Breaking Badly 10: The Book of Judges

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Speaker 1: So welcome to Breaking Badly Episode ten, Samson Strength without Transformation. So what happens when God raises up a deliverer? But the deliverer looks just like everybody else but stronger? Right? He is strong, He is gifted and chosen by God, but spiritually disconnected. And that's the story of Samson, and it may be the most unsettling story of the entire Book of Judges. Welcome to Gospel Rant Podcast. To doctor Bill Senord YouTube channel, I'm your host, doctor Bill Sinyard. We're free wherever you get good podcasts, of course on YouTube as well, so please subscribe. As always, one of the fastest ways you can help us grow is by leaving your comments below if you're watching on YouTube, or emailing me at Bill at gospel dash app dot com with your thoughts and comments. Thank you, Thank you ahead of time. Also thanks for making Gospel Rant podcast one of the top ten percent in the world. Thank you for listening every week. We hope that it helps to regularly hear about God's love that loves the unlovable, unloved, unlovely, unworthy and unlikely. And that's all of us on any given day. If we were just a little bit honest, me too. I want to get right into it. After this brief word from our sponsors, we'll be right back. The Book of Judges is part of what scholars call the Deuteronomistic history. It runs from Deuteronomy through the books of Kings, and it tells one long story with a clear message. God's people have consistently failed to live up to their calling. No judgment, that seems to keep going. But they've done it again and again. But at the same time, God's been faithful. He has remained astonishingly faithful. The story is not just about Israel's failure, It's about God's relentless pursuit. God's desire has always been to have a people who live in relationship with him, a people who know his presence, enjoy his goodness, and become a light to the nations. But Israel, and frankly the Christian Church today struggles deeply with that relationship. Right that's I'm not telling you anything you don't know, and the reason is something deeply human. The Hebrew phrase lipne eloheen means before the face of God, literally right before the nose of God. That's the place where people encounter him personally. But many people instinctively avoid that place, right, I mean why because of shame. When we imagine looking up into God's eyes that close, we assume we're going to see his disappointment in us, or condemnation or rejection. So instead of moving toward God, we build substitutes. Ancient Germanic tribes had a concept of honor called aire. It was honor given by other people. It could be gained or lost. Quickly you succeed, people praise you, you fail, honor disappears. It was something you had to constantly defend and protect. That's pretty familiar. Many of us live the same way. We search for honor. We search for identity and achievements, approval, recognition. But the honor God intends for people is very different. It's not earned, it's given by nature. It's given to failures. It flows from being created in the image of God and his presence alongside of us. That kind of honor cannot be taken away, and it can only be truly experienced in this presence of God, or in a New Testament sense, with the presence of the Holy Spirit. Judges Chapter thirteen begins with the familiar phrase again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord. This time, the oppression lasts forty years under the Philistines. But something unusual happens here for the first time in Judges. Israel does not hear that. Israel does not cry out to God. Not only is there no repentance, there's no cry for help. They have become spiritually numb. And maybe I'm being too kind. They are just resigned to oppression, like people who have lived in capacity so long they no longer imagine what freedom looks like. But God he intervenes anyway. An angel appears to a woman who cannot have children, and she's going to give birth to a son. He will be a Nazarite from birth, meaning set apart to God and the well least, that's the hope. You know the story. The angel says something important. He will begin the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines. I love that, all right. Don't overlook that word. Don't jump too fast. Notice the word begin. Samson is not going to complete the work, He's only going to start it. The final redemption comes from the perfect and final Judge, Jesus. This birth story echoes another one just a few pages later in scripture the story of Samuel, I unpack and contrast those stories of the two mothers in my book Dance Daughters are the Most High Boy. I recommend that to you. It's on Amazon and Kindle. Samuel is also born to a previously barren woman. Both boys are dedicated to God, both are associated with Nazarite like vows. But the contrast between the families are striking. Samuel's father, el Kana, regularly goes to Shiloh to worship, so he lives inside the story of God, not Samson. Samson's father, Manoah, shows little spiritual awareness. When the angel appears, Manoa doesn't even wreckon. He didn't understand what's going on. He doesn't recognize what's going on. Eventually he realizes he has encountered God and he panics. He says, we're all going to die, like there's no sense of Yahweh's