Going blind

Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison (Judges 16:21).

I Imagine that you've probably seen a lion or two in the zoo. You know how big these cats can get; you know how dangerous they can be. Imagine encountering one as you are out walking—how would you survive, if you were unarmed?

Samson encountered a lion when he was walking along a road. Samson had no weapons except his bare hands, but using his amazing strength, he grabbed hold of the ferocious cat and tore it apart, killing it. Samson had such incredible power because God was with him. God enabled Samson to accomplish many amazing feats of strength.

Samson lived in Israel after Joshua had died but before the nation had a king. God was the only official leader the people had, but sometimes He would appoint someone to step forward and defend His people from their enemies; Samson served God in this way for 20 years.

The enemies that Samson fought against were called the Philistines. They were a race of powerful sailors and warriors who had settled what is known today as the Gaza Strip. They had advanced weapon-making technology, and harassed the communities of Israel for many years. They were a heathen nation; instead of praying to our Father in heaven, they built temples for the worship of Dagon, a large fish that they treated as a god. These were the enemies of Israel that Samson was set apart to combat.

Because God was with him, Samson performed impossible feats. When the Philistines gave Samson’s fiancée to another man in marriage, Samson went out and caught 300 foxes. He then tied these foxes together in pairs by their tails, and set those tails on fire. In their desperation to find shelter, these foxes hid among piles of wheat, subsequently destroying most of the Philistine’s harvest. On another occasion, a group of Philistines tried to kill Samson. Caught unarmed, he picked up the jawbone of a dead donkey and used this improvised weapon to kill 1,000 of Israel’s enemies. And when the Philistines thought that they had Samson cornered in a walled city at night, he ripped up the city gate, along with its supporting posts, and carried the entire thing off into the mountains with him as he made his escape. Samson was empowered by God, and so was able to do these amazing feats of strength.

But today’s lesson takes us to a point twenty years later in Samson’s life. How things had changed! We are told, Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. Having finally captured Samson, the Philistines blinded him, and to add insult to injury, they took him to one of their cities and set him to work as a slave. There was no electric power in those days; to grind corn and wheat into flour, they used manual power. Grain was placed between two very heavy millstones, one placed on top of the other. Poles were attached to the upper stone, and either animals or slaves were chained to these poles and made to turn the millstone for hours on end; flour was the result. This was the humiliating, agonizing task that Samson was enslaved to.

It was a pitiful sight. The man who had been chosen by God to deliver Israel from her enemies—the man who had started off so powerfully, and served God for 20 years—now found himself blind and enslaved in a miserable life. But Samson’s blindness didn’t happen suddenly. Samson had been blind a long time before his eyes were gouged out. It was a gradual development, going hand-in-hand with his gradual loss of trust in, and obedience to, God.

Samson’s parents were strong believers. I’m sure that they spent many hours teaching Samson God’s words from the Books of Moses, and that they held him up to God in their prayers for a happy and safe life in the Lord’s service. And Samson was a good boy; God groomed him from childhood to be Israel’s protector. But when Samson reached the age where he started making decisions for himself, he was soon spending time with the very Philistines he had been raised to defend against. Before long, he fell in love with one of these fish-worshipping girls. His father asked, Isn't there an acceptable woman among your relatives or among all our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife? But in spite of his parents’ pleading, Samson was adamant, he said Get her for me. She's the right one for me, and so his parents gave in and arranged the marriage (Judges 14:3-4). Samson had taken the first step towards becoming blind and enslaved in a miserable life.

There are lessons here for both parents and their children. Parents: just because your child wants something is not sufficient reason to give it to them. All too often, parents give in to their children’s demands. Sometimes parents give in because they feel that if you love someone, you must give them whatever they want; other times, parents give in because they do not want to risk losing the love of their child. And sometimes parents allow their children to have their way because the child’s whining just wears them down. But no parent should ever let their child get away with telling them, "I’m not going to church today." No parent has the right to give up on their God-given responsibility for their children’s spiritual training. While it is true that parents must gradually allow their children to make their own decisions, they must never be a party to bad decisions. If only Samson’s parents had not given in to his demand, maybe things would have turned out differently for their son.

