Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Hey to all our listeners, thank you for tuning in and joining us for another episode, assumingly, of The Bible Guys.

Jeff:
Are you going to sing?

Chris:
No, not today.

Jeff:
You’re not going to do good morning?

Chris:
No.

Jeff:
Good morning.

Chris:
Alright, well, maybe maybe next week people.

Jeff:
I was trying to get you started. I was

Chris:
He looked at me with this really blank face. He’s like, good morning. Come on. I think I want to withhold. I think I want to make it.

Jeff:
So all of our listeners that love it when Chris sings, he’s forcing you to fast this week. Yes. And maybe next week. Maybe.

Chris:
Maybe.

Jeff:
If you’re really good.

Chris:
If you’re really, really good. Does anybody really like the fact that I sing that jingle?

Jeff:
Oh, they love it.

Chris:
They love it. There’s like three people. Okay.

Jeff:
Well, today Desiree has for us one of our favorite segments. Yes. Who’s most likely. I do like this segment. Who’s most likely. Who’s most likely.

Chris:
And really we just have to instinctively as you know.

Jeff:
Fast as we can.

Chris:
Yeah. Fast as we can.

Jeff:
Just top of our head answer.

Chris:
Yep. And we usually agree.

Jeff:
That’s right. We usually do because we’re very similar.

Chris:
Yeah. Yeah. I haven’t read these yet. Have you? No, I’ve not even looked at them yet. So there’s five of them. I’ll do number one. Here we go. The first one says, who’s most likely to spontaneously decide to build a DIY project without reading the instructions?

Jeff:
You. That’s me for sure. That is you. It’s not me. Yep. I don’t do DIY projects, so it doesn’t do any good to read the instructions.

Chris:
I recently took some days off and did a little staycation for about four days and did some serious DIY projects.

Jeff:
I am terrible at DIY projects. One, I’m a starter, not a finisher, so that’s a problem. And then I usually cut myself, hurt myself, break a thing. It’s 25 trips to Home Depot, right? It’s just, I’m miserable. I’m just better off letting experts do. I’m good at some things. I’m not good at DIY projects.

Chris:
I’m terrible at them. Yeah, that’s great.

Jeff:
So I’m comfortable with that. I’m securing my manhood to be able to say I’m not good with power tools.

Chris:
Which by the way, my best friend, Jeff Miller, he always talks about the difference between himself and myself. So I did landscaping, right? And I actually like had two yards of black mulch delivered, went out and just did all this preparation, trimmed everything, cleaned everything and shoveled all this mulch into wheelbarrows. It took me, hours and hours and hours. Then I sent him a video and I was like, Hey, look. And he’s like, yeah, he goes, I made a phone call. And I said, I said, yeah, I said, I spent about $120. Would you spend? He said, I wrote a check for 3000. And the end result was the same.

Jeff:
The same. Yep. Yep. Okay. So here’s number two. Who’s most likely to try and talk their way into a VIP event with a completely fabricated backstory? That’s you.

Chris:
That is 1000%.

Jeff:
And how many times have you actually done it?

Chris:
Oh, I’m not even exaggerating. I’m not even kidding when I say this, it’s over a hundred.

Jeff:
over a hundred times you’ve gotten into VIP events.

Chris:
Yeah, at least. You’re the wedding crasher. Weddings are easy. Yeah. I’m not even talking about that. I’m talking about, I had a reputation and I’m not even kidding. I remember one time we went to a, you know, Christian concerts, you know how it is, right? Like, like, like they’re only popular in the Christian world. Right. But then we went to like main venues, like almost like pine knob type venues.

Jeff:
Especially back when CCM was really rocking, right? It was big and there’s thousands of people showing up at these big concerts.

Chris:
So we went to this like big venue that was very much like DTE, Pine Knob, if you live in the Detroit area.

Jeff:
Outdoor amphitheaters, 5,000 seats.

Chris:
And I was with my youth group and at the time I was a youth pastor. I had such a reputation of doing exactly this, that I remember Gus Morgan, one of my teenagers, looks over at the crowd and says, okay, he goes, everybody knows you’re going to find a way to go you’re going to get backstage illegally and you’re going to shake the hand of the artist. He goes, so go ahead and do it. And I said, okay. And I just saw it as a rise of a challenge because I’ve done it so many times before. And I said, just watch and learn. So like literally they were, they’re all standing there. And within seconds, there was a, a crowd of people who had paid to meet backstage. You know, they were the people with the passes. And, and I went over to them, they had opened the door and I had walked over and I pretended like I was talking to somebody that I held the door. And just when the security guard turned his back, I snuck in there and I just left my kids. There you go. And so literally they were outside waiting for me. They had no choice. Okay. They waited outside like almost an hour.

