When You Play Games with Temptation - Judges 14:1 - 15:12 (Session 14)

Judges 14 begins Samson’s downward spiritual spiral. Although he had been set apart for God from birth, Samson sees a Philistine woman in Timnah and demands that his parents arrange the marriage because she looks good to him.

In this session, Glenn and Steve examine how Samson’s choices reflect the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life described in 1 John 2:16. His attraction is driven by appearance rather than shared faith, character, or obedience to God. Samson’s parents offer wise counsel, but as an adult, he insists on making his own decision.

The passage then records Samson killing a lion through the power of the Spirit of the Lord. Later, however, he returns to the carcass, takes honey from it, eats it, and gives some to his parents without telling them where it came from. In doing so, Samson violates both the Mosaic Law and the requirements of his Nazirite calling.

At his wedding feast, Samson begins gambling and trading riddles with the Philistines. What begins as entertainment quickly turns dangerous when the Philistine men threaten to burn his wife and her family. His wife betrays the answer, Samson reacts in anger, and the conflict escalates into violence and revenge.

Judges 15 continues the pattern. Samson returns only when he wants physical intimacy, becomes angry when he learns that his wife has been given to another man, destroys Philistine crops, and then retaliates again after the Philistines kill the woman and her father.

The session closes with Israel handing Samson over to the Philistines because the people are more afraid of their oppressors than willing to stand for what is right. The warning is clear: believers must decide their moral boundaries before pressure arrives. Waiting until temptation or fear has already closed in makes compromise much more likely.

Scripture: Judges 14:1–15:13
Series: The Book of Judges — An RTTB Study

Questions discussed in this session:

• Should parents overrule their children when they make bad choices? 
• What does the Bible teach us about marrying people outside the faith?
• Does our sin only affect us or does it always affect others?
• Can we play with evil? 
• Do we sometimes have a gift of God that we do not take seriously?  

Transcript

Samson's Marriage and Motivations

Speaker 1 0:10

Music . Welcome back to Reasoning Through the Bible . We're working our way through the Book of Judges and today we're starting at chapter 14 . We're talking about Samson , and last time we saw Samson was born and was a fulfillment of prophecy . God reached out to the people of Israel , even though they didn't reach out to him . He gave a special command to Samson's parents that Samson was to be a Nazarite , which meant don't cut your hair , nothing from a vine . He was supposed to stay away from dead bodies and set himself apart . He's going to have a great gift that we're going to learn here in chapter 14 . And in Judges , chapter 14 is Samson and this marriage ceremony . In verse 1 it says Samson went down to Timna and saw a woman in Timna , one of the daughters of the Philistines , who was Samson wanting to marry ?

Speaker 1 1:13

there A non-Israelite , a Philistine , were the people of Israel supposed to be marrying people who were not Jewish .

Speaker 2 1:21

No , and not only that , but this is the enemy . These are the ones that are occupying their inheritance land and they're forcing them to live in the upper areas , not down there on the lowlands of the farming area . They're up living in the rocks and high places of the area when it says there he saw this woman was lusting after what he saw .

Speaker 1 1:45

What comes to mind ?

Speaker 2 1:46

I think if you go over and look at 1 John 2.16 , there's something there that John writes about that I think that we can take across all of the scripture in various areas . So let me read that 1 John 2.16 , for all that is in the world , the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life , is not from the Father but is from the world . I think that these three things less the eyes , less of the flesh and the pride of life can be boiled down into every sin is rooted in one or parts of or all three of these areas . We see this depicted here and we see it in other areas in scripture and we'll bring that out every time we come across it . But here we see him . We're seeing that he sees a woman in Timnah so that's the lust of the eyes . And then he wants them to go get her for his wife . That's the lust of the flesh . And then a little bit later , in verse 12 , when he poses the riddle to the Philistines , we see that that's the pride of life .

Speaker 2 2:51

We can also see that Satan uses this even from the very beginning , back in Genesis with Eve . It says there in chapter 3 , whenever he tempted her with the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil , it says whenever she looked on it and saw that it was good to look at , that's the lust of the eyes . When she saw that it was good to eat , that's the lust of the flesh . And that it would make her wise , that's the pride of life . So what we can take away from that , I think , is that Satan uses the same tactics in our lives in one of these three areas .

