Some thoughts on the upcoming Sight and Sound production of Samson

 
‘And every man did that which was right in their own eyes.’   So repeatedly said the book of Judges.
 
Samson.   Samson had a riddle. Samson was a riddle.   And when the Bible puts forth a riddle  we should take notice and ponder it a bit.

 

The Sight and Sound theater will be doing a production of a musical based on Samson starting next Spring (Deo Valente).   And what might we learn from the strong man of Dan?   God said he is ‘beginning’ to deliver Israel though this Samson.

In the book of Judges , Israel fell into cycles of sin, oppression,  cries for help form oppression and then a deliverance from God  and then,  it would start all over again. In this account there is no cry.   The Philistines ruled over Israel and there is no cry for help.   A lesson of grace is that in that God acted even when no one else did. 

 Yes.  Samson had a riddle. Samson was a riddle.   A life filled with problematic choices, Samson ”played with fire’,  yet in the confluence of both his bad choices and God’s sovereign Grace,  God would begin to deliver Israel though Samson and the gates of the Philistines would not stand against him.

Samson:

 

And what might we learn from Delilah?   Here she sings her song about freedom.   Which reminds us we are free, free to choose according our highest pleasure   having a broken nature her delights are wrongly placed.  A fallen broken woman in a broken world with a life characterized by bad choices,  choices that will put the glory of God on display for the world in God’s plan to ‘begin to deliver Israel.’

 

Delilah:

 

In the end of the book of Judges, the tribe Dan falls into idolatry, blinded by their idols and perhaps Samson is the poster child of that.   From God in a very real sense but numb to his idols and literally blinded by his idol , namely Delilah.   God said He would ‘begin to deliver Israel’ and yet Dan goes into idolatry. Showing that God’s deliverance is not necessarily easy or quick.

 

Samson points to a larger and decisive deliverance.  In his death Samson did more than in his life.   He points forward to the coming deliverer who will accomplish more in his sacrificial death than His life up till then.   What is stronger than a lion?   Death is.  Jesus is.  Even in death comes something sweet.  What is sweeter than honey scooped from a dead lion?  The word of God.  The promises of the gospel.  Salvation for all who believe.   Jesus delivers us from our idols of the heart,  our tendencies to want to drink the gutter water of the world instead of shelving water from God’s throne.   In his death,  Jesus gives us life.   Forgiveness and peace with God and even able to do more reconciling believers even more with his resurrected life interceding for believers before God.
 
‘And every man did that which was right in their own eyes.’   So repeatedly said the book of Judges.
“All we like sheep have gone astray,  each of us have turned to their own way but the Lord has laid the iniquity of us all on Him’  So says Isaiah.