Sam had just caved to his pet sin and spent time with a prostitute.  Now it was midnight.  He was still at her place but he couldn’t sleep.  She was sleeping….why couldn’t he?  He had paid for the night, it had seemed like a good idea at the time.  But now his conscience was talking to him….well, never mind just talking, his conscience was yelling at him.  Beating him up.  It was painful.  He glanced  at the woman he had just been intimate with and quickly looked away.  Sin….she was so beautiful.  So enticing.   So irresistible.  So right.   He closed his eyes tight, maybe he could block out the memory.  What had he been thinking?  He had a respectable job.  He was a judge.  A couple of hours ago his conscience must have  been  on vacation.   He had been set up by his enemies,  they knew his weakness.  They  had done this before, but he had taken care of them.  This time wouldn’t be any different.

He walked to the door.  He hadn’t planned to leave like this, it was supposed to just be  a casual good time, it had certainly started out that way; top down on the convertible, a little sun, a little fun flirting with sin, but how quickly fun had turned to shame.  He slid into his little red corvette and quickly put the top up.  He drove to the edge of town.  He had to stop and get out, the gate was locked.  Anger surged like a gasoline fire inside his gut.  The men from town carried weapons and waited to kill  him at the locked city gate.  Sam jumped out of his car  and morphed into a super hero.  Lets call him “Super Sam”.  He took hold of the gate, pulled the bars, posts and all, out of the ground, put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of a hill on the way to Hebron.  Stunned by fright and too scared to do anything the armed men of Gaza stood there with mouths hanging open. 

Have you ever had your conscience go on vacation?  If so I’m sure you can identify with Samson.  It’s a little like choosing not to eat chocolate but then not remembering til your halfway through the snickers bar! 

James 1:14 tell us,  “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.”  Thankfully, 1 Corintians 10:13 goes on to assure us with these words, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Instead of sitting in the easy chair and eating that snickers we need to take ourselves to God’s Gym for a workout!  We need to lift our voices in prayer with this verse from Matthew 6:13, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”