to the end of the chapter, verse 31. Again, I'd ask that you rise as we honor God who speaks this by His word now, to consider the final act in the life of Samson. Now, the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to dad on their God. They said, Our God has delivered into our hands Samson, our enemy. When the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said, Our God has delivered into our hands our enemy, the destroyer of our land, and the one who multiplied our debt. So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may perform for us. So they called for Samson. from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed in between the pillars. Then Samson said to the latter, who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple so that I can lean on them. Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, about 3,000 men and women on the roof, watching while Samson performed. And Samson called to the Lord, saying, O Lord God, remember me, I pray. Strengthen me, I pray, just as once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines with my two arms. Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, let me die with the Philistines. And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the Lord's, and all the people were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life. And his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtoel in the tomb of his father, Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years. There are, no doubt, many lessons to glean from the life of Job and his sufferings and his fight for faith in the midst of trials. Often that is how we view the book, as the suffering servant Job and what he endured and how he wrestled with God throughout that time and those difficulties. Really, the book of Job, although it bears his name, is not about Job, primarily. It is primarily about God, and his contest with Satan. You remember how it is that Satan came to God in heaven, and the Lord pointed out Job to him and said, look, here's a man of faith. And Satan challenged God and said, yes, sure, he's a man of faith, but only because he's so blessed. And so it was a contest between the assessment of God regarding Job and the assessment of Satan who was right. And in the ups and downs of that book we find in the end that God is victorious over Satan. Job is a man of faith. And though he had again his ups and downs, he is a man who clung to the Lord throughout it all, which is the victory of God more than anyone else. Likewise here, when we come to our passage at the end of Judges 16, we might say to ourselves, here is the final act of Samson and the end of Samson. It's certainly that, but really that's not what this is about, primarily. Rather, it is a contest between an idol named Dagon and the Lord. As the Philistines worship their idol Dagon, giving him the glory and the credit of all that has happened, the Lord comes and demonstrates that idols are a false basis and destroys them all and demonstrates, no, it is the Lord. And it is the Lord alone who is worthy of being trusted and honored, because He and He only is God. There is no other. We see then a contest primarily between the Lord and idols and idolaters, with the Lord decimating the competition as it were. All such instances of the Lord destroying the competition are but a foretaste of when Christ will return in power and glory, and He will then destroy all who oppose Him and will raise up all those who trust in Him for everlasting life. So we have a foretaste in this contest between the idol of Philistines and the Lord God of Israel. With that in mind, then, we'll consider our passage under two headings. First, the praise of Dagon by the Philistines, verses 23 through 27. And then second, the triumph of the Lord by Samson, verses 28 through 31. Remember that by Samson's sin, the Lord had justly chastened him and left him in the hands of his enemies, the Philistines. And they had put out his eyes, and they had bound him in prison, and they gave him the menial and hard work of grinding grain in the midst of the prison house. And so he is humbled by the Lord because of his sin. And because of his sin, the Lord departed from him and allowed this to happen. But how do the Philistines interpret this? Now the Lord to the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their God, and to rejoice, and they said, Our God has delivered into our hands Samson, our enemy. Here we find that they attribute all things to Dagon. They give all the credit and the glory to their idol, to their God, but they're not. Now we might look upon this and say, yes, that's fine, but let's move on to the meat of the story, but we should not lightly pass over this. Whenever a false god is honored, it is a deep offense to the Lord God. What is the very first commandment? You shall have no other gods before my face. And that is a command not only for a specific people. Israel, it is a command for everyone, everywhere, at all times, because there is only one God. And whenever men give the glory and honor that is due to God to some idol, it is a profound provoking of God. It is an insult to God. It is to steal His glory. is honor and to give it to a nothing idol. It is something that