Daily Devotions
July 9th, 2014 by Pastor SolleyJudg 14:1-3 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
Samson, despite his good beginning and Godly parents began to make decisions based on what pleased him instead of what pleased God. While God used this decision by Samson to punish the enemies of Israel in no way indicates that God was pleased with Samson. Through this Samson lost one he gave his heart to. (Judg 15:1-2 But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid; and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not suffer him to go in. 2 And her father said, I verily thought that thou hadst utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to thy companion: is not her younger sister fairer than she? take her, I pray thee, instead of her.) The fault here was with Samson, not his father in-law, and not with God. He never should have given his heart to a daughter of the philistines. Many marriages break up today because professing Christians give their heart to lost people just as Samson did. He made a bad choice as do so many today, he pleased himself and not God, as do so many today.
Did Samson learn a lesson, would he now follow after God’s order? Chapter 16 indicates that Samson was now more self centered than ever. (Judg 16:1 Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.) Another bad choice by Samson, one that will lead to even more trouble than a broken heart. (Judg 16:21 But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house.) Like many today, Samson did not learn from his mistakes, they just began to pile up. Now the life of Samson was in ruin and God was surely done with him, but was He? Could Samson still repent, was it too late to do the right thing, too late to begin to make right decisions? We will see the answer to that tomorrow morning.