[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 15:18 (NIV) “Because he was very thirsty, he cried out to the LORD, ‘You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?’”

[Meditation]

After defeating a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey, Samson is caught up in his victory and sings, “With a donkey’s jawbone I have killed a thousand men” (v. 16). The moment pride in ‘his’ victory seizes him, he immediately confronts a fundamental human limitation: he is dying of thirst. Only then does he cry out to God, but even in his prayer, a trace of pride remains: “You have given your servant this great victory.”

However, God answers even this pride-filled prayer. He makes a spring gush out of the dry ground to save him. The Bible records the name of that spring as ‘En Hakkore,’ meaning ‘the spring of him who calls.’ This name holds the story of the utter helplessness of one who boasted in his own strength, and the unconditional mercy of God poured out even on such a person. ‘En Hakkore’ is a place of grace created not by our merit, but by the faithfulness of God to His own promises.

The story of En Hakkore is our story. The Lord does not leave us in our pride. Sometimes, at the moment of our greatest victory, He leads us to a place of deepest thirst, so that we realize the strength we boasted in is nothing and we raise our hands to seek only Him.

Is God cruel? No, He is not. Because it is in that very place—the place where we are completely broken and seek only God’s grace—that the spring of life bursts forth. Through that En Hakkore, we can finally be restored and revived. That is the love of God that saves us.

[Prayer]

Lord, have mercy on me when I become proud even in small successes, and lead me to seek Your grace in the place of failure and thirst. Let today be a day of ‘En Hakkore,’ a day lived not by my own strength, but by Your living water. Amen.
_________________

[Daily Reading]

Judges 15:17-16:12