’S BURIAL Judges 16:31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between and in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

There is one final verse in the account of Samson’s life that we must consider … and it is the occasion of his burial.

In our previous study, we saw how the enemy had brought him down into the lowest pits of despair, to the city of Gaza. Shackled and blinded … he must have been a wretched sight! Yes, he had been taken down into a Philistine prison, and yes, he had been made blind … but we noticed too that God had the enemy take the physical sight from Samson for a definite purpose because only when the Philistines took away his eyes could he see clearer spiritually than ever he saw before.

Previously his eyes had attracted his heart and his feet to places they should not have been. William Kelly, in his Lectures on the Book of Judges, wrote, “Let us not forget that we have got a nature exempt from nothing we deplore in Samson, and the person that does not believe it may live to prove it ... But what a God we have to do with, as Samson had!”

It was a work of God’s grace that Samson found it easier to die for the Lord than to live for Him, for God reserved great things for his death. Indeed, his dying moments, - like the thief on the cross, - brought more honour to God than at any other time during his experience (16:30 So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life).

In some ways though, it is sad when the measure of a person’s life is left so late to commend him. Yes, Samson died a death that was glorifying to the Lord, but why did He leave it so long?! He had all the privileges since his birth … but his crowning glory took place in the last few moments of his earthly life. What a waste! At least though, he came good eventually.

It is a lesson to us that we can never go so low that God can not lift us up. It is a lesson too that we never stop serving until God takes us home. This final verse of Judges sixteen is a simple appendix to the account of Samson’s story and it is important to remember God will not forget us and leave us for He put it into the heart of Samson’s brethren to bring him home, … Judges 16:31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the buryingplace of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years. 2

In this verse we are re-introduced to his family. This time though, we note his father has died … probably his mother has died as well. These brethren who came for his body were his relatives, for Samson was an only child. … Take a look and see first of all how …

HIS FAMILY CARED FOR HIM  How easy it would have been to have judged the judge and to have said, “He made his bed with the Philistines. Let him lie in it! He deserved all he got. Leave him where he is!”  But, you see, that was not the type of family Samson belonged to.  Yes, I know these were times of real spiritual poverty in the land, - 13:1 the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, - but Samson’s mother and father were exceptions to the rule.  They loved the Lord and brought their son up in the ways of the Lord. We can’t prove it but we would like to think their example had an influence upon the wider family too.  A figure like Samson, - and the job of judge that he held, - would have been a focus for all the tribes of Israel … and especially his own local where he lived. They are all bound to have followed his ‘career’, - the ‘ups and downs’ he managed to get himself into and out of!  Each of us has loved ones we care for and we love so dearly … and it is not just on an ordinary level we care for and love them … we love them for the Lord and for eternity. … We want to see them saved.  We know though that we cannot cause a single anxious thought regarding their eternal destiny outside of Christ … and I’m sure Samson’s mother and father were broken on many occasions.  But think of your own family … and the amount of times you stubbornly followed after your own pursuits and you rode ripshod over the way you were brought up. You were brought up, - like Samson, - in the things of the Lord but you decided you wanted none of it.  Nonetheless, your family never gave up. They prayed for you. They had other believers pray for you too. The Lord heard their prayers and saved you.  It is good to have a caring family, and you praise God for your family who loved you and prayed for you and worked towards you being saved.  Samson’s family cared for him. They went down among the enemy.  They picked Samson out from under the rubble, - they threw all the stones and rocks away to get to him.  This strong man needed to be delivered from the place of death. 3  You can look back and remember how those who loved you took you out from under the rubble … and now it is your turn to help someone else.  They immediately came down to Gaza to collect him. They didn’t wait, they were ready. They loved him, even despite his waywardness, and even despite where they found him. … Yes, indeed, his family cared for him.

HIS FAMILY CARRIED HIM  Notice how the Holy Spirit described what happened here. Samson’s loved ones came down, and took him, and brought him up.  … After his relatives would have lifted the stones and rocks from off Samson they would have lifted this mighty man up in their funeral stretcher.  They had no other business in Gaza, except to bring one of their own home. There was no other reason for them to be there, except to fetch their loved one.  I remember hearing of a minister in the town … and when his son turned eighteen this minister brought his son for his first drink.  I cannot see any way Samson’s relatives fraternised in the enemy’s country. They would not have stayed a moment longer in Gath than they had to, they came down, and took him, and brought him up, - they were out as quickly as they could!  The Philistine city was the place one of their own had been taken prisoner and tragically died … why would God’s people want to spend a single moment more in such a place than they had to! The enemy’s camp is no place for the people of God!  I remember my father coming and taking me out of a place I should never have been in … many of us get ourselves entangled … so entangled we become spiritually trapped, and God sends loved ones to carry us out.  Once again, remember they were waiting at home in Zorah … maybe they were even praying that someday the Lord would bring Samson home … and the Lord used them to answer their own prayer.  We mustn’t pray, “Lord, use someone else. Lord, send someone else”. The prayer must be, “Lord, use me. Lord, send me”.  It could be you the Lord uses to lead a loved one to Him. Yes, you might have to carry them, their sin has made them so weak. You might need a fresh and up-to-date strengthening you can be given only from the Lord.  You might need to help your loved one along to the Saviour in the same way Paul and Silas helped the man in the Philippian jail to the Saviour when he cried out, Acts 16:30 what must I do to be saved? 4  Like the family of Samson, Paul and Silas were at the jailer’s side without any hesitation, v.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.  Solomon wrote, Prov. 11:30 he that winneth souls is wise. These relatives of Samson were constantly ready to ‘go down’ to ‘come up’.  His family cared for him and his family carried him, …

