Judges 15:1-16:31, John 2:1-25, Psalm 103:1-22, Proverbs 14:17-19
Today is the second day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today, and every day, as we gather around the Global Campfire and come into this safe, serene space, find our place and let everything else go and allow the Scriptures to come washing into our lives and into every circumstance that we are facing and inform us and guide us, and give us clarity and direction, so that we go back out into the world with a different perspective. So, it is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward. And that next step forward leads us back into the book of Judges, back into the story of Samson, today Judges 15 and 16.
Commentary:
Okay so, as we finish up the story of the judge named Samson, let’s just look back because it’s taken us a few days to move through that story. There’s a lot there. Samson’s birth was foretold to a couple who were infertile. And we…we noticed that and we noticed that that’s a theme, that there are a lot of stories like that, that begin that way in the Bible. But Samson was to be set apart from the time that he was born, he would be a Nazirite, which means he was set apart for the service of God. And that meant that he wasn’t supposed to drink alcohol and he wasn’t supposed to eat unclean food and he was not to have his haircut. And as a result, he had strength that that was unparalleled. And at the time of Samson, the Philistines had been ruling over Israel, and the conflict between the Philistines and the Israelites well, this isn’t the last time we’re gonna, we’re gonna run into this conflict. But conflict was stirred up between the Philistines and the Israelites because of Samson, and Samson had beef with the Philistines for one main issue, for one main reason: women. So, at first Samson finds a woman that he wants to get married to who was a Philistine woman and he has this riddle that will enrich himself with his fiancée and their new life and their new beginning, but he loses the wager because his fiancée betrays him. And so, Samson retaliates by killing Philistines, which did not work out for the Philistines, it only made them angry with the determination to capture Samson and bring about their version of justice upon him. But he was too strong for them and then eventually Samson met another woman. Her name is Delilah, and we watched their relationship, and we, I mean the story allows us to get insight into the…into what’s going on and we can see that Delilah is doing nothing but manipulating Samson. She wants to know where his strength comes from so that she too, can betray him. And so, she wears him down, over and over again. Tell me the source of your strength, and then he tells her something, and then she does that something as if it’s like…like a cat and mouse game and gets up and frees himself until she’s finally, she finally presses him in a…in a extraordinarily manipulative way. If you really loved me, you would X, Y, and Z and what she wants is the source of his strength and he trusts her. He loves her and she betrays him. His hair is cut, his strength is gone. The Philistines come, they gouge out his eyes and blind him and they turn him into entertainment. They turn them into a circus act, they humiliate him. Not realizing that his hair is growing back. And so, Samson, at his last stand in the last scene of his life, is being humiliated and ridiculed before the Philistine people in the temple of the Philistine God, Dagon. And actually, this isn’t the last time we’re gonna be in this place. They’ll be a meeting with Dagon and the Philistines again because in the future the Philistines will capture the ark of the covenant, which doesn’t go well for Dagon. But we’ll get to that soon enough. The people are worshiping Dagon, rejoicing and praising for the capture of Samson. Samson is standing by the pillars of the building and utters a final prayer, God remember me once more, give me my strength one more time. And then Samson pushes the building down and it collapses around him, and he dies in the rubble. One of the things that we see in this story is, who left who. Samson gave up his strength, his calling, his anointing for a woman who manipulated him, which reveals a number of things, but it reveals the power of women in this world, the power and influence to capture the heart. In the case of Samson, this is like a cautionary tale. But the opposite of what Delilah did, would also be true, a woman can call a man higher than he ever would’ve gotten without her when she is true and faithful. So, I am in no way trying to say femininity is the problem. Quite the contrary. I’m married to a faithful woman. I’m married to the opposite of Delilah, and I would not be here without her. I’m just trying to say there is enormous strength and power bestowed upon women in this world for good and for evil. And that should be taken to heart. And I’m not trying to skip men. We have plenty in the Bible, that men need to pay attention to and the way that they conduct their relationships. I’m just saying, this is one of the things that we can observe in the story of Samson. Another thing for us to remember is that we have also been set apart to God. And we still sin. And when we do, who is walking away from whom? Like, we are walking away from God and not the other way around. And so, we walk away from the strength of the Lord, the calling of God, the anointing of the Lord on our lives for lesser things that aren’t going to stay true, and that may in the end manipulate us into our own destruction. So, let’s give this some thought today.
Prayer:
And Holy Spirit, we invite You into all of it. The entire story that we’ve read here and we can look at this from all kinds of different angles but we’re inviting Your Holy Spirit to lead us to what we need, and what we need to carry forward, and what we need to know for the steps that are in front of us. Come, Holy Spirit, in the name of Jesus, we ask and lead us into all truth. We pray this in Your name. Amen.
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And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I will be waiting for you here, tomorrow.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hi, I don’t know what to say except I can’t do it alone anymore. My email is all messed up. I don’t know how to ask for help. I just know that I can’t, I can’t do it. And I just, I need help. And I keep trying to do it alone and there isn’t anything I can do. And there isn’t any way that I can even ask for help because I don’t know what to ask for anymore. And it’s not even a pride thing anymore because I am just too weak to do anything. And I’ve tried to ask, I can’t ask. I don’t know what to ask for. I just need help. I just turned 65 and I have no parents, I have no children, I have no friends. I have a car with 306 thousand miles on it. I have a place to live. I’m grateful but I’m lost. I know that God is helping me. I’m surviving. But I don’t know what to do. I’ve tried to help others, but it ends up getting me in more trouble than it’s worth. I don’t know what to do. Just pray, please. Thank you.
