Pastor Dan Eddy
Judges 16:23-31
Finding Christ in
unlikely places
Part 4: The Hands
4-3-11
I.
Hand that have done power things
Hands can do
powerful things.
In 1988 the hands
of former
On August 6,
1945, Paul Warfield Tibbets’ powerful hands flew the US military plane as he
pushed the button that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan killing
over 70,0000 people, to cause them to surrender and end World War II.
Every day, surgeons’
hands save lives and heal bodies. Governors’ and Presidents’ hands sign into
law powerful legislation to raise or lower taxes, regulate industries and
protect human lives.
Hands can do
powerful things, like Green Bay Quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ hands throwing touchdown
passes to win this year’s Superbowl.
In the
Bible, Moses stretched out his hand and caused water turned to
blood, locusts to fill the land, hailed to rain down from heaven, darkness to
come, and the Red Sea to part open and then closed, defeating Pharaoh’s army,
but saving thousands upon thousands of Israelites from slavery, giving them
freedom.
And this morning’s famous true story of
Samson is no different. God used Samson’s powerful hands to bring down an
overconfident enemy.
But
while hands can be used for powerfully good things…they can also be used for
sinful, evil purposes, and Samson was no exception.
II.
Hands that sin
God called Samson
to be a judge over
God would bring
about enemy warfare and calamity into order cause repentance on the Israelites’
part. The Lord would call judges to lead the battle to bring victory back to
the Israelites. Each judge was powerful in his or her own way.
Samson was no
different. Born a Nazarene meant he was to never let a razor come to his hair
and God used that as the source of Samson’s incredible physical strength.
Unfortunately
Samson often did not always use his powerful hands for God’s glory. He often
failed in his callings in life.
For example he
used his hands to set fire to a grain field, catching 300 foxes and setting
fire to their tales as an act of revenge. When the enemy Philistines sought
revenge by burning Samson’s bride and her father he sought retaliation by using
his hand to kill several of them.
He was a
womanizer, and his erotic exploits with prostitutes often put him in situations
where he used his power in less than honorable ways like walking off with a
town’s protective city gates. He’s prayed for power to slew the enemies with
the jawbone of a donkey, but would show his lack of appreciation to the Lord by
later getting involved with other prostitutes. Delilah was one of those women
and she would be his downfall.
Samson was not a
nice man. He lacked self-control and discipline. He had anger management
issues, and he often gave into his selfish desires.
Samson was supposed to be God’s judge:
He was supposed to show his faith in the Lord by being His civilian, and
military leader. That’s what God called him to do. And yet he didn’t act according to his
calling…his role.
How about us?
Now it’s
very easy for us as we hear of these awful actions to put ourselves in the
judgment seat over Samson, but truth be told we are not much better. Oh maybe
we don’t use our hands in such dangerous, cruel or salacious ways, but sins are
sins and we don’t use our God given talents always for God’s glory.
In
what ways do we take what the Lord has given us and use it for our own personal
agenda?
For example, our
homes are filled with excessive material possessions that pay homage to god of
me, myself, and I. We often overwork ourselves to support our lifestyle at
expense of serving God’s people whether in this church, or in our communities.
We plunge ourselves into school, hobbies or other activities so we can be
filled with prideful accomplishments. Don’t get me wrong…work, school, hobbies,
and community activities in of themselves are not bad…the problem is when we fail to glorify God with them, and
others don’t see the Lord Jesus Christ in our words or actions as we do them.
We have been
called to serve as a witness of word and deeds in our walk as Christ’s
children, yet every time we think negatively, speak in quick tempered manners,
or fail to act in a way to forgive our fellow human being…it is like taking our
hands and setting fire to a field, or stabbing someone in the chest. We are
ignoring the Hand of God working in our lives.
III. Moment of humility, confession, and
the Lord remembering us
God has called
you and me to be a witness of His Son Jesus Christ. And often times we don’t
see our own failings until we are brought to our knees in humility…severe
health problems to us or others, financial difficulties where what we thought
was certain is no longer, or relationships that break down and cause us
consternation. And whether we see these events as punishments or tests of our
faith depends on our perspective toward confessing of our sins, and seeing the
Hand of God’s forgiveness.