angers God and insults Him. And when we see it, we should not easily pass over, but recognize we ought to be angered on behalf of our God, too. We ought to be provoked. On behalf of the name and glory of our God, how could they offer the praise that is due to God alone to dad on their idol? And so as we look at this, we recognize that there is a fence before us. There is a fence before the face of God. And they worship their God in two stages here, as outlined. First, the lords of the Philistines gathered. If you recall, there were five lords of the Philistines in five different cities. It was a conglomeration of five. And they had all bribed and machinated the forcing of secrets from Samson by giving money to Delilah. They were the ones who did that, didn't they? They were the ones who expended themselves. They were the ones who devised this plan. They were the ones who achieved the result of it. They had done all of this, and yet in the end, notice, surprisingly, shockingly, they give all the glory to their God. Perhaps in this they even put us to shame, because they recognize that whatever they have done, it is truly the work of an unseen deity working together all things for their good, as it were. How often do we, as Christians, try to plan something, put in our efforts, strive, and have our ingenuity, and do everything we can imagine, and we achieve the result that we desire, and we congratulate ourselves for all that we have done. We may nod to God, but really it is we who have done it. the Philistines knew better, even though they were idolaters, they gave the credit to their God. What a shame to us if we don't. What a shame to us if we think that their theology is better than ours, and their life and honor to their God is greater than what we give to our God. What a shame it would be to us. Though when we have done all things, we are unprofitable servants, And it is God and God alone to whom the glory is due, to whom the honor and praise is due. He has done wondrous things, not we ourselves, not to us, but to your name be the glory. And so we see these Philistines, boards, giving the honor to Dagon, their god, but then likewise in verse 24, in verse 24, the people also praise their god when they saw Samson so degraded. Our God has delivered into our hands our enemies, the destroyer of our land and the one who multiplied our dead. Here the people, likewise, do not look to their leaders and say, you really did a great job here. Likewise, they honor their God for what he has done, and they say, you have brought this enemy, and they characterize him exactly like that. Wondu is a destroyer of our land and a multiplier of our death. Samson destroyed the crops. He destroyed the vineyards. He burned them all up. Samson slaughtered the Israelites on three separate occasions. One time, killing 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. Clearly he is a great enemy of the Philistines. And they look upon his power and his might and they conclude, Noah wasn't our boss. No one can overcome such a powerful man except our God, Dagon. And so they worship and praise Dagon for this victory. But who exactly is Dagon? Children, do you know who Dagon is? Have you ever heard his name before? You walk around town and you see there's a statue of Dagon there, there's a statue of Dagon here. This may be the very first time you've ever heard his name. Because today he is not important. He has passed away. No one cares about Dagon today. No one even knows who he is. Because he's not a true god. Everyone today still knows who the Lord God is, the God of the Bible, whether they believe in Him or not, they still know who He is because He is the true God. And all the idols of the past have faded away into oblivion as insignificant nothingness, whereas the Lord our God remains today ever praised and worshipped by His people. Who is this Agon then to the Philistines? When we look at the very word dagon, we conclude, as many commentators have, that this was a fish god. The word dag in the Hebrew refers to fish. Likewise, the archaeologists have dug up certain representations of gods by people in this area at this time, and they're in the image of a fish. Further, we recognize that the Philistines were seafaring people, so it makes sense, in their minds at least, to have a fish dog. In 1 Samuel 5.4, in fact, when Dagon falls to the ground and his head and his hands were cut off, literally 1 Samuel 5.4 says, and Dagon remained. Oh, if his hands and his head are cut off, how can Dagon remain? Unless it is saying, though his head and his hands were something like a human, his fish heart, his Dagon heart remained. And so we conclude that Dagon was a statue of a man's face and man's hands and the body of a fish. And these Philistines worshipped this statue. Now just think about that, children. Imagine that next Sunday you walk in here and we've set up this big statue. There's a man's face and a man's hands and the body of a fish. And we tell you, today we're going to sing all our praises to this fish. And we're going to pray to this fish. And we're going to bow down and honor this fish as our God. You would think we'd gone mad, wouldn't you? He would say, what are you talking about? How foolish can you