YOUR CHOICES CAN MAKE OR BREAK YOU – PART FOUR
Last time, we were discussing the bad choices of Samson, the deliverer of Israel. We considered two of them. But we want to finish the rest today.
PRAYER:
Father, we ask for Your permission; and ask for your presence, as we reason with You in Your Word today, in Jesus Name. Amen!
Choices: your choices, my choices can make or break us. We saw Ruth who made wise choices and she was made a very prominent person in the history of Israel.
We are considering Samson who made bad choices that literally broke him and figuratively broke him, destroying his destiny.
Bad choice:
- Careless with his Nazarite vow.
We considered that last time.
- Cracking an expensive silly joke that cost thirty men their lives
- Caressing a harlot.
Judges 16:1
1Now Samson went to Gaza and saw a harlot there, and he went in to her.
As a member of the commonwealth of Israel Samson was not supposed to patronize a harlot; and doubly so when he was a Nazarite. Samson had become increasingly reckless in his choices, and probably because his bad choices did not seem to impede the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit in his life.
Judges 16:2-3
2 When the Gazites were told, “Samson has come here!” [That is, at the house of the harlot] they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the gate of the city. They were quiet all night, saying, “In the morning, when it is daylight, we will kill him.” 3 And Samson lay low till midnight; then he arose at midnight, took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two gateposts, pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.
It appeared that what he did with the harlot that night had no negative effect on him immediately. He was deceived.
- Cohabiting with Delilah – the manipulator.
You find that in Judges 16:4-22. That is a long scripture. We will not be able to read that. But the story is familiar. You will notice that each bad choice is more serious than the previous one.
Judges 16:4-6
4 Afterward it happened that he loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 And the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, “Entice him, and find out where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to afflict him; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
[That was an irresistible offer for this woman]
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.”
Did Samson hear right? The last verse leaves one wondering: how come Samson was that dumb? That is what happens when a person consistently makes bad choices. A time comes when he or she is out of touch with reality. In our culture we will explain it with this: O he has been charmed. He has been charmed. He was not charmed. That is the consequence of consistently making a bad choice. You come to the point where you will be out of touch with reality.
- Confessing the secret of his life to Delilah.
Judges 16:16-18, 21, 24
16 And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death, 17 that he told her all his heart, and said to her, “No razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called for the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up once more, for he has told me all his heart.” So the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hand.
21 Then the Philistines took him [that’s, Samson] and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters [he was chained], and he became a grinder in the prison.
24 When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said:
“Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy,
The destroyer of our land,
And the one who multiplied our dead.”
You see. It was not their god that delivered Samson into their hands, but Samson’s bad choices. Samson is now blinded by his series of bad choices. The danger in making bad choices consistently is: not knowing which one will be the last, not knowing when one has reached a point of no return, not knowing when one reaches God’s limit for sin. God has legal limit for sin. Friend, don’t get to that limit.
Samson woke up from sleep and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. That is the point I was trying to make earlier. If you keep making bad choices consistently you will not know when you will come to the last one – when you will come to Good’s legal limit for bad choices. Samson’s bad choices eventually broke him literally and figuratively, by ruining his destiny. He committed suicide and took many with him.
Judges 16:28
28 Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” 29 And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. 30 Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.
Have you made bad choices which instead of making you the person God intended you to be has broken you? Friend, may I say to you, all hope is not gone. In the light of Hebrews 11:32-34
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Samson is mentioned in this catalogue of Heroes of Faith in the Old Testament. Samson was included. O what a gracious God we serve! In spite of his bad choices, in spite of the consequences of these bad choices: carelessness with his Nazarite vow, cracking expensive silly joke, caressing a harlot, cohabiting with Delilah the manipulator, confessing all his secret to her to the detriment of himself and Israel; but in spite of these, God was so gracious. Ask God, friend, to restore you and give you wisdom and courage to make wise choices, wise decisions, this year and for the rest of your life.
If you have not yet given your life to Christ, you will not be able to make any good choice – because the Holy Spirit who indwells you is the one who will enable you to make good choices. Give your life to Christ, friend, now.
PRAYER:
Father, thank You for this time we have spent with You and with one another. We bless You. How I pray, Father, that You would receive those who have given their lives to Christ now. And I pray, too, that the rest of us – all of us, You give us wisdom and courage to make wise choices that will glorify Your Name, and bring blessings into our lives, in the Name of Jesus I pray. Amen!