Episode #50: The Story of Samson

[00:00:01] Thank you for listening to the Finding Neverland Podcast. Finding Neverland is a Christian Metalcore Band based in Denver, Colorado. This episode was broadcasted live. What's up? Happy Friday. Yeah, yeah. Cool. I don't think we have any technical difficulties this time, so seems like we're good. Yeah, not yet.

[00:01:13] Okay. I could. That's cool. Yeah, I don't know. We'll see what happens. But, um... Happy Friday, everybody. Thank you for listening. This is episode number 50, joined by Luke Weaver. I'm James Carns. This is the Finding Neverland Podcast. So we are a Christian Metalcore Band called Finding Neverland.

[00:01:43] And every Friday night we do a Bible Study podcast live on Facebook. And wherever podcasts are found, Spotify Apple, I Heart. We post every edited episode on Wednesday nights. But if you're watching us live, we are on Facebook and YouTube, at Finding Neverland Band.

[00:02:04] So follow us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube. If you want to watch us live, if you're watching us live, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Yeah, tonight's episode number 50. Can't believe that's... That's where we're at now. I know there. Pretty crazy. But we're going to be...

[00:02:27] I know. We're getting through them. I mean, it's God's grace that we're even still doing this. You know, like our first podcast, we kind of just want to just start a Bible Study. And you know, it's pretty amazing that we're still here. We're still doing it.

[00:02:47] Every Friday night, we have lots of technical difficulties. We've tried to learn, you know, just wing in it and see what happens. And you know, it continues to grow and we continue to grow in our faith, almost every single episode.

[00:03:02] So I'm really excited about how that's been going. Yeah, I agree. So, eat. Good to see you. So we're going to be... We're going to be talking. We're going to be reading out as a book of judges chapters 13-16 roughly. And this covers the life of Samson.

[00:03:31] Yeah, I was just looking at it and I was like... Even in 14-16 seems like I'll have a lot. You could cover him one more. But, uh... You, what you think about it because the 16-16 kind of long in the... Yeah.

[00:03:50] After 13, it's really just about we can summarize it a little bit and... And not really reading words for word if you want to. It's really about an angel coming to... The father of Samson, who's name is... Who's name? He is... Mendoeak. And... Yeah. Mendoeak. And his wife...

[00:04:30] His wife's name is... I don't know if it mentions her name. But, uh... I don't think it does actually know that I... Think about it. It's just... It's just been able to bear children. Yes, she was unable to bear children.

[00:04:45] So kind of a step below Mary, in Joseph, where it's the same aspect of God saying, You're going to bear a child. And it's... 100s of years before Christ even came on the scene and says the same thing that God is saying.

[00:05:04] Look, you're going to bear a child. And they had faith enough to trust him. They... They hadn't heard of it from the angels mouth directly. So eventually the angel came back because... You know, they couldn't believe it unless they actually heard of it again.

[00:05:22] You know, so it's kind of like... Well, I told you the first time. You know, and it's like how many times has God told us the first time. And we're still just like... What are we supposed to do again? What would you say? You know, and...

[00:05:37] You know, the instructions were that he wasn't supposed to drink any wine or have anything unclean. He was supposed to be a Nazarene in his action-spaceless, you know, pagan Nazarene belt and not drink any alcohol.

[00:05:53] And it was probably because if we read on, he's so strong and so kind of volatile. In his actions when it comes to violence, and violence for a good reason for holy anger. Um... Against Godless people that...

[00:06:16] If alcohol was introduced to that, it would have been a myth. You know, let's just like he started to see the connection here. You think? Yeah. Yeah, my first thought. Because I actually... Honestly, I've never really read much about Samson.

[00:06:35] You kind of hear about him as a kid. Because he's got like cool hair or something. But I never really knew much about him. So I honestly haven't really looked a lot into this into the book of Judges a lot. Um... But...

[00:06:50] The first thing I thought of was when you're reading... When you read in 13... In chapter 13 when it says the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, Indeed, you are barren. But you shall conceive and bear it so on.

[00:07:07] The first thing I thought of was Louis Mary. Like, it's like this sounds... This sounds familiar, you know? So I thought... I don't know if that's really supposed to be a connection there. I don't know if it is really, but it just... Just... For immediately off my head...

[00:07:23] At the top of my head it just went like, Oh, that sounds familiar from... You know, the angel... Telling Mary that she's gonna have a child. And same with like... Yeah. With Abraham too. Yeah. Yeah. I think he appeared to both Abraham and Sarah... Um...

[00:07:44] And one of we've been reading the dark. After Mary had gotten this revelation until a Joseph about it. She was probably like, yeah. Okay. He's looking another man. I'm gonna honor you and... Not really... Advertisers. I'm gonna keep this a secret and pretend like it's our child.

[00:08:03] And then an angel came to Joseph later on and said, Look, you don't have to be ashamed of this. This is absolutely... From the Lord he has given her a child from his... You know, spirit from his... Orah and... It's absolutely true.

