Turning Strength into Weakness Part 5

Hello everyone.
It's Christmas Eve.  Soon I will be in the kitchen making cornbread and pie for tomorrow's big dinner.  I thought that I would take some time to continue the story of Samson.  My hope is that soon my blogging will catch up with my Bible study.  So here we go:

We pick up the story after Delilah cuts off Samson's hair, he becomes like any other man and is captured by the Philistines.  Judges 16:21 tells us that the Philistines then blinded Samson, then bound him and set him to grinding their grain while in their prison.  But here is what they do after that, They would go to the temple of their false god, Dagon and thank him for delivering their enemy into their hands.  At times they would bring Samson out as a form of entertainment, so that they could laugh and rejoice in their victory over this man of God.  Because of his weaknesses and sins Samson gave the enemies of his people and the enemies of God reason to rejoice.  He made the true seem small, and made the false god, Dagon seem the victor.  Praising Dagon, they said: "Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands." 

What I want us to think about here is how the Philistines were using him as entertainment, laughing at Samson and his God.  Samson was in the position that he was in because of his weaknesses: He didn't listen to advice, he didn't take his vows seriously, he began to think to highly of himself, forgetting that his power really came from God, not himself.  Plus, I've never even mentioned how easily he could be played by an attractive woman (which could be a whole other lesson.)  We need to think about this.  We all have weaknesses.  We all have sins that dog us and are difficult to overcome.  How much effort do we make to overcome them.  If our efforts are on the level Samson put forth to overcome, we may put ourselves in a position some day, where the enemies of God are laughing at us.  We do not want worldly people celebrating our downfall.       

It's kind of depressing, so I will try to nose up the plane a little. We know the story and its bittersweet ending.  Samson regains his faith and God returns his strength.  He pushes the pillars of of the temple down, killing everyone in it.  In this one act he shut the mouths of those who were laughing at God.  Sadly, Samson is killed as well.  But he is remembered for his faith in Hebrews 11:32, the chapter we refer to as the Faith Hall of Fame.  To this point Samson has served as a bad example.  I haven't had much good to say about him, but in spite his many weaknesses, the Hebrew writer lists him along side Gideon, David and Samuel as men of faith.  So if we have been messing it up, we can make start making changes now so that God's enemies do not have the opportunity to rejoice.

Tom