A L M A C I A S

DESPISING GOD'S BLESSINGS

In the Old Testament, we find many lessons in the kind of lives that some of God¹s servants lived. Among those, we find the life of one of the judges of Israel who was greatly blessed in so many ways and yet never learned to appreciate his blessings. This man was Samson. The first blessing that we find in the life of Samson was that he was born into a godly family. Samson's parents were people of prayer and were always interested in doing things the way they had been commanded in the Law of Moses. The story begins in chapter 13 of the book of Judges. There we find, first of all, that the woman who would be Samson¹s mother was unable to have children. I have always found it interesting that many times it is the case that there are women who have children and yet they make such terrible mothers. On the other hand, there are some women who would make very good mothers and they are not able to have children. In this instance, we have a situation in which the woman would make a good mother, but she had not been able to have children, and things were about to change in that regard.

An angel of the Lord appeared unto her and told her that she would have a son and that she should be careful not to drink wine or strong drink, and not to eat anything unclean. Also, she was told that the son who would be born unto her would be a Nazarite from birth. Under the Law of Moses, for one to be a Nazarite meant he was not to drink wine or strong drink, nor touch any dead thing, neither should his hair be cut, for this was the mark of a Nazarite. The child was born, and he grew, and the Lord blessed him. The next thing we hear about this young man was that he began to belittle the many blessings he had received from God. In Judges 14:1, we read that Samson went down to Timnath where the Philistines were, and fell for one of the Philistine women. It is interesting that this verse states that Samson "went down," because he not only went down geographically but also spiritually.

What happened to Samson when he saw this Philistine woman was the beginning of his downfall. He immediately came back and told his parents that he wanted her for his wife. Samson knew what the law of Moses said concerning marrying those who were outside the nation of Israel, and he knew that he would be breaking the law if he had his way. Yet, he told his parents what he wanted to do; he never asked for advice as to what he should do. He let his emotions make the decision for him. As we read the rest of the story of Samson, we find that from here on Samson's life just got worse and worse, all because he had to have his own way. How do we make decisions in our lives? Do we decide by our emotions or do we decide according to what the Word of God commands?