Speaker 2 3:31

That can lead us away and lead us astray from God . We should know that these three areas , as John points out in 1 John , they're not of God , they're of the world , and we should always be on guard on those three areas of our lives .

Speaker 1 3:46

Oh yes , and we live in a day to day where outward beauty is lifted up as kind of the be all and end all of what a relationship ought to be between a husband and wife . Here , would be a note that I would give to anybody in the modern day wanting to get married . If all you're doing is going after what you see in a spouse , then don't be surprised if you end up married to a Philistine .

Speaker 1 4:15

If all you're doing is looking after what you see , you may wake up one day next to a Philistine , because that can happen . So let me read the next couple verses here , starting verse 2 . He came back and told his father and mother I saw a woman in Timnah , one of the daughters of the Philistines . Now , therefore , get her for me as a wife . Then his father and his mother said to him is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives or among our people that you go and take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines ? But Samson said to his father get her for me , for she looks good for me .

Speaker 1 4:50

However , his father and mother did not know that it was of the Lord , for he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines . Now , at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel . So the motivation in verse 4 towards the Philistines was inspired in Samson by God . It says of the Lord . So the motivation was inspired by God . And it says in verse 4 , he was looking for an opportunity against the Philistines . Samson , apparently , was going to use this marriage as an opportunity to fight the Philistines . So from that standpoint , the motivation was good . Here's a question If he had a motivation against the Philistines , could he have found a way to fight them without getting married to them .

Speaker 2 5:34

Yeah , because they were already their enemy , they were antagonistic towards them , so there were plenty of different ways that he could have fought against the Philistines .

Speaker 1 5:44

I mean again back in Joshua , when Joshua and his army was defeating all these same peoples , did Joshua say hey , let's stop and get married to them ?

Speaker 2 5:53

So that we have a reason to fight against them .

Speaker 1 5:55

No , I mean so mess up at least number one here . If you're keeping a list , you might need a lot of paper because he's going to mess up a lot . Was marrying one of them a good idea ?

Speaker 2 6:07

I would say it's not the best idea certainly , Especially for somebody that had taken a Nazarite vow and that was clearly supposed to be set apart for specific reasons .

Speaker 1 6:18

So no , what does the Bible tell Christians about marrying ? Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers . 2 Corinthians 614 . If you're going to get married , be very careful who you marry To the Christian today , the command from the Lord is restricted to other Christians .

Speaker 1 6:38

That's what we're commanded to do , because a house divided against its self cannot stand and a husband and wife won't have the same motivations if one of them is truly a Christian and the other one's not . I think we can dig up some good things here about the parents in verses four and five , when the parents advised him against marrying , but they didn't prevent him . The parents advised Samson , but they did not overrule . Samson , Do you think that was wise ?

Speaker 2 7:08

Well , they had been told from the beginning that he was going to be someone that would begin to deliver them from the Philistines . So they could have said well , I don't know , maybe this is the way that God's going to work on it , but in general , you would think that they would put up an objection saying this is not really . And they did that . I think that was good .

Speaker 1 7:31

Yeah , right , right Point I'm trying to make here , I think , is by this point , samson's an adult , exactly , he's of marrying age Right , and the parents recognize that they do what they should do , which is give wise counsel , but when he then insists , they

The Consequences of Playing With Evil

Speaker 1 7:47

let him do it . There comes a time , as a parent , when we must let go . There's a point as a parent .

Speaker 1 7:53

When you cannot keep them tied to your apron strings , you have to let them go . And their adults , they must go their own way . I've seen parents try to steer their adult children and it doesn't work well , it never does . These parents , I think , handled it wisely . They advised him wisely , but they did not overrule him . Steve , I'm going to read the next few verses . I'm going to start at verse five and go through verse nine .

Speaker 1 8:23

Then Samson went down to Timna with his father and mother and came as far as the vineyards of Timna and behold , a young lion came roaring towards him . The spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily so that he tore him as one tears a young goat , though he had nothing in his hand . But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done . So he went down and talked to the woman and she looked good to Samson . When he returned later to take her , he turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion and behold , a swarm of bees and honey were in the body of the lion . So he scraped the honey into his hands and went on eating as he went , and when he came to his father and mother , he gave some to them and they ate it , but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of a lion .

