1. (Judges 16:20) Samson is seized by the Philistines
She said, "This Philistines are upon you, Samson!" And he awoke from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him.
She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson": Now that Delilah has Samson in one last trap; she again needs to prove she has not been fooled. Once more, she cries out that the Philistines are upon Samson. Samson is now left in the grasp of a Philistine soldiers.
Samson does not recognize his weakened condition at first. He thinks he will merely shake these men right off of his like dust and be free (just as he has always done). But it was over. Samson's Nazirite hair was gone and with it, he lost his incredible strength.
Lesson we can learn
There are so many valuable lessons and principles we can learn. However, we will only cover some of the most important ones.
Samson's Hair
Why was it when Samson lost his long hair he lost his strength? The answer is Samson lost the final symbol of his set-apart and unique relationship with God. Samson hair was a symbol because the existence of his hair in and of itself was not magical nor did it carry some kind of mystical or cosmic connection to the LORD per se. Just like the Levitical sacrifices, whereby the blood of the bulls and goats carried no inherent power in it but rather it was the DOING of these rituals in accordance with God's instruction that was at issue, it was the same with Samson's hair. It was a matter of obedience to God for Samson to keep his long hair.
When a man sinned, confessed it to God and brought his sacrifice of atonement (with a contrite heart) to the altar, it was all about obedience, not magical power. A Nazirite had precise God-ordained observances written down in the Torah which he was to follow: eat no grape products, do not touch a human corpse and do not cut your hair. If a person does not observe these, his Nazirite vow is broken. Saying it a little bit differently, break the terms of the vow and the person was no longer a Nazirite. The special set-apart relationship with God is dissolved and with it whatever power or special anointing that came with it.
Symbols
Symbols, whether God-ordained or man designed are tricky things. Men have a tendency to misuse both. But in either case, symbols do not contain any inherent power. Yet, when God ordains a specific purpose for a symbol, it is to be employed (and employed precisely as instructed). Even with God-ordained symbols, men can falsely impute special power to them, which was never intended.
A great example of this was the pole with the bronze serpent on it which Moses erected out in the wilderness to stop a plague of poisonous snakebites. The pole was kept, transported into the Promised Land and for hundreds of years it was wrongly used as an object of worship. The pole was created as a divine tool meant as a one-time only solution to save Israel from the consequences of a serious rebellion against God, but it worked so well that the Israelites (on their own) decided that it must have special power which they could call upon as they needed it and could do so indefinitely.
Once we impute power to symbols, they become idols (whether we acknowledge it or not). A menorah is a God-ordained and authorized symbol, but it has no power. A Star of David is a man- created symbol, and it has no power. The Ark of the Covenant is a God-ordained symbol, but it has no power. A cross is a man-created symbol, and it has no power. I have witnessed these symbols being looked upon by some as though they were inherently holy, inherently full of power and worth fighting and dying over. What happens is that without our realizing it, we have emotionally or intellectually transferred some amount of trust to the symbol instead of maintaining it exclusively in the invisible God of Israel.
Symbols are dangerous things, and we tend to take them very lightly. The problem is that when we have put even a little trust in a symbol, if we lose that symbol or are kept apart from it for some reason, we can lose faith.
When Samson's hair was severed from his head, God departed from him. God was Samson's strength, although, I am not sure Samson comprehended that at first. Let us understand the situation: the LORD had imbued Samson with such amazing strength that no one could have forcibly taken the symbol of his Nazirite relationship with God from him (a symbol which was God ordained). But Samson toyed with it. He used that divine symbol of uncut hair as a part of a dangerous and frivolous game with a girl who was essentially a whore working for the enemy. And thus, Samson allowed his long hair (a symbol of his faithfulness) to slip away from him because he had devalued it so much.
Believers, take this to heart. We cannot ignore or misuse the God-ordained symbols of our expected faithfulness to the God of Israel and assume that the power that He has given us to make a difference on this earth will remain with us. We cannot possibly deliver the Good News to people who need it, be healed of our diseases and expect Him to listen to our prayers and supplications if we back away from things He considers vital, important and central to our relationship with Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment