Faith & The Victorious Defeat
Hebrews 11:32-34 & Judges 16:4-6, 18-30 | God has faithfully provided salvation for us through one man’s victorious defeat.
Faith & The Victorious Defeat
Hebrews 11:32-34 & Judges 16:4-6, 18-30
Main Idea: God has faithfully provided salvation for us through one man’s victorious defeat.
I. A Problematic Judge (16:4-6, 18-21)
Samson, the final judge of Israel, was to be a Nazirite “from the womb to the day of his death” (Jdg. 13:7). A Nazarite vow (Num. 6) meant an individual was consecrated & set apart for the Lord & included:
Abstaining from drinks from the “vine”
Avoiding contact with the dead
Growing out hair for the length of the vow
Samson was as weak morally as he was as strong physically. When he is not saving Israel, he is being Israel; he constantly does “what is right in his own eyes,” is driven by the “lust of the flesh and the pride of life” (cf. 1 Jn. 2:16), and continually disregards his Nazirite vow.
Samson foolishly leads Delilah closer and closer to the secret of his strength until it is too late; he has been so seduced in his sin that “he did not know that the Lord had left him” (16:20). His sin ends up blinding and binding him, which is always the trajectory of sin unchecked.
The life of enduring faith acknowledges the seductive nature of sin, sees the end result, & turns away in repentance from it’s devastating consequences.
II. A Promise-Keeping God (16:22-27)
Despite the sin of Samson, his presumption of strength & God’s favor, and his disregard for his Nazarite vow - “the hair of his head began to grow again” (16:22). This important for 2 reasons:
1. The Philistines are Foolish
They assume that they have conquered Israel’s mighty champion & that Dagon, their ‘god,’ has delivered him into their hands. They do not consider what Samson’s hair represents about his relationship with God
Isaiah 42:8: “I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.”
2. The Lord is Faithful
Samson’s hair growing back is a reminder of God’s grace that always runs deeper than we can imagine. Underneath all of the rebellion of Israel & the sin of Samson, the Lord remains faithful at every turn to his promises and his people.
“[The Philistines] knew nothing of the God who does the unexpected, whose strength is made perfect in weakness, and who never breaks his word. [They did not know] that God had said years before that Samson would be a Nazirite ‘to the day of his death’ (13:7). His abandonment of his servant at the time of his capture could not but be temporary. The promise was bound to hold, however Samson might despise it. There is grace abounding to the chief of sinners.” ~ Michael Wilcock
God’s faithful plans are not thwarted by the sinful actions of his judge nor the sinful contentment of his people. He will “never break his covenant” (Jdg. 2:1) and even “if we are faithless, he remains faithful” (2 Tim. 2:13).
III. A Prophetic Death (16:28-30)
The mighty Samson has been humbled and humiliated in this final scene of his life; he is doing the work of a woman or a slave (grinding flour), is blinded, and is being brought out for mockery & entertainment. But in this state of weakness, Samson exercises faith for maybe the first time.
“The Samson narrative begins with a strong man who is revealed to be weak, but it ends with a weak man who is stronger than he ever was before” ~ David Jackman
Despite his massive flaws, perhaps no other single OT figure sets the stage for Christ as Samson does. Consider their striking similarities:
Births are announced by angels & miraculous
They are both rejected & handed over by their own people
Experienced betrayal by someone they loved
Were put on display for entertainment & asked to perform
Acted as saviors alone
They both up crushing their enemies in a victorious defeat
Faith & Weakness
Hebrews 11:32-34 & Judges 6:1-16 | The way of enduring faith is the way of weakness.
Faith & Weakness
Hebrews 11:32-34 & Judges 6:1-16
Main Idea: The way of enduring faith is the way of weakness
I. Asking the Wrong Question (6:1-10)
The “Judges Cycle” begins again with the people of Israel sinning & undergoing oppression from the Midianites. They devoured their crops and livestock and left them “with no sustenance” (6:4) to eat or sell for economic gain. They are starving and forced to hide out in caves, being brought “very low” (6:6).
The people of Israel cry out for a deliverer, but God sends them a prophet; they want a savior, but he sends them a sermon. This prophet is a rebuke to the Isrealites that before they cry out for deliverance from their circumstances, they ought to be asking: “Why are we here in the first place?”
There are two issues that the people of Israel are missing:
They have regret, but not repentance (cf. 2 Cor. 7:10)
They see no issue with their “worship” of God combined with idolatry
II. Assuming the Wrong Reality (6:11-13)
Before the people “listen” (6:10) or truly repent, God sends an “Angel of the Lord” to Gideon. Even though he is hiding out in a hole in fear, he greets him as “O mighty man of valor.” This is how the Lord works: he names us & then he conforms us to that name
Abram & Sarai become Abraham (father of a multitude) & Sarah (princess)
Jacob (liar & deceiver) becomes Israel (he strives with God)
Simon becomes Peter (rock)
We become “citizens and saints,” adopted sons & daughters, & “co-heirs” with Christ
Gideon assumes that the circumstance & the situation that the Israelites find themselves in means that God is not with them. He is assuming that they are forsaken since they are suffering & facing hardship. Likewise, we often believe a sort of “pseudo-prosperity gospel.”