[00:08:22] You know, don't think that you're covering for her or anything. And he didn't want anybody to feel ashamed. You know? I'm sure everybody else was talking... Crap and saying, you know, oh yeah, right? Yeah. But then as Jesus grew up, they were like, Oh, yep. So...

[00:08:44] And Sam's name is the same way. I think it's like a precursor to... Um, to a Christ honestly as a person who was set apart. A lot of people are set apart, you know? And we have no reason to believe we won't be set apart also.

[00:09:03] You know, these people were just human. It's just like us. The one thing I think in chapter 13 The Hect... Strap me was... Or maybe it's 14 already. Yeah, there's a... A parry act that says, Ah, Shimshan, which is Sam's and went down. But this is father.

[00:09:31] This is chapter 14 verse five. Shimshan went down with his father and mother to 10 not. When they came to the vineyards of 10 not, a young lion roared at him. That's all he... that's all I ended. You know, from this country.

[00:09:50] The spirit of that and that came powerfully upon Shimshan and bear-handed. He tore the line to pieces as easily as if it had been a young goat. But he didn't tell his father or mother what he had done.

[00:10:04] And he went down and talked with the woman he found. He still liked her. And found he still liked her. This is a filistine woman. Someone that they shouldn't inch a married with because they were really paid. And worshiped the other cats.

[00:10:19] And it says, a while later he was returning to claim he's a bride. So he had already decided he was going to marry this woman. Even as parents said, already told him you're going to marry someone from the un-circumcised filistine.

[00:10:36] Army who was our enemies right now in our captives being slaves to them. He turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion and saw that there was now a swarm of bees in the body of the lion.

[00:10:53] And honey, he scraped the honey out into his hands and went on eating as he went. And when he came to his father and mother he gave them so.

[00:11:05] And they ate too but he didn't tell them that he scraped the honey out of the body of the lion. And if he knew anything about Jewish culture, lions and predators alike are unclean animals.

[00:11:22] So he's already disobeying what the angel had told them by not eating from an unclean or unclean things. And they wouldn't have wanted to eat that on either being that it came from the lion.

[00:11:37] So I think this was also a test from God saying, are you going to just disregard? You know, what you know to be what I want you to do based on the fact that you want some honey.

[00:11:52] And then also offer it to your parents like Adam and Eve when she took the fruit and then offered it to you know. But yeah, it shows it proves that also.

[00:12:06] Samson knew that he had done something wrong because he did because it says that you did not tell them that he had taken it out in the lion. So it just seems like right. Yeah, it seems like Samson is like as famous of many willful sinful acts.

[00:12:24] Yeah, hang up. And now I'm thinking even tried to justify. His attraction to this woman. I think he's just went on his own accord to marry her. And then was like, I, he's not even a business parent. So he even after they warned them not to. Yeah.

[00:12:51] Cool. So what it says. Yeah, keep going. That's really good. Well, chapter 24, I mean, chapter 13, verse 24. When it says the woman borrows them and called him Samson. It says the child grew and Edrony, the Lord blessed him.

[00:13:13] The spirit of Edrony began to stir him when he was in the camp of Dan between Sora and Ash. So the Lord chose the blessing and continued to make him strong.

[00:13:30] And of course, later on this story is, you know, a well, I already told us chapter 13 if we read it. You're not to cut his hair from the time he has borne that will be something you don't do. You just don't cut his hair, you know.

[00:13:49] And that's all they told them they didn't tell him he was going to be super human strength or anything like that. But that was only instructions they got was the one cut his hair. And in that culture, it wasn't becoming of a man to have long hair.

[00:14:04] So it was definitely an ice war for the community and the culture. He probably looked like a toolstee to them. Yeah, I didn't even think of that. So so Samson.

[00:14:28] And again, I, you know, forgive me, I haven't read this portion very much but so Samson's now marrying this Philistine after this Philistine woman. Yeah, yeah, after his parents born and must he go to the unsurcomcised Philistines to find a wife.

[00:14:51] And Samson just said to his father get her for me.

[00:14:57] I like her and, and it says his father and mother didn't know that all of this came from at her night who was seeking grounds for a quarrel with the Philistine at that time the Philistine is borne is real.

[00:15:14] So it's stating that God said this up in use Samson to basically, you know, create and many and kind of destroy the Philistine single hand that we through this attraction. So let me just think in myself how much free will there you really have.

[00:15:41] If these things are being perpetrated upon you by God. So you think that so you think that Samson's marriage to his Philistine woman was blessed and. I don't think it was favored by God or unfavored.

[00:16:06] I think it was like weird way to think about it, I think he conducted it so it would happen. And Samson was kind of stuck with the choice of either doing it or not doing. Because the same parenthesis here at that time, the owner.

[00:16:32] It says his father and mother didn't know that all this came from the Lord who was seeking grounds for a quarrel from the Philistine. Like God put that in his mind to marry this woman so that he could get close to the culture and he could.

[00:16:55] He made this attraction upon it. You know, so that's interesting. It's really a mind. Miss the kind of. Read that you know, it also let's always. Go ahead.

