Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Grinding in the Prison House


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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