This is a true story from several decades ago: Fire investigators on Maui have determined the cause of a blaze that destroyed a $127,000 home last month - a short in the homeowner's newly installed fire alarm system! "This is even worse than last year," said the distraught homeowner, "when someone broke in and stole my new home security system!"
That kind of security is no security at all! We will see that God offers real security to those that believe, and discover a wonderful truth for believers today.
Judges 16:19-20 She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
In this section of the story of Samson, we will see a tremendous difference in the fellowship between the believer and God prior to Christ coming, and after His resurrection.
First let’s just recap and see where Samson is. He has fallen for a woman named Delilah and seems numb to the fact that she continues to seek the secret of his strength.
Each time she thinks she knows, she declares that the Philistines are upon him, but he just shakes them off like dust. It does not seem to bother Samson that Delilah continues to set him up. If he were my disciple I would be very concerned about a clear spiritual arrogance that he is displaying. This kind of thing is nothing to be played around with; still, he seemed not to worry about it at all. Even in his statement this time “I will go out as at other times” exposes a very cavalier attitude concerning a very serious issue.
We also should notice that, even though not stated, it would seem that Delilah must have drugged him or something, for him to sleep through a hair cut would seem unusual for anyone having a normal sleep. Sadly, in the passage that we will look at on another day we will see the terrible end to this mighty man, while at the same time witnessing the sovereign control of God to accomplish His ultimate desire. Right now I want to consider a very important statement:
“But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.”
This is one of the BIG differences between the believer before Christ came and after. It is important for several reasons and we would be wise to learn from this.
First, we need to understand the absolute security we have as far as relationship to God. All those that are believers, Old Testament and New Testament are secure in their relationship. Both are save by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! Whether it be the old testament saint that believes that God WILL send His redeemer, or the New Testament saint that believes God DID send His redeemer, both are in the family of God. However, in “fellowship” not all children of God were equal! The believer of the Old Testament could, due to sin, lose the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life. This would open the door to many terrible things, including uncontrollable sin, and even demonic attack with no presence of the Spirit to control that attack.
King Saul experienced this:
1 Samuel 16:14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.
I would not doubt this was on David’s mind after he had been convicted by God for his sin of murder and adultery! He was very close to King Saul and I am sure had heard what had happened to him. David knew that when God departed from Saul, He allowed an evil spirit to attack him.
So David prayed to not experience that:
Psalm 51:11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
How different our experience is! The Spirit of God indwells us forever the Scripture states.
John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
This does not mean we cannot slip deep into sin or even be attacked by the enemy, we can! Scripture warns concerning both, even to the point that when Paul wrote the Church in Corinth concerning a member that was living in sin, he made it clear that unless he was to repent the body of believers were to allow the enemy to deal with this person. Still, as bad as that is, we never…NEVER are without the Spirit of God’s presence in our lives!
Please remember His presence is different than His control. If that were not the case we would not be commanded again and again in Scripture to be “filled” with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, but chooses to allow, for the most part, the choices that believer make determine how much control the Spirit will have in their life.
There are a few lessons we need to take away with us. First, due to the fact that He is always present with us, we should take into consideration how our sin affects Him. We drag Him into that terrible lifestyle, so no sin is only about us. He is God, so no sin will touch Him, but it does insult and even grieve Him! (Eph 4:30) Second, Based on the truth that our Sovereign Lord has chosen to allow His power to be limited based on our lack of faith and sinful lifestyles much of the time; we need to remember we will be accountable for that. Please be careful, understand this truth clearly, God is not at the mercy of our free choice…just because He limits Himself does not mean that if He so chooses, which He has at times, to sovereignly over rule our choice and make what He wants to happen, that we could stop Him. Consider Jonah…all the free choice in the world made no difference! God said “your going to Nineveh!” and that’s where he ended up!
Lastly, perhaps…I am saying this as my opinion – Nathan Chapter 1, verse 1, this is the reason that God seems to tolerate a lot more sin in the Old Testament believer than in the New Testament believer. Leaders back then had many wives, which was still against God’s desire, but He continued to use them. In the New Testament Elders are to have only one wife. Maybe God knows that with the Holy Spirit in us, and our new nature, we have more power to live righteously, so greater accountability is on us. This is what I believe, but again, it is my opinion. This standard does raise the bar for me, because I know that no matter what I do, the Spirit lives in me and I have been given a new nature (regeneration) so I have the power to obey always! I know I will struggle with my sin nature till I am home with the Lord, but that does not give me an excuse.
Meditation: Have you thanked God for the security He has created in His relationship with you? Do you understand the stewardship of “free choice” that God has extended us? What do you do to make sure you are in right fellowship with God? Do you seek to be controlled by the Holy Spirit continuously? What does that look like…scripturally, not based on people’s opinions? It might be helpful to do a study from God’s Word only, on what it means to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
That kind of security is no security at all! We will see that God offers real security to those that believe, and discover a wonderful truth for believers today.
Judges 16:19-20 She made him sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him, and his strength left him. She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
In this section of the story of Samson, we will see a tremendous difference in the fellowship between the believer and God prior to Christ coming, and after His resurrection.
First let’s just recap and see where Samson is. He has fallen for a woman named Delilah and seems numb to the fact that she continues to seek the secret of his strength.
Each time she thinks she knows, she declares that the Philistines are upon him, but he just shakes them off like dust. It does not seem to bother Samson that Delilah continues to set him up. If he were my disciple I would be very concerned about a clear spiritual arrogance that he is displaying. This kind of thing is nothing to be played around with; still, he seemed not to worry about it at all. Even in his statement this time “I will go out as at other times” exposes a very cavalier attitude concerning a very serious issue.
We also should notice that, even though not stated, it would seem that Delilah must have drugged him or something, for him to sleep through a hair cut would seem unusual for anyone having a normal sleep. Sadly, in the passage that we will look at on another day we will see the terrible end to this mighty man, while at the same time witnessing the sovereign control of God to accomplish His ultimate desire. Right now I want to consider a very important statement:
“But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.”
This is one of the BIG differences between the believer before Christ came and after. It is important for several reasons and we would be wise to learn from this.
First, we need to understand the absolute security we have as far as relationship to God. All those that are believers, Old Testament and New Testament are secure in their relationship. Both are save by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone! Whether it be the old testament saint that believes that God WILL send His redeemer, or the New Testament saint that believes God DID send His redeemer, both are in the family of God. However, in “fellowship” not all children of God were equal! The believer of the Old Testament could, due to sin, lose the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life. This would open the door to many terrible things, including uncontrollable sin, and even demonic attack with no presence of the Spirit to control that attack.
King Saul experienced this:
1 Samuel 16:14 Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.
I would not doubt this was on David’s mind after he had been convicted by God for his sin of murder and adultery! He was very close to King Saul and I am sure had heard what had happened to him. David knew that when God departed from Saul, He allowed an evil spirit to attack him.
So David prayed to not experience that:
Psalm 51:11 Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
How different our experience is! The Spirit of God indwells us forever the Scripture states.
John 14:16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever;
Ephesians 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
This does not mean we cannot slip deep into sin or even be attacked by the enemy, we can! Scripture warns concerning both, even to the point that when Paul wrote the Church in Corinth concerning a member that was living in sin, he made it clear that unless he was to repent the body of believers were to allow the enemy to deal with this person. Still, as bad as that is, we never…NEVER are without the Spirit of God’s presence in our lives!
Please remember His presence is different than His control. If that were not the case we would not be commanded again and again in Scripture to be “filled” with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, but chooses to allow, for the most part, the choices that believer make determine how much control the Spirit will have in their life.
There are a few lessons we need to take away with us. First, due to the fact that He is always present with us, we should take into consideration how our sin affects Him. We drag Him into that terrible lifestyle, so no sin is only about us. He is God, so no sin will touch Him, but it does insult and even grieve Him! (Eph 4:30) Second, Based on the truth that our Sovereign Lord has chosen to allow His power to be limited based on our lack of faith and sinful lifestyles much of the time; we need to remember we will be accountable for that. Please be careful, understand this truth clearly, God is not at the mercy of our free choice…just because He limits Himself does not mean that if He so chooses, which He has at times, to sovereignly over rule our choice and make what He wants to happen, that we could stop Him. Consider Jonah…all the free choice in the world made no difference! God said “your going to Nineveh!” and that’s where he ended up!
Lastly, perhaps…I am saying this as my opinion – Nathan Chapter 1, verse 1, this is the reason that God seems to tolerate a lot more sin in the Old Testament believer than in the New Testament believer. Leaders back then had many wives, which was still against God’s desire, but He continued to use them. In the New Testament Elders are to have only one wife. Maybe God knows that with the Holy Spirit in us, and our new nature, we have more power to live righteously, so greater accountability is on us. This is what I believe, but again, it is my opinion. This standard does raise the bar for me, because I know that no matter what I do, the Spirit lives in me and I have been given a new nature (regeneration) so I have the power to obey always! I know I will struggle with my sin nature till I am home with the Lord, but that does not give me an excuse.
Meditation: Have you thanked God for the security He has created in His relationship with you? Do you understand the stewardship of “free choice” that God has extended us? What do you do to make sure you are in right fellowship with God? Do you seek to be controlled by the Holy Spirit continuously? What does that look like…scripturally, not based on people’s opinions? It might be helpful to do a study from God’s Word only, on what it means to be “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
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