Jonathan is a little boy five years old, and Samson is his playmate. Samson is a big white German shepherd dog, and he is two years old.
Samson and Jonathan play together all the time. Jonathan throws the ball and Samson brings it back to him and drops it.
One day Samson brought the ball back to Jonathan, but he wouldn’t drop it when Jonathan told him to. So Jonathan had a talk with Samson and explained to him that he was supposed to “drop it” when he was told to. But Samson just didn’t want to do what he was told!
Say, boys and girls, doesn’t this remind us of what God has said in the Bible about us and sin? The Lord Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” But in John 5:40 the Lord Jesus says, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” Sounds like we’re not willing to do what the Lord Jesus tells us, either.
Three times Jonathan told Samson to drop the ball, and he wouldn’t do it. What do you suppose happened next? Did Jonathan pull the ball out of Samson’s mouth? No he didn’t. Instead, he put his mouth right up close beside Samson’s ear and yelled, “DROP IT!”
Then Samson dropped the ball. I had a good laugh when I saw that, but poor Samson’s ear must have really hurt!
I thought to myself that sometimes the Lord Jesus has to speak really loudly to us, too. Why? Because in Matthew 13:15 the Lord Jesus says, “This people’s heart is waxed gross [without feeling], and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed.”
Oh, boys and girls, don’t close your ears to God’s Word. John 5:24 says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life.”
Don’t be like Samson; he wouldn’t obey. If you won’t do what God has said in the Bible, the Lord Jesus will have to say to you what He said in John 7:34, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find Me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.”
Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Jesus, I will trust Thee,
Trust Thee with my soul;
Guilty, lost and helpless,
Thou canst make me whole.