Latest / Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan / September 22, 2026 - Judges 16 & Proverbs 15:26-29

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September 22, 2026 - Judges 16 & Proverbs 15:26-29 · Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Tyler Sanborn, Student Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church South Valley.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Today is Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Listen intently to God's written word.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Judges sixteen.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Samson went to Gaza, and there he saw a prostitute, and he went into her.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: The Gazites were told, Samson has come here, and they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: They kept quiet all night, saying, Let us wait till the light of the morning, then we will kill him.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah, and the lords of the Philistines came up to her and said to her, Seduce him, and see where his great strength lies, and by what means we may overpower him, that we may bind him to humble him, and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So Delilah said to Samson, Please tell me where your great strength lies, and how you might be bound, that one could subdue you.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Samson said to her, If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then the lords of the Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now she had men lying in ambush in an inner chamber, and she said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson, but he snapped the bowstrings as a thread of flax snaps when it touches the fire.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So the secret of his strength was not known.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me and told me lies.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Please tell me how you might be bound.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to her, If they bind me with new ropes that have not been used, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the men lying in ambush were in an inner chamber, but he snapped the ropes off his arms like a thread.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then Delilah said to Samson, Until now you have mocked me and told me lies.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me how you might be bound.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to her, If you weave seven locks of my head with the web, and fasten it tight with the pin, then I shall become weak and be like any other man.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: So while he slept, Delilah took the seven locks of his head and wove them into the web, and she made them tight with the pin, and said to him, The Philistines are upon you, Samson.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: But he awoke from his sleep and pulled away the pin, the loom, and the web, and she said to him, How can you say I love you when your heart is not with me?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day and urgent and urged him, his soul was vexed to death, and he told her all his heart and said to her, A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: She made him sleep on her knees, and she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, The Philistines are upon you, Samson, and he awoke from his sleep and said, I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: But he did not know that the Lord had left him, and the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he ground at the mill in the prison.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and to rejoice, and they said, Our God has given Samson our enemy into our hand, and when the people saw him, they praised their God, for they said, Our God has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us, and when their hearts were merry, they said, Call Samson that he may entertain us.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: They made him stand between the pillars, and Samson said to the young man who held him by the hand, let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I might lean against them.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now the house was full of men and women, all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women who looked on while Samson entertained.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then Samson called to the Lord and said, O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, and Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the Lords and upon all the people who were in it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zora and Eshetal in the tomb of Manoah his father.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: He had judged Israel twenty years.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Proverbs fifteen verses twenty six through twenty nine.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, but gracious words are pure.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Of all the chapters in the book of Judges, this one takes the cake for most commonly read or most commonly understood, as it features the great feat and death of Samson and the tale and the historical uh narrative of of Samson and Delilah.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Samson here, as we see in this chapter, is giving over to his flesh the lust of his eyes, going after a prostitute and going uh after after Delilah.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And these are uh these are Philistines, these are these are people who are not walking with the Lord, and Samson is is given over to the lust of his eyes.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And and though he is uh he is blessed by God, given great strength, uh his his earthly and and fleshly passions get the the better of him.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And he is uh here um and this interaction, this back and forth with Delilah is uh is is the the highlight of this chapter.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh she's doing all she can to earn this this bribe that the the Philistine elders have offer offered to her, and uh time after time she is uh given a response to how he might be bound, how his strength might be taken from him.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Samson does not tell her the truth until he is vexed, uh until he is vexed to death, as we see in verse 16.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And at this point in the narrative, she knows Delilah has full confidence that this is the truth, and she goes to the Philistines, and the Philistine elders are convinced as well, and they bring the money, they bring the uh the the loot that was promised to Delilah, and she has a man come uh as Samson, his head is uh on her knees, he's sleeping, and has a she has this man cut off his his hair, and uh his strength leaves him, uh the Lord leaves him.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't know this, he didn't know that the Lord had left him, and so did his strength in verse 20.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so he is bound, he is taken away, he he is gouged, he is um uh blinded, and uh he is sent to prison to do uh to do hard labor, to grind out uh at the mill, and he is brought to Gaza, where he ultimately will die.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as we think about the the hall of faith and in the book of Hebrews, we'll notice that Samson's name is noted here uh in this in this chapter in Hebrews, and uh of a man that has given so much over to his flesh, uh though God has blessed him, and from birth he has taken the Nazarite vow.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he is is here uh and he calls out to God and in his final moment uh in hopes that he would uh avenge his eyes and that he would receive his strength one last time.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: He calls out to the to the Lord and his his request is to die with the Philistines.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Oh Lord, in verse 28, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, oh God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he he knows who the God of Israel is, he knows who the true God is.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Philistines were worshiping Dagon, and um this the sea god um is not the one true God, and and uh they're they're mocking him, they're they're being entertained, these Philistines by Samson, and and Samson knows that their God is not the one true God, it is Yahweh, and he calls out in faith uh to Yahweh, let me have my strength, oh God.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: He calls out and for the purpose of doing great damage and destruction to this uh to this great house of over three thousand um people here in this in this one building.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: It must have been an impressive uh and very large structure that um all these important Philistine leaders were at, and they all die along with Samson, and he calls out in faith, he calls out to the Lord, and the Lord grants him strength this one last time.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and this is the reason why that Samson is mentioned, though his his flaws and his sin is great, uh his his poor decisions are many.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: He is mentioned in the hall of faith uh because he is he he recognized that God uh is the one true God, and it was only God, it was only Yahweh that could help him in this situation, and he uh he his his destruction of of this building um allowed him to kill in one fell swoop more Philistines in his death than uh all his life combined.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: This is a salvaging moment where Samson uh does does the right thing, does call out to God for help, where in times uh past in his life he would lean on his own strength, his own understanding, pursuing his own desires.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um but this this moment is a highlight in his life, and he is able to salvage in a certain way.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh in a moment of weakness, he calls out and God, uh, God greatly humbles the Philistines.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, as Samson humbles himself and calls out to God uh in his blind blindness and his weakness, uh, God's glory is put on display as it is God who destroys the Philistines through granting Samson the strength to uh to bring down the building.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as we transition to our Proverbs section today, we look at verses 26 through 29 in Proverbs chapter 15, and we're reminded again that the thoughts, the actions, the words of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So here in verse 26, we're comparing the the thoughts of the wicked and and the gracious words of of those who are pure, uh, and a great reminder for us to think about the the things that we think, the things that we say, and the things that we do, uh, and consider how they are um either pleasing to the Lord or not.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um and we want to be uh a people that um are looking to God and looking to him for a nod of approval as we consider the ways he leads and instructs us uh with his word, uh, words in the the great ten words in in the book of Moses, the the teachings of of Jesus and um the the lives of the apostles as we uh look to see in the New Testament how God is working through his spirit.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we want to be people that are gracious and those who are uh thinking pure thoughts that are uh pleasing to the Lord.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now the next verse in verse 27 whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh in contrast, he who hates a bribe will live.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And um it's not directly noted that um Delilah was in this house, but she did take a bribe, she did take the the money from uh the Philistine elders as we look to our section in in Judges today, but uh thinking about the ways that we want to honor God and please him through um through hard work, through good work that is honest, that is uh of good character, uh not not uh being slippery or sly or or one that would take a bribe in order to gain, but um being a straight shooter, someone whose yes is yes and their no is no, uh not not greedy for an unjust gain, because um in in this pursuit, there's often troubles.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_00: You have to cover your tracks, you have to lie to cover a lie often in in this situation.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: It just brings more more judgment and more trouble to you.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um as we look over to the next verse, verse 28, the heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: And this is measure, measure twice, cut once, kind of a mentality here.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's think about what we're gonna say, how we're gonna say it, and consider how the other person, whether brother or sister or an unbeliever, might be hearing the words and uh oftentimes what the tone says about our our message, the thing that we are sharing, uh, whether it's an encouragement, uh just maybe casual conversations, whatever it may be, thinking about um how we're going to respond, how how we're gonna answer.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: And and a righteous person does exactly that.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: They think first, they ponder, they reflect on how they will respond to someone else.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: But on in contrast, the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things, not thinking, um acting out of um out of impulse, uh thinking about maybe a clapback or something that might be said that is um a tit for tat, or maybe something that is uh uh seeking to sting.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is what happens when we're not considering, we're not pondering how to answer our our words, our evidence uh out of the overflow of our hearts, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we consider uh even if that there is some some wickedness or some some uh some sinful thoughts going on inside, we can ponder our response and so we can save ourselves some trouble by even thinking, if we are in the flesh, thinking about what's going on inside and and using the filter of God's word and submitting to the spirit and and his promptings of like I probably shouldn't say that.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I probably should wait.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a better time, maybe there's a better place to say what I think I need to say.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: So as the spirit leads you, as we look to this this proverb, uh, we need to to ponder what we're gonna say, and we're gonna be needing to be careful uh what pours out of our mouths.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, verse 29 uh to conclude our time today.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: He knows, he knows your heart.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh God knows your your desires, and he wants you to call out to him.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: He does hear the prayer of the righteous, those who draw near to him to submit themselves to him are those who in faith are those who are counted righteous.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And on the other hand, uh the wicked, those who have no regard for God, who do not desire to submit their lives to him, uh, who are the the governor and God of their own lives, they're far from the Lord.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: They're they're wicked.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have forgiveness and they don't have uh the blood of Christ covering them.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope that was an encouragement to you today.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: Keep reading, keep growing.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.