Judges 16:19-20
Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. Then she called, ‘Samson, the Philistines are upon you!’ He awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
As I sit here typing this message the frogs are singing a loud serenade at the end of our street. I am told that a group of researchers were experimenting on the reactions of frogs when exposed to hot water. They sat a shallow dish over heat and brought the temperature up to just under boiling. A frog placed in this hot water would immediately leap out of the dish onto the table.
They placed the same frog in cool water and observed as it swam around with no concern. As they gradually raised the temperature of the water the frog showed no concern and in fact remained in the water until it died in boiling water.
Here is where the lesson comes in. In today’s Scripture. God had given Samson a gift of power and might. There was a condition: He had to live as a Nazarite and never cut his hair. He must have known that Delilah was deceitful and was trying to discover the secret of his strength in order to tell her Philistine buddies, but he seemed to have lost touch with reality until it was too late.
We can sit in judgment over Samson and his foolishness, but before we do we need to stop and consider our own actions. In what way are we violating the things that God’s Word once convicted us about? How many times have we compromised God’s standards for our own desires? Something to think about isn’t it?
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil