Joseph and Samson

 It is always inspiring to study the characters in the bible,their successes and failures.Their lives can be great examples in our christian walk .Their life stories serve as a reminder and warning to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things.Joseph and Samson are popular biblical characters ,different characters though especially in the areas of temptation and pressure. Like us,they are also human beings,dealing with disappointments,attitudes and temptation.

JOSEPH

Many of us are very familiar with the life story of Joseph.We know that he was sold by his brothers and became a slave in Egypt.Anybody who is in his shoes can have feelings of discouragement ,be resentful or vengeful.Perhaps he can question God why He would allow these things to happen to him when he did not even do anything to hurt anybody.But there was nothing in the bible that says he had these kinds of feelings.His attitude towards God never change.His attitude was right with God.He continued to have fear and obedience to God.Joseph was an attractive man so while he was in Potiphar's house,Potiphar's wife wanted him to sleep with her.He was young and he could have several excuses for him to yield to this temptation.He could have been lonely ,away from his family in a foreign land,or perhaps potiphar's wife could have been an attractive woman.But in Gen. 39:2,Joseph choose to flee.And for that he was accused by potiphar's wife of attempting to rape her.He was placed in a dungeon.In the end we know that he rose from the dungeon to the second highest position in the egyptian empire.Joseph is a great example as a man who under pressure became victorious because wherever he went and whatever he did,the Lord blessed and prospered him.That includes his family and people around him.Joseph was faithful,patient ,trustworthy,obedient and has a grateful heart even when he was forced to endure painful and difficult circumstances.

SAMSON

Samson's character on the other hand was far different from Joseph.Samson was consecrated to God through the vow of his mother.He was born as a Nazarite,and he was to be a nazarite all of his life.Samson's weakness for philistine women has created trouble for him and the philistines.Samson's uncut,long hair was the source of his physical strength.It made him have the"superman" power.He killed a lion with his barehands,seized the jawbone of a donkey and killed 1000 philistines.Just like superman,vulnerable to kryptonite,in his life story,samson had a crack in his armor and his greatness is sapped.In the end,we know that Delilah wore him down and told her the truth that if someone would shave his head and broke his nazarite vow,his strength would be gone. This was Samson's downfall.He was then captured ,tortured and mocked by the philistines.Samson was lustful,involving himself with a protitute, spoiled,selfish and wants what he wants now.He wants to get his own way.These were his stumbling blocks in heeding to God's commands and warnings.He disregarded his parents and God's commands.In the end,Samson had a realization of what he did and his selfishness.He asked the Lord to gim him another strength . In his final act,samson destroyed the philistine's temple in Gaza and killing 3000 philistines.He died with them.

Lesson

 Joseph was a picture of great strength,his inner strength which comes from God.With this his integrity,obedience and faithfulness to the Lord never faded.He was a great example of how we should live our life and walk in our faith under pressure,pain and circumstances.Samson on the contrary,has relied on physical strength but when it comes to his inner being,he was trapped by his own passions.He paid the price of his disobedience to God.Even though Samson's life was never a happy ending,we learn that when God has a plan ,he can use people,no matter how imperfect they are to accomplish his overall purpose and still bring something good out of their failures.
We also learn that since we are human beings,we have weaknesses .These are reasons enough to become totally dependent on God's strength and not on our own.God never fails to warn His people.There will always be consequences associated with evil just like Samson.But for those who remained obedient and faithful just like Joseph,God holds out His wonderful promises and will bring out blessings out of difficult circumstances.

If we listen to what the bible speaks and learn through the lives of His godly people and through our past experiences as well,we will find ourselves living in a life with a godly purpose and joy.