Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Sovereign Lord, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” 29 Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, 30 he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime. (Judges 16: 28-30)
Every one of us faces temptation every day to do things that displease God. In our text tonight we see a contrast between two aspects of Samson's character. As we have said before, he was strong physically, but was weak spiritually. Can we see that contrast here?
- 1. If we fail to resist temptation, the consequences are devastating.
- Ga 6:7-8a "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption…"
- Jas 1:14-15 "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of
his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth
sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
- a. We'll end up going to dangerous places
b. We'll end up saying dangerous things
c. We'll end up doing things that are reckless, putting ourselves and others in serious jeopardy.
- a. Samson started down this road early…
b. He went down to Timnath…
c. Now he goes down farther to Gaza…
d. We will see in the rest of this chapter where this progression leads him!
We still have choice. We can choose to indulge ourselves with temptation or turn our back on it. But be careful with the consequence. Like Samson, he paid it with his own life.
No comments:
Post a Comment