This past Sunday in my Sunday Bible Study Community, we studied about the life of Samson, found in Judges 13-16. As I read the story and prepared to teach, God taught me something unexpected. First, let me summarize some of Samson’s adventures to refresh your memory:

Samson’s adventures described Judges 13-16 include the following:

  • Samson asks his parents to allow him to marry a Philistine woman.
  • Samson fends off an attack by a young lion.
  • Later when Samson goes to marry his fiancé, he sees the lion’s carcass and a honey bee’s nest inside. He eats honey from the nest inside the dead lion carcass.
  • He tells the men at the wedding a riddle and bets them 30 linen tunics they can’t solve it. They solve it by asking his fiancé to betray Samson and get him to tell her the answer.
  • She does and the men tell Samson the answer. Samson responds by killing 30 men from Ashkelon and taking their tunics to the men.
  • Samson’s father in law gives his wife to another man because he thought Samson hated her. Samson caught 300 foxes, tied them together and released them with burning tails into the Philistines crops to destroy them.
  • As revenge the Philistines kill his wife and her father by burning them.
  • When the Philistines find Samson hiding in the hills, he kills 1,000 of them with a jawbone of a donkey.
  • The only part of the story that gives any hope is found in 15:20 when we are told Samuel proceeded to judge Israel for 20 years presumably without incident (around 1069-1049 BC).
     

Is there anything that strikes you as odd about Samson’s story?
If I noted that Samson is mentioned in the Hall of Faith found in Hebrews 11, does that seem strange to anybody? Why would Samson be listed there? Several times in these passages it is noted that the Lord was with Samson (14:4,6,19; 15:14) even though he seems to be wild and undisciplined.

If I may be honest, as I read this story in preparation for teaching, I found that it really disturbed me. I watched Samson make all of these horrible mistakes, yet God worked through all of them for His glory. As I read I was a bit confused and deep down I realized I was getting angry. The reason it made me so mad is that I strive hard in my life to be a really good guy—honest, moral, treat people right, have a daily quiet time, etc., and I expect a little something in return from God. I was mad because, I try to do things right, and it doesn’t always work out for me. Samson, on the other hand, violates his Nazarite vow, marries a pagan, treats her poorly, slaughters 1,030 people in two fits of anger, acts foolishly with another pagan prostitute jeopardizing God work to free the Israelites from the Philistines, and God still continues to use him for His purposes. He even gets listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 (v. 32).

I really was not excited about teaching this text. I did not look forward to saying, “Well, guys, isn’t it great to know that God works through the lives of imperfect people to accomplish His will. We have seen that many times as we have studied through the first few books of the OT (Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, etc.)”

Instead, I had to ask myself why I was mad, and I found that my anger revealed something about the way I think about God. I discovered that I am a self-righteous guy who obviously thinks that he can leverage his goodness and obedience to get something from God. So, really, I hate this story because it exposes my sinful motive of using God to get a good life. Let me explain more.

John Piper once asked this penetrating question: “Is God a means of grace in your life and ministry or is grace a means to God?” In other words, for you and me, is there is a difference between pursuing the grace of God and pursuing the God of grace?

In John 17:3 Jesus said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.”

Here, we are meant to learn that God’s goal for our lives is not merely to serve him in faithful living but primarily to know him, to love him, to glorify him and enjoy him. Think of this question again: “Is God made a means to grace in your life or is grace made a means to God?” To put the question differently, “Does the quest of your life and the passion of your ministry terminate on God? Knowing Him? Enjoying Him? Glorifying Him? Or is God brought in beside all your planning, techniques and business strategies in hope that he might somehow be the means of a great outpouring of grace on your life? The big idea here is that it makes a tremendous difference whether the ultimate quest of your life is the grace of God or the God of grace.

The story of Samson revealed to me that God is sovereign about who he blesses and how he blesses them. God’s primary purpose is to fulfill His plan in the world. He will use me for that purpose as He sees fit. He is a perfectly righteous and loving God who will never simply “use me” like people in the world do, but He has the right to work through whomever he pleases however he pleases.

Dr. Steve Childers, professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, rightly noted that one of the most fundamental questions is whether you will place God or yourself at the center of your life. A believer with this perspective stops trying to “use God to solve his problems.” Instead such a person learns how to “use his problems to find God”.

(Steve’s complete blog entry on this: http://www.poopedpastors.com/blogs/%e2%80%9cmy-top-ten-mistakes-in-ministry-that-i-can-share-publicly%e2%80%9d-4/)

Steve says, the reason having a proper view of God is so critically important in your life is because it is so easy to be unknowingly:

  • Pursuing the Kingdom and not the King
  • Pursuing the Truth of God and not the God of Truth
  • Using God to solve your problems rather than using your problems to find God.

In other words, if you are not consciously fighting against it, you are at risk of falling prey to pursing the grace of God and not the God of grace.