Samson seems like a comic book character in his outsize
appetites and acts. He first goes to a
prostitute while the men of the city wait for him to ambush him. He waits until midnight, pulls up the gate of
the city and goes to Hebron with it. Next,
he falls in love with Delilah who attempts to do what his wife had done, trick
him. He is in love with her but she is
of her own people and willing to entrap Samson that they might "bind him
and humble him." They are willing
to offer her a sizeable sum of money to do this thing and she is more than
willing to comply yet Samson plays with her by responding to her request to know
the source of his strength with a series of lies. At this point one has to wonder if even
Samson knows that the source of his strength is the Lord.
The man at the pool at Bethesda seems to have been crippled
as a result of sin. When Jesus sees him
after the healing His words are, "See, you are well. Sin no more that nothing worse may happen to
you." There is something about this
fellow's character that is amiss. When
the Pharisees ask him who has told him to take up his bed and walk he is unable
to answer yet after his encounter with Jesus he immediately goes to them to
give them their answer, Jesus. Why would
he do that? The sin of carrying the load
on a Sabbath is his whether he is commanded to do so or not. The Pharisees miss the really important thing
that has happened, a man crippled for thirty-eight years has been healed and
not only healed but there is strength enough in his legs to carry his own
bed. They only see a violation of the
law. Talk about myopia! Jesus' claim is that to this day the Father works
which means He may do so as well. Indeed,
He is claiming equality as well. The Jewish
belief is that God worked on the Sabbath.
That claim is based in Genesis 2.2, "And on the seventh day
God finished his work that he had done…"
They take it to mean that God did whatever work was required to finish
creation but that what HE did was so small that it is impossible for us to work
on that scale so we are not allowed to work at all, only He may work.
Stephen's summary of the Bible continues with the story of
Moses' meeting with God, being sent to Egypt as deliverer, up to the episode of
the golden calf. Moses was rejected by
Israel once when he went out and slew the Egyptian and the next day attempted
to stop their quarreling with one another and then again at Sinai when he
remained on the mountain forty days and the people commanded Aaron to make gods
for them. Stephen sees this episode of
the calf as representative of the nation throughout its history. Not only did they reject Moses, the real rejection
was the Lord their God. They did the same when they asked for a king and then,
ultimately, when they insisted on the crucifixion of Jesus and demanding
instead the release of a criminal, Barabbas.
We tend to forget the Lord is our only strength and that all we have
comes from His hand.
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