Fri.’s Devo - May We Be Activated

Read: Judges 15:1-16:31; John 2:1-25; Psalm 103:1-22; Proverbs 14:17-19 When Samson had calmed down, he went to get his bride and consummate their marriage. When he found out her father had given her to his best man, he caught 300 foxes and tied their tails together in pairs and tied a torch to their tails. Then it lit the torch and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines which burned up all their grain. It also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves. The Philistines found out who did it and why and went and got the woman and her father and burned them to death. She got the very thing she tried to save herself from. This made Samson even madder. *** Samson went and hid in a cave in Etam, so the Philistines began to attack a town nearby in order to capture him. Three thousand men of Judah went to get Samson, so Samson allowed them to turn him over to the Philistines so their town would be saved. *** As the Philistines were leaving Lehi with Samson, the Spirit of the Lord came over Samson and he snapped the ropes off his arms, found the jawbone of a donkey and killed 1,000 Philistines with it. He was extremely thirsty and cried out to the Lord. God caused water to gush out of the ground and he was refreshed. *** This all happened at the time of Pentecost. Look at all the clues: 3,000 men of Judah, living water gushing out of the ground, fire spreading, and spiritual warfare. These are all themes of Pentecost. Three thousand were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2, The Holy Spirit is the well of living water that fills us to overflowing. The Holy Spirit is to give us boldness to witness and bring in a harvest of souls, and filled with the Holy Spirit we enter into warfare to get the evil out of the land. *** Samson fell in love with Delilah, another Philistine woman. She was offered lots of money to find the way to capture Samson and find the source of his strength. He teased her with 3 different ways to bind him, but all were lies. She finally enticed the truth out of him and they cut the locks of his hair while he was sleeping. *** Samson lost his strength and was captured. They gouged out his eyes and put him in the prison where he was bound with chains and forced to grind grain. His hair began to grow. *** The people had a festival to their god, Dagon. They brought Samson out to make sport of him and asked the servant to let him put his hands on the pillars that held up the Temple. When he did, he prayed that God would give him strength one more time so he could avenge the loss of his two eyes. The Lord did and he pushed the pillars apart. The temple crashed down on the Philistine ruler’s and he died with them. Three thousand were killed, just like the 3,000 that died when God gave Moses the law on the very first Pentecost. *** His family went and took his bones back to Manoah so he could sleep with his father’s. He had judged Israel for 20 years. *** In John, Jesus was at a wedding where they ran out of wine. His mother went to tell him and Jesus replied that his time was not yet. But, his mother told the servants to do whatever he said to do. Jesus told them to fill the six stone water jars standing there with water. Then he told them to scoop some of it out and give it to the master of ceremonies to let him taste it. When they did, the master of ceremonies proclaimed that most served the best wine first, but they had saved the best wine until now. (What a statement! Jesus was the best wine saved till then.) *** This was the first time Jesus revealed his glory to the crowd. Jesus went home and spent a few days with his mother, brothers and disciples, then went to Jerusalem for the Passover. *** At the Temple, he witnessed the merchants selling their animals and exchanging money. No doubt, he had seen this year after year, but this time he had been activated at Cana and he made whips and drove out the animals and flipped the tables of the sellers. He told them to stop making his Father’s house into a marketplace. *** The disciple remembered the prophecy from Psalm 69:9 which says, “Passion for your house has consumed me, and the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” Jesus now took what they were doing to his Father’s house personal. *** The Jewish leaders wanted to know who gave him authority to “cleanse the Temple” and wanted a miraculous sign to prove it. Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They didn’t like or understand this answer, of course. Jesus did do many signs and miracles at the Passover celebration, but the people’s hearts were not to be trusted and Jesus knew this. *** Lord, may we be passionate about your house and not be enticed to give your pearls to swine. May we obey your promptings even if we don’t think we are ready for the assignment. It is your Spirit that is at work, not ours.