Recently a friend of mine shared with me the story of Samson and pointed out certain revelations which inspired me to read more about the story in the Book of Judges.
Before Samson was born, he had been chosen by God to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines. Unfortunately Samson backslided to the point that he thought he could get away with his sins. He must have thought that “God does not see” what he was doing.
Ezekiel 9:9, “… the LORD does not see.”
As a result, God gave him the desire of his heart according to his covetous desires and eventually the judgment of God catches up on him.
Ezekiel 14:4, “… I the LORD will answer him who comes, according to the multitude of his idols,”
Firstly before Samson’s birth, God has appointed Samson to be a Nazirite to God. As a Nazirite, he should not drink wine (Numbers 6:3) or go near a dead body (Numbers 6:6). However Samson broke the above two laws that God had set.
Then Samson married a Philistine woman, an enemy, when he was ordained to deliver Israel out. Not only that Judges 14:5, “… came to the vineyards of Timnah.” gave hints that Samson had hanged around vineyards to know this Philistine woman and most probably drank wine in his younger days although the bible did not specifically state so. I believe this might be the beginning of his willful disobedience to God’s instructions.
The scriptures revealed that Samson later drank honey from a lion carcass, went in with a harlot and married Delilah who caused his ultimate downfall.
He became so complacent that he thought God would not judge him when he realized his supernatural strength stayed with him even while he was sinning.
1 Timothy 4:2, “… having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,”
How could he not discern something was wrong when his wife, Delilah, repeatedly taunt him to reveal the secret of his supernatural strength? How could Samson treat something so sacred and divine so lightly and carelessly? At that point in time, he was still playing along with Delilah and joked with her.
Judges 16:20, “But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.”
Samson did not know that the Lord had departed from him when his hair was shaved. The words “did not know” suggested that Samson had not been spending time with God for a long time as he could not discern the presence of God had left him.
Judges 16:20, “So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!””
He still thought that he had his supernatural strength because he said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!”
It is sad to learn that a man ordained to do great things for God by God himself no longer know the Person who gave him his supernatural strength, probably forgot about his mandate and was deceived by his own pride. He seek the power but not the source. He assumed that the power will stay with him forever.
Judgment finally caught up with him in the end; and his fall from grace was great. Samson got his eyes put out, cast into prison and put to mockery as a performer before the very people he was ordained to defeat.
Nevertheless, it was a good but sad ending for Samson when he repented before God.
Judges 16:28-30, “Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!” And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left. Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.”
The scriptures showed that Samson burial was a simple affair.
Judges 16:31, “And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah.”
If Samson has stayed in the will of God and finished his race, his death would be one that is greatly mourned and his burial would have been a glorious affair. Why wouldn’t it be if he had delivered Israel out of the hands of the Philistines?
Steve
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