Title Judges 14:10-18 To overcome temptation
Contents (Judges 14:10-18)
Following the Philistine custom, Samson celebrated his wedding for a week. At the banquet, 30 Philistine men became Samson's companions and hung out with him. Samson came up with a riddle to cheer them up. Samson's riddle was 'Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. What is this?” Samson's riddle was about Samson's experience of meeting and killing a young lion on his way to Timnah and obtaining honey from its body.
Thirty Philistines spent three days trying to solve Samson's riddle, but they could not understand what they had not experienced. When they couldn't find an answer no matter how hard they tried, they cowardly began to threaten Samson's wife. They said, "Your husband is trying to take away our possessions with a riddle we do not know. If you do not seduce your husband and find out the answer to the riddle, I will burn you and your father's house."
From that day on, Samson's wife began to harass him for the answer. However, Samson did not give the answer until the sixth day, and on the last day of the feast, he gave the answer. Why did Samson fall in the end? It was because of his wife who insisted on an answer. Samson's wife means the world. The world persistently tempts us and tries to knock us down. Like Samson's wife, the world holds us tight until the last moment. If we bow to the temptations of the world, we are bound to fail.
What are the temptations of the world to you? Is it money, or is it status and fame? Whatever tempts us, we must triumph over the temptations of the tenacious world. No matter how much the world tempts us, we must never fall for it. You have to defeat it to the end.
To that end, what must we do today? Word meditation and prayer. We must always watch and pray and hold on to the Word of God. The only weapons that can protect us from the harsh challenges of the world are the Word and prayer.