Direction Setting Decisions
Judges 13-16
I’m teaching up at Calvary Bible Institute, and I love it. Justo is there, and the class is incredible this year. And I see these students at the bible college making determined decisions to move themselves toward God’s plan for them. And it blesses me so much to see them committing their lives to seek God and follow his great plan for their lives.
But today, I want to look at the opposite example of what I see in the lives of the bible college students. I think maybe the best example in scripture of Direction Setting Decisions would be Samson. Samson made decision after decision that ultimately led to the destruction of his life. So, let’s look at Samson’s decision making for us to know how not to do it in our own lives.
In Judges 13:5, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother and told her to dedicate Samson to the Lord from his birth as a Nazirite. The Nazarite vow included avoiding alcohol, and dead bodies, and allowing your hair to grow, which were all symbols of Samson being set aside for God’s use.
Now, the lesson within a lesson in Samson’s life is about God’s sovereignty and about how God worked for Israel’s good in the midst of Samson’s bad decisions. And the first verse about Samson actually points to God’s sovereignty in Samson’s life. The end of Judges 13:5 says,
Judges 13:5 (NLT)
5 . . . He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
Even though we will see Samson destroy his life by his own choices, God will still be “at work” in it all to begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.
Samson became the last of the Judges of Israel who were to be the deliverers and leaders of the nation, and the time that Samson was a judge of Israel was especially difficult. The Philistines (arch enemies) had captured the Ark of the Covenant, and they had totally disarmed the Nation of Israel. Israel was living in subjection to the enemy, and they were oppressed and dominated by the Philistines. And Samson was called by God and given miraculous strength from God in order to deliver Israel from the Philistines. But, instead of delivering Israel from the Philistines, Samson got himself deeply entangled with the Philistines.
In Judges Chapter 14, we see Samson begin to make the decisions that would ultimately set the direction of his life.
Judges 14:1 (NLT)
1 One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye.
If you know anything about Samson, you know he was absolutely controlled by his desire for women. But please, don’t turn this into just a lesson about lust and sexual sin (although it is great for that). Women are what caused Samson to make the decisions that set the direction of his life.
But what is it for you? What causes you to make decisions that might set the direction of your life? I promise, whatever it is, it has something to do with what you want. It has something to do with what you think is best for you. So, the object may be different – but believe me, the lesson is the same.
Continuing in Judges 14:2,
Judges 14:2 (NLT)
2 When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.”
Samson saw what he wanted, and he demanded to have what he wanted with zero consideration of what God wanted.
So, Samson’s parents try to nudge him in the right direction.
Judges 14:3 (NLT)
3 His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why must you go to the pagan Philistines (who are the enemy) to find a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.”
It seems that Samson had a bit of “spoiled brat-it is” on top of his other problems.
The Israelites were forbidden by God to marry the Philistines, and Samson had been set apart by God to be a deliverer of God’s people from the Philistines. But Samson wanted to set the direction of his own life, and so he says to his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.”
Then, in God’s sovereignty lesson that is interwoven here, in the very next verse (verse 4) it says God was at work within Samson’s selfish demand.
But this is still the beginning of the decisions that set the direction of Samson’s life.
So, continuing in Chapter 14, Samson and his parents head to Timnah (Philistine Territory) to get this woman for Samson. And along the way (in verse 6), Samson kills a lion with his bare hands (due to the miraculous strength God had given him). Then, Samson’s dad works out this marriage with the enemy for Samson.
And when they’re headed back later for the wedding, Samson finds the lion he’d killed, and some bees were making honey inside the carcass of the lion. So, Samson scoops out some of the honey and eats it, which was against his Nazirite vow to God to not touch a corpse. But Samson wanted some honey from his trophy, so he set aside his vow to God and makes another decision for himself.
Then, still in Judges 14, Samson throws a big party that verse 10 says, “was the custom for Elite young men,” and this party would have certainly included good wine, which was also against Samson’s vow to God. And so, just knowing what we know about Samson so far, it’s highly likely Samson set aside his commitment to God for this decision as well.
And then, the bride’s father sent thirty Philistine men to join Samson in his party, and so now Samson is partying with the enemy before marrying the enemy.
Here’s the math for what we’ve seen so far. One decision plus one decision plus one decision equals one direction. (Not the boy band.)
And so, in Judges 14:12, Samson decides to tell these thirty Philistine men a riddle, designed to get Samson thirty sets of fine linen garments (one from each of the men). Because what person dedicated and set apart to God doesn’t want thirty sets of fine worldly garments?
So, he tells the men a riddle based on his lion and honey, and he gives them seven days of partying to figure it out. But instead, they go to the bride-to-be (who has zero commitment to Samson), and they tell her they’ll burn her alive if she doesn’t get the answer for them. So, she goes to work on Samson to get the answer to the riddle. And in Judges 14:17, we read,
Judges 14:17 (NLT)
17 So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men.
Every decision the Bible records for Samson shows him setting the direction of his life toward destruction. So, the Philistine men answer the riddle (thanks to the bride-to-be), which brings on another direction setting decision for Samson.
Remember, God had given Samson miraculous strength to be used to free Israel from the oppression of the Philistines. And so, we read in Judges 14:19-20,
Judges 14:19–20 (NLT)
19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon (Philistine town), killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother.
20 So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man at the wedding.
So, even though God is at work in Samson’s selfish decisions, Samson’s decisions are still setting the direction of his life toward destruction.
In Judges 15, Samson decides to go back to the Philistine woman and give her a goat to make up with her. But when he gets there, she’s already married to the best man from Samson’s wedding, which again kicks in Samson’s direction-setting decision of anger.
Judges 15:3 (NLT)
3 Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.”
And this time, Samson takes three hundred foxes, ties their tails together in pairs and puts a torch between each pair and had them run through the Philistine’s grain fields – and Samson also destroyed their vineyards and their olive groves.
But – vengeance begets vengeance. And so, (Judges 15:6), the Philistines take this woman and her father, and this time they do burn them both to death. And then, that vengeance which came from the previous vengeance brings more vengeance from Samson.
So, here’s another math equation. Vengeance plus vengeance plus vengeance equals vengeance.
Judges 15:7–8 (NLT)
7 “Because you did this,” Samson vowed, “I won’t rest until I take my revenge on you!”
8 So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Now, the leader of Israel is living in a cave, nursing his pride, and again, vengeance begets more vengeance. And so, the Philistines retaliate to Samson’s retaliation. They set up camp in Judah and begin attacking Israel, and they’re making life miserable for Israel until Israel turns over Samson to them. Then we read in Judges 15:11,
Judges 15:11 (NLT)
11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?” But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”
You have got to be kidding me. Really big of you, oh Deliverer of Israel, I only did to them what they did to me (which is not true). Samson is a man who had been dedicated to God but was enslaved by his own desires and by his own view of things.
And even though God still worked in his dysfunction, we can learn a ton from him about how not to set the direction of our life.
And so, (verse 12), the Israelites convince Samson to allow them to turn him over to the Philistines. But when the Israelites bring Samson to the Philistines, again, his miraculous strength kicks in. And then we read in Judges 15:15-16,
Judges 15:15–16 (NLT)
15 Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it.
16 Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, I’ve piled them in heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I’ve killed a thousand men!”
Notice Samson gives no credit to the Lord at all. Samson is consumed with “I.” “I” have piled them in heaps. “I” have killed a thousand men. Samson is consumed with himself. He wants what he wants. He does what he wants. He sees himself as always right, and he always gives himself all the credit.
As a side note in the King James Version, this verse says Samson killed 1,000 men with the jaw bone of an ass. And there’s a saying in the ministry, Samson killed 1,000 men with the jaw bone of an ass and many more churches than that have been destroyed by the same thing.
So then, at the beginning of Chapter 16, Samson goes to the Philistine town of Gaza (still to this day home of the enemies of Israel), and he spends the night with a prostitute (another decision of lust). The Philistines try to kill him there, but Samson makes a dramatic escape (Judges 16:3).
And then, finally, Samson falls in love with Delilah, who is also a Philistine woman (Judges 16:4). He’s following the same direction setting path. And so, the Philistines offer Delilah a ton of money to devise a plan to take Samson down, and Samson manages to put her off three times. But eventually, we read in Judges 16:16-17,
Judges 16:16–17 (NLT)
16 She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”
Samson’s hair was not actually his strength; his vow to God was. But his hair was a symbol of that vow. And so, while Samson sleeps, Delilah cuts his hair. And Judges 16:20 says,
Judges 16:20 (NLT)
20 . . . When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.
