Mon.’s Devo - Our Mission

Read: Judges 13:1-14:20; John 1:29-51; Psalm 102:1-28; Proverbs 14:15-16
Israel had sinned and fell into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. God chose a man from Zorah to father the deliverer. Zorah means “she was smitten with leprosy”. Leprosy was a picture of sin since it is a disease of the flesh that slowly eats away your body till you die… just like sin. This was the state of Israel. The man God chose was Manoah which means “rest”. God was going to bring Israel rest. His wife was barren which was also the state of Israel. They had no hope. God came to her barren body and put a seed of hope there and the seed brought forth the deliverance for the whole nation.
The name of their son was Samson which means “little sun”. God is the big sun - Samson was just a small picture of him. A small light of hope.
Right away, Samson showed no godly desires, only the desire for foreign women which the law warned against. But, God was going to use Samson’s miss-placed passion for his purposes and for Israel. Samson had found a Philistine woman he wanted to marry. On the way to her house, he discovered his gift - his strength. From this event, he made up a riddle which was the custom of the Philistines to bring before his brides men. When the Philistines coerced Samson’s bride into finding out the answer to his riddle, Samson started his mission. He killed 30 Philistines to pay them back. His bride was given to his best man.
In John, Jesus entered the scene at the Jordan River. John the Baptist proclaimed his mission: “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Then he baptized Jesus and witnessed the Holy Spirit ascending on Jesus and remaining. Andrew and Peter were John’s disciples until John told them Jesus was the Messiah, then they followed Jesus. The next day, Jesus picked up Philip and Philip got Nathaniel and they all followed Jesus to Galilee.
Samson and Jesus both began their mission with an anointing from the Holy Spirit. But Samson’s mission was to bring judgment to the Philistines and deliverance to Israel. Jesus mission was to bring judgment to Israel and deliverance to the world.
Lord, help us to know our mission. Our number one mission is to love you and to love others like you have loved us.