Year One, July 19

Flee From Idolatry1

Judges 17

1There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD.” (Her blessing was not worth much. She was just as ready to curse as bless. Her silver was her god while it was in the form of coins and remained so when it was changed into a metal image. The fact that she cursed when she lost it proves that. We will read that Micah had some appearance of religion, but what was that worth when he was a thief to begin with? Some unknown fear caused him to return the money even though his conscience had not stopped him from stealing it in the first place. His personality was the type that can easily be attracted to the religious practices we find him involved in.) 

3And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.”

They had an image made even though it was against God’s law. To make matters worse, they dedicated the image to Jehovah. Good intentions are no excuse for disobedience. Today, churches that have images tell us they do not worship the images, but worship the god they represent. If we accept this excuse, then idolatry no longer exists in the world. God does not accept that kind of thinking.

4So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest.

Children imitate their parents. The mother makes one image, the son has a house full of gods, and the grandson becomes a priest. “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”2 Once we leave the spiritual worship of God, there is no telling how far we will stray.

6In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Which meant that everyone did whatever evil they liked.)

7Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” 10And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes, and your living.” And the Levite went in. (It was poor pay. 200 shekels had been spent on the carved image and ten is thought to be enough for the priest. They preferred an expensive idol, even though the priest is kept in poverty. His pay was even worse when we consider that the priest was selling his soul for such a tiny amount. How shameful for a Levite, the servant of the living God, to be serving lifeless idols.)

11And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13Then Micah said, “Now I know that the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.” (This is the way superstitious people talk. They have a real priest with the proper background, therefore they think blessings are virtually guaranteed. The images were forbidden. The ephods were forbidden. Their whole worship was in direct violation to the Lord’s true worship at Jerusalem. But that did not matter to this family! Their priest was a Levite and that was all they cared about. They assumed they would be blessed in spite of all the rules they had broken. Not much has changed in our times. Today people set up crosses, hang pictures and build altars and expect special favors from God even though all their misguided worship is really imaginary and an insult to the Lord Jesus. Outward ceremonies and performances that are not commanded in Scripture should not be part of our worship. If we attend these kinds of services, we will eventually be caught up in the sin of them.)

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¹ 1 Corinthians 10:14

² John 4:24

Year One, July 18

Flee Youthful Passions1

The sad case of Samson reminds us of the warnings in the book of Proverbs against that treacherous form of sin. Evil company is always dangerous, but keeping company with perople whose lives are impure is deadly. May the young men of the household take today’s lesson to heart. It has been hard to write, but a sense of duty has forced it on us.

  

Proverbs 7:1-18; 21-27

1 My son, keep my words

and treasure up my commandments with you;

Treasure up this warning as a precious thing. It may keep you from becoming miserable and heartbroken in your old age.

2 keep my commandments and live;

keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

3 bind them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

Keep the commandments of the Bible at your finger tips and in the center of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend,

5 to keep you from the forbidden woman,

from the adulteress with her smooth words,

As good women are our greatest blessings, so bad women are among the worst curses in the world. Flee immoral women. Do not listen to their words. To show us how wicked they are, Solomon tells us a true story. Let us read it with the sincere prayer that none of us will ever act like this foolish young man.

6 For at the window of my house

I have looked out through my lattice,

7 and I have seen among the simple,

I have perceived among the youths,

a young man lacking sense,

The young man does not have grace in his heart or common sense in his head.

8 passing along the street near her corner

taking the road to her house

He would have been much better off taking a long detour rather than going past her house.

9 in the twilight, in the evening,

at the time of night and darkness.

Being out late leads to no good.

10 And behold, the woman meets him,

dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

11 She is loud and wayward;

her feet do not stay at home;

12 now in the street, now in the market,

and at every corner she lies in wait.

If she was someone who was okay to be with, she would have been at home at this hour of the night.

13 She seizes him and kisses him

and with bold face she says to him,

14 “I had to offer sacrifices,

and today I have paid my vows;

Oh the wickedness of those who combine religion with their filthiness. It was only part of the bait she used to trap the foolish young man.

15 so now I have come out to meet you,

to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

This was another lie. She only pretended he was special to her. Beware of these deceivers.

16 I have spread my couch with coverings,

colored linens from Egyptian linen;

17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;

let us delight ourselves with love.

21 With much seductive speech she persuades him;

with her smooth talk she compels him.

What a servant of Satan was she! There are many like her, who trap fools in their nets.

22 All at once he follows her,

as an ox goes to the slaughter,

The ox has no idea of what is coming, or he would never enter the slaughterhouse. Wicked young men do not realize their sin is leading them to a terrible slaughterhouse.

or as a stag is caught fast

A deer, thinking it has found a meal, goes to the bait only to be caught in the trap the hunter has set. A foolish man, thinking he has found pleasure, goes to this wicked woman only to be ensnared in the trap she has prepared. What he thinks is rare fun, soon turns to disaster.

