A Study on Love - Edition #24

Monday, January 30th, 2006

A Study on Love – Edition #24

What a great weekend! I opted out of going to the repentance workshop due to having planned to go to the Rangers Fan Fest. And the fan fest was amazingly fun… a heck of a lot more exciting than I ever thought it would be. Autographs, free stuff, and just a little vacation from life and responsibility and the pressures they bring. Even God rested on the seventh day… and then Sunday night I got to spend with family and we had some deep conversations and bonding that we haven’t done in the past. Now, onto a story about love…

Judges 16:1-22
1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, "Samson is here!" So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, "At dawn we'll kill him."

3 But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.

4 Some time later, he fell in love with a woman in the Valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. 5 The rulers of the Philistines went to her and said, "See if you can lure him into showing you the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him up and subdue him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver."

6 So Delilah said to Samson, "Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued."

7 Samson answered her, "If anyone ties me with seven fresh thongs that have not been dried, I'll become as weak as any other man." 8 Then the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh thongs that had not been dried, and she tied him with them. 9 With men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the thongs as easily as a piece of string snaps when it comes close to a flame. So the secret of his strength was not discovered.

10 Then Delilah said to Samson, "You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied."

11 He said, "If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I'll become as weak as any other man."

12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.

13 Delilah then said to Samson, "Until now, you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied."

He replied, "If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I'll become as weak as any other man." So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and tightened it with the pin.
Again she called to him, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.

15 Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.

17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."

18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, "Come back once more; he has told me everything." So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 Having put him to sleep on her lap, she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him.

20 Then she called, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you!" He awoke from his sleep and thought, "I'll go out as before and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.

21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

Samson was put on “Johnny-on-the-spot” by his wife. The truth is she was right. To love someone is to confide in someone. And Samson was doomed because he didn’t obey God 100% and yoked himself with someone he shouldn’t have yoked himself with. If he truly loved her, he would have to trust her, even though she was constantly violating that trust. Trust is something I struggle with… the fact is I struggle with it a tremendous amount. I feel I have to do everything and oversee everything because if I don’t, it won’t be done. And that isn’t love. Love always trusts. I would get into a ton of fights in elementary school, all because my friends were being picked on by bullies. And when these fights would occur, my friends would desert me and I would face the music alone. As it is said, violence is not the answer, unless the question is “what does V-I-O-L-E-N-C-E spell?” I often wonder if Samson ever asked “How can I trust you when I test you and you fail?” it is a very valid question that was never mentioned in the bible. But if we base trust off of failures, could we trust anyone? I don’t think I could… and that is where the love comes in. God doesn’t love me because I of what I do or not do, anymore than I love my son on based on the good or bad things he does. God loves me because I am like him.

Genesis 1:26-31
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

God made me in his own image. He made my wife in his own image. And he said it was good. In fact, he said it was VERY good. The word “very” to describe the things he made was only used in the last verse, which I found interesting. My father-in-law made for our son a cradle. He carved the wood, cut the wood, and put it all together from the ground up. And it was good. When my wife gave birth to our son, it was very good. The cradle is wonderful, mind you, but the child who sleeps in it is better. And I believe that is how God sees it. Life is a million times more precious than the computer I type this on. And I lost my thought… I guess that’s what happens when it gets lonely. Oh yes… God loves me because I am. He made me, he created my life, and he wants a relationship with me. He trusts me. So going back to a question of logic, “how can God trust me when he tests me and I fail?” That shows me just how much God loves me and trusts me… despite all the odds of my failure, how Vegas says I will fail way more than pass, God still puts himself out there. Johnny Out.