Have I Lost God?
Then
she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and
thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know
that the Lord had left him. Judges 16:20 (NIV)
When Benjamin Franklin was seven years
old, a visitor gave him some small change. Later, seeing another boy playing
with a whistle, young Benjamin gave the boy all his money for it. He played the
whistle all over the house, enjoying it until he discovered that he had given
four times as much as the whistle was worth. Instantly, the whistle lost its
charm. As he grew older, Franklin generalized this principle. When he saw a man
neglecting his family or business for political popularity, or a miser giving
up friendship for the sake of accumulating wealth, he would say, 'He pays too
much for his whistle."
The above story has an excellent lesson in
it: Too often we pay too great a price for something that looks so good and
promises so much. Fish are hooked because they are attracted to something that
looks like food and would make a good meal only to become food themselves. Do
not be fooled, the world offers us whistles that are not worth the price.
In our text, we are given the tragic end
of a man who "paid too much for his whistle." Samson lost his power,
his position and his testimony because he valued the sin in his life more than
he valued the God of his life.
The story of Samson is a story about a man
that allowed the enemy to slowly but surely steal all of the things that were of
value in his life. Samson was a man that was used greatly by God, but Samson
was also a man that had never quite conquered and gotten rid of his own lusts
and his own desire for the things of the world.
Samson was called to be different and to
be set apart. He was to be the deliverer for the people of God. But early in
his life we find Samson going down into the world to satisfy his desires of
flesh. Judges 14:1 says that Samson went down in Timnath (a city of the
Philistines) and saw a Philistine girl that caught his eye and he decided that
he would marry this girl.
Whenever we leave the presence of God to
go to the world it’s always a downward trip. When we leave the house of God to
go to the world we are always leaving behind the best things and trading them
for things that will not last. Whenever we leave a life of living for God and
trade it for a life in the pleasures of this world we’re opting for second
place instead of first place.
Let us not forget that even the worst days
in the house of God are better than the best days in the world.
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