The Spirit Rushes on Us

Scripture:

READ: Judges 13-14

Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

Judges 14:6

Observe

Samson is a man famous for his strength and infamous for being blinded by love. He was a man with great potential but whose character wasn’t up to the task,, and he was a man that many of us can identify with a sober example of someone who's weaknesses became their undoing.

Samson is a man of almost mythical proportions. Paradoxically he was also a man familiar with the power and activity of the Holy Spirit. It seems strange to us that a man as uncivilised and immoral as Samson should know the Holy Spirit’s power and know it with such devastating effects. He killed a young lion, thirty men, 1,000 men with a donkey’s jawbone - and all while under the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. How can this be? 

The story of Scripture begins in the Garden where a model relationship exists between man and God. There is a marriage between one man and one woman, there's no war or violence and there's fulfilling labour for the human race. This is God’s intention and ideal for his image-bearing creatures and it’s only after our exile from Eden and our consequent struggle in the world that what we consider to be ‘normal’ life occurs. Human civilisation descends into violence, abusive patriarchy, idolatry and polygamy. But this is not the ideal God created us with. 

After several thousand years the promised messiah comes, God’s perfect Son who reasserts Eden’s ideals and commissions his people afresh to not live as the world lives. ‘When persecuted, bless’ he says and when someone strikes you, rather than retaliate in violence ‘offer the other cheek’. The vision of human flourishing offered by the Son of God is possible now after his ascension and the sending of the Spirit into our lives. That’s the journey in scripture: from peace, to violence, to peace. 

Before we can understand Samson we need to understand a couple of things first: 

1. Quite often the Bible writers tell us what happened without passing moral judgement on it. Judges is a tragic period in scripture intended to show the people at the time how bad things can get without godly leadership in place. Samson was a hero only in so much as he rescued his people from captivity to the Philistines, not in the way he conducted his life.

2. As a man Samson needs to be understood within his place in the story. Israel have been instructed by God to cleanse the land of idolatry and to remove the nations that worship those idols. They didn’t do that. Samson is empowered by the Holy Spirit to rescue his people and to complete the assignment given to Israel that they hadn't completed.

Apply

Here’s a few of the verses describing the Spirit’s activity in Samson’s life: 

…and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him in Mahaneh-dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 13:25

…and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil,

Judges 14:19

The Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands.

Judges 15:14

The Spirit stirs in him, as if calling him to life and to the task assigned to him. 

The Spirit then rushes upon him and enables him to do what God has set him apart to do.

The strange story with the lion seems out of place, rather like a child learning to wield the strange strength he possesses. Then, with power surges like that from an electrical socket he acts in line with his commission and defeats the enemies of Israel with catastrophic consequences.

It is hard to learn much from the life of Samson beyond simply ‘don’t imitate him!’ but we can observe a few things from the way the Holy Spirit acts towards him:

• The Spirit of God and the gifts of God are given irrespective of our spiritual or moral aptitude. This may bother me when I see more dishonourable people than myself being blessed but that it bothers me reveals my own self-righteousness and the nature of God’s activity.

• Gift. God’s Spirit is entirely and undeservedly a gift. I can receive the gift gratefully but I cannot earn the gift, since gifts are by their very nature undeserved. 

• The Holy Spirit empowers for tasks. Upon hearing about the gift of God their son is going to be the question Samson’s Father asked the angel is a good one: ‘what is to be the child’s manner of life and what is his mission?’ 

• The Holy Spirit enables us to do things we couldn't do by ourselves. Whether it’s ripping a lion in half with our bare hands(!), or preaching the gospel, or healing the sick or enduring hardship the Holy Spirit rushes on us and in so doing equips us. 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Spirit to us. Thank you that you have sent your Spirit to live in our lives and enable us to be disciples of Jesus. Thank you that you have given him to me as a gift, please help me to know him more and to honour him more with my life. I want to learn the lesson of Samson and nurture the gifts you’ve given me within a heart that is submitted to you and trusts you.

Amen.