There we go. Judges 14. Judges chapter 14. Covering a smaller chunk today so we should be shorter. Should be. Say that because I said that last time. And we barely scraped out of here. But we'll see what we can do today. Nevertheless, it'll be okay. We'll just spend more time within the book. So let's see. Judges chapter 14. Looking at verses chapter 14, 19 through chapter 15 and verse 8 there. Let's read together. It says, in the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him. He went down to Ashkelon and struck down 30 men of the town and took their spool and gave their garments to those who 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. After some days, at the time of wheat harvest, Samson went down to visit his wife of the 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 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 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 in the standing grain of the Philistines and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain as well as the olive orchards. When the Philistines said, then the Philistines said, who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite. Because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion, the Philistines came up 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. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow and went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Edom. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you that you have revealed these things to your people, to babes, God. Give us strength now that we would hear your voice, not the voice of a mere man, but the voice of God speaking to us. Give me strength now as your servant. Help me to stand aside and preach Christ. In his name I pray. Amen. Amen. So last time that we had left off, we had seen Samson, someone who had come from a womb that was barren. His mother and his father couldn't have any children, but the angel of the Lord had come to his mother and decreed that she would indeed have a son. And that that son would be set apart to the Lord by the Nazarite vow This vow Was to be upon Samson and we read that in Numbers Chapter 6 so that he could not touch anything that come from the grapevine or touch any dead body or cut his hair, and in that, the long hair of his head was to be a symbol that he was indeed set apart to God, that he was set apart to God for, and this was for various purposes that people did this, but the angel of the Lord told his mother, Manoah's wife there, that she would be set apart for a purpose to God, and that that purpose to God would be to start to save the people of Israel from the bondage that they were under from the Philistines, because of the idolatry that the people had swept, had went into after the former judge had died. And that's that cycle that we've been dealing with through the book of Judges. So last time we didn't get to it, but we'd come to that point there where Samson had seen the woman, the Philistine woman, and he had, we spoke of him seeing her with his eyes, her being right in his eyes, and we talked to that as a motif for the book, and that that's how the book ends, that there was no king in the land, And everyone did what was right in his own eyes. And this is where Samson was going here. He was going off of not what God had said was right, but what he thought was right. his own eyes and that was to have this woman from the Philistines and so even though his parents had warned him against it because what God had told the people in Deuteronomy chapter 7 to not intermarry with these other peoples because they would take them away from Yahweh they would take them away from God and lead them into idolatry he did not heed those warnings and simply said please get me the woman. So upon their marriage, at this feast that they had, he'd give a riddle to the 30 men there, the 30 companions that had come to be, in a way, his groomsmen, if you will, in the way we understand it. He'd give them this riddle and told them that if they could solve it within the seven days, that he would give them these 30 changes of clothes. And the riddle that he'd give was tied directly to the lion that he had killed with his bare hands, and then the honey that he had ate sometime after out of the carcass of that lion. And like we said before, that was most likely because he was the only one that knew about it. We were told that he did not tell his mother or father that he killed the lion, and that he did not tell his mother or father where the honey come from when he gave them honey to eat from it. Most likely, we said before also, because they would see that as breaking his vow to God to not touch any dead body, although commentators differ upon that, whether it be the body of just men or the body of animals as well. That's most likely the reason that he hadn't said anything to his parents. And so, because the men couldn't decide, couldn't solve this riddle, They pressured his wife and told his wife to get the solve to the riddle for them from Samson. And if she did not do so, that they would burn her and her father alive. And so instead of going to Samson with this, the woman tricks Samson by saying that he does not love her because he has not told her the solve to the riddle. And so because of that, she presses him until the seventh day, in which he caves