Greetings in the Name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
I am more behind now in my Study the Bible for a Year Program. Before I had only about a month of work to catch up, now I am nearly two months behind. But my knowledge of God has increased considerably from the last two times I studied His Word that I am not entirely regretful. After fighting with some demons, I bring you what I believe to be the Word of God for this season. Smile. Remember it is written that Jesus said we would have trouble (Matthew 13:21).
It has occurred to me, after studying Samson, that God might use you to disobey His Written Word. For a grand purpose; reminiscent of the days before the Law, when people only lived by faith, God would use you to disobey his Command. Abram lives during such times, and purely by his faith in God. Sarai his wife is fair, and Abram does not want the Egyptians to destroy him for her. So he tells Sarai to tell the Egyptians that she is his sister. According to Scripture, and contrary to Abram's statement, Sarai is "Terah's daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife." Nahor, Haran, and Abram are the only children born to Terah. Abram and Sarai did get married, so to exclude her from Terah's genealogy would have been a major omission proving that Sarai is not Abram's sister (Genesis 11:27-12:13).
He lied. And although Father Abraham lied, God does not charge him with sin. (God later changed their names to Abraham and Sarah—father and mother of nations [Gen. 17].) He gets away with lying, because God had not yet given the Law; people lived by faith in those days. And since there was no Law, Father Abraham's faith was imputed to him for righteousness; even the lie that he had told (Romans 4:22).
"The just shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4, Heb. 10:38). Also pre-Law, we see Joseph practicing a principle that God gives, and Jesus teaches more than two thousand years later in the New Testament. Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery. But because he has faith in God, God promotes him to governor of all Egypt. When Joseph's brothers realize that God had made him the man responsible for their survival during a worldwide famine, they regret ever selling him and become afraid of him. Joseph is first to recognize them after about twenty years of separation, and although now in a position to do them harm, for the wrong that they did to him—"Eye for eye,…, " of the Letter, which God had not given yet—Joseph forgives his brothers and treats them kindly.
But after their father's death, Joseph's brothers said "Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him (Gen. 50:15, New King James Version). Instead Joseph continues to practice forgiveness and tells his brothers that he is not in the place of God to take revenge on them—a very New Testament Principle. (Leviticus 24:20, Mat. 5:38-45).
By faith, Joseph time traveled and practiced a New Testament Law, thousands of years before God made it a Command, which solidifies what is now written, "The just shall live by faith."
His faith in God took him from his generation, through the Law days and into the New Covenant, which we live in today. Wow! Who knows, maybe God received inspiration for His Law of Forgiveness from Joseph? Please see Genesis 37-50 for the whole story.
Samson, however, lived under the Law; after God had already made a covenant with Israel. God fulfills His promise to their forefathers and gives the children of Israel a land of their own, but there are people still living in the land. Before they even get to the land God Commands, do not marry the people of the land; do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers (Deuteronomy 7:3, II Corinthians 6:14). We are told though, that it was God's design for Samson, an Israelite, to marry a woman of the land, a Philistine, so that He would have "an occasion to move against the Philistines" (Judges 14:4).
God makes an exception to His Covenant, and arranges for Samson to marry a Philistine woman; a type of union that His Written Law forbids. We are never told in Scripture that Samson's parents knew that God had acted against His Word and had arranged the marriage of their son to a Philistine woman. Samson tells his parents about his beloved, and they are not thrilled. I can imagine them sitting him down and giving him a talking to, and with good reason, because as far as they know their son is about to break the Law of God.
They might have chided and corrected, 'Samson it is written that God forbids you to hook up with those women.' It is actually written that they ask him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your brethren, or among all my people, that you must go and get a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines" (Judg. 14:3)? But he insists on marrying her, so his father goes and talks marriage with the woman.
God gives us His reason for the union, but how could He go back on His Word, His Law, when the Scriptures say that God is faithful to His Word, not a man that He should repent, that it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for any of God's Word to fail, and that "the [Scriptures] must be fulfilled" (Deu. 7:9, Numbers 23:19, Luke 16:17, Mark 14:49)? The answer: because God is a Sovereign. Like earthly rulers who make and then change their laws, God fulfills His Word and emends them too (Rom. 7:4, 6).
In the story of Samson, we see the principles of God from two different eras at work: the pre-Law days and the post-Law days (the New Covenant, which we live in, and enjoy because it is better [Hebrews 8:6] ). Observe that in each dispensation so far, God requires people to have faith in order to please Him; from before the Law with Father Abraham and Joseph, to the days of the Law with Joshua and David, and then to Christ and His followers of the New Covenant. From Old to New Testament it is written, "The just shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4, Heb. 10:38). (The Old Testament is worded a little differently.)
Following the Great Flood, God tells Noah that He would "require the life of man" from man; then the sons of Israel massacre all the males of Shechem. Contrary to His Word, God does not require the Shechemites lifeblood from the Israelites. He actually does the reverse. God does not even mention the slaughter of the Shechemites in Scripture. The next thing you know is that God tells Israel and his sons to move from that place and even protects them on their journey to Bethel. After that God gives them a blessing (Genesis 9:5, 34:25-31, 35:1-15).
Another example of God's sovereignty is seen in the lives of David and Bathsheba who sinned grievously. According to the Law, they should have received the death penalty, but they did not. God reduced their sentences: took the life of the child conceived in sin to pay for Uriah's lifeblood, and sent trouble to the house of David (II Samuel 11-12).
The Covenant was Old, which means that grace and mercy were limited, yet Jacob's sons received God's magnanimous pardon, protection and blessing! How much more today, when more grace and mercy are available, will God change His Laws and pardon transgressions because He favors you, or as in the case of Samson because God is looking at the bigger picture?
Is God releasing us to sin? No, it is written that "God [forbids]" us to sin, but if we do sin and we repent, God is faithful to forgive us (Rom. 6:2, I John 1:9). The Scripture says, "Blessed is he, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered" (Psalm 32:1, Rom. 3:31, 6:15). Knowing then that God Commands our perfection, we should not consciously live in sin. But God, being a Sovereign, and for a great purpose, may lead us to break His Laws, or pay no attention to an infraction, as we see in the lives of Samson and the sons of Israel. Or as evident in the lives of David and Bathsheba, God may lessen our punishment.
I believe that God superimposes His Word regarding the Shechemites lifeblood with the Everlasting Covenant which He makes with Father Abraham and his descendants because God is Sovereign. God arranges Samson's unequally yoked marriage because God is Sovereign. God shows David and Bathsheba divine favor and pardon because God is Sovereign. Lastly, don't try this at home. You don't always know God's plans. He might show you grace and mercy. He might not. We do not know when and with whom God will bestow His coveted beneficence.
One thing all our subjects had in common—the Lord was with them. The Scripture says, the greatness of the Lord is unsearchable, his ways past finding out! (Ps. 145:3, Rom. 11:33). It is also written, "Fear God, and keep [His] commandments: for this is the whole duty of man (Ecclesiastes 12:13). Why should you test God?
When were you filled with the Holy Spirit?
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Yours in Christ's Love
Denise
