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February 20, 2025 Daily Reading
17 Plays8 months ago
Today's reading covers Judges Chapter 16. We will finish the story of Samson. We will read about Delilah trying to find out about Samson's secret so she can sell the information to the enemy and have him captured! We will read bout God's faithfulness to restore Samson's strength after his hair starts to grow back and discuss that God's faithfulness to us never ends. He is always ready to forgive us and nothing can separate us from His love.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Bible Reading Session
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi there, everyone. Today is Thursday, February 20th, 2025, and you're here with Robin at In the Family Way Coaching.
Structure of Day by Day Kids Bible
00:00:11
Speaker
We're here for our daily Bible reading.
00:00:13
Speaker
We are reading through the entire Bible in one year, and we are using the Day by Day Kids Bible written by Karen Henley. If you are new to us today, thank you so much for joining us.
00:00:25
Speaker
You may not already know then that this Bible is not just for kids.
Engaging New Listeners
00:00:29
Speaker
It's a great overview story, and it is written in storybook form in chronological order and covers the big story from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
00:00:40
Speaker
And we have a ah those of us who are here so far have expressed lot. 100% satisfaction, I should say, with this ah version of the Bible that everybody has told me how much they love this version of the Bible.
00:00:56
Speaker
I am so glad that ah Karen Henley wrote this Bible, and I'm so thankful to be here with you reading it to you. It is great. I'm really enjoying it, too.
00:01:07
Speaker
If you have your calendar, it's time to get that out and mark off your daily commitment. I have mine out, and I've marked off my day today. If you would like your own copy of the calendar, I do have that available for free on my website.
00:01:21
Speaker
And you can find that at
00:01:29
Speaker
And you will find that under the tab of Read the Bible in One Year.
Platforms for Following the Bible Reading
00:01:33
Speaker
So thank you for joining me today, whether you are following along and watching or listening on TikTok or on Spotify, on my website, whether you are watching on YouTube or listening on YouTube music, whether you are finding me on Apple Music, Amazon Music, or any other of your favorite podcasting apps. I'm so glad that you're here today. Thank you for joining me.
00:01:56
Speaker
We are going through right now the book of Judges, and we are listening to the story of Samson.
Beginning the Story of Samson
00:02:03
Speaker
Today we'll complete the story of Samson. And if you're just joining us, don't feel like that you're you're catching us right in the middle of something and that ah you shouldn't bother staying.
00:02:12
Speaker
If you would like to hear the full story of Samson, you only need to go back two days to February 18th. And I want you to be encouraged that this is a little bit like a soap opera. The story you can pick up at any point in time.
00:02:26
Speaker
We have different people that we are reading about every couple of days. And so you don't need to feel like, oh, I've missed so much already. yeah I want you to be able to know that you can pick up at any point in time in the stories.
00:02:40
Speaker
Because, like I said, we just started Samson a couple of days ago, and each person's story tends to last only a couple of days. Tomorrow we'll be getting the story of Samuel. And ah that's, again, just another person that we will be reading about.
00:02:55
Speaker
And every single day has a personal application of how you can find today's reading applicable in your own life. And today is no different. Today we are going to be finishing the story of Samson, as I mentioned, and some of us may already be familiar with Delilah.
00:03:14
Speaker
But if you are not familiar with Delilah, you will get to meet her today. And Delilah is the type of person that one might say, Wow, with a friend like her, who needs an enemy?
00:03:26
Speaker
we will see that Samson has a tendency to repeat the same sins. And guess what? Don't we do the same thing? So I want us to remember to see ourselves in the people that we are reading about because the people in the Bible are everyday people. They're just like you and they're just like me.
Samson and Delilah's Story
00:03:44
Speaker
And just because they're written about in the Bible doesn't mean that their story is any different from the things that we encounter every single day. So God has given us these stories in the Bible so that we can learn from them and to see the amazing things that he has done, but so that we can see what they did and where they went wrong, where they went right, and to learn how to make better decisions for our life now.
00:04:10
Speaker
And these same stories were applicable even in Jesus's time when he was reading these stories. Do you know Jesus read these same stories that we are reading about? He knew these stories very well.
00:04:23
Speaker
And so these stories have been around for a long time and they're just as relevant then as they are today. And they will be just as relevant in another thousand years if God keeps the world for another thousand years.
00:04:34
Speaker
Two thousand years. All of these stories will be just as relevant in our daily lives in a thousand years as they are today and as they were two thousand years ago when Jesus read them.
00:04:46
Speaker
And the apostles read them. So we see Delilah today and we will see that Samson has a tendency to fall in love with women and not just any women, but he has a tendency to fall in love with the enemy's women, the Philistine women.
00:05:04
Speaker
And as we talked about yesterday, he was disregarding the law. He was disobeying. The law specifically said that Moses gave is that they should not marry people from the enemy.
00:05:18
Speaker
because they would be tempting them into sin. Now, Delilah would have been welcome, or any woman would have been welcome, to give ah give up their false gods and follow our real God.
00:05:29
Speaker
But that is not what we see the women doing. And in this case, we will see that she is like one of these friends that we may have in our own lives, where I think everybody at some point may get somebody who is like a Delilah in their life.
00:05:44
Speaker
We have somebody in our life that we just want to like. We may have somebody that we just want them to be our friend, but they're just not nice to us. And so that is where I see this applicable in our lives as well, is that a lot of times we just want to be friends with somebody or we may just want to date somebody and they're just not nice to us.
00:06:05
Speaker
In this case, Samson, it says, fell in love with Delilah, but it doesn't necessarily have to be somebody that we fall in love with. This can be anybody, any friend that we meet or any person that we meet.
00:06:17
Speaker
that although we want them to be our friend they just don't treat us like a friend and we will see that delilah does not treat samson like a friend much less somebody who would love him because she does something very mean to him.
00:06:33
Speaker
And people who do these mean things to us are not really our friends. So while it can be hard to step away from these people and say, I can't have anything more to do with you, that is one of the things that we should look at doing in our lives if we see that we have been constantly pursuing a friendship or a relationship with somebody in our lives that it's just not ah what it's supposed to be and we are just being treated very meanly by them.
00:07:00
Speaker
Let's take the view of looking onto Samson and Delilah from the outside and seeing how it wasn't right for her to treat him this way. And it can be hard when we are in that relationship, in that friendship, to want to step away because we want what we want so
Parallels between Betrayals in the Bible
00:07:18
Speaker
badly. We want that person to love us or where we want that person to like us.
00:07:22
Speaker
And yet for other people watching us on the outside, they may be saying what we say. How could Samson possibly want to stick around with somebody who is treating him like this? But we will see that that's exactly what he does.
00:07:35
Speaker
He stays with somebody who is treating him badly. And so I want us to be encouraged that if we experience that in our lives, which I'm sure everybody at some point does because God teaches us these lessons,
00:07:47
Speaker
is that I want you to be encouraged to remember in your life, no matter how old you are, whether you are seven or five or 12 or 15, or maybe we're 40 or 50 or 60, that if we come across somebody who is supposed to be a friend or somebody that we're trying to be friends with or to be in a relationship with, and that they are doing these hurtful things, to ask God to help us to step away from those things, to step away from that person.
00:08:13
Speaker
And it won't be easy. It would not have been easy for Samson, but it's something that he could have done. And the other thing that I'll point out is that keep our ears open.
00:08:27
Speaker
This is also a little bit like the New Testament story of Judas. and Do you remember I mentioned ah yesterday or a couple of days ago that for every story in the Old Testament, we have a New Testament equivalent.
00:08:42
Speaker
Things happen as fulfillment in the New Testament. And these things happen again and again. ah we will see examples. And like we talked about that the Nazarite example in the New Testament is that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
00:09:01
Speaker
Delilah is ah and Samson's Judas. She betrays him. And so I wanted us to keep our ears open for that as as just a consideration to think about as we go through and read.
Narration and Lessons from Samson's Story
00:09:18
Speaker
Well, all right, let's go ahead and get started with Judges 16. And it is entitled, Samson's Secret.
00:09:28
Speaker
One day, Samson went to the city of Gaza. He liked a woman there, so he went to her house. But someone told the people he was there. So they went to the city gate, which was closed, and there they waited for Samson.
00:09:43
Speaker
They waited there all night, and they said, we'll kill him in the morning. But Samson left in the middle of the night, and he pulled the gates, doors, and posts, and he tore them off.
00:09:56
Speaker
He put them on his shoulders and he took them up to the top of a hill.
00:10:02
Speaker
Now time passed and Samson met another woman named Delilah. He fell in love with her. The enemy leaders went to Delilah and said, See if you can trick Samson.
00:10:16
Speaker
They said, Trick him into telling you what makes him so strong. Then we can catch him and tie him up. If you do this, we'll pay you. So Delilah asked Samson, "'What's your secret?
00:10:30
Speaker
What makes you so strong? How could someone catch you and tie you up?' "'Oh, tie me with seven new strings from a bow and an arrow, and then I won't be the strongest man anymore,' said Samson." So the leaders brought seven bow strings to Delilah, and they hid in the room, and Delilah tied Samson up.