Speaker 2 9:11

If I can explain a little bit of this , because this sounds like well , why wouldn't they know that he had killed the lion there with him ?

Speaker 2 9:19

This is kind of taking over a period of time in these four verses . Yes , the one at the beginning there when they were coming to the vineyard again , he wasn't supposed to take any wine or go near grapes or anything else like that . So you get the picture of they're going through the vineyard but Samson is going around the vineyard and as he goes around the vineyard he meets this lion and kills the lion . Then it says that later when he went back to get the woman . So now this is a period of time has passed and he's going back to get the woman and he sees the dead carcass it's obviously decayed , has the honey in it and he takes of it and then gives it to him but doesn't tell him what happened . So that's why there's it can be a little bit confusing that these four verses are not something that happened on that single trip . It's over a period of time and Samson had taken a different path .

Speaker 1 10:11

The Bible will compress time sometimes . Now a tip for our listeners whenever you see an animal in the Bible , especially in the Old Testament , you need to always go back to the laws in Leviticus and Deuteronomy when it talks about clean and unclean animals . All those tedious , boring laws back in Leviticus are really the key to unlocking a lot of stories in the Bible . You really need to be aware . Whenever you see an animal , always ask yourself is this a clean animal or an unclean animal ? According to Leviticus , and again , clean and unclean just means are we allowed to eat it or not ? Back in Leviticus , chapter 11 , israel could only eat animals that divided hooves and chewed cudd . And then in that same chapter , leviticus 18 , israel was not even supposed to touch the carcasses of an unclean animal . Besides the Nazarite vow , they're not being near , go near any dead body , any dead bodies . A lion , is that a clean or an unclean animal ? Unclean , it's unclean . They weren't supposed to eat lion . They weren't supposed to be around lions . These were unclean animals .

Speaker 1 11:24

Well , he attacked him . Obviously different . You gotta defend yourself , you have to defend yourself . But the part where he messes up . He goes back and what does he find inside the carcass ? Honey , honey . He scoops out the honey . What did he just do ?

Speaker 1 11:40

Touch the dead animal , not only a dead animal , but an unclean animal . And then he eats it . And then what does he do with it ? Takes it home and gives it to mom and dad .

Speaker 1 11:51

Mom and dad and they ate it and they didn't tell him where it came from . So now , not only is Samson sinning , but he's causing his parents to sin . He is thoroughly violating the Mosaic law . This is a royal mess up . Samson has started out on a bad path . Now the other part was verse seven , just to reiterate what we talked about earlier . He went down and talked to the woman and she did what Looked good to Samson , looked good to me , and same thing he told his father she looks good to me . So again , the lust of the eyes .

Speaker 1 12:26

Samson is hanging around a vineyard . He's scooping out food that he's not supposed to eat . He's causing his family members to sin . So he is violating the law thoroughly . Now here's a note to modern people Be careful in the vineyard , because there's lions lurking in the vineyard . There's lions lurking around where they make the alcohol . There are lions out in the grain yards to where they make the beer . That's all I'm going to say is that there's lions out there and because I've seen some people get attacked by the lion and captured by the lion no-transcript and now they're caught . That happens . Not lifting myself up , not being legalistic , all I'm doing is warning . There's lions in the vineyard . We talked about a lion as an unclean animal wasn't supposed to touch any of this .

Speaker 1 13:21

The Nazarite vow , back in numbers , says you're not supposed to do this . You weren't supposed to give his parents . Look at verse 10 . We have here in Judges 14 , he has promised to marry this Philistine woman and there's this seven day feast to celebrate the marriage . In verses 12 to 14 , he makes this wager with these Philistine men that if he gives them a riddle and he wins , they give him 30 sets of fine clothes . If he loses , then he'll give the Philistines 30 sets of fine clothes . Riddles are this kind of game . It's an form of entertainment . So what's Samson doing here ? He's playing with them .

Speaker 2 14:04

This is the pride of life part . I'm smarter and he's trying to show that he has more wisdom than them and can smart them .

