Those Who Sleep 睡了的人
30 Jan 2019 | 9 min readsermon2019singapore | rest watchful
When the Bible talks about those who sleep, there are generally 3 types of sleep:
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Physical sleep
For example when Peter and the other disciples were on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were heavy with sleep. Physical sleep is necessary in our lives. We need physical sleep to be rejuvenated. We all know how torturous it is when we’re deprived of sleep. Recently, the speaker’s daughter has been waking up every hour of the night, depriving him of a few night’s of sleep. But this is still nothing compared to what Jacob had to endure. Jacob complained to Laban that one of the things he suffered under his hands was that his sleep departed from his eyes. “In the day, the drought consumes me and the frost by night.” For 20 years, Jacob couldn’t sleep well when working for Laban. Therefore we often say it’s a blessing to be able to sleep through the night. -
Sleep in Jesus
This is inevitable for us Christians who don’t see the second coming of the Lord. If we keep our faith right to the very end, one day, all of us will sleep in Jesus. This also is a blessing.
The third kind of sleep is not necessary, not inevitable, and definitely not a blessing
- Being spiritually asleep
1 Thess 5:6-7
Paul here exhorts us not to fall asleep. In fact, this sleep is the most dangerous pitfall for a Christian. It’s a dangerous slumber. Those awake are of the day. Those who sleep are of the night. The night is associated with those in slumber and those in drunkenness. So what happens when we fall asleep or get drunk? What we lose is a sense of awareness. We don’t know what’s happening around us. We don’t know of the danger that’s around us. Of course when we lose awareness spiritually, that’s a very dangerous situation.
This sermon will take a look at some of those in the Old Testament who sleep. Their characteristics will be learnt, and we will take heed ourselves.
- The sleep of Samson
In a previous sermon, what went wrong with the life of Samson was spoken. His entire life won’t be gone through again. Just one part will be focused on.
Judges 16
Before chapter 16, God still hadn’t forsaken Samson despite what he had done. But in chapter 16 was the final straw. Before chapter 16, he wanted to marry a philistine woman; marrying Gentiles is of course wrong. That marriage fell through. This chapter says he slept with a prostitute in Gaza; a one night stand. Finally, the last woman in his life was Delilah. Here we see him cohabiting with her. No need to get married. Don’t need to pay for the services of a harlot. He just fooled around with Delilah in her house.
v19 records of his actual sleep and fall.
From the process of how he fell asleep, we can learn what we should take heed of.
First the background. v4 tells us Delilah was from the valley of Sorek. She was most likely a Philistine. The Philistines knew Samson liked Philistine women from their previous experience. They approached Delilah to find out the source of his strength. If she did, she would be given 11 shekels of silver from each of them. It took Delilah 4 times to finally break Samson down. When we read the story initially, we can see Samson is on guard. He knows the danger of revealing his secret to Delilah.
v7 tells us of his first reply.
“If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
Samson comes up with this to lie to Delilah.
v11 is his second reply
“If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
From fresh bowstrings to new ropes. Both times we see that his reply revealed nothing about the source of his strength. In fact, it’s nothing close to the source of his strength - his hair. We can see he still has a slight sense of awareness.
If we look at these replies closer, the way he says it is, “If THEY bind me”. Who is the ‘they’? The Philistines. In his mind, the philistines were a clear predator. The way he replied reflected he was thinking of the Philistines in his mind.
When Delilah actually binds him, was Samson really asleep? The speaker used to think he was asleep. But if the Bible is read carefully, it doesn’t actually say he woke up from sleep the first two times. The third time mentions he woke up from sleep. The fourth time, of course he was asleep. But the first two times doesn’t record that he was asleep when Delilah bound him.
Delilah might have thought he was asleep. But he was alert enough not to be asleep. He still had in mind the Philistines to guard against. In fact, they were already hiding in the room. The Philistines probably didn’t fight him the first 3 times, because when Delilah called out, “The Philistines are upon you!” it was to test him. Why attack him? Since Samson managed to break the bonds, the Philistines wouldn’t come out yet because the strong man is still loose.
Samson never actually realised they were there. But he was aware of the danger of the Philistines. He was on guard.
That changed the third time. His guard dropped.
v13 Here Samson says, “If YOU weave the seven locks of my head…”
No longer ‘they’. They, the Philistines, are a danger. You, Delilah a woman, wasn’t. His sense of awareness and guard was dropping.
If you think about it, he probably thought Delilah was playing a lover’s game with him. “Oh she loves me so much she wants to know everything about me. My innermost thoughts!” His answer showed his guard had dropped. It revealed it had something to do with his hair. It’s not quite there, but Delilah is getting close to the truth.
v14 “…he awoke from his sleep”
He had fallen asleep when Delilah weaved his hair into a web.
But the fourth time, Delilah played the final card. If you nag someone long and hard enough, a person will eventually give in out of vexation. Finally, we know Samson gives in. He tells her all his heart; all that’s in him to Delilah.
Stop and ask ourselves this question. After Samson reveals the source of his strength to Delilah, what exactly was going through his mind? Because every time he tells Delilah something, Delilah would do the exact thing to him. Even if he thought Delilah wasn’t going to betray him to the Philistines, experience would tell him Delilah was going to cut off his hair. Why did he remain behind? (If you reveal your secret, better run away right?)
