Today’s reading: Judges 12-16

One of the purposes of the Book of Judges is to show how Israel needed someone to spiritually and militarily, namely a God-appointed king. Gideon was called as an adult to be a judge; Sampson, however, was set apart at birth to be used by God. Neither were able to make the impact needed in Israel to turn her back to their faithful and loving Lord.

As a child, I admired Sampson’s superhuman strength; as a young man, I saw that his weakness for women was his downfall; today, as an adult, I notice the other problems in his life: he is a frequent liar. He breaks his Nazirite vow in at least two ways on different occasions. He is ruled by his emotions ( anger, vengeful, selfishness, impatience, self-will, self-centred, even arrogance, etc.). He’s not the kind of man I want to emulate! Despite all his faults and problems, God used Sampson to provoke the Philistines and to glorify Himself.

One lesson, among many others, we can take from the account of Sampson is that God can and does use people in their sinfulness. This is not an excuse or permission to sin! But, don’t wait to be perfect to serve God; let Him use you today, despite the struggle you have with sin. He can and will glorify Himself in the midst of sinfulness.