<TITLE>04. Par 22-28</TITLE>L-22   Just imagine, all day long, drinking, celebration, fine-dressed women, man, warlords, warriors, great man of the nation gathered in this new building where they had put up a new idol to the fish-god, giving him honor and praise for the victory over Jehovah's servants. Now, to make it worse, here come the leading man, the messenger of the day, with his eyes punched out, led by the hand of some little boy, to bring him out into the stadium. The lad led the stumbling blind out into the place, and I can hear a whisper from the--the great massive man standing there like a great machine, but totally helpless. God had raised him up for a purpose. Sold his birthrights; and here he stood, a mass of machinery with no strength in it, led around by a little boy. But no doubt, in my mind, that Samson had thought of all these things. When he had lost his strength, he had thought about what had happened. His vow had been taken from him and he had surrendered to his enemy. And they, in returns, had took his sight from his eyes. And he said to the little lad, "Lead me to the post where the column that the building is set upon, just lead me over to this post."

L-23   And think of it! They had him out there, making sport out of him, entertaining that drunken bunch. What a reproach that was! What a disgrace that was! What an example that is! To... It's puts me in the mind of a defeated nation that's morally decayed, as Samson stood by the side of this column, making sport for the enemy. Humiliated and broken, what a condition he was in! A very gracious symbol of a fallen nation, a morally corrupted nation, a fallen church that sold its birthrights, fallen into moral decay, and surrendered itself to the enemy. A public example, though you was raised up to serve God, but a fall away into moral decay gets you in that condition. What an example that was!

L-24   I can just hear all the warriors around, all the ladies with their beads and bracelets and fine jewels, and so forth, said, "So this is Samson? This is that mighty one that you've talked about. This is that man that you said the spirit of the great gods lived in. This is the man that could take over our nation, you talked about, but look at him now!"

L-25 What an example! What a lesson it ought to be to us! What a solemn thing it ought to be. We should not just approach this as just come together to have a good time in a celebration. We come together to see where we are standing, to see what's happening to us.

L-26   And I could hear, and Samson, no doubt, could hear from one side, the other one, of people who had heard about him. "Well, and so this is Samson!"

L-27 I wonder, today, if the enemy can't also, at this time, say about the same thing about our Pentecostal move.

L-28 Just to speak the name Samson, they would all get nervous, because he was anointed servant of God. He was born with a Nazarite gift, and they knowed that there was nothing could stop that Nazarite gift as long as he held it. He was God's chosen man of the day, God's chosen messenger of the day. Many of them thought what this must be. Many of them remembered him. Many remembered, as they looked at this helpless creature standing there with his arms around the post, blind. Making fun of him, hitting him with whips, saying, "Come on out, Samson, you great strong man! Do something about it! You who are so strong, where is your God?"


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