and tells her, and she immediately goes to her people and tells them to solve. Then the people, of course, tell Samson. Samson, understanding what had just happened to him, that he had been duped by his own wife, tells them that they would not have been able to do this if they had not plowed with his heifer. Very strange language, but simply what Samson was saying is, if they had not used something that was made to benefit him for their own benefit, they would not have been able to solve the riddle. The woman was supposed to be Samson's helpmate and instead she was helping these people that were indeed against him for fear of the people. And we will kind of see that resolved today in the gruesome poem that we've already read. And so that brings us to 19 and 20 where we left off last time and we start out with the Spirit of the Lord rushing upon him And every time we have seen this before in the book of Judges, it has not been, and I stress this because people see this in different ways, but we can't think of this in terms of regeneration. The Bible is not saying here that God saved Samson at this point because this happens multiple times to Samson. This exact same situation happened to him where he tore the line apart as a man tears a goat, it says, if you recall. And so what is happening here is the Spirit is coming upon Samson like it did all these other men, like Othniel. Remember Othniel that was able to stop Cush and Rishathirim, I believe it was, when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. The Spirit helps men to perform tasks that they would not be able to do on their own. And so in that same way, the Spirit is coming upon Samson here to Go down and we are told and not team there that when the Spirit of Lord comes upon him He uses this strength that God gives him to Go down then not team there to Ashkelon. Let's read this read it together It says and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down 30 men of the town and took their spool and gave the garments to those who had Told the riddle and hot anger and went back to his father's house So when the Spirit Lord comes upon him now, he goes and seemingly kills 30 men. Why? Well, because he owed the other men those dirty clothes that he had promised before. And so to get them, he goes and either beats men senseless or beats them to death and takes the clothes off of their dead bodies. He then gives those clothes to the men who he owed. And in this, like I said before, he could have just beat the men down and stripped them naked, but most likely these men were dead. Most likely he beat the men to death, which is indeed, no questions asked, a violation of Numbers chapter 6. No one debates that whatsoever. Remember Numbers chapter 6. We can turn back that together because it just helps us to see it. Number six is that vow that was placed upon Samson from the womb, what he was supposed to adhere to, as well as the rest of God's law. It says in six, verse six, all the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body. And seven, it says not even for his father or his mother or his brother or his sister. If they die, he shall make himself unclean. because his separation to God is on his head. So even for his family members, he was not to go near, let alone touch these dead bodies. And here we see Samson doing the opposite of that in getting these clothes for the man for a payment. He most likely thought, the reason for this is he most likely thought that he wouldn't have to come up with it. because the men wouldn't solve the riddle. So he would just, you know, conquer over them and he would look great and the men would say, we don't know on the end of the seventh day there and he would get the spoil. And so that was the whole purpose. But because the men did solve it, because what they had done to his wife, he had to somehow come up with this payment. He had to honor his agreement. And so to do that, that's what he does. He kills these 30 men or beats them and takes their clothes off their corpses, thus breaking the contract that he had with God. Yet through all this, we were told before, if you remember, that even within Samson going after this Philistine woman, that God's purposes were being wrought through all these things. What does that mean? God did not commission this. It isn't as though He's making Samson want this Philistine woman. Indeed, Samson was in sin for doing it, but we see God's purposes going through it all the way. In that, Samson himself could not thwart God's plans. What did the angel of the Lord promise? He will begin to save the people. Now, can anybody stop that? No. No one can stop that. Even though we look upon it and we say, well, this is not playing out the way you said. This is no savior. He's going after this Philistine woman. He's doing all these things. And God simply says, although you don't understand it, my purposes are being wrought through all these things. And that's the way that God works. We've seen that last time with Joseph, did we not? Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers. Yet through that slavery, what happened? God kept a promise that he made to Abraham, that he would keep his seed alive and that through his seed, one would come. You see, that's the same thing that goes on into David. And so through that, God had saved the people from famine. Famine had struck the land, and because Joseph was in a place of high regard with Pharaoh, he was able to save those people. And of course, that set up the whole exegete narrative, but we won't get into that for the sake of time. So, God's purpose is being wrought through all these things, even though Samson is neglecting his vow to the Lord that was put upon him. We are told back in our text, if we can go there in 14, Samson's father-in-law, when he leaves, we're told after he gets these clothes for these men, that he leaves and goes to his father's house. Most likely because he was a angry. And that's indeed what it says there. In hot anger, he went back to his father's house. And so to not do anything reckless with his wife, he leaves her. He leaves her and goes to his father's house. And while he's gone, in verse 20, it says, And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. This was not a custom at the time. No commentators see that within history. This was simply the father trying to save the family's face, if you will, the family's value, trying to save the shame that was put upon his daughter because she was for a short time abandoned by her husband because she had neglected to stand by him in time of need. She had sided with the other man instead of her own husband. So because of this, his wife is given to his companion, his best man, best man. And that brings us to chapter 15. Let's look at verses 1 and 2 together. It says, 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 utterly hated her, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her instead. So some time passes and Samson goes to meet with his wife with a goat. This was most likely a peace offering. We can see this through lots of times in the Bible. We won't try to trace all those for the sake of time. But you can see within the scriptures that things like this would be done to reconcile parties together. An offering would be brought by one party and it would reconcile the two. So he's trying to find some sort of reconciliation with his wife here. But he is met with bad news. He's not met with reconciliation whatsoever. He is met with the news that his wife has indeed been sold to his friend or his best man, if you will, his companion there. And further than that, the father tries to justify himself in saying that he thought that Samson hated his wife. He thought that he had abandoned her for forever, not just some short time. And in that, he offers the younger sister, who is more beautiful, thinking that that will appease Samson in some way for the wife that he's lost. And in this, we can find a good look at a family that is indeed not governed by the one true God or his laws. In that this father was perfectly willing to take one daughter and marry her off and then sometime very shortly after, marry her off to another man while she's still married to Samson legally, and then take his daughter that is younger and offer her to his son-in-law. You see? It's something that is very messed up, but something that was very common in the ancient world. And this is why God had warned them. This is the warning that was given to them. Don't be bedfellows with these people. Deuteronomy chapter 7, we've looked at it many times, and we will look at it again. It's important for us to do so. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 7, in verse 3 there, you should not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they will turn away your sons from following me to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will destroy you quickly. And this is the manner that God is speaking of, that they have no morality seemingly at all, that they do definitely what is right in their own eyes, having no God and having no law to govern them. And that's the picture that we're looking at here, a family that is not governed by the Lord. And so he offers Samson his other daughter, who he says is more beautiful. Again, I've said it many times in the book of Judges, but we need to look at it again. We look at these pictures, and as I just went through how crazy it is for this father to act so carelessly with his daughters, and we say, man, the depravity there. What is that? But the fact of the matter is, within the evangelical world, a lot of so-called church families look more like this family than anything that God instituted. That's true. You see what I'm saying? And so we look at these historical studies and these character studies, and it's easy for us to ride them off and say, what dumb people. what people that are dead in sin, when in reality we can find many, many families, and I know of many, many families within the Bible Belt that claim to be Christian, they claim to love the core values of God, and yet you can find this turmoil within their family. You can find this depravity there in the way that they view marriage, in the way that they view life, and in the way that they view the church. Not trying to just push off on people. We need to be fearful. That's what I'm getting at. We as well, Grace Fellowship, need to be fearful that we don't just put all these things aside and say, oh, those silly people. Because it is very easy to get comfortable in the state that you're in and become a lot like these people, you see. And I think that the church in America today looks a whole lot more like that, the visible church anyway, looks a whole lot more like that than anything that God had subscribed for his people. And that's a truly sad thing. We should strive for it not to be in that way. So that's the type of family we're looking at here. And this is what is done to Samson. His wife has given to one of his friends. So let's go back into our text. In 15, let's look at five through four. So Samson went, actually we'll think verse three there. Let's look at three through five. 