Jeff:
So back in the 90s, that was really cool. Now the FBI is watching you. You know that, right?

Chris:
I think that nobody cares.

Jeff:
They’re going to know. They think you’re a terrorist or something.

Chris:
You know what I always used to say? What’s that? I would say, what are they going to do? Throw me in like Christian music jail?

Jeff:
Yes.

Chris:
Yes. And if they do, so what?

Jeff:
They should have. Okay. Wow. So lots of times. And I mean, dude, you have like a hundred of those kinds of stories. I’ve heard so many crazy stories. Okay. I am not that guy. I wait in line. If I didn’t pay my way, I just assume I’m not supposed to do the thing. I’m serious. I’ve never done it one time. Are you serious? Yeah. Never. Wow. Yeah. I am that guy. Okay, who’s most likely to get stuck in a public place because they’re too busy talking to someone to notice they were locked in me Yeah, that’s me.

Chris:
That’s you. That’s me. That’s really funny.

Jeff:
They were too busy talking to someone to notice they were lucky Yeah, there’s been so many times just chit-chatting and suddenly realize there’s nobody here

Chris:
All right, number four. Who’s most likely to build an elaborate fort out of furniture and then insist on spending the night in it?

Jeff:
I’ve actually done that.

Chris:
I’ve done that a hundred times as well.

Jeff:
Yeah. That might be us.

Chris:
It might be us. We. Oh, let’s vote for we. We. Yes. Yeah. So, um, we used to have this couch with huge, firm, large cushions that were perfect for doing this. Um, uh, I currently still have holes in my ceiling in my living room because my daughter, Tori, who was dating her current boyfriend, like, and I’m talking like high school stuff. We’re talking like, she was like, junior year of high school. And she goes, dad, can you build us a fort to watch TV in? And so I put nails in the ceiling and hung bed sheets to the nails and created this elaborate, like a fort that turned into a massive tent that enclosed the TV. And they had to, and the only way to get to it was you had to crawl through a tunnel on the carpet, through this big long tunnel. And then it, then it just sort of turned into this massive cave.

Jeff:
That’s super cool. Yep. Super cool. Yes. Number five. Number five.

Chris:
Who’s most likely to accidentally create a viral video by doing something completely unexpected in a public place? You. That’s me as well. Yeah.

Jeff:
Only because I remember I’m standing in line doing what I’m supposed to do.

Chris:
And I’m, I’m usually wanting to do pretty crazy things.

Jeff:
Yeah. Wow.

Chris:
Yeah.

Jeff:
Okay. So there you go. Just another little insight into the mind and reality of Chris and Jeff.

Chris:
Yes.

Jeff:
Yes. Wow. Thrilling, thrilling stuff.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, that, that one wasn’t, uh, you know, I elaborated a little bit, but, but we probably need to move on.

Jeff:
So here’s what I would say is we could keep this up and really impress people with our really amazing stories, or we could get into, you know, the life of Samson.

Chris:
So which do you think would be better? Let me think. Let me pray about it. Um, Samson. Okay.

Jeff:
We’re just going to go through the four chapters of Samson’s life, right? Because his life is spread over four chapters. Starts in Judges 13, ends in Judges 16. So we’re reading 14 now. The announcement of his birth and his parents committing to raise him to honor God, that’s in Chapter 13. Then in Chapter 14, suddenly now he’s an adult. Right. So between 13 and 14, a lot happens, but we don’t know what it is.

Chris:
Yeah, probably at least teenager or above, right?

Jeff:
Yeah, I think he’s an adult adult.

Chris:
What, you think 30?

Jeff:
Yeah.

Chris:
Really?

Jeff:
Well, he wants to get married. And usually Israelite men getting married would have been in their 30s.

Chris:
Okay.

