Calendar

SAMSON (VII)
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15
Judges 14:8-11

Proverbs 4:1-15

 

“Wisdom is the principal thing;

therefore get wisdom…”

 

SAMSON (VII)
 
Time had passed. Samson persisted in his desire to have his Philistine bride. The account is given of what happened as he again went down the same road. It is a very illustrative story indeed. On this road, he met death, and God gave grace. As he returned, the events of the past were not forgotten.
 
“And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion…” (Judg 14:8). After the visit in which he encountered and killed the lion, he had to make a trip again and as he travelled the same route, he reached the place where he had killed the lion. He turned out of the way to go and look at the carcass. Samson’s life is filled with lessons for us. As he turned to look at the carcass, he was faced again with temptation, succumbed to temptation and went against his Nazarite vows. He was drawn by the lust of the flesh: honey in the carcass of the lion. It was “good for food” (Gen 3:6). But in order to access it, he must come into contact with the carcass which for him, a Nazarite, was forbidden.
 
“…But he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion” (Judg 14:9). This is the second time in the same chapter and sequence of events that we are told that Samson hid information from his parents. This is a clear indication that he knew he was doing wrong. He was helpless to resist and did not want to be held accountable by his parents, to be chided and reminded of how he ought to be separate and have his sin pointed out again to him, for he already knew it.
 
How often we pierce ourselves with many sorrows and fall into sin because we turn out of the path set before us. James clearly puts it that “every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed” (James 1:14). Samson’s trips to Timnah had no good fruit, for they were all rooted in lust. His seeking a bride out of his personal lust led to the first trip. The return trip brought him to honey that was forbidden but he refused to resist, or tell his parents the truth about it.
 
THOUGHT: “Yield not to temptation for yielding is sin.”

PRAYER: Father, help me to always look up to Thee.

Search