Why Even Go There?

“Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.” (Jud 14:5 AV)

Samson is a great example of a carnal Christian.  Samson had a way of pushing the envelope.  He had a way of getting as close to the forbidden as he could and even falling to it.  Yet God used his carnality for His glory.  As a Jew, he would have been forbidden to marry a Gentile Philistine.  The question is, what brought him down to that area, to begin with?  Could it have been the vineyards?  The word of the LORD specifically forbade Samson from having anything to do with the fruit of the vine.  According to Numbers chapter six and verses three through four, the vow of separation forbade any consumption or use of the vine or any part of the vine.  He could not consume dried fruit, husk or even shell.  So, to ask the question again, what was he doing going down to the vineyards?  If every aspect of the fruit of the vine is forbidden, why even go there.  Note what resulted from it.  An unfaithful Gentile wife and a lion that threatened his life.  Getting as close to the world as one can always result in unforeseen residual consequences that compromise one’s spiritual walk with God.

There is a saying.  “If you get to close to the fire, your clothes might burn.”  One does not need to touch the flame for the heat to inflict its damage.  This is because of what is known as kindling temperature.  The temperature in which a material bursts into flame without the need for an open flame.  Have you ever experimented with this natural force?  It is so cool.  Have you ever placed a combustible material on a stick or perhaps hold it with tongs as close to a flame as you could without touching the flame?  Then you watch it as it begins to turn color.  Soon after, it bursts into flame.  It is even more fascinating as the mad scientist experiments with distance from the flame.  How far from the heat source can one hold the material and still achieve kindling temperature?  When I worked at the plastics factory, I had to know the temperature at which the plastic could combust.  It was six hundred and thirty degrees.  The extruder and formers had to be monitored closely.  Otherwise, the material could combust under high pressure and that would not have been good!  We don’t have to touch temptation for it to affect us.  Getting close enough will result in the same.

Samson and Lot are types of the carnal church.  It is what we are experiencing today.  Liberty is misunderstood and pragmatism is the theology of today.  We are all guilty of it.  Separation is a dirty word.  We live to see how close we can be to the world and not how far from it we can flee.  Samson was so far removed from where he needed to be that he “wist not that the LORD was departed from him.”  He couldn’t even recognize the Holy Spirit had left his ministry.  The only success he had; the killing of the Philistines at a party; was mostly done in the flesh.  Much of what we call ministry today is accomplished in the flesh.  The power of the Holy Spirit has long been absent.  If we don’t think getting close to the world does any harm, just remember Samson had two wives.  The first left him for a friend of his.  She left him for someone else in the wedding party.  The second wife betrayed him to her people resulting in his death.  How’s that for consequences of compromise?  Well, someone might say, that is an isolated incident.  Is it, really?  Let us consider the first such incident.  Adam and Eve were told to refrain from eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  So why go near it?  Had they noted where it was and avoided it like the plague, we wouldn’t be where we are today.  Getting as close to temptation and one can leads to the eventual fall therein.