Up to this point, Samson (Heb., simson,
sunlight) was the last of the major judges or deliverers mentioned in the
book of Judges; Samuel was the last judge, 13 in all, often overlapping as a judge. Samson judged
Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years (Jdg 15:20; 16:31). These
judges or deliverers were not a succession of viceroys or governors but
occasional deliverers elevated by God to deliver Israel from oppression and to
administer justice during Yahweh’s theocratic rule over Israel.
Samson is nearing the end of his judgeship and life as it pertains to our main
text for this article. For nearly two decades he had been opposing Philistine
oppression that Yahweh had allowed to be inflicted on His disobedient people. Though
this was a time prior to the kings like other nations, Israel still had the law of Moses;
nonetheless, everyone did what was right in his own
eyes (Jdg 21:25b; 21:25). This is not to say that there were not any godly people in Israel during this time; there were, Samson’s parents, for instance (cf. Jdg 13:3, 8; 22-23; 14:13).
This is the theme of Judges that
continued on for over three centuries in spiritual and moral decline because an individual’s understanding was the standard of what was right! Consequently, there
were six cyclical patterns of apostasy, oppression (servitude or punishment),
repentance and deliverance throughout those years, in a maddening repeat.
Doesn’t history teach us that man doesn’t learn from history? God is sovereign, we have no personal sovereignty contrary to secular humanism today.
Whenever we decide to turn our backs on God’s Word as
a rule of life, all we are left with is winging it on our own in a spontaneous manner which always
leads to our moral and spiritual values degrading to expressions of turpitude. Samson didn’t wind up losing his strength, losing his eyesight, and being a
captive of the Philistines because he was a sterling example of moral and
spiritual values. It was tragic to see that Samson’s own personal holiness to
God had degraded near the end of his life, and that giving him the benefit
of the doubt for most of his judgeship.
Samson was unlike any other man on the face of the
earth for he was endowed with an unearthly physical strength that has no
parallel in human history. The source of Samson's
strength can be viewed from three possible angles.
1. Samson’s supernatural strength was not emanating from genetics, gender, age, diet, exercise, and
discipline of mind and body. Samson had the same general set of 650 or more
skeletal muscles in the human body as we do.1 He could have never performed those acts of
strength we read about in Judges in his natural strength. This is not to discount
the hypothesis that his natural strength could possibly have been greater than that
of a normal human being anyway, but be that as it may, there were times when
Samson was clearly energized by the Spirit of Yahweh to accomplish a certain
task.
2. Spirit-empowerment. His unusual strength was
not found in his maximum force potential, the range of his repeated motions, the ability in exerting force quickly, or the capability to
withstand fatigue. Since we read of no non-fictional character ever possessing
this kind of physical strength to the degree and capability of Samson, it can
only be explained in supernatural terms; the Spirit of Yahweh came over Samson
to complete certain tasks that he could not do in his own strength (cf. Jdg
13:25; 14:5-6; 14:19; 15:14-15; 16:28-30).
3. There are other expressions of feats of extraordinary strength that makes no mention of Spirit-enablement (cf. Jdg 15:4, 8; 16:3).
This may be merely an extension of #2 or a combination of #1 and #2 – natural
and supernatural strength. I would argue the former since the symbol of his
strength was in his hair, and it remained uncut until the Delilah debacle.
We
would have to conclude, and rightly so, that though some of Samson’s feats did
not make mention of the Spirit of Yahweh coming upon Samson in these incidents,
the acts were indeed energized by the Spirit of Yahweh, not to mention any
unrecorded feats of power. It is correct to say all feats of strength recorded or unrecorded were energized by the Spirit of Yahweh.
Concerning
the hair in general of any Naziritic vow during the days of his or her
separation, we read in Numbers 6:5,
No razor shall come upon his head until the
days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to Yahweh, he shall be holy. Then
he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.
Samson’s hair could never be cut because Samson’s future mother
was told this by the Angel of the LORD before she was pregnant that it was forbidden (Jdg
13:3, 5). But the retelling of this by the future mother of Samson to Manoah is very interesting, found in Jdg 13:7c,
… For your son will be
dedicated to God as a Nazirite from the moment of his birth until the day of
his death.
Normally,
Nazirite vows of separation unto Yahweh are voluntary and for a limited period
of time (Num 6:1-21). Jdg 13:7c indicates this vow of separation of Samson was
not voluntary and for life. Samson is the only person in all of Scripture specifically
declared by Yahweh to be a Nazarite. This divine announcement was an honor!
There
are two other persons in Scripture argued to be a Nazarite from birth:
Samuel (1 Sam 1:22, 28; 2:18) and John the Baptist (Lk 1:13-17) though the term
Nazarite is not used. I am not suggesting Samuel or John were not Nazarites
from birth; the distinction being drawn is that only Samson was characterized as
a Nazirite by the Angel of the LORD to Samson’s mother
before she was with child (cf. Jdg 13:5). Neither John nor Samuel had a haircut
restriction for a lifetime, and neither was endued with supernatural physical
strength like Samson.
Samson
was to never cut his hair for life! We only have Samson’s explanation to a
badgering Delilah of why he must not cut his hair as long as he lives,
…
no razor has ever come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God
from my mother's womb. If I am shaven, then my strength will leave me, and I
shall become weak, and be like any other man (Jdg 16:7).
Bingo!
This girl had just hit pay dirt, she has discovered the vein of silver!
Information was money, and Delilah had some to sell to the Philistine lords. We
didn’t get that information from Yahweh, but from Samson – my strength will leave
me. It was
vital that his hair was to remain uncut, and you know what? He was absolutely
right,
(Jdg
16:19) Then she [Delilah] lulled him to sleep on her knees, and
called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then
she began to torment him, and his strength left him.
(Jdg
16:20) And she said, The Philistines are upon you,
Samson! So he awoke from his sleep, and said, I will go out as
before, at other times, and shake myself free! But he did not know that the
LORD had departed from him.
Did
you catch that? He didn’t know that Yahweh had departed from him! Here we see
that Samson’s strength was supernatural. This strength that left him (v19) was
another way of saying that Yahweh had departed from Samson (v20), and since his
birth, he was now for the first time in his life – vulnerable, like any other man (v7).
Where’s
the proof that Yahweh departed from Samson?
(Jdg
16:21) Then the Philistines
took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound
him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.
Then they made sport of him (Jdg 16:24, 25). When
will we ever realize that it is costly for us to defect from God’s will? To compromise our holiness unto Yahweh (1 Pet 1:15-16)? Samson
was not a victim here by any stretch. He volunteered for what someone described in v21 as “the
blinding, binding, grinding effects of sin.”
This disclosure of the source of his strength to a pagan woman was
stupefying; it cost Samson dearly. The only effect of sin remaining is to be made sport of and crushed to death (Jdg 16:30). He wasn’t laughing now that Delilah was
no longer chasing rabbit trails. I wonder how often Samson rehearsed Delilah’s
premise in his mind as he was going around and around at the grinder – “If
you truly loved me, you would trust me.” <><
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1. https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/what-is-the-strongest-muscle-in-the-human-body
