THE DANGER OF THE SIN OF THE unequal yoke DESPITE THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON AND THE STRENGTH OF SANSION...
Solomon, son and successor of King David, started well but did not remain until the end in the Statutes and Commandments of the Eternal. For the sin of unequal yoke and spiritual prostitution (idolatry) which is the union in marriage with women of other peoples, these being idolaters, it was his downfall despite all his wisdom. This one, he lacked in a very important area. It was the breach that Satan needed to distance him from the Creator and possibly make him lose his salvation. The enemy is cunning and knows how to wait for the time necessary for the spiritual fall of a man of God. The lesson that remains is: We need to obey and persevere in obeying until the end and understand that the enemy of our souls knows how to wait and we will need to persevere steadfastly more than he did so with the help of the Holy Spirit to remain faithful until the end.
I KINGS 11:1-13
Solomon's idolatry and God's wrath against him
1 And KING Solomon loved many foreign women, besides the daughter of Pharaoh: Moab, Ammon, Edomite, Sidon, and Hittite,
2 Of the nations of which the LORD had spoken to the children of Israel, Ye shall not approach them, and they shall not approach you; otherwise you will pervert your heart to follow their gods. These were joined by Solomon in love.
3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his women have perverted his heart.
4 For it came to pass, in the time of Solomon's old age, that his wives perverted his heart to follow other gods; and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of his father David,
5 For Solomon followed Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
6 So Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD; and he did not persevere in following the LORD, like his father David.
7 And Solomon built an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
8 And so he did unto all his foreign women; who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
9 Wherefore the LORD was wroth with Solomon; for he had turned away his heart from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice.
10 And concerning this matter he had commanded him not to follow other gods; but he did not keep what the LORD had commanded him.
11 Thus said the LORD to Solomon, For since this was in thee, that thou hast not kept my covenant, and my statutes which I have commanded thee, I will surely tear this kingdom from thee, and give it to thy servant.
12 Yet in thy days I will not do it, for David thy father's sake; from the hand of thy son I will tear him;
13 But I will not rend all the kingdom; I will give a tribe to your son, for my servant David's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen.
Samson, called to be a leader. He was chosen by the Eternal to deliver Israel from the hand of the Philistines. As it says in the passage, the Eternal sent his messenger to talk to Manoah and his wife that they would have a son, whose head would not be razor sharp and recommended that Manoah's wife not eat anything impure, nor drink strong drink, nor wine as well as Samson also! It can be seen from the Scriptures that the promise of the Eternal involved the couple, however, Samson did not seem to respond to that call entirely, since he wanted to do their bidding and was upset when his parents did not agree. He was rash and impetuous in his decisions. He went down to Timnah and chose a Philistine to marry (the text says that this came from the Eternal to find occasion among the Philistines). However, even though his parents instructed him to choose a girl from among the people of Israel as was the custom, he insisted on the Philistine. In addition, in one of his journeys he killed a young lion, when he returned, the animal's carcass had a honeycomb, he ate it and even took it to his parents, without saying where he had taken the comb from. He started breaking his vow. Apparently, Samson despised the directions given by the messenger of the Eternal. He didn't keep them in his heart! When pride and pride took hold of his heart, thinking he was invincible, that was where his fall began. That the Spirit of the Eternal would be with him regardless of his acts, there he sinned and fell into vain confidence.
He trusted the Eternal but he needed to keep the secret of the vow and forgot the guidelines. It was conditional, the strength that came from the Eternal. Satan will always appear with a temptation to lure you into his devices. Satan knew of Samson's promise and vow. Therefore, he used vanity, pride, pride and, above all, a beautiful woman to deceive him. Using human nature itself since, men are attracted by what they see.
Thereafter he went down further...until he hooked up with a prostitute. Soon after, he took a liking to Delilah. And she, insistently blackmailing him day after day, to the point of annoying him, uncovered her whole heart. As a result, he fell asleep in the enga's sleep. In Delilah's lap. This one, she received money to betray him. She had her braids shaved and her strength was gone from him. And when the enemies came they pierced his eyes. He was blind and powerless. It turned to shame and vilification at the hands of the Philistines. That's what the devil does when a faithful Christian abandons his faith for the delicacies of hell. Let's keep watch. Not everyone gets a second chance. Or if you have it, you will have to deal with the consequences... What lesson can we learn: Above all, value the Eternal's commandments and guidelines for all areas of our lives, as well as not playing with sin because it kills!
