Judges 16:1-3 – Make the time and effort to live right

So far, we have seen one aspect of Samson’s life. In Judges 14-15, we saw several occasions when the Spirit of God came upon him and endued him with great strength to do exploit. But when we come to Judges 16, we see another side of Samson. We are given the side of him without the enduement of power of the Spirit of God. This chapter will show us how his weakness for women ultimately spelt his doom.  But we will also see how God’s grace met him at the end of his life and granted one last victory over the Philistines before his life ended, and he was taken out of the scene.  

Judges 16:1 reveals that Samson went to Gaza, a Philistines city. There he met a prostitute and engaged her service. This is very telling. He had not changed despite all the experiences he went through with the lady he fell in love with at Timnah and finally married. At least that lady was not a harlot. But this time in Gaza, the word specifically said that he saw a harlot and went to her for service. This indicates to us that His life had deteriorated. He was on a downslope slide. All that he had experienced prior to this chapter had made no impact on his spirituality. He had regressed spiritually.

Verse 1 also tells us that the news of his presence with the prostitute came to the ears of the men of Gaza. A group of them then came and surrounded the house of the harlot. Their intention was to ambush and destroy him the first thing in daylight. Although we were not told how Samson came to know about it, he got wind of the impending ambush. He managed to slip out unnoticed to the city gates which were already shut tight for the night. Verse 3 says that he “…took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts and pulled them up along with the bars; then he put them on his shoulders and carried them up to the top of the mountain which is opposite Hebron.”

What Samson did shows us how defiant he was. He took for granted that the unusual strength he had was a divine endowment. He was oblivious of the danger he had placed himself in when he mindlessly displayed his power in such a reckless and defiant way. This couldn’t care-a-damn attitude would eventually lead to his tragic end. For us we must remember that pride always come before destruction. In the New Testament, we are told to be careful. We are encouraged to rightly appraise ourselves. The Apostle Paul constantly tells us not to think too highly of ourselves. A careless attitude can be dangerous to our spiritual and moral health. We must never allow the blessings and successes in life which God has granted us to cause us to develop a callous spirit. If we don’t take time to adjust and fine-tune our walk with God, we may find ourselves in such precarious hazard. Peter reminds us in his second letter to the early believers that God has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness. And that He has also … granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them we may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Let us not leave our life and moral unchecked. We must take time and make the effort to live right.