Day 48 - Judges 16

From: Chapter-A-Day: Volume 2 By: Norman W. Berry

Judges 16 • 1 min. read • grade level: 6

V.1-3 Here Samson falls lower than ever. The Bible says “the way of transgressors is hard” (Prov. 13:15¹⁵Good understanding giveth favor: but the way of transgressors is hard. (Proverbs 13:15)). Samson is receiving the wages of his sins. The guilty man falls under the spell of the “strange woman” (Prov. 5:3³For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: (Proverbs 5:3)). This is the blinding power of sin. Samson didn’t realize her vileness nor his own danger. Careless believers lose their ability to see dangers. His secret with God for his strength was his uncut hair. So long as he kept this he was strong. But he tells his secret to a harlot, who had wrung it out of him for money.

V.21-31 Samson loses his strength, and his eyes. He is degraded into being made the sport and slave of the enemy of God and Israel. But God is about to get victory for Himself. Poor Samson turns to the Lord in his awful condition, and the Lord hears him. But we can learn a lesson ourselves here. Without his natural eyes, he saw clearer with his “inward eyes”. And so we too need the “eyes of our understanding” (Eph. 1:18¹⁸The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, (Ephesians 1:18)), to be opened.

Samson had used his natural eyes far too often for selfish and sinful purposes (Judges 14:1; 16:1¹And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. (Judges 14:1)
¹Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her. (Judges 16:1)). Let us remember that we have an old nature like Samson’s. In the end of his life Samson was willing to die for the name of the Lord. The Philistines were honoring their god Dagon. But the Lord could not allow this in the face of such a prayer as Samson’s. Samson brought more honor to God in his death than in his life.