39 – Samson’s Sins – Part 1

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

The story of Samson is entirely prophetic. It is not about the weaknesses of the flesh from which we fall into sin. Rather it is the story of the sorry spiritual state of Israel which require detailed prophecies about Israel’s Messiah yet to come, details that were not given heretofore in the lives of the forefathers, Joseph and Moses.

The preceding chapters were parallels of Samson’s life to the coming Messiah, Yeshua. The last chapter of his account will see a switch in Samson’s character as he now will be a parallel of the world from verses 1 – 3.

Before I proceed, be warned to really pay attention as this chapter’s prophesies are among the most complex in all of scripture. There is a LOT of meat in just these 3 verses which is why I can only teach these verses this week.

Samson’s role begins with him paralleling the world while a whore found in the world parallels Israel in 2 different ways. I am telling you this up front so you will know to really pay attention because you likely have not heard this before. And, as I said, it gets complicated which requires must explanation.

The first whore of Judges chapter 16 parallels Israel’s spiritual state at the time of Samson for which Yeshua will later have to come and die to restore what He began from the foundation of the world and which He formalized at Mount Sinai. This whore prophesies of 2 different stages of Israel’s idolatry. First, during Samson’s lifetime, as I just said, and second, this same whore prophesies of the Northern House of Israel which will be in about 400 years. Two different stages of prophesy with one whore.

Also, Samson’s actions with this whore parallels the world which interacts with her, with Israel.

Judges 16:1  Samson went to Gaza, and saw there a prostitute, and went in to her. 

Notice that this whore is not named. That is because it is to be understood that her name is “Israel”.

This prophecy has a double meaning. The first meaning is that Israel, which is the WHOLE House of Israel – all 13 tribes, i.e. the entire nation, was a whore during Samson’ lifetime. She was IN the world and she was OF the world already at that time. That is what YHVH’s message to Israel with Samson’s action. This is the simple meaning of Samson, the world, “going into her [Israel]. In the physical, he saw the prostitute and had sex with her. Simple as that. No relationship. No conversation. No interactions except for the fornication.

We needn’t discuss Samson’s sin because his sin reflects the nature of the world. He symbolizes the world and what the world does to Israel because Israel is also the world at this point. And that’s the point! Israel was a whore who bedded down with every other god among the nations that came to her. Ezekiel several hundred years later described her in pornographic terms.

It is simple enough that Israel was a whore during the time of Samson. Now we move forward in time to another whore. There will actually be 2 whores in this chapter but we will only learn about one in this teaching, leaving the other for next week.

Here is what YHVH said through Ezekiel about the other prophetic aspect of the WHOLE House of Israel as a whore. The secondary meaning of this prophecy in Judges 16:1 has to do with the Northern House of Israel after the split in David’s Kingdom.

Let’s start with the WHOLE House of Israel.

Ezekiel 23:44  They [the world and Samson in terms of his prophecy] went in to her [the WHOLE House of Israel], as they [men of the world] go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. 

Oholah and Oholibah are YHVH’s names of condemnation for the northern and southern Kingdoms respectively.

Ezekiel 23:4  … As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah. 

By the time Ezekiel wrote about Israel as a whore, the nation was already split into 2 “sisters” but Assyria was trying to conquer both territories, meaning Assyria wanted to conquer both Houses, i.e. ALL of Israel. Nonetheless, each whorish sister in the family of God, His nation, were whores together and separately. Thus His WHOLE House was a whore from the beginning, described by Samson’s Judges 16:1 prophecy and then later condemned as such by Ezekiel.

How do we know the meaning of the 2 sisters is they are the WHOLE House of Israel since, at the time of Ezekiel, one was the Northern House and the other was the Southern House? We know this because Ezekiel defined them.

Ezekiel 23:3  They [the 2 sisters] played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. 

Were the 13 tribes split into two Kingdoms in Egypt? No. Yet YHVH said the sisters were extant even in Egypt. Their national split went all the way back to the beginning though it didn’t happen until centuries later.

Could this be a reference to a later time in Israel’s history when Israel, under Solomon, began to have relationship with Egypt which YHVH told them not to have? No. Why?

