Read this in a devotion today... kind of goes along with what I talked about last night. So many times we do what WE want to do, not stopping to ask God if it's what HE wants... As she says, I have had LOTS of Timnahs... enjoy!!!
July 2
“But his (Samson’s) father and mother said to him, ‘Is there not a woman among the daughters of your kinsmen or among all our people, that you must go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?’ And Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is all right in my eyes!’”
Judges 14: 3, Amplified Bible
EXPLORATION
“Advice To The Hard-Headed”
“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t”
Author Unknown
Is there a time in my life when I ignored good advice only to wish later that I hadn’t been so hard-headed by demanding my own way?
“He that won’t be counseled can’t be helped.”
Benjamin Franklin
INSPIRATION
“Write down the advice of him (her) who loves you, though you like it not at present.”
Proverb
The author Rosamond Marshall, in her book Kitty, penned these words which contain a great deal of truth: “A woman in love never takes advice.”
Before you come to the conclusion I’m picking on the female gender, take a look at our text for today in Judges 14: 3, because this statement applies to men just as easily as women.
Sent on a heavenly mission of liberation to Timnah, in the land of the Philistines, Samson let himself become distracted by a woman who got his attention.
The Bible doesn’t tell us whether or not Samson fell in love with this girl, it only says that he was so smitten with her all the good judgment he had and any advice he received was thrown out the window.
Trying to bring reason into a situation where unreasonable behavior was in vogue, Samson’s parents tried, unsuccessfully, to offer sound advice by asking their hard-headed son a sensible question, “If it’s a woman you want, isn’t there one here in the camp of the Israelites?”
Mom and dad were evidently acquainted with daughters of Israel whom they most likely hoped might someday make a wonderful mate for their special son. Yet, before they could arrange for a suitable wife, Samson had willfully gone off to Timnah and had seen a woman whom, as we learned, beguiled and seduced him. When Samson came back home, he ordered his parents to go get her for as he emphatically stated, “She is all right in my eyes.” In the King James Version, this phrase is, “For she pleaseth me well.” You must know by now that I had to check out this phrase in the Hebrew and here’s what I found. The word “pleaseth” is used by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 8: 1-4 (K.J.V.) “Who is as the wise man? And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? A man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed. I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing: for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is power….”
Let’s apply this text, which refers to the power of an earthly king, to the power of our heavenly King in our lives.
Called as God’s emissary, Samson was asked by God, as a consecrated Nazirite, to keep the “commandments” of his King. He was not to leave God’s sight or walk out of God’s path. He was not to “stand in an evil thing,” but instead was to do what “pleased” his heavenly Guide, for under the covering of his Father in heaven was where Samson received his strength and power. The same goes for you and me.
As the Psalmist David so beautifully penned, “He (she) that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” (Psalm 91:1 K.J.V.).
However, rather than obediently staying under the protection of his heavenly Shield, at first opportunity Samson decided that doing what pleased himself was what would suffice in his life. As this phrase can be translated, by bending and being inclined to do what he desired, Samson believed he would find satisfaction.
Rather than follow God’s narrow, demanding design for his life, Samson, who thought he was so smart, decided to yield to his own inclination, his own preference where he believed he would be satisfied – find fulfillment and sufficiency.
When I first began to really study this story, I thought to myself, “Well, I’ve visited a few Timnahs in my life and boy, what a mistake.” However, in this story God has a much bigger lesson for you and me than just giving us advice to stay away from the distractions of Timnah.
The foundation stone that is at the center of the story of Samson’s life is that absolutely nothing we are inclined toward that only pleases us will bring us ultimate, complete and whole fulfillment. We can try to fill that place inside us with money, possessions, people, drugs – you name it – even holy works, but in the end in the words of St. Augustine, “Thou hast made us for Thyself and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee.” Augustine knew what he was talking about for like Samson, he, too, tried to fill his life with wine, women, and song, those things that pleased him but to no avail until the day he asked his Father to fill the empty space in his heart. In the words of Richard Blanchard, “There are millions in this world who are craving the pleasure earthly things afford; but none can match the wondrous treasure that I find in Jesus Christ my Lord. Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord! Come and quench this thirsting of my soul; bread of heaven feed me till I want no more – fill my cup, fill it up, and make me whole.”
“Give instruction to a wise man (woman), and he (she) will be yet wiser; teach a just man (woman), and he (she) will increase in learning.”
Proverbs 9: 9, K.J.V.
AFFIRMATION
“O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly; give us, in all our doubts and uncertainties the grace to ask what Thou wouldst have us to do; that the spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in Thy light we may see light and in Thy straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
William Bright
1824-1901
