And All Other Things

I discovered the Mars Hill Church iPhone app through this beautiful lady’s tweet. I downloaded it and so far love it. I had heard of the church before, but this was the first time I got to hear the teaching/preaching.

I started with the series on Luke, entitled “Luke’s Gospel: Investigating the Man Who Is God.” I loved, loved, LOVED the first episode, but at the end of it, I just so happened to scroll down and saw a series called, “Redeeming Ruth.” Of course, I then started listening to that one, me being Ruth and all (don’t worry, I’ll will definitely go back to the Luke series and you should too).

One part that struck me in the episode was the descriptions of Ruth and Orpah, Naomi’s daughters in law. Both were ready to leave their native Moab and travel back to Bethleham with Naomi. Leaving their families and all that was familiar to them. But after just a little bit of prodding, one decided to turn back and return to her homeland. Orpah.

One cannot really blame her. Although she married a Jewish man, she was living in her hometown, where she felt safe and secure. Essentially, where everybody knew her name. She probably proclaimed her love for God with her lips, but at the first sign of “freedom” she took it, abandoning Him and her new family and fleeing back home to what she knew. Fleeing back to her gods. She was a pagan pretending to be a Christian (well, before Christ), but abandoning Him when things got difficult.

I don’t judge. Is it not easier to remain where you are comfortable than to step into discomfort? Or what is known as earthly discomfort? What she did is what most of us would do. Right? She is only human.

And then there was Ruth. She obviously took her vow to God very seriously. She abandoned all that was familiar to her, to accompany her mother in law – not her birth mother, but her mother by marriage – to her hometown. She would know nobody. She would be alone with this older woman with no other people to call friends. And if that wasn’t enough, she vowed to Naomi, that she would take her people as her own and take her God as her own. That is amazing. Unlike Abraham, God never spoke directly to Ruth (thanks Pastor Mark) so she was ready to accept God by pure faith. Which one of us can say that we would do that?

The bible says that we are to drop everything and follow Jesus. But how many times do we make excuses for not following Him wholeheartedly? Without reservation. It’s our human nature.

And I know I will stumble. Many more times in my life. But God is there to help me stand and the Bible is there to support my walk.

I strive to be more like Ruth.

In more than name.

I’m not going to lie. It’s gonna be tough.

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you

or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go,

and where you stay I will stay. Your people

will be my people and your God my God.

ruth 1:16

So, a few days ago my devotion was taking from Judges 13. I take my devotions from a book called Solo: The Message//Remix:Solo – An Uncommon Devotional.

Carlos had written about it on Ragamuffin Soul. Anyway, Judges 13 is the story of Samson, the strongest man in the world, but apparently the weakest man, when it came to women. Although my devotional told me to read only Judges 13, I continued to read from Samson’s birth to his death. What I do not understand is why Samson was enamored (and whipped) so many times by his women.

Ok, I’ll give him the first one. What happened was that he got married to this beautiful Philistine woman and during his wedding feast, he told his Philistine guests a riddle (Judges 14:14):

“Out of the eater, something to eat;
out of the strong, something sweet.”

He gave the men 7 days to answer it. The prize to the winner was thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes (Samson to the men if he lost; the men to Samson if they lost). For three days, the men could not answer the riddle. On the fourth day, the men threatened Samson’s wife into getting the answer. She threw herself on him, sobbing, he gave her the answer and then she, in turn relayed it onto the men.

Before sunset on the seventh day the men of the town said to him,
“What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?”
Samson said to them,
“If you had not plowed with my heifer,
you would not have solved my riddle.”

Samson had to pay (and he did… very angrily). Like I said, I’ll give him that one. He trusted her.

The part I do not understand is Samson with Delilah. Was she so beautiful that he would still accept her after she repeatedly betrayed him? Long story short, Samson defeated the Philistines time and time again. They were annoyed (to say the least) and wanted to know the secret of his strength in order to defeat him. Again, the rulers of the Philistines sought out his girl, Delilah. This time, they didn’t threaten her, but instead bribed her. Eleven hundred shekels of silver from each of the rulers was enough.

Alright, I admit, past relationships should not affect present relationships. If a person lets you down, it’s no fair to hold it against another person. But how about when a person continually betrays you? Delilah did it three times:

In Judges 16:6 Delilah told Samson, “Tell me the secret of your great strength and how you can be tied up and subdued.” Tied up and subdued? Really? The first three times he told her lies.

The first time he told her: If they bind me with seven green withs that were never dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

The second time he told her: If they bind me fast with new ropes that never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and be as another man.

The third time he said” If thou weavest the seven locks of my head with the web.

After all those times, she did what he said and called the Philistines. While the Philistines hid, she yelled,”The Philistines be upon thee, Samson.” His power had not gone and so he was able to beat them.

After the third time he lied to her, she pouted and questioned his love. That did it. And he told her the truth. She betrayed him one last time and the result: the Philistines got him, plucked his eyes out, enslaved him and made him dance for them.

My question: what the heck was he thinking after the first, “The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” The second time? The third time?