30 More Days... Day 10

Judg. 15:16 Then Samson said:
“With the jawbone of a donkey,
Heaps upon heaps,
With the jawbone of a donkey
I have slain a thousand men!”
Judg. 15:17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.
Judg. 15:18  Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”
Judg. 15:19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived.
Judg. 16:28  Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

Yesterday we saw Samson’s parents, but today we see Samson himself. Samson was a bit of a problem child. He was reared up in a good God-fearing home. He was taught the ways of the Nazarite and the Law of his people. He had a good example at home. Yet, he still went his own way. He was a bit of a “wild child”. However, God also used him. God also directed him and brought Samson to places of His choosing, so as to free the people of Israel from under the Philistine oppression.

Often, it seems that Samson is willful and goes his own way. Often, he seems like a very unlikely candidate that God would hear and answer his prayers. Yet, we have two examples of times that Samson called out in prayer and God answered. Samson is not the only one that was an unlikely candidate that God would answer his prayers. We also can feel less than worthy of being answered, yet we desire that God would hear and answer and provide.

Probably most of us remember well the story of “Jawbone Hill”. Samson is betrayed by his own countrymen and turned over bound to the Philistines. Surrounded and hearing their shouts of victory against him, God’s Spirit comes upon Samson. He kills 1000 men with a donkey’s jawbone. With jawbone in hand he proclaims his own great victory and throws the bone away.

As the euphoria of victory and the adrenaline of battle wear off, he is overcome by thirst. What he began in the Spirit he finished in the flesh. His “victory verse” proclaims all of his accomplishment and nothing about God. Here God shows him how weak he really is by himself. Samson is overcome by his thirst. He is faint and drained. Without life giving water he fears his exhaustion will overtake him. The 3000 men of Judah who betrayed him are nowhere to be seen, whether out of fear of Samson or cowardice in the face of the Philistines. Samson cannot rest in his own strength, nor in the help of other men. God humbles him. He comes to see himself as he really is without God. Samson must call out to God. Where a moment ago he had proclaimed his own victory, he must now give glory to God. You God have given your servant this victory. Will I now die? God brings him to the end of his own strength so that he must rely on God’s. And there God provides water to live. Here God shows His glory and mercy.

Unfortunately, this will not be the only time that God has to bring Samson to the end of himself so that he will pray and give glory to God. Samson is self-willed and proud. He knows that he has God’s blessing but he uses it for himself. He stands for himself in the strength that God has given him rather than for others, and he continues until it leads to his downfall. He comes to rest in his strength and blessing so much that he continually puts himself in dangerous situations confident that he is untouchable. This happens to the point that even when God’s strength leaves him he is not even aware of it.

The Philistines capture Samson. They put out his eyes. They make him a slave. Then finally, one day, they make him a clown. He is their amusement. He is the symbol of the victory of their gods. He has nothing left. Yet, with all of this and at this low point he remembers God. In a prayer of unworthiness he asks God to “remember” him. God had never forgotten. His desire had been for Samson to deliver Israel and judge it before Him. Samson had other things in mind and abdicated that call. At the end though, Samson cries out to God. He asks God to empower and strengthen him once more. Even here he is asking for himself, yet God also uses the occasion to accomplish His own purpose as well. God is ready to listen. Here was a man who had wavered in selfishness, but God was ready to hear his prayer.

It is a shame that Samson’s prayers were so selfish. God might have accomplished so much more in and through him had he relied on God’s strength. His life might have been so much more meaningful. His is remembered in Hebrews among the men and women of faith, yet he is also often remembered as much for his vices as he is for his triumphs. It is good to know that God is ready to sustain us. He is ready to remember us. He is ready to hear and answer us. We should not wait until the last moment, until God has brought us to the end of ourselves, to turn to Him, to seek Him, to rely in His strength and to be victorious in Him. He is ready to listen and remember if we will seek and cry out to Him, but He wants to accomplish so much more in us than just answer our personal needs and desires.

Prayer Request
*Please pray for our English game nights. Approximately once a month we have a game night and invite people that we have met that are interested in English. Pray that these nights would be fun, that they would help to build relationships with other, that they would open doors to allow us to share the gospel and that they would be a tool to see people come to Bible studies. Our next game night is Thursday, September 18.