" The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." (Judg. 16: 4-21).
The condition of Israel, portrayed in the book of Judges, is a picture of that of the Lord's people to-day. Both are found in a place of blessing, to which they have been brought by the goodness of God, and both have fallen into a sad condition through their sin and unfaithfulness. In both, the individual is called to rise above the low condition of the many, and to contend for the Lord's glory and the blessing of His people.
Samson was alone in Israel. To-day many are afraid to stand alone for God. They look round for precedent and example, for human companionship, instead of looking to God alone for guidance and strength to serve Him.
How often the words of Judah (Judg. 15: 2) are echoed to-day: " Know-est thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us? " If a man seek to serve the Lord in devotedness and energy, even christians will discourage him, because it disturbs their dishonorable ease. They speak of prudence, but the Lord says " Thou hast left thy first love." (Rev. 2: 4.)
When the Holy Ghost descended on the day of Pentecost there appeared tongues as of fire and it sat on each of them. He appeared as a dove when He descended upon Jesus, but after Jesus was glorified it was as tongues as of fire to signify energy, enthusiasm, burning zeal for Christ. A wonderful thing happened.
An invincible power took up its abode in men on the earth, and was to change the lives of millions. The gates of Hades could not prevail against the power of the risen Christ. This power is available to each of us by faith. We are now not pleading for the wild fervor of the fanatic who is driven by his own imaginings to all kinds of extremes unsanctioned by the Word, or for the shallow enthusiasm of those who anon with joy receive the Word but because they have no root, in time of temptation they wither away. We plead for the sustained ardor that draws its constant inspiration from Christ in glory, and that need never fail while He is there and His Spirit here. Sever that ardor from Him and it loses its power and heavenly character. It either fades out or goes into foolish extravagance.
The christian is not an ordinary man. He is called to complete devotedness to God. " They which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."
(2 Cor. 5: 15.) This is the measure of the devotedness that the Lord has a right to expect from His own, but to live up to it may involve the reproaches even of fellow-believers.
The Nazarite (Num. 6) was to have long hair, which speaks of confessed weakness and dependence, to drink no wine, that which typifies the joys of the natural man, and to avoid contact with a dead body, symbolic of that which is defiling and unsuited to God. Samson was a Nazarite from his birth, but particular emphasis is laid upon his long hair as the secret of his strength. " If a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him." (1 Cor. 2:1414But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)). The courage and strength of a christian should be of a different order from those of the natural man. In the latter the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life play their part. In the christian self should be consciously weak and faith relying on Christ alone. Where the secret of strength is maintained the man of God may perform feats of courage and endurance beyond all that is of nature. This is the lesson of Heb. 2, and of the story of Samson.
Samson had serious faults even when his secret was kept and his strength unimpaired. This tells us of the Lord's faithfulness even when we are unfaithful, but his trifling with the enemy took him into danger and eventually led to his undoing. Christian, beware! Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. The beginnings of departure from the Lord are subtle.
Samson, trifling with the enemy but still keeping his secret, suggests that Delilah should bind him with seven withs or strings that have never been dried. Some peculiar strength may reside in those bonds which still have the greenness or freshness of nature in them. But Samson rises from sleep at the shout of danger and the divine power dwelling within him breaks the withs as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire. The green withs would appear to speak of the power of nature, natural affections and desires used by the adversary to hinder the testimony. One recalls that the Lord Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and after forty days without food was tempted as regards the satisfaction of the needs of His body. The same Spirit now indwells the believer, although alas often sadly grieved. Elsewhere the Lord would not allow natural relationships, beautifully maintained in their proper place, to hinder His Father's business (Luke 2: 45 and Mark 3: 31-35). " If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Luke 14: 26.
One might speak of missionaries and martyrs who have triumphed in this way in the power of the Holy Ghost. In the year 202 A.D. Perpetua, a christian woman of noble birth, twenty-two years of age, was led before the Roman Governor of Carthage. Her aged father, a pagan, brought her infant son in his arms and stood before her. " Have pity on thy father's gray hairs," said the governor. " Have pity on thy helpless child. Offer sacrifice for the welfare of the Emperor." " That I cannot do," she answered. " I am a christian." Shortly after, singing a psalm she entered the amphitheater to be tossed by a cow and so to enter the Lord's presence.
Perhaps the affections of a young disciple are engaged with one who loves not the Lord. The power of nature is strong, so strong as to appear irresistible, even as seven green withs. But the One Who claims the entire life can give the power to triumph over everything that the enemy would bring in to hinder. Alas how we fail in these things little and big, because we forget what we Nazarites are to be to the Lord.
