Friday, May 1, 2020

Judges 15:9 says, Then the Philistines went up, and pitched in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.  The Philistines came and camped at Lehi.  Verse ten states, And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he hath done to us.  The men of Judah asked the Philistines why they were coming against them, and they said to bind Samson.  They evidently sent a lot of men to capture just one man.  Of course, one man impowered by God can defeat a lot of people who are only impowered by the world.  Verse eleven says, Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Etam, and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? what is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. Three thousand men of Judah went up to Samson and asked him if he didn't know that the Philistines ruled over them, and then they asked him what he had done.  They weren't there to support him, but were there because they were afraid of the Philistines.  As followers of Christ, we can never act out of fear of the world, especially when interacting with other believers.  Samson said he had only done to them what they did to him.  Verse twelve adds, And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me, that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.  These three thousand men said that they had come to bind Samson for the Philistines, and Samson told them to swear that they wouldn't harm him themselves.  We should never help the world in its war against Christians, if we are really followers of Christ ourselves.  Verse thirteen states, And they spake unto him, saying, No; but we will bind thee fast, and deliver thee into their hand: but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords, and brought him up from the rock.  Samson allowed them to bind him.  Verse fourteen declares, And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him: and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.  When Samson got to where the Philistines were and they started shouting at him, the Spirit of the LORD came on him and he broke the ropes as if they were nothing.  When God's Spirit moves us, nothing can bind us spiritually.  Verse fifteen adds,  And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it, and slew a thousand men therewith.  Samson took the jawbone of an ass, not a likely weapon, and killed a thousand Philistines.  When acting under the power of God, we do not have to have the most sophisticated weapons, since God is the One Who gives the victory.  Verse sixteen declares, And Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.  It would seem that Samson was bragging on himself instead of giving credit to God, which we can never afford to do.  Verse seventeen adds, And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramathlehi.  After his speech, Samson threw the jawbone away and renamed the place Ramathlehi.  Verse eighteen states, And he was sore athirst, and called on the LORD, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?   Samson was thirsty, and at the same time gave God credit for the victory and then questioned if God was now going to allow him to die of thirst.  We can too often forget what God has done for us and question what He is going to do for us in our current situation.  Verse nineteen proclaims, But God clave an hollow place that was in the jaw, and there came water thereout; and when he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: wherefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, which is in Lehi unto this day.  God provided Samson water from the jawbone of the ass, and Samson's spirit revived.  God provides Christians with living water today to continually revive our spirit if we only rely on Him to do so.  Verse twenty concludes, And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.  Samson judged the people of Israel for twenty years.

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