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 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 in the standing grain of the philistines, and set fire to the stacked grain and the standing grain, as well as the olive orchards. So Samson does not take him up on his offer there. He instead says that the things I do to you now is justified. Speaking of the things that he did before, he beat 30 men senseless and most likely killed them all just for their clothes. Okay, so Samson is even acknowledging, yeah, if I just killed a bunch of men that was unjust but the things that I'm doing now I'm justified in because you've done this with my wife you've given her away and he does not take the sister there at this time he does not take the sister most likely he understood something of the law having a God-fearing parents as he did with Leviticus 18 Leviticus 18 and the instructions that were given there to the people. He understood God's law that you shall not take a sister of a wife. And it says in 18, you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. So this is something that was forbidden within Israel. Don't be doing these things. Don't be, it's very common practice in pagan life. See, I'm saying to take sister wives and things of that nature. But in this time, in the Israelites' camp, this was something that was forbidden. So it simply says, though, that he's justified in what he's about to do. So what does he do? He gets real mad and he walks off. It's not what he does. He does something very strange. He takes 300 foxes. It's a lot of foxes. Don't know how long it took him to gather them, it doesn't say. Short time, long time, but he somehow gets his hands on 300 foxes. Some people say this was Jekyll's, I think that's splitting hairs. He takes 300 animals here and he takes their tails and he ties them together. He doesn't just tie their tails together, he puts a torch between the tails of these pairs of foxes. And then he takes those foxes and he sets them out in the grain fields so that it burns down everything they have. so that it burns down all their produce. And the reason that it does this is if we look back in our text, we had something that qualified this early on that would, it's just easy to pass by in the opening statements of chapter 15, and that's at what time it was. So this was obviously, he did this in a short period of time, because it was still within the time of this harvest. You see what I'm saying? It didn't take, it says, after some days, this is after he went off to his father, at the time of wheat harvest. You see what I'm saying? So they had, they had grain laying down and they had some still standing. They were harvesting it out and everything was dry. You see what I'm saying? Everything was dry. And so Samson takes these foxes and he ties this torch between pairs of them and sets them out to set everything on fire. Yeah, they didn't have a very good life. So we could go very, many crazy allegorical places with this. I think, I mean, some commentators, they go way out here and there. There can be, and some commentators see a parallel here between Gideon and the 300. We can kind of see that. We can kind of see the same thing going on. Except Samson, I think a point that's interesting is Samson, with all his time here, he never uses actual men to help him fight. He doesn't. He's alone. He uses 300 foxes here, but it's what he caught. We'll see that time and time again. He went and killed the 30 men and got the changes of clothes by himself. We'll see him later on killing way more than that, of course, with the jawbone. And so he's always by himself. So that's the difference there, but Gideon those are parallel with him and torches and not 300 foxes But 300 men if you remember what they had done there and God had dwindled that number down to make Gideon trust in the Lord and so we can see a parallel there, but I'm not going to go any Allegorical place that some might want to go with that. This was simply a thing that happened within history Okay, what I mean by that? I don't think it's written down just to give us some motif of something greater. You see parallels of that within the Bible, that things that actually aren't historical and sort of allegorical. But here, I simply believe that Samson was a man, his wife was given to one of his fellows. And so because of that, he literally caught 300 foxes. He literally put torches between two sets of them and literally set them off into the fields. Okay, that's what I believe happened here. And in that, I think we can see a bigger picture of what we mentioned before. What's the purpose of all this? At this time, historians say that at this time would have been the harvest, they would have been giving to their false gods. This would have been the time that they reap things and they give spools and spools of it to their false gods so that they might get more next season. And so what God had told us, although the parents didn't know it at the time, is that through Samson marrying this Philistine woman, that his purposes would still be wrought out. it would still be accomplished. And so even though what Samson is doing may not be looking in that direction, he's simply wanting revenge, it seems. He's wanting revenge on the Philistines for what they had done to him here. This food, this grain that would have been offered up to these false gods is now indeed a burnt offering to the one and true God by his messenger, by his judge. You see, and this is how God works things out. Although people don't understand it at the time, and although their motives may be totally self-centered, we see God's purposes working through every bit of it. This is known in the theological world, I'll hit you with a big, it's not really a big word, but compatibilism. That's what this is known as. It means that although men seek to do their own pleasure, God's purposes and justice is being wrought through all of it. We can see this with the cross. Right? Although you had all these different people seeking their own gain within the crucifixion of Christ, we see one of the greatest things that's ever happened to mankind there, and that's the redemption. The redemption from sin. But if you had talked to Pontius Pilate and said, oh yeah, this is how the world, the elect of God will be saved, right? Pontius Pilate would not know what you're talking about. Yet he was working God's purposes through all those things. And that's what we're seeing in the life of our judge here, of the Judge Sampson. And so he burns down these fields. Not only that, was they not able to give to the false gods, but this, in the terms that we think, would have wrecked their economy. This has totally wrecked them. That's what they sold for money. Not only that, that's what they ate. That was nourishment. That's how they survived. And so this is a great blow to the people now. So let's keep going for the sake of time, or I'm gonna do like I did last time. Let's look in six through eight. Six through eight. So the Philistines see what's going on here, it says in six. Then the Philistines said, who has done this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnath, because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion. Excuse me. And the Philistines came up 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. And he struck them hip and thigh with a great blow. and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Edom. So here we see the Philistines are searching out for the one who did this to them, much in the same way. We can see parallels off of the Bible of, you know, Judges, of Samson and Gideon here. If you remember the same thing that happened to Gideon when he had tore down that altar that was on his father's property with his servants, they'd come the next morning and said, who did it? And his father had justified, his defense of Gideon was, well, cannot this God, you know, defend himself, right? And that's why Gideon was given the name Jeroboam. But anyway, we can see that connection here. So the Philistines in the same way are searching out who did this. And they are told that it was Samson. And in their eyes, he's still married to the Philistine woman. That's how they identify him. The man that was married to that Philistine woman, he is the one who done that to us because his wife was given to his companion, his friend. So they make good on their threat. They make good on what they had told her before. If you remember in 1415, this was her, Samson's wife's whole justification on tricking Samson. Right? Remember 14 and 15 there? On the fourth day, they said to Samson's wife and Tasha, her husband, to tell us what the riddle is. At least we burned you and your father's house with fire. uh, have you invited us here to impoverish us? Right? So their whole thing was, well, have you just invited us here so you can take these 30 times the clothes from us so your husband can trick us. See, that's what they were getting at. And so because of this, they, they hear that, uh, all the grains burnt down in their olive orchards. So because of that, they might get on their promise and they burned her and her father a lot, most likely in their house. Right. most likely in their house. They make good on their promises. And so we see again, we've seen it many, many times in the book of Judges, we see the grime and the filth of depravity. We see the sin here and how it's infested all these nations, all these peoples to the point that they would burn these people alive for the burning of their grain. So the very thing that she tried to stop, this is God's justice coming back upon her. The very thing she tried to stop by manipulation was done to her anyway. The very thing that she tried to trick her husband into getting out of, instead of going before him like she should have, as his helpmate, and said, these men are threatening me, you need to do something about it. Her tricking him in that way, by saying, of all things, that he did not love her, being manipulative, has come back on her own head. And she's burnt anyway. Right. I think we can see a lot of parallels there within these characters. There is indefinitely here in the way that we think. It seems