[00:17:14] Yeah, no, I was just it's hard to understand if like this is like if this is completely Samson being disobedient and God just using that. Or if this is probably.

[00:17:29] That's probably more or you're probably hitting the known head there because I don't think God sets people up to fail. Yeah, especially when it says the Lord blessed him and he was strong.

[00:17:47] You know just a few chat after you versus before that and it's just like, you read, oh God said I'm up. You know, I don't think that's correct. So you probably hit the nail in the head there.

[00:18:02] Yeah, it was you know, he used his choices for his own will and that moment. So yeah, so it kind of seems like just to me, it seems like, you know, again another it's another very flawed sinful person that God uses for his own glory like somebody that.

[00:18:30] You know, obviously he's very strong. He can do a lot of things independently, but he continually chooses to disobey. Yahweh and so. But God's merciful and God's continues to bless him time and time again, even though he continues to disobey.

[00:18:55] But at the end, God uses it for his glory. Yeah, I'll say. Yeah, so I would I would. Okay, so so it looks like. And I have a much busy.

[00:19:17] Yeah, okay, so yeah, we'll just look what we'll have to kind of bounce through because it's a little long, but just like summarized, I was reading, it says Samson. Has this wedding feast and it was pretty much like a drunken party. Right, right.

[00:19:43] Yeah, it says an in 1410, Samson gave a feast there for young men used to do so. So it's probably pretty pretty crazy wedding. And then. Yeah, we can start there honestly because I was just looking at it. Yeah, okay.

[00:20:08] And that says, let's see, during the feast, Samson offers a wager. So he says Samson says to them in verse and chapter 14 verse 12 of judges, let me pose a riddle to you. I'm going to quickly solve and explain to me within the seven days of the feast.

[00:20:29] Then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing, which is interesting. I don't know, the number 30 kind of just jumps out to me. I'm not really sure if that has anything to do with like 30 pieces of silver or whatever.

[00:20:53] I don't know it just kind of jumped out of me a little bit. I was like, why is this? Why is that 30? Right. So not sure about that one but verse 13 says, but if you cannot explain it to me,

[00:21:10] then you shall give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothing. And they said to them, pose your riddle that we may hear it. Verse 14. So he said to them, out of the eater came something to eat and out of the strong came something sweet.

[00:21:29] Now for three days they cannot explain the riddle but it came to pass on the seventh day that they said, to Samson's wife and Tyser has been that he may explain the riddle to us or else we will burn you and your father's house with fire.

[00:21:42] Have you invited us in in order to take what is ours? Is that not so? Then verse 16 says, then Samson's wife, wept on him and said, you only hate me.

[00:21:52] You do not love me. You have posed a riddle to the sons of my people but you have not explained it to me. He said to her, look I have not explained it to my father or mother so should I explain it to you?

[00:22:05] Now she had wept on him the seven days while they're fast while their feast lasted and happened on the seventh day that he told her because she pressed him so much.

[00:22:15] Then she explained the riddle to the sons of her people. So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, what is sweeter than honey and what is stronger than a lion? And he said to them, if you had not,

[00:22:28] plowed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle. Then the spirit of the Lord came upon him, mightily, and he went down to ask, go on and kill thirty other men, took their apparel and gave the changes of clothing to those who had explained the riddle.

[00:22:44] So his anger was aroused and he went back up to his father's house and Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his best man. So Samson's wife but trays him, right?

[00:23:06] You know they're only married. I don't know if it gets a sound like they're only married for like a week. And you know he gets angry and kills thirty of kills thirty Philistines. And then his wife is then given to his best man. I mean crazy story.

[00:23:34] But yeah. Well, like he was prepared. He wasn't prepared to pay that when he made the riddle. You know, he went stole from other people and also took their lives to pay that. It just shows you how lost people are. Yeah. Okay.

[00:24:08] So first 15 says Samson defeats the Philistines, which that's part of God's plan. So all of this is, you know, God's people overcoming the Philistines. Yeah. And I mean, honestly it was anger that came from them saying we're going to burn your house. So they were extreme.

[00:24:38] First they were like we're going to burn your house down and you inside of it. If you don't tell us the riddle because we can't afford to lose this riddle. Because Samson proposes riddle he caused it. But then they were even more evil than him.

[00:24:55] And then he went and killed the people. Not even the people that were closing to burn the house down. He went and killed other people got their clothes from them. And then gave it to the people who had proposed to burn his house down.

[00:25:09] You know, just shows you how twisted his mind was. It was like I got a pain my day when I go murder. You know, he goes and he goes to get revenge on the Philistines for the people who took his wife.

[00:25:29] It says it says in verses chapter 15 verses 4 through 5. He burns the Philistine crops and later after the Philistines murder. They murder his wife. Let's see where did I see that? Yeah, verse 6. So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

[00:26:02] Verse 7, Samson said to them, Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you. And after that I will seize. So he tacked them, hip and thigh with a great slaughter.

[00:26:15] And he went down in dwelt in the cleft of the rock of at him, E.T.M. So this is crazy. I mean, it's just like a back and forth. Oh yeah, worth battle. Well look at the Middle East right now with Israel.

