Judges 16:30 – And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.

I have recently been looking at the life of Samson in my recent blogs. Samson is mentioned in Hebrews 11, he had faith in God. Peter called Lot righteous in 1 Peter, it doesn’t seem like Lot was righteous, or saved for that matter, but he was. We can make a disaster out of our life. It is God that looks at the inside.  Samson lived a lot of his life according to his will. His will got him where our will will get us. We can live a life putting ourselves ahead of God. All wills apart from the Father’s will end in failure. As Jesus prayed, Thy will be done. It is his will that is done. Our will is deceitful, it will destroy us. Satan said, I will. And his children, all those that are unsaved, who he is the spiritual father of, have those same words in their hearts. We need to get in line with God’s will. Jesus lived according to his Father’s will, not his own will. And Jesus said, Ye must be born again. You cannot see or enter the kingdom of God without being born again. When we are saved we are born again of the Spirit of God. Our spirit, which was totally alienated from God, dead in trespasses and sins, is made alive by being united with the Spirit of Christ. Jesus lives, and lives for evermore, and therefore we live. We live because he lives. Jesus dwells in our hearts by faith. We are saved by faith. It is because of his grace, we bring nothing to the table. He is merciful, he will save you.

Samson’s life is a very accurate picture of a born again believer today. After we are saved we have two natures that war inside us, the flesh against the Spirit. They are contrary one to the other. Samson wanted to do his own will. Our will is according to the flesh, but God’s will is according to the Spirit. God’s will was fulfilled in Samson’s life when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. It was the Spirit that enabled him to rip the lion in pieces. This is why we need to be and why we should want to be led by the Spirit of God. We can spend a lot of our life like Samson serving ourselves, and we can end up like Samson. We will end up like Samson. We will reap what we sow. Sow to the flesh and you will reap corruption. God says to make no provision for the flesh and the lusts thereof. But Samson didn’t heed this. We, like Samson, can end up grinding corn for the very enemy whose corn fields we had previously burned down. Satan is always looking to bring a believer down. He exploits our flesh to his advantage. Our flesh never improves. Samson’s flesh never improved. Even though he had won many mighty victories, the Philistines eventually got him. Your flesh will eventually get you if you keep giving in to it, if you let it rule and dictate your life. Do you serve your flesh or do you serve God? Will you become Satan’s trophy, as Samson was to the Philistines?

Samson killed the Philistines by killing himself. His death was sacrificial, not suicidal. And his death was victorious, it was the biggest victory he ever had. The house was full of the lords of the Philistines! In dying, he fulfilled the will of God for his life. He began to deliver Israel from the Philistines – which God had said he would do before he was born. Revelation 1:8 – I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. Samson’s killing himself and the Philistines with him shows that the only way we will ever have victory over the flesh is to die to ourselves. To crucify our flesh. To reckon ourselves indeed to be dead unto sin and alive unto Christ. The enemy can pursue us no further than death, just as Pharaoh could not pursue Moses and the children of Israel beyond the Red Sea. The Red Sea, representing death, is the passage to life for the believer, but drowns the unbeliever in its depths, hopelessly and forever lost. Samson’s death is a picture of the great spiritual and practical truths that we read of in Romans 6, 7, 8. Death to ourself. So simple yet so hard. Surrendering our will. Leaning not unto our own understanding. Ceasing to trust in our own capabilities. No more rationalizing. Death is our path of victory.

Without Jesus, death is scary. It is the passage to hell. It is the door to eternity. It is so final. It separates. This is how the Devil keeps people in bondage, through the fear of death. But Jesus defeated death through dying. And he died for us. His death was sacrifical. His death was substitutionary. Death could not hold him. His body did not corrupt, it did not rot, it did not stink – because he was sinless, holy, perfect. He rose victoriously from the dead, alive, and never to die again. Jesus said in Revelation 1:18 – I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. We have a God, the God, the only God, the true God, who can turn evil to good. God has made death victorious. And a believer never truly dies. True death is what an unbeliever experiences. Eternal death. Separation from God. Hell. Outer darkness. We must die to ourselves, and this is what gives us life. Please note, it is not enough just to die to yourself, you must have Jesus to raise you up. You must put your faith in him. We only live because he lives.

Jesus said in John 12:25 – He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Samson finally hated his life in this world. He hated his lust. His sin. The fruit of his sin was death. Emptiness. Vanity. Waste. His lusts had got him nowhere, they had made him more lonely, more despairing, and had landed him in chains in prison with his eyes gouged out. But in death was his salvation. He never dealt with the Philistines again. When we are saved, we are born again of the Spirit of God, we are spiritually baptized into Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. We died with him. We were buried with him. We are raised with him. To die no more. Because he lives. And he will never die. This is a great truth of the Bible. We will never die. Sure this physical, sin cursed body will die. But this is what is good for us. It is ultimately what we want. To be set free from this body. You may not want to be released yet, but you will eventually. Are you tired of sinning? Are you tired of the effects of sin on your body? Our physical body carries our sin out. Our body is slave to our flesh nature. It ages, wrinkles, gets sick, it carries us to more sin, it enables us to do despicable acts, it dies. But it will be changed. Philippians 3:21 – Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Death to ourselves is the key to victory over the Philistines. As Moses said to the children of Israel as Pharaoh’s army pursued them to the Red Sea, Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Moses said to them of Pharaoh and his army, Ye shall see them no more. And Samson saw the Philistines no more. He died. The Philistines died. And they went to different places. It is death that separates us from our enemy. Jesus said in John 5:28,29 -Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. In Hebrews 11:35, a few verses after Samson is mentioned, the Bible says that these people of faith did what they did that they might obtain a better resurrection. The resurrection of life is the better resurrection. And Samson has the better resurrection. One day in heaven we will see Samson. We are spiritually resurrected at conversion and our physical resurrection awaits, which Paul talks of in Philippians. We will get a new body, which will be fashioned like unto his glorious body. We will not be tempted to sin anymore. We will not sin ever again. We will be set free from our lusts. We will be set free from pride. The devil can do nothing to us no more. When our body of sin is gone, when our lusts and pride are eliminated, he has nothing to work on. And Jesus will cast the devil and his angels in the lake of fire. We will be free. Jesus sets the prisoners free. There will be no more sin that wars against our soul anymore. Our salvation will be consummated, and complete. God saves our spirit, soul and body. In that order.

If you are saved, you will do war with the Philistines your whole life. You may win many victories, and they may win a few as well. The Philistines test the reality of your faith. God uses them to purify you. It is the battle for your soul. But if you have been saved, the Bible says, ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. The Bible says, Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Jesus will see us through. He saw Samson through. If we give in to sin, if we make provision for our flesh which the Bible warns against, we will end up in the prison house. The Philistines will dominate you. They will control your life. You will be under their yoke. You will bear heavy burdens. You will live in bondage and misery. Take Jesus’s yoke, it is easy, and his burden is light. It is your choice. What do the Philistines represent in your life? Are you living according to the flesh or are you led by the Spirit of God? Is there I will, or thy will in your heart? Are you about the Father’s business, or your own business?

The victory lies in in dying to yourself. Live in the reality of the newness of life that Jesus gives. Today is the day. If you are truly saved, you have been united with the Lord Jesus Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. When you are saved, you can do the will of God. You don’t have to be a servant of sin anymore. The Son makes us free, and free indeed. It is spiritual resurrection, spiritual life. Before there can be life, there must be death. Jesus said in John 12:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Die to your aspirations, your will, your understanding, your reasoning. This is why God said in Proverbs 3:5,6 – Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. You don’t have to grind corn in Satan’s prison house. Submit to the word of God. Submit to God. Offer your life as a living sacrifice to God. It is your reasonable service. Humble yourself before him. Pray to him. Empty yourself of your own strength, he will be strong on your behalf. Bow with all your might. Call upon the name of the Lord. The house will come crashing down. Sure you might die with it. Let the Lord build the house. We are his house. He will raise you up. The Philistines will stay dead. Death to yourself, death in Christ, is your path to liberty, to freedom, to victory.

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