In Judges 14:3, Samson saw a Philistine girl and asked his dad to get her for him as his wife, saying ” she is all right in my eyes”. This shows his spiritual blindness right at the beginning. When Samson poses a riddle to the Philistines which they cannot answer, rather than them coughing up 30 Armani suits for him, they threaten his wife saying they were going to ” burn you and your father’s house with fire” unless she finds the answer to the riddle. ( Judges 14:15 ) Here the wife that looked all right, makes a bargain with her clansmen and cries every day of her honeymoon to wheedle the answer out of Samson!
She caved to intimidation. Why didn’t she go to her husband and tell him the whole story? Samson had the ability to clean their clock, so to speak. When the Philistines confront Samson with the answer to the riddle, he is so angry that he runs home to mom and dad! This shows his great emotional immaturity and the wife is promptly given to the best man in order to avoid public embarrassment. Man, this is reading like a movie manuscript…..
Now here comes the saddest part of the whole story. After Samson torches the Philistines standing grain, along with the olive orchards in revenge, the Philistines come and burn her and her father with fire. ( Judges 15:6 ) How tragic! Her sin found her out.
With this weeks focus being on prayer, I thought I would help you out with this new app I found. Click the link below and start praying without ceasing today.
This weeks theme has been Daring. What a great theme for the week. Fitting it is ending on St. Patrick’s Day. St. Patrick happens to be one of my top 5 favorite missionaries. In case you never heard about the real reason we celebrate here’s a short video to wet your taste buds for research on this amazing man of God. (click St. Patrick link at bottom of blog)
Awesome!
Our scripture today is Jeremiah 29:11 but let’s look before and after our verse too.
“For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’ (Jeremiah 29:10-14 NASB)
Israel was in a bad place, captivity and slavery, very much like Patrick, but God still had a wonderful plan of redemption for them. Just like Patrick, Israel begins to pray and seek God. The result in both is an awesome inheritance. Israel their land and nation, Patrick the nation of Ireland. The place where you are at may not be pretty and maybe even feel like you are captive, but take heart and trust God, in time when the season is right you will have your dreams, treasures, families and inheritances restored.
I encourage you to visit the local library, or go online, and study the life of St. Patrick. An amazing missionary with a heart for the lost, a strong prayer life and saw the mighty hand of God move in Ireland.
In reading Deuteronomy this past week there is one thing that comes up over and over again. DO NOT FORGET.
DO NOT FORGET HOW AWESOME IS THE GOD YOU SERVE
Deuteronomy 4:32-39
New Living Translation (NLT)
There Is Only One God
32 “Now search all of history, from the time God created people on the earth until now, and search from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything as great as this ever been seen or heard before? 33 Has any nation ever heard the voice of God[a]speaking from fire—as you did—and survived? 34 Has any other god dared to take a nation for himself out of another nation by means of trials, miraculous signs, wonders, war, a strong hand, a powerful arm, and terrifying acts? Yet that is what the LORD your God did for you in Egypt, right before your eyes. 35 “He showed you these things so you would know that the LORD is God and there is no other. 36 He let you hear his voice from heaven so he could instruct you. He let you see his great fire here on earth so he could speak to you from it. 37 Because he loved your ancestors, he chose to bless their descendants, and he personally brought you out of Egypt with a great display of power. 38 He drove out nations far greater than you, so he could bring you in and give you their land as your special possession, as it is today.
39 “So remember this and keep it firmly in mind: The LORD is God both in heaven and on earth, and there is no other.
DO NOT FORGET YOUR GOD WHEN BLESSINGS COME
Deuteronomy 6:10-12
New Living Translation (NLT)
10 “The LORD your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. 11 The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, 12 be careful not to forget the LORD, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 8:10-19
New Living Translation (NLT)
10 When you have eaten your fill, be sure to praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. 11 “But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today.12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in, 13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else, be careful! 14 Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. 15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! 16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good. 17 He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’ 18Remember the LORD your God. He is the one who gives you power to be successful, in order to fulfill the covenant he confirmed to your ancestors with an oath.
19 “But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods, worshiping and bowing down to them, you will certainly be destroyed.
These are just a few references but it is clear that God wants to have our full devotion and first place in our lives, which He alone is worthy of!
Having made it through Leviticus and now going through Numbers it has been hard to keep focus at times while reading. It is at these times that I take a step back and try to grasp the bigger picture and get understanding. The definition for understanding ” the ability to perceive or grasp the meaning or the nature of someone or something” says it all. Many times we do not tackle reading the detailed “snor” books of the bible such as Leviticus and Numbers because we get bogged down by the details.
When we step back and look at it from a bigger picture, with an understanding heart, here are some of the things we can see about our God.
He is concerned about every detail of our lives and has something to say about how we conduct our lives.
Provision was always made available to deal with every failure and not just brush it over or ignore it.
Through all the sacrifices for sin that were performed in the Old Testament, we see how important the final sacrifice of Jesus was. I thank Him several times as I am going through the book of Leviticus, not taking what He did lightly.
In the counting of each person and the listing of names we see that God counts because people count. He sees everything that is done and what each of us do for Him is important! Our life lived for Him is not in vain.
Everyone had a job and worked in teams. God is a real team player and sees that every person serves a greater purpose. We are all connected in His plan for us.
These are just a few things I have come to understand about our awesome God while going through Leviticus and Numbers. Keep reading on and ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth, giving you an understanding heart!