[00:26:37] Yeah, another country just the same thing. Yeah. And honestly, Palestine, the word Palestine was given to that country by the United Kingdom out of spite. That is really, yeah, Palestine is just a modern translation of Philistine. So they named and not a distant country.

[00:27:03] It doesn't even show up on a map or glow today. Palestine. To spy the Jewish people and say, look, the Philistines are back. And they became their names just by, you know, yeah. Yeah.

[00:27:27] So yeah, this is a story as old as time, you know, just back and forth. Crazy, crazy violence. So after Samson murdered a bunch of those Philistines, it says he hit out in Judah for a while. But the Judeans were worried that Samson was going to,

[00:27:55] was going to harm them. So they, they tied up Samson and delivered him to the Philistines in verses eight through 13. It says. Yeah, so on 13. And so they spoke to him saying no, but we will, we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand.

[00:28:18] But we will surely not kill you. And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. And so this is chapter 15 verse 14. The Philistines came shouting against him, then the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon

[00:28:38] him and the ropes that were on his arms became like flacks that is burned with fire and his, and his bonds broke loose from his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it.

[00:28:55] I mean, this guy has murdered some Philistines man. This is wild. So Brad, yeah, verse 16 chapter 15 verse 16 says then Samson said, with the jawbone of a donkey heaps upon heaps with the jawbone of a donkey. I have slain a thousand men.

[00:29:15] And so it was when he had finished speaking that he threw the jawbone from his hand and called that place, or a moth lay he, I don't know how pronounced that. So yes, Brad. So now he's killed a thousand more.

[00:29:34] But God is still giving him grace and favor in all of this. It seems like you know by, you know, untying him. Yeah, it's almost like the Judeans, which for his people came and said, you attacking the Philistines, you know there are captors, right?

[00:29:59] What are you doing to this? And then they tied him up with ropes and said, we won't kill you.

[00:30:06] But then the ropes came off his hands and he from that moment he just took the jawbone of a donkey and went to town on the Philistines in the town. And it's just like, yeah. And we don't, I don't think we understand God a lot of times.

[00:30:22] And what his duties and what is what his will is for the world and people's lives. I mean, and I can only imagine it was because no one else in Judea at that time,

[00:30:37] that Judeans had enough guts to do anything about the fact that they were under captivity and they got one of them to do something about it and not just accept it.

[00:30:52] Yeah, and so it seems like so God, he has this purpose of defeating the Philistines and protecting his people. And he's using Samsung, but Samsung just is so lost, you know? So I don't even know if he's just, you know, so sinful and

[00:31:15] has so many consequences to his choices, but we still see God's will coming forth. And I think that's a, that's a really cool, that's a really cool lesson that we can learn through this story is like,

[00:31:30] man, even just, I'm kind of blown away by seeing the sovereignty that is y'all way, like he, he'll just, like his plan happens even through, even through our, our sin. It's not even, it's not going to prevent what he wants to happen.

[00:31:49] And so I think we forget that. Definitely, man. Another correlation I see is, you know, the Judeans in C.S. and the church is a leader or someone to be inspired. They looked at him like,

[00:32:06] what are you doing? Like, you are off, you are just off the cuff right now. And what did you say to Jesus when he came on the scene, you know, the same thing, like yeah, okay, you're not going to address from the Romans, you know,

[00:32:24] you're just going to preach, you know, this good news that you are the son of God and it people can be saved only by your name. That's blasphemy, you know, people didn't accept him either, you know?

[00:32:38] So that's a good point. Yeah, I mean, it just seems like that is how God uses, makes his plan come forth as because we don't get the glory. He's going to use the, the lowly, the least important or the least impressive, men,

[00:32:57] the most lost, the simple ones. You know, just makes me think of just, you know, me and my story like I'm, I'm, man, it's like sometimes I'm just like, why do you choose me? And it's like, you know, I'm lost all the time.

[00:33:19] It's like I need his grace so much all the time. I need his mercy and it's like his joy to choose someone like me, somebody that's, that needs his help so much that's

[00:33:33] willing to rely on him time and time again. You know, like I don't feel like I'm impressive or anything like that. And I'm just so thankful that he, you know, uses people that, you know, that we're relying,

[00:33:51] or that choose to lean on him, I guess. Yeah, it's the perceived inadequacy of our life actions that actually sets us up and prepares us to receive his grace in his mercy, which is a prerequisite for anything he has to do in life and be

[00:34:11] in his will in life. Somebody who's never committed many sins has not a lot to be forgiven for, but someone who is committed many sins has much to be forgiven for and they understand what they've been forgiven of. But Paul, but Paul, of course,

[00:34:30] is not to go out and sin just so that grace abounds. Yeah, it's just a fact, you know. Yeah, the more and more you fall in love with the, the character of God and you see his mercy on your life.