be? It's a fish. Such is idolatry. Idolatry is foolish. Anyone who exchanges the glory of the creator God for the creature is most foolish and miserable. And so were these Philistines. giving the honor that is due to God alone to their statue of a fish. I think about this too, children. If you have a doll or a figurine at home, would you ever set that inanimate object, that toy up and say, the good things that have happened to me today have come because of what this toy has done for me. Praise this toy. That's how foolish these idolaters were. that they would credit this figurine, they would credit this statue, which is at most but a demon, with all the good things that have happened in their lives. Such is the foolishness and the shamefulness of worshiping the Bible. Later on, in 1 Samuel 5, as I alluded to a moment ago, the Philistines capture the Ark of the Covenant, and they bring the Ark into the temple of their god, Dagon, and they set up the Ark of God in front of Dagon, and they revel in their victory, and they triumph, and they praise Dagon. The next morning, Dagon is fallen down on his face from the Ark of the Covenant. And they say, well, we need to get up. He can't do it himself, of course. He's just an idol. A stupid, dumb, foolish, inanimate idol. So let's pick him up and set him up again so we can worship him properly. The next day, the same thing. He's fallen down before the Ark of the Covenant, but this time his head and his hands have been broken off and only the fish bar remains. And so the Lord humiliated those who worship idols and demonstrated His greatness and His glory, and He will do so in our passage as well. There is no God but the one true and living God, and there is no other. And the Lord will make certain that men know this, and that those who worship idols will see the futility of their idolatry. But first, before we see that, we continue with the Philistines in verse 25, reveling in their victory. When their hearts were very no doubt due to wine and the feast, and they were growing joyful and merry in their great victory over Samson, they called for Samson to be brought out so that they can make sport of him, to entertain us. The word entertain us simply is related to the word laugh. They went to laugh at him. Bring him out. That great warrior that has caused us so much trouble, so much damage, bring him out. And let us see that blind man bumbling around and stumbling about and laugh at him and be amused at his pain and misery. They reveled in this victory and they would humiliate and put to shame In a cruel fashion, the man that God had raised up, Samson. But already we begin to see something of their doom into that in our passage. We read in the previous passage, verse 22, that the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven. Were they too drunk or too... caught up in their celebration that they didn't notice his hair was beginning to grow? Or did they think, well, even if it grows and even if there's power somehow connected to it, he's blind, what can he do? And we are told the vast numbers of Philistines that were there as the man Samson puts his hand on the pillars and is guided to them by the lad who takes him about in his blind condition. There were 3,000 men and women and all the lords of the Philistines on the roof of the temple, not even to mention in the body of the temple. All of the leadership, all of the aristocracy, all of those who tormented Israel and oppressed them for so many years, all of them were gathered together in this grand feast and reveling in their idol and the humiliation of Samson. That brings us to our second point. For as we have seen the praise of Dagon, then we turn to the triumph of the Lord by Samson. Samson is reduced to a helpless and desperate estate. He cries out, therefore, to the Lord once more. What can be said of this prayer we read of in verse 28? O Lord, God, remember me, I pray. Strengthen me, I pray, just as once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines from my two eyes. On the one hand, we are very glad to see it. We rejoice to see Samson in need, crying out to the Lord. That's exactly what the Lord designed his trials to do, to humble him, to make him feel his need of God, to cry out to the Lord for help, to cry out to the Lord for grace, no longer to presume on the strength of God that he had yielded so often before, but finally, on his face as it were, to cry out, Lord, help me, not presuming upon that power being given to him, and so is every one of our trials designed to do. Every one of our trials is designed to humble us before the Lord that we may feel our need of Him. How often do we feel ourselves strong or competent, or we have successes and we think, well, I really am sufficient to do these things. And the Lord, therefore, seeing us in our pride, brings us trials that we may humble and recognize, no, I always, at every moment of my life, stand in desperate need of God and His grace. And if for one second He should withdraw His hand from me, His blessed, loving, caring hand from me, then I would be utterly destroyed. And he teaches us that by trials, as in some sense he departs from us and makes us feel our need of him. And so we rejoice to see Samson sensing