Daily Devotions – Samson’s Fall

Daily Devotions – Samson’s Fall

 

 

Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:

Judges 16:1-6 (ESV)

Samson and Delilah

16 Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went in to her. The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron. After this he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him. And we will each give you 1,100 pieces of silver.” So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”

Judges 16:18 says that Samson revealed his “whole heart” to a woman who was trying to betray him. The idea is that what little bit of his heart that still belonged to God, Samson finally gave away to someone who did not love him, but was trying to destroy him. This is one of the best examples of what sin really is in the Bible. Sin is not merely doing something wrong, but the giving away of our hearts to someone or something other than God. The problem is that everything wants to take everything from us while God wants to give everything to us! That is the Good News of the cross! The Israelites struggled to realize this in the time of the Judges as they all, like Samson, gave their hearts away to everything except God. Ruth and Boaz show a different way to live in the midst of this temptation by giving their hearts to God and God’s will. Where will your heart rest today as you go about your daily routine? In the love of God who wants to give you life or in the things that slowly steal more and more of your life?