Latest / Bible Chat Devotional / March 28 - When Strength Becomes Presumption

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March 28 - When Strength Becomes Presumption · Bible Chat Devotional

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  Welcome to Bible Chat, where we have devotional conversations
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  rooted in Scripture and relevant for today, March 28th, when
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  choices matter. Every day is full of choices,
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  and most of them do not look dramatic.
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  In the moment. They look small, ordinary, easy
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  to overlook. But over time, those small
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  choices begin shaping the direction of your life.
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  The words you speak, the people you trust, the habits you build,
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  the temptations you entertain, the truth you obey or ignore,
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  all of it matters more than you may realize.
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  Proverbs chapter 13, verses 5 to 6 says the righteous hates
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  falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.
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  Righteousness guards the one whose way is blameless, but sin
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  overthrows the Sinner. That means righteousness is not
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  just about following rules, it is protection.
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  It guards your life. It keeps your heart clear and
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  your path steadier. Sin, on the other hand, does not
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  stay under control. It eventually turns and
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  overthrows the person who thought they could manage it.
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  Samson's story and Judges chapters 15 to 16 shows that
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  clearly. Samson was given strength by God
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  and used in powerful ways. He had a calling, a gift and
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  real purpose. But strength without wisdom
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  becomes dangerous. Gift without character becomes
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  unstable. Over time, Samson's choices open
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  the door to compromise. And eventually there came that
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  heartbreaking moment in Judges chapter 16 when the scripture
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  says that he did not know the Lord had departed from him.
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  That is a heavy warning. It reminds us that repeated
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  compromise dulls spiritual awareness.
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  That can happen slowly. You do not usually drift from
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  God all at once. It happens through little
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  permissions, a lie here, a secret there, a habit you keep
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  excusing, A compromise that keeps getting easier.
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  But the good news is that God warns us because He wants to
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  protect us, not shame us. He is calling us to walk in
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  truth because He loves us. Your gifts matter, Your calling
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  matters, your future matters. So guard them.
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  Do not treat lightly what God has placed in your life.
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  Choose the path that keeps your heart close to Him.
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  Choose what is clean, true, and wise, even when temptation
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  promises something faster or easier.
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  Because when choices matter, and they do, the safest place to be
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  is walking closely with God. His ways may require discipline,
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  but they lead to strength, peace, and purpose that lasts.
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  Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for
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  caring about the direction of my life.
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  Help me to recognize temptation and to choose what is right,
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  even when it is difficult. Guard my heart from compromise,
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  falsehood, and careless decisions.
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  Teach me to use the gifts you have given me with wisdom and
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  humility and keep me close to You so that my life reflects
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  your purpose in Jesus name, Amen.
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  truth through reason, evidence, human experience, and scripture
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  without preaching pressure or assumptions.
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  Book 1, Something from Nothing, confronts the mystery of
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  existence itself and asks why anything exists at all.
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  Book 2, The Cause behind the Cosmos, examines the origin of
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  the universe and whether it points beyond itself.
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  Book 3, Design or Accident, wrestles with order and
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  complexity. Are they products of chance or
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  intelligence? Book 4, The Moral Signature,
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  explores why objective right and wrong may require a source
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  beyond human opinion. Book 5, The God We Cannot
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  Escape, considers conscience, longing, and humanity's
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  persistent awareness of God. Book 6, From Reason to
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  Revelation, asks whether the God who exists would also speak.
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  And Book 7, Denying God, examines the internal tensions
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  of unbelief and the deeper implications of rejecting the
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  Proverbs Chapter 13 Verses 5 to 6 World English Bible A
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  righteous man hates lies, but a wicked man brings shame and
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  disgrace. Righteousness guards the way of
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  integrity, but wickedness overthrows the Sinner.
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  Judges Chapters 15 to 16 World English Bible But after a while,
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  in the time of wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife with a
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  young goat. He said I will go into my wife's
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  room, but her father wouldn't allow him to go in.
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  Her father said, I most certainly thought that you
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  utterly hated her, therefore I gave her to your companion.
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  Isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she?
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  Please take her instead. Samson said to them.
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  This time I will be blameless in the case of the Philistines when
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  I harm them. Samson went and caught 300 foxes
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  and took torches and turned tail to tail and put a torch in the
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  middle between every two tails. When he had set the torches on
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  fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the
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  Philistines and burned up both the shocks and the standing
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  grain and also the olive Groves. Then the Philistines said, Who
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  has done this? They said Samson, the son-in-law
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  of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife and given her to
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  his companion. The Philistines came up and
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  burned her and her father with fire.
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  Samson said to them, If you behave like this, surely I will
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  take revenge on you, and after that I will cease.
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  He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he
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  went down and lived in The Cave in Ettams Rock.
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  Then the Philistines went up, encamped in Judah and spread
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  themselves in Lehi. The men of Judah said, Why have
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  you come up against us? They said, We have come up to
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  bind Samson to do to him as he has done to us.
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  Then 3000 men of Judah went down to The Cave in Adams Rock and
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  said to Samson, Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers
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  over us? What then is this that you have
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  done to us? He said to them as they did to
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  me, so I have done to them. They said to him, We have come
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  down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the
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  Philistines. Samson said to them, Swear to me
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  that you will not attack me yourselves.
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  They spoke to him, saying, No, but we will bind you securely
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  and deliver you into their hands, but surely we will not
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  kill you. They bound him with two new
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  ropes and brought him up from the rock when he came to Lehi.
