How To Avoid Major Mistakes

A Sermon by Jim Hammond from Judges 13-16

Introduction

Some mistakes are irreversible. These can be tragic mistakes, life-changing blunders. They set into motion a series of consequences. They sometimes change our appetites and desires setting us on a course of addiction and destruction.

It was a party to end all parties. The main entertainment was a tragic comic display. They called out a blind hulk of a man and forced him to do tricks in front of the drunken crowd. This was not just any old slave; this was their former enemy. His name was Samson.

In the midst of all this, Samson did something he had done little of the rest of his life. He prayed. In that simple prayer he asked God to let him have the last laugh on his enemies. What brought Samson to this terrible, desperate place? It was a series of major mistakes, a series of life changing blunders. Samson had so much potential, yet he failed miserably. The excitement of all his adventures does not cover up the tragedy of a wasted life.

Focus: We will not be able to eliminate all mistakes, but we can learn how to avoid those life-changing blunders that can ruin our lives by learning from the major mistakes of others.

As a young child I was often told the “G Rated” version of Samson’s story. I was under the impression that Samson was a hero. I pictured him with bulging muscles, kind of an Arnold Schwarzenegger with really long hair, the strongest man ever to have lived. He was God’s champion. But now as an adult I realize that Samson probably looked like a regular sized man, that’s why everyone tried to figure out “the secret” of his strength. He didn’t have unusually large bulging muscles. He looked ordinary, and that is what baffled his enemies. The Bible also presents a much more realistic picture of this “hero”. He’s a hero with warts. The Bible version of Samson’s life is rated “PG”. Although the enemies knew there was a secret to Samson’s strength, Samson himself began to believe his strength was his own. Though his extraordinary physical strength came to him by the power of the Lord, it came so regularly that Samson took the Lord for granted. He began to assume this power was his and not as a result of the promises of God. Samson’s life is one of the most tragic wastes of the whole Bible. He had so much potential, and wasted it.

I. Learn From the Mistakes of Others

II. Avoid Samson’s Mistakes

Major Mistake 1: Ignore Your Heritage (13)

Samson came from a praying family and was an answer to prayer. He had taken a special vow to be pure and serve God but did not seem to appreciate the significance of this. Today, many also ignore their heritage—some even despising it!

In Judges 13 we get a picture of an older devout couple who God blesses by visiting them and promising to give them a special child. This child was to be set apart and dedicated to the Lord by a vow from the day of his birth.

The first specific thing recorded about this child, however, is how he disappoints his parents.

Judges 14:1-3 ¹Samson went down to Timnah and saw there a young Philistine woman. ²When he returned, he said to his father and mother, “I have seen a Philistine woman in Timnah; now get her for me as my wife.”

³His father and mother replied, “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 Samson said to his father, “Get her for me. She’s the right one for me.”

Samson falls in love with a Philistine woman!—falls in lust, is probably more accurate. It’s bad enough when your son disrespectfully makes demands like Samson does. It’s worse when it is a total disregard for your values, and the values of your people, and brings shame to the parents. In order to understand this first you have to enter the mind set of an Israelite. They were forbidden by God’s command to marry a Philistine. Besides that the Philistines were the enemy!

Deuteronomy 7:1-4 ¹“When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, ²and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. ³“Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. ⁴“For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you and He will quickly destroy you.

Our heritage includes a nation that was built upon faith in God. Our nation’s forefathers thought to make sure we remembered this by having printed on our money, “In God We Trust.” Many of our nations problems stem from the fact that from generation to generation we have ignored our heritage. What one generation holds loosely the next generation abandons. Hold on to the baton tightly while you run the race, and carefully pass it on. Do not forget that you hold a baton, and do not set it on the shelf. Run with it in your hand wherever you go, and whatever you do, then you will be passing it properly to those that come after you.

Those that are ready to run the next leg too often start running without looking back to pick up the baton. There is responsibility on both generations, the passing generation and the receiving generation. The generation gap is the gap where the baton is dropped.

Young people, your friends do not have the experience or the answers you need to take up the baton that will help you finish the race successfully, the generation before you does.