his need of God, crying out to him. But on the other hand, we are sad to see that he is still twisting in his own sinfulness and selfishness and personal vengeance into this passage. Six times in this short verse, he speaks of I, me, mine. And why is it that he desires for God to help him take vengeance on the Philistine once more? Is it because he hears the praise being offered to Dagon and says, that is an insult to my God. And I would have his name honored and glorified. No, it is for the sake of his eyes, isn't it? Samson was a man who lived by his eyes. It is why the Lord allowed that to take place. He lived by the lust of his eyes, and he did what was right in his own eyes. And when his eyes are taken, he's still thinking about them. Let me take my own personal vengeance, for my eye is so dear to me, not thinking of the glory and honor of God. So we see in this prayer certainly, sin, selfishness, personal vengeance mixed in with faith. Where do we even see that faith might say, well let me cry out to God in the first place, certainly. but also that he is the only one of the Israelites who is willing to fight the enemies of God. Where are the others? Even when Samson is killing a thousand Philistines with a jawbone of a donkey, do any other men of Israel join him? No. He truly is one who stands up, trusting in God to fight the Philistines, as God had called him to do. But he is sinful even to the very end. Mixing sin in with this prayer. How can that be? Are we truly shocked by that? As if we don't know this in our own experience? As if we do not understand the words of the man who spoke to Christ, I believe, help my unbelief. As if we do not appreciate what Paul said in Romans chapter 7, when I will to do good, evil is right there with me. As if we don't recognize that every single act of faith in our lives has been tainted and corrupted in some sense by our own sins. We've never done one pure good act ever, nor will we ever, until we arrive in heaven purified and perfected by the grace of God. Are we shocked, then, to see, in this act of faith, sin mixed in? We shouldn't be, but we understand our own parts. We can be sad, but we ought not to be shocked. And we should recognize that in this sin, even, is greater honor to God. When God uses a sinful, weak instrument to strike a great blow against His enemies, He is glorified all the more. We've seen it throughout the book of Judges. The Lord does not use the commonplace, the expected, the ordinary weapons of war. He uses an army that doesn't have the weapons of war. With Barak and Deborah, He uses an oxtail. He uses trumpets and jars of clay to defeat an army. He uses a donkey's jowl. He uses all of these unconventional, these weak, these less than full military weapons to affect his cause and to bring himself great glory. But when these weak instruments are used, it is a demonstration that it is not in the instruments, It is in the God who ultimately wields it. But notice as well, this is true for human instruments. Here is an instrument fraught with sin and corruption, and the Lord uses him mightily for his own glory, and strikes a great blow through this instrument, who remains riddled with sin to the very end. Who then would say, this story is about the greatness of Samson. No, this story is about the greatness of the God of Samson. The God who is glorified through weak and sinful people such as Leo. Does that not give you hope of how useful you can be to the Lord, even how useful your sin can be to the Lord? that we suddenly say, well then, let us sin that grace may abound. It may never be. But let us be humble that even our sin is used by God for His glory and honor. In verses 29 and 30, then, the Lord does answer this prayer of Samson. Samson took hold of the middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, let me die with the Philistines, and he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the Lord's, and all the people were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he killed in his life. The Lord answers this prayer. As Henry puts it, he forfeited the Lord's grace by his sin, but he regained it by his prayer. And so he dies and knows he will die in the process. Let me die with a philistine. You might look at this and say, is this suicide? No, it is not suicide in the least. It is a combatant dying in battle that is killed in action. Remember, Samson is raised up and empowered by God to kill Philistines. He is authorized and enabled by God. He is looking to the Lord for strength and help, and the Lord grants it to him that he may do this thing. This is not hopelessly giving up in despair and killing yourself contrary to God's will, but this is trusting God to give him grace and strength to one more time face the enemy and destroy them on behalf of God. That is what we see here. This is not suicide. This is sacrifice. Imagine if there were a man on the battlefield and the enemy is closing around him. He's the only one there. No one else is fighting. Everyone else has fled. Everyone else is gone. Soon he'll be captured and tormented and killed. And so instead, he pulls the pin on the grenade. That is not suicide, that is battle. And so too, Samson is sacrificing himself here in order to bring