Impossible? No Way.

Judges 14

New Living Translation (NLT) (emphasis added)

Samson’s Riddle

14 One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye. ² When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.”

³ His father and mother objected. “Isn’t there even one woman in our tribe or among all the Israelites you could marry?” they asked. “Why must you go to the pagan Philistines to find a wife?”
But Samson told his father, “Get her for me! She looks good to me.” ⁴ His father and mother didn’t realize the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.
⁵ As Samson and his parents were going down to Timnah, a young lion suddenly attacked Samson near the vineyards of Timnah. ⁶ At that moment the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat. But he didn’t tell his father or mother about it. ⁷ When Samson arrived in Timnah, he talked with the woman and was very pleased with her.
⁸ Later, when he returned to Timnah for the wedding, he turned off the path to look at the carcass of the lion. And he found that a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. ⁹ He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it along the way. He also gave some to his father and mother, and they ate it. But he didn’t tell them he had taken the honey from the carcass of the lion.
¹⁰ As his father was making final arrangements for the marriage, Samson threw a party at Timnah, as was the custom for elite young men. ¹¹ When the bride’s parents^[a] saw him, they selected thirty young men from the town to be his companions.
¹² Samson said to them, “Let me tell you a riddle. If you solve my riddle during these seven days of the celebration, I will give you thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing. ¹³ But if you can’t solve it, then you must give me thirty fine linen robes and thirty sets of festive clothing.”
“All right,” they agreed, “let’s hear your riddle.”
¹⁴ So he said:

“Out of the one who eats came something to eat;
out of the strong came something sweet.”

Three days later they were still trying to figure it out. ¹⁵ On the fourth^[b] day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to explain the riddle for us, or we will burn down your father’s house with you in it. Did you invite us to this party just to make us poor?”

¹⁶ So Samson’s wife came to him in tears and said, “You don’t love me; you hate me! You have given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.”
“I haven’t even given the answer to my father or mother,” he replied. “Why should I tell you?” ¹⁷ So she cried whenever she was with him and kept it up for the rest of the celebration. At last, on the seventh day he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging. Then she explained the riddle to the young men.
¹⁸ So before sunset of the seventh day, the men of the town came to Samson with their answer:

“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”

Samson replied, “If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer, you wouldn’t have solved my riddle!”

¹⁹ Then the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him. He went down to the town of Ashkelon, killed thirty men, took their belongings, and gave their clothing to the men who had solved his riddle. But Samson was furious about what had happened, and he went back home to live with his father and mother. ²⁰ So his wife was given in marriage to the man who had been Samson’s best man at the wedding.

Judges 15

New Living Translation (NLT) (emphasis added)

Samson’s Vengeance on the Philistines

15 Later on, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a present to his wife. He said, “I’m going into my wife’s room to sleep with her,” but her father wouldn’t let him in.

² “I truly thought you must hate her,” her father explained, “so I gave her in marriage to your best man. But look, her younger sister is even more beautiful than she is. Marry her instead.”
³ Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.” ⁴ Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. ⁵ Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.
⁶ “Who did this?” the Philistines demanded.
“Samson,” was the reply, “because his father-in-law from Timnah gave Samson’s wife to be married to his best man.” So the Philistines went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death.
⁷ “Because you did this,” Samson vowed, “I won’t rest until I take my revenge on you!” ⁸ So he attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them. Then he went to live in a cave in the rock of Etam
⁹ The Philistines retaliated by setting up camp in Judah and spreading out near the town of Lehi. ¹⁰ The men of Judah asked the Philistines, “Why are you attacking us?”
The Philistines replied, “We’ve come to capture Samson. We’ve come to pay him back for what he did to us.”
¹¹ So 3,000 men of Judah went down to get Samson at the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?”
But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.”
¹² But the men of Judah told him, “We have come to tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines.”
“All right,” Samson said. “But promise that you won’t kill me yourselves.”
¹³ “We will only tie you up and hand you over to the Philistines,” they replied. “We won’t kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
¹⁴ As Samson arrived at Lehi, the Philistines came shouting in triumph. But the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon Samson, and he snapped the ropes on his arms as if they were burnt strands of flax, and they fell from his wrists. ¹⁵ Then he found the jawbone of a recently killed donkey. He picked it up and killed 1,000 Philistines with it.

In Judges 14:6, Samson's strength is revealed to us as he rips apart the jaw of a lion.  I don't know about you, but to me that sounds impossible. Samson was barehanded, yet he was able to tear a lion apart. P.S.I. is a unit of measurement used to measure the strength of say a lion's jaw. P.S.I. stands for pounds per square inch. The P.S.I. of a lion's jaw is between 600 and 700 pounds.  This feat is pretty much measured impossible, but if you look back at the verse it reads, "At that moment the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him, and he ripped the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it as easily as if it were a young goat." (emphasis added).  In Philippians 4:13, we find, "For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." Of course what Samson did is unbelievable, but it is certainly not impossible when the Spirit of the Lord is POWERFULLY upon him!

In Judges 14:19, we see more of what Samson does through the Lord.  He was tricked and now he had to pay those who "solved" his riddle with 30 linen garments and 30 sets of clothes. The Lord equipped him and he took from the Philistines what he was to give to the Philistines. But hold on. One man killing thirty men? Weird, right? In Psalm 18:29, David writes, "In your strength I can crush an army; with my God I can scale any wall." Surely this was the case for Samson. In the strength of the Spirit of the Lord that was upon him, Samson struck down thirty men. Again what seems impossible to us, is more than possible with God.

In Judges 15:14, Samson is tied up in new, strong rope. But the Spirit of the Lord on him was much, much stronger than the rope he was tangled up in. "The ropes on his arms became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands." In Psalm 37:17, we read, "For the strength of the wicked will be shattered, but the LORD takes care of the godly." Were the ropes of the Philistines not wicked? Were they not shattered? With the Spirit of the Lord upon him, Samson defeated them.

 With the Spirit of the Lord on us, could we do the seemingly impossible? 

What are you facing today that is conquering you? Do you feel like there is no hope? What you are going through may very well be impossible for you to face... on your own. Is the Spirit of the Lord upon you? With Him, NOTHING is impossible.