00:10:52
Speaker
Then she called, "'Samson, the enemies are here!' Samson popped off the bow strings. It was easy for him. It was as if the strings had touched fire.
00:11:05
Speaker
The strings broke in two. And so nobody found out Samson's secret. But Delilah said, Samson, you made me look dumb.
00:11:16
Speaker
You didn't tell the truth. Please tell me how someone can tie you up. Tie me up with new ropes, said Samson.
00:11:27
Speaker
They must be ropes that nobody has used before. Then I won't be the strongest man anymore. So the enemies hid in the room, and Delilah tied Samson up with new ropes.
00:11:40
Speaker
Then she called, Samson, the enemies are here! And Samson popped the ropes off of his arms. You're just playing with me, said Delilah.
00:11:52
Speaker
You're not telling me the truth. Now tell me how someone can tie you up.
00:11:58
Speaker
Take the seven braids from my hair, said Samson, and tie them into the loom you make a cloth on. Make sure it's tight. Then won't be the strongest man anymore.
00:12:13
Speaker
So Delilah waited until Samson was asleep. Then she tied his braids into her loom. it And she made sure that the hair was tight.
00:12:25
Speaker
She called, Samson, the enemies are here. Samson woke up. He got up. His hair stayed in the loom, but it pulled up the loom and the cloth too.
00:12:37
Speaker
How can you say you love me? Said Delilah. You won't tell me your secret. You made me look dumb three times. Delilah begged Samson every day.
00:12:50
Speaker
at last, Samson couldn't stand it anymore. So he told her his secret.
00:12:58
Speaker
Since I've been born, I've been special to God. I'm not supposed to shave my hair off. And if I do, then i won't be the strongest man anymore.
00:13:10
Speaker
And Delilah knew that Samson was telling the truth this time. So she sent a message to the enemies. Samson told me everything. You can catch him now.
00:13:23
Speaker
The enemies came back. They brought the money to pay Delilah. Delilah let Samson fall asleep. His head was in her lap. Then a man came and shaved off Samson's braids.
00:13:39
Speaker
And he was not strong anymore. Delilah called. Samson, the enemies are here. Samson woke up. He thought, I'll get free like I did before.
00:13:51
Speaker
But there was one thing he didn't know. God had left him. Then the enemies caught Samson. They poked his eyes out.
00:14:03
Speaker
They locked him up in a jail. They tied him up and they made him work very hard. But Samson's hair started to grow back. Now the leaders of the enemies got together and they gave a party for their god who wasn't real.
00:14:19
Speaker
And they were feeling good. They shouted, bring Samson out here and let him give us a show. So they brought Samson out of jail and he did things to make them cheer and laugh.
00:14:33
Speaker
Then they took Samson over to some big posts and the posts held up the building. A young man was holding Samson's hand. Samson told him, I want to rest against the posts.
00:14:46
Speaker
Move me over there so I can feel them. The building was full of people. All the enemy leaders were there. 3,000 people were watching from the roof.
00:14:59
Speaker
They were watching Samson's show.
00:15:02
Speaker
Samson prayed, God, remember me. Make me strong one more time. Let me get back at these people for hurting my eyes.
00:15:14
Speaker
Samson reached out to the posts. He put his right hand on one post. He put his left hand on the other. And he said, I'll die with my enemies. And then Samson pushed as hard as he could. And the building fell down on everyone.
00:15:33
Speaker
Samson killed more people when he died than he ever had while he was living.
00:15:40
Speaker
Samson's family went to get his body. They took it with them and they put it into a grave. Samson had been the judge for God's people for 20 years.
00:15:51
Speaker
And that's the end of our reading today.
00:15:56
Speaker
So what do you think?
00:15:59
Speaker
That was quite a story, huh?
00:16:03
Speaker
Can you believe that he went and told Delilah what would make him... not the strongest man anymore, after she had already shown that she would take that information and use it to let him be captured?
00:16:18
Speaker
I can't help but wonder if it's a little bit of what we talked about yesterday with his maybe being a little bit arrogant, that he didn't think anything would happen to him. It's said that when he woke up the final time that he thought he'd be able to get free again, but this time he wasn't.
00:16:35
Speaker
That information was special. That information was secret and he gave it to somebody who had no intention of using it for good.
00:16:46
Speaker
ah It was a bad mistake. And we saw that he was chasing after women left and right. First, we started the story where he liked a woman and he almost got captured there. And then he was constantly hanging out in enemy cities, it looks like.
00:17:00
Speaker
So there, once again, we see that he is presenting himself with always ah sticking himself in situations that would make it more tempting for him to commit sin.
