Read: Judges
16:18-25
And he
awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and
shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.
Judges 16:20
One of the
saddest stories in the Bible is that of Samson. Here was a man who was set
apart for God’s use from he was born. He was a Nazarite. No doubt, God had very
special things that He wanted Samson to accomplish. For a time, Samson did as
he was supposed to – he followed God’s plan for his life. However, he soon grew
tired of following the rules established by the law and by his parents. He
decided he would go into the land of the Philistines, a place he had no
business visiting. There, he met a woman that he was determined to take for his
wife. Against the counsel of his parents, he followed his heart, and set in
motion the wheels of trouble that would follow him for the rest of his life.
His life began to unravel as, one by one, he broke the laws that bound him to
the Nazarite vow. Before long, Samson had given the secret of his strength to a
Philistine harlot, and his power was taken from him. He stood up to fight as he
had before, but this time something was different. The power from God that had
always been present was no longer with him. In utter humiliation, the
Philistines poked Samson’s eyes from their sockets, and he was made to grind in
wheat in the prison house, no different from the Philistine oxen.
The results of sin had finally caught up
to Samson. He thought that he could sin, and keep sinning and everything would
continue to go well for him as it always had. He was wrong. You will be, too,
if you follow the same thinking as Samson. You cannot follow the lusts and
desires of your heart if it is taking you away from godly advice and
principles. Sure, things may continue on unchanged for a while, but there will
always be negative results from sin. Things will not just carry on as normal
because God’s presence and His power will no longer be there to guide you. If
you want God to show you where to go to college, who you are to marry, and what
His will is for your life – three very important areas of decision – then you
must stay as close to God as you can. Following sin will only lead away from those
important things.
I don’t think Samson thought he would be
turning a gristmill in a prison house, guided, not by sight, but by feel. Many
young men carry on as Samson did, assuming that everything will be fine and
that they can get away with anything they desire to do. One day there will be a
reckoning, and the payments for sin will come due. Be aware that if you
continue in sin, then one day you will wake up with the power of God missing in
your life.
Quote of
the day: “If we be ruled by sin, we shall inevitably be ruined by it.”
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