Study Questions: Series in Judges [5] Judges 16:21-31

Date: March 12th 2006
Passage: Judges 16:21-33
Message: Reclaimed Failures
Theme: Living in a ‘Yes’ World
Series in Judges [5]

Think of someone who ‘failed’ and then tried again with success. Or share some experience in your own life where this happened.

“I thank God I am not like other men – robbers, evil doers, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” [Luke 18:12]
What is happening in the mind of this Pharisee as he thinks at the tax collector?
Why do we sometimes think we are “….not like other men”

Two things plagued Samson’s life-
1. He lost sight of his HERITAGE
Samson kept forgetting who he was.
Who are we?
Share how the Bible describes us as Christians?
How does who we are affect what we do?

Samson kept forgetting he was set apart for God to deliver Israel [Judges 13:5]
a) He wanted an Israelite woman to be his wife. [Judges 14:2]
Now Samson wasn’t the first person whose judgement is impaired by the sight of a woman!
Men are visual creatures, but Samson manages to convince himself it is still a reasonable thing to take a Philistine woman before you set out to do battle with the Philistines!!

Samson probably used the logic that others wouldn’t be able to handle this contradiction, but he could!
He thinks he is the EXCEPTION to the rule!

Describe how we often justify things by thinking we are the EXCEPTION to the rule.

b) In Judges 14:6ff we read how Samson touched the dead carcass of a lion, in defiance of his Nazarite vow.

Samson convinced himself that EXPEDIENCY was OK.
He wouldn’t do it normally, but it was OK this time!
How does EXPEDIENCY affect our judgement as Christians?

2. He lost control of his EMOTIONS
But Samson’s problems were not just sexual, they were sensual. He was driven by his senses.

Eg.
C T Studd - A brilliant athlete, a Cambridge scholar, and heir to a considerable fortune as son of horse racing father. Adjudged as England’s finest cricket player both at Eton, Cambridge College, he shocked world by going with 6 other Cambridge graduates,[dubbed ‘the magnificent seven] to China.

After ten difficult years, returned…health, to England. In 1900 he ..family sailed again…India..served for six years ..health again suffered. But in 1912 he was off again, this time for Africa, to establish the Heart of Africa Mission in the Belgian Congo. He left his sick wife and four daughters in England, over her strong objections to his venture, and returned home only once, in 1916, before his death in 1931.

Studd was passionate about sacrifice and self- discipline.
But tragically, Studd’s zeal consumed both him and those around him. It is impossible to justify his treatment of his wife, leaving her ill and living apart for eighteen years. His other relationships deteriorated as he made dictatorial demands on missionaries who came to serve under him.

He even dismissed family members from the mission because he considered them less than totally committed, despite their sacrificial care of him in illness.

He had sacrificed everything for Africa, and he expected his missionaries to do the same. He worked eighteen-hour days, and, according to [his son-in-law] Norman Grubb, 'There was no let-up … no diversions, no days off, no recreation.'"

Tragically, his hard work and ill health caused him to turn to morphine for relief, and he finally became addicted to the drug. This was the final straw for the mission’s home committee and they felt compelled to remove Studd from the mission which he founded, which had now become known as WEC [Worldwide Evangelistic Crusade]

Share your thoughts on what happened here.

Read v21-30
Here is a great truth about reclaimed failures.
God does not give Samson his eyes back, but he uses Samson’s blindness to enable him to do what he could never do when he was sighted!

All the time Samson had his sight, not once do we ever hear him ask God for strength.
Yet now, humbled, powerless, blind and broken he cries out
….O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me….

What happens to us when we fail?
What do we come to understand about ourselves?
What can it change in our relationship with God?
Why does failure make some people ‘better’ and other people ‘bitter’?

You know we tend to think that restoration from failure comes with performance.
If we have failed we think we need to prove our worth to God.
We think we have to win back credibility with God.
Discuss

Charlotte Elliott, put it this way:
"Just as I am without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!"

Is that our own personal testimony?