For Samson it
took falling for the temptations of Delilah, losing his strength, being capture
by the enemy, having his eyes gouges out before he realized how far he had
fallen from God’s grace.
For the
Philistines it was a day of enormous victory as they were exceedingly praising
their god Dagon, the grain god, for what they thought was finally achieving the
ultimate revenge of their enemy Samson.
Samson’s
actions were fresh in their mind, blaming him for the cause of many problems
like laying waste to their grain fields and the causing of many deaths. They
really wanted to make Samson a source of ridicule.
They
had him right where they wanted him. Oh the sweet taste of revenge for 3000
very important Philistine men and women to see…Samson’s power stripped with a
crew cut as Delilah was paid off like Judas.
And
for the Philistines, the best part of Samson being captured was it showed that
Dagon was indeed the superior god over the Lord.
Look
at verse 28…It was in this utter humiliation that Samson prayed to the Lord
where he said “please remember me.” “Please remember me” is short hand for
a humble call of confession asking the Lord to remember him in mercy. Asking God
that he not receive what he deserved…eternal damnation. He didn’t ask God to save his earthly life.
No, instead he asked the Lord one more time for the strength he once had, but
this time it was going to be used for God’s glory…to show the Philistines by his
powerful hands who the one and only real Lord God was.
In
one final act of true faith Samson spread out his hands, using all his strength
to bring down Dagon’s temple and all in it as he soundly defeated the
enemy…just like another person would spread out His hands some 1050 years later
when Jesus Hands were nailed to the Cross at
At
Noon on that Good Friday it didn’t look like Dagon won, it looked like the
Devil did. But like with Samson in His greatest moment of weakness the Son of
God showed His greatest strength through being our sacrifice by saying those
famous words “Father, in Your Hands I
commit My spirit.”
The
lesson here with Samson is on this side of eternity it is never too late to
confess our sins…no matter how awful we may think our sins may be. And in the confession of our faith we like
Samson say “please remember me Heavenly
Father, because you gave us, Jesus, the strength on the Cross to avenge my
sins.” We say to our Lord in faith “remember
me…don’t remember my sin.”
And
that’s what Lord did at your baptism when the Hand of God through His Word
poured water over you. And in Holy Communion we take our hands to grab His body
and eat it, and take hold of His cup to drink as we remember what Jesus did at
the Cross as by Jesus’ Hand we have renewed forgiveness and faith being
restored, even though we have not used our hands like we should to serve Him.
As
Samson gave up his life to defeat
IV. Forgiven so we can use
our hands to do powerful things for His glory
We
are forgiven again so we can use our hands to do powerful things for His glory.
If
we, by faith, embrace the events of the Cross that gives you and me a renewed
look at the way God is asking us to use our hands.
Hands
that can first start with prayer like the nearly 20 people did here this past
Thursday night as we laid our hands on Charlie MacPherson the night before his
hip surgery. Those same praying hands soothed Eric Foote and Lambert Brandes’
from their physical ailments. Hands praying for a solution to our financial
woes in this congregation. Hands that broke bread together in our fellowship
meal before the Prayer Service.
Hands
that can be put around the shoulder of a member facing stress in their lives,
or hands to touch someone lonely living in a nursing care facility who rarely
gets family members visiting. Hands that write an encouraging note to an
under-churched or un-churched member. Hands that can address an invitation
postcard that Diane Herth and Michael McWilliams put together to invite someone
to worship with us on Easter or any Sunday. Hands willing to knock on doors.
Hands willing to make phone calls. Ours are hands that God has blessed to do more
even more powerful things than Samson.
Do
you want to know how powerful our hands are when God works His strength through
them?
This
week I received an email from a pastor in our District. About three weeks ago, two Iranian women began
worshipping at a Lutheran congregation in
One of them has been believer in Christ since
before the revolution; the other became a believer as an adult. They both have
stories of personal persecution that you could hardly believe. They--and their children--have
all been imprisoned and tortured for their Christian faith.
They were both married to Muslim men who used their
hands to beat them for being Christian and tried to kidnap their children when
they were young.
They were never baptized because that would have
gotten them executed but they have faith because they heard the Word of God and
their hearts were converted by His Hand.
God’s Hand was there through believers in Christ to
bring these women into the Church, to
God’s blessings as we use the power of His hand
with our hands to praise and serve Him by loving others. Amen.