Major Mistake 2: Unleash your rage (14:19; 15:3; 15)

Samson had an anger problem; he was frequently out of control. He seemed to enjoy giving full reign to this anger. Let me name a few of Samson’s anger responses:

· After Samson loses a bet at his wedding party, to get revenge he kills thirty men in order to pay off his debt (14:19)

· He leaves in a huff without getting married, then when he cools off to see his fiancé he discovers she has been given to someone else. This makes him so angry he catches 300 foxes. This is a feat all by itself. Can you imagine how long this took. Where did he keep the captured foxes? He must have built a pen he carted around. You can tell this grudge was nursed for a long time. He fed his anger. He plots and plans an amazingly effective and destructive plan to set fire to everything so quickly that very little can be salvaged. Without the aid of gasoline he becomes a pyro-technician extraordinaire, and a deadly arsonist. He ties pairs of foxes together by their tails and lights a torch attached to their tails and releases them in the Philistine fields just before harvest. The animal rights people would lynch him! The wheat fields, olive orchards, and vineyards all go up in smoke! (15:1-4)

· This action angers the Philistines who find out why, so they put to death his old fiancé and her father. Then Samson really gets mad and slaughters many more Philistines. (15:5-8)

· The Philistines then respond with an army and surround the Israelite city where Samson is and tell them to give Samson over or else. Samson’s anger has brought the whole nation into trouble.

· After Samson is tied up and handed over to the enemy, the Lord again gives Samson super human strength, and he takes the jawbone of a donkey and kills 1,000 of them. (15:13-17)

· What we must understand at this point is that God is using one man’s character flaws to accomplish his purposes with Israel’s enemy.

Judges 14:4 ⁴(His parents did not know that this was from the LORD, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)

In spite of Samson’s victories, his anger led him to many sins.

Major Mistake 3: Forget your promises (13:4-5; 14:8-10; Numbers 6:1-10)

Samson broke his promise to stay pure. His parents had trained him from youth to be committed to the Nazirite vow (see 13:4-5; Numbers 6:1-10 below).

Judges 13:4-5 ⁴“Now therefore, be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing. ⁵“For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”

Numbers 6:1 through Numbers 6:10 ¹Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ²“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to dedicate himself to the LORD, ³he shall abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes. ⁴‘All the days of his separation he shall not eat anything that is produced by the grape vine, from the seeds even to the skin.

⁵‘All the days of his vow of separation no razor shall pass over his head. He shall be holy until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD; he shall let the locks of hair on his head grow long.

⁶‘All the days of his separation to the LORD he shall not go near to a dead person. ⁷‘He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister, when they die, because his separation to God is on his head. ⁸‘All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.

⁹‘But if a man dies very suddenly beside him and he defiles his dedicated head of hair, then he shall shave his head on the day when he becomes clean; he shall shave it on the seventh day. ¹⁰‘Then on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the doorway of the tent of meeting.

Samson broke this vow early on when he approached the dead carcass of the lion he had killed and ate honey from it (14:8-9, and 14:10). He broke his vow again when he threw a drunken party. He broke his promise to keep ceremonially clean. Later, he breaks his promise to keep his symbolic hair long. We have too many like Samson today. With many today, promises and vows mean virtually nothing. Take a vow lightly and you will be hurt in the process.

Major Mistake 4: Indulge your Passions (14:1; 16:1, 4)

Samson was a he-man with a she-weakness.

· Samson’s passion caused him to choose a marriage partner poorly (14:1). His first recorded words were “I saw a woman” (14:1 NASV). He was attracted to women strictly on the basis of outward appearance. “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.” (14:3 NASV)

· His passion led him to prostitution. (16:1)

· His passion led him to his betrayal by Delilah. (16:4f.) If you haven’t heard this story you need to read it. As a kid back in the 70s I learned a little song about this story. The lyrics go to the tune of “Michael Row your Boat ashore”. “Samson had a lot of hair, hallelujah, but then Delilah creamed it off with “Nair”, Halelujah”. For those of you who don’t remember, Nair was a well advertised hair removal product.

Feeding Illicit Passions will Blind you, then Bind You

Judges 16:4-31 (NIV) ⁴Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. ⁵The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, “See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.”

⁶So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

⁷Samson answered her, “If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

⁸Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. ⁹With men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

¹⁰Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”

¹¹He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”

¹²So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

¹³Delilah then said to Samson, “Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”

He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric ¹⁴and tightened it with the pin.

Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

¹⁵Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.

