Year 4, Day 276: Judges 15

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Obedience

• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

Yesterday we talked about how great Samson is to study because his flaws are so easy to see.  With such examples – whether great examples or poor examples – it is usually very easy to speak about relationships and the covenant triangle.  Because these examples are so clear, we can really mine some truth about what a good or bad relationship with the Father looks like.  Yesterday we spoke about the Father.  Today we’ll look at the idea of obedience.

Clearly Samson is obedient to his own agenda.  He goes back to a woman that he’s abandoned and gets mad because his father-in-law has tried to pick up the pieces from Samson’s influence in her life and move forward.  What’s sad is that this man and his daughter – Samson’s supposed wife – become the victims.  Then the story of payback escalates from there.  But all of this happens because Samson is not willing to be obedient to God’s leading or God’s direction.  Samson isn’t even interested in taking the time and asking God for direction!  Samson merely sees something in his life and he gives up an emotional response to it.  Samson is not obedient to the Father; Samson is obedient to his whims.

What is cool is that we can also see an easy way to identify a misplaced obedience in this story.  Do you hear how ungrateful Samson is?  Do you hear how assuming Samson is?  3,000 people come to bind him and he just assumes God’s power will come upon him and all will be well.  When God’s power does come upon him, he doesn’t even take the time to thank God!  No, Samson whines about being thirsty instead.  Rather than thanking God for allowing him to escape the captivity of his own people and the Philistines, Samson focuses on a single area where his needs are not fully satisfied.  You can always tell a person who is struggling with being obedient to the Father because they assume God’s presence and simultaneously show no gratitude for it.  Obedience should bring about humbleness to God.  We just don’t see any of that in Samson.

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