as though a lot of times within our life that sin gets us out of a lot of things. Seems like. It seems like it at the time. Right. We can, you know, just lie. Especially like when we're kids. You know what I'm saying? Just your mom and dad. Did you do this? No. Just lie and get your way out of it, just sin. You know what I'm saying? We try to justify ourselves in doing all these things and using sin to get out of hardship instead of relying on God. When in reality, I believe that that's the thing that brings those things upon us. The true hardship upon us is the sin that we commit, you see? So anyway, I think we can see that pattern there. So because of this, we're told there in our text that Samson strikes the men with a great blow. And the phraseology that's used there is hip and thigh, hip and thigh. And no commentator that I could find understands what this means. It's a phraseology in Hebrew that was seemingly lost somehow, but I mean, that's what it means, hip and thigh, based on understanding culturally what it was talking about there. But, okay, so I'll give you some options here. So I believe that what it is saying is he literally destroyed their legs. And that was a great blow. So within battle, in this time, if you got hit anywhere within your legs, it stopped mobility and most of the time got you killed anyway. Even the smallest of wounds that could have been helped weren't done to the legs most of the time got you killed within battle. Well because you couldn't move around and so you're kind of just a just a sitting target you see what I'm saying and so I think that may be what it's getting at there that this was a devastating blow to these men that he hurt them in such a way that they could not continue in battle and most likely were just killed. You see what I'm saying? Now, some commentators, it may be, but they think that Samson fought them with his hands behind his back and just kicked them around, literally, hip and thigh. Yeah, he literally just kicked them all, kicked them around. I don't know, I don't really see that there, but that's how some, I'm talking big commentators see that text. He basically, they were so small compared to him, he just kind of kicked them around and it wasn't no big deal, kind of the way he handled the line. In any regard, I don't think those things necessarily mean a whole lot, but the main thrust of the story here is that Samson did fight these men and he conquered them. But those are some views for that. We then leave off with Samson staying in this cleft of the rock here at Edom. Lots of people do different things to that. We can see motifs of the cleft, as with Moses and things of that nature, or it could just simply mean that he's staying in a cave. You see what I'm saying? So we can go multiple places with that. There is motifs through the Bible that use that kind of language. The cleft of the rock, we can see it in Isaiah a lot. Some commentators point back there. But I think that what the thrust is here is he simply didn't go back to his father's house. He went and he was alone. in that this is what it's getting at, I think. Like I said, lots of people go different ways with it. Samson sought to build a home with a woman that he was forbidden to be with. He sought to build what really, I think, every man's desire should be, and that's to have a wife and children. But he sought it in the wrong regard. And so where that left him was not in a house, not filled with a loving wife, not filled with loving children, but it left him in the cave alone. This is where his sin has brought him. So he doesn't go home to any family that he has, because the wife he did have was first of all given to his friend, then burned. He simply goes to the cave to be alone. And I just think that's the wages of sin that are coming upon him. Did you think maybe that all that he had done would finally get back to his parents? Because he kept a lot of stuff from his parents, because he knew he was doing wrong. And he knew that if they had known what he had done, they would surely say something to him. And so, this has went so far that you know all this is out of the bag. In other words, his parents probably got word of all that Samson did here, all the way down, no doubt. So, he couldn't face them. I don't know. I think he was depressed. Yeah. I think he just... I don't know. I don't know. I think he went... I think he was moping. Yeah. Could... I think all those are valid. Yeah. It's hard in certain aspects of the text when it just gives us little snippets. We talked about this with the minor judges. You know, there's these little snippets. We can only see certain things. We can see grand things, but not, you know, the minute. And so we're simply told here that this is what he does. He goes to these caves seeking solitude, I believe. Because I think we could tie all those things in just to understand that Samson was a man and he had to process all these things and deal with all these things. And he had already in his life seen a lot of gore, seen a lot of blood, and just seen the grime of sin. I mean, some of it was brought upon himself. Some of it was just the state in which he lived. But in all these things, we talked about it last time, we'll talk about it again. I want us to see big picture and that the whole time in the book of Judges, what have we been looking for? A Savior. Been looking for a Savior. Yeah, it ain't come yet. Samson's not it. No. We started off this just looking from a human perspective as his credentials looked really, really good. Look, he was called from the womb. We hadn't seen that with any other judge. And yet he's still not the one to come and crush the head of this serpent. How do we know? He can't keep his own vow, let alone the law of God. let alone keep the covenant indefinitely for the people. He can't do it. He can't help himself, let alone the people. It talks about this in Hebrews. The priests, what did they have to do before they could mediate for the people? What did they have to do? Sacrifices for themselves. Sacrifices for their self. Why? Because they were sinful. So could they help someone get out of something they themselves couldn't get out of? No. I'm sorry. They could not. They were in the same state that the people were. And that's what we find here with Samson. He's in the exact same state that we are. Depraved. And apart from God's hand upon him, that's where he'll stay. No man can save himself. Remember what we read in Psalms? No man can save himself, for the price is too much. It is too much. And I think in Samson as well, lots of times within the Old Testament, we see these antitypes. See these antitypes. What do I mean by that? Samson was supposed to be set apart from the womb. Right? What is that? What is that? What's another word for set apart? Holy, for holy men, set apart. You know what I'm saying? Not common. This is what Samson was supposed to be. But what is he? Common. He's common. More than common. Yeah, more than common. He's done all these horrendous things. He beat 30 men to death for their clothes. You know what I'm saying? He married this woman that he was forbidden to marry. He's already done all these things and disqualified himself. That's what James talks about, right? You break one law, what happens? You broke them all. That's the law of God. And so because of that, Samson's not able to save anyone, just like we've seen before. But he was supposed to be the holy one, set apart. Yet he has sin, both with Christ. Although he looks as though he was common. Was he a great warrior? Now, he was all powerful, don't get me wrong. But was he a great warrior? Like they looked at Samson, oh, you defeated 30 men, you done all this? No, what did they look at him? He's a simple carpenter, that's what the Pharisees said. He comes from this small town here. He seemingly is Nazareth. Now we know that's not true. Okay, don't get me wrong. But he seemed as though he would not amount to anything. He was just some simple carpenter from Nazareth. But in that, he was the one who was sinless. He was the greatest. He was the one who indeed conquered, and he conquered in the flesh. You see what I'm saying? He conquered as a man. Because that's how, that's what was required. The death and the payment of man. The wages of sin is death. And that's what Christ done for us in the flesh. Those bulls and goats weren't people. Can bulls and goats atone for the sins of people? No, they're not people, but Christ was indeed the perfect man. And unlike those priests, when he went to sacrifice, there was no sacrifice for himself because he was perfect. because he was the one true high priest. So when he made the sacrifice, it was a sacrifice of himself with our sins put upon him, the same as the scapegoat. And so we can see that motif there. But we're, again, going over time. That is amazing. I've never seen that before. All these great men come and people look at him and thought, well, maybe he's the one. Look what he's accomplished. And yet, Jesus, you know, they wanted him to conquer, they wanted him to rule Israel, but he never went. He was forced, he never killed, he never, yeah, he never done like these. Jesus, Jesus done great things in marriage. Oh he did. That, so don't, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying nothing accompanied Jesus to show that he was the Messiah. Everything accompanied Jesus to show he was the Messiah. No, he done greater than all of them. Absolutely. Right. He healed the blind, something that I don't think has ever been done before and all those things. But as far as the way, I'm just talking from a man's perspective. Right. If you look at the study of these two men, the way as far as men see glory, they would think, oh, look at Samson. Right. He can fight 30 men. You know what I'm saying? But Christ made himself of no reputation. He could have been the greatest man. Yeah, he could. Absolutely. Yeah. That wasn't his mission. Right. You got it. And that's what I was trying to get at there. Hopefully that wasn't too, I was trying, I had more on that, but I was trying to get it in within the time. So, but I'll talk about that more with anybody that has misunderstandings of what I was saying. Maybe I didn't put that too clear, but let's pray together, shall we? Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you how it impacts us. I thank you that although we see that these men are sinful, that they are not the one to come, that we can indeed look to the one who was to come, and that is Christ Jesus. We can look to him now, seated in glory, and long for the day when we shall be with him. Give us strength now to this end. In Christ's name I pray, amen.