[00:34:46] I truly believe the more and more you don't, you don't live a life of abusing that. Right, right. You start to understand how good he is. So yeah, let's continue. So 16, this says chapter 16, Sam Simitze, a

[00:35:10] prostitute there and it says, says now Sam Simitze went to Gaza and saw Harlet there and went into her. Like I love the Bible's just wording of how it is. There. I said, my name is Sam, right with her. Yeah, he went into, he slept with a prostitute.

[00:35:30] Brad, so again, he's still just, you know, still just making these decisions are just like, man, what are you doing? And then says, it says, Sam Simitze, he meets and falls in love with the Philistine woman again. And this time her name is Delilah.

[00:35:53] He says in 16 verse 4, after where to happen that he loved a woman in the valley of Syracch whose name was Delilah. And the Lord of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, and Tice him and find out where his

[00:36:10] great strength lies. And by what means we may overpower him that we may bind him to a flick time and every one of us will give you 1100 pieces of silver. So Delilah said to Sam, please tell me where your great strength lies

[00:36:26] and with what you may be bound to afflict you. So again, we see them just completely manipulating a woman to get a man to sin. We see that many times in the Bible, you know, as is just a woman is

[00:36:50] the reason why a man falls or gets deceived. And so 16 verse 7, Sam Simitze said to her, if they bind me with seven fresh boistings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.

[00:37:12] So the Lord of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh boistings, not yet dried. And she bound him with them. Now men were lying in wait, staying with her in the room, and she said to them,

[00:37:24] the Philistines are upon you, Sam Simitze. But he broke the boistings as a stranded yarn breaks when it touches fire. So the secret of a strength was not known.

[00:37:34] And then verse 10 says, then Delilah said to Sam Simitze, look you have mocked me and told me lies. Now please tell me what you may be bound with. So he said to her, if they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall

[00:37:48] become weak and be like any other man. So I'm guessing he's lying there. Yeah. First of all, says therefore Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, the Philistines are upon you, Sam Simitze. And men were lying in wait, staying in the room.

[00:38:06] But he broke them off his arms like a thread again. Delilah said to Sam Simitze, until now you have mocked me and told me lies, tell me what you have made. Maybe tell me what you had made be bound with.

[00:38:18] And he said to her, if you weave the seven locks on my head into the web of the room. So she does that. And he breaks from it again. Then 15, then she says to him, how can you say I love

[00:38:33] you when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times and have not told me where your great strength lies. For 16, they came to pass when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him so that his

[00:38:48] soul was back to death. Good, and it's gracious. He's like dang woman, let's like I'm sick of this. So verse 17, then he told her all his heart and said to her, no razor has ever come upon my head for

[00:39:03] I have been an ass right to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaving them, my strength will leave me and I shall become weak and be like any other man.

[00:39:13] So then he tells her, and when Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she's sent and called for the Lord of the Philistines saying come up once more for he has told

[00:39:23] me all his hearts of the Lord of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand. Then she rolled him to sleep on her knees and called for a man and had him shave off

[00:39:36] his head and then she began to torment him and his strength left him. And she said, the Philistines are upon you, Samson, so he woke up from his sleep and said,

[00:39:46] I will go out as before at other times and shake myself free, but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Then the Philistines took him and put his eyes and put

[00:39:56] his eyes and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze feathers and he became a grinder in the prison. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after he had been shaving. And that's kind of one of the stop there a little bit.

[00:40:12] Sure. Yeah, it's interesting that it's interesting that Samson was like so confident in himself, but God was always with him. God's grace was always with him and then once God's grace. It was almost like there was a dead line. God was kind of like,

[00:40:37] okay, my grace is not upon you anymore because you're continuing to be disobedient. And so yeah, just like he was just like, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do it again, but he needed the Lord. He needed the Lord.

[00:40:53] Like he's this great strong man that has defeated, like I don't even know how many Philistines, you know, tons of them. And this time, you know, God's grace is not covering him anymore. And so I think that's a, that was a big lesson for him, is that, you

[00:41:13] know, he's pretty much nothing without, without Yahweh. Yeah, and that happens in the midst of a night or something, you know, where the Lord was, you know, he's like, you know, you know, says that she nagged him until he finally

[00:41:36] broke and confided in her. And apparently that wasn't. That wasn't brutal enough for him to leave. Yeah, absolutely was willing to give her the secret of his strength. So, you know, maybe he didn't know that Lord was giving him that strength. He thought it

[00:41:55] is our and his pride wouldn't allow him to not tell her that, you know, he was like, oh, I'll tell you, it doesn't matter. You know, like, that's not really true. You know, I just had been told this from birth that I can't come out here.

[00:42:11] I'm just a beast, you know, I don't think he really believed it too much. Yeah. But the instant that he told her that, the image just ran and ran psyched his body and put him in the prison, and it was just all over.

[00:42:29] Crazy. Yeah. So now we're at the point, Samson's blind. Is that what this is saying? He got his eyes gouged out. Brad has had shaved. Yes. So, okay. So we'll, way we can finish 16.

[00:42:55] So, okay. So now they got Samson and they're going to offer him to the great as a great sacrifice to dig on their God and to rejoice. So these are obviously pagan people. Verse, so chapter 23, or I mean, I'm sorry, chapter 16 verse 23.

[00:43:16] It says, now the Lord of the Philstein's gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to dig on their God and they said, our God has delivered into our hands. Samson, our enemy.

[00:43:29] When the people saw him, they praised their God for they said, our God has delivered into our hands, our enemy. It's a story of our land and the one whom multiplied our dead.

[00:43:42] So it happened when their hearts were married that they said, call for Samson, that he may perform for us. So they called for Samson from the prison and he performed for them, and they stationed him between the pillars.

[00:43:56] Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars which support the temple so that I can lean on them.

[00:44:05] Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philstein's were there about 3,000 men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed. Verse 28, then Samson called to the Lord saying, oh Lord God, remember me, I pray.

[00:44:21] Strengthen me, I pray just this one. So God, that I may be, I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philstein's from my two eyes. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple and he braised himself against them.

[00:44:36] One on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, let me die with the Philstein's and he pushed with all his might and the temple fell on the lords and all the people.

[00:44:43] So the dead, so the dead that he killed his death were more than he had killed in his life. And his brothers and all his fathers households came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zora and Eshtoel,

[00:45:01] and the tomb of his father, and Noah, he had just Israel 20 years. So that's the end. What a wild story man. Bible is wild, you guys.

[00:45:17] So so the Philistines, they think they're celebrating, they're like, oh our God, they gone has delivered him to us but really it was just because Yahweh wasn't there. Yeah. There was nothing there.

[00:45:38] So it was just because Yahweh left and then he starts, and then essentially Samson right before he dies, you know, I don't know, comes back to the Lord and remembers and you know,

[00:45:55] repents and remembers God and his grace on his life and asks for him to strengthen him. And he, you know, God is so merciful, you know, with, you know, just just with Samson's whole life of disobedience and it just seems like right at the end.

[00:46:14] God is like, okay, you know, I remember you, you remember me. And he defeats, you know, all these, this is about 3,000 people which is more than he had killed in his lifetime. It says there. Yeah, so that's a good story. I really, I really enjoyed that tonight.

[00:46:38] That's just wild that, you know, Samson recognizes that nothing was on his own accord that he asked for, he was like, God, I need your strength.

[00:46:49] You know, it's, it seemed like in most of his life he figured that his strength was himself and his own, his own doing. And I think that's amazing. It is, I mean, like, I love the last verse says he had judged Israel 20 years.

[00:47:16] But what we wrote is from an earth-respective was like, he did his job. Yeah, in 20 years of the law, in 20 years of the long time too. Well, you know, it says he had judged Israel 20 years. That's interesting. I thought it was time of filsting.

[00:47:36] But it's like, okay, I don't really understand that too much. But apparently his father had already been long passed away and they buried him in the tomb of his father. So the only people that were still alive was his father's family, and they came down to took him.

[00:47:53] And I can only imagine they were a strange from him for a while. And then in this very last moment of being like, okay, it's over finally, you know, they came and got his body and buried him.

[00:48:06] It's like that final reconciliation of like, and this part where he says, you know, then crying. Let me die with the filstings. How much is he cried in his entire life until that point, probably after he got his eyes galloped down.

[00:48:26] He was in prison. But in this moment, he's like, I don't think I don't know if you're going to do this for me, he starts crying about it. You know, and then moment, and apparently you can still cry without eyes, you know, he has still out here.

[00:48:41] But you know, he still out here to out here to out here to get your eyes on there to catch the tears. So I mentioned it was a very terrible moment for him where he didn't know if God was going to come through or not.

[00:48:53] And it said his hair was growing back. But what does that have to do with God's spirit still being with him? You know, it's not the catalyst. Oh, all over all for God still being with him. It was just what God told him not to do.

[00:49:14] So Samson's life, we're getting short on time, but we got through most of it. We were able to run through it. I mean, yeah. I mean, this whole story teaches us that God is the strong one.

[00:49:37] You know, it's like we're weak. We need him. We need his strength. Also, also, you know, you might be blessed by God, but there are still consequences to sin. And you know, and it's like we can see that God has a sovereign will.

[00:49:58] But that doesn't mean that our decisions aren't going to cause this consequences. So it's like I think it's so cool how at the end it does say he had he had he had judges real 20 years. It was like he did his job.

[00:50:13] It was like his life was a mess of just sin and pride. Like he had so much pride in himself and self-reliance. But God was like, okay, well, my plan still worked out because I'm God, and I'm I'm sovereign and I'm good.

[00:50:27] You know, I think that's that's a beautiful lesson that you know, your life can be so messy. So yeah, so you know, you could have screwed up your life a thousand times.

[00:50:43] And it just takes one, just takes one yes to, you know, one like humble yes to the Lord to give your life back to him and he'll, you know, in his plan, it will still somehow you're still back to where he wanted you to be in an instant.

[00:51:03] I think that's really amazing with Samson story. And I believe that with anybody, anybody's life. Yeah, I'm realizing of the thief they said remember me when you come into your Jesus.