It is because the only time Israel was a virgin, a youth, was in Egypt before the Exodus. That was the time before the national marriage to YHVH at Mount Sinai.

Ezekiel 23:4  Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters…

In other words, the sons and daughters of the people were the King’s property, YHVH Yeshua’s property. Yes, Kings own their people which is why Kings must provide for their people. Just Kings are not to enslave their people but to take care of them like YHVH takes care of, provides for and protects His people. That is the role of a King.

After the Kingdom split, Samaria became the Northern House of Israel – Oholah. Jerusalem became the Southern House of Judah – Oholibah. The prophecy of Israel as the WHOLE House already being a whore in the time of Samson is also a prophecy of the Northern Kingdom that would come about 400 years later, and is it THIS whore which is addressed in Judges 16:1. The other whore is addressed in Judges 16:4-22. Ezekiel will now address what became of Oholah AKA the Northern House of Israel.

Ezekiel 23:5  “Oholah [Samaria, the Northern House] played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors,
Ezekiel 23:6  who were clothed with blue, governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses.
Ezekiel 23:7  She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whoever she lusted after.
Ezekiel 23:8  She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they [the Egyptians] lay with her [meaning the tribes which would be in the north partook of Egypt’s idolatry]. They caressed her youthful nipples; and they poured out their prostitution on her [the Egyptian idolatry involved fornication, ritual sex in Egyptian temples].
Ezekiel 23:9  “Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, on whom she doted [Egyptians, Assyrians – no difference spiritually speaking]. 

In other words, YHVH had enough. The whoredom of Israel was centuries long from the time of Egypt to the time when the Assyrian empire arose. It was this empire which YHVH raised up to take His whoring, adulterous wife away after He divorced her.

Jeremiah 3:6  Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.
Jeremiah 3:7  I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jeremiah 3:8  I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away [taken into exile by the Assyrians] and gave her a certificate of divorce… 

Ezekiel further said:

Ezekiel 23:10 These [Assyrians] uncovered her nakedness [a euphemism for sexual relations, which in this case, was the equivalent of adultery – idolatry- against YHVH, her husband]. They took her sons and her daughters; and they killed her [the Northern House of Israel] with the sword…

The Northern House of Israel was divorced from YHVH and as the Assyrians took them into exile, they were slaughtered. The Assyrians were brutal to their captives! But hey, she was already divorced so YHVH could not and did not intervene. She was no longer his responsibility.

Ezekiel 23:10 …She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

Don’t we know how the world judges those who call themselves by YHVH’s name and then profane His name when we sin against Him? Don’t we know that the world’s condemnation is harsher than YHVH’s? He always gives us mercy when we ask but the world does not.

Under Jeroboam, to whom YHVH gave 10 parts of the Kingdom (1 Kings 11:31-43), Oholah continued as a whore. Ezekiel 23:10 shows us how well that worked out for them. The Assyrians were brutal to the Northern House whore.  

Here is what Jeroboam from 1 Kings 11:31-43 did to YHVH which is prophesied by samson’s “going into the whore”: No relationship. No conversation. No interactions. Jeroboam cut that off completely from the start! Samson’s prophecy came to pass with Jeroboam. He, and the Kings who succeeded him, put their trust in other gods and the empire that arose, Assyria, who then attacked them!

But not all hope was lost for the Northern House. The next 2 verses describe Samson paralleling Yeshua and the salvation He will bring to the Northern House. Why does this prophecy switch back to salvation for the Northern Kingdom so quickly. It is because one of the meanings of verse 1’s prophecy is that Israel, both the WHOLE House of Israel AND the Northern House, were already in captivity in the world and they needed the salvation which Yeshua would bring in the future. Israel had already been cast out of the Kingdom during Samson’s time. They just didn’t “get it” yet.

The Philistine territory is a type and shadow of the world at large and that is where Samson found this whore. She was in the world and Samson WAS the world going into her for fornication and idolatry.

I know this is confusing because of the double meaning. Some prophecies have double meanings. I often refer to Isaiah 61 as an example because that chapter speaks of the city as a city and also as the people. As such, the prophetic understanding can be taken both ways in many of the scriptures from Isaiah 61. We have this same situation in Judges 16:1 in which it speaks of the WHOLE House of Israel at the time of Samson AND its other meaning has to do with the “other” “House of Israel” later known as the Northern House, the ten tribes, the House of Joseph and the House of Ephraim.

