Juízes 16

Juízes 16

Morgan - But he wist not that the Lord was departed from him. Judges 16.20 Than this, there is no more tragic sentence in the whole Bible. It reveals a most appalling condition, that of the unconscious loss of the one essential to success in the work of God. At last the hour had come in which God no longer co-operated with Samson; and the man did not know it! It is impossible to believe that this unconsciousness was a sudden thing. That is to say, this man had lost the keen consciousness of the presence of God, or else he would have been conscious of His absence. Having yielded to his own passions, rather than to the Spirit of God, he had come to the condition in which his knowledge of the power of that Spirit was intellectual rather than experimental. He had had great experi­ences of that power, and he went on expecting them, even when he was making them impossible by his manner of life. In the hour of need, he said: "I will go out as at other times.:'; but he could not. The expected experience did not come. He was caught, and blinded, and made the bond-slave of his foes. The story is one to fill the soul with holy fear. The possi­bility of going on in an attempt to do the work of God after God has withdrawn Himself, is an appalling one. The issue is always that of defeat and the uttermost shame. The value of the whole story for us is that it ought to teach us that if we yield ourselves to those desires of the flesh and spirit which are out of harmony with the will of God, He must withdraw from us the power in which to do His work. The only way to be sure that we have not lost the fellowship of enablement, is to main­tain a conscious fellowship in complete obedience. (Borrow Life applications from every chapter of the Bible). James Smith - SPIRITUAL UNCONSCIOUSNESS. "And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him" (Judges. 16:20). "Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone " (Exod. 34:29). It seems almost sacrilege to place Samson and Moses side by side, seeing the former was the slave of passion, whereas the latter was the slave of God, yet we do so for a specific purpose, viz., to place the two in contrast, and that we might emulate Moses. There is nothing new or strange in unconscious acts. There are many things in life which we do quite unconsciously, through sheer force of habit. For instance, the accomplished pianist or organist does not think about the notes he has to strike. It is easy to see what a merciful provision this is which saves our feeble consciousness from being burdened with the heavy daily load. Had we to think how we were to manage every step we take, how we were to masticate our food, how to act or speak, or any other action which we now automatically perform, the mind would be crowded to distraction with these competing elements, reason would snap under the intolerable strain, and the world would be turned into a raving Bedlam. It is when the unconsciousness has to do with the spiritual realm we need to be on our guard. There are two kinds of unconsciousness. Samson was unconscious of spiritual loss, whereas Moses was unconscious of spiritual gain. The first was tragic; the second was blessed; the first was fatal to service; the latter was one important bit of service, and increased his usefulness. I. Unconscious Spiritual Decline. One cannot help pitying Samson, fool though he was. "He wist not that the Lord was departed from him," but he ought to have known that his evil living would lead to this loss. Reading the life of Samson, we have the same feeling of grief as when reading the life of Burns, the Scottish poet—it is the what might have been which oppresses us. There were great possibilities for Samson, yet they were never fully realised. It is a very solemn and awful thing to hinder God's purposes for us. God did not forsake him immediately. He bore long with him—at least a score of years did He suffer him, giving deliverance upon deliverance. The phrase "departed from him" had only reference to service, not to salvation. Though he had played fast and loose with sin, he was still in the Heavenly family. "Departed" meant powerlessness in service for God. It is an awful thing to know that the Lord may depart from us, so far as power in service is concerned, and yet we be unconscious of it. It means that we can get so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that we are not as sensitive as formerly. II. Unconscious Spiritual Gain. For forty days and forty nights Moses had been alone with God. Beholding the glory of the Lord, he had been changed into the same image. And if we were more often alone with the Lord our countenances too would be oftener radiant. Unconsciousness is the invariable sign of true holiness. Judges 16:21 Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison. gouged out his eyes; Pr. 5:22; 14:14. Je. 2:19. bound him. 2 Ki. 25:7. 2 Ch. 33:11. Ps. 107:10–12; 149:8. grinder. Ex. 11:5. Is. 47:2. Mat. 24:41 Judges 16 Resources Judges 16:21-31 Strength Profaned and Lost by Alexander Maclaren Related Passage: 2 Kings 25:7 They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, then put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with bronze fetters and brought him to Babylon. Gaza in SW Philistia - site of Samson's capture (ESV Global Study Bible) THE BLINDING, BINDING AND GRINDING CONSEQUENCES OF SIN