Jeff:
Yeah. But anyways, one day, here’s what it says in Judges 14.1. One day when Samson was in Timno, one of the Philistine women caught his eye. When he returned home, he told his father and mother, a young Philistine woman in Timno caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me. His father and mother objected. Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites that you could marry? They asked. Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife? But Samson told his father, get her for me. She looks good to me. His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines who ruled over Israel at that time. As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. At that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat, but he didn’t tell his father and mother about it. When Samson arrived at Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her. Later, when he returned to Timna for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion and he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother and they ate it, but he didn’t tell them he’d taken the honey from the carcass of the lion. As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timna, as was the custom for elite young men. When the bride’s parents saw him, they selected 30 young men from the town to be his companions. Samson said to them, let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of celebration, I’ll give you 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing. But if you can’t solve it, then you must give me 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing. All right, they agreed. Let’s hear your riddle. So he said, out of the one who eats came something to eat. Out of the strong came something sweet. Three days later, they were still trying to figure it out. On the fourth day, they said to Samson’s wife, entice your husband to explain the riddle for us, or we will burn down your father’s house with you in it. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor? So Samson’s wife came to him in tears and said, you don’t love me, you hate me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer. I haven’t even given the answer to my father and mother, he replied. Why should I tell you? So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day, he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men. So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer. What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? Samson replied, if you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.

Chris:
That is a statement. That is a statement. That’s a choice.

Jeff:
That was a choice. Then the spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him and he went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed 30 men, took their belongings and gave their clothing to the men who’d solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened and he went back home to live with his father and mother. So his wife was given a marriage to the man who’d been Samson’s best man at the wedding.

Chris:
Wow. So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. So that means, you know, there would be this long celebration before the consummation of the marriage. And so until the consummation, it was just a commitment. They were engaged. They were, but they were called husband and wife. Yeah. Right. Cause this is the beginning of the wedding, but he basically, he divorced her before they consummated their marriage.

Chris:
Yeah. That’s, that’s pretty unbelievable. Isn’t it? It’s crazy. Yeah. And if you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.

Jeff:
Yeah. Hey, you know, on those things where people write in and ask us big questions. Yeah. Chris, I’m curious. What does that mean? Plot with my heifer? Yes.

Chris:
Well, you know, it’s, it’s my field. It’s my cow. Right. You went into my barn. You, you, you know, you, you, that’s, you’re, you’re in your, that’s what he’s saying. Right. I mean, there’s not a sexual thing.

Jeff:
He’s calling his wife. A heifer. A cow. Yes.

Chris:
Yes. Yes, that’s, that’s, that’s unbelievable. And, and, you know, you know, the funny thing is here is that it says that God was going to use this idea that Samson wanted a wife with the Philistines, but at the same time, wasn’t he forbidden? No, he was, he wasn’t forbidden to… All of the Israelites were forbidden. That’s what it was. This wasn’t a condition of the Nazarites.

Jeff:
That’s right.

Chris:
Right? So he wasn’t forbidden by God. This wasn’t a disobedience to God.

Jeff:
Yes, it was. It was against God’s law.

Chris:
against God’s law to be a part of that?

Jeff:
So Exodus 35, Deuteronomy 7, he said, don’t marry them. Don’t talk to them. Don’t go live among them. So the standard law, but it’s not a Nazarite vow issue. It’s the law of Israel. You cannot marry people from other nations. You must marry within your own nation, with your own people.

Chris:
Isn’t it interesting how God could take something out of disobedience and he’s going to use it for good. And isn’t that the way that God does sometimes? He takes our mistakes. He takes our bad choices, even things that are, you know, not good. And what he’s going to do sometimes is he’ll find a way to bring beauty from ashes.

Jeff:
That’s right. So I think it’s a, it’s one of those deals that it’s not that God made him sin. Right? Which is a sin. It’s a sin to break God’s law. It wasn’t that God made him sin. It was that God was going to use this bad decision to start the war because he’s, he’s, he goes and kills 30 guys, right? Philistines. And this is the beginning of Samson establishing among the Philistines, you cannot defeat me, but you’re going to pay, I’m going to exact a heavy price. But it shows a lot about his character. And I look at this, when I read those first few verses, I just think, what a snotty brat.

Chris:
Right. She looks good to me. Go get her.

Jeff:
Yeah. He demands it. Right. A young Philistine woman in Timna caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me. He doesn’t say, please. He doesn’t say, is it okay? He doesn’t look for counsel. He just makes a demand. His father goes, don’t go to the pagan Philistines to get a wife. Right. You know, his father just asked the angel, you know, several years before, Um, how do we, how do we raise him? What do we do? We want to go God’s way. That’s what he’s saying. So he knows the laws of God and then he, but he doesn’t bring it up. This is a sin against God. He’s just saying, he’s talking poorly about the Philistines. instead of, he’s talking about the negative instead of elevating God’s word. He could have elevated God’s, Hey, God has a better way. Hey, we know what God’s word says. Let’s go God’s way. He doesn’t do that. Instead. He’s like, Oh, stinking Philistines are pagans. Why would you want, right? So he’s kind of attacking the girl that, that Samson wants instead of elevating God’s words and law. Right. And so then Samson’s argument is again, back to the girl.

Chris:
Making it sound like it’s good advice as opposed to commandments. Right. Right. Like, like, hey, it’d be better advice to do this.

Jeff:
And he’s attacking the Philistine people is the way that Samson would have taken it. These pagan Philistines, as opposed to elevating the importance of God’s word. So God’s word isn’t anti others. It’s pro what’s best, right? That’s what’s happening. And so I think sometimes parents are tempted to go after and talk about how bad that friend is or how, rather than elevating God’s better way. Right? Does that make sense? And so this is what they do. And instead, so then his argument, he comes back and he argues for her as a person. Right? She, she, go get her for me. She looks good to me. And so this is what happens is he gets what he wants on this. He’s just kind of snotty, which I think is a temptation. They couldn’t have a baby. They couldn’t, you know, they were barren for so long. He’s an answer to their prayer. So in some ways, you know, they’re very curious and excited to raise him the way that God said to raise him. And the other way, they spoil him rotten. Right? Certainly seems that way. So all we know is they named him Samson and the next verse is he demands what he wants.

Chris:
Now there’s another thing here where he touches the dead carcass of a lion. And yet it says that he’s not supposed to touch anything dead.

Jeff:
That would be, so it wasn’t in the declaration from the angel of the Lord, but that is in what we know from the Nazarite vows mentioned in the law. So the law highlights what a Nazarite would be, and that would be one of them is that they couldn’t touch a dead animal.

Chris:
It doesn’t say that when the angel told Manoah? Oh yeah, he just says razor, wine, Um, and food and forbidden food. Yeah.

Jeff:
Don’t eat the forbidden food.

Chris:
Okay. So I’m, I’m using my other knowledge here.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. Your other knowledge, deep, deep knowledge, deep cross-referencing here.

Chris:
Yeah. Well, I didn’t, I wasn’t realizing, uh, even about marrying outside of your tribe here. And then, and then I looked at the life application study notes, you referenced Exodus, uh, 34 and Deuteronomy seven. I was like, wow. And I looked down, I was like, Oh, he saw it right there. But you know what?

Jeff:
The fact that he was able to reach into the- Having good resources makes you look smart.

Chris:
Yes. Yes. Well, I mean, that’s the reason why we encourage the life application of the Bible.

Jeff:
That’s exactly right.

Chris:
That’s exactly right. But anyway, so he disobeyed. It seems like he’s sort of not being respectful to his parents. He’s going outside of God’s law, but wanting to marry a Philistine. What we know about a Nazarete, he’s not supposed to touch anything dead or unclean. And he reaches into the carcass of a lion. Right? And guess what? It’s all about what pleases him.

Jeff:
And he’s being sneaky and not telling his parents. Right. Dude, you just killed a lion with your bare hands and you’re not going to tell your mom and dad?

Chris:
And by the spirit of the Lord coming upon you, right? Like a glory to the God story. And so it’s all because she looks good. It’s all because, hey, that honey looks sweet to me. Right? And so not only does he partake of the honey himself, but then what does he do is he gives it to his parents and doesn’t tell them. Because I have a feeling him being a Nazirite, had he said, Hey, I get this from the dead carcass of a lion, they probably wouldn’t have accepted it. Right. Right? So, there’s all sorts of sermons in here, but it’s really in this moment seeming like whatever pleases Him, that’s what He wants. That’s the season of life He’s in.

Jeff:
Well, this is, there’s another note here in the Life Application Bible. It says, Samson impulsively used the special gift God gave him for selfish purposes. Right? And I think about that. You think of sometimes you and I are amazed or shocked and Christians in general tend to be shocked. Even the world lost people tend to be shocked when they see a pastor flame out. There’ve been several famous pastors here lately that have gotten themselves in trouble. Lately, right?

Chris:
Yeah. It’s every generation, every, yeah.

Jeff:
Kind of a young superstar pastor from a couple years ago, hanging out with celebrities, super cool guy. Everybody wanted to be him. He was cooler than all the rest of us.

Chris:
And now there’s a series on him.

Jeff:
Yeah, exactly. And I mean, it’s one after another after another. It’s a temptation to take these supernatural gifts God gives and use them for our own benefit. So, you know, you can talk about, say that pastor that I was referencing, incredibly attractive person, magnetic person, just draw. That’s a gift from God. And it’s supposed to be used to draw people to Jesus through the message that he’s a pretty good communicator, right? He’s a great networker. He’s a person that can help move people forward and do a thing.

