Scripture:

“Then Delilah pouted, ‘How can you tell me, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t share your secrets with me? You’ve made fun of me three times now, and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!’ She tormented him with her nagging day after day until he was sick to death of it.

 

Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. ‘My hair has never been cut,’ he confessed, ‘for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.’

 

Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the Philistine rulers. ‘Come back one more time,’ she said, ‘for he has finally told me his secret.’ So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands. Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.

 

Then she cried out, ‘Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!’

 

When he woke up, he thought, ‘I will do as before and shake myself free.’ But he didn’t realize the Lord had left him.” Judges 16:15-20 (NLT)

 

Perspective:

The Lord’s hand was upon Samson’s life. From the time he was born, the Lord gave his parents specific instructions of how Samson would be used to deliver the Israelites from their enemies, the Philistines. While Samson did have several victories over the Philistines, he kept getting closer and closer to them. Samson was to deliver the Israelites from the Philistines, not become a Philistine. The Lord continued to show favor on Samson’s life until Samson placed himself in compromising after compromising situation. In Judges 16, Samson spent time with Delilah, a Philistine woman, who was being used to try to find the secret to his strength. Samson kept leading her astray, until finally he told her the secret to his strength. When the Philistines attacked him again, he assumed that he would have the same victory as before. He assumed that his continual compromise had nothing to do with God’s presence on his life. He assumed that his strength came from himself instead of God. The people and situations in which Samson put himself began to slowly erode God’s ability to work through him. Although it initially seemed like it wasn’t a big deal, the continual compromising of God’s plan for his life led him to a point that he couldn’t even realize that God wasn’t with him.

 

In our lives, it can be easier to identify the big obstacles that come between us and the Lord. Yet, the little compromises can begin to erode God’s working in and through us. It could be the people we allow to surround our life or seemingly insignificant decisions that don’t honor the Lord. As we develop these patterns in our life, we can become insensitive to God’s leading. God’s voice doesn’t become distant over night. It’s the continual progression of us taking one step further away from Him instead of closer to Him that can leave us in a place we don’t want to be. We can’t just assume that God is going to be with us since He has been with us in the past. We need to have a daily discipline of aligning our hearts with the Lord so that our relationship with Him becomes closer instead of more distant. It is God who gives us strength and victory, and when we come to think it is of our own accord, we can miss how God is working. Psalm 18:32 (NLT) says, “God arms me with strength, and he makes my way perfect.” When we recognize God’s working in our lives instead of just assuming He is present, we can walk in His strength and power each and every day. 

 

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

 

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About Hona Amer

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