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| To Part 4A |
He [Samson] told
her [Delilah] all his heart, and
said to her, 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.
The simplest explanation was that God’s symbol of His presence
and the source of Samson’s power was associated with his uncut hair, not his
relationship with pagan women, nor any other infraction of his Naziritic vow.
His lack of personal purity cost him dearly, however. So, I do not want to
denigrate the vital importance of holiness before the LORD while not
discounting the freedom of choice to obey or disobey; each carries its own set
of consequences; might we learn that.
If we only distill from Samson’s situation that personal holiness is not
that important given the fact that though Samson mixed with darkness, he did
not lose his strength, then we are guilty of drawing too narrow of a conclusion
and overlooking the larger picture. The context paints another conclusion; it reveals that
personal holiness, following the standard of God’s holiness according to His Word, is paramount to
victory (cf. Gal 5:16). In reality, it was Samson’s lack of attention to
personal holiness that was the root cause that ultimately derailed his strength and defeated him. He had only himself to blame.
Sinning against God will never circumvent God’s purpose in a
matter. The demons and the ungodly have been attempting to do that since the
Fall of Adam, and we can rest assured that Yahweh will not put up with a
believer thinking he or she can thwart God’s purposes. So, for us to think that
holiness doesn’t matter, holiness matters; Samson would concur if he could
speak to us. He was a man of faith, but I got this feeling that if he had it to do all over again, he would rather go out a different way.
Think what Samson might have accomplished had he kept his hair
and his eyesight? What good is strength without eyes? When we play with fire we
are going to get burnt. Is that what we want? For that is what we will get if we
think that holiness in our lives is irrelevant. Purity is real, relevant, and
required (Lev 19:2; 1 Pet 1:15-16). Victory over the flesh doesn’t happen in
our own strength but walking in the Spirit (Gal 5:16).
I am of the opinion, however, that Samson could have avoided
needless suffering and the shortening of his lifespan had he been holistically
pure by watching how carefully he walked, not as unwise, but as a wise one (cf.
Eph 5:15, KJV). Naturally, Samson died long before Paul wrote Ephesians. I
mentioned that passage for us.
Samson was to be holy which is part of his Naziritic vow. If we
are to be holy as God is holy, we do not have the option to pick and choose a
time of separation because progressive sanctification is 24/7/365 for all
believers; the same went for Samson. Make no mistake about it. If he had kept the secret about his hair, he probably would have far exceeded the number of
Philistines killed in his lifetime in addressing Philistine oppression of the
nation of Israel.
Obedience always yields far more than disobedience ever will.
Though he killed more in his death than his life, wouldn’t we prefer to read,
He was a one-man army who through his obedience to Yahweh helped Israel to be
delivered from their oppressor, and died of natural causes?
Wouldn’t it have been ironic if Delilah had attended the Judges 16:23 festival? It was very possible that she was invited to sit with the five Philistine
lords to celebrate and offer thanksgiving to Dagon for delivering Samson,
their enemy, into their hands (Jdg 16:24), so much for plans on moving to South Florida, yes? After being put on display to entertain and be mocked, Samson was
stationed between two load-bearing pillars that supported the temple of Dagon.
Then
Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines! And he pushed [not pulled] with
all
his
might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were
in it [Was
Delilah among them?]. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had
killed in his life (Jdg 16:30).
“One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime” (unsourced).
Notwithstanding, we must also keep in mind that we do not know
all the facts, but what we do know is this; Samson is listed in Hebrews 11:32;
he is in glory as we speak; he is our brother in Yahweh! Samson was a great man
with shortcomings like us all. We should all be attentive to personal purity in
serving Yahweh for we are most certainly not free of the consequences of our
choices! Defending our faults by appealing to ignorance, imperfection, weakness,
or the circumstances are not acceptable excuses or a valid defense to Yahweh.
In reality, we all have to live with the consequences of our
disobedience to Him. It is naïve to believe that a God of love (agape)
will not hold those who belong to Him accountable, hence, chastening? Once
again, the law of the harvest resurfaces, even under grace. That is, a man
reaps what he has sown. This applies to believers as well as unbelievers. Think
of it like gravity which is no respecter of persons. What goes up must come
down. It doesn’t pay to disobey.
Fellowship with God is hindered by sinning in ignorance, willful
ignorance, or sinning in knowledge, but this does not disqualify a person from
being used by God for His sovereign purposes. The prime directive in all of
Scripture is to love God with the totality of our being (Deut 6:5; Mk 12:30; Lk
10:27). When we disobey Him as a believer, it is actually a love problem.
How can God command us to love Him? He can when you understand
that our love for God is measured not by our words or feelings but by our
obedience to His commands (cf. Jn 14:15); it is not based on how many times we
honor Him with our lips while our heart is distant from Him! He measures the distance of our heart to Him by our obedience to His Word out of love (agape),
not out of compulsion or fear of reprisal. Solomon, through the Holy Spirit,
stated it rightly so that every moment matters,
(Ecc 12:13) The conclusion, when
all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this
applies to every person.
(Ecc 12:14) For God will bring every
act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is
good or evil.
As I have said before, we are free to choose but not free of the
consequences of our choices. You and I, as believers, are free to choose to
love God with all of our heart (hot), love Him half-heartedly (lukewarm), or
not at all (cold). We are, however, commanded to love Him with our all at all
times at full speed, nothing less if we are going to be truly obedient to Him
and give meaning to our love for Him (Deut 6:5; Mk 12:30; Lk 10:27). I would
question one’s claim to be a believer who continually chooses to cold shoulder
God, for this is symptomatic of a non-believer – “If you hate me, you will
disobey my commands.”
According to the writer of Hebrews, Samson was a man of faith
(Heb 11:32). But there is little doubt that his life was troubled by his own
making for going after pagan women (the Timnite woman, Jdg 14:3, 4; the harlot
of Gaza, Jdg 16:1-3; and a possible temple prostitute by the name of Delilah,
Jdg 16:4-20). To read into Jdg 16:4 that God was approving sinful behavior is a
serious misinterpretation. Bear in mind that nothing is allowed to enter our
lives unless God approves of it. MacArthur observes,
“The Philistines were not among the seven nations of Canaan
which Israel was specifically forbidden to marry [cf. Deut 7:1-3, added].
Nonetheless, Samson’s choice was misdirected (cf. v. 3). Samson sins here,
although God is sovereign and was able to turn the situation to please Him (v.
4).”5
It was not that God was pleased with Samson involving himself
with unbelievers, but He used Samson’s personal choices [foreseen by
Yahweh] as inroads to destroy the Philistines; this was the objective of his
Naziritic vow: to help deliver the nation of
Israel from the menacing Philistines (Jdg 13:5c).
It is ironic, don’t you think, that Samson, the strongest man in
the Bible, was undermined by a pagan woman; Solomon, the wisest man in
the Bible, was undermined by pagan women as well; go figure. We each have
a choice to be weak like any other man or woman or to be strong unlike any
other man or woman (Php 4:13). The former results in defeat and is
burdensome; the latter yields victory and provides blessings from on High. <><
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5. John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville:
Thomas Nelson, 2005), 282.
