. But Samson said to his father, Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes." Well, there's the problem. Right in my eyes. Not in the Lord's eyes, but right in my eyes. His father and mother did not know that it was from the Lord. Now, in other words, God is sovereign over this, and he's going to use this, and he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At that time, the Philistines ruled over Israel. The curtain is peeled back. We find out who's behind the curtain. This is a strategic move that Samson is making. Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnon. They came down to the vineyards of Timnon. Behold, a young lion came toward him, roaring. Now watch. 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. Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson's eyes. That's not all that happens. Look what happens next. After some days he returned to take her. And as 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. He scraped it out of his hands and went on eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. which meant that he was eating something unclean. Even though it's honey, he was eating something unclean coming from that which was dead and had not been properly prepared and was unclean. His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty 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 thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes. But if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes. They said to him, Put forth your riddle that we may hear it." And he said, out of the eater, that's a lion, came something to eat, that's the honey. Out of the strong came something sweet. And in three days they could not solve the riddle. On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us? So here are Philistines invited to this feast and this celebration of his new wife. And Samson's wife has now been threatened. So what does she do? She wept over him and said, you only hate me. You do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people and you have not told me what it is. My goodness. You don't love me. If you love me, you would tell me what this is. And he said to her, Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother. And shall I tell you, she wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted. On the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then 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? He said to them, He knew exactly how they found out. If you had not plowed with my heifer, That is, if you had not gone and gotten the wisdom from my wife, you would not have... Now ladies, I did not call her a heifer. I just want y'all to know that. You'll have to take that one up with Samson when you get there. You would not have found out my riddle. Now watch, second time. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck down thirty men of the town, and took their spoil, and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. In 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. Well, we can go on to the other text, chapter 15, verses 4. Let me just go ahead and read it for you in closing. I'm kind of out of time here. Go to verse 4. So Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches. He turned them tail to tail, 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 stack grain of the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion. In other words, because of the treachery and the breaking of the vows, this is what he did. And the Philistines came and burned her and her father with fire. And Samson said to them, If this is what you do, I swear I will be avenged on you, and after that I will quit. Then 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 here he begins to do his vengeance. And what you're going to see is ten acts of strength. Three of them are of the Lord. The rest are not of the Lord. Three of them accomplish the purposes of the Lord. The rest are those that the Lord uses, but he is doing them out of personal vengeance. So, Pastor, what are some things that we can learn from Samson? We've only got a short time tonight, so let me just give you a couple of them. Number one, when God raises up a man to use him to deliver his people, God is not limited by the limitations of the man. When God raises up a man to deliver his people and minister to his people, God is not limited by the limitations of the man. Now, folks, I don't think any leader should ever see that as an excuse to be less than we ought to be, should be, as the best instruments we can for Christ. But I can just tell you as a pastor how encouraging that is to me, that when the Lord uses me, he is not dependent upon me. He is not dependent upon my skills and my abilities, but he can go beyond them. And so he can with you, Dad, as you lead your children, Mom, as you care for your children. Small group leader, God uses you. Be the best instrument you can, but be encouraged. If God's raised you up, then he's not limited by your limitations. He can accomplish his purposes. Secondly, secondly, The lives of God's people are always a mixed report. Our motivations in serving Christ are always going to be mixed. That doesn't mean we ought not to mortify sinful desires and bad motivations. But we have a mixed report. None of us are perfect on the way to glory. But God's grace is persistent. God's grace continues to be at work in our life. Even our shortcomings in sin, as well as our imperfections and frailties and liabilities, do not stop the Lord, and the Lord continues to do a great work for his glory. Let me give you two final things. Two final things in this text. The third one, which is the next to last one, is the fact, don't you love the honesty of God's word? Nobody gets whitewashed. You get to see Gideon. Great start, sputters, falters, doesn't finish well. You get to see Samson. Sorry, I didn't have time to go to his death. And by the way, can I just say one thing? Don't you love it? How this year there have been five archaeological discoveries that have affirmed the historicity of accounts in the Bible that we were told for years wasn't historical. There's five of them. And so, Harry, what are the five? Well, I've already done that on today in perspective podcast. So you can go back to the archives and get that. But here's another one. But this one was about 20 years ago. They uncovered a Philistine pagan temple. And we've been told all along that the temples in the Middle East do not have two center pillars. You remember what Samson did? He grabbed the two pillars in the middle and was chained to them. And when you pull those two, everything collapsed. Well, do you know what they did? They uncovered a Philistine temple near the Gaza. It would have been covered over in a tell, a mound. They uncovered it. Guess what? Unlike all of the other temples in the Middle East and up in Greece and up in Turkey, they are constructed differently. They do not have the Greek construction. They have their own construction, which begins with two pillars in the middle. Again, just give scientists, archaeologists, historians and philosophers enough time. They can get to the mountain of knowledge and shake hands with theologians who have been there all along. God's word is true and God's word is honest. Samson doesn't get covered over. You see him for what he is, a sinner saved by grace through faith. and a very faltering faith. Yet God uses him. And the strength does not come from Samson, nor his father, nor his wife, nor his mother. God even overcomes his bouts with prostitutes. Now, all of that had cost, but God was still able to get done what God desired to get done. What's your lesson? Your lesson is not that you're careless about sin. Your lesson is your God reigns and His mercy is everlasting and His grace is greater than our sin. and thank God for his word that is honest and true. You even get to see, quote, heroes of the faith from Hebrews 11, warts, pimples, and all. Praise God, Samson finished stronger than he lived. As it says, he, this one who destroyed all of these Philistines, 30 here, a thousand here, On 1500 there, that in his death, he destroyed more enemies of God than even in his life. At least, praise God, he finished strong. Harry, what was that last thing you wanted to say? Last judge. See how God's people can't stay the course without a king? Samson dies 50 years later. You get a king. Fifty years after his death comes Saul. But the problem is they got a king, wrong tribe. Then they'll get the king, David, the right tribe, Judah. And then you and I get a king from the tribe of Judah. His name is Jesus. our Savior and our Lord. Samson is the riddle pointing to that Savior, King of kings and Lord of lords. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the moments we could be together in your word tonight. Thank you, Father, for this wonderful, glorious passage of scripture called the Book of Judges. This transition from the occupation of the promised land to the king that you have promised, leading to the king who is the fulfillment of all your promises, Jesus. The Lord, as we look at these frail children of dust who send armies to flight, who destroy the enemies of God, we thank you that we see the evidence not of their strength, but of your strength laid hold of by faith through the Spirit of the Lord who rushes upon us. And thank you most of all that we ultimately look to Jesus, who has defeated all of His and our enemies, as He has come to save us. And He is coming again to destroy those defeated enemies. And until He comes, even with our imperfections, may He find us faithful, walking in the Spirit, by faith in Christ. I pray in Jesus' name, amen. You have been listening to a message by Harry Reeder, Senior Pastor of Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama. For more information on the resources available through Briarwood Presbyterian Church, or for more information on the teaching ministry of Pastor Reeder, visit us at briarwood.org or call 205-776-5200. you