What Did You Think Was Going to Happen?

Suggested Reading: Judges 16:4-21 or Judges 16 (the whole Samson and Delilah story)

I may lose some readers over this statement, but...I can't stand the LifeTime channel.  Every time it's on, there is a movie playing about some woman who made the mistake of trusting a man and is now running for her life because she gave herself prematurely to a seemingly perfect guy who turned out to be a psycho.  When the guy reveals his true colors, I always want to say, "Well, what did you think was going to happen? You're on LifeTime!" (Ok, so I know only most of LifeTime's movies have that plot line…)

The story of Samson and Delilah, for me, reads just like a Lifetime plot in reverse. In Judges 16, We read how Samson "fell in love" with Delilah who immediately began asking him the secret of his strength. At first, Samson gives her a number of stories we know aren't true. "If they tie me up with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, I'll become weak like any other man," Samson says in verse 7 (HCSB). So, Delilah has the Philistines tie him up in seven fresh bowstrings while he is sleeping. Then he gives her another way to take away his strength, and she has the Philistines try that. Then another and they try that. Finally, because of her nagging, Samson tells her the truth, "If I am shaved, my strength will leave me and I will become weak like any other man," he says in verse 17 (HCSB). Then Samson goes to sleep only to be roused by shouts of, "The Philistines are here!" And I think to myself, What did you think was going to happen? I mean, everything else Samson told her she tried. Did Samson really think that this time would be any different? Or did he somehow believe God's rule did not apply to him?

Just like Samson and LifeTime, however, there are certain situations in life when I want to ask people, "What did you think was going to happen?" My daughter hits her brother (or vice versa) and gets in trouble. A partier who has had too much to drink gets behind the wheel and has an accident (or worse). A student cheats on a test and gets caught. A good Christian couple on a date goes someplace secluded and hangs around too long and ends up going farther than they intended. Every day we see circumstances that, as outsiders, compel us to say, "What did you think was going to happen?"

The thing is, if we are honest, most of us knew what was likely to happen. We knew that we were putting ourselves in a bad situation. We knew that we were setting ourselves up to fail and we chose our path anyway. Why? Maybe because we just really wanted it to happen. Maybe because we fooled ourselves into thinking we were better than everybody else. Maybe because we rationalized it until we believed that ours were special circumstances and the same rules didn't apply to us. But ultimately, we knew we were putting ourselves in a bad situation and ignored the warning sirens going off in our heads.

The next time you hear warnings and are tempted to ignore them or the next time you find yourself coming up with reasons why this unwise thing is ok for you, stop and ask yourself, "What do you really think is going to happen?" Who knows? Maybe it will keep the evil two-faced girlfriend from shaving off your hair.

You're Just Using Me?

Suggested Reading: Judges 16:21-31 or Judges 16 (the whole Samson and Delilah story)

Samson is an intriguing character in the Bible. Every man wants to be as strong as Samson was, but nobody wants to be as dumb or lacking in willpower as he was. Every time I walk into a Christian bookstore and I see the Samson "Heroes of the Bible" action figure I want to cringe. I mean, Samson was the Bible-day equivalent of Jose Canseco or Barry Bonds, someone you admire for their feats of athleticism but you're not really sure you want them to be a role model for your kids.

Samson was set apart even before his conception as someone God was going to use to rescue Israel from the Philistines. As a life-long Nazirite, he was forbidden from drinking anything produced from grapes, from cutting his hair, and from eating anything that was ceremonially unclean. He was okay but not great at following those rules, (though I'm pretty sure that honey from the carcass of a dead animal was technically unclean), but he had no common sense or will-power. In fact, Judges chapter 14 tells us the first story of Samson battling the Philistines and it all results from the chaos surrounding a marriage that never should have taken place, a father-in-law who thought it didn't, and Samson revenging himself for a perceived insult. The story almost makes you feel sorry for the Philistines whose only wrongdoing was in cheating to get an answer to Samson's riddle.

Then, of course, there is Delilah, who gets the secret of Samson's strength from him the same way his almost-wife got the answer to his riddle, by crying and nagging him. We have all heard how she cut Samson's hair so he could be captured, and how the Philistines had his eyes put out and then used him for entertainment. We remember that when his hair started to grow back, he used the last remnants of his great strength to bring down the Philistine temple on himself and all those Philistines around him. We're told in Judges 16:30 that "the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life" (HCSB).  What a sad epithet: He accomplished more by dying in humiliation than he accomplished with his life!

Samson was definitely used by God to thwart the Philistines in their oppression of Israel, but few would say that Samson knew God very well. The late Rich Mullins made a similar observation about being used by God: "God can use anybody. God used Nebuchadnezzar. God used Judas Iscariot. It's not a big deal to be used by God…"  Being used by God is not the ultimate status symbol for a Christian; some of the most horrible people in history have been unwittingly used by God to accomplish His purposes. I would rather know God and be wanted by God. And the crazy thing is that, when we focus on knowing God and being known by God, it is impossible not to be used for His purposes.

In human relationships, we often get mad at people for just using us instead of having a real relationship with us. Why would we want to just be used by God? Worry more about getting to know God and walking with God, and His purposes will naturally be accomplished in you,