Sat.’s Devo - Samson

Read: Judges 13:1-14:20; John 1:29-51; Psalm 102:1-28 Proverbs 14:15-16 Israel did evil again and worshipped idols so God turned them over to the Philistines for 40 years. In the town of Zorah lived a man named Manoah (which means “rest”). His wife was barren till the angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her that she would soon give birth to a son. she was to drink no wine or alcohol or eat any unclean food. Her son’s hair was never to be cut and he would be a Nazarite from birth. He would begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines. When she told her husband, he prayed that the angel would come back and give them some more instructions about their son. The angel did come back and Manoah asked him how he should raise this boy. He gave him the same instructions he had given his wife. Manoah begged him to stay so he could make a sacrifice for God. As the goat burned on the altar, the angel went up in the smoke. Manoah and his wife fell on their face to the ground in worship. Samson was born and God blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him. One day, Samson noticed a beautiful Philistine woman and wanted to marry her. He asked his parents to get her for him. They objected because she wasn’t Hebrew. When Samson persisted, they agreed. They didn’t realize that God was setting up a situation for His cause. On the way to Timnah, a young lion attacked Samson. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he ripped the lion’s jaws apart with his bare hands. He did it so easily he knew something was different about him. He was finding his superpowers, or his supernatural powers. In Timnah, he met with the woman and decided he still wanted to marry her. He returned to Timnah for the wedding and went to see what had happened to the lion. A swarm of bees had made hone in the carcass. He scooped some of the honey into his hands and ate it and gave some to his parents. His fiancées parents had selected 30 men to be his groomsmen. At the wedding party, which lasted a week, Samson proposed a riddle to his groomsmen. He told them that if they guessed it he would give them 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing. They agreed. He proposed his riddle. They couldn’t answer it. On the fourth day of the party, they told Samson’s fiancée that if she didn’t find out the answer and tell them, they would burn down her parents house with her in it. She enticed it out of Samson with her tears. On the seventh day, they gave Samson the answer. Samson knew that they had gotten it from his fiancée. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and he went down to the town of Ashkelon and killed 30 men and took their clothing and gave it to the men who had solved his riddle. Then Samson went home very mad. In the meantime, they gave his wife to Samson’s best man at the wedding. In John, John named Jesus the Lamb of God as he saw him walking toward him. He spoke of the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus in the form of a dove and remaining on him. Two of John’s disciples left to follow Jesus. Andrew was one of these men. He went to find his brother, Peter and told him to come and meet Jesus. He was called Simon at the time, but Jesus changed it to Cephas which means Peter, a stone. Jesus went to Galilee and found Philip and told him to follow him. Philip was from Andrew and Peter’s hometown. Phillip went and found Nathaniel and told him he had found the Messiah, who was from Nazareth. Nathaniel didn’t think anything good could come from Nazareth, but Philip convinced him to come see for himself. When Nathaniel walked up to Jesus, Jesus spoke over him a word of knowledge. He called Nathaniel a genuine son of Israel, with complete integrity. He added that he had seen him under the fig tree. I wonder if Nathaniel had sat under a fig tree asking God to reveal himself to him. Who knows, but it touched Nathaniel in a way that he knew that Jesus was the Son of God- the King of Israel. Jesus told him to hold on because he was going to see greater things than that. Jesus was the stairway from earth to heaven and Nathaniel would see angels going up and down through Him. Lord, help us to have eyes to see into the supernatural and believe.