[00:51:20] Yeah, it was the last dying moments of a man who said man don't leave me come back and be with me one last time. I just wanted to die. It's been, I know I'm going to die anyways, but don't let me be sacrificed to these false gods.

[00:51:39] I want to go out serving Jesus and then God was like, forget me in your kingdom or something like that, right? But then Samson was like, don't let me be sacrificed to these false gods.

[00:51:52] You know, I may go out serving you one last time and God was like, yep, this is what I planned for you all along anyways. And God took out all the chiefs, all the leaders of the Philistines, all in one sweep.

[00:52:06] And you can imagine this story obviously has been recorded, but it was told after the fact that how did this man pull down these pillars and kill all of these people in this moment? One last time after we supposedly took all of his power away from him.

[00:52:25] You know, because we wouldn't have been able to bind him and put him in prison and get out his eyes out if we didn't take all those power away from him.

[00:52:32] Obviously a miracle happened in his god allowed him to do this. This is crazy. So I think the Philistines were absolutely crushed after this.

[00:52:45] And the fact that it says he had this last sentence, he had just Israel 20 years. It's almost like the author is saying Israel was judged by his willingness to fight the Philistines or to follow God's will for his life and when they were not when they were like,

[00:53:06] we're rating him for absolutely just following what his anger and certain things they'd like him to do. They were like, you're making this bad for us, you're messing things up for us.

[00:53:22] You know, another one who can't even over to the Philistines at one point but then he broke fruit.

[00:53:28] So the fact that it says he had just Israel 20 years tells me that God was like, okay, he used him as a prophet also to be like, okay, you need to tighten up or, you know,

[00:53:44] the people that I already asked to, or this isn't an example of what you should do when I speak to you and what you carry out what I ask you to do. So even though everything Samson did was not let by God still.

[00:54:06] It's amazing to that Samson, you know, God gets the glory, but Samson still goes down as like a man of faith and you know. He's still used in the Bible and I think it's amazing that that even happens.

[00:54:29] You know, because he's just a he was a fleshly man, sinful man, me and tons of mistakes.

[00:54:35] And most of the time like he like knew him knew it too like he would just willfully choose to sin and to you know knowing that he's like, oh, I'm going to have consequences about him and do it anyway.

[00:54:49] Like how many of us think like that, you know, I just I really relate with Samson in these in these moments, you know it's easy to be like, oh Samson was so sinful, but it's like man we're like we are really not that different from.

[00:55:05] From Samson, you know, I think his story is like as a warning, you know, if you if you play with sin like there's going to be you're going to get burned you're going to get there's going to be consequences, you know from it.

[00:55:17] And and I think it's a you know, I think it's a lesson that God is sovereign he's got to plan no matter what we're better off being obedient. To him we're better off following him we're better off depending on him.

[00:55:35] Because his plan is going to is going to come through. Whether we like it or not so. Yeah, it's kind of rambling there but. No, we've just right on point dude, I mean. The problem with Samson and everyone else in the world is.

[00:55:58] You know, the negative consequences for our simple actions don't always come it's very rare that they come very soon after the actions are taking place so we continue to do them saying oh okay we're not going to get any consequences.

[00:56:14] And it's all over the proper saying oh the fool just continues to do evil because he says there is no God there is no punishment for these things but they don't know that the eyes of the Lord are upon them.

[00:56:27] And even in Noah's day it was like there is no God we can you do what we're doing. Until we die, you know, and then it started to rain on them.

[00:56:38] So I think that's another problem that we see you know, but it's just that story of our humanity honestly.

[00:56:46] And whether or not we can recognize that there are consequences we don't want to feel the full blood of those consequences you know, you know Judas himself I don't know if we're in interpretation of him going to commit suicide but he you know honestly through the 30 pieces of silver back at the Pharisees in the temple and then went and

[00:57:08] and then he said, I'm so so his guilt was too strong for him to live with. And then you have a dichotomy of Peter denying him three times but still being the apostle of the church and being around for Jesus to resurrect.

[00:57:24] It's not like Jesus wouldn't have forgiven Judas if he was still alive to resurrect and come. I still love you, you know. And so I don't really believe Judas was damned and that says you know.

[00:57:38] I think people from that interpretation of like the difference between Judas and Peter is you know Judas was he was like sorry for himself like he threw the.

[00:57:52] His guilt was like was focused on himself, you know he felt bad of it was towards himself and but Peter's you know repentance was more godly sorrow instead of you know selfishly being like.

[00:58:06] Feeling bad for himself he was mostly like I have sinned against God and Judas was like I have sinned and I feel terrible about it, you know I think that's the difference between.

[00:58:17] Yeah, I think that's something that we can we all can learn as Christians is you know repentance takes godly sorrow and and recognizing that we've sinned against God instead of you know worrying about what's going to happen to us. Does that make sense?

[00:58:36] Yeah, I mean he either repented or didn't repent for a train Jesus with the silver and but still the guilt was it tells me he didn't really understand forgiveness of Christ and didn't believe in enough to go and hang himself because his guilt was so strong.

