Session 11
Judges 16:16-31
Memory Verse: Psalm 28:7
Numerous people have succumbed to sensual desires throughout history.
Temptation has gotten the best of countless political, business, and religious leaders.
Add to that the countless mass of non-famous people who have fallen into sexual sin.
Like every sin, moral failure is no respecter of persons.
Every human being is broken,
and every human being has the potential to commit any sin without Jesus’s help-
including sexual sins.
Samson was set apart by God even before he was born,
and he was empowered by the Spirit throughout his life.
As a result, he accomplished supernatural feats
that targeted Israel’s enemy, the Philistines.
Unfortunately, his promiscuity got the best of him on multiple occasions,
and he paid a tremendous physical and spiritual price.
Parents, grandparents, teachers,
and anyone who has spent time with young children recognize the importance of teaching the concept of cause and effect.
The idea is that for every cause there is an effect
and that for every effect there was a cause.
In other words, there are consequences to every person’s thoughts, behaviors, and actions.
In the Bible, Samson is one example among many
who suffered the consequences of a weak moral character. (PSG, p. 100)
Summarize this information from “Understand the Context”
“The angel of the Lord appeared to his barren mother
and informed her that she and her husband would have a son and that they must raise him as a Nazirite (13:2-7).
This meant that he was not to consume anything derived from the grapevine,
he was to abstain from alcohol, his hair was never to be cut,
and he was to avoid contact with any corpse (Num. 6:1-21).
The Spirit of the Lord stirred Samson, and he was a judge in Israel for twenty years (Judg. 13:25; 15:20).
Samson, however, had a flawed character and kept the wrong company.” (PSG, p. 101)
Samson demonstrated a weak moral character on many occasions.
But in his encounter with a woman named Delilah,
his lack of self-control took him farther than he ever expected
to go-and he suffered for it.