Judges 13 – 15
The next judge we learn about is Samson. Israel was doing evil in the Lord’s sight and the Philistines had been oppressing them for forty years.
His birth was something of a miracle. His mother and then his mother and father were visited by the angel of the Lord. The angel gave them instructions about how they were to raise their son. Even his mother was instructed about how she should behave while pregnant. She was not to drink wine or any other alcoholic drink. Nor was she to eat any forbidden food. She also had to stop eating grapes or raisins. From that instruction, it is evident that she was not obeying the Jewish laws.
When Samson was born, he was to be dedicated to God as a Nazirite. He was never to cut his hair. The angel also told them Samson would begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.
Samson certainly had his problems with women. His first wife betrayed him by revealing the answer to a riddle to Samson’s guests after he had made a bet with them. She was a Philistine, but apparently, Samson didn’t pay any attention to the rules that said he should not marry her. Then, his father-in-law lets Samson’s wife marry the best man. After the Philistines burned Samson’s wife and father, Samson takes his revenge and kills a lot of them then goes to live in a cave.
The Philistines take it out on the tribe of Judah and eventually, 3000 men from Judah go down to get Samson and turn him over to the Philistines. When a bound Samson is being turned over to the Philistines, the Spirit of the Lord comes upon him and Samson kills 1000 of them with the jawbone of a donkey.
What strength he must have had.
Tomorrow, it’s Judges 16 - 18.
One Ninth of the Way
Today, I finihed the second of the eighteen presents I have planned to make for Christmas presents. It turned out great. Wish I could show you a picture of it, but that will have to wait until after Christmas. It’s awfully hard to wait to give these to the people I’m making them for.
Until next time…
No comments:
Post a Comment