Internal Observance
Judges 16:20 And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.
Delilah had finally been to Samson enough that in verse 16 that his soul was even vexed to death. He then tells her where his strength lies and that brings us to our text and what I believe is one of the saddest statements in the Bible: “he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.” We often look at that and ask ourselves how can you not realize such a thing? How could you possibly fail to realize the power of God has left you? It’s a logical question. However, how observant are we to ourselves? Have you ever paid attention to the expression on your face when meeting people? Ever had someone come up and ask you if you’re mad because you look like it? What about your actions in general? Ever had someone say they spoke to you out somewhere, but you didn’t respond? What about how you talk to people? Paid attention to your tone, the words you say, the volume of your voice, etc? I’ve had a conversation with someone before and then have someone tell me after the fact that I sounded rather hateful. That wasn’t my intent, but to some that was the way it sounded. Do you ever notice if you always seem to be the one that takes over a conversation? Are you that person that always has to “one up” everything in a conversation? We can have a tendency to get so caught up in ourselves that we fail to realize our own actions and times as well. Yes, there is a big difference in paying attention to what we say or how we act and not realizing the power of God has left. I still believe the question can be asked of us. How truly observant are we to ourselves?
God bless you today! Bro. Josh Richardosn