Speaker 1 14:13

Right Back to the big picture . Who were these people ?

Speaker 2 14:15

Philistines and the 30 companions that were there were Philistines . They weren't Israelites .

Speaker 1 14:20

These were people that God had commanded Israel , back in Joshua , to do what ? Drive them out of the land ? God had blessed Samson with this great strength so that he could drive them out . And what's he doing ? He's marrying them and now he's playing games and partying with them . Playing games and partying Is it wise to gamble on a situation proposed by another person ? Even in a secular sense , gamblers that would say never bet on another man's game . Somebody comes up to you and proposes a game and wants you to bet on it . Watch out .

Speaker 1 15:00

Samson's not even following good secular common sense . Don't bet on another man's game . Many a person has had their money taken this way , and especially with your enemy . And again this enemy represented evil . They represented the evil gods with the evil practices . Can we play around and play games with evil ? And what happens if we do play games with evil ? It's not going to be a game very long . Bad consequences are going to follow . So Samson is playing this game . Was it wise to play games with evil ? No , it's not . It's not going to be a game very long . Bad consequences are going to follow . So Steve read verse 15 .

Speaker 2 15:42

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 ? So what are they threatening to ?

Speaker 1 15:59

do to Samson's wife ? Kill her and and her family .

Speaker 2 16:03

These are evil people and she's a Philistine .

Speaker 1 16:06

She's one of them . She's one of the Philistines . So remember , God had commanded Israel to get rid of these people . So here in what started out as a game , what started out as a fun game , now it's gotten very serious . These people , instead of losing this gamble they had , are ready to kill the whole family . These are truly evil people . If God had not judged them , he would have been guilty of allowing evil . So look down at verse 17 . What did the wife do to try to get Samson to tell her the riddle ?

Speaker 2 16:38

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 . Then she told the riddle to the sons of her people .

Speaker 1 16:53

Okay . So she cried and she said you don't love me Now . Samson is a really strong guy . Did he hold up in the face of a woman's tears ?

Speaker 2 17:04

No , no . Another way you could have put it is she nagged him . She just nagged him for days .

Speaker 1 17:08

After him for days . So a woman turning on the tears has worked 3,000 years ago , in the days of Samson , and it works today . So she nags him in verses 16 and 17 and then in verses 19 and 20 , go ahead and read those .

Speaker 2 17:24

Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 of them , 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 , but Samson's wife was given to his companion who had been his friend .

Speaker 1 17:45

Okay , so here's my question If Samson could so easily go and kill Philistines , why would he not just become a military leader and destroy the entire nation ? The reason why is because he's not being serious with his gift . Samson could have gone and done that . The reason he's not is because he's not being serious with his gift . Here he's acting like a spoiled child . He's more angry at losing the wager , losing the game . He's more angry with that than he is at the Philistines' evil idol worship and their attack on his country for 40 years . It said back at the beginning of the story . So he shows no care about the evil idol worship , the oppression . He cared a lot about losing his little game , his bed on his little game . Enough to where he gets angry and goes kills these people . Well , if he could do that , that easily , grab a sword , get an army and go fight them as a man would .

Speaker 2 18:47

We're seeing here that Samson is just a selfish , very selfish , that he's here , all this is operating around him and around his family , but it's within himself . It's not to date . So far he hasn't expanded out to help his kinsmen and his fellow countrymen . It's all been around him .

Speaker 1 19:09

Yes , it's all been around him , verse 19,

The Consequences of Samson's Actions

Speaker 1 19:12

. The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him . It seems in the Bible that the Holy Spirit can move and empower people at special times to come upon people . It's a little different in the New Testament because we have the Holy Spirit in all of us , but I think even there , like in the book of Acts , the text would say Peter was full of the Holy Spirit and he would then go speak in front of the Sanhedrin or something A little bit of a theological note here .

Speaker 1 19:40

The empowering of the Holy Spirit in the Bible is always to go do a task . It's not for dancing around on the stage in front of the church , running up and down the aisles , falling over and moaning and groaning , having some sort of exercise up on the platform and saying the Holy Spirit's come upon me . In the Bible , when the Holy Spirit comes upon people , they go do a work for the Lord .

