Turning Strength into Weakness

Hello readers.  It took me a couple of months to tell the story of Gideon.  I am going to tell the story of Samson.  My hope is to tell this story in somewhat less time.  We will see.  I keep waiting for life to be less hectic, and I keep getting disappointed.   

Now, some of you who read the title, probably said to yourself that I had the title backwards, that in Christ, we turn weakness into strength.  And if I were writing about Paul, you would correct.  However, I am writing about Samson, a guy who was given immense talent, particularly physical strength and managed to turn it into weakness.  To be fair to Samson, he is listed in Hebrews 11 among the faithful, but far too often, Samson serves an an example of what not to do.  So over my next few posts I will share some of these in hopes that we can learn from them.

First lesson: Listen to righteous people.  If you read Judges 13, you see Samson's parents, Manoah and his wife, whom the angel of Lord appears to.  Judges 13:1 tells us that they were living in a time when Israel was doing evil in the eyes of the Lord and had been delivered into the hands of the Philistines, but we can see that within this time of evil, Manoah and his wife are righteous.  We can tell by the way that they interact with God's messenger and their response to God's message.  They are to raise Samson as a Nazarite.  Which they do. 

By chapter 14, Samson is an adult and he is going about in  Philistine territory when he sees a Philistine woman and fell for her.  He returns to his father and tells his father to get this woman for his wife.  His father objects.  He recognizes the Philistines as the enemy of God's people, and says to his son, "Isn't there an acceptable woman among our people?"  Manoah wasn't being racist here, he was being wise.  The philistines worshiped a different god, called Dagon, and Manoah who had spend years preparing Samson to serve the true God, did not want to see his son married to someone who worshiped Dagon.  If you know the rest of the story, you know that Samson should have listened to his father.  Beginning with the trip down to the Philistine city of Timnah to get married, Samson makes one mistake after another that costs numerous lives including the life of the woman he loved so much.  It could have been avoided, had he listened to his more righteous father. 

As the story continues in my next post, think about all of the tragedy that could have been avoided, had Samson been willing to listen to righteous people and had not been simply led around by his desires.

Happy Thanksgiving
Tom

The questioner part 5

After all this time, I'm finally going to finish the story of Gideon. Initially, Gideon had shown himself to be quite fearful, questioning God and asking for signs.  But God says from the beginning that Gideon is a mighty warrior, and is incredibly patient with him as Gideon's faith grows and we see in Gideon the mighty warrior that God saw all along.  

We left off with Gideon leading 300 men against a vast Midianite army and defeating them.  In Judges 8:4-13, we see Gideon and his 300 men chasing the 15,000 Midianites that they didn't kill in battle.  Gideon stops in the town of Sukkoth and asks for supplies.  They ask if he had the hands of the Midianite kings, and refuse to help.  He goes on to Peniel, another Israelite city, and gets the same response.  Why do these towns refuse to help Gideon?  They are still afraid of the Midianites and they think Gideon will lose.  Then they would have deal with the Midianites.  If they had helped Gideon, that would go badly.  Without their help, Gideon defeats the rest of the Midianites.

Here is what I get from this story.  Gideon was changed man.  He was no longer afraid, but more importantly he was not going to allow the fear and faithlessness of others change his faith. 

Tom