Judges 10 - 21
This book is like a merry go round! Same journey every time, different horse (translation: judge). It goes like this:
Israel does evil in the sight of the Lord. They are overcome by their enemies, God rescues them by raising up a judge. They live in peace until that judge dies.
But eventually, God reaches the end of His mighty rope. He's done. He tells them, "you've abandoned Me, serving other gods." (10:13) and announces that He's never going to rescue them again. He told them to cry out to their "gods" to rescue the, next time, in their hour of distress!
As a parent of a teenager, I can relate. "That's right, God! You tell 'em! They've turned their back on you one too many times! It's time to show them who's boss!"
But the Israelites pleaded.
"....and God was grieved by their misery." (10:16)
Again, I can relate.
The love of a parent is like no other. It doesn't matter how many times our children mess up. We always want to give them another chance. Another opportunity to change.
To obey.
To love.
So, God sends more judges and one of them is Samson.
"Hey, I know the story of Samson! Or at least a little something about him. He's the guy that grows his hair really long and gets his power from it, right?"
Kind of.
The "daily walk" bible describes his life "a study of unfulfilled potential."
How sad. God blesses Samson with superhuman strength and commissions him to rescue Israel from the Philistines, but Samson spends most of his life chasing his own passions - mostly women.
He ultimately ends up blind and in bondage. The bible says, "the Lord, had left him." (16:20)
Eventually, he comes to the place where he places full surrender of his life to God.
He prays, "Sovereign Lord, remember me again!" (16:28)
God, gives him one last portion of power and in his death Samson destroys more Philistines than during his entire life of compromise.
In the end, Samson embraced the power of love and rejected the love of power.
And once again, God proved to be faithful.
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