He didn’t realize the Lord had LEFT HIM.
Samson had been making decisions; however, he wanted for so long that he thought the Lord would always put up with it. But the Lord will not always put up with it, and it is only by God’s grace that he puts up with it all, and eventually, God will make things right.
And so, (Judges 16:21), the Philistines capture Samson and then they gouge his eyes out, and they turn him into a human ox to grind grain in their prison. Then, before long, the Philistines held a great festival to celebrate their idol god Dagon and make fun of the God of Israel. They brought Samson out for sport to make fun of him and his God, and it’s here we see the closest thing to repentance that ever comes from Samson. And actually, it’s the first real prayer recorded in Samson’s life.
Judges 16:28 (NLT)
28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.”
Samson asks God to remember him and give him strength one more time. But notice, it’s not for God’s glory – it’s actually for more revenge. But God does give Samson strength one more time, and Samson pushes over two pillars that held the Temple up, killing himself and three thousand Philistines.
What a life! Dedicated to God, but constantly serving himself, called by God to care for God’s people but consumed with care only for himself. And ultimately, the decisions that set the direction of Samson’s life led to his shameful destruction.
Our decisions do set the direction of our life, but that direction can be changed by us changing our decisions. God is the Author of U-turns. Jesus Christ lived and died on this earth so that you could change the direction of your life. But for that to happen, we’ve got to turn from the decisions that take us away from God’s plan and turn to the decisions that take us toward God’s plan. And the words that start it all are REPENT and BELIEVE.
To repent is to make a U-turn in the direction your life is going. To believe means to put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in God’s plan for your life. And both faith and trust in Jesus Christ are not one-time decisions. Faith and trust in God’s plan for your life is one decision after another after another, and those decisions will set the direction of your life.
Let’s make our decisions for Christ, one at a time. As each decision comes to you, make that decision for Christ, and don’t worry about what might happen. Don’t worry that you can’t see what might come from that decision.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
The word walk means to set the direction of your life. Set the direction of your life by faith, not by sight.
Set the direction of your life toward God by making your decisions toward God – by faith – because your decisions will set the direction of your life.
But today, I want to look at the opposite example of what I see in the lives of the bible college students. I think maybe the best example in scripture of Direction Setting Decisions would be Samson. Samson made decision after decision that ultimately led to the destruction of his life. So, let’s look at Samson’s decision making for us to know how not to do it in our own lives.
In Judges 13:5, the Angel of the Lord appeared to Samson’s mother and told her to dedicate Samson to the Lord from his birth as a Nazirite. The Nazarite vow included avoiding alcohol, and dead bodies, and allowing your hair to grow, which were all symbols of Samson being set aside for God’s use.
Now, the lesson within a lesson in Samson’s life is about God’s sovereignty and about how God worked for Israel’s good in the midst of Samson’s bad decisions. And the first verse about Samson actually points to God’s sovereignty in Samson’s life. The end of Judges 13:5 says,
Judges 13:5 (NLT)
5 . . . He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
Even though we will see Samson destroy his life by his own choices, God will still be “at work” in it all to begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.
Samson became the last of the Judges of Israel who were to be the deliverers and leaders of the nation, and the time that Samson was a judge of Israel was especially difficult. The Philistines (arch enemies) had captured the Ark of the Covenant, and they had totally disarmed the Nation of Israel. Israel was living in subjection to the enemy, and they were oppressed and dominated by the Philistines. And Samson was called by God and given miraculous strength from God in order to deliver Israel from the Philistines. But, instead of delivering Israel from the Philistines, Samson got himself deeply entangled with the Philistines.
In Judges Chapter 14, we see Samson begin to make the decisions that would ultimately set the direction of his life.
Judges 14:1 (NLT)
1 One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye.
If you know anything about Samson, you know he was absolutely controlled by his desire for women. But please, don’t turn this into just a lesson about lust and sexual sin (although it is great for that). Women are what caused Samson to make the decisions that set the direction of his life.
But what is it for you? What causes you to make decisions that might set the direction of your life? I promise, whatever it is, it has something to do with what you want. It has something to do with what you think is best for you. So, the object may be different – but believe me, the lesson is the same.
