Delivered from Certain Defeat Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: Delivered from Certain Defeat ------------------------------ Date: 07/09/2000 Keywords: "Samson" "victory" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Passage: Judges 15:9-17* 9. Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi. 10. And the men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" And they said, "We have come up to bind Samson in order to do to him as he did to us." 11. Then 3,000 men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam and said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?" And he said to them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them." 12. And they said to him, "We have come down to bind you so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines." And Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not kill me." 13. So they said to him, "No, but we will bind you fast and give you into their hands; yet surely we will not kill you." Then they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock. 14. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. And the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily so that the ropes that were on his arms were as flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds dropped from his hands. 15. And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, so he reached out and took it and killed a thousand men with it. 16. Then Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have killed a thousand men." 17. And it came about when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand; and he named that place Ramath-lehi.   Question Background for question: At first, Samson wanted a relationship with the Philistines through marriage to one of their daughters. Now, they seek his destruction. Why? Samson made himself hated by the Philistines. He sought to marry one of the Philistine women, but when she tricked him into revealing a riddle, he impulsively killed many Philistines. Later, when he sought her company and was rebuffed, he took action against even more Philistines. In today's passage, Samson fights against even more of them. This time, he doesn't pursue them. They come after him! Do you see a parallel between Samson's relationship with the Philistines and your relationship to pornography?   Practical help Sadly, many men (and women, too) begin their involvement with porn much as a child might play with a kitten. But porn is not a plaything to trifle with. It grows up to be a tiger with fangs and claws. Many men will testify that once they gave in to the temptation to view porn, it became more and more difficult to stop. However, the situation is not hopeless. It wasn't for Samson who was shackled by the Philistines and it isn't for anyone who is trapped by porn! Judges 15:14 says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Samson. He broke his bonds and experienced a great victory over the Philistines. In the same way, God's strength is available to you. You may have been shackled by an addictive habit to viewing pornography — but God is greater than your addiction. He can set you free. And when was it that God's strength coursed through Samson's veins? It was just as the Philistines shouted a victory cry over Samson that the Lord strengthened him. They thought they finally had him in their grasp. Wrong!! Just at the moment that porn seems to have you in its grasp, look up. Turn your eyes on Jesus, and He will set you free. You don't have to give in to temptation. You can walk away and enjoy just as great a victory over porn as Samson did over the Philistines. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2000 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."