destruction upon the enemies of God. By this sacrifice, we are told, he killed more than by his life. He killed more in death than in life. Matthew Henry puts it this way. He knows that they were destroyed first when they were married, secure, and jovial, and far from apprehending themselves in any danger. How are sinners brought to desolation in their moments? They are lifted up in pride and mirth that their fall may be the more dreadful. Let us never envy the mirth of wicked people, but infer from this instance that their triumphing is short, and their joy but for a moment. Second, it was when they were praising Dad on their God and giving that honor to him which is due to God only, which is no less than treason against the King of Kings, his crown of dignity. Justly, therefore, the blood of these traitors mingled with their sacrifices. It was when they were making sport with an Israelite, a Nazarite, and insulting over him, persecuting him whom God had smitten. Nothing fills the measure of the iniquity of any person or people faster than mocking and misusing the servants of God. Yea, though it is by their own folly that they are brought loathe, those know not what they do, nor whom they affront, but make sport with one of God's people. And that is what they are doing here, and they are destroyed for it. Not only they, but their God. This occurs in the temple of Dagon, Dagon's temple is brought crushing down upon them. Dagon's temple is brought to ruin in the face of the servant of the Lord God. This victory is not merely over the Philistines, but over Dagon. And he is destroyed in this act. And he is put to shame. And what does he give? Nothing. He's a statue. There's nothing he can do against the Almighty Lord of heaven and earth. And so God honors and glorifies his name over and above the God of the Philistines whom they praise. He sees back for himself the honor that was due to his name. God had raised up Samson to begin to deliver his people, and later God would raise up Christ as the deliverer. Samson died, and by his sacrifice he condemned and destroyed. So did Christ, in his sacrifice, in his death. Again, Matthew Henry explains, Christ pulled down the devil's kingdom. as Samson did Dagon's temple, and when he died, he obtained the most glorious victory of the powers of darkness. Then, when his arms were stretched out upon the cross as Samson's to the two pillars, he gave a fatal shape to the gates of hell, and through death destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Samson's death, his sacrifice, destroyed evil, but Christ, ultimately so. For Christ burst asunder the very gates, the very bands of death, and destroyed Satan's kingdom once and for all, striking a fatal blow to the head of that serpent of war. Samson's death reminds us, then, of the death of Christ, But it reminds us of it in another way as well, in contrast to it. Samson died at the very last, corrupted by sin. And all his death accomplished was the destruction of the enemies of God, as great as that was. But the Lord Jesus Christ was perfect. Not one spot or wrinkle on him, he was pure and altogether lovely And when he died, he not only destroyed Satan's kingdom, but he delivered and redeemed his people themselves by his blood. The sacrifice of Christ is far greater than this of Samson. The deficiencies of Samson drive us to consider the all-sufficiency of Christ. Samson sacrificed himself to great effect. Christ to infinite glory and good. In the end, in verse 31, the family of Samson came and brought his body to be buried in his homeland. Samson died and was buried. His 20 year reign ended here. Again, Jesus died but did not remain there, and His reign never ends. The Lord Jesus, because He was pure and holy, was vindicated and burst forth from the grave and ever lives to rule above, whose reign shall never end. You see, everything about Samson that is deficient drives us to consider everything about Christ that is perfect. The story of Samson, you see, is not simply or especially about Samson, but about God. And God's victory over his enemies and God's glory It is not about Samson and his admiration, as if we should look upon him and admire him so greatly. It is about Jesus Christ and his admiration. For wherever Samson fails, Christ succeeds. And when we see here this great victory over God's people, as but a taste of the greater victory that Christ will bring when he returns over all his and our enemies, and for his great glory and honor. The story of Samson is about the greatness of God and our need of the Lord. Let's pray. Fathers, we come before you now, we acknowledge that you are great beyond compare. that there is no way in which we can understand fully your greatness, and that we are desperately in need of you moment by moment. And so, Lord, we pray, we press upon us this need that we would ever be dependent and live dependent upon you, and grant us grace to see in the failures of man, even our own failures, the insufficiency, we cannot save ourselves, we cannot do for ourselves. Grant us grace that we know You are all-sufficient grace, and trust You, and praise and honor You as You are worthy of being praised and honored. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.