Samson (2)—Pleasing Self - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2026

Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went up and told his father and mother, saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines … Get her for me, for she pleases me well.”
Judges 14:1–3

Samson (2)—Pleasing Self
In due time Samson was born. As he grew, the Lord blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him. As a Nazirite he was to be holy, separated to the Lord (Num. 6:2–8). God’s special purpose for Samson was that he should begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines (Judg. 13:5). Our Lord Jesus “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father” (Gal. 1:4). May we be vessels for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work!

Sad to say, Samson “went down.” While this term is descriptive geographically, it is often used in a moral sense as well. We see him here “drawn away by his own desires and enticed,” and, as James 1:14–15 makes plain, desire would give birth to sin and sin full-grown would ultimately bring forth death. God had forbidden His people to intermarry with the nations around them.

Samson has many followers today. Setting aside God’s clearly expressed will, he tells his parents to get him this Philistine woman to be his wife, insisting that “she pleases me well”! What a contrast Samson the Nazirite was to Him of whom we read, “For even Christ did not please Himself,” and, “I always do those things that please Him [who sent Me]” (Rom. 15:3; Jn. 8:29)! Children are to honor their parents. Thus, even humanly speaking, Samson was out of place in his attitude toward his parents. But God would use Samson’s dreadful self-will to accomplish His purpose.

Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.

Oh, let me hear Thee speaking, in accents clear and still,
Above the storms of passion, the murmurs of self-will.

J. E. Bode