Judges 15:1-3
Later on—it was during the wheat harvest—Samson visited his bride, bringing a young goat. He said, "Let me see my wife—show me her bedroom."
But her father wouldn't let him in. He said, "I concluded that by now you hated her with a passion, so I gave her to your best man. But her little sister is even more beautiful. Why not take her instead?"
Samson said, "That does it. This time when I wreak havoc on the Philistines, I'm blameless."
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
Jumping to conclusions… we’ve all done it. Someone doesn’t return a phone call, and we automatically assume they don’t want to speak with us. Or we see two people whispering in the corner of a room, and we decide they must be talking about us. Guests visit our gym or football stadium, and nobody welcomes them… and they conclude that we are unfriendly and unsportsmanlike. Worse yet… people visit our church, and no one greets them or smiles in their direction, and they deem our church as “unfriendly” and unwelcoming. We are all guilty of making assumptions and drawing conclusions.
In Samson’s case, several assumptions were made, including Samson’s conclusion that he was actually married to the Philistine bride who he had wed in a lavish, seven-day bachelor party/wedding of sorts. Let’s just say he got a little sidetracked, and when he went to get her some time later, she had been given to the best man by her father, who assumed Samson didn’t really want to marry her.
I hope you will read these chapters in Judges as we look at the lessons they contain… but suffice it to say that Samson and the Philistines made some assumptions and decisions that led to a whole lot of trouble! And we do that, too! We trust the wrong people… we fail to get all of the facts, or we set ourselves up to be mistreated or disappointed… and we assume the worst!
I don’t know why we rush to conclusions without doing sufficient investigation first to make sure we are on the right track. Maybe we listen to the wrong people and are misinformed. Sometimes we get in a hurry and don’t take time to really think through a situation and get all the facts. Sometimes we are in an “it’s all about me” mode and just naturally assume that others are against us in some manner. And most of the time, we fail to consult God and ask Him to sort out all of this so that we can proceed in a wise, calm, mature manner.
Samson got caught up in riddles, seduction, and the agendas of other people. In his case, it was all God’s orchestration – giving him reason to come up against the Philistines and defeat them. In our cases, I’m afraid the reasons are not so Godly. Jumping to conclusions caused Samson’s father-in-law and bride to lose their lives. Jumping to conclusions caused the Philistines to be conquered – and virtually destroyed – by Samson, under God’s power.
Jumping to conclusions may not get us killed… but it can result in a lot of heartache and frustration that is totally needless. The next time you are tempted to jump to conclusions, stop and ask God to show you what is really happening. Ask Him to give you wisdom and peace about the situation – and to show you how you should react. Stay in contact and conversation with God, so that you can operate in confidence and peace instead of paranoia and misinformation. God will show you how to sift through everything and make the right choices… are you asking the right questions?
©2011 Debbie Robus
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