28: The conquest, a prayer, and a man with really long hair (Joshua-Judges 16)

Judges 16:28 And Samson called unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once. (KJV)

The family of Jacob had arrived at the Promised Land, but there was a problem. People were already living here, and not just giants. Normal people like you and me. And so the family of Jacob set out on a conquest. They were going to capture all the land God had promised them. With the first city, they walked around it, blew some trumpets, and the walls just fell down. “This is going to be even easier than we thought,” they said.

And so they went to the next town. It was smaller and looked even easier to conquer. But the city came out to fight and absolutely whooped the family of Jacob. That was confusing. They thought God was going to keep knocking walls down and simply defeat all of their opponents. But that isn’t what happened.

Sometimes the family of Jacob won battles without fighting, and other times they lost even when they sent their be…