00:17:11
Speaker
And so that is still our our application is that if we know that we have ah things that we struggle with, that we should not be essentially putting ourselves into those situations where we can be tempted to do what is wrong, because then we may very well do what is wrong.
00:17:30
Speaker
And that's not what makes God happy. God was so faithful though, wasn't he? When he prayed to God, God was right there with him. His hair had started to grow again and he prayed.
00:17:41
Speaker
And so remember, God was going to use him against the Philistine people. And so God did use him. So even though Samson was committing sins, God still used him to ah to do good.
00:17:56
Speaker
he He did end up killing more men when he died. in the enemy's army, the enemy leaders, the enemy people, than when he was alive.
00:18:07
Speaker
So even in his death, God was using good. But he had to go through terrible things when he got captured, didn't he? They poked his eyes out, they kept him in jail, and they basically kept him around as like a circus figure to do tricks for him, for them.
00:18:23
Speaker
And so he had to endure a lot of shame in his, ah at the it towards the end of his life, because he had given away his secret. And ah did you see that Delilah was like Judas, where she sold him?
00:18:41
Speaker
That's not the act of somebody who would love him. And she just whined after him and constantly bothered at him to give him the information. And did you see where that, remember where that happened, where he was supposed to get married too, and he told a riddle?
00:18:56
Speaker
So Samson maybe was a little bit arrogant because he liked to ah tease. he He gave a riddle that he didn't expect anybody to be able to answer. And he made it a high bet a couple of days ago.
00:19:08
Speaker
And we saw that ah he had said that if they could answer the riddle, that he would give them 30 pairs of of nice clothes. And that if they lost and they couldn't answer the riddle, that that they would have to pay him.
00:19:23
Speaker
And so he pretty much, he he knew that without giving the answer to his bride-to-be, that he would be the winner of ah of a great many numbers of of beautiful sets of clothing.
00:19:34
Speaker
So it sounds like maybe Samson liked beautiful clothing as well. But he he was taking advantage of people. And so that wasn't a very godly thing to do. He was set apart to be special.
00:19:45
Speaker
And it seemed like he was um taking advantage of people a little bit. and And he didn't think that anybody, probably thought he was pretty smart. because he was telling Delilah lies, but he was still telling her something. And instead of just saying, no, I'm not going to tell you, he was making up lies.
00:20:05
Speaker
And so that's another sin that he was committing. And he could see each and every time that every time he gave her a story, she used it against him. And so um and just want to point that out that ah Samson had a number of things that we want to watch out for that we don't do, that if we are good at something, that we not act like we are better.
00:20:29
Speaker
than others about it, and that we not ah take what God has given us um for granted.
Conclusion and Community Support
00:20:36
Speaker
and We honor what job God has given us to do, what he has given us, that we are, everybody is good at something.
00:20:42
Speaker
Everybody has a part in the body, but we need to honor the gifts that God has given us and to treat them properly and to do with the gifts what God has intended for us to do so that we can do the most good we can with God working through us.
00:20:59
Speaker
So that's all I have for us today. Thank you so much for joining us. It's kind of a heavy story today, so sorry if it seems like it's a little bit down there. um But sometimes I guess our stories are like that.
00:21:15
Speaker
So I do hope you enjoyed the story of Samson, though, and found where you can use it in your life to... keep on Keep in mind if you end up with a Delilah in your life to ask God to help you to stay away from them and to not put ourselves into situations where we can be tempted to do the same sins that we do.
00:21:34
Speaker
Because we all have a tendency to repeat something. We have we all struggle with with certain things. And that can even just be sitting there and thinking about those things. ah Because as Jesus told us, just thinking about things is is you making us guilty of having done them.
00:21:49
Speaker
So we want to be sure we don't sit there and think about those things that we are tempted to do. yeah Because spending a lot of time pondering that person, thinking about that person that we are interested in a friendship with or a relationship with will ah make it more difficult for us to step away from them.
00:22:06
Speaker
So that's where we can ask God to help us change the channel. And it won't be easy, but every time we get that person in our mind, we can ask God again to help us change the channel. And so I wanted to offer that as a little bit of encouragement there so we don't end on ah maybe a sad note.
00:22:24
Speaker
So thank you very much for being here with me. If you feel that God has lit your light today, then please ah and be encouraged to click that light button. It looks like a like button, but it's a light button.
00:22:35
Speaker
And together, let's light up the world for Jesus and for this event and to spread the word about reading God's word. If you have the ability to comment or to share the event with someone that you think may be interested in it, please do so. And to subscribe or follow to the channel if you have not done so already.
00:22:54
Speaker
I hope everybody has a great rest of their day, and I will see everybody again tomorrow where we will begin the book of Samuel and read a bit about him.