judges-11-15

Have you tried to do anything without God’s help before?

Many times we try to do things our own way, and by our own strength. We forget to ask God for His help and guidance when life gets rough.

This is because we don’t actually trust God when He says that He “causes all things to work together for good to those who love God.” (Romans 8:28, NASB)

We forget that He is in control, so we try to control the situation ourselves. However, we should look to the example of Samson in this week’s passage to see how we should respond when things get rough in our lives.

This week we will be specifically looking at Judges 15:18-19.

These verses tell the story of Samson after he had just finished defeating the enemy Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. At the beginning of Chapter 15, Samson had tried to visit his wife, who was a Philistine, only to discover that her dad had given her to another man to marry! Understandably, Samson was very angry, so he got revenge on the Philistines by burning up all their crops. The Philistines tried to come and kill Samson, but Samson fought and killed 1,000 of them with the jawbone of a donkey, defeating their army. It was a great victory for Samson and Israel, given to them by God.

After the battle, in our story today, Samson is in the wilderness where the battle had just taken place. He was understandably very tired and thirsty, but since he was in the desert, there was nothing at all to drink!

Samson was sure he was going to die of thirst out in the desert, but He knew he could rely on God to save him.

Samson cried out to God in Verse 18 and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the Philistines?”

He gave God glory for the victory, and then asked Him to rescue him from his certain death in the wilderness. In verse 19, God came through for Samson by splitting the ground open and causing water to gush out! Samson was miraculously saved.

We can learn so much from this story of Samson’s deadly problem and God’s miraculous provision.

When life is good, we tend to forget about God. When we forget about God, we don’t seek His council when trying to make decisions, and instead try to make everything work for ourselves.

Maybe we want to date someone, or we want to get a job, or we want to buy a car. Whatever it is, when we don’t trust God in those decisions, it always inevitably leads to failure.

Instead, we must learn to trust God in the good times by looking to Him in His word and through prayer for advice when we are making these decisions. Only then will we be truly successful because only then will we be following God’s will.

When we are in a difficult situation, we often lose sight of God as well. Instead of turning to Him to help us, we try and figure things out ourselves.

The problem is, we aren’t able to bear our burdens by ourselves. God didn’t make us that way. God made us to rely on Him when we are struggling. This is what gives God the most glory.

When we are going through rough times, God wants us to cry out to Him in prayer like Samson did, so He can come to our rescue. This gives God glory because we acknowledge our weakness and God is glorified as strong in saving and helping us.

You can not live life without God, whether in good times or bad. Always look to God when making decisions, and thank Him for your many blessings, because none of us deserve the many blessings we have been given by God. And when life gets rough, follow Samson’s example and cry out to God for help. He will never abandon you.

Let’s talk in the comments below:

  1. What is something you are trying to do your own way instead of trusting God?
  2. How has God helped you make it through a difficult time in your life?