DCLM Daily Manna 2024: DCLM Daily Manna 30 August 2024: Trapped in the Flesh
Text: Judges 14:1-4 (KJV)
1 And Samson went down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines.
2 And he came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me to wife.
3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.
4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was of the LORD, that he sought an occasion against the Philistines: for at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
KEY VERSE:
“Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me; for she pleaseth me well.”
Brazilians and many Africans devised a simple trap to catch monkeys. The trap is a gourd with a little hole cut on it. The hole is barely enough to allow a monkey’s empty hand through. The gourd is tied to a tree branch and banana or roasted nuts are placed in it. The monkey comes around and puts its hand to take the bait, but cannot pull out the fist, clutching it. The monkey stubbornly persists, trying to pull out the banana or nut until the trap owner takes him alive. The monkey is trapped by what it loves and its stubbornness to get it at all costs.
Although Samson was a Nazarite, empowered by the Holy Spirit, he became entrapped by his lust for Philistine women. In the text, he was attracted to “a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines” who neither shared his faith nor his commitment to God. He decided to marry her despite God’s prohibition of such a union and his parent’s disapproval. Eventually, he was caught, bound, blinded, and mocked in an idol temple because of gratification of the flesh.
Satan enslaves people with the lust of the eyes, the flesh and the pride of life. Many who claim to be saved and Spirit-filled get into bondage to immorality, are overpowered by materialism, envy, revenge and other works of the flesh. When you walk by sight rather than by faith or when you do what gratifies your decadent desires, even if it contradicts the revealed will of God, it becomes easy for the flesh to gain mastery over you.
As we near the end of the year, we must never forget that true freedom from the dominance of the flesh is in Christ. Yielding yourself to God, crucifying the flesh daily and walking in the Spirit are the ways out of the fleshly trap.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Look away from Satan’s baits and you will escape his traps.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Esther 1-5
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Daily Manna 30 August 2024
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