You're Just Using Me?

Suggested Reading: Judges 16:21-31 or Judges 16 (the whole Samson and Delilah story)

Samson is an intriguing character in the Bible. Every man wants to be as strong as Samson was, but nobody wants to be as dumb or lacking in willpower as he was. Every time I walk into a Christian bookstore and I see the Samson "Heroes of the Bible" action figure I want to cringe. I mean, Samson was the Bible-day equivalent of Jose Canseco or Barry Bonds, someone you admire for their feats of athleticism but you're not really sure you want them to be a role model for your kids.

Samson was set apart even before his conception as someone God was going to use to rescue Israel from the Philistines. As a life-long Nazirite, he was forbidden from drinking anything produced from grapes, from cutting his hair, and from eating anything that was ceremonially unclean. He was okay but not great at following those rules, (though I'm pretty sure that honey from the carcass of a dead animal was technically unclean), but he had no common sense or will-power. In fact, Judges chapter 14 tells us the first story of Samson battling the Philistines and it all results from the chaos surrounding a marriage that never should have taken place, a father-in-law who thought it didn't, and Samson revenging himself for a perceived insult. The story almost makes you feel sorry for the Philistines whose only wrongdoing was in cheating to get an answer to Samson's riddle.

Then, of course, there is Delilah, who gets the secret of Samson's strength from him the same way his almost-wife got the answer to his riddle, by crying and nagging him. We have all heard how she cut Samson's hair so he could be captured, and how the Philistines had his eyes put out and then used him for entertainment. We remember that when his hair started to grow back, he used the last remnants of his great strength to bring down the Philistine temple on himself and all those Philistines around him. We're told in Judges 16:30 that "the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life" (HCSB).  What a sad epithet: He accomplished more by dying in humiliation than he accomplished with his life!

Samson was definitely used by God to thwart the Philistines in their oppression of Israel, but few would say that Samson knew God very well. The late Rich Mullins made a similar observation about being used by God: "God can use anybody. God used Nebuchadnezzar. God used Judas Iscariot. It's not a big deal to be used by God…"  Being used by God is not the ultimate status symbol for a Christian; some of the most horrible people in history have been unwittingly used by God to accomplish His purposes. I would rather know God and be wanted by God. And the crazy thing is that, when we focus on knowing God and being known by God, it is impossible not to be used for His purposes.

In human relationships, we often get mad at people for just using us instead of having a real relationship with us. Why would we want to just be used by God? Worry more about getting to know God and walking with God, and His purposes will naturally be accomplished in you,

Turning the World Upside Down with Doubters

Suggested Reading: Matthew 28:1-20

Sometimes, looking at what the apostles accomplished in the years after Jesus rose back into heaven, it is easy to compare ourselves to them and wish we had as much faith as they did. I mean, these were the people who, according to Acts 17:6, were accused of turning "the whole world upside down" (HCSB). These were men who performed miracles and cast out demons. These people preached great sermons that led thousands upon thousands of people to faith in Jesus. It's easy to look at the apostles and decide that we simply don't have the kind of faith to do things like that.

But then we read a passage like Matthew 28. Jesus has not only risen, but he has appeared to the disciples. Jesus has shown himself to the women who came to the tomb to treat his body. The disciples have gone to Galilee like Jesus instructed them and they have met on a mountain where Jesus has promised to meet them. Matthew 28:17 tells us, "When they saw him, they worshipped him--but some of them still doubted!" (NLT).

Hold on, that can't be right. They are standing in front of Jesus, speaking with him and interacting with him after he died and came back to life and some of them still doubted? But these were the men who taught thousands of people. These were the men who healed the sick and cast out demons and raised the dead. These were the giants of the faith. And they doubted? Where does that leave us?

With an awful lot of hope.

If these men, the men who had walked with Jesus on a daily basis for three years, who had seen the miracles he performed, who had heard him predict his own death and resurrection, who were now standing in front of Jesus, looking at him and hearing his voice, if these men still doubted, then there is definitely hope for us. These men show us that we don't have to have everything perfect. We don't have to have everything together and be paragons of faith and virtue before God can do anything with us. If God can use these men who had been witness to so many of Jesus' miracles, who had heard Jesus' own predictions about his death and resurrection, who were now standing in front of the risen Christ and yet were still doubting, if God can use these men, then God can certainly do something with us.

In John 20:29, Jesus told his disciples, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (NIV). If the disciples had trouble believing even in the midst of all they had seen, Jesus reminds us that the more blessed  faith is the kind that all of us have today, who have believed but have never seen with our physical eyes. If God could work miracles through these men who doubted even as they stood before the risen Christ, God can use us.