Saturday, August 15, 2026
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Judges 13-15
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 94
Key Verse
Judges 14:8 — “And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.”
Devotional Thought
In the middle of August, when the gardens are heavy with tomatoes and the fields stand tall with corn, our reading brings us to another harvest — and a strange one. Here is Samson, the promised deliverer of Israel, a man set apart as a Nazarite from the womb, and yet his story is a tangle of riddles, revenge, and fire. The Spirit of the LORD moves him mightily, and he tears a lion apart with his bare hands; yet he also walks into Timnath and demands a Philistine wife because she pleases him well. His parents do not know that this is of the LORD, that He seeks an occasion against the Philistines. God is at work even in the tangled, half-obedient choices of His servants.
Notice how the LORD meets Samson in his thirst. After the great slaughter at Lehi, when the jawbone is cast from his hand and he stands exhausted, Samson cries out, “Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst?” God does not rebuke him for asking. He cleaves the hollow place in the jaw, and water comes out, and Samson’s spirit revives. The God who gave the victory also gives the drink. The God who called him from a barren womb also sustains him in the dust of the battlefield.
And notice, too, the patience of God in the long years of Philistine rule. Forty years of oppression before the angel ever appeared to Manoah’s wife. Psalm 94 cries out, “LORD, how long shall the wicked triumph?” — and the answer is not swift, but it is sure. The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. He hears the widow and the stranger and the fatherless. He will not cast off His people. Judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
Perhaps this August finds you in a long season where the wicked seem to prosper and your own deliverance feels delayed. The story of Samson is not a tidy story, but it is a hopeful one: God raises up deliverers in His own time, and He does not abandon His inheritance. Even when our foot slippeth, His mercy holds us up. Even when we are thirsty on the rock, He has a hollow place prepared.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you tempted to doubt God’s care because His deliverance has been slow in coming — and how does Samson’s cry for water at Lehi speak to that thirst?
- Samson’s parents did not know the LORD’s purpose in his strange request. Are there circumstances in your life that feel wrong or confusing, where you must trust that God is working an occasion you cannot yet see?
Prayer
O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth, we come to You as the Judge of all the earth. How long, we ask with the psalmist, shall the wicked triumph? Yet we remember that You are the God who hears the cry of the thirsty and answers from the hollow place. You gave Samson deliverance and then gave him drink. Give us, we pray, both victory over our enemies and refreshment for our fainting souls. Hold us up when our foot slippeth. Do not cast off Your people, nor forsake Your inheritance. Teach us out of Your law, and give us rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. You are our defence and the rock of our refuge. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 94:1 — “O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.”