Thoughts on Samson

Thoughts on Samson

On Sunday last my Pastor taught on Samson and it got me thinking about him and his life.
In Numbers 6 the concept and rules of a Nazarite are described. What strikes me is that a Nazarite is made by the person making a vow to God that they will live as and abide by the three rules:

1. He shall separate [himself] from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried. All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. Num 6:3-4
2. All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth [himself] unto the LORD, he shall be holy, [and] shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. Num 6:5
3. All the days that he separateth [himself] unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body. Num 6:6

My first issue is with his mother consecrating him as a Nazarite. Samson himself made no vow as a Nazarite – it was made for him and shaped his life. Her vow regarding Samson reminds me of The vow made by Samuel’s mother whereby she concentrated him to the Lord. Was Samuel also a Nazarite? (but that’s an issue for another day)
My big questions relate to the story of how Samson told Delilah that if his hair was cut off he would be weak as any man. This story has been told and retold.
I wonder, however, if Samson really believed that cutting his hair would leave him weak as any man?
In his life he had the three rules set out above to live by.
However, we are told that he had already broken two of them.
First, in Judges 14 he kills a lion and then comes back later to the dead body and removes honey from it to eat. In Judges 14:19 he killed 30 men. In Judges 15:10 he took up the jawbone of an ass, defiling himself with another dead body, and then slew 1000 men. So all told he came upon some 1032 dead bodies at least.
Second, in Judges 14:10 he hosts a feast, “of the type the young men used to do.” A feast of this type would have presumably involved the drinking of wine and strong drink.
All that was left was his hair. Could Samson have thought that as God had not taken away his strength when he violated the other two conditions of the Nazarite vow that God was never going to take it away. That he was special and that the vow was not the source of his strength but that it was something that came to him apart from the vow? That God would not hold him to the rules? That he was special?
This would explain why he told Delilah that if his hair was cut he would be weak. If he thought that it was just another rule that he could break without any consequences then why not tell her. To me this makes much more sense than his telling her the truth knowing that she had tried every other time to use what he told her against him.
Why would he tell her his secret if he really thought it was the secret. To me a better option is that he thought that it would not matter and that God would just continue to bless him anyway.
I don’t believe that there was anything magical about the cutting of Samson’s hair. The issue was his throwing God’s grace back into His face and figuring that because God had shown grace before that He was obligated to continue to show grace and bless him regardless of what Samson did.
Was the cause of Samson’s loss of his strength the cutting of his hair or his presumption that God would continue to bless him regardless of his sin?
How often do we do this? We see God’s grace as a license to keep sinning and to do worse because we figure God will just look the other way and continue to bless us regardless of what we have done. Do we, like Samson, go on sinning and just assume that God will bless us because he always has in the past?
This reminds me of where Paul asks the rhetorical question “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Romans 6:1. As Paul continues “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Romans 6:2.
I see one of the key lessons of the Samson story to be that while God’s grace is sufficient at a certain point He will take his hand of blessing away from us if we continue in our sin.
I believe the Church needs to strive to discover where, as with Samson, we continue in our sins and just assume that God will bless us anyways.
Search me God and show me where I am failing so I can repent and turn away from my sin and follow you more closely.