Spurgeon: January PM
* 01/21/PM
"He was sore athirst, and called on the Lord, and said, Thou
hast given this great deliverance into the hand of Thy servant: and now shall I die for thirst?"
--Judges 15:18
Samson was thirsty and ready to die. The difficulty was
totally different from any which the hero had met before. Merely
to get thirst assuaged is nothing like so great a matter as to
be delivered from a thousand Philistines! but when the thirst
was upon him, Samson felt that little present difficulty more
weighty than the great past difficulty out of which he had so
specially been delivered. It is very usual for God's people,
when they have enjoyed a great deliverance, to find a little
trouble too much for them. Samson slays a thousand Philistines,
and piles them up in heaps, and then faints for a little water!
Jacob wrestles with God at Peniel, and overcomes Omnipotence
itself, and then goes "halting on his thigh!" Strange that there
must be a shrinking of the sinew whenever we win the day. As if
the Lord must teach us our littleness, our nothingness, in order
to keep us within bounds. Samson boasted right loudly when he
said, "I have slain a thousand men." His boastful throat soon
grew hoarse with thirst, and he betook himself to prayer. God
has many ways of humbling His people. Dear child of God, if
after great mercy you are laid very low, your case is not an
unusual one. When David had mounted the throne of Israel, he
said, "I am this day weak, though anointed king." You must
expect to feel weakest when you are enjoying your greatest
triumph. If God has wrought for you great deliverances in the
past, your present difficulty is only like Samson's thirst, and
the Lord will not let you faint, nor suffer the daughter of the
uncircumcised to triumph over you. The road of sorrow is the
road to heaven, but there are wells of refreshing water all
along the route. So, tried brother, cheer your heart with
Samson's words, and rest assured that God will deliver you ere
long.