Group Notes | July 16
Flannelgraph of Faith: Samson
July 16, 2017
Pastor Jonathan Falwell
Open:
It is not unusual for expectant parents to desire a particular goal for the baby’s future (for instance, perhaps becoming part of the family law firm). Do you know someone who is an example of such a life, and what has been the outcome?
As we continue looking at Bible characters whose lives have much to teach us, we come to the powerfully strong Israelite, Samson. Using the old-school visual teaching of the flannelgraph, this colorful, yet wayward, man had a future ordered by God. As the last in the line of judges of Israel, he lived a life that will encourage many who have wondered if God gives second chances.
Focal Passages: Taken from Judges 13:1 through 16:31
Discuss:
God’s Promises Are Filled with Power:
- Read Judges 13:1. What was the condition of the people of Israel after the last judge had died? How long were they in captivity this time?
- Each time Israel found themselves enslaved by other nations, what did they eventually do?
- In verses 2, 3 & 5, how did God act in grace toward His people? What was the promise and purpose for Samson that God gave his mother?
God’s Promises Can Be Derailed by Our Actions:
- Will someone paraphrase the next years of Samson’s life? What was his greatest hindrance to God’s perfect plan for him? Read 1 John 2:16. Does this sum up his actions?
- Read Jeremiah 29:11. What would you do differently if you had known from a child that God’s had a specific plan for your life, that would give you “hope, and a future”?
- What are some examples of God’s ideal plan for you, and how can you wreck what He wants to accomplish? (For example, marriage is His perfect plan, unfaithfulness and divorce can thwart it.)
- When you ruin the plan God had for you, what does He do? Read Romans 8:28,29. After receiving forgiveness (1 John 1:9), how does this change the consequences?
God’s Promises Are Forever Promises:
- Read 16:28-30. Samson knew how badly he had hindered God’s plans for his life, and begged God for one more chance. What did God do?
- What lesson can you learn from the continual backsliding that Samson did, and yet, when he cried out to God, God helped him?
Close:
It is hard to read these chapters in Judges on the life of Samson, and not have questions and concerns about the immoral way in which he lived his life, yet was used mightily by God. Being brought up to be Israel’s deliverer from the Philistines, as an adult he went from one sinful situation to another. Yet somehow, in the timing of all the years that he judged Israel, he apparently had a faith so profound that he is listed in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11:32.
We can learn much from Samson’s life. God promised that he would be used for a specific plan and purpose, and nothing could take that away. He promised it to Samson’s mother, and it was not conditional on Samson never straying from the path of righteousness. We also were created by God for something above and beyond all we can ask or think, but we must live lives of faithfulness to see that purpose fulfilled. We also can take comfort in knowing that the backslider can return to the God he left for the world and will find Him waiting with arms open wide. That is a blessed reassurance. The cry of our heart should always be that the Lord would make Himself so real to us that we recognize answers to our heart’s requests as quickly as they come. Nothing fills you with the security of being loved, as seeing Him fulfilling promises to give you a life full of His unmerited favor.
Memory Verse: Judges 6:28: Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” (NKJV)