Judges 14:3 – Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.

Judges 14:4 – But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.

Hello readers, there’s an interesting verse in Judges 14, and today we will be tackling it. A lot of people don’t understand how it could be “of the Lord” that Samson wanted to marry a Philistine woman. How could it be of the Lord for Samson to marry a woman of who’s nation were oppressing Israel? God had forbade them from marrying daughters of these kind of nations who didn’t serve the Lord, but their own false gods, who would always cause them to err from the right way.

You could also try and justify your own life using a verse like this, without really understanding what it’s saying and what’s going on. Samson didn’t HAVE to ruin his life. He didn’t HAVE to have a failed marriage, he didn’t have to be betrayed by a woman he loved, he didn’t have to have his eyes put out. It’s presumptuous to think we can go ahead and sin how we want and try and make God work with it. It’s what most of us are guilty of doing. I’ll do what I want and God will make it work. Samson could’ve married a Hebrew wife and had a happy marriage… AND delivered Israel.

But there was no conflict between Israel and the Philistines. God had raised a judge and Israel hadn’t even cried out to God like at other times before when they had sinned, then were oppressed, and then cried out for deliverance. Israel was in a bad way. You see, this world is in a bad way, even Christians are in a bad way, when they are not only under dominion, but happy with it being so. They don’t seek deliverance. You know lots of people don’t want salvation from sin, they have no desire for it at all.

So today we see God let this happen, not because it was going to work out well for Samson… because it never was going to let’s face it, he was marrying a Philistine woman. It was always destined for disaster. He somehow didn’t think his Philistine bride would be think, act and do like Philistine women do.  But God let this happen let this happen to create a conflict. You see, Samson wasn’t delivering Israel. God was moving him at times, but nothing was happened. Samson needed to be burnt in his own life to motivate him to do something about the Philistines. It’s sad when we need to commit adultery, when we need to fall deep into sin, when we will finally realize that there is a conflict, that the Philistines need to be kicked out our lives.

It was a constant back and forth battle between Samson and the Philistines thereafter. Christian life can be like that. One day you’re having victories walking by faith in the Spirit, then the next day you’re in the flesh, and the flesh has dominion. You know, your flesh is a cruel master. It takes people into all sorts of life wrecking, life ruining sin. The more you feed it, the more you cater it, the more it makes it’s demands. You can live in the flesh, but there’s a better way. Living in the flesh is bondage. Your flesh is fallen, sinful. They weren’t free under the Philistines, they were in slavery. Jesus said you must be born again, because the solution lies in being born again of the Spirit of God. It was through the Spirit of God by faith that Samson won his victories and fulfilled God’s will for his life.

Hey, there’s a conflict here! See, nobody in Israel wanted deliverance. In fact, after Samson’s antagonizing of the Philistines, they came to get him. They were going to give Samson to the Philistines to pacify them. To keep the peace. How often we try keeping peace with sin, pacifying it, feeding it, keep it happy and content… instead of dealing with sin and things that need to be kicked out.

There’s no fight, there’s no warfare in Christianity anymore. People are happy living under dominion. They are dominated by their flesh, they’re dominated by the world, they’re dominated by the devil. Owned lock, stock and barrel. They didn’t even want to be freed. They didn’t want to know the power of God. Samson was a young man of God, but he was only being moved by the Spirit of the Lord at times. There was no battle going on. In churches there’s no battle being taken to the devil, to the flesh, to the world. There’s no preaching against sin, there’s no pleading to repent, there’s no warning of judgement. People are so asleep they don’t even realize they are conquered, they are owned, they are defeated. They’re in evil, and they want it and they love it. People don’t want to be delivered from sin, hey those Israelites resented Samson fighting the Philistines.

You know the truly saved Christians always meet opposition from the fake ones, from the religious ones, from the ones happy to live in the flesh… not by faith, and not in obedience. Galatians 5:17 – For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. Samson’s life is picture of flesh lusting against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. There was such lows and such highs in his life. If you walk in the Spirit you have victory, you are free, you are fruitful… but if you walk in the flesh… it’s not so good, you are defeated, enslaved, in sin. Those Philistines were dirty godless scoundrels. They were God’s enemy, and your flesh doesn’t like the things of God, nor does it know them.

But notice how torn he was between them both. He was meant to get rid of the Philistines, yet he loved one of them. See, when you love a sin you cannot let go, that’s really going to compromise your life. A fight isn’t going to happen when you’ve got Philistines friends and a Philistine wife. At it didn’t end well, because Samson, they don’t think like you, they don’t have your values, they don’t have your God. Why be so surprised when a Philistine behaves like a Philistine? Samson was shocked and aggrieved and angry… but what did he expect?

But the point of the blog today was that there is a conflict there. God ordained, not because it was going to result in a good marriage, but because Samson was a judge, a deliverer, and the only way to get him to do it was to let him experience what the Philistines were firsthand. Samson only fought the Philistines because they had wronged him, otherwise he wasn’t doing anything about them. Israel had not cried out for deliverance, but God wants you to be delivered. People hate God’s word today because it disturbs their comfortable little slave lives. They don’t want the boat rocked, they don’t want conflict, they don’t want a battle. In case you haven’t noticed, it didn’t seem like Samson had many friends, and we rag on Samson, but he was the one guy who was taking on the Philistines, even for all his problems, we know he had faith, the Bible says he did. And you know what, you are saved by faith, and you also walk in the Spirit by faith. It’s always about believing God, it’s not just a past saving belief and I’ll take it from here God. It’s always believing God. That’s when you will have victory, that’s when the Holy Spirit will lead your life and his power will be in your life.

People need to know there is a conflict there. There is a sin problem. There is a hell problem. People won’t get saved without realizing why they need to be saved. That’s what the law is for. It’s to lead people to Christ. People want to sleep, they want to live uninterrupted in their sin… they don’t realize hey, those Philistines need to be kicked out. They’re no good. There is a problem if you’re not saved. There is a problem if you’re not obeying God. What will it take for God to wake you up, to mobilize you to take action in your own life. To no longer be dominated by the world, the flesh, the devil? It wasn’t “of the Lord” meaning that God was using it to mobilize Samson, because noone was lifting a finger against the Philistines. There was no battle, there was contentment. It’s pretty sad when people are happy in sins, in disobedience, in godless fleshly lives. Maybe you need to be badly burnt by sin and it’s consequences before you finally realize, hey I need to do something about this. I need to repent and get saved.

So don’t use “it’s of the Lord” to justify sinning. If you read, it didn’t go well for Samson. Sin and disobedience to God will never go well. If Samson wanted a good and happy and blessed godly marriage, he should’ve listened to his parents. They were right. But it was of the Lord, not because God is contradicting himself, not because it’s ok to sin and make God work with what I’ve done… but because God wanted to start a conflict, he sought occasion against the Philistines. Israel was under dominion, noone was fighting, not even Samson, and God knew Samson’s burnt marriage and betrayal by his “mates” would start what would be the beginnings of deliverance from the Philistines. There’s a conflict here, God wants people out of Philistine dominion, and people do need to repent of their sins and believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from it.

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