Continuing in Judges 14:2,
Judges 14:2 (NLT)
2 When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.”
Samson saw what he wanted, and he demanded to have what he wanted with zero consideration of what God wanted.
So, Samson’s parents try to nudge him in the right direction.
Judges 14:3 (NLT)
3 His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why must you go to the pagan Philistines (who are the enemy) to find a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.”
It seems that Samson had a bit of “spoiled brat-it is” on top of his other problems.
The Israelites were forbidden by God to marry the Philistines, and Samson had been set apart by God to be a deliverer of God’s people from the Philistines. But Samson wanted to set the direction of his own life, and so he says to his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.”
Then, in God’s sovereignty lesson that is interwoven here, in the very next verse (verse 4) it says God was at work within Samson’s selfish demand.
But this is still the beginning of the decisions that set the direction of Samson’s life.
So, continuing in Chapter 14, Samson and his parents head to Timnah (Philistine Territory) to get this woman for Samson. And along the way (in verse 6), Samson kills a lion with his bare hands (due to the miraculous strength God had given him). Then, Samson’s dad works out this marriage with the enemy for Samson.
And when they’re headed back later for the wedding, Samson finds the lion he’d killed, and some bees were making honey inside the carcass of the lion. So, Samson scoops out some of the honey and eats it, which was against his Nazirite vow to God to not touch a corpse. But Samson wanted some honey from his trophy, so he set aside his vow to God and makes another decision for himself.
Then, still in Judges 14, Samson throws a big party that verse 10 says, “was the custom for Elite young men,” and this party would have certainly included good wine, which was also against Samson’s vow to God. And so, just knowing what we know about Samson so far, it’s highly likely Samson set aside his commitment to God for this decision as well.
And then, the bride’s father sent thirty Philistine men to join Samson in his party, and so now Samson is partying with the enemy before marrying the enemy.
Here’s the math for what we’ve seen so far. One decision plus one decision plus one decision equals one direction. (Not the boy band.)
And so, in Judges 14:12, Samson decides to tell these thirty Philistine men a riddle, designed to get Samson thirty sets of fine linen garments (one from each of the men). Because what person dedicated and set apart to God doesn’t want thirty sets of fine worldly garments?
So, he tells the men a riddle based on his lion and honey, and he gives them seven days of partying to figure it out. But instead, they go to the bride-to-be (who has zero commitment to Samson), and they tell her they’ll burn her alive if she doesn’t get the answer for them. So, she goes to work on Samson to get the answer to the riddle. And in Judges 14:17, we read,
Judges 14:17 (NLT)
17 So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men.
Every decision the Bible records for Samson shows him setting the direction of his life toward destruction. So, the Philistine men answer the riddle (thanks to the bride-to-be), which brings on another direction setting decision for Samson.
Remember, God had given Samson miraculous strength to be used to free Israel from the oppression of the Philistines. And so, we read in Judges 14:19-20,
Judges 14:19–20 (NLT)
19 Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon (Philistine town), killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother.
20 So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man at the wedding.
So, even though God is at work in Samson’s selfish decisions, Samson’s decisions are still setting the direction of his life toward destruction.
In Judges 15, Samson decides to go back to the Philistine woman and give her a goat to make up with her. But when he gets there, she’s already married to the best man from Samson’s wedding, which again kicks in Samson’s direction-setting decision of anger.
Judges 15:3 (NLT)
3 Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.”
And this time, Samson takes three hundred foxes, ties their tails together in pairs and puts a torch between each pair and had them run through the Philistine’s grain fields – and Samson also destroyed their vineyards and their olive groves.
But – vengeance begets vengeance. And so, (Judges 15:6), the Philistines take this woman and her father, and this time they do burn them both to death. And then, that vengeance which came from the previous vengeance brings more vengeance from Samson.
So, here’s another math equation. Vengeance plus vengeance plus vengeance equals vengeance.
Judges 15:7–8 (NLT)
7 “Because you did this,” Samson vowed, “I won’t rest until I take my revenge on you!”
8 So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Now, the leader of Israel is living in a cave, nursing his pride, and again, vengeance begets more vengeance. And so, the Philistines retaliate to Samson’s retaliation. They set up camp in Judah and begin attacking Israel, and they’re making life miserable for Israel until Israel turns over Samson to them. Then we read in Judges 15:11,
Judges 15:11 (NLT)
11 So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?” But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”
You have got to be kidding me. Really big of you, oh Deliverer of Israel, I only did to them what they did to me (which is not true). Samson is a man who had been dedicated to God but was enslaved by his own desires and by his own view of things.
And even though God still worked in his dysfunction, we can learn a ton from him about how not to set the direction of our life.
And so, (verse 12), the Israelites convince Samson to allow them to turn him over to the Philistines. But when the Israelites bring Samson to the Philistines, again, his miraculous strength kicks in. And then we read in Judges 15:15-16,
Judges 15:15–16 (NLT)
15 Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it.
16 Then Samson said, “With the jawbone of a donkey, I’ve piled them in heaps! With the jawbone of a donkey, I’ve killed a thousand men!”
Notice Samson gives no credit to the Lord at all. Samson is consumed with “I.” “I” have piled them in heaps. “I” have killed a thousand men. Samson is consumed with himself. He wants what he wants. He does what he wants. He sees himself as always right, and he always gives himself all the credit.
As a side note in the King James Version, this verse says Samson killed 1,000 men with the jaw bone of an ass. And there’s a saying in the ministry, Samson killed 1,000 men with the jaw bone of an ass and many more churches than that have been destroyed by the same thing.
So then, at the beginning of Chapter 16, Samson goes to the Philistine town of Gaza (still to this day home of the enemies of Israel), and he spends the night with a prostitute (another decision of lust). The Philistines try to kill him there, but Samson makes a dramatic escape (Judges 16:3).
And then, finally, Samson falls in love with Delilah, who is also a Philistine woman (Judges 16:4). He’s following the same direction setting path. And so, the Philistines offer Delilah a ton of money to devise a plan to take Samson down, and Samson manages to put her off three times. But eventually, we read in Judges 16:16-17,
Judges 16:16–17 (NLT)
16 She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”
Samson’s hair was not actually his strength; his vow to God was. But his hair was a symbol of that vow. And so, while Samson sleeps, Delilah cuts his hair. And Judges 16:20 says,
Judges 16:20 (NLT)
20 . . . When he woke up, he thought, “I will do as before and shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.
He didn’t realize the Lord had LEFT HIM.
Samson had been making decisions; however, he wanted for so long that he thought the Lord would always put up with it. But the Lord will not always put up with it, and it is only by God’s grace that he puts up with it all, and eventually, God will make things right.
And so, (Judges 16:21), the Philistines capture Samson and then they gouge his eyes out, and they turn him into a human ox to grind grain in their prison. Then, before long, the Philistines held a great festival to celebrate their idol god Dagon and make fun of the God of Israel. They brought Samson out for sport to make fun of him and his God, and it’s here we see the closest thing to repentance that ever comes from Samson. And actually, it’s the first real prayer recorded in Samson’s life.
Judges 16:28 (NLT)
28 Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.”
Samson asks God to remember him and give him strength one more time. But notice, it’s not for God’s glory – it’s actually for more revenge. But God does give Samson strength one more time, and Samson pushes over two pillars that held the Temple up, killing himself and three thousand Philistines.
What a life! Dedicated to God, but constantly serving himself, called by God to care for God’s people but consumed with care only for himself. And ultimately, the decisions that set the direction of Samson’s life led to his shameful destruction.
Our decisions do set the direction of our life, but that direction can be changed by us changing our decisions. God is the Author of U-turns. Jesus Christ lived and died on this earth so that you could change the direction of your life. But for that to happen, we’ve got to turn from the decisions that take us away from God’s plan and turn to the decisions that take us toward God’s plan. And the words that start it all are REPENT and BELIEVE.
To repent is to make a U-turn in the direction your life is going. To believe means to put your full faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in God’s plan for your life. And both faith and trust in Jesus Christ are not one-time decisions. Faith and trust in God’s plan for your life is one decision after another after another, and those decisions will set the direction of your life.
Let’s make our decisions for Christ, one at a time. As each decision comes to you, make that decision for Christ, and don’t worry about what might happen. Don’t worry that you can’t see what might come from that decision.
2 Corinthians 5:7 (ESV)
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
The word walk means to set the direction of your life. Set the direction of your life by faith, not by sight.
Set the direction of your life toward God by making your decisions toward God – by faith – because your decisions will set the direction of your life.