Speaker 2 20:07

That's when the empowering of the Holy Spirit and I'll leave that before I get in trouble- To your point earlier or just a while ago , is that , in the Old Testament , the Spirit of the Lord came , and sometimes , quite often , quite often , god would withdraw the Spirit of the Lord . Saul is an example of that . In the New Testament , though , and when we become Christians , the Holy Spirit is there with us throughout , all of our lives .

Speaker 1 20:32

Now we find out what happens afterwards . In Judges 15 , starting at verse 1 , says this but after a while , the time of wheat harvest , samson visited his wife with a young goat and said I will go into my wife in her room , but her father did not let him enter . Her father said I really thought that you had hated her intensely , so I gave her to your companion . Is not her younger sister more beautiful than she ? Please let her be yours instead . Samson then said to them this time I shall be blameless in regard to the Philistines when I do them harm . Samson went and caught 300 foxes and took torches and turned the foxes tail to tail and put one torch in the middle between the two tails . And when he had set fire to the torches he released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines , thus burning up both the shocks and the standing grain , along with the vineyards and groves . Then the Philistines said who did this ? And they said Samson , the son-in-law of the Timnite , because he took his wife and gave her to his companion . So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire . Samson said to them Since you act like this , I will surely take revenge on you , but after that I will quit . He struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock at Eton . Let's go through this a little bit .

Speaker 1 21:55

Verse one After a while , samson went to what was to be his wife . He got mad at the marriage ceremony and he ran off . Now he comes back after a while . He was acting like a spoiled adolescent . He gets mad because he lost a bet and he runs off because he's mad . And he stays a while . And meanwhile , while he's gone , hey , we've got a party here , there's a wedding feast , let's go ahead and have a wedding . They gave it to the best man . Samson waits a while and then , in the middle of verse one , what reason does it say he came back ?

Speaker 2 22:27

I will go to my wife in her room , so he wants to be intimate with her .

Speaker 1 22:32

He would want to be intimate with her . He wanted the physical intimacy . He's wanting her in a physical sense and nothing to do with loving her as a person . So he's been a fairly miserable what he thought he was still the husband , but he had been fairly miserable at this . You don't just get mad and run off and stay for a long time and then , when you want the physical needs , come back again . Samson's striking out all up and down the line here . Verse two the father offers Samson the sister and in verse three , samson rejects the idea of marrying the sister . Now is that a good idea , just from the common sense standpoint ? What do you think of this father ?

Speaker 2 23:10

Well , it sounds like for some reason he wants to honor this arrangement . But why again ? If he hasn't treated his oldest daughter or older daughter , why would you offer your younger daughter ?

Speaker 1 23:22

Back in Leviticus again . Leviticus and Deuteronomy are the golden keys that unlock everything in the rest of the Old Testament . In Leviticus 18 , there's a command in there from God that says that somebody is not to marry a sibling , a sister , if it will create a rivalry . What would have happened here if he would have married this other girl ? You've got a rivalry . Perhaps Samson was thinking of this mosaic law that says , hey , if I marry her , that's going to be this rivalry .

Speaker 2 23:55

But I doubt that I was fixing to say . If so , he's picking and choosing which of these mosaic laws that he wants to honor At the most he's picking and choosing which laws , but I don't think that , even across his mind .

Speaker 1 24:07

I think he's just mad because he had this one girl in his mind and now he finds out his adolescent tantrum continues . Looking versus four and five , he gets mad again and he acts like this angry teenager . He tortures some poor foxes and uses them to burn up a crop of the Philistines , which cost the Philistines . This is agriculture economy , that's a lot of money , so now they're angry too . Is there anywhere in this story where Samson goes and elicits the help of his fellow Israelites ?

Speaker 2 24:41

No , and I know I've said this several times , but it just hits me again looking at this , these Philistines have kept his fellow countrymen up in the hill country . You can't grow things up in the hill , they're living in caves up there and you get a description here of what they've done . They've got fields of grain , they have vineyards . They're down there at the harvest time . They've got honey just flowing out of the everywhere . What comes to your point is that here's Samson , who's set apart , who's supposed to begin delivering them from these Philistines , and he's down there cohorting with them , marrying with them , having riddles with them , and , and , and , etc . So no , he's not even rallying his fellow countrymen to drive them out .