JUDGES 13:1-25
Israelites' servitude under the Philistines, and the birth of Samson
1 AND THE children of Israel did again that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines for forty years.
2 And there was a man from Zorah, of the tribe of Dan, whose name was Manoah; and his wife, being barren, had no children.
3 And the angel of the LORD appeared to this woman, and said to her, Behold, you are now barren, and have never conceived; but thou shalt conceive, and shalt bear a son.
4 Now therefore beware of drinking wine, or strong drink, or eating unclean things.
5 For, behold, thou shalt conceive, and shalt bear a son upon whose head no razor shall pass; for the child will be a Nazarite of God from the womb; and he will begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
6 Then the woman came in, and spoke to her husband, saying, A man of God came to me, whose appearance was like an angel of God, most terrifying; and I didn't ask him where he was from, nor did he tell me his name.
7 But he said unto me, Behold, thou shalt conceive and bear a son; now therefore, drink not wine, nor strong drink, nor eat unclean thing; for the child will be a Nazarite of God, from the womb to the day of his death.
Ibzan, Elon and Abdon judges of the Israelites
8 Then Manoah prayed unto the LORD, and said, Ah! My Lord, I pray that the man of God, whom You have sent, will come to us yet again and teach us what we must do to the child who is to be born.
9 And God heard the voice of Manoah; and the angel of God came again to the woman, and she was in the field, but her husband Manoah was not with her.
10 And the woman hastened, and ran, and told her husband, and said to him, Behold, the man that came unto me the other day appeared unto me.
11 Then Manoah arose, and followed his wife, and went to the man, and said to her, Art thou that man that spake unto this woman? And he said: I am.
12 Then Manoah said, Let thy words be fulfilled; but what will be the boy's way of life and service?
13 And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, From all that I have said to the woman she shall keep.
14 Of all that proceeds from the vine he shall not eat, neither wine nor strong drink shall he drink, nor any unclean thing shall he eat; all that I have ordered you will keep.
15 Then Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, Now let us detain thee, and prepare for thee a goat.
16 But the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread; and if thou doest a burnt offering, thou shalt offer it unto the LORD. Because Manoah did not know that he was the angel of the LORD.
17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy word is fulfilled, we may honor thee?
18 And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why do ye thus ask for my name, seeing it is wonderful?
19 So Manoah took a kid and a meat offering, and offered them on a rock to the LORD: and the angel did wonderfully, and Manoah and his wife beheld him.
20 And it came to pass, as the flame of the altar went up to heaven, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar; who, seeing Manoah and his wife, fell to the ground on their faces.
21 And no more did the angel of the LORD appear to Manoah, nor his wife; then Manoah understood that he was the angel of the LORD.
22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.
23 But his wife said to him, If the LORD were to kill us, he would not accept the burnt offering and the meat offering at our hand, nor would he show us all these things, nor let us hear such things at this time.
24 After this woman had a son, whom she called Samson; and the boy grew up, and the LORD blessed him.
25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him up from time to time to the field of Mahanah-dan, between Zorah and Estaol.
JUDGES 14:1-20
Samson's wedding
1 AND Samson went down to Timnath; and seeing in Timnath a wife of the daughters of the Philistines,
2 He went up, and told his father and mother, and said, I saw a woman in Timnath, of the daughters of the Philistines; now therefore take her for a wife.
3 But his father and mother said unto him, Is there not a woman among the daughters of thy brothers, nor among all my people, that thou shouldst go and take a wife from the Philistines, from the uncircumcised? And Samson said to his father, Take this from me, for it pleases my eyes.
4 But his father and mother did not know that this was from the LORD; for he sought occasion against the Philistines; for at that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
5 So Samson went down with his father and with his mother to Timnath; and when he came to the vineyards of Timnath, behold, a roaring lion came out to meet him.
6 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him so mightily, that he tore the lion in pieces, as one who breaks a goat, having nothing in his hand; but neither his father nor his mother revealed what he had done.
7 And he went down, and spoke to that woman, and she pleased in the eyes of Samson.
8 And after a few days he returned to take it; and turning away from the way to see the body of the slain lion, behold, there was in it a swarm of honeybees.