Verse 1 speaks to us of when the WHOLE House of Israel was in the land AND the House that calls itself after the name of the land, Israel. Let me say that the Northern House of Israel is still a whore to this day. From the time of Jeroboam and his successors through the exile of the Assyrians all the way to today, the Northern House is a whore. Just look at Christianity which is where many from the Israelites tribes are trapped.

Christianity’s false doctrines have led to the religious practices of the demons being held right in the church! Christmas and Easter – Baal and Asherah/Ishtar, the 2 demon deities worshiped by the Northern House while they were still in the land are those which they continued to worship in exile. Then they brought these and other demonic religious practices into what began in purity in the 1^st century. By the end of the 4^th century, the pure faith of Yeshua from the 1^st century was hijacked again and the religious practices of Christmas and Easter – Baal and Asherah/Ishtar – began again along with a host of other religious practices that this teaching does not have time to address. Christmas are Easter are the most well known which is why I mentioned them.  

But now, in Judges 16:2-3, comes the prophecy of the Northern House of Israel whore’s salvation. Hosea had told the Northern House they must stop their idolatry or YHVH would exile them into the world where they would be ‘lo ami’, “not my people” and “I will not be your God” (Hosea 1:9), and He would put a hedge in their path so there would be no return to Israel (2:1-7), at least not a return to Israel as she was during her whoredom days. There would be a return but only after Yeshua came to restore Israel and save the world.

Hosea 2:1  “Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’
Hosea 2:2  Contend with your mother!…

Who is this people’s mother? Israel. And who is the sister? The Southern House of Judah. Hosea speaks to the Northern House of Israel here.

Hosea 2:2 …Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband [YHVH has already divorced her but He has not yet sent her out of the land]; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Hosea 2:3  Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. 

That describes the Assyrians taking the Northern House captive into exile.

Hosea 2:4  Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;
Hosea 2:5  For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ 

These are people living in the land which YHVH promised them saying He does not take care of them.

Hosea 2:6  Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.
Hosea 2:7  She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’ 

Now for the rest of the story of the Northern House whore. Here is how YHVH handled that:

2 Kings 18:11  The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria, and put them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes,
2 Kings 18:12  because they didn’t obey YHVH their God’s voice, but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of YHVH commanded, and would not hear it or do it. 

Clean, done, no muss, no fuss. Cut and dried just the way Samson went into the whore is the same way YHVH dealt with the whore.

This effectively prevented any of the people from the Northern House from returning back to the land of Israel. Returning back to the land without having a relationship with YHVH would only happen when Yeshua came, died, restored Israel and resurrected.

Hosea 2:7  …‘I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.’

We know that a wife cannot return to her former husband after a divorce. The only way for her to return was through the blood of the lamb, Yeshua. Because she went rogue, becoming wild branches, she had to be grafted back into the olive tree which is Yeshua.

Here’s how YHVH’s hedge worked. He kept scattering the Northern House further away from the land of Israel as He drove them in all directions because of the many wars in the Middle East and those which were against Israel. These wars with their migrations out of the Middle East was the “hedge” that prevented the Northern House from returning.

All that said, you must understand that YHVH always has a remnant who serve only Him. Elijah, the prophet to the Northern House, was told by YHVH that there 7,000 men besides himself who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings 19:18). That remnant was exiled with the Northern House because YHVH had promised He would never leave or forsake Israel.

Yeshua has been with His people wherever they were scattered. This is true to this day. He was with the Northern Kingdom both before and after the cross. Why? Why would YHVH continue to be “with” this whore? This is hard for some people to grasp but it is because He had promised the Israel He would never leave or forsake them.

Deuteronomy 31:6  Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid or scared of them; for YHVH your God himself is who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.”

Joshua 1:5  No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.

This was a promise which each individual tribe and each individual person could count on. His people can count on this promise to this day. With those who serve and bow only to Him, He remains close. With those who defy Him and worship other gods in their various religious ideologies, He remains distant but He keeps calling them.

Even though YHVH said He would not leave or fail or forsake them, He did say He would punish them if they forsook Him!

Joshua 24:20  If you forsake YHVH, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after he has done you good.”

By sending His remnant with the Northern House into exile, He maintained His presence with the whore through His remnant. She would receive the gift of redemption and salvation when Yeshua died to restore those tribes back to the Commonwealth of Israel, as Paul calls it (Ephesians 2:12).

All of this information is required so those who read this one verse will understand just how far-reaching its prophecies are, understand the double meanings and will know WHY this one verse pertains to 2 different eras: the one Samson was in and the future one which went into exile. Sometimes just a few prophetic words have layer upon layer of meaning.

Samson will now return to a type and shadow of Messiah Yeshua. This is yet another layer of understanding in which YHVH has used a main character to symbolize several different aspects of prophecy.

Judges 16:2  The Gazites were told, “Samson is here!” They surrounded him, and laid wait for him all night in the gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying, “Wait until morning light, then we will kill him.” 

The Gazites received knowledge of where Samson (symbolizing Yeshua) was. And where was Samson? In the world with the whore AKA Israel. Why? Because it represents that Yeshua went into the world with His exiles and that Israel in His day WAS the world, as well. The Jews called themselves “Israel” but they were not “Israel”. They were the world with similar religious ideas that missed the Kingdom’s mark.

John 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 

Yeshua was always in the world from the time of Adam. He was in the world before He came to restore Israel and save the world. And then when He walked among the House of Judah, He was in the world because THEY WERE the world, except for His remnant, His sheep who have always known His voice and followed Him.

So HE has literally been IN the world (but not OF it). But also, Yeshua is in the world through His people.

Matthew 5:14  You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Mark 16:15  He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation. 

Again, “The Gazites received knowledge of where Samson was.” In one of the double meanings of this Judges 16:2 prophecy, the Jewish leaders became knowledgeable of Yeshua’s whereabouts on the night before that Passover on which He laid down His life for us. As for Samson, so for Yeshua.

Now the scene jumps forward a little. It will give us details about Yeshua’s crucifixion when few have understood through the eons. If the Jews had understood Samson’s story, they would have known that Samson prophesied of Yeshua.

Judges 16:3  Samson lay until midnight, and arose at midnight…

Yeshua was taken into custody at about the middle of the night, mid-of-night, midnight.

Judges 16:3  …and laid hold of the doors of the gate of the city, and the two posts, and plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before Hebron. 

Through this, YHVH delivered Samson from the whore AND He prophesied about Yeshua. The scripture here does not say YHVH’s Spirit came on him but this kind of feat could only happen through YHVH’s strength.

Look at the 2 posts and bar of the gate. These create an image of the doors Israel came out of in Egypt at Passover which have 2 posts and a lintel, a bar across the top. But also, do we not see Yeshua on the cross with the 2 posts? One upright, the other horizontal from which He hung?

Everyone thought He was weak but, in actuality, Yeshua was the strong man like Samson who carried those door posts, a “cross”, on His shoulders. Samson went to freedom; Yeshua to His own crucifixion, His sacrifice that He made for us.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit of YHVH, Samson, symbolizing Israel when he escaped, was delivered from the Philistines so he could give us this prophetic detail of how Israel would be delivered by YHVH’s masterplan made before the foundation of the world. Remember the goat who also escaped from year to year at Yom Kippur?

What was the masterplan? The plan was for Yeshua to carry 2 posts and die thereon! This is how the Northern House whore got the chance to be restored back to Israel. She could never come back any other way. Otherwise, she would have just became “Jews” through conversion to their religious system. Can’t do that. The plan was the restoration of ISRAEL! So after the cross, all who enter become Israelites because Israel was restored on the cross.  

Do you see how one passage can have many prophetic meanings within it? Who knew there was this much meat in these first 3 verses of Judges 16? I didn’t. Not until YHVH showed me.

The Southern Kingdom’s, along with Samson’s, prophecies and fate will be left for next week.

The point we must take away is that YHVH has been telling us His plan for thousands of years and He has revealed more and more details of His plans to us the closer we got to the prophetic fulfillments. Some people may not care about these details but we should. Why? Because every fulfilled prophecy is more strength for our faith. So the more details we see in prophecy, the greater should be our faith that YHVH does Keep His Word!