How was he going to prevent Delilah from cutting off his hair?
A few possible explanations. Maybe Samson was thinking:
“I won’t fall asleep this time.” But you’ve already fallen asleep once. How can you prevent things from happening to you when you’re asleep?
“If Delilah were to cut my hair, obviously I would sense something. I’d awake and stop her!”
This is really the fallacy of those who fall asleep. In fact, you don’t even know when you fall asleep. Isn’t that so? In real life, does anyone know when they fall asleep? If you do, you haven’t really fallen asleep. And once you fall asleep, how on Earth are you going to know what’s happening to you?
This time, Delilah did something special. She specially lulled him to sleep on her knees.
When you’re in deep sleep, there’s no such thing as “I’m gonna wake up on time to stop the danger!” You’re oblivious to everything around you. Samson was oblivious to what Delilah was doing to him. A man shaved off all the locks of his head. He utterly fell.
What can we learn from Samson falling asleep?
First, the devil is really like Delilah and the Philistines. Delilah used all ways and means to wear Samson down. The devil also employs all sorts of temptations to make us fall. He always strikes at your weaknesses. If your weakness is women, he’ll make use of your lust for women. If it’s money, he’ll make use of your greed. The devil can always wait. Remember that the devil is always waiting like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Just like the philistines waited. They laid low for the right time to strike. The waiting is also waiting for us to lose our guard to fall asleep. Then he’ll strike.
Secondly, there’s no such thing as satisfying the flesh and not crossing the line. Many people say, “I want to satisfy my flesh but I will never cross the line; I’ll never commit fornication.” They put themselves in very compromising situations. They’re always alone with their boyfriend/girlfriend in the room. If you always put yourself in such a situation?
Proverbs says: Can a man play with fire in his bosom and not burn his clothes? It’s only a matter of time.
The story of Samson tells us that you might have success not giving in initially. But you will ultimately succumb if you have Samson’s mentality. You’ll ultimately fall into a deep sleep. Just like a man telling himself “I will sleep but I’ll still be aware of what’s happening around me.” But you will be completely oblivious to what’s around you. It’s not whether or not you will fail. It’s only a matter of time when you fall asleep and you fall.
Rom 13:11-14
If we do not know the time, we have fallen asleep spiritually. Because someone who has fallen asleep obviously doesn’t know the time. Just like Samson. He didn’t know the time. He was set aside for God’s special purpose. How many people in the Bible have their birth being pronounced by an angel before they’re even born? John the Baptist and Jesus only come to mind. But Samson wasted his life. He didn’t realise that this power God had given him was a purpose. He just spent his life fooling around, enjoying himself. He didn’t know the time he was in Delilah’s house. He didn’t realise he was nearing him doom.
Over here, Paul tells us it is time. What time is it for Christians? Here says salvation is nearer than when we first believed. In other words, the day of reckoning is nearer than when we first believed. Therefore Paul tells us not to make any provision for the flesh. It’s not the time to indulge in the flesh. Make NO provision for the flesh. The best example the speaker can think of is Joseph. He would not allow himself to be alone with the mistress. He gave no chance for himself to be tempted. Therefore he gave no chance for himself to fall. Samson is the opposite. Always making provision for the flesh. Always treading the fine line. Almost always going to reveal his secret. He fell asleep spiritually long before he fell asleep in Delilah’s lap. He fell asleep once he decided he wanted to indulge in the flesh. Let’s not be over confident that we won’t fall. Paul tells us here: “Let us cast off the works of darkness. Let is walk properly as in the day.”
(There’s a second character but due to lack of time, it’ll only be covered briefly in the prayer exhortation :( )
The second character is the sleep of the lazy man.
- Lazy man
Prov 24:30-34
The author of the proverb writes about passing the field of a lazy man. It was overgrown with thorns, covered with nettles. The stone wall was broken down. Why? Because the lazy man neglected his duty. He was greedy. What was he greedy? For “a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep”.
If the lazy man had just worked a little bit a day, his field wouldn’t have fallen to such a state. Even if he wanted to repair his field now, there’s too much work to be done!
Sometimes we have this experience. Just take your daily household chores. If we always sweep and mop the house, it’ll be quite easy to maintain if it’s done daily. But if you do it only once every few weeks, the house is full of dust! You need a humongous effort to tidy the house. The same applies to our field of faith. You need to be diligent everyday. Move the little thorns and nettles that sprout. Repair the stone wall everyday. Make sure it’s not broken down. It’s this effort that keeps our field of faith very proper and always in a good condition.
One of the things that helps us to keep this proper is prayer. Very often prayer goes against sleep. Sleep is fighting with our prayers. Just like the disciples. The Lord Jesus wanted them to pray. Their bodies wanted to sleep. Sometimes we set the alarm clock to wake up at a certain time to pray. It rings. “Ah very tired.” What do we do? There’s a very bad button there called snooze. Sleep 5 more min. iPhone is 10min. It rings again. You press again. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. The greed of the lazy man caused the state of his field to be as such.
Have we considered the field of the lazy man? Have we received instruction like the man here?
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