You Really Need To Make That Call

Samson was a human see-saw. Up one moment and way down the next, this man’s life is one of the most interesting of all the people in the Old Testament. I’ve often wanted to preach his biography and call it “Squandered Potential” as his is a tale of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Few people in Scripture disappoint us more than this man and yet he is included in Hebrews 11 among the heroes of the faith. Go figure. Today I want to take a quick look at one snapshot moment in his life that serves to help me. Samson had just finished off a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey serving as his choice weapon. Here’s the verbatim biblical account:

“When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.” – Judges 15:14-15 {ESV}

It sounds like something out of a modern day action movie. A massive man with long hair tackles an entire army with a pointed bone and kills a thousand of them in one day. Yet, after this incredible victory, there comes an exhaustion which is unbearable. The Spirit of the Lord, having accomplished the task through Samson, withdraws in his empowerment of the man and Samson is once again left in his own strength…which he finds to be woefully insufficient. Listen to his calling out to God as he feels he is close to death as he comes off from the spiritual whirlwind and physical victory: “He was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, ‘You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’” – Judges 15:18

It is here that God performs a miracle for His moaning marauder. God brings forth refreshing, sustaining water from a place which offered Samson none. Samson, close to physical death, musters the last of his stamina to offer a less-than-praiseworthy prayer to his God. He senses his own weakness and protests to God that it isn’t fitting that he should be so greatly used for a glorious victory on behalf of Israel, only to die in the desert and finish his race with his dead carcass falling into enemy hands. Samson knows that he is utterly tapped-out and must have intervention from on high if he will make it to tomorrow. The Scripture tells us what happened next:

“God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived.” – Judges 15:19 {ESV}

God either agrees fully or stoops to Samson in grace – either way, a spring of heavenly water miraculously appears and the parched soldier finds refreshment.  Samson saw only dearth, thirst and inevitable death. God saw flowing streams. The wearied warrior felt much fear while God showed great mercy. Samson’s surroundings reeked of dead corpses while God’s habitation was full of everlasting glory. Sure, there had been climactic victory for the long-haired army of one, but would it be his last? The gracious and merciful God of Heaven would not allow for that possibility on this particular day. When we are sapped of all that we ever had, God’s plan for us is not hindered in the least. Remember that today. Remind me if you ever sense that I have forgotten it.

Could it be that God is opening up your own private En-hakkore today? That is what the name of this place where God refreshed Samson would be called from that point forward. God met Samson with a miraculous provision and it was memorialized among the people. The name signifies “the spring of him who called” in the bible language. Note this: it is not the spring of him who is worthy. It was not titled the spring of him who earned it or the spring of him who deserved it. Nobody would remember that place as the spring of him who was strong or the spring of him who did it on his own. This place was memorialized as the location where a near-dead, see-saw saint of God called out in his desperate and dying weakness and received refreshment and rescue from God. God grants victory to you on a regular basis and I hope you have grown gratefully accustomed to the concept of His supply of power in your life. He also, without question, will leave you helpless enough to where you have no other recourse than to call on Him in your helplessness for sustaining springs of empowerment and assistance. Samson’s biggest struggle in life was that he was far too aware of his strength and often lapsed in his acknowledgment of his weakness. You do not need to fear strength but you should fear becoming addicted to it.  Weakness is essential because it invites the work of God on your behalf. I don’t wish to squander my life in weakness like Samson did…but I also don’t desire to rest in my own strength. Somewhere between these two extremes of human weakness and human strength we must find the “spring of the one who calls”. God opens up deserts there after long and draining battles. It is there where we encounter living water which we will need for our next chapter with Him.