Tumbling Down.
At some point during the working day I heard some shouts followed by some loud bangs and the clanging of metal on metal. I turned around and just saw the very final seconds of an accident happening. The scaffolding had fallen against a wall, one guy had fallen onto some debris and another guy had climbed out of the scaffolding frame and started to painfully walk around.
I turned to my workmate and told him to go and phone for an ambulance while I checked with the guy walking around. He was dazed but was ok. The other guy had hurt his back but could talk and didn’t seem in any further distress. The ambulances duly came and took them away to hospital. The two guys weren’t seriously hurt and were back to work within a few days.
I never thought about the incident for many, many years. But when the memory did come back to me my overriding thought was “where did I learn how to handle that scenario”? I had no training on this stuff. I was just an apprentice. A teenager. How did I know what to do? To this day I don’t know the answer to it.
I remember bosses coming up to me shortly after the event at the time and commending me for reacting in the way that I did. The workmen also later came over and thanked me. But, for some reason I dismissed the event as nothing important.
In later years, as I started to remember the event, it dawned on me that there was something from deep inside of my mind that made me take control and assess the situation. I don’t know where it came from, or how the knowledge or level-headedness got there. It was one of those little unanswerable events that just happen to us all.
And the memory came back to me again when I was reading the story of Samson’s last days. You can read about him in the Book of the Judges in chapters 14 to 16. But the events that I was reading about was Samson’s death in chapter 16 verses 23-31.
Samson was not the most righteous of The Judges. He married a girl from the Philistines. He fought continually. He drank and fraternised with the Philistines continually. After his divorce from his first wife he flirted with another Philistine woman called Delilah. And although he judged over Israel for 20 years there is not one godly or righteous act linked with his name. However, he gave one of Jehovah’s secrets toward Israel over to this Philistine woman. Namely, his strength was in his hair.
Judges Ch16 (17) "…No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man…."
And so Samson was captured and bound up in jail. As if that wasn’t enough he had his eyes burned out so that he would never see again…
Judges Ch16 (21)Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.
Time passed. Years went by. And Samson ground grain in the prison. But God hadn’t finished with him yet. And Samson’s ego hadn’t finished with him either.
Eventually Samson’s hair grew back and God’s promise to him as a child came back also. Namely, his strength.
On a night when the Philistines were making merry and drinking they decided to have fun taunting some prisoners. They chose Samson. He was brought to the main chamber, led by a young lad, and was taunted and cajoled for the entertainment of the Philistines. Were they mocking him because they remembered how he had destroyed a Philistine village once before when he pulled out the gateposts and carried them to the nearby hilltop - Judges Ch 16 v3.
They laughed and jeered at him and shouted out for him to be placed between the two central pillars. But Samson’s last prayer showed where Samson’s heart really lay. It was a prayer of anger and vengeance.
Judges Ch16 (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!"
You see, although his prayer was indeed based on selfishness Samson kept his head while everyone else around him were losing theirs. He knew the task at hand. He didn’t quite know how he was going to complete it. But he did remember his God in these very last moments.
Perhaps he had learned that being strong is not about being mighty. It's about being able to keep your head while everyone else around you is losing theirs.
And although Samson ruled over Israel for 20 years he is never mentioned again in Scripture except for one time. He is to be found in Hebrews Ch11 were he is counted among the faithful of God. Hebrews chapter 11 has been nicknamed by some as “the Hebrews Hall Of Fame”. It lists a lot of the “faithful” from the Old Testament who lived by faith in Jehovah.
And so Samson’s final act was to bring about God’s promise for Israel…
Judges Ch13 (5)”…and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
Maybe while Samson was in prison he had time to reflect on his actions and his heritage. Maybe it was in the darkness of his blindness that God came to him and reminded him of who he truly was. A Judge. An Israelite. A Nazarite. Indeed, it is during the dark times and the troublesome times that God is always with us. Even when we don’t see him…
Psalm Ch94 (18)If I say, "My foot slips," Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up. (19)In the multitude of my anxieties within me, Your comforts delight my soul.
John Ch16 (33)These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
He walked the streets to Calvary.
The old rugged cross He bore.
The crowds stood by and watched this man.
They'd heard him preach before.
Now, I know the I’m not worthy. Such a love I'd never find.
For when He was on the cross. I was on His mind.
The look of love was on his face.
The thorns were on his head.
The blood that spilled on his scarlet robe,
Had stained it crimson red.
Though his eyes were on the crowd that day.
He looked ahead in time.
For when he was on the cross.
We were on his mind.
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