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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Ethan: Welcome to Immerse: the
daily bible reading experience.
Day 100 and 77
Again, the Israelites did evil
in the Lord's sight, so the Lord
handed them over to the Philistines
who oppressed them for 40 years.
In those days, a man named Manoa from the
tribe of Dan lived in the town of Zora.
His wife was unable to become
pregnant, and they had no children.
The angel of the Lord appeared to Manoa's
wife and said, Even though you have been
unable to have children, you will soon
become pregnant and give birth to a son.
So be careful.
You must not drink wine or
any other alcoholic drink,
nor eat any forbidden food.
You will become pregnant and
give birth to a son and his
hair must never be caught for.
He will be dedicated to God
as a nazarite from birth.
He will begin to rescue
Israel from the Philistines.
The woman ran and told her husband,
A man of God appeared to me.
He looked like one of God's
angels terrifying to see.
I didn't ask where he was from
and he didn't tell me his name,
but he told me, you'll become
pregnant and give birth to his son.
You must not drink wine or any
other alcoholic drink, nor eat any
forbidden food for your son will
be dedicated to God as a nazarite
from the moment of his birth.
Until the day of his death.
Then Manoa prayed to the Lord, saying,
Lord, please let the man of God come back
to us again and give us more instructions
about this son who is to be born.
God answered Manoa's prayer and the
angel of God appeared once again to
his wife as she was sitting in the
field, but her husband Manoa was not
with her, so she quickly ran and told
her husband, the man who appeared
to me the other day is here again.
Manoa ran back with his wife
and asked, are you the man who
spoke to my wife the other day?
Yes, he replied, I am.
So Manoa asked him when your words
come true, what kind of rules should
govern the boy's life and work?
The angel of the Lord replied,
be sure your wife follows
the instructions I gave her.
She must not eat grapes or raisins,
drink wine or any other alcoholic
drink or eat any forbidden food.
Then Manoa said to the angel of the
Lord, please stay here until we can
prepare a young goat for you to eat.
I will stay.
The angel of the Lord replied,
but I will not eat anything.
However, you may prepare a burnt
offering that's a sacrifice to the Lord.
Manoa didn't realize it
was the angel of the Lord.
I.
Then Manoa asked the angel of
the Lord, what is your name
for when all this comes true?
We want to honor you.
Why do you ask my name?
The angel of the Lord replied, it is
too wonderful for you to understand.
Then Manoa took a young goat and
a grain offering and offered it on
a rock as a sacrifice to the Lord,
and as Manoa and his wife watched,
the Lord did an amazing thing.
As the flames from the altar shot
up toward the sky, the angel of
the Lord ascended in the fire.
When Manoa and his wife saw this, they
fell with their faces to the ground.
The angel did not appear again to
Manoa and his wife Manoa finally
realized it was the angel of the Lord.
And he said to his wife, we will
certainly die for we have seen God, but
his wife said, If the Lord were going
to kill us, he wouldn't have accepted
our burnt offering and grain offering.
He wouldn't have appeared to
us and told us this wonderful
thing and done these miracles.
When her son was born, she named him
Samson and the Lord blessed him as
he grew up and the spirit of the Lord
began to stir him while he lived in
Mayhan aan, which is located between
the towns of Zora and Ashdale.
One day when Samson was in Timnah, one
of the Philistine women caught his eye.
When he returned home, he told his
father and mother, a young Philistine
woman in Timnah caught my eye.
I want to marry her, get her for me.
His father and mother objected.
Isn't there even one woman in
our tribe, or among all the
Israelites you could marry?
They asked, why must you go to the
pagan Philistines to find a wife?
Samson told his father, get her for me.
She looks good to me.
His father and mother didn't realize
the Lord was at work in this.
Creating an opportunity to work
against the Philistines who ruled over
Israel at that time ass Samson and
his parents were going down to Timnah.
A young lion suddenly attacked
Samson near the vineyards of Timnah.
At that moment, the spirit of the Lord
came powerfully upon him and he ripped
the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands.
He did it as easily as if it were
a young goat, but he didn't tell
his father or mother about it.
When Samson arrived in Timnah,
he talked with the woman and
was very pleased with her.
Later when he returned Tona for the
wedding, he turned off the path to
look at the carcass of the lion.
And he found that a swarm of bees
had made some honey in the carcass.
He scooped some of the honey into
his hands and ate it along the way.
He also gave some to his
father and mother, and they ate
it, but he didn't tell them.
He had taken the honey from the carcass
of the lion as his father was making
final arrangements for the marriage.
Samson threw a party at Timnah as
was the custom for elite young men.
When the bride's parents saw him,
they selected 30 young men from
the town to be his companions.
