LESSONS FROM THE LIVES OF SAMSON, DAVID AND JOSEPH
- Rev. Dr. Kh. Khaizakham
‘Samson pursued sinful desire and ran after it;
David invited sin into his house,
while Joseph fled from it.’
Biblical references: Judges 16:18-21, 2 Samuel 11:1-5, Genesis 39:6-12
SAMSON
Half of Samson’s story was written before he was born. He was divinely pre-ordained to possess exceptional strength. No razor was to come on his head, and he would be a Nazarite unto God from the womb, and shall deliver his people from the hand of the Philistines who ruled over the Israelites at that time. His story, as seen in the Scriptures, is well-known to us all, and we shall not dwell on it in detail.
In short, he wreaked havoc on the Philistines – slaughtering them by thousands, burning down their fields and vineyards by letting off 300 foxes he had caught, with a firebrand between the tails of two foxes each tied together. Any attempt to capture him was futile because for Samson, freeing himself from the enemy's clutches was like child's play. The cords with which he was bound were like flax burnt with fire, and he would break loose from his binds without any effort.
Naturally, the Philistines hated Samson as much as they feared him. So they were happy when he came courting one of their women – Delilah. They suspected that there must be a secret to his supernatural strength, and used the woman to extract the same out of him. And while Delilah began to play him emotionally, he was able to hide the truth for some time.
At this stage, Samson would have been able to sense the impending danger he was in, if only he had been a man of prayer. But he was not. The Scriptures recorded only two instances when Samson prayed. His first prayer, it may be noted, was not even a prayer; he complained to God if he was going to die of thirst (Judges 15:18).
Finally, Samson fell short of mastering control over himself, in his physical desire for Delilah, and caused his own downfall.
How God must have felt, when Samson ended up so very differently from what He had planned for him! The seven locks of hair on his head – the source of his strength – shaved off, his eyes gouged out to ensure that he would not be able to see, dragged about in fetters and made fun of by the enemy, he must have made for a pitiable sight! It was then that he prayed for the second time, another selfish prayer. He pleaded with God to return his strength one last time, so that he could avenge the loss of his eyes! But God in his generosity heard him, and granted him his last wish to take his enemies with him in his death.
Samson was not born to die with his enemies; he was meant to be victorious, to deliver the Israelites from their enemies, and rule among his people. But in the end, he had to pay very dearly for his sinful disobedience.
One Bible commentator had aptly remarked thus: Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.
Yet another commentator observed: Ask Samson, he will tell you that a moment of pleasure was not worth a lifetime of blindness.
DAVID
The Lord himself had referred to David as ‘a man after my own heart’. Yet, why did he end up committing a sin with such calamitous consequences? In short, he slept in the wrong place, and at the wrong time.
In olden times, rulers were commanders-in-chief of their armies. They were supposed to be at the forefront, leading their armies in the battlefield. David, instead of doing the same, slept in the comfort of his home while his armies were busy fighting the enemies. When he woke up in the evening and looked out from the roof of his house, he saw a beautiful woman bathing, naked.
While his first look was not a sin, he must have been tempted to give her a second look, a longer and lingering one. He then commanded his servants to inquire about the woman, and was told that she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his trusted soldiers. Finally, he sent for her, and committed the sinful act of sleeping with her. In succumbing to the temptation for a moment of carnal pleasure, and subsequently having the woman’s husband killed in the battlefield on his orders, he brought upon himself and his household a lifetime of shame, dishonor and utter regret.
Although David fervently sought the Lord’s forgiveness, and did receive His mercy, he and his household still had to suffer the catastrophic consequences of his sins. And the Bathsheba chapter, no matter how undesirable, can no longer be erased from the pages of his life’s story.
Let us all learn from David. The harder you fight temptations, the less regrets you will have in your life. Even if you have to fight literally, do it so that you will not live with regret. Particularly in matters of romantic relationships and the temptations of physical desires, always remember that true love respects and honors. It does not coerce. Do not end up writing unwanted chapters in the story of your life like David, by failing to fight temptations.
JOSEPH
It is said that Joseph won the battle against the temptations of sin without taking up any arms, which two great warriors – Samson and David – had lost.
His story is replete with instances of suffering and injustice, including being sold off by his own brothers to become a slave in a foreign land, arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and thrown into prison. Given the circumstances he was in, one would think that he had every reason to be filled with bitterness and rage, hopelessness and despair. Yet, not a single reference is found in the Scriptures, of Joseph complaining to God about his plight. Instead, the Bible has mentioned over and over that the Lord was with Joseph, at every stage of his life.
On being sold to one of Pharaoh’s captain of guard, Potiphar, his master immediately saw that the Lord was with Joseph. He saw in Joseph a trustworthy, faithful man and made him his attendant, putting him in charge of his entire household. The Bible tells us that, from the day he did so, the Lord blessed Potiphar’s household exceedingly because of Joseph. The Bible further tells us that, he reposed so much faith in Joseph that he entrusted everything he owned to his care – except his wife; and he did not concern himself with anything – except the food he ate. However, all the while, Potiphar’s wife saw in Joseph an incredibly attractive young man, and lusted after him to satisfy her sexual desires.
Now Joseph, as a servant, knew his duties. And as a child of God, he also knew his boundaries. In many ways, Joseph was even more vulnerable to commit this sin than Samson and David, because the tempter was his master’s wife, trying to entice him in her very own house day after day. However, he was able to fight back even when circumstances were not in his favour, because he was a man of prayer and, therefore, able to discern when he was on dangerous territory. His response to temptation is worth pondering upon. Note that he stood his ground by saying: how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? (Genesis 39:9). He knew that it was not just a sin, but wickedness; and not just a sin before men, but a sin against his God.
So even when matters came to such a pass, where his master’s wife caught hold of him by the cloak and forced him to sleep with her, he simply broke free from her clutches and ran!
Things didn’t work out too well for Joseph immediately after that, though. He had left behind his cloak, and with Potiphar’s wife accusing him of attempting to rape her, he did not have much to say in his defense. All circumstantial evidences were against him, to subsequently land him in prison.
Yet, even in those bleakest circumstances, Joseph did not complain to God at all. Neither did he complain when his prison-mate forgot all about him when he stood before Pharoah after his release. But as always, the Lord was with him and He used this seemingly hopeless situation to change the course of history. In His scheme of things, Joseph’s imprisonment for a crime he did not commit became the gateway to his ultimately becoming the Governor of Egypt. And because of him, Egypt was saved from years of severe famine, and so was Jacob’s family. Thus, through one young man’s faithfulness, two nations were saved.
God can use you too, in the same way He had used Joseph. So be another Joseph. Do not only fight the temptation to sin; flee from if you have to. Be faithful to Him, for He never forgets and abandons those who are faithful to Him.
Reproduced by Thangzasiam Paite | March 31, 2019 | 2:00 PM
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