365 Days with God (Book One)

Day 172

The power of the Lord will make you Strong.


Since he was young, Samson was born to dedicate his life to God as a nazirite. What's nazirite? It is a person who showed devotion to God by taking vows not to drink wine or beer or allow any hair to be cut or touch corpses. Samson grew up and the Lord blessed him. "The Lords power began to strengthen him while he was between Zorah and Eshtaol in the Camp of Dan." (Judges 13: 25 TEV). Israel sinned against the Lord and he let the Philistines rule them for forty years. One day the Lord leads Samson to fall for a Philistine woman down at Timnah. This is God's way to fight the Philistines, he use Samson to defeat them. The power of the Lord made him strong, he led Israel for twenty years while the Philistines ruled the land. Furthermore, Samson fell in love with Delilah, five Philistine Kings wanted to know Samsons secret, how he become so strong. The Kings commanded Delilah to frame him up. Delilah then asked Samson what is his secret, Samson just answered it cleverly. Delilah believed in everything Samson said, and the Philistines discovered that Samson is only fooling them with his answers. Delilah then still pursues to know what makes him strong then Samson burst out the truth to her because Delilah keeps on bothering him "My hair has never been cut, he said, I have been dedicated to God as a nazirite from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anybody else." (Judges 16: 17 TEV)


Then while sleeping in Delilah's lap, he called a man to cut off Samsons seven locks of hair. The Philistines captured him and took him to Gaza.They chained him with bronze chains and put him to work grinding at the mill in the prison but his hair started growing back. The Philistine Kings met together and celebrate for the capture of Samson, the building was crowded with men and women, three thousand men and women on the roof to watch Samson entertain them. They offer sacrifice to their God named Dagon, they were enjoying themselves, and Samson request to the boy who leads him to touch the columns who holds the building where the Philistines celebrate their victory. Samson was standing in front of them all, he prayed to God to give him more strength once again and die with the Philistines. All died when Samson pushed the columns of the building. The lesson we can get from the story is that, the Lord will make us strong everyday even we are facing many difficulties in life. Like Samson, he may fall into the enemies trap but he sacrificed his life and die with the Philistines all for the glory of God. Philistines worship other God rather than worshiping the true God, and the Philistines deserve to die because of their wrongdoing. Samson obeyed the Lord's commands not to cut his hair, and dedicate his life to the Lord. Let us all be like him, obey God's word. If God made Samson strong, he will surely made us strong too. Let us don't give up, be like Samson today, strong and undefeated! Dedicate everything to the LORD.

Prayer:

Lord God, you are my strength when I am weak. You give me the spirit to stay strong in everyday challenges. Thank you for filling me up with your might. I am strong for you. Amen.