GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
JUDGES 16:23-24
23 Now the Philistine rulers assembled to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They celebrated and said, “Our god has handed Samson our enemy into our hands.”
Yesterday was May the 4th, sometimes called “Star Wars Day” (after the phrase “May the force (or 4th) be with you”). If you’ve ever watched the movies or read the books, you may recognize that when the battle sequences come, there are usually two or even three battles happening all at once. George Lucas is fond of layering his stories so that all of the defeats happen at the same time, after which all of the victories follow.
There may be a similar overlap at this point between the chronologies of Judges and 1 Samuel. Over in Shiloh, a boy named Samuel was grieving because his master and mentor, the high priest Eli, had just fallen over dead when he learned that his sons had been killed and Israel’s ark of the covenant had been captured by… the Philistines. If this is so, why would the writer fail to mention it here in Judges? Probably because the ark was taken to another Philistine city (Ashdod, 1 Samuel 5:1). Meanwhile, here at Gaza, they celebrated their victory and taunted the defeated Israelite who was on hand, the blinded Samson.
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said:
“Our god has give into our hands
our enemy who destroyed our land
and who multiplied our dead.
Their blasphemy stings us. It’s always hard to listen to blasphemy. If you have ever truly been present while someone prays to a false god, you will know what I mean. Any child or anyone with a childlike faith will become uncomfortable; he feels soiled and filthy, like he needs a bath. He wants to get away and pray, “Forgive me for even hearing such things, O Jesus! Fill me with your gospel and your forgiveness, and rescue me from such lies!” There is a story of the aging Apostle John in Ephesus running naked and dripping wet from the bath house when he was told that the heretic Cerinthus had arrived. John shouted, “Flee! Run away before God pulls the roof down on everyone’s head! Cerinthus, the enemy of truth is inside!” That’s just a story, of course, but if it’s true, I understand what John was thinking.
God will not tolerate anyone trying to mold him into their image. The truth is the other way around: God made mankind in his image. And in the first commandment, God forbids us from either worshiping anything else above him, or crafting any image for worship. That doesn’t mean that we can’t look at a painting of Jesus, or depict the creating hand of God in stained glass, or let our children color pictures of the Holy Spirit flying like a dove. These things are reminders of the Bible’s text, not fantasies dreamed by pagans. And in the second commandment, God commands us to use his name only for the right reasons: to pray, praise and give thanks. He wants us to keep even his name holy, which is why Jesus taught us to pray: “Hallowed be your name” (Mark 6:9). Luther explained:
“God’s name is certainly holy by itself, but we pray in this petition that we too may keep it holy. How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when his Word is taught in its truth and purity and we as children of God lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But whoever teaches and lives contrary to God’s Word dishonors God’s name among us. Keep us from doing this, dear Father in heaven!” (Small Catechism, First Petition).
Even though Samson was a prisoner in their worship service, and the butt of their hilarity, he wasn’t touched by any of it. He didn’t have to run screaming into the street. Certainly Samson grieved to hear it: “Woe to me that I dwell here, that I live among these unbelievers!” (Psalm 120:5). Even though he was blind, he could pray: “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven… Have mercy on me, O LORD, have mercy on me, for I have endured much contempt. I have endured much ridicule from the proud, much contempt from the arrogant.” (Psalm 123:1,3,4). Samson could stand there in his chains and let them all say more than enough to condemn themselves before Almighty God. That’s because God is present everywhere—even in the temples of the pagans like the Philistines of Gaza. But he isn’t there because two or three have gathered in his name (Matthew 18:20), he’s there because he sees the wicked in his omniscience and omnipresence and is aware of the full depth of their sins (Ezekiel 8:9; Micah 1:3-5). He will replay their sins in the judgment, because he remembers all their evil deeds (Hosea 7:2). We confess this at the end of the Athanasian Creed: “At his coming all people will rise with their own bodies to answer for their personal deeds. Those who have done good will enter eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire.”
Put all of your trust in Christ, whether you are sitting in your own church hearing your pastor speak the forgiveness of sins to you, or if you are caught in the congregation in a wedding or a funeral in a place where they deny that Jesus is Lord and preach a horrible, burdensome salvation by good deeds. Keep trusting in Jesus, and know that he is with you. He is your protection and your Savior. “Great is his love for us” (Psalm 117:2), and he is merciful, too. He knows your faith, and on account of Jesus Christ he will bring you safely home to eternal life.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota