Wednesday 23 June 2010

Judges 16:1-22

Judges 16:1-22
The ultimate foolishness. You would think any sane person would have worked it out. Once you could have let her away with, but three times she nagged an answer out of Samson, three times she passed it to the Philistines, three times they hid in her back room waiting to capture Samson.
But then we don't work out sin or temptation any better. Time after time, returning to old sins, falling once more at old temptations - the same one we fell before yesterday.
Samson didn't learn, the sad stories of chapters 14 and 15 should have taught him, even if Delilah's triple betrayal didn't.

All we can do is marvel at God's amazing grace. He has a purpose to achieve in Samson and Samson's foolishness will not defeat God's purposes. We do not abuse God's amazing grace, we depend upon it that when we get it wrong, God will remain faithful. The story of Samson is not about a great hero of the faith, but about a great God who is worthy of our faith, our trust, our hope.

1 comment:

Charlie Cameron said...

The story of Samson is a story of tragedy and triumph. We see Samson’s tragedy - ‘“I will go out at other times, and shake myself free”. But he did not know that the Lord had left him’ (Judges 16:20). There is a warning for us here. Yesterday’s triumphs do not guarantee today’s victory. Today’s challenge needs today’s grace. We need to keep close to the Lord - ‘His mercies... are new every morning’ (Lamentations 3:22-23). We see Samson’s triumph - In his death, he triumphed over the Philistines (Judges 16:30). What encouragement there is for us here! How often we feel like Samson - ‘seized... gouged... brought down... bound... in the prison’ - going through ‘the mill’ (Judges 16:21)! Satan seems to have the upper hand. We feel so helpless. Satan will not have the last word. Take this for your encouragement: Satan will be ‘thrown into the lake of fire’ (Revelation 20:10).