I’ve always found the story of Samson intriguing, but I must admit, I’ve always had a hard time fully understanding its significance. We all know that Samson was a strong guy and judge for Israel, that his strength came from his hair, and that he died defeating the Philistines. But, what does all that really mean and why should we care?
You see, God set Samson a part, even before his birth. His birth announcement, like Jesus’ birth announcement was done by angels to his mother. God’s favor was with both Samson and Jesus from the time of their births. You see, Samson, like Joseph in the Old Testament, Jonah, Moses, Adam, and David- to name a few is a prototype of Jesus. Samson wasn’t Jesus but he was supposed to save his people and judge them well but failed. Jesus never failed and it wasn’t until his death that Samson became a judge.
Samson betrayed God and Delilah betrayed Samson.
Samson’s hair was a symbol between him and God that he would be a judge of Israel. And I want to focus on Judges 16 and the situation that happened with Delilah and Samson’s hair. When Samson told Delilah the secret of the symbol between him and God, that his strength was found in his hair, he essentially betrayed God. Samson betrayed God and Delilah betrayed Samson. The only way to fully love your partner is to honor God and both Samson and Delilah weren’t doing that. Samson had a weakness for women and got into trouble as a result of that weakness.
Samson was a nasty, twisted and bitter man- always full of revenge. He gave up his vow to God as he was always so focused on his own strength. He was so into himself that he didn’t even realize God had left him in verse 20, when his hair was cut and the Philistines captured him.
What does this have to do with you?
Buy, why should you care about this man from long ago? God wanted to show Israel what they themselves were like. See, what God was doing was holding a mirror up to Israel, showing them their failures. The story and life of Samson is also for us, trying to show us who we are.
You see, Samson played with other women and Israel played with other gods. Samson was set apart and Israel was set a part, but both didn’t care. Both Samson and Israel were ignorant of their condition before God. And we too can be ignorant of our condition before God.
Like Samson, we too can let worldly things get in the way our relationship with God. That can be sexual immorality, trying to get a certain body type for someone of the opposite sex, an addiction to success, a title, or a love of money.
But there’s hope! Just as Samson’s hair started to grow back (verse 22), there is hope. God is happy to meet us in our sin when we’re ready to repent. Was God wrong in appointing Samson as a judge. No. God is never wrong. Samson failed, like Adam when he gave the keys of life to the serpent. But, God’s grace catches us when we fall and want to repent.
When we turn from ourselves and our sin, there’s hope for us too, the way it was for Samson at the end of his life.
Inspiration for this post came from John Sugars.