Day 61: November 17, 2025 – Judges 11-15 and Psalm 49

Who doesn’t love the story of Samson? But notice how he decides to marry someone who is completely out of God’s favor. He asks for and receives a Philistine as a wife, but we know that this is the foundational command of the Lord was to not be unequally yoked because when we marry outside of our religion then more likely than not we will be dragged away from our beliefs. This is so true within Italy and the Waldensian and Methodist church. It is so difficult to find someone who has married within the church because the church is so small. As a result the children of the marriage tend to gravitate toward the religion of the people, which in Italy would be Catholicism. As a result the Protestant Church in Italy gets smaller and smaller.

But back to Samson. We see the beginning of his life will be a reflection of his later life where he is not able to keep to himself the temptation to please the wife to whom he is married and so give away of himself that which the Lord has given to him. It will lead to his downfall twice, but we just read about the first time.