Secondly, Samson invites Delilah to bind him with new ropes never used for work before, but these too are broken like threads. Here the enemy tries to ensnare the man of God with that which is new or untried. Such are the attractions of the modern world, its many subtle devices to engage the heart and to give the christian no time for reading, meditation, prayer and service. But the power of the Holy Ghost in the dependent child of God can triumph over these and fix the eye on Jesus Christ the Same yesterday and to-day and forever. With so much to see, to know, and to do, the world looks more attractive to-day than ever before, but true life-eternal life-is " to know Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent." Divine spiritual energy is necessary if the christian is not to be deprived of his soul's sustenance to-day.
Thirdly, Delilah weaves his hair with the web and fastens it with the pin, but Samson awakens out of sleep and goes away with the pin of the beam and with the web. The passage of the shuttle in Job. 7. is symbolic of the fleeting days of our lives, and in Isa. 38 the threatened cutting off of Hezekiah's life is likened to the action of a weaver in separating the web from the thrum or fringe of threads remaining attached to the loom when the work is complete. In a less figurative way the web is plainly suggestive of days of toil, the routine of our avocations. The lesson would appear to be that although the christian finds his weakness interwoven with the circumstances of his daily life, its necessities and duties, he is to rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit and bear himself in the place where God has put him for God's glory. He is not to allow the testimony to be hindered by his circumstances, but to make circumstances the very means of glorifying God. Thus his hair remains in the web and yet he is the Lord's freeman. One might say, " My position is so difficult. There is so much opposition in the office and I am so prone to failure myself that I am fain to keep silence. Another who has a business of his own is much better placed to serve the Lord." All such suggestions are the wiles of Delilah. There is divine, overcoming,, strength for the dependent one.
Then comes the sad fall. Samson yields up his secret to the enemy and is undone. Even so is it with the christian who tries to make the world a third party with God and himself. His confessed weakness is his strength through dependence and communion with the Lord. He cannot share divine secrets with the world, as the world, without losing the power of them himself.
He that is spiritual discerns all things and he himself is discerned of no one (1 Cor. 2: 15). He has spiritual intelligence to discern the true character of things, but to the world he is inexplicable, also its praise and blame are nothing to him.
But if the christian tries to make the best of both worlds-to stand for the truth and yet to cultivate the approval of the ungodly, he will find that his testimony has lost its power and the world itself does not respect him.
Once a Samson, called Martin Luther, was summoned to Worms to stand before the great ones of the earth. " There sat Charles, sovereign of half the world. And there on either side of him were ranged the peers and potentates of the German empire-bishops and archbishops, cardinals in their scarlet robes, papal nuncios in their official magnificence, ambassadors from the mightiest kingdoms of christendom, to say nothing of deputies and officials. Such was the assembly of the States-General at Worms. And gathered, the reader may ask, for what? It was really to hear the trial and judge the son of a poor miner. Dressed in his monk's frock and hood, pale-faced and worn with the fatigues and hazards of his recent life, he stood silent and self-possessed in the midst of more than five thousand spectators. ' Yet prophet-like that lone one stood, with dauntless words and high,' answering all questions with force and modesty."
When he was asked whether he would retract his writings he desired time for consideration that he might frame his answer aright. " One day was granted. Whatever may have been Luther's reason for this request we need not stay to inquire: one thing is certain, that it was overruled by God to discover and reveal the secret springs of Luther's strength and courage, and the strength and courage of faith in all ages. That wonderful prayer which was offered up shortly before his second appearing, is the most precious document in the whole history of the reformation.
" For a moment Luther felt troubled; his eye was off the blessed Lord; he was thinking of the many great princes before whom he had to stand; his faith grew weak; he was like Peter when he looked at the waves in place of the person of Christ; he felt as if he would sink. In this state of soul he fell on his face and groaned deep thoughts which could not be uttered. It was the Spirit making intercession for him. A friend hearing his distress, listened and was privileged to hear the broken cries of a broken heart ascending to the throne of God.
" Luther was but emerging from the darkness of superstition; he had not fully learned the blessed truth of death and resurrection, of his oneness with Christ, of his acceptance in the Beloved. But his nearness to God, the power of his prayer, and the reality of his communion, refresh our hearts after an interval of three hundred years." The next day he gave the answer that shook the power of the papacy and secured the triumph of the reformation.
How can you walk in the Spirit to-day? By getting into the Lord's presence like Luther, confessing your need of Him every moment and seeking His grace, feeding on His Word and walking in communion with Him. He is able to make all grace abound towards you, able to keep you from falling, able to save to the uttermost, able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think.
The Spirit does not occupy us with Himself so much as with Christ the Object of faith above. This is walking in the Spirit. This is invincible strength to serve Him without help of man. But " the children of Ephraim, armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle." (Psa. 78: 9). When we reach the glory we will have to own that the sinews of war were fully provided and that we failed to use them, even as Israel refused to go up to take the land at God's command (Num. 14.).
" Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (Eph. 6: 10-13).