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  The Philistines shouted as they met him.
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  Then Yahweh's spirit came mightily on him, and the ropes
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  that were on his arms became as flax that was burned with fire,
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  and his bands dropped from off his hands.
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  He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, put out his hand, took
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  it, and struck 1000 men with it. Samson said.
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  With the jawbone of a donkey heaps on heaps.
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  With the jawbone of a donkey. I have struck 1000 men.
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  When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his
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  hand, and that place was called Ramathlehi.
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  He was very thirsty and called on Yahweh and said, You have
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  given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant, and
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  now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the
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  uncircumcised. But God split the hollow place
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  that is in Lehi, and water came out of it.
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  When he had drunk, his spirit came again and he revived.
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  Therefore its name was called N Hakor, which is in Lehi to this
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  day. He judged Israel 20 years in the
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  days of the Philistines. Samson went to Gaza and saw
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  their prostitute and went into her.
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  The gazettes were told Samson is here.
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  They surrounded him and laid wait for him all night in the
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  gate of the city, and were quiet all the night, saying wait until
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  morning light, then we will kill him.
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  Samson lay until midnight, then arose at midnight and took hold
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  of the doors of the gate of the city with the two posts, and
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  plucked them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders,
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  and carried them up to the top of the mountain that is before
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  Hebron. It came to pass afterward that
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  he loved a woman in the valley of Soric, whose name was
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  Delilah. The Lords of the Philistines
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  came up to her and said to her, Entice him, and see in which his
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  great strength lies, and by what means we may prevail against
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  him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will each
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  give you 1100 pieces of silver. Delilah said to Samson.
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  Please tell me where your great strength lies and what you might
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  be bound to afflict you. Samson said to her, If they bind
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  me with 7 green cords that were never dried, then shall I become
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  weak and be as another man? Then the Lords of the
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  Philistines brought up to her 7 green cords which had not been
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  dried, and she bound him with them.
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  Now she had an ambush waiting in the inner room.
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  She said to him, The Philistines are on you, Samson.
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  He broke the cords. As a flax thread is broken when
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  it touches the fire, so his strength was not known.
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  Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me and told me
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  lies, now please tell me how you might be bound.
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  He said to her, If they only bind me with new ropes with
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  which no work has been done, then shall I become weak and be
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  as another man. So Delilah took new ropes and
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  bound him with them. Then said to him, The
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  Philistines are on you, Samson. The ambush was waiting in the
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  inner room. He broke them off his arms like
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  a thread. Delilah said to Samson, until
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  now you have mocked me and told me lies.
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  Tell me with what you might be bound, he said to her, If you
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  weave the seven locks of my head with the fabric on the loom.
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  She fastened it with the pin and said to him, The Philistines are
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  on you, Samson. He awakened out of his sleep and
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  plucked away the pin of the beam and the fabric.
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  She said to him, How can you say I love you when your heart is
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  not with me? You have mocked me these three
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  times and have not told me where your great strength lies.
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  When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his
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  soul was troubled to death. He told her all his heart, and
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  said to her, No razor has ever come on my head, for I have been
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  a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb.
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  If I am shaved, then my strength will go for me, and I will
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  become weak and be like any other man.
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  When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent
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  and called for the Lords of the Philistines, saying, Come up
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  this once, for he has told me all his heart.
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  Then the Lords of the Philistines came up to her and
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  brought the money in their hand. She made him sleep on her knees,
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  and she called for a man and shaved off the seven locks of
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  his head. And she began to afflict him,
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  and his strength went from him. She said, The Philistines are
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  upon you, Samson. He awoke out of his sleep and
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  said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.
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  But he didn't know that Yahweh had departed from him.
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  The Philistines laid hold on him and put out his eyes, and they
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  brought him down to Gaza and bound him with fetters of
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  bronze, and he ground at the mill in the prison.
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  However, the hair of his head began to grow again after he was
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  shaved. The Lords of the Philistines
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  gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their
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  God, and to rejoice. For they said, Our God has
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  delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hand.
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  When the people saw him, they praised their God.
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  For they said, Our God has delivered our enemy and the
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  destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us, into our
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  hand. When their hearts were merry,
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  they said, Call for Samson, that he may entertain us.
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  They called for Samson out of the prison and he performed
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  before them. They set in between the pillars
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  and Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, Allow me
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  to feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean on
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  them. Now the house was full of men
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  and women, and all the Lords of the Philistines were there, and
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  they were on the roof about 3000 men and women who saw while
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  Samson performed. Samson called to Yahweh and
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  said, Lord Yahweh, Remember Me please, and strengthen me
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  please, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of
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  the Philistines for my two eyes. Samson took hold of the two
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  middle pillars on which the house rested and leaned on them,
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  the one with his right hand and the other with his left.
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  Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines.
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  He bowed himself with all his might, and the house fell on the
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  Lords and on all the people who were in it.
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  So the dead that he killed at his death we're more than those
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  who he killed in his life. Then his brothers and all the
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  House of his father came down and took him and brought him up
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  and buried him between Zora and Eshtal in the burial site of man
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  O his father, he judged Israel 20 years.
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  Thanks for joining us on Bible Chat, where Scripture meets
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  everyday life. If today's devotional encouraged
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  Until next time, stay rooted in truth, anchored in hope, and
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  walking daily with Jesus.