{"id":1394,"date":"2019-01-12T15:32:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-12T23:32:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1394"},"modified":"2019-01-12T15:32:33","modified_gmt":"2019-01-12T23:32:33","slug":"devotion-judges-1513-15-looking-for-jawbones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=1394","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Judges 15:13-15 Looking For Jawbones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judges 15:13-15<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup><\/b><\/span>\u201cAgreed,\u201d they answered. \u201cWe will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.\u201d So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.\u00a014\u00a0As he approached Lehi,\u00a0the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came powerfully upon him.\u00a0The ropes on his arms became like charred flax,\u00a0and the bindings dropped from his hands.\u00a015\u00a0Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cAgreed,\u201d they answered. \u201cWe will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.\u201d So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.<\/i>\u00a0 Notice that it was carefully recorded that Samson, a Judge of Israel blessed by God with supernatural physical strength, was bound with two new ropes.\u00a0 The ropes may also be described a strong woven cords.\u00a0 These men knew of Samson\u2019s legendary strength and they didn\u2019t bind him with only one strong binding, but with two.\u00a0 They wanted to make sure that he was bound and could not free himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs he approached Lehi,\u00a0the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came powerfully upon him.\u00a0The ropes on his arms became like charred flax,\u00a0and the bindings dropped from his hands.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Whenever I have seen, or heard this portrayed it has always (mostly?) been portrayed inaccurately.\u00a0 It has been portrayed that mighty Samson snapped the ropes that bound him.\u00a0 Yet, we clearly see that is not what happened.\u00a0 The Spirit of the Lord \u201ccame powerfully upon him<\/i>\u201d and that which bound him were disabled, these new bindings supernaturally and quickly rotted away while on his wrists and Sampson was now free do the work of God.\u00a0 It is a shame that the glory is too often given to Sampson and the glory is not given to the Spirit of God where it belongs.\u00a0 Sampson did nothing to free Himself, it is God who freed Him.\u00a0 God had something for Sampson to do and so God freed and enabled Him to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a thousand men.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 God was about to show that when He gives a divine assignment to a person, He fully equips them to do it.\u00a0 First God frees Sampson from what bound him and now it just so happens (not) that a fresh jawbone of a donkey happens to lying around.\u00a0 Remember, there is no coincidence with God.<\/p>\n

The Philistines were terrorists, they were invaders, who killed and tormented the Israelites.\u00a0 God was using Sampson to protect the Israelites and to show His power for them and among them.<\/p>\n

It truly was amazing that Sampson could pick up the jawbone of a Donkey and kill one thousand Philistines.\u00a0 Certainly Sampson need all of the supernatural strength that God gave him.\u00a0 But Sampson needed more than strength.\u00a0 He needed endurance.\u00a0 Think of the endurance it took to continuously wield the donkey jawbone to kill one thousand men who had on armor and were armed with knives, spears, and swords.\u00a0 Great strength was needed, but also great endurance.\u00a0 The fight certainly took a long period of time.\u00a0 For anyone who has ever trained hitting a heavy bag, it is certain that great endurance was needed and that is what God also provided.<\/p>\n

Also, God protected Sampson.\u00a0 No-one snuck up behind Sampson to stab him with a spear or sword.\u00a0 That was God\u2019s protection.\u00a0 He always has our back!<\/p>\n

So God freed Sampson from what bound him, provided for him and enabled him with supernatural strength and endurance to complete the task that God had for him to do.\u00a0 Family, so He has done for us.\u00a0 Jesus came to set us free from the enemy\u2019s chains that bound us (Isaiah 61:1-2, Luke 4:18-19<\/b>).\u00a0 He provided us with His Word as the tool to defeat the enemy (Ephesians 6:10-17<\/b>).\u00a0 And His Spirit is within us to teach us, to guide us (John 14:26<\/b>) and to do supernatural works to prove that we are His (Zechariah 4:6<\/b>).\u00a0 When the Philistines saw how Sampson was blessed of God they took notice.\u00a0 In the same way when we yield to God the world will take notice when we walk in the power and under the direction of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:14<\/b>).\u00a0 We see that whom God has called God has equipped.\u00a0 We are more than conquerors by the hand of God (Romans 8:37<\/b>).<\/p>\n

It is highly unlikely that God will have any of us to wield the jawbone of a donkey to defeat a thousand foes.\u00a0 But we can see that God will enable us to face, and defeat the enemy, and all his subjects, that oppose us.\u00a0 The odds can be overwhelming.\u00a0 The story does not say that Samson was not hit or kicked, it tells of his overcoming the enemy who attacked him.\u00a0 We may get kicked in the gut but God is always with us to ultimately defeat the enemy that attacks us.\u00a0 God, who knows all, already has freed us through Jesus.\u00a0 Jesus is ever with us.\u00a0 The Spirit of God is within us.\u00a0 God is with us and ready will stay with us and has prepared the path for our victory. We must depend on Him and look for how He is leading us.\u00a0 So when the enemy is yelling, when the enemy is running and almost upon us, we need to know that God has already freed us and now we just need to look for the jawbone God has already placed for us.\u00a0 The victory is already ours.\u00a0 The enemy is already defeated.\u00a0 We need to trust in God and yield to Him and to watch the thousands fall around us (Psalm 91:7<\/b>).\u00a0 And remember, don\u2019t quit!\u00a0 Don\u2019t give up.\u00a0 Sampson didn\u2019t stop at five hundred, or nine hundred ninety-nine, he endured and got the victory after one thousand.\u00a0 Don\u2019t quit.\u00a0 Don\u2019t give up.\u00a0 When the swarm is on you, God is with you and He will see you through to the victory.\u00a0 Believe it!\u00a0 Embrace it!\u00a0 Never let it go and always don\u2019t doubt God but praise and thank Him.\u00a0 It\u2019s part of the formula of victory.\u00a0 Blessings and love from God to all!\u00a0 Praise God!\u00a0 God is good and He loves us!\u00a0 Praise God!<\/p>\n

Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judges 15:13-15\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAgreed,\u201d they answered. \u201cWe will only tie you up and hand you over to them. We will not kill you.\u201d So they bound him with two new ropes and led him up from the rock.\u00a014\u00a0As he approached Lehi,\u00a0the Philistines came toward him shouting. The Spirit of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0came powerfully upon him.\u00a0The ropes on his arms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[1841,103,100,2459,106,94,17,10,874],"class_list":["post-1394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-ephesians","tag-isaiah","tag-john","tag-judges","tag-luke","tag-micah","tag-psalm","tag-romans","tag-zechariah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1395,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394\/revisions\/1395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}