9 And she took it in her hands, and went walking and eating of it; and he went to his father and mother, and gave them honey, and they ate; but he did not let them know that he had taken the honey from the lion's body.
10 And his father going down to that woman, Samson made a feast there; because that's how the boys used to do it.
11 And it came to pass, as they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
Samson's riddle
12 And Samson said unto them, I will give you a riddle to decipher; and if in the seven days of the wedding you decipher it and discover it, I will give you thirty sheets and thirty changes of clothes.
13 And if you cannot decipher, you will give me thirty sheets and thirty changes of clothes. And they said to him, Give us your riddle to decipher, that we may hear it.
14 Then he said to them, Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness. And in three days they couldn't decipher the riddle.
15 And it came to pass on the seventh day that they said to Samson's wife, Persuade thy husband to tell us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire; you called us here to take possession of what is ours, is that not so?
16 And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, You only despise me, and love me not; for you have given the children of my people a riddle to decipher, and have not yet told me. And he said unto him, Behold, I have not declared it unto my father nor my mother, and would I declare it unto thee?
17 And she wept before him the seven days when they celebrated the wedding; and it came to pass on the seventh day that he declared it to him, because he troubled him; then she declared the riddle to the children of her people.
18 And the men of that city said to Samson on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than the lion? And he said to them: If you had not tilled with my heifer, you would never have discovered my riddle.
19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him so mightily, that he went down to the Ashkelonites, and slew thirty men of them, and took their garments, and gave the changes of clothing to those who told the riddle; but his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.
20 And Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been with him before.
JUDGES 15:1-20
Samson sets fire to the Philistines' crops
1 And it came to pass after a few days, that in the harvest of the wheat, Samson visited his wife with a goat, and said, I will go into my wife's chamber. But her father wouldn't let him in.
2 And her father said unto her, Surely I thought that ye despised her most; so that I gave it to your companion; but is not her younger sister more beautiful than she? So take it instead.
3 Then Samson said concerning them, This time I am innocent to the Philistines, when I do them harm.
4 And Samson went, and took three hundred foxes; and, taking torches, he turned them tail to tail, and put a torch in the middle of every two tails.
5 And fire came to the torches, and left them in the harvest of the Philistines; and so he scorched the sheaves with the harvest of wheat, and the vines and the olive groves.
6 Then said the Philistines, Who did this? And they said, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife, and gave her to his companion. Then the Philistines went up, and burned her and her father with fire.
7 Then Samson said to them, Is this how you do it? For, having avenged myself on you, then I will cease.
8 And he smote them with a great wound, legs together with thigh; and he went down, and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Ethan.
9 So the Philistines went up, and encamped against Judah, and spread out over Lehi.
The men of Judah tie Samson
10 And the men of Judah said to them, Why have ye gone up against us? And they answered: We went up to bind Samson, to do him to him as he did us.
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Ethan, and said to Samson, Did you not know that the Philistines rule over us? Why then did you do this to us? And he said to them: As they did to me, I did to them.
12 And they said unto him, We have come down to bind thee and deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. Then Samson said to them: Swear to me that you yourselves will not commit me.
13 And they spoke to him, saying, No, but we will bind thee tightly, and deliver thee into their hands; but by no means will we kill you. And they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.
Samson wounds a thousand men with the jaw of a donkey
14 And when he came to Lehi, the Philistines went out to meet him, shouting; but the Spirit of the LORD mightily came upon him, and the cords which he had in his arms became like threads of flax that had been burned in the fire, and his bonds were cast out of his hands.
15 And he found a fresh jawbone of an ass, and stretched out his hand, and took it, and smote a thousand men with it.
16 Then Samson said, With an ass's jaw, heap upon heap; with the jawbone of an ass I wounded a thousand men.
17 And it came to pass, when he had finished speaking, that he cast the jaw of his hand; and he called that place Ramath-Lehi.
18 And as he had a great thirst, he cried unto the LORD, and said, By the hand of thy servant thou hast given this great salvation; shall I now die of thirst, and fall into the hand of these uncircumcised?
19 Then God split open a cavity that was in the jawbone; and he came out of it water, and drank; and he regained his spirit and revived; therefore he called that place The source of the one crying, which is in Lehi to this day.