We often cry out “Lord, please remove this problem” rather than praying: “Lord, please make me the kind of person of character who can handle this problem.”
III. Accepting Our Weakness (6:14-16)
Gideon assumes his weakness & his “smallness” are an obstacle for God’s work in his life, failing to realize that his weakness is actually a conduit for the Lord’s grace and power.
“Everything that Gideon needs is supplied in this brief statement: ‘But I will be with you’… Basically, God has nothing else or more to offer you. You can go through a lot with that promise. It does not answer your questions about details. It only provides the essential. Nothing about when or how or where or why. Only the what, or, better, the Who. ‘But I will be with you.’ And that is enough.” ~ Dale Ralph Davis
2 Corinthians 12:7-10: So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
By the end of his life, Gideon is a mixed bag of faithful moments along with devastating sin. Gideon is ultimately an imperfect, broken, picture of what we all really need in Christ. Jesus came to us in weakness and embraced our weakness as his own on the cross “for the joy that was set before him” (Heb. 12:2).
Faith & God's Deliverance
Faith and God’s Deliverance
Main Idea: Faith embraces God’s surprising deliverance on our behalf & gives glory to him alone.
I. Our Problem Again (4:1-3)
Judges takes place between the Exodus & the beginning of the Monarchy in Israel. It tells of the devastating downward spiral of God’s people into greater & greater unfaithfulness. God raised up “judges” to be military leaders & deliverers to rescue the people from the consequences of their sin.
The key verse in Judges (4x): “In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in their own eyes.”
The Judges Cycle:
Sin & False Worship
Oppression
Crying out for Help
God Raises up a Judge
Peace
Like the people of Israel, we too turn back sin “again” because there is a promise of comfort, control, security, and predictability. Idol worship is an attempt to control and manipulate ‘god’ to what we really want and what is “right in our own eyes.”
“An idol is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” ~ Tim Keller
The oppression in the book of Judges is a physical picture of a spiritual reality that is true for everyone: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)
II. God’s Glory Alone (4:4-10)
The book of Judges reminds us over and over again that God’s grace is relentless toward the undeserving. He hears the cries of his people & raises us two people to lead them out of their bondage:
Deborah: prophetess & judge over Israel; the people came to her in order to settle disputes and for wisdom & guidance
Barak: called by God to lead the people in military victory over Sisera & his mighty army. Barak, however, wants assurance that Deborah will join him for this military conquest (4:8)
“What are we witnessing when Barak refuses to set out without this woman? Not cowardice – but faith: faith, that is, which is the glorious combination of a humble confession of his own inadequacy and a sure confidence in the grace of God.” ~ Michael Wilcock
Barak is the one who ultimately shows up in Hebrews 11 as acting in faith; he believes the word of the Lord, as communicated through Deborah, and is willing to lead a seemingly impossible military conquest where he will not receive the glory & where God will deliver his people in a surprising and unexpected way.
III. God’s Victory Accomplished (4:11-16)
The book of Judges reminds us that God is sovereignly in control, no matter what it might look like and even if we have a hard time seeing it. The victory of Sisera shows us this reality.
A seemingly random “re-location” (4:11) is going to led to the death of Sisera (4:17-22)
Deborah instructs Barak to go down from Mt. Tabor, down from their strategic advantage, to the chariots because “the Lord goes out before you” (4:14)
The Lord “routed” the Canaanites and they are defeated before Israel; Judges 5, a song of worship reflecting on this victory, tells us that God brought about a massive thunderstorm (5:4-5) & that the waters of the Kidron river became a flash flood (5:20-21)
Hebrews 11:33-34: “... who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises … were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.”
The unexpected & surprising victory of God is meant to showcase his glory & to call his people out of their sin into an enduring faith. Since we also have been delivered in an unexpected & surprising way (the cross of Christ) from an even greater enemy (sin, death, evil, and Satan) to an even better victory, we are invited to turn to God in an enduring faith and repentance.
“Deborah sang concerning the overthrow of Israel’s enemies, and the deliverance given to the tribes: we have a far richer theme for music; we have been delivered from worse enemies and saved by a greater salvation. Let our gratitude be deeper; let our song be more jubilant. Glory be unto God, we can say that our sins, which were like mighty hosts, have been swept away, not by that ancient river, the river Kishon, but by streams which flowed from Jesus’ side. Our great enemy has been overcome, and his head is broken. Not Sisera, but Satan has been overthrown: the “seed of the woman has bruised his head” forever. We are now ransomed from the galling yoke; we walk at liberty through the power of the great Liberator, the Lord Jesus.” ~ Charles Spurgeon