Offended and Vengeful

Content library Offended and Vengeful
Share
Share

Southeast Christian Church

May 4, 2022

As Judges 14 comes to a close, Samson’s wedding to the woman from Timnah is drawing near, and Samson has challenged the 30 groomsmen with a riddle in which the loser has to provide clothes to the winner. The groomsmen are able to solve the riddle since they are able to get Samson’s fiancé to tell them the answer after threatening to kill her and her family if she doesn't help them. In response, Judges 14:19-20 tells us: “He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of everything and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he returned to his father’s home. And Samson’s wife was given to one of his companions who had attended him at the feast.”

When he finds out this news, he's offended, and he's ready to enact some revenge. We keep waiting for Samson to bravely and selflessly fulfill his destiny, accept his mission, and help his people find freedom, but it just never happens. Upon hearing that his father-in-law has married off his bride-to-be, he goes out, catches 300 foxes, ties them in pairs by their tails, and lets them loose in the field. There are several examples in Samson's life, such as these, where we see that he is constantly getting caught off guard by his blind spots. He is petty. He is prideful. He is selfish. He is easily offended.

However, we find that God is still accomplishing his purposes along the way. Remember that Samson was set apart from birth to help lead the people of Israel out from the Philistines. Samson, although he acts petty, vengeful, and selfish at times, also knocks out the economic foundation for the entire nation. So, God's still using him, even though Samson's heart is not aligned with God.

DISCUSSION/REFLECTION QUESTION: Is there someone or a particular situation in your life that you find yourself being easily offended by? How can you lean on God more to have a better response?

Community tags

This content has 0 tags that match your profile.

Lifestyle

Comments

To leave a comment, login or sign up.

Related Content

0

Switch from being Correct to Being Compassionate

It’s our human nature to want to be right, understood, heard, or correct. In most of our conversations or arguments, we are constantly preparing responses in our heads, pointing out flaws in the other person’s thinking, gearing up our defenses, and doing whatever we can to come out on the “right” side. A man may argue with his wife in an attempt to be right, but if it ends with her in tears and even greater distance between the two, then being right didn’t matter at all. Our desire to be correct comes from a place of pride, rather than compassion. When we switch our focus from being correct to being compassionate, it changes the way we approach conversations. Instead of speaking the truth out of anger, bitterness, resentment, or pride we speak out of love and compassion. It’s easy to speak out of anger and bitterness because we find ourselves saying the words that have been stirring in our minds for some time. It’s a lot more difficult to speak from a heart of love and compassion for the other person. To speak in compassion is to rely on the God of compassion, rather than our own strength or wisdom. Pride cares only for itself, but compassion cares for the other person. The two cannot coexist, so we will always choose one when we enter into conversations with our brothers and sisters. Jesus, on the other hand, always chose compassion. He spoke hard truth, but he did it out of deep love for his people and trust in God that the truth would ultimately be transformative. We must ask ourselves whether we can have that same trust in God when we choose to be compassionate over being correct when offering truth. Reflection/Discussion Question: What is most difficult about choosing to be compassionate over being correct?

0

Morale Issues Become Moral Issues

Many times what makes suffering so difficult isn’t the suffering itself, but the emotional turmoil that accompanies it. Suffering brings anxiety, despair, and anger, and these emotions often lead us to do things we never thought we would do. Temptations become more intense and our self-control crumbles under the weight of it all. Paul is writing this letter to prepare us for when this kind of suffering comes. Though we try to avoid suffering completely, Paul makes us face the reality that suffering will come—especially when we are followers of Jesus. With suffering will come emotional exhaustion, but we don’t have to be controlled by our emotions. Despite what we may have been taught, emotions aren’t bad to experience. We can acknowledge our emotions in the midst of our suffering, but we don’t want to be controlled by them. Paul writes this letter to point us back to the truth of who God is, so truth can take the driver’s seat in times of suffering. Our suffering is not surprising to God. Our emotions are not foreign to him, either. Jesus experienced the full range of human emotions without sinning. He was able to do this by clinging to the God of comfort. We have the same access to God and to the truth that our soul craves when we are being swept away by a current of sin and thrown around by waves of emotion. Reflection/Discussion Question: What are some truths about God to remind yourself of when you are emotionally exhausted?

Related Stories

1

My husband has been my wise counsel for 34 + years. He knows he has the privilege to tell me when I am off base, but usually he will wait for me to ask. Last fall was such a time. I was doing a Biblestudy on 1Peter and one of the assignments was to ask your husband if he saw you as being submissive. Now I really thought that I was. When I asked him he said there was one area I fell. He had asked me to lay out his Juice Plus for him every morning for many years. Mind you I did it, but I told people about it in a criticizing way. “I have to lay my husbands Juice Plus out for him everyday or he won’t take it.” I also thought to myself, “he’s a grown man, why can’t he do it himself.” That thought alone should have given me a clue that my heart was not right, but it didn’t. It took my husband to tell me that he did not see this as submission I new he was right. It truly was a blind spot. I was so humbled after being so prideful, because I thought I was doing such a good job at being a submissive wife. I asked for his and the Lord’s forgiveness and they graciously did so. Now I happily lay it out and don’t say anything about it. I am also grateful for the Biblestudy that makes you grow.