I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here.

     The stories of Samson do not reflect well on his character. After his wife betrayed him in the story from yesterday, he went off in a funk. His funk was understandable, but his reaction shows a lack of maturity. Today’s reading starts off with him returning to his wife, only to discover that his father-in-law had given her to another man in marriage because he thought that Samson did not want her anymore. Her father offers Samson another of his daughters, but Samson throws a temper tantrum and destroyed a large portion of Philistine crops. In response, the Philistines demonstrate that the threat that the men of Samson’s wedding party made against his bride was not an idle one. They take his former bride and her father and burn them to death. This proves to be no wiser an action than that of Samson, as Samson’s response is to go out and kill a large number of Philistines. The Philistines decide that since they cannot capture Samson themselves, they will get his own people to do so. Samson agrees to surrender himself to his countrymen, as long as they promise to turn him over alive to the Philistines. They do so. When they turn him over to the Philistines, Samson breaks his bonds and, once again, kills a large number of Philistines.
     Then we have the story of Samson with Delilah, and once again Samson demonstrates his poor judgment when it comes to women. The Philistines convince Delilah to find out the secret of Samson’s strength. So, she pesters him until he tells her. Except that he lies to her about it. She finds out his lie because she tries to use the “secret” he told her to bind him and it does not work. So, she pesters him some more and he tells her another lie. She tries this one and it does not work. This repeated yet again. Finally, he tells her the truth. I would ask what would lead him to do this after she has demonstrated three times that she will use his secret against him as soon as he tells her, except that I know the answer. Men often suffer lapses in judgment when it comes to women. I am no exception to this. We men must be aware of this weakness and avoid women who will use it to get us to make bad decisions. I do not know if all men suffer this weakness, but most do. There are good women, who being aware of this weakness in their men, are careful to test his reasons before trying to change his mind about things. Unfortunately, there are also women who, like Delilah, will use this weakness against the men in their lives.

     Here we have the story of Jesus at the wedding in Cana. This story carries a couple of meanings to me. The first is that Jesus respected the institution of marriage because He celebrated it with this couple. The second is that He honored His mother. He did not see it as something that involved Him and He felt that it was not yet time for Him to begin His ministry of miracles. Yet, when His mother told the servants to follow His instructions, with the implication that He would do something about the problem, He took action to resolve it. The final thing in the story is that Jesus had no problem with the use of alcohol (although other New Testament scripture tells us that we should only do so in moderation). How do I come to this conclusion? Because not only does Jesus make wine out of water, according to the master of ceremonies it was better than the wine originally served. Now from what I know of wine from that time, which is admittedly limited, and, also, of people in general, when the master of ceremonies said the wine was “better” he was likely saying that it was stronger. So, not only did Jesus make wine, but he made better, probably stronger, wine.
     Here John recounts Jesus clearing the Temple of merchants. In an earlier study I discussed Luke’s account of Jesus clearing the Temple shortly before His crucifixion. In addition to the corruption and abuse that the practices Jesus disrupted represented they, also, were a distraction from worshiping God. While it is likely that the merchant stalls originated as a convenience for those coming to worship who needed the items available there for their sacrifices and offerings, they had gone beyond that and become a major source of distraction. It is interesting that although He overturned the moneychangers’ tables and drove the sheep and the cattle out of the Temple, he merely went to the dove merchants and told them to get their doves out of the Temple. If you think about it, the moneychangers could gather their coins off of the ground and the livestock merchants could easily round up their livestock once it was outside of the Temple but if Jesus had released the doves they would have flown off and the merchants would have been unable to retrieve them (or at least most of them). This shows that Jesus had respect for their property rights. I don’t think you can build an entire economic philosophy from this, but it contributes to understanding Jesus view of economics.

     This is a psalm of praise. It reminds us that God does not punish us to the extent that our sin deserves. That God loves us and cares for us as a good father loves and cares for his children. “Let all that I am praise the Lord.” Lord, let this be my prayer today and every day.

     This proverb reminds us that if we do things in the heat of anger, we will often later regret our actions. It, also, tells us that those who scheme will be hated.