Sun.’s Devo - Samson

Read: Judges 13:1-14:20; John 1:29-51; Pslam 1-2:1-28; Proverbs 14:15-16 Israel went back into idolatry so God turned them over to the Philistines for 40 years. They oppressed them until they cried out to the Lord. The angel of the Lord visited the wife of Manoah from the tribe of Dan and told her that though she was barren, she would become pregnant and have a son. The boy would be dedicated to God as a Nazarite from birth and she was never to cut his hair. She was not to drink wine or any other alcohol or eat anything forbidden by the law. She told her husband and he prayed to the Lord that the angel would come back and tell them more about how to raise this son. God did come back and he told him the same thing he had told his wife. They made a sacrifice and the angel went up in the smoke of the burnt offering. Manoah and his wife were afraid they would die since they had seen the Lord but their words from him gave them peace that they would live to raise this promised child. When he was born, they named him Samson meaning “little sun”. Manoah means “rest” and God was sending Samson to bring rest from their oppression of the Philistines. One day as Samson was visiting Timnah a city of the Philistines, he saw a woman he fell instantly in love with and wanted to marry her. He went home and told his parents. They were upset that he would want to marry a heathen instead of someone from his own tribe but God was using this against the Philistines. His parents met the parents of the girl and set up the wedding arrangements. During the week long marriage party, Samson presented a riddle to his 30 Philistine groomsmen. He had killed a lion with his own hands one day on his way to visit his girlfriend and when he passed by it again, he noticed that bees had built a nest and produced honey. He scooped some up and ate it and took some to his parents but never told them where it came from. From this he proposed his riddle: “Out of the one who eats came something to eat: out of the strongwomen came something sweet.” Every day of the party the bride badgered Samson to tell her the answer. Her groomsmen told her that if she didn’t tell them the answer they would burn down her father’s house with her in it. If they did’t guess it they each had to give Samson a set of festive clothing. Finally on the seventh day, Samson told his bride and she quickly told her groomsmen. They answered his riddle and Samson knew they had gotten it from his bride. Samson went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty Philistines and brought back their clothing for the groomsmen. He left the party and went home without his bride. Her father thought the wedding was off between her and Samson and to keep from being humiliated, he gave his daughter to the best man to marry. In John, John saw Jesus from afar and pointed him out to his disciples calling Jesus, the Lamb of God. Little did they realize he would be God’s lamb he would bring to Passover to sacrifice. John didn’t know Jesus was the one until he baptized him and saw the Spirit ascend upon him like a dove. God had told John that when he saw this happen he would know this was the Messiah. John baptized with water but Jesus would baptize in the Holy Spirit. Andrew had been John’s disciple, but when he heard John say that Jesus was the Lamb of God, he started following Jesus. Andrew went home and told his brother Simon that he had found the Messiah. The next day Andrew took Simon to meet Jesus and Jesus told Simon that his name would now be ‘Peter.’ The next day, Jesus chose Phillip to be his disciple and Phillip went home and told his brother, Nathaniel that he had met the Messiah - he was from Nazareth. Nathaniel exclaimed, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Phillip told him to come see for himself. Nathaniel would have known that the Messiah was to come from Bethlehem but when he met Jesus and Jesus exposed his heart as being blameless and pure and mentioned that he saw him under the fig tree, he was convinced. Nathaniel probably went to pray under the fig tree so this would have been something no one knew but him. Nathaniel was so convinced that he proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God and the King of Kings. Jesus remarked that if he was turned at something so small, wait until he saw the great things he was going to do. He would see heaven open up and angels going up and down on the stairway between heaven and earth because he was the stairway. Thank you, Jesus for being our mediator between heaven and earth. Thank you for coming to earth to live amongst us so you can pray for us better.