Judges 14:15
Lest we burn you and your father's house with fire.
The Philistines threatened Samson's wife to get her to betray him, so she did.
15: 6
So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
But then they turned around and burned her and her father anyway. These people were awful to their own, no wonder they were cruel to Israel.
16: 21
They gouged out his eyes ...
Samson really had "bad luck" with his women. He never learned to make good choices, and allowed himself to fall in love with women who betrayed him: his wife under threat, then Delilah for money.
17: 6, also 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.
This is the theme of the Book of Judges. They had no king, because the Lord God wanted to be their King. Instead of seeking God and His rules, each man decided in his own understanding.
Well, don't we all do what is right for us in our own eyes?! That's how we get into trouble--we decide for ourselves instead of asking God what we should do.
That's how Satan deceived Eve, telling her that she would be able to make her own decisions instead of depending on God.
And his tactics have never changed. He is still telling us that we're smart, we're intelligent, we can decide what would benefit us; we don't need God.
God knows that His thoughts aren't our thoughts, and our ways aren't His ways. So He gave us His rules, the guidelines by which He made this Earth to operate on, so we could form our societies and make this World in righteousness and Truth. Then we would all prosper in every way.
But our propensity is to rely on our own understanding, just like the Israelites in the time of the Judges. And we also fall into problems and troubles and bondage to our own bad habits. It just isn't easy to follow Someone we can't see with our eyes.
So God has now put His Law into our hearts; the principle of Love. Because God loves us, He has provided for all we need. He has told us how to love one another by sending His own Son to be one of us, to show us how His love works out in life. Then He died for each of us, as the Sacrificial Lamb of God, fulfilling all the sacrifices they performed in the Old Covenant.
Now we have the New Covenant, where we no longer offer animals in sacrifice on an altar, because Jesus died once for all--all people and all time (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10). Because by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy Hebrews 10: 14.
This means that Jesus' death on the Cross was totally sufficient to save every person who ever, who is, or whoever will, live on this Earth. Not every person wants to come to God to receive this gift, however, because we naturally want to turn to our own ways, so we aren't open to God.
When a person comes to the end of his rope in life, that's when he or she will be open to what God wants to do for them. That's when they come to the crisis of faith, to trust God or not.
I came to that place several decades ago. I had been disillusioned by religion, and I was looking for Truth. When I thought that it must have something to do with God, that's when He showed me Jesus on His Cross, and I knew that He didn't deserve it, because I did. It was so obvious to me, I wasn't aware of any "decision" to make, because it was real. God is real. And that's how much He loves me, even when I'm living my life totally against what I know are His ways.
And He loves you, too, my dear reader. Jesus died for you, too. If you are open to receiving this gift of faith to believe that Jesus took your place in death, then God will also give you that new life He gave to me, powered by His Holy Spirit in your spirit, making your dead spirit alive, and able to commune with God.
Tell me how God drew you into His own Family; I love to hear the stories.
And I look forward to getting to know you through all Eternity in that New Jerusalem.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
