The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him and what came to my mind and heart in Judges 16:19-20,
"Having put him [Samson] to sleep on her [Delilah's] lap, she called a
man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue
him. And his strength left him. Then she called, 'Samson, the
Philistines are upon you!' He awoke from his sleep and thought, 'I'll
go out as before and shake myself free.' But he did not know that the
Lord had left him."
Here we read the well known end to Samson's exploits. Delilah got a
fourth explanation from Samson as to the secret of his strength so she
could sell him out to the rulers of the Philistines for silver. As he
explained to her his consecration to the Lord as a Nazarite, he told
her that if his head was shaved, he would lose his supernatural
strength.
I've read some foolish and childish explanations of this account, and
I'll bet you have as well. Samson's strength did not reside in his
long hair. His strength was given him as the Spirit of the Lord came
upon him. Such passages as Judges 15:14-15 make this clear, "As he
[Samson] approached Lehi, the Philistines came toward him shouting.
The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power. The ropes on his arms
became like charred flax, and the bindings dropped from his hands.
Finding a fresh jawbone of a donkey, he grabbed it and struck down a
thousand men." Note in the above quote that when his head was shaved,
"the Lord had left him." It wasn't the hair from his Nazirite
consecration that provided his strength, but the Spirit of the Lord
moving within him.
Consecration to the Lord is a matter of the heart. The Lord provided
for those who wished to make a special vow to him in Exodus 6:1-21,
the Nazirite vow. Both men and women could take the vow, consecrating
themselves for a period of time to the Lord. They were not to consume
anything from the grape vine (not even seeds or grape skins!) during
the time of consecration. The men were not to shave during the period
and not go near a dead body. If someone died suddenly in his presence
it would defile "the hair he has dedicated". He would have to shave
his head, make an offering, and start the period of his separation all
over. Offerings were prescribed at the end of the period of
consecration: a burnt offering, a sin offering, and fellowship
offerings. After the priest presented the offerings at the Tent of
Meeting, the Nazarite was to shave off the hair he dedicated and place
it in the fire of the fellowship offering.
These outward requirements of consecration to the Lord were always to
have manifested an inward consecration of the heart. The hair offered
in the fire of the fellowship offering speaks to the period of time
one had dedicated himself to the Lord. The period of time provided
occasion to deprive oneself of creaturely comforts (fruit of the vine)
as well as distance from that which is unclean (avoidance of a dead
body) as expressions of dedication to the Lord. It was to have been
anything but what the Lord indicted Israel for in Isaiah 29:13, "These
people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only
of rules taught by men." Outward expressions that do not reflect the
heart.
Samson was unique in that he was set apart for the Lord before his
birth to be a "Nazarite of God from birth until the day of his death."
Judges 13:7. Samson's whole life was to have been one of dedication to
the Lord and what we see in Samson's life was anything but that. He
was a man given to passionate revenge and bad women. Nevertheless, the
Lord used Samson for the purposes he set him apart from birth: to free
Israel from Philistine domination. What we read in Judges 16:20 is
that Samson lost his strength because the "Lord had left him."
Likewise, what we see in Samson's last episode, after his strength was
gone and he had been blinded and imprisoned by the Philistines, is
that he is given supernatural strength one last time. Although we are
told his hair began to grow back, Judges 16:22, it was not because his
hair was growing back that brought him the supernatural strength on
that last occasion, but his crying out to God, "O Sovereign Lord,
remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me
with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes." Judges
16:28.
The lesson for me, what I need to keep in mind, is not to take from
the account the notion that the outward doing effects what God wants
necessarily. I'm not minimizing the outward doing, but that the
outward doing needs to reflect what is in the heart. All of the
outward expression of the Nazarite should reflect a consecration of
the heart to God. Samson was a Nazirite and as he lay his head in the
lap of a sell-out of a pagan woman, it wasn't his hair but his heart
that was a problem.
Where is my heart today?
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to
hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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