HIS FAMILY COMMITTED HIM TO THE LORD  He died with the enemy, - he slew more of them in his death than he did in his life, - … but he was not buried with them. His family brought him home to be with his own. They brought him back into the land of Canaan, the land God had given them.  He was buried in the same graveyard as his father. He was brought home, and he was committed to the Lord.  … His mother was so proud when she ran and told her husband she was going to have a baby son, 13:7 Behold, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.  Little did she know he would bring so much heartache … but they loved him no matter what he did, where he went, and the mistakes he made in life.  His life was now over. It had not been all smooth and easy, - the directions he was responsible for taking saw to that!  His family brought him home though, and laid him with dignity in the family grave.  It could have been that Samson would have been buried with the Philistines, with the enemy …. But it doesn’t matter how often he fraternised with them, he was never, - nor ever would be, - a Philistine. He was a Hebrew  As he lay in the rubble of the pagan temple … out of the rubble the Lord took him, II Tim. 2:19 The Lord knoweth them that are his. … The Lord had his family come down and bring him up.  Think about this … Many is the one who thinks they can get away with sinning, and God won’t touch them. They think they are untouchable, and they do not even consider God would judge them. Samson was like that!  But God does judge His people. I believe many of us could give a number of instances of it. When Paul wrote, Gal. 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, he was writing to believers, not to unbelievers.  We cannot afford to abuse the grace God has gifted to us through His Son … The death of His Son was too precious for us to treat it so lightly.  Samson treated lightly the favour of God and the guarding presence of God, and God doesn’t ignore such treatment of His holiness. The psalmist wrote, Ps. 99:1 The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble … 2 The LORD is great in 5 Zion; and he is high above all the people. … 8 Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. … He did not let them off with their sin!  By showing us the picture of Samson dying in his chains, the Word of God warns us to take heed we avoid becoming a shattered life.  But the Lord did not leave Samson lying in the ruins, - it is no place for his child to be found … and the Lord had his family come and carry him up again and home to Zorah. Samson was not left in the enemy’s land.  Is that not a blessing! Prov. 10:3 The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.  Yes, Samson died with the Philistines but the Lord saw to it that he would not be buried with them … the Lord had his family bring him up home.  Consider again that prayer he offered to the Lord just before he died (v.28), “Lord, I’m no different from the Philistines … Lk. 15:17 I perish … 18 I … will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, 19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son … Lord, I have let You down. I’ve been as far from You as any pagan Philistine, and my heart is as dark as any other heart around me. I don’t deserve for You to answer my prayer. I don’t deserve anything of Your grace. I don’t deserve to live. I deserve only to die with the ungodly … those with whom I made my bed of sin.”  Samson had finally come to recognise he was not his own master. He had come to the end of loving and defending himself, and he was willing to die … not just because he was ‘fed up’ with life, but because he counted himself the same as those who had offended God all their lives.  A.W. Tozer wrote, “We bear within us the seeds of our own disintegration. … The strength of our flesh is an ever present danger to our souls. Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life. Safety and peace come only after we have been forced to our knees. God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance. Then He invades our natures with that ancient and eternal life which is from the beginning. So He conquers us and by that benign conquest saves us for Himself.”

CONCLUSION  The amazing story of Samson finishes with the note of victory, And he judged Israel twenty years … the same comment that was made in 15:20.  Some people doubt the events of Samson’s life … but surely if the story was not true the dark periods in his life would have been omitted. And yet, God included the dark times in Samson’s life, as well as the brighter times. 6  The whole account of his life is so absolutely true. In his early years, - up until teenage times, - he would have been a good son … but then the attractions of the world beckoned and, - strong as he was, - he was too weak to ignore them.  His mistakes in early life lay dormant in the young man for twenty years while he served the Lord faithfully, but they had not been sufficiently dealt with because they reared their ugliness again and led to his death. … All the time, they were brimming underneath the surface.  If his bravery and ability for winning battles had been more on his mind than those women, he would not have ended his days in the way he did.  He could have kept clear of the Philistines. He could have had many good years, and happy, to enjoy. They could have been safe and easy, had his heart not been tempted away.  But there is not much point in keeping looking back … because we cannot undo the past. It’s ‘today’ and ‘tomorrow’ we must concern ourselves with.  Yes, the Lord took him back to where he had started … back to Zorah.  How much heartache he would have saved himself had he not strayed away … but you could not have told him! How much heartache many of us would have saved ourselves if we had been obedient to the Lord’s will when first it was laid before us!  Solomon wrote, Prov. 16:32 He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. … That verse could have been written for Samson!  Maybe you are not saved, - Samson has a lesson for you this evening, … play about in the muck and you’ll end up smelling of filth. Follow the world, and the world will lead you to a tragic end, and finally into a lost eternity.  Look again at Samson’s family … his family cared for him, his family carried him, and his family committed him to the Lord.  If your family is not saved yet … don’t give up looking and praying … and be ready to pick up the pieces when the world has finished with them … to bring them back to Christ.