Hey, Daily Audio Bible Family. It is Sheena from Saskatchewan. And I’ve called in a couple of times about some of things that we’re going through. So, some of you might remember that. My boyfriend is going through a legal case and while we are super scared about that and praying all the time about that, we are, we’ve found that we’ve been neglecting to pray for our children. In between him and I, we have 6 girls. Each one of them is so very different and has different issues. Only one of them has proclaimed that she is saved. We have a pregnant teen, soon-to-be mom. We have non-binary teen. We have a teen who will be diagnosed, what we believe to be autistic. A teen who’s being bullied. A teen who is very materialistic and wanting to spend money, spend money, spend money. And the youngest is refusing to do anything she is told to do. So, can I just ask you guys to pray for, help us pray for our kids. We’ve decided that we’re gonna make a habit of it, regularly to pray for them. So, I would just ask that if you guys could do the same, we would greatly appreciate all your prayers. Thanks, Daily Audio Bible Family. We love you so much.
Good morning, Daily Audio Family. This is Eunice, I’m calling today to pray for families like my family, as well. I have two daughters and two sons. And my daughters are striving to live for God, but both of my sons are struggling with who they even believe God is. And so, it’s nothing but the trick of the enemy. And so, I just wanna pray for families. Lord God, we thank You today because we know You are our Healer and our Redeemer. You are our Savior and our Lord. And God, I pray for my family as well as all of the DAB families, Lord God. I hear the cries of parents over their children, who are addicted to drugs, who don’t even know what they believe and God it’s nothing but the trick of the enemy. And so, God, we pray against that stronghold. And God, we know that You have called us to be healed, to be whole, to be set free. And so, we pray for our children, Lord God. Whether they be young people, teenagers, or full-grown adults. We pray, Lord God, that You would hear, oh my God, and to deliver, to set free and to restore. We thank You, Lord God, because we know that You are at work and cause them, constantly, Lord God, to hear You and to see You, and to follow in Your ways. Break the strong holds, Lord God, and we just thank You, even now for deliverance. We love You and we just bless Your name. DAB Family, be blessed today. In Jesus name. Amen.
Hi, my name is Louisa and I’m calling from Central Massachusetts. I just want to start by thanking you, Brian and Jill and China and Ezekiel for this soul filling ministry of the Daily Audio Bible. I’ve been blessed by the DAB for three years and I giving this first call to pray against Satan and his powers and principalities that are becoming more bold and more brazen in attacking our culture and our families and our children. During the last weekend of April, the largest Satan Conference in the world is going to take place in Boston, Massachusetts. And I’m asking for the extraordinary prayer warriors of DAB to pray against all the lies, deception that’s promoted at this event. Please join me in praying against the one who seeks to steal, kill and destroy our communities, our cities, our nations in our world. Pray that those attending this event will see the light of Satan’s curses and will turn from Satan and will open their hearts to Jesus our Savior and our Redeemer who offers them and us, life and mercy and grace and love. And we just praise Him for that. So, God bless you all. Thank you so much for letting me reach out to you, that we can all be prayer warriors against Satan and his minions. Thanks.
Hey neighbors, it’s Lisa the Encourager. I wanted to call in and pray for Matt’s son Josiah and his needs for prayer as he’s gonna be getting out of the hospital soon with, after being treating with suicide and depression, issues and concerns. And also, for his upcoming therapy for ECT therapy. And I also want others to know, I’m continuing to pray for Hannah and her eating disorder. Mitchell, who you know, has been on the streets and has been struggling. And also for Drew. Just want you to know, I’m lifting all of them up in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father God, I want to pray for Josiah tonight, Lord, as he’s soon will be entering in a new therapy, God, to hopefully and prayerfully, God, interact with his brain in a way that he can break free from the bondage of depression and how it has impacted his life. And I pray, God, that You will give him the, the strength and be able to finally, the doctors in this procedure will finally be able to be the one thing that heals him forever, Lord. And that he will be able to praise Your Holy name for this beautiful recovery from this awful disease of depression, which puts him in a point of having bad suicidal thoughts, God. I also want to continue to pray for Hannah and her eating disorder and that her recovery will be continuing and that You are with her today, right now, God, and giving her strength to …
Hello, Daily Audio Bible, my name is Kim and I’m calling from Tennessee. And I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for quite a few years now. And I’m calling in, asking for prayer. My husband and I have, we met in Afghanistan together while we were serving. And we were together since 2012 and we married. And since that time, we have, because of our careers and our jobs we have not been able to live together on a permanent basis. I’m asking for prayer tonight. I have tried to apply for jobs, and I thought I got a job that was remote, where I could move and be with my husband but it’s not a remote position. I don’t know, there was some confusion or something. But I’m just asking for prayer that I would like to be with my husband. We have been faithful, we have been faithful in our, in our faith in the Lord and with each other and through our marriage. And I just pray that I will be soon, finding a job. Please pray for me to be able to find a job where I can relocate and finally live a life with my husband. We’ve been married for a while, and we’ve been apart ever since. We see each other you know, long weekends, leaves, things like that, but I would like to share a life with him, a life in Christ. So, I ask for your prayer and I thank you. And I pray for every one of you in the Daily Audio Bible Family. And I thank you. God Bless.