Dear Lighthouse,

            Do you ever get tired of doing good?  Perhaps a better question might be do you ever give in to weariness in your Christian walk and just give in or give up for a while?  Perseverance in the faith is a key issue for disciples today.  Many Christians are unfruitful because they lack the strength and fortitude it takes to be faithful day in and day out.  Their love grows cold, their minds stray from the goal, or their heart forgets their first love and follows another. 

Jesus prophesied this would happen.  In the last days many awful things will go on including the slow death of compassion.  “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold…”  (Matt. 24:12)  These will be dark days, but Jesus doesn’t leave us there, He offers this encouragement in the second part of the statement.  “…but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  (Matt. 24:13)

Where are you in this spectrum?  Are you standing firm in faith and obedience or are you making foolish decisions out of fatigue and weariness?  I encourage you and caution, as I’ve said before, don’t sacrifice eternity for the earthly. 

The story of Samson found in Judges 13-16 is really a sad, sad story.  For all of Samson’s supernatural strength he was a weakling in judgment.  He lacked the stamina it takes to resist the pull of evil and the lure of sin.

You know the story, Samson was given great strength from God in order to throw off the yoke of the Philistines whom God allowed to rule Israel because of Israel’s disobedience.  Samson kills lions with his bare hands, he slaughters hundreds of men with a jawbone of a donkey, he picks up city gates, bars and all, and carries them away.  This guy is tough.  But he has a fatal flaw. 

You see he has been set apart for God to be used as a Judge, or deliverer, of Israel.  His strength and his power come from the Lord.  Notice Jdg. 14:6, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power so that he tore the lion apart…” or Jdg. 14:19 & 15:14, “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power.”  All of these accounts show precisely where Samson’s power source was centered – the Spirit.  However, part of his “connection” to the power source, lay in his obedience to the Nazirite vow under which he lived.  (See Jdg. 13:5)  He was to never have fermented drink, eat unclean food, and never to cut his hair.  Ah, the hair.  It seems from the text that Samson knew that his hair was the key to his strength.  “…If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”  (Jdg. 16:17)  But this is not the fatal flaw I am talking about.  The flaw was in Samson’s character.  Only at the bitter end of his life did he fully acknowledge God as the provider of his strength and the source of his power.  It was not his hair that made him strong, it was his calling.  Like many of us, though, Samson wasted much time in seeing this truth – he was too often sidetracked by the scenery. 

Samson’s flaw first made itself known at his wedding feast with his first wife.  There he gave a riddle to the Philistine guests.  They pressured his wife to find the answer to the riddle and she in turn pressured Samson.  After a week of her assault Samson gave in.  “She cried the whole seven days of the feast.  So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him.  She in turn explained the riddle to her people.”  (Jdg. 14:17)  Talk about foreshadowing!  Oh that he learned his lesson here.  But he didn’t.  Samson was just glad to be away from his wife’s continuing complaint.  This slight girl overpowered the great Samson by her persistence.  (There is another whole lesson for later – but this is not the model of a good marriage! J )

Later Samson meets his last wife, Delilah.  She too wanted to know a secret – the secret to his strength.  It’s almost amusing if it weren’t so pathetic.  Samson tells her three different methods of stealing his strength and Delilah tries each of them to try and trap him and hand him over to the Philistines, but he doesn’t get it.  He is confident in his power and seemed to have forgotten its true source – again, not the hair, but God.  Delilah is unfortunately another persistent woman who wears Samson down with her questioning.  “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you won’t confide in me?  This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.”  With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.  So he told her everything.”  (Jdg. 16:15-17)  And with that Samson was doomed.

What is the point here?  There are many, but what I wish to point out is Samson’s failure to focus.  Look at him.  He is chasing women all the time.  He thinks his hair gives him his strength.  He toys with people, giving them riddles and tricking them.  He amuses himself with his desires and games but utterly fails to acknowledge God and carry out his mission.  He judged Israel for twenty years.  He began the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines, yes, but think of what more he could have done had he been as strong in spirit, will and perseverance.  Instead, Samson’s life becomes a cautionary tale. 

So Samson is captured and his eyes are gouged out and his is imprisoned.  But Jdg. 16:22 hints that the story is not over just yet:  “But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” 

Samson was a slave and an object of entertainment and gloating for the Philistines.  They held a huge party to celebrate their power and rule.  They had Samson brought up to perform.  During the festivities Samson was led to the supporting pillars of the temple where the party was being held and he finally got it together.  I believe Samson had been reflecting on things and finally found the strength inside himself that he had never tapped before.  He was about to do something for Israel – not for himself.

“Then Samson prayed to the Lord, ‘O Sovereign Lord, remember me.”  That’s pretty humble for the haughty Samson we have been introduced to so far.  He acknowledges God as ‘Sovereign’.  He is humble and finally seeks the true source of his power.  “O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge of the Philistines for my two eyes.  Let me die with the Philistines!”  (Jdg. 16: 28-30)  With that Samson kills more Philistines with his death than all of those he killed when he lived.  (Remember, just in case you’re appalled, the Philistines were enemies of God’s chosen people.  It was God’s mission for Samson to begin pushing them out of the Promised Land.)

So, in the end, Samson attains some redemption by the fact that he finally understood his place with God.  But look at the waste.  Now look at yourself.  Are there many similarities between you and Samson?  You may not be the strongest man or woman in the world, but you have received the same calling from the Sovereign.  What are you doing with your life?  Do you live for yourself?  Are people an amusement for you?  Is life a personal game you play?  Do you give in when the going gets tough?  Do you quit when you don’t get your way?  How about sin?  Is it okay for you to sin when things are bad, when life has dealt you a bad hand?

Contrary to Samson we are a people called to give away our secret.  We are the vessels God has chosen to give away the knowledge of Grace.  If we fail to transmit this knowledge to those around us and to the next generation then we are failures in the things that matter most.  We need to point people to the One who is the source of strength, the author of life, and the redeemer of us all.  We must not give in to the tempter or temptress.  I encourage you – hold on to your faith in God.  Be strong and courageous.  Keep your focus.

Samson sought God in the end.  I challenge you to live your life so it can be said of you that you sought God’s face daily – in private meditation on His Word, in prayer, and as your source of strength.

Serving Him with you,

Evan