There is also a lesson here for youth. In the Fourth Commandment, God tells us to honor our parents; this includes respecting their wisdom. Samson’s parents knew that it is risky to surround oneself with friends who do not believe in the Lord; all too often, such friendships lead a believer away from the faith. This is why God insisted that Joshua lead the people in sweeping non-believers out of the Promised Land; when you spend time with non-Christians, it is easy to start ignoring your faith. Samson’s parents knew this, and Samson would have done well to heed their good advice.

Samson wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted to be God’s chosen warrior, but he did not like the self-discipline that must be a part of having responsibility. When his first fiancée was lost to him, Samson did not learn from his mistake; he went ahead and married Delilah, another Philistine woman. He fell out of the habit of worshiping and praying to God. He even visited a prostitute. Lack of self-discipline got Samson into trouble, and resulted in becoming blind and enslaved in a miserable life.

Back in 1940, E. Stanley Jones remarked, "what Americans need is more self-discipline." That was over 60 years ago—but how true it is in 2008! If people want contentment and happiness, they must practice self-discipline. Paul writes, the grace of God that brings salvation…teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives (Titus 2:11-12). Peter says, The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray (1 Peter 4:7). These passages, along with many others, call for us to practice self-discipline.

Indulging our desires without regard to the consequences is to act blindly, and can easily lead to enslavement in a miserable life. The little girl who binges on chocolate will suffer for it. The student who cannot make himself study will run into problems. The grown man who cannot control his temper will pay a price, as will the woman who cannot control her spending. Lack of self-discipline resulted in misery for Samson, and that danger awaits us as well. When you are suffering, before you blame anybody else, take a good look at how you ended up where you are—perhaps it was a lack of self-discipline that has brought you to your current situation.

Samson had been a believer. God gave him the power to kill a lion bare-handed, defeat every Philistine that opposed him, and act as Israel’s protector for 20 years. But everything was going so well for Samson that he forgot that he needed the Lord’s constant support. He forgot about praying. He forgot about God. He ended up a braggart who put his trust in his own abilities. That is why he ended up in blind misery.

Success and money are wonderful blessings when we thank God for them and put them to use in His service. But when these blessings are taken for granted or used selfishly, they frequently lead people to forget about God and focus on themselves. America is the richest nation in the world, and the number of Christians in our country is shrinking as our wealth and power and contentment grows. Wallowing in the pleasures of life easily distracts us from God, as we spend more and more of our time on ourselves instead of in service to Him.

People often wonder how they got into trouble. How did I get so far into debt? How did I lose the love in my marriage? How did my children end up so rebellious? How did I end up trapped in a job that I hate? And then they say, "Church? I don’t have time for that—my plate is full enough already." Their encroaching blindness has led them into misery and despair, and prevented them from seeing their only true source of rescue from their slavery. And it happened so slowly that they didn’t see it coming. The Bible tells us that Samson didn’t even realize what had happened--he did not know that the LORD had left him (Judges 16:20). If you had asked him "are you a believer?" he would undoubtedly been insulted and claimed, "Of course I am. Are you?"

God steps away from people in the hope of drawing them back. In spite of all that Samson had done, God still loved him and worked to get Samson’s attention. The Philistines were having a great celebration to honor their fish-god. To humiliate Samson even more, they brought him into the temple to make fun of him. In the depth of his misery, Samson finally came to his senses. He remembered his parents’ faith. He remembered their love of God, and how God had blessed him in the past. And suddenly, Samson was praying again. He asked God to forgive him, and to give him strength to serve the Lord one last time. God forgave Samson, and restored his incredible strength to him. Samson grabbed the two center pillars holding up the roof, and demonstrated once more that the fish-god had no power to do anything, that all true power comes from the Triune God. Using the Lord’s strength, Samson knocked down the roof supports, and the building collapsed, crushing a great many Philistine rulers and religious leaders, ending the lives of more enemies of God than Samson had accomplished in the previous 20 years of his life.

Our Lord waits for every straying person to return to Him. He went so far as to send His Son Jesus to suffer and die for our shabby treatment of God, so that we can return to Him, not fearing His anger, but believing that He will forgive us and take us back. Jesus’ loving arms are always open in welcome. It is critical that we accept our Savior’s embrace while we are living, lest we exchange His embrace for the embrace of eternal death. Do you know someone like Samson, who is blindly going his or her own way into slavery to misery? Speak to them and pray for them, because Samson teaches us that until the day that we die, it is never too late to turn back to the Lord in repentance. And above all, pray for yourself every day, that you never succumb to slowly encroaching blindness and need to be called back yourself.