I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

• 

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 14-16.

This took longer then I would have liked because every time I read the story of Samson I am struck by the same thing.  Samson had poor judgment when it came to women.  There are really two aspects to his poor judgment.  First, he allowed himself to become infatuated with women who were a poor choice, women who did not worship God.  Second he allowed them to manipulate him.  The mistake Samson made with his wife is fuly understandable.  He was young, inexperienced, and had no reason to know that she would betray him.

As an aside, we tend to fail to realize just how major Samson’s bet with his groomsmen was.  With industrialization, clothing has become inexpensive, but in Samson’s time it would have taken hundreds of hours of labor to make just one item of clothing.  As a result, clothing was a major expense.

 

 

However, the circumstance with Delilah was different.  Samson was older and more experienced.  Most importantly, Delilah repeatedly demonstrated that she was going to test what Samson told her.  In fact, she demonstrated that she would betray him given the opportunity.  Yet despite this, he continued to see her and allowed her to, eventually, cajole him into telling her the secret of his strength.  Samson’s weakness in this regard is not unique to him, nor is it particularly rare among men.  For that matter, women often show similar poor judgment.  The fact that sex can cause people to show such poor decision making is a reason in and of itself for us to follow the laws regarding marital fidelity which God has given us.