2/18/2010 9:47 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: Samson avenges himself
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Judges 15:1-8
Message of the verses: “1 ¶
But after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife
with a young goat, and said, "I will go in to my wife in her room."
But her father did not let him enter. 2
Her father said, "I really thought that you hated her intensely; so
I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister more beautiful than
she? Please let her be yours instead." 3
Samson then said to them, "This time I shall be blameless in regard
to the Philistines when I do them harm." 4
Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned
the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between two tails.
5 When he had set fire to the torches,
he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, thus burning
up both the shocks and the standing grain, along with the vineyards and groves.
6 Then the Philistines said, "Who
did this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,
because he took his wife and gave her to his companion." So the
Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire. 7 Samson said to them, "Since you act like
this, I will surely take revenge on you, but after that I will quit."
8 He struck them ruthlessly with a great
slaughter; and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam.”
This
section begins a new chapter in Warren Wiersbe’s book “Be Available” which is
his commentary on Judges. At the
beginning of this chapter “The Light That Failed” he points out the problems
with not finishing ones life strong for the Lord. Samson had a great beginning to his life, yet
he could not conquer himself and finished life very poorly compared with the
wonderful potential that he had been given to him from the LORD. Spurgeon write of Samson: “His whole life is a series of miracles and
follies.”
Samson is
not the only one in Scripture that has not finished well. Lot started
out well with Abraham, but ended up in a cave drunk committing incest with his
daughters. King Saul had a very humble
beginning, yet he ended up a suicide.
There are others in the Scripture that did not finish strong, for Paul
writes of Demas in 2 Tim. 4:10 “for Demas, having loved this present world, has
deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.”
It is
important to learn from these closing scenes from the life of Samson in order
not to follow the mistakes, but to finish strong.
It seems
that Judges 15:11c is a motto for the life of Samson: "As
they did to me, so I have done to them."
Not exactly life the “golden rule.”
The
difference between Samson and David is that David saw the Philistines as the
enemy of the Lord, where Samson made it his own private war getting even with
them for what they had done to them.
Again I see this as God overruling in the life of Samson because he was
not allowing the Lord to rule in his life, but in the end God’s will was
accomplished, yet it would have been far better for Samson to be in the will of
the Lord because of his love for Him.
Warren
Wiersbe writes the following wonderful paragraph that will help all who read it
and put it into practice: “As
Christians, we need to beware of hiding selfish motives under the cloak of
religious zeal and calling it ‘righteous indignation.’ Personal vengeance and private gain rather
than glory of the Lord has motivated more than one ‘crusader’ in the church. What some people think is godly zeal may
actually be ungodly anger, fed by pride and motivated by selfishness. There is a godly anger that we should
experience when we see wickedness prosper and defenseless people hurt (Eph.
4:26), but there’s a very fine line between righteous indignation and a
‘religious temper tantrum.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: As I look at all of the examples of the
people who did not finish strong that are found in the Scriptures, I chose not
to follow them, but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ I want to finish
strong in my walk with the Lord and live a life that is profitable for the
cause of Christ.
My Steps of Faith for
Today:
- To finish strong for the Lord.
2/18/2010 10:25 AM
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