mercy, compassion and kindness and pursuit of failed people, of unlovable people, of unworthy people just doesn't resonate yet, only fear. Samuel's mother, Hannah, lives in deep relationship with God. She prays, she wrestles with God. Ultimately she trusts his goodness even in suffering. Not Samson's mother, she's never named. She appears spiritually passive. She receives the message but doesn't pursue God. Further, Hannah dedicates Samuel completely to God. He sends him to live at Shiloh. In fact, Samson's parents they don't seem to raise him with that kind of devotion. The child Samson, who is meant to be set apart for God, grows up largely disconnected from God's story. Even the names tell the story. Samuel means something like his name is God. Samson's name is connected to the Hebrew word for son, something like little son, probably a reference to a local son deity. Even in naming the promised child, Samson's parents appear influenced by surrounding pagan culture. Well, despite all this spiritual confusion, God still intervenes. That's God's mercy and compassion. That's what he always does. None of us are worthy. God intervenes, and it's his intervention that makes us worthy. The very unlikely Samson is empowered by the spirit of God. He possesses supernatural strength. But Samson, I guess this is an understatement, is deeply flawed. He's impulsive, driven by emotion, self focused. His actions are rarely about Israel. They are about his own desires, his own revenge, his own honor. Sampson never rallies Israel. He never leads a national battle. He never restores worship. His story is intensely personal. Samson has incredible power, but power doesn't change. His heart never does, neither does strength. He continues doing what seems right in his own eyes. The theme of Judges, he looks less like a servant of Yahweh and more like a hero from the surrounding pagan cultures. Even his victories feel personal rather than redemptive, and this brings us back to the angel's prophecy. Samson would begin Israel's deliverance, but he would not finish it. The story of Judges ends with the sense that something is terribly wrong in God's people, something is terribly missing. Israel needs something more than a stronger judge. They need something entirely different. They need a savior, They need a rescuer Jesus. And that points forward to another birth story, another miraculous child born to a woman through divine announcement. But unlike Samson, this child will live perfectly aligned with God in God's story, and he will say, not my will, but yours be done, meaning God's. He will not use power for himself, he will give his life for others, and through him, the true deliverance will finally come. Not just freedom from enemies and a little bit of a breather from oppression, but freedom from sin, shame, death, and the endless for honor. What's next I will let you know after this brief word from our sponsors. So I've been talking about Good Enough Parent. Well about another book, Good Enough Christian. It's a sequel to Good Enough Parent. Here's the back cover. Why so many Christians feel stuck and how to experience more So, just listen. Are you a Christian who believes the Gospel but doesn't feel loved by God? You're not alone. If you've ever felt spiritually stuck. If you've quietly wondered why the abundant life Jesus promised feels out of reach. If you've sat in church hoping to feel loved, yet left unchanged. If you haven't felt that inner stirring for a long while, maybe you've already left church for well, you know lots of reasons. The pattern is unmistakable. Sincere Christians who love Jesus but feel stalled in their faith rebellious, not apathetic, wondering if they've somehow become a disappointment to God. With warmth, honesty, biblical depth, and disarming humor, the book invites readers into a shame free exploration of why so many believers struggle to experience the love of Christ, not just believe it intellectually. You'll discover why feeling spiritually underwhelmed is more common than you think, hidden obstacles that dull our experience of God's love, The role of the Holy Spirit in making Christ's love real, not theoretical, how your brain, background and church culture shape your faith experience a gentler, more grace saturated path forward. So this is not a call to try harder. It's an invitation to experience more. If you've ever wanted to ask, without shame, what does the love of Jesus actually feel like? This book was written for you. Welcome to good enough Christian. Check it out, get copies to your church and Bible study book club, use it for private devotions. It's not long, but it's packed. Yeah, enjoy final reflection. So here's the question this story leaves us with, where are we looking for our honor, our belonging, our security. Are we chasing the fragile honor of the world or receiving the unshakable honor that comes from God. Because Samson reminds us of something important, Even incredible strength cannot rescue us or set us free. Only the true deliverer can do that. Well, thanks for listening to Breaking Badly. Next time, we'll begin exploring the final chapters of Judges, where the story reaches its darkest point and shows why Israel ultimately needed something far greater than a judge. They needed a king, and even more than that, they needed a savior. See you next time, Take heart, child of God.