Thought from today’s Bible reading from Judges 16-18.
Delilah was offered eleven hundred pieces of silver by the lords of the Philistines to find out the source of Samson’s great strength (Judges 16:5). So she asked him three times and each time he gave her a wrong answer (Judges 16:6-14). Afterward, she tried to make him feel guilty about deceiving her.
“Then she said to him, ‘How can you say, “I love you,” when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me where your great strength is.’ It came about when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, that his soul was annoyed to death. So he told her all that was in his heart and said to her, ‘A razor has never come on my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will leave me and I will become weak and be like any other man’” (Judges 16:15-17).
Samson had to have known she was up to something. Yet he eventually told her his secret. Why? She annoyed him to death with her persistent pestering. As this continued day after day, she wore him down and was told the secret.
There are a couple of lessons we can learn here:
- The more we place ourselves in dangerous situations, the more likely we will sin. Samson did not immediately offer the information about his strength; but eventually, after daily questioning, he gave in. When we find ourselves in dangerous situations (spiritually), we must “flee” (1 Corinthians 6:18; 2 Timothy 2:22).
- Be careful who you choose as your companions. Despite what should have been obvious suspicions about her motives, Samson remained with Delilah because “he loved” her (Judges 16:4). Paul warns, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers” (2 Corinthians 6:14). It is easy to fool ourselves into thinking that our evil companions do not influence us, but they do. So we must be very careful about the associations we have and the nature of those associations.
Persistent temptation can lead to sin because we can be worn down resisting it. Do not give in to sin. Remain steadfast. Remain holy. Remain faithful to the Lord.
Tomorrow’s reading: Judges 19-21
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
