Lessons from Samson - Day 114 Through the Bible

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My Time Alone With God in His Word - Lessons and Applications

Lessons from Samson's Early Life:  Judges 13 and 14 - Again - the story behind the story (as with much of the Bible)...Godly parents willing to listen and obey God...asking to be taught by God.  In this OT story was another appearance of the Pre-incarnate Christ according to most NT scholars.  Both times the Angel of the Lord appeared to Samson's mother first.  She was the one most ready to hear from God, the one who had most assuredly been praying about this very thing - her barrenness and the longing for a son.  As a woman in Biblical Judaism, her value was in childbearing.  Denied this, she was considered worthless, expendable (could be divorced and outcast), cursed by God, serving no purpose in her culture.  God was her only help.  Have you been there as I have?  Maybe not only in barrenness in childbearing but in any circumstance that leaves you feeling forsaken, despised, overlooked, unappreciated, worthless in the eyes of the world?  Most of the Biblical saints were in this emotional state at one time...Naomi, Ruth, Esther, Joseph, Jacob, Isaac, Job and many others.  This is where they heard from God, where God intervened in their lives.  It did not mean all troubles were over, that the ending would be one of complete bliss. It did mean a new understanding of God, of their usefulness to Him, of His care for them.  It is where we are most likely to hear from God too, to be taught by Him, to follow Him, to move to a higher spiritual plane of understanding of our lives in relationship to Him and His plans.

Statements that are Life Changing From This Story: (1) '"Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said,  "O my Lord, please let the Man of God whom You sent come to us again and teach us what we shall do for the child who will be born."'  This is the key:  Opening my eyes, heart, mind, soul, spirit..my life in prayer to God...open to His coming to me...to teach me what I should do...then obeying Him...then knowing that the consequences are all His.  It is both instructive and comforting to me in knowing that these godly parents sought the LORD, followed his commandments in the upbringing of Samson, but the results were not what they expected - not what most of the parents who were visited by God regarding the birth of their children expected (Sara-Isaac, Rebekah-Jacob, Rachel-Joseph, Hannah-Samuel, Elizabeth-John the Baptist, Mary-Jesus.)  The children's lives were fraught with difficulties and occasionally ended with cruel deaths.  It reminds me that my only responsibility is to obey God.  The outcome of that obedience is in His Hands.  The sins and disobedience to God by other people will impact my life.  These may be my children, my husband, or terrorism, accidents caused by others.  My burden:  Did "I" obey God?  Did "I" honor Him?  (2) "Get her for me, for she pleases me well." This statement from Samson speaks volumes about where the world's mindset is now.  There is no consideration of what God has commanded and prohibited.  The only concern is:  "Does she, he, it make me happy?"  How much tragedy and horror in this world have come on the heels of acting on this narcissistic statement!  It seems to be the controlling standard in our world today...with tragic consequences for marriages, families, children, churches, businesses and nations.  Does it make "me happy"?

A Beautiful Segue to These Life Choices - God speaks:  Psalm 50:16-23 - Have you heard and watched people who deliberately disobeyed God's commands to the destruction of others (usually the godly), then turned and called on God and claimed His Word?  Christendom is filled with these people who "profess but do not possess" Christ. '"God says, "What right have you to declare My statues, or take My covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast My words behind you?  When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers.  You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue frames deceit.  You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.  These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes.  Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver:  Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God."'

Jesus on His Second Coming and the Kingdom of God:  (Luke 17:2-37)  1) His Second Coming will be like with Noah and with Lot.  Things will be "business as usual" and then destruction will come "like flashes of lightening", "like a thief in the night"...when we least expect it.  2) Some will be taken; some will be left.  And on the kingdom of God...it is here now...within us!