<TITLE>07. Par 58-62</TITLE>L-58   And now listen closely, just try to be just as attentive to It as you possibly can, as we read. For, in here, if it be the will of the Lord, I am trying to set forth a parallel, parallel from one to another. And listen close now, 23rd verse, beginning.
And when the lords of the Philistine gathered... together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hand.
And when the people saw him, they praised their god: for they said, Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, and destroyed and destroyed our country, which slew many of us.
And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, for he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.
And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.
Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and they were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
And Samson called unto God, unto the LORD, and said, O Lord... remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be... once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
And Samson took hold of the two... pillars upon which the house stood, and on which he... borne it up, of the one, and the... his right hand, and on the other... his left.
And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death was more than they which he slew in his life.

L-59   What a sad sight! Must have been a hot afternoon, sun shining down at its great celebration, and three thousand Philistines looked down from the galleries of the stadium, as the pair entered. High honored war lords, and their fine-jeweled ladies, leaned forward to get a good look, as the boy led this blind man! The halls had echoed all afternoon with drunken revelry, celebrating, (here is what hurts me) celebrating the victory of their fish-god, Dagon, over Jehovah's servant. What a disgrace! What a thing had happened! The man had failed. Not, God had not failed.

L-60 And what Jehovah must have been thinking as He looked down and see all this going on! Drunken conglomeration of women half stripped, fine-jeweled and decorated, and fixed up, their drunken husbands drinking and celebrating to a god, a fish-god, an idol that had took the victory over Jehovah's servant.

L-61   The lad led the stumbling blind man to the middle, of the pole--the poles where they stood, two of them, holding this great big slanting pillars, or a great big hall that slanted down in this manner. And two great big huge posts, as I could think of the setting; holding the people, of three thousand war lords, and the celebrity, the--the finest honored soldiers, the greatest warriors. Just that the--the celebrity was invited to this, because it was a celebration.

L-62 And across from them was this huge image of a fish, with human blood beneath it, upon the altar, sacrifice to this fish-god, a total pagan statue that can neither speak, hear, nor breathe. But they--they, in their ignorance, they was worshiping this god, thinking that he had give them the victory, a celebration.


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