Partial Victory Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: "Partial Victory" ------------- Date: 10/04/1998 Keywords: "partial" "decisive" "vulnerable" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. The story of Samson (Judges 13-16) depicts the tragedy that can result from giving in to lust. Let us see what we can learn from his experience. Passage: Judges 14:17-20 * 12 Then Samson said to them, "Let me now propound a riddle to you; if you will indeed tell it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes. 13 "But if you are unable to tell me, then you shall give me thirty linen wraps and thirty changes of clothes." And they said to him, "Propound your riddle, that we may hear it." 14 So he said to them, "Out of the eater came something to eat, And out of the strong came something sweet." But they could not tell the riddle in three days. 15 Then it came about on the fourth day that they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband, so that he will tell us the riddle, or we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us? Is this not so?" 17 However she wept before him seven days while their feast lasted. And on the seventh day he told her because she pressed him so hard. She then told the riddle to the sons of her people. 18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" And he said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, You would not have found out my riddle." 19 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him mightily, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty of them and took their spoil and gave the changes of clothes to those who told the riddle. And his anger burned, and he went up to his father's house. 20 But Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his friend. Questions 1. Was killing 30 men from the next town an appropriate response to the actions of the men of this city?   2. Did Samson adequately defeat his adversaries?   3. After Samson's attack, was he more vulnerable or less vulnerable to attack from his adversaries?   4. What could you do to decisively overcome your temptation to view Internet pornography right now?   Practical help When you read the passages coming after this, you find Samson repeatedly facing his adversaries. He did not defeat them decisively - nor did he even try to. His victories were glorious and dramatic, but partial.   Decisive action is the only effective action when trying to defeat the adversary of Internet pornography. When you take only partial actions, you leave the door open for the temptation to slip back on. (If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell. - Matthew 18:9). Take decisive action -- run away from your temptation.   For Tomorrow Consider where you derive the ability to decisively master your temptations. Write down the sources of strength you rely on to master your temptations. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 1998 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."