Today’s passage: Judges 16:1-22
Helpful thoughts:
- Samson carried the massive city gate 40 miles uphill, while the men of the city were waiting to capture him. Not much detail is given in the first three verses in this narrative, but something amazing had to have happened to make all this possible.
- Yet, the Lord is never mentioned.
- We do get to see that Samson has become not only a regional, but a national enemy of the Philistines.
- Samson could unhinge and carry city gates, but he couldn’t say no to a woman, even after her repeated and blatant attempts to destroy him.
- Samson knew the account of how he had received his strength and the purpose of it. What he may not have realized is just how much of his strength was God-given.
- Samson either didn’t realize his hair had been shaved, or he didn’t realize that losing it would even matter. Every other time he violated the Nazarite vow, he had “gotten away with it.”
Questions to consider:
- Other than the calling that God had given Samson before his birth, how have we seen him living for the Lord? What fights has he fought for Israel and not for himself?
- Why did Samson continue to go to the Philistines, and particularly the women, and particularly when they were aggressively trying to hurt him?
- Again, how does this part of the Samson narrative mirror the way Israel had been conducting herself as a nation in relation to the Lord?
- What might you be turning to repeatedly that does nothing but hurt you and those you should be loving? How does Christ provide the way of escape, repentance, redemption and victory?