Sat.’s Devo - Samson - The Story of Redemption

Read: Judges 15:1-16:31; John 2:1-25; Psalm 103:1-22; Proverbs 14:17-19 When Samson had cooled down after the wedding party, he went back to get his bride. When he found out her father had given her to another man, he felt justified in what he was about to do to the Philistines. He took 300 foxes and tied torches to their tails, then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through their fields. It was the time of the wheat harvest which means it was around the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. The fire burned up their stacked grain, their standing grain and their olive orchards. *** Pentecost is associated with the spreading of the fire of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also associated with the oil. In the story of Samson it was a time of the burning of the harvest of the evil. In the New Testament it was the time of setting on fire the hearts of the righteous. Spiritual warfare is also a theme of Pentecost. *** When the Philistines found out who had burned up their fields and why, they went and burned the woman and her house. Samson then when and struck the ones who killed his fiancé and then went and stayed in the cleft of the rock in Etam. *** Three thousand men came from Judah to reason with Samson and remind him that the Philistines ruled over them and he was stirring up trouble of them. Samson told the Israelites not to kill him, but to turn him over to the Philistines. They bound him with new ropes and gave him over to the Philistines. When the Philistines came to take Samson, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and the ropes melted off his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey and killed 1,000 of them. *** We see another Pentecost theme. When God gave the law to Moses on the first Pentecost, three thousand lost their lives because they made the golden calf. In the New Testament, on the day of Pentecost, three thousand were saved out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. In the story of Samson, three thousand from Judah came to Samson to reason with him. Later will read that three thousand were killed. *** After the battle of one against a thousand, Samson was very thirsty and cried out to the Lord. God opened the hollow place in Lehi and it poured out water. *** Then, Samson went down to Gaza, another Philistine royal city and spent the night with a prostitute. When the Philistines learned he was there, they set an ambush for him. They planned to kill him in the morning. But, Samson left at midnight and ripped the gates the city out of the ground and carried them and set them on top of at the hill in front of Hebron. The gates of hell were not going to prevail against Samson! *** Samson fell in love with a woman from Sorek who would become his downfall. The lords of the Philistines came to Delilah and bribed her with 1,100 pieces of silver to find out the source of Samson’s strength. It took a while, but she finally drug it out of him. His strength was in his Nazarite vow not to cut his hair. *** She got him to sleep in her lap and had the barber come in and shave off his seven locks of hair. Then he was easily captured. They gouged out his eyes and put in prison. *** In prison, his hair began to grow and his strength grew with it. The Philistines planned to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and bring out Samson to show how their god had given Samson to them. They brought out blind Samson to tease him as their entertainment. He asked the guard to let him feel the pillars that the house rested on. The house had about 3,000 men and women watching. *** Samson cried out to the Lord for vengeance and prayed for strength. As he pushed on the pillars, the whole house came down and killed three thousand. He killed more in his death than in his life. Jesus, also, killed more of his enemies in his death than in his life. *** In John, it was the third day. There was a wedding in Cana and Jesus and his disciples were invited to attend. They ran out of wine and Jesus mother came to Jesus to do something. Jesus didn’t think his hour had come but his mother thought differently. *** Jesus obeyed his mother and told the servants to fill the six stone water jars, that were used for Jewish purification rites, with water. Then he told them to draw some of it and take it to the master of the feast. When he tasted the wine, he said that most people served the good wine first. When the people are good and drunk they bring out the poor wine, but you have saved the good wine till now. *** This was Jesus first public miracle. *** It was the time of the Passover and Jesus went to Jerusalem. He found the money-changers who sold sacrificial animals to the people. They were in the temple. Jesus made a whip of cords and drove them out and overturned their tables. He told them that his Father’s house was not a house of trade. When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign to show them how he had the authority to do such things, Jesus told them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” They didn’t understand this and said it took 46 years to build this temple, how would he build it back in three? They would find out later that he was speaking of his body. *** During the feast, many came to believe in Jesus. But, Jesus knew he couldn’t trust the hearts of man. *** Lord, may we have your heart that is trustworthy. May we ever be thankful for the miracle of salvation.