Daily Devotions
July 11th, 2014 by Pastor SolleyJudg 16:25-31 And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison house; and he made them sport: and they set him between the pillars.
26 And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.
27 Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport.
28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.
29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left.
30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.
31 Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.
The last choice that Samson ever made was the best choice he ever made. The Lord had been a part of the life of Samson from the beginning, born a Nazarite, his parents followed after the order of the Lord, Samson was given great strength by the Lord, not by his long hair. Yet Samson operated under his own rules, doing what pleased him well, that is until the end. I often wonder what his life would have been like had he followed after the Lord, had he kept the vows of the Nazarite, what would his life had been like? We could rightly conclude that he would have been spared many of the troubles as well as been given greater victories over the enemies of God. It is always, not sometimes, always better to follow the ways of God and put aside self and the ways of men. That may not always seem to be the easy way, but it is always the right way. Consider the life of Samson.