Friday, November 21, 2008

Samson - Danny Zuko outperformed.

Judges 16:2-5The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him." But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver." Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah.

There are not too many stories out there about a girl who gets pregnant her first time having sex. Not too many news reports about car accidents where the driver was drunk and it was their first time ever taking a drink. Not too many death row inmates saying it was the first time they had ever committed a crime.

I wondered why the Bible tells us that Samson went and slept with a prostitute - why mention it? We can already see that Samson is not the upstanding man of God that he should be - so why tell us about it? I think it is to let us know that Samson was weak in this area, that by the time he got to Delilah - he was immersed in
this type of sin.. That this was a tool that satan used to bring Samson down.

How do you think we fall to sin? If you are someone who's never used drugs - never been taken in by the lie that drugs are what you need to 'escape' to a better world, do you think that is going to be what Satan uses to lure you? No, he's going to use the things that he knows are your weakness. The bad traffic that causes you to lose your temper and your Christ-like example. The overwhelmed and unusually busy Saturday that makes you want to sleep in and skip church on Sunday. The higher bills that keep coming in that make you want to take advantage of a client by overchar
ging on your prices. Satan is not going to walk up to you and say - "Here, have some heroin and a hooker" - he is sneaky and manipulative and - patient. He can come after you day after day after day. How can we avoid his powerful temptation? Jesus. Again, the final answer is always. . . Jesus. If you get a powerful stain in your carpet - you have to get a more powerful stain remover. Satan is the stain - Jesus is the "Greased Lightening".

4 comments:

Kay Martin said...

Falling into sin...was your question. I find today I must be careful on my fatique...an old acronym comes to mind: H.A.L.T.
Don't get too...
H: hungry
A: angry
L: lonely
T: tired
As a new widow I must be mindful of all of these and as I am aging I must be mindful of the last one. When I get any or all of these I find I can "fall" into sin easier than I like to admit.

Oh, Samson study with you is opening many insights. Keep it up.

Greg C said...

These have been very enlightening posts for me. I love the story of Samson because it shows us that God talks to everyone and not just the saints. There is hope for all of us.

Could this be why old bad habbits are hard to break? Satin already knows our weaknesses and hits us in those areas. You don't know how well this post spoke to me today. I needed this.

I would however have named this post "Samson has left the building"

:)

mariel said...

This is great...I definately need my 'Greased Lightening' daily!! Just this morning, I read about Saul's issue of sin with the fortune teller in 1 samuel 28. The very sin he had cast away was what he persued! Oh, how much we need Jesus to rid our evil hearts of those tempations that so easily entrap us!

mariel said...

BTW, You are tagged!! heehee!