Love Can Make the Mighty Fall or Was That Manipulation?
A hero has fallen: Judges 16
Those Philistines are everywhere!
They followed Samson like flies to a bad smell.
Samson fell in love. When we read Judges 16 one might wonder if Samson was a little dense.
The love of his life asks him what his deepest secret is, the source of his great strength.
The next thing he knows, what he has shared with her, she has done in his sleep and “suddenly” the Philistines are upon him.
OK, I can understand It happening once but three times? Lucky for him he made them up, so he was victorious. Then he tells her! Do you feel like screaming at him? Don’t be daft man!
Naturally, events happen just as before, this time she shaved his hair, making void his vow to the Lord. So, the Lord left him, and with that his great strength.
The Philistines gouged out his eyes and put him in chains, reducing his life to grinding grain.
The Bible does not tell us how He felt, l am not sure if any amount of uncivilized, brutality would sting any more than the continuous betrayal of his love. Or his seemingly fool heartedness to continue to tell Delilah his secrets, even with her persistent nagging. He must have felt like one very defeated man, massive failure, and broken vow to God on top of it all.
Soon his hair began to grow again,
He was brought out during a celebration to the Philistine’s god Dagon to be shown off as the once formidable enemy now having to be led by the hand, he was made to perform for them. Over 3,000 men and women came to watch. I am sure much mocking was on the menu that day.
Samson asked his servant to help him to the temple pillars so that he could lean there. He put his hands on the two pillars and prayed.
The Lord had not forgotten him! He gave him strength one last time and he brought down more Philistines that day than in his whole life.
There are so many things in Samson’s life that make you scratch your head even before this chapter!
What comes forward to me is that no matter how stubborn, rebellious, fool-hearted, or even dense Samson might have seemed at times God never forgot him.
Not to be too hard on Samson, He won many battles and ruled Israel. He was a hero.
Even the greatest of mankind has shortcomings and they have a way of coming out! The cool thing is God loves us, watches over us, and allows us to call on Him despite everything.
Everything! Including our own willfulness, blunders, and outright downfalls. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying God won’t deal with those areas of our life. He is good and faithful to us, His desire is that we reflect his image, so He polishes our lives.
I love reading the Old Testament and even though there are times I would like to say, “come on guys you got to get this, quit wandering away and your lives will be much better.” But alas, it pictures human nature.
We all seem to have a bent to wander. The words of a beautiful old hymn come to mind.
“Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee:
prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above”— The Psalter Hymnal, 1987.
The goodness of God like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee… How often is it that we wander away whether by willfulness or ease? It often is His goodness at last revealed that brings us running or sometimes crawling back home.
He graciously allows us to have our way, make our choices, and painfully watch us go down that road, not interfering yet watching, waiting to intervene. He is Good, that is who God is!
Yes, even as He did with Samson, His chosen man for the time, He will abide our choices and the consequences surely will come yet. When our heart chooses to return to Him, He steps in.
Many people see the Old Testament as rigid rules and a bunch of dos and don’ts. And there are. However, when we begin to see it from His perspective it is not so much a General's command, although they are commands but, with the heart of God, I feel that there is an aspect of: “please don’t go down that road it only leads to darkness, to bitterness, loneliness, disillusionment.”
Yes, He is God and Yes, He tells us how to live as His people but there is a huge heart of love that wants us to not have to experience the pain and separation that going our own way brings around the bend, just out of sight.
Samson went his own way many times and paid dearly but God did not turn His back on him, nor did He forget him in the midst of his consequential hardship.
Where are you today?
Probably not where Samson was, but are you suffering from something? Something that may have been brought on by willfulness or bad decisions? Know that God is right there!
He is waiting for you to lift your broken heart to Him and He will be there for you!
