My 'One Year Bible' Journey

JUDGES 15:1 - 16:31

JOHN 2:1-25

PSALM 103:1-22

PROVERBS 14:17-19

Today in Judges it talks more about Samson and it takes us through his story until his last day on earth. It talks about how later he took a goat and went to go see his wife but her father would not let him in. He told Samson that he thought for sure Samson had given his wife away so he allowed her to marry his friend. Samson became a little furious, well a lot furious actually. He then went and with God's help (I'm sure) he gathered 300 foxes and tied them as pairs tail to tail. He then tied torches to their tails and set them free through he Philistines fields. They burned everything up. All the grain, and vineyards were completely destroyed. When the Philistines saw this they demanded to know what happened, they were told that Samson did that because his wife was given to his friend. So the Philistines went up and burned his wives families house killing them all inside. Samson said to them since you have acted like this I will not stop until I get my revenge on you. He "..attacked them viciously and slaughtered many of them."

3000 men from Judah surrounded the area where Samson was hiding, they went in and told him they were going to tie him up and hand him over to the Philistines. He asked them if they could promise not to kill him themselves, and they promised so he went with them. As they were approaching the city the Philistines came toward him yelling, right then the Lord filled Samson with strength and he ripped through the ropes, picked up a donkey's jawbone that was on the ground and struck down 1000 philistines with it. He then asks the Lord for water and the Lord opened the earth and gave him water.

It then talks about how he went to Gaza were he saw a prostitute. He went in to "spend the night with her".

- This obviously arises some questions with me...what about the sins involved here? Were sexual sins not "invented" until the new testament? This doesn't make any since, this is a man that is physically filled with Gods power yet visiting prostitutes? Well I guess many men back then had multiple wives so maybe it wasn't a big deal in the eyes of God back then.....weird. -

In the middle of the night he got up and escaped. Some time later it says he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. The Philistines went to her and asked her to spy on Samson and find his source of power. They offered her lots of money to do so. She then started questioning him and he kept giving her bogus answerer's. But she would try everything he told her. First he said that to be tied up with 7 fresh thongs that had not dried yet would leave him powerless, so she did that but he broke through those without any problems. Then he told her to tie him up with new ropes but that didn't work when she tried. Then he told her to braid hair and tie in fabric but he broke that as well. She nagged on him some more when he finally told her that his hair was his power. He told her that because he was a Nazirite that if his head was to be shaved he would loose his power. That night his woman shaved his head and he was powerless. God had left him and he was captured. They immediately gouged out his eyes and took him to prison. While thousands of people and all the rulers of Philistine were in the temple they brought out Samson to entertain the people. They tied him up between the 2 main pillars that supported the temple. He stood in the middle with 1 hand tied to a pillar on the right and another on the left. He then prayed to God to give him great strength one last time. God filled him with strength and he broke the pillars causing the entire temple to calapse killing thousands of Philistines in the process. Samson died doing this and was taken by his family and buried amongst his relatives. Samson was the leader of Israel for 20 years.

In John today it talks about a wedding that Jesus and his family attended. He talks about how everyone was having a great time when they ran out of wine. Jesus' mother went to fill her cup when she said to Jesus' "They have no more wine." Jesus replied to his mother; "Dear woman, why do you involve me? My time has not yet come."

- I'm not sure what that means. It almost reads like he was being rude or negative to her, but then in the next part he turns water into wine for everyone so I'm not sure how to take that statement from him. -

He then asks some servants to take the jars nearby which could hold 20-30 gallons each and fill them with water. he then asked them to go give the master of the banquet. When the man tasted it, it was a fine wine. It mentions that; "This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee".

The Proverbs for today is; PROVERBS 14:17-19 "A quick-tempered man does foolish things, and a crafty man is hated. The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. Evil men will bow down in the presence of the good, and with wicked at the gates of the righteous."