Chris:
Charismatic, magnetic.

Jeff:
Yep. And, and very compelling. And instead he wound up using it for himself and wound up hurting his marriage, hurting his ministry, hurting tons of people who looked up to him. Right.

Chris:
And this is what you see. Did you watch the series?

Jeff:
No, I never watched any of those things. I don’t listen to the podcast. I don’t, I already know bad stuff happens.

Chris:
I watched, I watched the whole thing and my wife and I did, and it was, it was, uh, What a good, what a good heart this guy had. He just, he, he flamed out, not because he was, uh, I don’t think caught up in his own, uh, fame. I think he flamed out because the pressure, uh, broke him. It just broke him.

Jeff:
So that’s easy. That’s an easy out.

Chris:
Yeah.

Jeff:
But I can tell you, he used the supernatural gifts God gave him to sin. Yep. So I can tell you, you know, Samson could say, well, there’s a lot of pressure on me. I was really tough in the Philistines. I’m telling you, if I was going to make a documentary about myself, that’d be the same argument, right? When you’re trying to reestablish your fame, dude, he put it on Netflix. So when you’re trying to reestablish your fame and get some back of what you used to have, you’re going to have all kinds of excuses as opposed to just admitting, I used the gifts God gave me for myself. And I chose to do the wrong thing. Samson never does that. Samson doesn’t do that. Samson never confronts his sin until the end. And he barely does it then. Right? And so what happens is God has these supernatural gifts and he goes out and just walking along the way, just kills a lion so he can have it. He gets ticked off because these 30 guys figured out his riddle. So he goes and kills 30 Philistines, steals their clothes to pay off the debt that he owes. He’s just using these extraordinary gifts that God gave him for himself. And I’m not saying that you’re wrong or you’re bad on that. I’m just saying it’s really easy when I’m trying to reestablish my reputation to go on Netflix and tell people, a gentler way as to why I got into sin, as opposed to admitting I used my own gifts. And in this, I think it’s important for us to not look for excuses, but to accept responsibility.

Chris:
Yeah, there’s no doubt what you’re saying is right. But then there’s the believe the best side, too, because that’s obviously the negative side, right? You can say, well, that’s why you did it. But there’s probably a sense to where he feels like he let so many people down. He let the world down, right? In a lot of sense, he feels that way. So what he wants to do is he wants to, you know, talk about God’s grace, God’s repentance, you know, how God can redeem somebody. He wants God to get the glory somehow through this thing that he did that was so bad, right? So he wants to bring good out of bad. So he figures, hey, God has given him the opportunity to send the message of grace and forgiveness through this Netflix thing. And maybe people come in. And you know what? It’s another way to perhaps, you know, show the side of a pastor

Jeff:
If I had multi-million dollar book deals and all that kind of stuff, and I also had a PR firm, they would tell me to do exactly the same thing and to find something other than my own responsibility. I agree. What Samson didn’t have is he didn’t have a PR firm and he had no interest, quite honestly, in fixing his reputation. He just lived for himself. And that I think is the danger, right? As we look at the, at the thing, at Samson’s life, as opposed to, you know, pushing people to go watch a Netflix thing. So in this situation, what you have is you have a young man and we see it today. This is why I brought up those other issues. You have a young man who’s choosing to use gifts from God for himself. And I think that that really is the lesson for us to learn because we’re going to go on and he just spirals. He starts to spiral out of control over the next couple of days when we pick back up next week. And it’s fair for us to say, God, why am I doing it? Am I preaching so that other people will listen to me? I’m preaching to lift Jesus high. Am I leading so that other people will follow me, or am I leading people to Jesus? And it’d be the same for anybody, any Christian. Why do I do what I do? You know, there are people out there that are gifted at making money. Why? Why are you making money? For you? So you can just buy a bigger boat and another house? Go ahead. But maybe God gave you that ability to fund his kingdom. Maybe there’s a deeper purpose that goes way beyond just your talents that God gave you for yourself. And that is, I think, the great lesson from Samson is it’s not about you. It never was about you. It’s only about him and his kingdom. And God is going to use Samson as a tool, but Samson could have been so much greater. He could have been the greatest of all of them. And instead he flames out because he just lives for himself. Right. And that’s, that’s my frustration with Samson. I love the story of Samson. I hate the story of Samson at the same time.

Chris:
Well, hey, we are definitely at our time. So we got to wrap this up. So hopefully we will see you next time on The Bible Guys.