¹⁷So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. ¹⁹Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

²⁰Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”

He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

²¹Then 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. ²²But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

²³Now the rulers of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, saying, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands.”

²⁴When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,

“Our god has delivered our enemy

into our hands,

the one who laid waste our land

and multiplied our slain.”

²⁵While they were in high spirits, they shouted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them.

When they stood him among the pillars, ²⁶Samson said to the servant who held his hand, “Put me where I can feel the pillars that support the temple, so that I may lean against them.” ²⁷Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform. ²⁸Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “O Sovereign LORD, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, ³⁰Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

³¹Then his brothers and his father’s whole family went down to get him. They brought him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had led Israel twenty years.

Feeding illicit passions will train the flesh outside of God’s design. You become blinded to consequences. You begin to rationalize, that is tell yourself “rational lies” excusing your behavior. You become blind to the distance placed in your life between yourself and God, and many times the distance you place yourself with others. Feeding illicit passions, whatever passions they might be, leads to a kind of blindness to the destruction that is coming. Samson was already blind to what was going to happen, before he was made blind when his eyes were destroyed. He was blind to think his strength was unstoppable. He already believed lies about his own strength. How else do you explain the fact that he told Delilah about his hair after Delilah had already deceived him repeatedly in order to have him destroyed. Samson was stupid. Why? Sin makes you stupid. It makes you do stupid things.

Feeding Illicit Passions will put you in bondage

Samson was literally put into bondage. Feeding illicit passions will make you crave more and more while being satisfied less and less. This is the formula for a destructive addiction. It escalates until you are bound in spiritual chains. The picture of Samson in chains without eyes is the picture of the results of many addictions.

Sexuality is a powerful urge. Many people have found that failure to control this urge leads to physical, emotional and spiritual problems. Samson could strangle a lion with his bare hands but because he allowed his life to be ruled by his feelings, or his passions, he didn’t recognize the deadly lioness in Delilah. She was a roaring lion stalking her prey.

How do you keep your desire for love and sexual pleasure from deceiving you? You must decide two things. 1) You must decide what kind of person you want to be and 2) what kind of person you want to love BEFORE passion takes over. You will need to train yourself to look beneath the surface into the indicators of character. To do this you will need to operate from a different premise than the world tells you to operate. The world tells you to move too fast. Be patient. It is time that will reveal what is beneath the pleasant appearance and attentive touch. Use your head and your heart when you are aiming for a life partner.

Young people, there is a fork in the road when it comes to relating to the opposite sex. If you choose the left route, the route of experiencing passion as a way of relating and dating, and getting to know people, you usually blind yourself to the character of the person you want to get to know. If you take the right route, it will be the route of getting to know a person’s character as a friend. Set passion on the warm burner of a marriage commitment where it belongs. That means wait till your head and heart, and God lead you to the right person for marriage before you even entertain taking the fork in the road that includes passion. Don’t allow sexual passion to become a pattern for relationships. This is reserved for marriage. When lust suggests a rendezvous, try this; send Jesus Christ as your personal representative. How do you do this? Say a simple prayer. Lord, go before me. I’m not going there. Guard me and keep me from temptation.

Sex was given by God and is too powerful and intimate to be shared indiscriminately. God knew this, which is why he gave us instructions to protect what he created to be beautiful. Ignoring God’s design has many consequences.

Major Mistake 5: Take Your Revenge (15:3, 11)

Look at Samson’s words in 15:3 and 11.

Judges 15:3 (NIV) ³Samson said to them, “This time I have a right to get even with the Philistines; I will really harm them.”

Judges 15:11 (NIV) “I only paid them back for what they did to me.”

Revenge is an uncontrollable monster. Each act of retaliation brings another. It is a boomerang that cannot be thrown without cost to the thrower. The revenge cycle can be halted only by forgiveness. Bitterness is the acid that destroys its container. The “I’ll show you” attitude usually shows how low you will stoop. Anytime you try “to get even” you are lowering yourself to get even at a lower level, doing damage to your own character. Don’t get even, get unhooked from the destructive acid of bitterness. Leave room for God to work.

Major Mistake 6: Believe In Yourself more than God

How did Samson get there? It began with a false confidence. The false confidence was based on believing in himself more than on God. He took God for granted. He didn’t follow and obey God. He even began to attribute God’s gifts to himself. He no longer believed they were from God really, or that God’s blessing could be withdrawn. These were his gifts. Any time we begin to lean on our own strength rather than depending on God we will fall.

In fact this is the most practical point. This is the “How to” part of the avoiding of major mistakes. I believe that apart from God we are prone to mistakes. We are born with the bents. We lean towards disobedience and living apart from God in whatever independent endeavor. The way to reverse this dangerous bent in our lives is to consciously, purposefully, and intentionally depend upon God. I know from experience that this is the main area to solve if I want to solve other areas of my life. Here’s where we get into the practical “how to”.

I must daily deny myself, pick up my cross and follow Jesus. What does this look like. Well for me, it means I must carve out some time to spend with God. I know that God is with me all the time everywhere. However, I don’t have confidence in this area unless I have been talking to him, and depending on him. The practical side of denying myself and picking up my cross looks like this. I get up early enough to spend time with God alone. In that time I am telling him, by my words and actions, I need him. I read from God’s word and I pray. C.L.A.S.S. 201 teaches you how to do this. But this is the starting point, the thing that keeps me on track before God in a personal relationship of dependence. I can assure you Samson was not doing this. His life was not characterized by leaning on God, but by leaning on self, and living for self.

III. There is Only One Unforgivable Mistake

According to the Bible there is a sin that is unforgivable. It is called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Mark 3:29-30 (NIV) ²⁹But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven; he is guilty of an eternal sin.” ³⁰He said this because they were saying, “He has an evil spirit.”

What exactly is this sin? To put it in its simplest terms, this is the complete and total rejection of Jesus Christ in spite of the evidence the Holy Spirit has brought you. When the evidence is in, and you call white black, and good evil, then you are committing the unforgivable because there is no evidence left available to God’s Spirit to convince you otherwise.

Many people fear that they have committed the unforgivable. Let me assure you, that if you want to be forgiven through the grace of Christ, you haven’t committed the unforgivable. It is those who do not want to be forgiven because they don’t think they need to be that are closer to this dangerous sin. If you’d like forgiveness, God has made it available to those who will believe what he has done.

A. Samson knew that God could use him in spite of his failings.

Samson believed God could use him with whatever time he had left, and he was right. Samson believed God could use him no matter how he had failed before, and he was right. We serve a gracious God. Avoid the mistakes of Samson. He learned the hard way, but you can learn from his example, and that’s a lot less painful. But never forget, if you do fail, that God is a God of mercy and grace. Enjoy his grace when you need it, but don’t learn your lessons the hard way.

Dear Lord,

There are too many lessons that I have been learning the hard way. Let me learn from the mistakes of Samson. Help me to avoid these mistakes. Help me to look back accurately and pick up the Spiritual Heritage that has been passed on to me. Help me to look forward to pass on that baton of spiritual heritage to someone else. Let me not forget my heritage.

Lord, help me to keep a short leash on my anger. When something blocks my goals and I become angry help me to see things the way you do.

Lord, I have made promises to you and others. I haven’t taken the Nazirite vow, but I have covenanted with you. Fill me with your strength to keep my promises. Help me to honor your name with my life by my actions, words and thoughts.

Lord, I thank you for making me a complex and passionate person. I submit my passions to you. Give me the fruit of your Spirit, namely self-control. I will walk with you. I will feed my spirit before you instead of indulging my flesh in ways you did not design. Give me the self-control that comes by your control. I determine to yield myself to you daily. I submit the members of my body before you. You created me. Help me honor you with my body, and the passions you gave me.

Lord, I know the damage that bitterness can bring when I don’t forgive others. I release to you those who have harmed me. I let them off my hook. I don’t need to “get even.” I leave room for you to work with them in your justice, rather than my justice. I’ll trust you with them. I let them go.

Lord, I know it is my tendency to try to be my own boss, to run my own life. I know that when I do, I tend to leave you out of my way of thinking. Lord, I determine to let you be Lord of my life. I know this means leaning on you regularly, and keeping appointments with you daily in order to keep my life before you. I am willing to do that. Draw near to me as I draw near to you. Help me to see what you are doing so that I will be strengthened in you.

Lord, thank you for forgiveness. I thank you for the grace found in Jesus Christ. Thank you for cleansing me and empowering me. Thank you for not giving up on me. I love you.

In Jesus Name, Amen.