The Daily Fountain Daily Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 6 June 2020 – TOPIC: A TRAGIC END
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DATE: SATURDAY, JUNE 06, 2020
TOPIC: A TRAGIC END
READ: JUDGES 16:15-31 (NKJV)
15. Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart [is] not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and have not told me where your great strength [lies.”]
16. And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, [so] that his soul was vexed to death,
17. that he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I [have been] a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any [other] man.”
18. When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.
19. Then she lulled him to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.
20. And she said, “The Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
21. Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.
22. However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaven.
23. Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said: “Our god has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy!”
24. When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: “Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, And the one who multiplied our dead.”
25. So it happened, when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may perform for us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. And they stationed him between the pillars.
26. Then Samson said to the lad who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars which support the temple, so that I can lean on them.”
27. Now the temple was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines [were] there — about three thousand men and women on the roof watching while Samson performed.
28. Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one [blow] take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”
29. And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
30. Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with [all his] might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who [were] in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.
31. And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought [him] up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.
THE MESSAGE:
In our text today, we see the unfortunate end of the anointed Samson. After four times of the avoidable error of discussing the source and secret of his strength, Samson, to his destruction, told Delilah the secret of his strength: “Locked hairs as a Nazarene unto God!” In each of the four occasions, Delilah staged the Philistines for Samson’s destruction. Sadly, they eventually captured him, removed his eyes and turned him to a subject of ridicule! At the end, he died with people he was called to conquer!
Let us beware: For any inroad we create for the devil into our lives, Satan has set up the enemies to celebrate our downfall. The first target of the enemy is your ‘locked hairs’ of consecration and age-long walk with the Lord. Once the ‘locked hairs’ are shaved off by the devil, we become weak and mere entertainers to the world. Who or what is your Delilah? Detach from that; seek the Lord for grace and walk in holiness – that is how to avoid a tragic end!
PRAYER: Lord, help me to end well.
