DCLM Daily Manna Devotional 30 May 2025 Message Written By Pastor W.F Kumuyi
Read DCLM Daily Manna Devotional 30 May 2025, Friday Message.
TOPIC: The Bane of Beauty
KEY VERSE:
“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.” – (Judges 16:20).
READ: Judges 16:10-21 (NIV)
10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have made a fool of me; you lied to me. Come now, tell me how you can be tied.”
11 He said, “If anyone ties me securely with new ropes that have never been used, I’ll become as weak as any other man.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then, with men hidden in the room, she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” But he snapped the ropes off his arms as if they were threads.
13 Delilah then said to Samson, “All this time you have been making a fool of me and lying to me. Tell me how you can be tied.”
He replied, “If you weave the seven braids of my head into the fabric on the loom and tighten it with the pin, I’ll become as weak as any other man.” So while he was sleeping, Delilah took the seven braids of his head, wove them into the fabric 14 and[a] tightened it with the pin.
Again she called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” He awoke from his sleep and pulled up the pin and the loom, with the fabric.
15 Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 So he told her everything. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
18 When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.[b] And his strength left him.
20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison.
MESSAGE:
The Australian predatory little plant, the sundew, is delicate and cunning. Although its attractive clusters of red, white, and pink and delicate blossoms are harmless, the leaves are deadly. The shiny moisture on each sundew leaf is sticky and easily imprisons any bug that touches it. As an insect struggles to free itself, the vibration causes the leaves to close tightly around it. This innocent-looking plant then feeds on its victim.
Delilah was a cunning sundew in the Philistinian countryside. What she lacked in physical strength, she compensated for by her temerity, doggedness, and possessive devilishness to tempt and trap one who was a thousand times stronger than she. In her, we see the bane of beauty. However, in her victim, Samson, we see the folly of a hunting dog destined to be lost and who will always ignore the hunter’s whistle. Delilah’s beauty was irresistible for a prodigal Samson. As a potent tool in the arsenal of an oppressed nation, Samson underestimated the power of consuming evil and the conspiracy of hell against his destiny and that of the people he was created to deliver.
Severally and continuously, Samson carelessly walked the boundaries of good and evil, hoping to come out stronger. However, his human weakness and lack of personal discipline destroyed him. So it is for everyone who is bankrupt of spiritual convictions, tottering on the edge of faith and fatality. In Delilah, we understand the persistence of evil to overcome good. In Samson, we see the end of a life lived recklessly outside the boundaries of godly convictions. No believer should ever roam in territories where constant temptation is the order of daily living. God expects us not only to flee youthful lusts but also to tenaciously follow after righteousness, faith, charity, peace, purity, and perfect relationships that will prolong our lives (1 Timothy 6:11,12).
Samson never learned the lesson of not being unequally yoked with unbelievers. His attempt to be a hero for Israel ended up in him becoming a zero in godly example. Those who call on the name of the Lord must know and believe in His holiness and His aversion to polluted offerings. God expects us to live above sin and be separated unto Him so that our end will not be like Samson’s.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: A moment’s sinful indulgence reduces one from the zenith to zero point.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
1 Samuel 19-20
About Author – Pastor W.F. Kumuyi
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.