Speaker 1 25:30

Instead of this adolescent trick here with these foxes , go grab a sword , train up an army and come down here and drive these people out , like God told you to do . But he's not . He's just acting childish . So at the end of verse 6 , what did the Philistines do in retaliation ?

Speaker 2 25:48

They came and burned her and her father with fire . They fulfilled what they had said they were going to do if she hadn't gotten the answer to the riddle .

Speaker 1 25:56

So again , over and over with all these stories in the Book of Judges , it's a mess up from the word go . Every character in the story is I mean , with very few exceptions , every character in the story , all the key players are violating God's law . Remember what we said . The last verse in the whole book is that's the key to this book . Everyone did what was right in their own eyes . Here we have these people . Instead of doing the way God would like , they're just getting angry at each other and getting worse and worse .

Speaker 2 26:29

It also gives an insight into their mentality . Burning somebody to death is not a quick death . They're not just killing , it's a torturous death .

Speaker 1 26:39

And whatever financial loss you had . It doesn't equate to go kill a whole family . Now the woman , the original wife , think about this when she was betrothed to Samson and with the riddle she lied to Samson . She lied to her fiance because she was trying to save the life of her and her family . She violated the trust of her fiance and lied to them because these guys had threatened her life . The result of the lie was that her family ended up getting killed . She was lying because of these people were blackmailing her , and the people that blackmailed her ended up killing her anyway . Lying to try to prevent a problem with somebody blackmailing you is just going to end up in a problem any way you go . So you might as well tell the truth .

Speaker 2 27:30

Well , especially when that somebody is an evil person and have evil intent .

Speaker 1 27:34

So then the adolescent fight here just keeps going versus seven and eight . Now Samson gets mad for the burning to death of the woman and goes and kills a group of Philistines . It's like a bunch of children fighting . Only now they're playing with guns , they're playing with their , playing with lives . Here it's not just a childish fight , they're killing each other and it's all a big mess .

Samson's Compromises and Moral Dilemmas

Speaker 1 27:57

And again , if Samson in verses seven and eight of judges 15 , he just goes out and it says in verse 18 , struck them ruthlessly with a great slaughter , well , if he could do that at will , how come he didn't ? I mean , he was supposed to be the big military leader . I'm not even a soldier . If Samson came to me and said get behind me , let's go . Okay , right , I'll get behind you . I forgot Samson in front of you . But he didn't . He's playing games , he's getting mad , he's sending from the word go , verse nine , the Philistine army comes up and lines up against Israel . And in verses 10 through 13 , israel gets scared of the Philistine army and turns over Samson . Think of that . The people of Israel are so intimidated by the enemy that they would rather turn over an innocent man to his death rather than stand up for righteousness .

Speaker 2 28:49

And in verse nine there and the Philistines went up and camped in Judah . They're not scared at all . They're not . They're not frightened of the Israelites at all , and we can see why because they're not doing anything to defend themselves or can't drive them out . It's this exact opposite of what the Israelites should be doing .

Speaker 1 29:06

One last point for today . At this point , I think we can draw a lesson . These people of Israel got in a spot against this army of the Philistines and they compromised by turning over an innocent man which , in their minds , he would have been killed . We should , in our lives , be prepared for what happens if we get into a difficult situation that's demanding us to compromise our morals . You can't wait until you're right in the middle of the moral vice that's trying to squeeze you in order to decide what I'm going to do . What we have to do , if we're ever going to be people with some backbone , is to decide ahead of time what we're going to do .

Speaker 1 29:52

If I ever get into a situation where I have people demanding I compromise morally , I have to decide that in advance . I have to , in cold blood , make up my mind . What am I going to do so that , when I get into these situations , I won't cave and I won't compromise ? If you wait till you get blindsided by a moral dilemma , then you'll compromise every time . We have to make up our mind as Christians in advance . What am I going to do when I get into a situation and then , when you get there , follow through with it . That's it for today . We've got Samson here in a bad spot . He's spiraling downward and we're going to find out next time what happens to him . On reasoning through the Bible .