I have always been amazed by what one can glean from when reading some of these Old Testament stories in the bible. In fact, that is what they have been designed to do!
The bible teaches us that they are an example to us, and have been written for our instruction upon whom the end of the age has come! (See I Cor. 10:6, 11) From each of these stories, we can learn from what these Old Testament saints did and/or did not do and how God dealt them. The fact is we need the examples of both the Old and New Testament Scriptures in our walk with the Lord to teach us the lessons of faith, obedience, courage, grace, and more.
The whole idea here is to learn from the example they set and to follow the instruction that they provide so that through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we may have hope! (See Rom.15:4) The bible is a book of life!
One portion of Scripture that comes to mind recently is from the story of Samson when he had killed a full grown lion that he met on the way; and it says that he killed it as easy as if it were a young goat. (See Judges 14:6) I suppose that as the Holy Spirit rushed upon him mightily, that he had supernatural strength to kill the lion who had tried to kill him!
Several days later, as he was on his way back home, the Scripture says that he turned aside [for some unknown reason] to look again at the lion that he had kill earlier. And what did he find inside the dead lion’s corpse? .. He found HONEY! (See Judges 14:8,9)
Later on in the story, when the men of the city discovered the interpretation of the riddle [from Samson’s wife] goes something like this: “Out of the eater, came something to eat, and out of the bitter came something sweet.” ch.14:18
Often times in life we are met with the trails, circumstances [lions that we meet on the way in life] that we killed [and have overcome if you will] those things that may have caused us harm, and we forget to extract out the HONEY of those hard times; the victories that are meant to encourage, and to strengthen us.
Beloved, maybe it’s time for some of us to go back [or to rethink] some of the hardships that we have gone through, and extract the HONEY from our hardships and eat! God uses all of it!
~ Dan Ecker