20 And he judged Israel, in the days of the Philistines, twenty years.
JUDGES 16:1-31
Samson is betrayed by Delilah
1 And Samson went to Gaza, and saw a harlot there, and he went in to her.
2 And it was said to the Gazites, Samson is come in here. They surrounded him, and all night they put spies for him at the gate of the city; but all night they were silent, saying, Until the morning light we will wait; then we will kill him.
3 But Samson lay down until midnight, and at midnight he rose, and tore down the gates of the entrance to the city with both posts, and took them with the bar, and laid them on his shoulders; and he took them up to the top of the mountain that is opposite Hebron.
4 And after this it came to pass that he became fond of a woman from the valley of Sorech, whose name was Delilah.
5 Then the princes of the Philistines went up to her, and said to her, Persuade him, and see in what her great strength is, and how we might lord it over him, and bind him, that we might afflict him; and we will give you, each one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver.
6 And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, in what is thy great strength, and with what thou mightst be bound, that they may afflict thee.
7 Samson said to him, If they would bind me with seven rods of fresh wicker, which were not yet dry, then I would be weakened, and I would be like any other man.
8 Then the princes of the Philistines brought him seven fresh wicker rods, which were not yet dry; and they tied him with them.
9 And the spy was with her in the inner chamber. Then she said to him, The Philistines are coming upon you, Samson. Then he broke the wicker lintels, as one breaks the thread of the tow in the smell of fire; so it was not known what his strength consisted of.
10 And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me, and hast told me lies; now declare to me what you could be bound with.
11 And he said, If they would bind me strong with new ropes, which had not yet been used, then I would weaken me, and I would be like any other man.
12 Then Delilah took new ropes, and bound him with them, and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson. And the spy was in the inner chamber. Then he snapped them from her arms like a thread.
13 And Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me, and told me lies; therefore declare to me now, with what could you be bound? And he said to him: If you will weave seven braids of the hair of my head with the heald of the web.
14 And she fixed them with a stake, and said unto him, The Philistines are coming upon thee, Samson: Then he awoke from his sleep, and plucked the stake out of the woven braids, together with the heald of the web.
15 Then she said to him, How shalt thou say, I love thee, thy heart not being with me? You have mocked me three times already, and you have not yet declared to me what your strength consists of.
16 And it came to pass, as she harassed him daily with her words, and harassed him, her soul was grieved unto death.
17 And he uncovered all his heart to him, and said unto him, There has never been a razor through my head, for I am a Nazarite of God from my mother's womb; if I were to be shaved, my strength would depart from me, and I would be weakened, and I would be like any other man.
18 And when Delilah saw that he had uncovered all his heart from him, he sent for the princes of the Philistines, saying, Go up this time, for now he has uncovered all his heart to me. And the princes of the Philistines came up to her, bringing with them the money.
19 So she made him sleep on her knees, and called a man, and shaved off the seven braids of the hair of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength departed from him.
20 And she said, The Philistines are coming upon you, Samson. And she awoke him from his sleep, and said: I will go out again this time as before, and I will shake myself. Because he did not know that the Lord had already withdrawn from him.
21 Then the Philistines took him, and plucked out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with two brazen chains, and he turned a mill in the prison.
22 And the hair on his head began to grow, like when he was shaved.
Samson brings down the temple of Dagon
23 Then the princes of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to rejoice, and said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.
24 Likewise, when the people saw him, they praised their god; for he said, Our god hath delivered our enemy into our hands, and him that destroyeth our land, and him that multiplied our dead.
25 And it came to pass, as their hearts rejoiced, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may play before us. And they called Samson from the prison, who was playing before them, and made him stand between the columns.
26 Then Samson said to the young man who had him by the hand, Lead me so that I may feel the pillars on which the house stands, that I may lean against them.
27 Now the house was full of men and women; and also there were all the princes of the Philistines; and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who were watching Samson play.
28 Then Samson cried unto the LORD, and said, Lord GOD, I ask thee to remember me, and strengthen me now just this once, O God, that I may at once avenge the Philistines by my two eyes.
29 And Samson embraced himself with the two pillars in the middle, on which the house was supported, and he supported himself on them, with his right hand in one, and with his left in the other.
30 And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed down with force, and the house fell on the princes and on all the people that were in it; and it was more the dead he had killed in his death than those he had killed in his life.
31 Then his brothers went down, and all his father's house, and took him, and went up with him, and buried him between Zorah and Eshal, in the sepulcher of Manoah his father. He judged Israel twenty years.
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