Written by Paul J Bucknell on October, 30, 2018

Judges 13-16 Unrestrained Desires

“Unrestrained Desires: Dealing with Lust” from Judges 14-16 is the third of three lessons which show the emptiness and pain of a lust filled life. A set of questions follow.

Three Scenes of Lust (Judges 13-16)

Three scenes of lust are thrust before our eyes. They convincingly show that lust and the lack of self-control absolutely ruin a person.

There is perhaps no more common problem in this world than lust among men, especially since the internet has released a surging blast of porn. Lust and fornication go together, and divorce closely follows. Not many people acknowledge lust as a main source for marriage breakups. We forget that open communication is based on loyalty and that trust for good financial handling comes from pure relationships.

Lust is basically the desire for things that is not ours. Lust is covetousness. The presence of sexual lust reveals a superficial bonding of marriage partners. Lust might bring people together, but, as Samson soon found out, it does not keep a couple together.

Samson’s superficial love for the woman of Timnah made her susceptible to ‘outside’ influence. She lacked loyalty. We see this lack of loyalty again and again in Samson’s relationships—probably because he did not love women but only desired them.

Samson seemed to tolerate this disloyalty. After all, he himself was unfaithful. The problem with lust is that even if one is attracted to one person, he cannot stay faithful. They are controlled by their eyes rather than promises and principle.

The person controlled by the eye pampers his eye. What the eye desires is insufficient, so he fills his mind with all sorts of sordid thoughts. He ‘sees’ things that he can’t physically see. He pretends people love him, but if he only knew how phony the relationship was.

Samson’s girls toyed with him. His wife gave him up for peace of mind. Delilah sold him for some money. As for the harlot, well she was paid for her services. The eye is not satisfied; neither was his lust. God made us to be fulfilled by relationships, love, and loyalty, not services, greed, and unfaithfulness.

Samson wandered from girl to girl, trying to satisfy those fleshly desires. In the end, his eyes were taken from him. He seemed to finally get his spiritual sight after his physical eyes were taken from him.

Delusion and Lusts

Along with lusts, comes delusion. This deceit started with claiming his first wife. But no doubt, the source of this deceit came from Samson’s hiding things from God and his parents. For example, he gave unclean honey to his parents. He deceived them. He pretended to provide them with good honey when it was evil.

He gave victory to Israel but did it for personal revenge. Lust is just another form of sin that creates a layer of deceit. Deceit covers up the real truth from others while delusion is when the truth is kept from oneself. Samson became deluded. The story of Delilah and her four attempts to get the truth about Samson’s secret from him is very upsetting. “How can he be so stupid!” one hears oneself saying.

If he tells her the secret to his strength one time, and the Philistines come charging, can he not discern what happened? Sure he can. She even tells him that he deceived her. “Then Delilah said to Samson, ‘Behold, you have deceived me and told me lies; now please tell me, how you may be bound.’”

Lust might bring people together but it will not keep them together.

He evidently was so caught up in a game of self-confidence that nothing could happen to him. He considered himself impregnable. But his balloon popped, his hair was shaved, and his strength departed. The one he loved did not love him perhaps because she knew of his superficial affections. Those that depend upon shallow relationships will often experience betrayal. The deceit perpetuates a wall of superficiality that keeps any real bond from growing.

Application

Lust is a growing problem today with the web, video downloads, piped in cable, etc. Lust has become so commonplace that many Christians think it is part of life—even the Christian life. Do pastors teach how to overcome lusts? Do biblical counselors teaching how to handle lusts rather than to overcome them? For a large part, many imply by their teaching that lusts are there to stay. God’s people have given up on solutions because they are ensnared. They love their lusts. We need instructors like Samson to show the scars of living by one’s desires rather than the principles of God.

One can easily imagine the “Great Whore” mentioned in the Book of Revelation has revealed herself enticing men to come to her. If we could only see her invisible claws reach out and hook into the flesh of those who desire what is not theirs. The more they look, the more the hooks enter their flesh so that the whore can pull those hooks anytime she desires. And men and women in her claws act as her puppets. They no longer rule but are ruled.

The story of Samson should be embedded deep enough in our mind that with every lustful notion, we see a blind man led away. We need his story to preserve us and to give us much-needed wisdom. Without it, our eyes will lead our lives rather than the truth of our mighty Creator God.