Thursday, August 4, 2011

Being Moved

Day two hundred sixteen

What a busy week this has been!  I am so tired that I had to come home and take a power nap after my early morning seminary meeting.  The problem is I still have to go to work and I close tonight!!  When I had to force myself out of bed this morning I knew that I wasn't going to get through this day without some help from above.  My prayer was more of a plea, "Please give me the energy I need to do all that I am supposed to do in a way that reflects my love for You."  I am leaning on the Lord big time today!!

Judges 13:1-25
Today we come to one of the most famous Judges known to Christians: Samson.  He seems to have been a man of great physical strength, but weak in intellectual and moral character.  He is a walking contradiction.

Samson was a man destined for greatness. Before he was born Samson was chosen for a great mission by God. His life is marked by great victories and by even greater failures. He was a man used by the Holy Spirit, but utterly ruled by the flesh. Samson was the strongest man who ever lived, yet he was also the weakest. Samson was dedicated to God before his birth, but dedicated to himself until the day of his death.  Though the Lord worked in his life, Samson was determined to pursue his sin and he reaped the consequences of the decisions he made in life.

According to verse 1, Israel had once again turned their backs on the Lord. Because of their sins, God allowed them to be oppressed by their enemies. This sad situation has been going on for 40 years. The announcement of the birth of a deliverer (v 5), was a welcomed word for the nation of Israel. They were reminded that God had not forgotten His people. They were reminded that God had a plan to revive them and to restore them to His favor.

What's so special about Samson?

verses 3-5, 12 - His birth was announced by an angel of the Lord to his mother, then his father.

verse 2 - His birth was a miracle. God came to an unnamed barren woman and promised to open her womb. In that society barrenness was considered a curse. Barren women carried a shame and a stigma that we cannot begin to imagine. Barrenness was often seen as the judgment of God against a home.

In that culture, every young woman wanted the same thing. They all wanted to be a mother who would bear many sons for their husbands. To be barren in that culture meant that a woman was always exposed to the danger of being divorced by a husband who wanted sons. It meant that when her husband died, she would be alone and destined to a life of poverty. No man would willingly marry a woman who was known to be barren. It was a hard, harsh life.

Yet, God came to this unnamed woman and promised her that she would have a baby. He promised her that she would have a son. And, He promised her that her son would be a Judge in Israel. What a promise she received!

I think this story reminds us that God cares about people the world sees as nobodies. Manoah and his wife were just two unknown people living out their lives in Israel. God knew who they were and He knew what they needed and what they wanted.  What an amazing God we have!

verse 24-25 - We are told that Samson grew and that “the Lord blessed him.” We have been told that the other Judges were used by the Lord and that they had the Spirit of God come upon them for special times of service, but this statement is not made about any of the other Judges of Israel. It indicates that God’s hand was on this young man in a special way.

verse 25 - We are told that God began to “move him”. That phrase means “to thrust, to impel, to push”. It conveys the idea that God, through the Holy Spirit, began to impress Samson to fulfill his destiny. He used him in those early days in a localized ministry within the borders of the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, of which Samson was a member. The point is, Samson was available to the Lord in those early days and God used him! He got off to a good start!

We may not have had an angel announce our birth, and our birth may not have been a miracle of Samson's magnitude, but we are all blessed by the Lord in some way.  He has blessed us with certain strengths and weaknesses.  He has put the opportunities we need to grow in our lives and he has surrounded us with the people we need to help us progress.  Whether we recognize these blessings is up to us.

The thing that stands out to me the most is the statement that the "Lord began to move him."   This made me stop and look for the times in my life when the Lord was moving me.  What was my reaction?  Did I follow or did I pull back?  Did I make myself available to the Lord?  Am I doing that now?

God is still looking for some people He can “move” in these days. He is still looking for some servants who are willing and available vessels.  I hope that I can be counted among them!

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