S Samson said to them,
let me tell you a riddle.
If you solve my riddle during these
seven days of the celebration, I
will give you 30 fine linen robes
and 30 sets of festive clothing.
But if you can't solve it, then you
must give me 30 fine linen robes
and 30 sets of festive clothing.
All right.
They agreed.
Let's hear your riddle.
So he said outta the one who
eats came something to eat outta
the strong came something sweet.
Three days later, they were
still trying to figure it out.
On the fourth day, they said to Samson's
wife, entice your husband to explain
the riddle for us, or We will burn down
your father's house with you in it.
Did you invite us to this
party just to make us poor?
So Samson's wife came to him in
tears and said, you don't love me.
You hate me.
You have given my people a riddle,
but you haven't told me the answer.
I haven't even given the
answer to my father or mother.
He replied, why should I tell you?
So she cried whenever she was
with him and kept it up for
the rest of the celebration.
At last, on the seventh day, he told her
the answer because she was tormenting him.
With her nagging.
Then she explained the
riddle to the young men.
So before sunset of the seventh
day, the men of the town came
to Samson with their answer.
What is sweeter than honey?
What is stronger than a lion?
Samson replied, if you hadn't
plowed with my heifer, you
wouldn't have solved my riddle.
Then the spirit of the Lord
came powerfully upon him.
He went down to the town of Ashkelon,
killed 30 men, took their belongings
and gave their clothing to the
men who had solved his riddle.
But Samson was furious about what
had happened, and he went back home
to live with his father and mother.
So his wife was given a marriage
to the man who had been Samson's
best man at the wedding.
Later on during the wheat
harvest, Samson took a young
goat as a present to his wife.
He said, I'm going into my wife's
room to sleep with her, but
her father wouldn't let him in.
I truly thought, you must hate her.
Her father explained, so I gave
her in marriage to your best man.
But look, her younger sister is
even more beautiful than she is.
Marry her instead, Samson said.
This time I cannot be blamed
for everything I'm going
to do to EU Philistines.
Then he went out and caught 300 foxes.
He tied their tails together in pairs, and
he fastened a torch to each pair of tails.
Then he let the torches and
let the foxes run through the
grain fields of the Philistines.
He burned all their grain to the ground,
including the sheaves and the uncut grain.
He also destroyed their
vineyards and olive groves.
Who did this?
The Philistines demanded Samson was
the reply because his father-in-law
from Timnah gave Samson's wife
to be married to his best man.
So the Philistines went and got the woman
and her father and burned them to death.
Because you did this, Samson vowed, I
won't rest until I take my revenge on you.
So he attacked the Philistines with
great fury and killed many of them.
Then he went to live in a cave in the
Rock of Eden, the Philistines retaliated
by setting up camp in Judah and
spreading out near the town of Lehigh.
The man of Judah asked the
Philistines, why are you attacking us?
The Philistines replied,
we've come to capture Sampson.
We've come to pay him back
for what he did to us.
3000 men of Judah went down to get
Samson at the cave in the Rock of Eden.
They said to Samson, don't you
realize the Philistines rule over us?
What are you doing to us?
But Samson replied, I only did to them
what they did to me, but the man of
Judah told him, we have come to tie you
up and hand you over to the Philistines.
Alright, s Samson said, but promise
that you won't kill me yourselves.
We will only tie you up and hand
you over to the Philistines.
They replied, we won't kill you.
So they tied him up with two new ropes
and brought him up from the rock.
As Samson arrived at Lehigh, the
Philistines came shouting and triumph,
but the spirit of the Lord came powerfully
upon Samson and he snapped the ropes on
his arms as if they were burnt strands
of flax, and they fell from his wrists.
Then he found the jawbone
of a recently killed donkey.
He picked it up and killed
1000 Philistines with it.
Then s Samson said with the jawbone
of a donkey, I've piled them in
heaps with the jawbone of a donkey.
I've killed a thousand men.
When he finished his boasting,
he threw away the jawbone and
the place was named Jawbone Hill.
Sampson was now very thirsty
and he cried out to the Lord.
You have accomplished this great
victory by the strength of your
servant, must I now die of thirst and
fall into the hands of these pagans.
So God caused water to gush out of
a hollow in the ground at Lehigh
and Samson was revived as he drank.
Then he named that place the spring
of the one who cried out, and it
is still in Lehigh to this day.
Samson judged Israel for 20
years during the period when the
Philistines dominated the land.
One day, s Samson went to the
Philistine town of Gaza and spent
the night with a prostitute.
Word soon spread that Samson was there.
So the men of Gaza gathered together
and waited all night at the town gates.
They kept quiet during the night
saying to themselves, when the light
of morning comes, we will kill him.
Sampson stayed in bed only until midnight.
Then he got up, took hold of the doors
of the town gate, including the two
posts and lifted them up bar and all.
He put them on his shoulders and carried
them all the way to the top of the hill.
Across from Hebron.
Sometime later, Sampson fell in
love with a woman named Delilah,
who lived in the valley of Soak.
The rulers of the Philistines went to
her and said, Entice s Samson to tell
you what makes him so strong and how he
can be overpowered and tied up securely.
Then each of us will give
you 1100 pieces of silver.
So Delilah said to Samson, please tell
me what makes you so strong and what
it would take to tie you up securely.
S Samson replied, if I were tied
up with seven new boast rings that
have not yet been dried, I would
become as weak as anyone else.
The Philistine rulers brought
Delilah seven new bow strings,
and she tied Samson up with them.
She had hidden some men in
one of the inner rooms of
her house, and she cried out.
Samson, the Philistines have come to
capture you, but Samson snapped the
bow strings as a piece of strings
snaps when it has burned by a fire.
So the secret of his
strength was not discovered.
Afterward, Delilah said to him, you've
been making fun of me and telling me lies.
Now please tell me how you
can be tied up securely.
S Samson replied, if I were tied up with
brand new ropes that had never been used,
I would become as weak as anyone else.
So Delilah took new ropes
and tied him up with him.
The men were hiding in the
inner room as before, and again,
Delilah cried out Sampson.
The Philistines have come to capture you,
but again, S Samson snapped the ropes
from his arms as if they were thread.
Then Delilah said, you've been
making fun of me and telling me lies.
Now tell me how you can
be tied up securely.
Sampson replied, if you were to
weave the seven braids of my hair
into the fabric on your loom and
tighten it with the loom shuttle, I
would become as weak as anyone else.
So while he slept, Delilah wove the
seven braids of his hair into the fabric.
Then she tightened it with
the loom shuttle again.
She cried out.
S Samson.
The Philistines have come to capture you.
But Samson woke up, pulled back the
loom shuttle and yanked his hair
away from the loom and the fabric.
Then Delilah pouted.
How can you tell me I love you when
you don't share your secrets with me.
You've made fun of me three times
now, and you still haven't told me.
What makes you so strong?
She tormented him with her
nagging day after day until
he was sick to death of it.
Finally, Samson shared
his secret with her.
My hair has never been cut.
He confessed for, I was dedicated
to God as a nazarite from birth.
If my head were shaved, my
strength would leave me and I would
become as weak as anyone else.
Delilah realized he had finally
told her the truth, so she
sent for the Philistine rulers.
Come back one more time.
She said for he has
finally told me his secret.
So the Philistine rulers returned
with the money in their hands.
Delilah lulled Sampson to sleep
with his head and her lap, and then
she called in a Amanda to shave
off the seven locks of his hair.
In this way, she began to bring
him down and his strength left him.
Then she cried out s Samson, the
Philistines have come to capture you.
When he woke up, he thought, I will
do his before and shake myself free.
I.
He didn't realize the Lord had left
him, so the Philistines captured
him and gouged out his eyes.
They took him to Gaza where he was
bound with bronze chains and forced to
grind grain in the prison, but before
long, his hair began to grow back.
The Philistine rulers held a
great festival offering sacrifices
and praising their God Day gone.
They said, our God has given
us victory over our enemy.
Samson, when the people saw him,
they praised their God saying, our
God has delivered our enemy to us.
The one who killed so many
of us is now in our power.
Half drunk by now, the people demanded
bring out S Samson so he can amuse us.
So he was brought from the prison to
amuse them, and they had him stand
between the pillars supporting the roof.
Samson said to the young servant
who was leading him by the
hand place my hands against the
pillars that hold up the temple.
I want to rest against them.
Now.
The temple was completely
filled with people.
All the Philistine rulers were there.
And there were about 3000 men
and women on the roof who were
watching as Samson amuse them.
Then Samson prayed to the Lord,
sovereign Lord, remember me again.
Oh God, please strengthen me
just one more time with one blow.
Let me pay back the Philistines
for the loss of my two eyes.
Then Sampson put his hands on the two
center pillars that held up the temple.
Pushing against them with both hands.
He prayed, let Me Die with the
Philistines, and the temple crashed
down on the Philistine rulers
and all the people, so he killed
more people when he died than he
had during his entire lifetime.
Later, his brothers and other
relatives went down to get his body.
They took him back home and buried
him between Zora and Estel, where
his father Manoa was buried.
Sampson had judged Israel for 20 years.
This concludes today's
immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.