[00:59:03] You know, but Peter was the same way he went out I think he went out to tie a no stone around his neck and drown himself. Until Jesus appeared to him.

[00:59:14] He was out there by the sea I think on a boat or something and that's when Jesus appeared to him and said let's go in and eat some fish you know it was like in that moment Jesus was like don't you do it again don't you do it also.

[00:59:28] I got plans for you. Amazing and honestly he had answered Judas also different journey from the beginning of time he was set up to do that. Yeah, so it was just kind of crazy to realize how much free will do we really have.

[00:59:46] Yeah, and and it's amazing the character of Jesus to still love. Judas the entire time knowing that he's going to do that and you know I think about that with. The the scripture that says you know while we were still sinners Jesus died for us, you know.

[01:00:05] It's like man our Lord chooses. His character is just something that's kind of hard to explain hard to understand. Sometimes. Right. Yeah, there's nothing else like. So cool where we're running out of time really good episode really really really enjoyed this one.

[01:00:28] You know just learning about you know the consequences of sin. You know, you know how how pride can destroy your life and you know we really need to rely on God strength.

[01:00:46] And also you know, and when are how much you've screwed up your life it just takes one. One prayer of repentance and faith and you know God will redeem you and put you right back to where he wanted you the whole time.

[01:01:00] And I think we learned that through Samson story. His sovereign will always plays out so. Cool. Thanks for listening this was episode number 50. So good night happy Friday everybody. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Yeah, let's say a prayer. We love you guys thanks for listening every week.

[01:01:29] Thanks for supporting the band. And then we'll just we'll get out of here and hopefully you guys have a good weekend. So I think it's my turn to pray this time. Oh, yes, cool. Father, we love you.

[01:01:50] We just thank you so much for your word and for this evening's opportunity to just learn more about your character. And just how you are. How good you are even to to us sinners. We can be so disobedient in our lives.

[01:02:13] And I just feel like the story of Samson. We're so thankful for it. It just shows us how good you are and how sovereign you are. And how big you are now we need your strength. I pray that I pray that anybody listening hopefully will.

[01:02:38] Including me and Luke that our that our hearts will be turned more towards you and a desire to obey you. And to understand that we need you, that we we need to depend on you.

[01:02:55] We need to understand that more and more and I think this story is Samson teaches us that. So Father, we just so thankful for this evening's podcast. I just pray that anybody listening. Could be blessed with your word.

[01:03:11] We just thank you for your for your grace Holy Spirit. We thank you that you you speak to us. You speak through us. You speak. You help guide us through these episodes and through our lives. You're the comforter and. I just. Just we love you.

[01:03:30] We love you for your help and your. And your grace through through our lives. I just. Pray for anybody listening. That just is on the fence maybe with with God and I hope that these stories are.

[01:03:48] Are helping to understand how good you are and how loving you are and how much you're willing to change anybody story. And I think that's a great way to go back to the way that you had designed them.

[01:04:00] I think with Samson we see that he was so disobedient he messed up his whole life, but you were there the whole time. And and I just pray that anybody listening can understand that that.

[01:04:11] No matter how far you've run from God, no even if no matter how much you've disobeyed him. That one yes one repentant. Faithful yes to Jesus will change your life in an instant. And.

[01:04:28] Bring you back to him and and a line align your cells with with God's will. So father we love you we bless you we thank you for this evening. We just continue to hope to. Join you on your plan.

[01:04:43] I pray that your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. That. Your plan will just continue to be shown to everybody pray for Israel during this time. Yeah, we just. We're thankful for you father we love you. We praise you.

[01:05:08] Pray all these things in this son the name that is above all names. Jesus Christ amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hey, thank you for your word. Make that thing. Just I'm thankful for this story people. For the room where?

[01:05:38] Ah, I am thankful for this story. For example? It just reminded me that. in the middle of the podcast number 50. Thank you guys for listening. If you're watching the live stream on Facebook and YouTube, thank you so much. I really wanna somehow get this stream on TikTok.

[01:05:59] So if anybody listening, if you guys could help me, I don't know how I absolutely hate TikTok, but for some reason there is a lot of, there's a lot of people following our page and liking our stuff. And so, I don't see a lot of Christian content

[01:06:19] on that horrible app. So I don't know. I think it about, like, I was just thinking about how can we get this on TikTok somehow to talk live? So I don't know, anybody listening, you wanna message me, help me out with that that would be really cool.

[01:06:37] But as always, our episodes are gonna be on Spotify, Apple, podcast. And after these are edited. So go follow us at Finding Neverland Band. I think is all our pages. And yeah, subscribe to us. So we love you guys. We love you guys. All right, yeah. Yeah, cool.

[01:07:00] So until next week, episode 51, we love you. Blessings to you guys out there. Have a good weekend. Yeah, God bless you. God bless you. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Finding Neverland podcast.

[01:07:27] We pray that you were challenged, encouraged, and uplifted as we seek to establish the kingdom of heaven. If you were impacted by our band or if you would like to partner with Finding Neverland, please email us at Finding Neverland Band. Then the number seven at gmail.com.