Death by Passion
Promise can be utterly destroyed by passion.
So Samson teaches those who will hear.
Imagine the hope in his parents’ hearts. Manoah and his unnamed bride were childless, apparently infertile. There were no fertility drugs; no doctors specialized in such a condition. But the Lord does! He came to them with exciting news: they were going to have a son!
You can sense their elation as the account unfolds in Judges 13. Especially considering this was to be no ordinary son! God promised to use this child to deliver Israel from the Philistine oppression.
Hope.
Promise.
Excitement!
You have to wonder when Samson’s parents began to have nagging concerns about the direction their son was headed. Whenever they began to fester within, those nagging concerns came out into the open as chapter 14 begins.
What Samson sees, Samson wants, Samson insists on having…and Samson gets—or creates mayhem trying!
Unbridled passion, overruling reason…trumping righteousness…ignoring God’s will…dashing hopes…destroying promise.
Oh yes, the Lord can use the defiant pursuit of passion to accomplish His objectives. The mystery of how and why God works through such things takes us back before creation. Nevertheless, that He may chose to do so must never serve as a basis for presumption, nor does it excuse or justify sinful choices, nor does it ease the pain in the hearts of those crushed by one’s passionate pursuits.
Samson’s life and eventual death remind us that passion must be checked by God’s will as revealed in His Word. Our sin nature drives us to want what God forbids; the Christian’s new nature drives us to want what God desires.
Forbidden passions must be put to death...or they will beget death in some form!
So Samson teaches those who will hear.
Imagine the hope in his parents’ hearts. Manoah and his unnamed bride were childless, apparently infertile. There were no fertility drugs; no doctors specialized in such a condition. But the Lord does! He came to them with exciting news: they were going to have a son!
You can sense their elation as the account unfolds in Judges 13. Especially considering this was to be no ordinary son! God promised to use this child to deliver Israel from the Philistine oppression.
Hope.
Promise.
Excitement!
You have to wonder when Samson’s parents began to have nagging concerns about the direction their son was headed. Whenever they began to fester within, those nagging concerns came out into the open as chapter 14 begins.
What Samson sees, Samson wants, Samson insists on having…and Samson gets—or creates mayhem trying!
Unbridled passion, overruling reason…trumping righteousness…ignoring God’s will…dashing hopes…destroying promise.
Oh yes, the Lord can use the defiant pursuit of passion to accomplish His objectives. The mystery of how and why God works through such things takes us back before creation. Nevertheless, that He may chose to do so must never serve as a basis for presumption, nor does it excuse or justify sinful choices, nor does it ease the pain in the hearts of those crushed by one’s passionate pursuits.
Samson’s life and eventual death remind us that passion must be checked by God’s will as revealed in His Word. Our sin nature drives us to want what God forbids; the Christian’s new nature drives us to want what God desires.
Forbidden passions must be put to death...or they will beget death in some form!
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