God's Wisdom In A Nutshell

Hello,

Today I’d like to talk to you about the incredible potential of Samson, an Israelite judge who could have completely saved his people from their enemies, but he fell short.

Samson was born to a woman who was infertile for years. But the angel of the Lord visited her one day and told her that she would give birth to a son that would save people for the Lord. Samson’s gift from the Lord was superhuman strength and he was to use that strength to defeat the Philistines, an evil pagan nation that didn’t honor the Lord.

Samson, however, got side tracked.

One day Samson saw a woman who so happened to be a Philistine and he asked his parents to go get her so he could marry her.

14 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.” 3 But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.”(Judges 14:1-3)

This woman that Samson was enamoured with, was from the Philistine nation- a nation at conflict with the Israelites. Her beauty attracted Samson and he immediately wanted to take her to be his wife- a decision that his parents were not pleased with. God however, knew that Samson would desire this woman and was behind the scene working things out for His purpose.

“…but Samson told this father, ‘get her for me. She is the one I want.’ His father and mother didn’t realize that the Lord was at work in this, creating an opportunity to disrupt the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at the time.”(Judges 14:3-4)

It’s never a good thing to choose a future spouse on physical attributes alone. The Lord shows us in the Bible that our lives will work out so much easier if we choose a spouse who is a Christian that is growing in their faith and moving toward a lifestyle of trusting in the Lord while putting His priorites first. God first, family second and work third is a theme throughout the Bible.

Samson’s desire turned into devistation when soon after the wedding, Samson’s wife betrayed him by revealing a secret. This enraged Samson to such a degree, that his wife was afraid and took off with his best man.  Samson got deep revenge for this act of betrayal, by burning the Philistines grain, vinyards and groves.

Samson was hunted down for this act of violence and he agreed to be captured. Later after being in prision his power returned and Samson unleashed his power and was able to kill one thousand Philistines. The end result of this Biblical soap-opera actually accomplished a goal for the Lord, which was to eliminate many evil Philistines. God took what appeared to be the defeat of Samson and turned it around to eliminate 1000 evil people.

I will end Part one and recap the lessons:

1.  Samson’s wife was chosen by site – nothing was mentioned about her kindness, loyalty, honesty and integrity. Samson simply said “this is the one I want.” God had a plan in this union however. It allowed Samson to get close to the Philistine nation so that he could get rid of as many evil people as possible. God is able to lead us to marry the person of His choice for His purposes too. He may make you drawn to a certain person- a person you wouldn’t normally date or be attracted to. God has His reasons and it always includes bringing more people into his flock and destroying those people, families and nations that live opposed to Him.
2. Samson’s wife was a woman who did not believe in God. She was from a pagan nation. God let this happen because He knew that she and her father would die. The pagan woman made plans to marry whom she wanted but the end result was God ordained. When we are ready to choose a spouse, we need to delineate what type of person we want to marry and then refrain from dating anyone else. For instance a Christian needs to date only Christians who attend church and place God at the center of their lives. We should also look beyond superficial qualities and instead look for  the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, longsuffering and self control.

What looks like a horrific situation -Samson was captured- later turned out to be a victory for God when 1000 pagan people were killed. So our take away is similar to the rabbit and the hare. What looks like an initial win for the rabbit, turned out to be a win for the hare. God always finishes what He starts. When He leads people to do His work, they will always be victorious in order to show God’s overuling power in the lives of His followers. This gives God the glory He deserves!

Stay tuned next week when we see what harm befalls a person when passion rules our choices!

Have a good week,

Lisa