Samson's hair loss as the chief symbol of his special relationship with God most likely did not mean Samson was spiritually cut-off from God. It most likely did not mean Samson was destined for the Place of Torment we call Hell.
We come back to a point I made at the beginning of this chapter: there is a critical difference between faith and faithfulness. By all accounts, Samson's faith remained; it was his faithfulness which he abandoned. Samson did not stop believing in the God of Israel. He did not even adopt other gods (as far as we are aware). Samson simply stopped being obedient. In fact, we watch him over time give in to primitive instincts: he touched dead bodies, used prostitutes, preferred the company of pagans and murdered out of personal anger and revenge. The result was a state of spiritual weakness which lead to his physical weakness. Samson now (with the loss of his Nazirite symbol, his hair) had no more power or strength than any pagan man. It is the same for Believers.
A Believer who backs away from his special relationship with God by means of disobedience gets weaker and weaker spiritually. He is more easily influenced by the world because he is less protected by God. He is less blessed by God and more connected to earthly treasures. There is almost no temptation that he can withstand any more since his nearness to God has evaporated. I can tell you from personal experience that a man can lose all faithfulness, and thus all power and nearness to the LORD, but still have faith.
This was my condition about 12 years ago. I was a Believer. I never stopped believing in God. I never renounced or denied Jesus was the Messiah. But I did stop being obedient. I stopped living the new life afforded by Jesus. I did not worship. I did not study or apply God's Word. I was a useless disciple. I had faith, but I was not faithful. The result was obvious, but I was oblivious to the process. When everything fell apart in my life, I knew what had to be done. I confessed to God and relearned how to be faithful. My life began to change, and in time, buds for future fruit began to form. But the process of returning to faithfulness was long and painful.
No man can measure your faith, but faithfulness is usually pretty apparent. While the first thing which happens when you are saved is acquisition of faith, the next step is faithfulness. Human birth is an excellent example of this.
When we are born, we are pretty useless. We are loved, and we have value in God's eyes. Our mere existence brings joy to our mother and father. Basically, as an infant, all we can do it receive and use up resources. Of course, no one is supposed to stay in that condition. We are supposed to grow, mature, learn, give back, become part of society and then the cycle begins again by bringing forth new infants.
Coming to faith in Jesus is like that, and thus the Bible calls it being born again. When at first we believe, we are pretty helpless and useless to the Kingdom of God. All we can do is receive. We have great value in the Father's eyes and we are loved by Our Savior. But we are not to remain in that infant state. We are expected to grow, mature, learn, give back and become a useful part of the Believer's community so that we can play a role in bringing forth new, reborn people. Our rebirth is from faith. The growth, maturity, learning, giving back and usefulness that ought to come in time are from our faithfulness. End the faithfulness and our usefulness ends along with it.
In short, faith is a state or condition of mind and spirit. While faithfulness is acting upon that state. Faith of itself is passive; faithfulness is action. Faithfulness is a physical acting out or expression of our inner faith. A life which bears little or no signs of faithfulness does not necessarily mean the person does not have faith, but it does mean they are being disobedient and are spiritually going in reverse. It is a fatal and even a dangerous position for a Believer.
We see this same principle playing out in the life of Samson. Samson maintained his faith in God (as far as we know it), but his faithfulness to God ebbed and flowed. (What we read about in the Book of Judges usually centers on Samson's low points.) Samson's lack of faithfulness led finally to the sad and utterly terrifying quote of verse 20: "But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him."
Samson was to save Israel from the Philistines...He was not supposed to become a Philistine
When Samson's insatiable lust for sex and beautiful women finally overwhelmed him (which happened with Delilah), he reached the point of no return. It would be just a matter of time before he was willing to make the all important symbol of his special and holy Nazirite status before the LORD (his long and uncut hair) something he was willing to risk if it meant he could continue in his fleshly pleasures. I have no doubt he never consciously thought that losing the symbol (and with it his set-apart relationship with God) would actually happen.
Samson was born for the purpose of bedeviling the Philistines. This means he would have constant contact with them, but it did not mean he was to become one of them. The Philistines were to be his project and his enemy. They were not to become his closest friends. I point this out become it is common within Christianity for Believers with good intentions to involve themselves in the lives of criminals, prostitutes, or drug addicts. However, it is also rather common to see such a Believer begins to look more and more like those he came to rescue than the Savior who may have sent him. It happens that this Believer starts to take on the characteristics of the unsaved, but he says it is done to save them.
All too often this notion that we are rubbing elbows primarily of non-Believers as a means of doing something for God is that in fact we are doing it for ourselves. Sometimes it is a camouflage to hide our inner desires. Other times it is a means to appear especially pious. Samson grew to feel more comfortable with the pagan Philistines than he did among his own people. Such a comfort level is dangerous and can lead to a serious downfall unless one increases his nearness to God. Instead, Samson compromises his faith supposedly for the sake of fitting in with the group of people to whom he was supposed to be executing.
No comments:
Post a Comment