10/06/2024 To Return to the Lord
/Sermon: To Return to the Lord
Scripture: Judges 16:28-30
28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
29 Then 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,
30 Samson 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.
"Conflict, pain, psychotherapy All this leads us to look at ourselves, to look more carefully and more closely, to find what we have missed, to understand something. And all this expands awareness. But whether this greater awareness increases or decreases freedom depends on what we perceive and how we use it," quotes a man named Allen Wheelis in How people change.
I failed one course in the pastoral examination in April. I can say, "If the professor hadn't asked me questions that didn't come up in class, I wouldn't have failed," or if I had studied harder, I wouldn't have failed. Both statements are dealing with the same experience. Both asked, "Why did I fail?" and both may be true. If I want to make excuses for my failures, I'll take the former, and if I want to avoid the same mistakes in the future, I'll choose the latter.
Here's a more summary of the contents of the book: In the same way, if we talk about failures in life, and ask why, we can arrive at an answer that is quite different but equally true. But the truth does not provide a criterion for our choice. The choice between two equally truthful accounts of the same life depends on the outcome you want and the future you want to create. If we have pain and a desire to change, we will choose that history, written from the perspective that determined the past. This is what makes the current selection. That's because it emphasizes both the understanding of how you became and the freedom to make yourself different.
Joshua, a great leader of Isreal, died, and all the people of his generation fell asleep too. The new generation was being distributed and conquering the land of Canaan. They must now live out the field with the mission of making this earth the kingdom of God. If there is a territory, if there are citizens, if there is a king, then a state is formed. Canaan is its territory, Israel is its citizen, and the Lord God is the King. This is called the kingdom of God. However, when the Israelites lived in the land of Canaan, they did not follow God, the King of that nation. God was the king of the Israelites, but Israel did not choose God to be their king. They did not yet have a human king because they had not yet formed as a nation, but God was the king of their forefathers, is their king now, and is their king forever. It is historically true that Jehovah God is the Savior of their forefathers. Nevertheless, the new generation rejected God's kingship. So they fell into sin, and God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. Then Israel cried out to God. The Lord did not abandon His people, but appointed judges to rule Israel for about 400 years. The central message of the book of Judges is that Israel fell into sin, that God delivered them into the hands of the enemy, that Israel cried out to God, and that God raised up judges to deliver Israel from the hands of the enemy. However, when the judges die, Israel again worships idols and follows those idols. God's warning to Israel, who would not forsake their wicked deeds and hardened conduct, was:
21 I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died.
22 I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” 23 The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua (Judges 2:21-22).
This is the main content of the book of Judges. Among them, the author of Judges tells the story of Samson in four chapters, chapters from13 to 16. When we look at the story of Samson, it seems that the problem of Samson as a judge is more serious than the problem of Israel. Samson, the last judge in the age of the judges, is born with the faith of the mother and the mission of the Nazirites. The angel of the Lord appears to the barren wife of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, and tells her that she will conceive and give birth to a son. The angel tells her to forbid to drink wine or other fermented drink that she should not eat anything unclean, and that she should not put a razor to a child's head. It is said that the child is born and consecrated to God from birth (Judges 13:4-5). Who are the Nazirites? Numbers 6:1-21 discusses the discipline of the one who will be born. I'm going to read up to verse 8.
The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of dedication to the Lord as a Nazirite,
3 they must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or other fermented drink. They must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins.
4 As long as they remain under their Nazirite vow, they must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins.
5 “‘During the entire period of their Nazirite vow, no razor may be used on their head. They must be holy until the period of their dedication to the Lord is over; they must let their hair grow long.
6 “‘Throughout the period of their dedication to the Lord, the Nazirite must not go near a dead body.
7 Even if their own father or mother or brother or sister dies, they must not make themselves ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of their dedication to God is on their head.
8 Throughout the period of their dedication, they are consecrated to the Lord.
The Nazirite vow is made by an individual who voluntarily sets apart his or herself and commits himself to God. He is holy to the Lord. The Nazirite vow in the book of Numbers has five characteristics. It is voluntary, it can be done by men or women, it has a specific duration and certain requirements and limitations, and in conclusion, it is a dedication that sets itself apart and focuses on the Lord. Restricting behavior during a dedicated period means focusing on God. Therefore, it can be said that a Nazirite is a person who focuses only on God, a person of devotion and sacrifice. At that time, the Israelites betrayed the Lord again, and God delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for 40 years. Against this backdrop, Samson was born to save Israel, and so he was given the mission to live a life of distinction and consecration.
Samson, a Nazirite, grows up blessed. When he is grown up, one day he goes down to Timnah and sees a Philistine woman and asks her parents to marry her. The Bible says this is God's plan. Samson's parents opposed the marriage because they did not know God's plan, but they eventually allowed it to him. As he and his parents go down to Timnah to meet the Philistine woman's family, Samson kills a young lion that lunges at him. Parents don't know that. Later, as he went down to marry again, Samson saw honey from the lion he had slain last time, took it, ate it himself, and gave it to his parents. Samson's parents do not know if this came from the dead body of the lion. Thus, Samson violates the Nazirite law against eating unclean things. That's how he married a Philistine woman. However, Samson does not make it through the first night because of a riddle he has tricked on himself, and he returns home angry. Later, when he went back to the land of the Philistines to find his wife, she had already become someone else's wife. Enraged, Samson captures three million foxes, sets them on fire, and drives them into the Philistines' fields, where they burn all their crops. In retaliation, the Philistines burn to death the woman who had married Samson and her father. In addition, when the Philistines try to capture Samson, he hides in a cave but is eventually captured by the Philistines. But when the Spirit of God came upon him, Samson loosed the bonds with great force and killed a thousand Philistines with a single donkey bone. Samson then reigns as Israel's judge for 20 years. The Philistines and Samson were becoming enemies.
In time, Samson again falls in love with Delilah, a Philistine woman, a prostitute. When the Philistines find out about this, they bribe Delilah to find out the secret of Samson's immense power. Samson is reluctant to tell the secret of his power. That's why he lied few times. Eventually, however, Samson reveals the truth to Delilah. When Delilah reveals the secret of the source of his power, she betrays Samson and delivers him to the Philistines. Because of this, Samson was cast out by the Philistines and his eyes were gouged out. He is now in prison as a millstone. The Philistines considered Samson to be their enemy. They had a reason to kill Samson. So when they bound Samson, they even praised their god (Judges 16:24). When the Philistines gathered to sacrifice to their god, the god Dagon, they called for Samson to perform tricks. When Samson was taken out of prison, he was forced to perform tricks in front of them. The Bible said there were 3,000 people gathered at the temple. Here, Samson prays to God:
28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
29 Then 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,
30 Samson 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 (Judges 2:21-22).
When Samson sees the Philistine women who have betrayed him, who bound him, gouged out his eyes, and put him in prison, and the Philistines cheering at his feats, he begins to pray and supplicate to God the King. Lord, I ask you to remember me and give me strength once again. The power of the Holy Spirit that God gave to Samson was not for his personal benefit, but for the salvation of Israel. However, Samson used it to satisfy his personal desires, and his life failed. Samson's time in prison must have been painful. Forced to meditate on why he was falling apart like this, and the shame of having to go out and grind in the face of the enemy, the suffering there probably demanded some change in him. Change must be accompanied by suffering. Now that Samson, who used his God-given power only for the desires of the flesh, comes out of prison, the choices he makes will depend on the outcome he wants and the future he wants to create. Samson's choices in the past made him who he is and what he is today. But now Samson still has the freedom to make himself different.
Samson lost his mission because of the lusts of the flesh, and he failed in life. It seems that Samson learned that God had allowed him to marry a Philistine woman in order to make him know that the Philistines were enemies of God and the Israelites. If you like someone and she or he betrays you, and that happens over and over again, you'll hate everything that has to do with that person. Now bound and unable to do anything, and the shame that awaited him, Samson prayed and pleaded with God. He wants to be strong again. He prayed for this strength, not this time for personal desires, but for Israel. Samson cried out to his King, the Lord God. Samson finally learned that the Philistines, whom he thought were his enemies for personal reasons, had long been enemies of God and Israel, and that God had called him to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines. Now, if He really wanted to deliver Israel from these Philistines, he needed God-given strength.
Samson's desires, his missing mission, his conflicts, his pain, and his prisons tell the truth about the question of why his life turned out the way it did. However, such facts do not give him a criterion for future selection. Samson's choice depended on the outcome he wanted and the future he wanted to create. Samson returned to the God in history who determined how the salvation of his ancestors was accomplished. So he would cried out to God and prayed to Him. “Lord, I now know that you are my King. God the Savior, who freed my forefathers from slavery and delivered them from Pharaoh's hand, is also my King, so remember me, and give me strength to help me avenge this Philistine.”
Is it because of the Canaanites, the unbelievers around you, or the idolatrous people around you that you have betrayed the God who saved you, the King of God, and left to serve another god? There are curses, murders, violence, and ruthlessness in the land apart from God. So is to Israel and individuals who leave God will eventually fall into the sin of worshipping other gods and will decline.
Why am I falling apart like this? If I ask why, I can arrive at an answer that is quite different but equally true. The truth in me does not provide a criterion for choice. My pain, my conflicts, my greed, my desires will be true. It is also true that the circumstances and conditions that force me to fail are also true. My laziness, boredom, and inability are also true. But if I have a desire to change, I have to make a choice. I'm not talking about emotional choices. Choose that history that is written from the perspective of "the one that determined the past." That's what makes my current choice. Because the choice I make now is an understanding of how I became and the freedom to make myself different.
Joshua did not appoint a leader to lead Israel after his death. Because he knew that the only king of God's kingdom was the Lord God. Consider. If we reject God as King in the kingdom of God, is there a way for Israel to live? It is natural for the world to choose a king, and for a king to protect his people as much as possible, but rejecting God was an act of cutting off the lifeline. 'Return to the Lord’ is not just a nice slogan, but a matter of our lives. YOU also dwell on this earth, but our King is only the Lord God. Your neighbors are worshipping and following the gods of Baal who seem to be prosperous to you, and you live with them with faith in the Lord God, your Savior and King. Gradually & slowly you admit their splendor is not bad, then your mission is wavering, and you may even follow and serve their idolatry, which seems easy. How can you serve two kings in one country? That's why you have no choice but to reject God. It is only the Lord God who saves me and you.
Israel has never been without thorns and snares that afflict them. But God has never failed to save new generations. Every time they cried out, God delivered Israel from the neighboring nations of the land of Canaan, from Amalek, from Jabin king of Hazor, from the hand of the Midianites, from the hand of Moab, from the Ammonites, and from the Philistines. You and I must return to Bethel, where we have promised to live in the service of God. If you know what outcomes you want and what future you want to build. So far, your choices have made you who you are and who you are today. But you still have the freedom to make yourself different.
I will try again in April next year for the subjects that I failed this time. What will be my choice? It depends on the outcome I want and the future I want to create. Are you becoming like Samson? Or, like Jacob, are you still looking only for your own good? Jacob chose to go to Bethel. He has a history of encountering God at Bethel. The path he wanted and the future he wanted to create was a continuing walk with God that he had met at Bethel, so he decided to go up there. When Samson returned to the Lord as King, God strengthened him again to avenge Philistines, who were not only his enemies but also enemies of God and Israel. By so doing Samson completed his mission as a savior to save Israel. What about you?
Let us pray:
Jesus came to this earth and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom of God. He proclaimed that he came from God, and that whosoever believed in him would be saved from his sins. This is the gospel of the kingdom of God. Satan, who tempted Jesus as he did to Adam, temped Jesus but He overcame the temptation. Afterward the first work of Jesus was the rebuilding of the kingdom of God, which had been destroyed by Adam's sin. "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Since Jesus is King, where He is the kingdom of God. Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount and the life, culture, and relationships of the citizens of God's kingdom. When he came down from the mountain after preaching on the mount, the first person he met was a man with leprosy. As you pray at this time, I want you to think of yourself as a leper who meets Jesus as our King. In Matthew 8:2-3, a leper comes to Jesus. “Lord if you are willing, you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand, and touched him, and said, I am willing. “Be cleaned.” Immediately he was cured of his leprosy.” This man is an isolated leper. The world locked him up because his leprosy is a symbol of sin, unclean, and contagious. The word he has heard in the world was "you are unclean." There is no one in the world who can save him. No, rather, they would try to kill him, they would turn away from him and would ignore him. There is no place for him in this world. Then how could he come before Jesus?
He must have gone into hiding and listened to the gospel of the kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus. What might he have been thinking when he heard the gospel? What kind of courage did he find? He would have known that Jesus was the Savior who could save him from sin, from his current condition. Recognizing does not make any difference in his future. He came before Jesus. When this leper came out after hearing the gospel of the kingdom of God, confessing that he was sick and that he was a sinner who needed to be cleansed, Jesus healed him.
We have become arrogant. "Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It became a hope for the leper to live, so he came to the Lord, and we don't know how many times we don't have the hope of living even though we are not like that leper. Those who acknowledge Jesus as the King of God's kingdom and come before Him hold on to the hope of living. Poor spirit and salvation are so a pair. Even if you are hiding because you are afraid, or if you have betrayed God in a blatant way, if you humbly return to the Lord when you need to come to Him again, you will be saved and healed.
Lord, let the kingdom of God come here! When we come to the Lord the King, heal us, restore us, help us regain hold of our mission. Restore worship to hear the Word, and open our spiritual eyes with the Holy Spirit to discern and obey His will. In the name of Jesus, who has delivered us, who is delivering us, and who will continue to deliver us from sin, from the powers of death and hell, from the schemes of Satan, I pray. Amen.
