Mon.’s Devo - Samson’s Finest Hour

Read: Judges 15:1-16:31; John 2:1-25; Psalm 103:1-22; Proverbs 14:17-19 Samson got over his anger of what the Philistines did to him at his wedding party and went to sleep with his wife. When he found out she had married someone else, Samson took it out on the Philistines. He caught 300 foxes, tied their tails in pairs and lit their tails with fire and set them free in the wheat fields of the Philistines. It destroyed their grain harvest. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves. By doing this he was cutting off their food supply. When the Philistines found out who did it and why, they went and burned down the woman’s house with her family in it. Samson found out and promised revenge. He went and lived in a cave in the rock of Etam. It was a huge cleft in the land owned by Simeon. Simeon is surrounded by Judah’s land so the Philistines set up camp in Judah in wait for him. The men of Judah sent 3,000 men to get Samson and turn him over to the Philistines so they would leave their land. Samson allowed them to tie up his hands and take him to the Philistines. When they arrived at the Philistine camp and he heard their cries of victory, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He snapped the ropes off his hands and found a jawbone of a donkey that had been recently killed. With the jawbone, he killed 1,000 Philistines. After his victory, Samson was extremely thirsty and cried out to the Lord. God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground. Samson became their judge for 20 years. During that time he went to Gaza to spend the night with a prostitute. The people of Gaza found out he was there and locked the gates to keep him till the next day when they planned to capture him. He got up and midnight and left with their gate on his shoulder. He took it to the top of a hill and set it down there. Later he fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine prostitute. Since she would do anything for money, the Philistines bribed her with silver to find out the source of Samson’s strength. She tried three times and did what Samson said and each time it failed. She nagged Samson repeatedly until finally told her, if she cut his hair he would lose his strength. She put him to sleep and had the barber come in and cut his hair. When he awoke and the Philistines were there to take him, he found he had no strength. They bound him and poked out his eyes. Then he was put in prison where he was bound in chains and forced to grind grain. While he was in prison, his hair began to grow back. The Philistines had a festival to honor their god, Dagon. They brought out Samson to make fun of him. Blind Samson asked the guard to place his hands upon the lintels of the door and he did. Then Samson prayed that God would give him strength one more time to avenge the loss of his two eyes. God did and he pushed the pillars until the whole building collapsed killing more Philistines than he had during his entire lifetime. His relatives came and took Samson’s body back to his hometown and buried him with his father. In John, Jesus and his family were invited to a wedding in Cana. They ran out of wine in the middle of the week celebration. This was a huge embarrassment to the family so Mary went to Jesus to fix it. Jesus had not publicly shown his power but I’m sure he had done miracles at home, maybe even turned water to wine. Jesus was not sure he wanted to come out publicly but Mary knew this was the time. (Mother’s always know. Lol!) Reluctantly, but respectfully, Jesus told the servants to take the six huge jars used for purification and fill them with water. Then he told them to take some in a cup to the host of the party and give it to him. When he tasted the wine, he went to the groom and told him that most people served the best wine first, then when the people were drunk, he brought out the cheapest, but he had saved the best wine till last. Jesus was the best wine saved for that time in history. Everything God does gets better. We are bracing in anticipation of his greatest acts of power. When the time of Passover came, Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem. He saw the money changers and fashioned a whip from some ropes. He chased them out of the Temple and drove their sheep and cattle out also. He turned over their tables and told them to stop turning his Father’s house into a marketplace. The Jewish leaders were furious and asked who gave him the authority to do this. If it was God, then they wanted some miraculous sign to prove it. Jesus told them the sign would be the Temple. If they destroyed this Temple, he would raise it up in three days. They were dumbfounded by this statement. It took 46 years to build it so, of course they weren’t going to destroy it and how would he build it back in 3 days if they did. We know that he was referring to his body, but they had no idea. Jesus loved to keep them guessing. Jesus did do many miraculous signs at Passover and many did believe him, but Jesus knew the heart of man that he was easily deceived. He knew the heart of everyone which is how he knew to answer each one according to what was in their hearts. Lord, may our hearts be pure so that you can share your secrets with us. Rid us of selfishness and pride; we need you more than ever.