INTERVENTIONS OF GOD

THE DAILY FOUNTAIN DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE OF THE CHURCH OF NIGERIA (ANGLICAN COMMUNION)

DATE: FRIDAY, 21ST APRIL, 2023 

TOPIC: INTERVENTIONS OF GOD

TEXT: JUDGES 15: 1-20

1. After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. And he said, "Let me go in to my wife, into [her] room." But her father would not permit him to go in.

2. Her father said, "I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. [Is] not her younger sister better than she? Please, take her instead."

3. And Samson said to them, "This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!"

4. Then Samson went and caught three hundred foxes; and he took torches, turned [the foxes] tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.

5.  When he had set the torches on fire, he let [the foxes] go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up both the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards [and] olive groves.

6.  Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they answered, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to his companion." So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.

7.  Samson said to them, "Since you would do a thing like this, I will surely take revenge on you, and after that I will cease."

8.  So he attacked them hip and thigh with a great slaughter; then he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock of Etam.

9.  Now the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah, and deployed themselves against Lehi.

10.  And the men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" So they answered, "We have come up to arrest Samson, to do to him as he has done to us."

11.  Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What [is] this you have done to us?" And he said to them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them."

12.  But they said to him, "We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines." Then Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves."

13.  So they spoke to him, saying, "No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you." And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14.  When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that [were] on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.

15.  He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

16.  Then Samson said: "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!"

17.  And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.

18.  Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"

19.  So God split the hollow place that [is] in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

20.  And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

MESSAGE:

Samson’s destiny was to be a deliverer to Israel. However, his wrong attitude in seeking to marry a Philistine wife brought him at loggerheads with the Philistines. His discovery that his wife was given to someone else made him destroy the Philistines crops. The Philistines burnt Samson’s wife and her father and Samson retaliated by slaughtering them and withdrawing to the rock of Etam. The Philistines deployed their men for Samson’s arrest. The men of Judah handed Samson over to them peacefully. At the battle of Lehi, the Spirit of the Lord intervened and enabled Samson to kill 1,000 Philistines. Samson became so thirsty that he was near death but God intervened on his behalf and water came out at Lehi, which he drank and became revived. Beloved, God can still split open hollow places to meet your need, like He did for Samson, if you call upon Him. 

 

God has a plan for your life (Jer. 29:11). Discover this plan and go ahead to fulfill it. However, you need His Spirit to succeed and burn off the ropes that hinder your freedom. Be focused on your God-given destiny. Decide to live to please God and He will always intervene and give you victory over your enemies (Isa. 54: 17). May God intervene for you today and grant you success as you walk in His will.

PRAYER: 

My faith looks up to You, my Lord. Help me fulfil my destiny in Jesus name. Amen.