23 till an arrow pierces its liver;

The deer soon feels the pain of the hunter’s arrow. The foolish man’s pleasures will soon be followed by the suffering his folly brings.

as a bird rushes into a snare;

he does not know that it will cost him his life.

The life of both his body and his soul will be ruined by his wicked acts.

24 And now, O sons, listen to me,

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her paths,

26 for many a victim has she laid low,

and all her slain are a mighty throng,

Samson and Solomon paid dearly because they did not steer clear from these types of women.

27 Her house is the way to Sheol,

going down to the chambers of death.

Strong language, but not too strong. If young people knew what would finally happen as a result of their unclean actions, they would rather burn their flesh with fire, or sleep with venomous snakes, than have any close friendship with sexually impure persons. Young women, should detest those vulgar fellows whose actions should not even be talked about. Everyone, whether they are young or old, male or female, should be disgusted by any lewd thoughts, words, or actions in what they read, watch, or take part in.

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¹ 2 Timothy 2:22

Year One, July 17

But I Will Not Remove From Him My Steadfast Love1

Judges 16:21-31

21And the Philistines seized [Sampson] and gouged out his eyes (according to the eighth century Bible translation into the Arabic language, they used fire to blind Samson), and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles. (The strongest they could find, and the most painful to the wearer). And he ground at the mill in the prison. (The great champion became a slave and was forced to do a job even slaves thought was beneath them. Milton2 describes the fallen hero as saying:

“Made of my enemies the scorn and gaze;

To grind in brazen fetters under task

With this Heaven-gifted strength. O glorious strength,

Put to the labor of a beast, debased

Lower than bond slave! Promise was that I

Should Israel from Philistine yoke deliver;

Ask for this great deliverer now, and find him

Eyeless in Gaza at the mill with slaves.”)

22But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved. (Our gracious God does not throw away his servants. His grace is like the receding tide of the ocean. Just like Samson’s hair, it returns as strong as ever. It is one of the wonders of God that he will not stop loving someone even when that person proves they do not deserve to be loved.)

23Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to rejoice, and they said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.” 24And when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.” (They blasphemed Jehovah by magnifying Baal. They do, however, teach us a lesson we often forget. That is, to give all the credit for our victories to God.)

25And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, that he may entertain us.” So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They made him stand between the pillars. 26And Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.” (The poor blind prisoner was now just someone for the lords of the Philistines to laugh at and mock. Eventually, they let him rest a bit, while they refilled their cups and thought about fresh insults to throw at him.) 27Now the house was full of men and women. All the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about 3,000 men and women, who looked on while Samson entertained.

28Then Samson called to the LORD and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” (How touching is that sweetest of prayers, “Remember me.” Whether it be Samson or the dying thief who uses it, the Lord did remember him.) 29And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.

Milton will again comment for us:

“Those two massive pillars

With horrible convulsion to and fro

He tugged, he shook, till down they came and drew

The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder,

Upon the heads of all who sat beneath,

Lords, ladies, captains, counselors, or priests,

Their choice nobility and flower, not only

Of this but each Philistine city round.

O dearly-bought revenge, yet glorious!

Living or dying you have fulfilled

The work for which you were foretold

To Israel, and now you lie victorious

Among the slain, self-killed

Not willingly, but tangled in the fold

Of dire necessity, whose law in death now joined

You with your slaughtered foes.”

So the Lord God of Israel silenced the boastings of his enemies, as he will do in the last great day.

31Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.

  

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¹ Psalm 89:33

² John Milton (1608 - 1674). Probably best know for his poem Paradise Lost.

Year One, July 16

Take Care That You Are Not Carried Away With the Error of Lawless People1

We do not have space to include Samson’s famous triumph at Gaza, where he pulled up the heavy gates to the city and carried them to the top of a hill. Instead, we must come to the unhappy story in which this great man became a victim of his own foolishness; that is, the event that took away his power to judge and protect his countrymen. Delilah was paid to seduce Samson and persuade him to reveal the secret of his great strength.

  

Judges 16:6-20

6So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.”

7Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 8Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber. And she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he snapped the bowstrings, as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire. So the secret of his strength was not known. (After this narrow escape, Samson had no excuse to hang around this double-crossing woman. “For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird.”2 But this man was so infatuated3 with Delilah that he plunged right back into the trap he had just escaped from. Sin is madness.)

10Then Delilah said to Samson, “Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies. Please tell me how you might be bound.” 11And he said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 12So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.

A second time betrayed! A second time delivered! Is this not enough to make him run away from the deceiver’s house? Sadly, no. It would be easier to teach a moth to stay away from the flame than to convince someone who is under the influence of sin to stay away from its sparkle and glitter.

13Then Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me how you might be bound.” And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.” 14So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web. And she made them tight with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web.

This time he came dangerously near his secret. The whirlpool in which he was surging was sucking him down. Poor Samson!  Who could save you when you were determined to destroy yourself?

15And she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” 16And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. 17And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” (Samson’s dedication to the instructions the angel of the Lord gave his parents was his real strength. His uncut hair was the symbol of that dedication. When he gave up his secret, the Lord left him and he received the just reward of his sinful pleasures. He sinned deliberately, and therefore God allowed him to suffer the harm that naturally comes with it.)

18When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands. (Bad men and women are always ready sell out the very persons they loudly claim to love. They are never to be trusted.) 19She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. 20And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. (We cannot hope to succeed if God is not with us. We may have been brave and powerful in the past, but if the Lord leaves us we will fail and the devil will have the victory. What a warning this unhappy story presents to us. May the infinite mercy of God allow us to truly learn from it.)

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¹ 2 Peter 3:17

² Proverbs 1:17

³ infatuated - Head over heels in love with, lovesick for, attracted to, smitten with, crazy about, enchanted by.

Year One, July 15

He Gives Power to the Faint1

Samson’s marriage led to a complicated argument. He ended up burning wheat fields belonging to the Philistines by tying flaming torches on the tails of foxes and also killing many of his enemies. He then left and camped at the top of a rock called Etam. But God gave him only a little rest, because there were many more Philistines for Samson to conquer.

  

Judges 15:9-20

9Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a raid on Lehi. (This was probably the valley below the stronghold Samson used to protect himself. It was later named Lehi, or the place of the jawbone.) 10And the men of Judah said, “Why have you come up against us?” They said, “We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us. (The men of Judah had become almost like slaves. They cringed with fear before their harsh masters. Sin makes people cowards.)

11Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, “Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?” (What a depressing sight! These cowards act like friends of their persecutors and the enemy of their best friend. Could things be any worse than to talk this way to this great champion?) And he said to them, “As they did to me, so have I done to them.” 12And they said to him, “We have come down to bind you, that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines.” (False brothers are our worst enemies. They will ruin us when our enemies cannot. Beware of hypocrites.) And Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not attack me yourselves.” 13They said to him, “No; we will only bind you and give you into their hands. We will surely not kill you.” So they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. (Does this not remind us of our Lord who was bound by those whom he came to save and then turned over to his enemies?)

14When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. (This shout came a little too soon. It was quickly turned into a shriek of horror and then into the silence of death.) Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. (The weapon used did not matter much. The power was in the arm. The Lord can use the weakest to overcome the strongest.) 16And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,

heaps upon heaps,

with the jawbone of a donkey

have I struck down a thousand men.”

Like our greater Champion, who exclaimed, “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me.”2

17As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi. (Which means either the throwing away of the jawbone or the hill of the jawbone.)

18And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the LORD and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” (Samson knew how to pray and to pray in faith too. This was the saving point in his character.) 19And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore (the fountain of him who prayed); it is at Lehi (or the place called Jawbone), to this day. (God helps his servants in big situations, but sometimes he strengthens their faith by bringing smaller tests into their lives. But he will not leave them alone even in their minor difficulties. He quenched Samson’s thirst by bringing a refreshing spring of water right where the jawbone fell from the hero’s hand. God never runs low on power. We have only to trust him, and we shall do great things, and receive great things.) 20And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. (He used his skill and bravery to defeat Israel’s enemies and bring peace to the land. God used Samson to show Israel that he could make one man chase a thousand and two to make ten thousand run away.)

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¹ Isaiah 40:29

² Isaiah 63:3

Year One, July 14

He Will Send Them a Savior and Defender1

Israel sinned again. This time they fell under the control of the Philistines. But God did not forget his people. He raised up another champion to defend them. An angel appeared to Manoah and his wife, telling them they would have a son who would deliver Israel. In due time, his promise was fulfilled by the birth of Samson. We include some of the events of his life beginning with

  

Judges 14

1Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he saw one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2Then he came up and told his father and mother, “I saw one of the daughters of the Philistines at Timnah. Now get her for me as my wife.”

The history of this strongest of men begins with an act of weakness. His whole life is damaged by the same fault rising up over and over. His unusually developed physical nature made him the easy victim of his passions. If any of us are as athletic as he was, we are probably enticed by the same temptations that captured him. His faith in God was clearly his strong point, but his physical strength carried an unguarded spot in his character, and that turned out to be his downfall.

3But his father and mother said to him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” (It must always grieve parents who have high spiritual standards to see their children marrying ungodly persons. No good can possibly come of it. It is very damaging to the soul, and usually leads to heart breaking experiences. Surely there are enough good people in the church of God without our looking to the synagogue of Satan for a spouse.) But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is right in my eyes.” (Too often, this is the only reason people will give or can give for the path they follow. It is the worst reason in the world. What pleases our flesh, usually hurts our spirit. Let us never be slaves to our physical nature. Instead, let us be controlled by clear thinking and spiritual understanding.)

4His father and mother did not know that it was from the LORD, for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines. At the time the Philistines ruled over Israel.

They were not aware that God intended to use this incident to force Samson into a quarrel with the tormentors of his country.

5Then Samson went down with his father and mother to Timnah, and they came to the vineyards of Timnah. And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. 6Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. (A supernatural power was given to Samson. The strong lion was no match for his unarmed strength. But he did not brag about it. He seems to have understood that his great strength was a gift from God and not for his own glory. This was a warm-up exercise for him. It was a good test of his strength before his great battles with the enemy. Like David, he learned to fight Philistines by first fighting animals.) 7Then he went down and talked with the woman, and she was right in Samson’s eyes.

8After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. (Samson remembered the spot where he killed the lion and stopped to look at it and thank the Lord for delivering him. His memory brought about a reward, because that’s where he found the honey. It is good for us to look back on times when we have been in trouble and God has been merciful to us. It helps us learn how easily the Lord can turn our terrors into pleasures.

“Thus the lion yields us honey;

From the eater food is given.”2)

9He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. (He did not say anything about what happened. Great doers are very often little talkers. Dr. Kitto very properly remarks:3 “The whole story of the lion is mentioned in the sacred history, not merely as an event, but because of the circumstances that grew out of it. Samson, doubtless, performed many mighty feats which are not recorded; the only ones mentioned are the ones that directly influenced the course of his history and brought him more or less into collision with the Philistines. No one would have thought that out of this slaughter of the lion, and finding a swarm of bees in the carcass—occurring, as it did, while the hero was engaged in forming friendly relations with the Philistines—would result in the act of his destroying energies being used against the oppressors of Israel. But so it came to pass. The most unlikely agents—lions, bees, honeycombs—may become the instruments of accomplishing the purposes of God, and of leading or driving someone to their appointed task, when they are not even thinking about it.”)

10His father went down to the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, for so the young men used to do. 11As soon as the people saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him. (These thirty men, who acted like they were his good friends, were probably spies sent to keep an eye on Samson. The friendship of Philistines should always be mistrusted.)  12And Samson said to them, “Let me now put a riddle to you. If you can tell me what it is, within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes, 13but if you cannot tell me what it is, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” And they said to him, “Put your riddle, that we may hear it.” 14And he said to them,

“Out of the eater came something to eat.

   Out of the strong came something sweet.”

And in three days they could not solve the riddle.

15On the fourth4 day they said to Samson’s wife, “Entice your husband to tell us what the riddle is, lest we burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us here to impoverish us.” (The wedding festivities stirred up bitterness. How can we hope things will go well if we join the unregenerate5 on their level? Samson was acting very wrongly in all this, but God was intentionally using it to make him the opponent of the Philistines, and the champion of the Israelites.)

 16And Samson’s wife wept over him and said, “You only hate me; you do not love me. You have put a riddle to my people, and you have not told me what it is.” And he said to her, “Behold, I have not told my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?”

17She wept before him the seven days that their feast lasted, and on the seventh day he told her, because she pressed him hard. Then she told the riddle to her people. 18And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down,

“What is sweeter than honey?

What is stronger than a lion?”

And he said to them,

“If you had not plowed with my heifer,

   you would not have found out my riddle.”

Here he began to learn that an unbelieving wife was not to be trusted. How could he expect that someone who worshipped a false god, would be true to him! How sad it was that he did not benefit from this experience.)

19And the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty men of the town and took their spoil and gave the garments to those who had told the riddle. (These garments were the kind only wealthy people would have. Samson must have dealt the Philistines a heavy blow. The loss of thirty men of such high standing and influence would be great.) In hot anger he went back to his father’s house. 20And Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man.

God used Samson as his executioner of Philistines, but he himself was stung sharply for his thoughtless actions that led up to it. His foolish love affair brought him no happiness. He looked for love, but found deceit and desertion. It is very unsafe for anyone to let their weaker passions guide them. Sooner or later sinful joys will sour into miseries. Let us never take the risks that Samson did. Let his shipwrecked life be a warning signal to us. 

  

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¹ Isaiah 19:20

² Author unknown. This poem appears in an article titled The Honeycomb dated 1866 by Rev. Cornelius Elven.

³ Dr. John Kitto (1801-1900) in Daily Bible Illustrations, Volume 2

⁴ Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew seventh. Also seventh in King James Version

⁵ unregenerate - Unbelievers. Persons who are not born again.