Devotional Blog Tuesday, November 1

Daily Devotional for Tuesday, November 1

Samson’s Vengeance 

The book of Judges tells stories of Israel’s failure to follow God in the years following Joshua’s death. Judges is filled with stories of abject rebellion and fierce military leaders ruling Israel with disturbing and violent means. While the time of the judges gives a dark and discouraging series of events, this book gives us hope for God to do a mighty work in Israel in the future. 

Samson’s reign in Israel is filled with tales of intrigue and fierce battles with varying outcomes for Israel. Chapter 15 tells of an extraordinarily violent event when Samson came home to visit his wife but his father-in-law had given her away to one of Samson’s friends. Samson becomes enraged with anger and takes out his displeasure in a peculiar way upon the Philistines. Samson catches three hundred foxes and ties their tails together with small torches attached to them. He then turns the foxes lose in the crops of the Philistines. 

This event sets off a series of vengeances and intrigue that is fit for a medieval fiction novel. But there is no fiction here. God has recorded these events in His Word and even sheds light on the fact that He was with Samson and gives Samson strength for these strange and brutal conquests. 

The time of the judges help us see the truth that God will use whomever He chooses to accomplish His will among His people. Many times, God chooses colorful and crass characters to show His power and to awaken His people to His will.

REFLECTION: God accomplishes His will in His way. We need only to accept His will and give Him glory as He displays His power through complicated circumstances.

Steven Ridings