Judges 16:16-20 [Samson’s Strength and the Sign of the Nazarite]

 

 

[Things to Meditate On]

1. The lords of the Philistines told Delilah that if she could entice Samson and find out by what means his great strength lay, they would each give her eleven hundred pieces of silver (Judges 16:5). So Delilah began to press Samson, and as the passage above says, because Delilah pressed him daily, Samson’s soul was vexed unto death (verse 16). In the end, Samson told Delilah the secret: that he had been a Nazarite unto God from his mother’s womb (Judges 13:5), and that if his hair were shaved, his strength would depart from him. Then what kind of person was a Nazarite, that his hair was not to be shaved?

We can understand what a Nazarite is through the word that God spoke to Moses.

 

Numbers 6:1-8 “1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD... 5All 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... 7He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.”

 

2. As the words of Numbers 6 above show, a Nazarite refers to one who is separated unto God. Because he is one separated unto God, whether man or woman, no razor was to come upon his head during the days of his separation unto the LORD. This was because the hair of his head was the “sign” of being separated unto God. Therefore, even before Samson was born, God told his parents that the son who would be conceived and born would be a Nazarite unto God, and that no razor should come upon his head.

 

Judges 13:5 “For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

 

In the end, we can know that Samson’s strength was not in Samson himself, but came from the word of God. Like the other laws, the vow of the Nazarite was also established because God “spoke” it. Therefore, when Delilah shaved Samson’s hair, from that moment Samson broke the sign of his separation unto God, and his relationship with the word of God concerning the Nazarite was defiled. In the end, he lost all his strength and became like any other man.

 

Numbers 6:12 “...but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.”

 

Nevertheless, Samson did not know that the LORD had already departed from him, and said, “I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself” (Judges 16:20). Thus, we also must know that if we ever become separated from the word of God, then even if we had previously been with the power of God, God can depart from us (1 Thessalonians 5:19). This is like the principle that a branch can live when it abides in the vine, but if it is separated from the vine, it soon withers and dries up (John 15:1-6).

 

John 15:1-6 “1I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman... 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

 

3. The Philistines seized Samson after he lost his strength, put out his two eyes, bound him with fetters of brass, and made him grind in the prison house (Judges 16:21). And the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god and to rejoice, saying that their god had delivered Samson into their hand (Judges 16:23). In truth, Samson’s strength was gone because his hair had been shaved, that is, because the sign of his separation unto God had been defiled, and therefore God had departed from him. Yet they boasted in and exalted their own god. Such “pride” caused them to overlook the fact that Samson’s hair began to grow again after it had been shaved (Judges 16:22), and it brought about the following result.

 

Judges 16:26-30 “26And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them. 27Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women, that beheld while Samson made sport. 28And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes. 29And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood, and on which it was borne up, of the one with his right hand, and of the other with his left. 30And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people that were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life.”

 

At times, we too, like the Philistines, forget that our strength comes from the word of God. Because of this, we end up boasting in and exalting what we have, or the world and the things of the world, more than the word of God. But just as Samson’s strength was not his own, and just as the idol of the Philistines had not enabled them to overcome Samson, we must know and believe that our strength is found only in the gospel, that is, in the words of Jesus. This is because truly only the “gospel” is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.

 

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

Romans 1:16-17 “16For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

 

[Decision and Application]

At the Last Supper, Jesus poured water into a basin and washed the disciples’ feet. But Simon Peter tried to refuse it, and Jesus said that if He did not wash him, “thou hast no part with me.”

 

John 13:5-9 “5After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. 6Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? 7Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. 8Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. 9Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.”

 

Thus, when Jesus said, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me,” Peter immediately replied, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” This shows how earnestly Peter desired to have part with Jesus. We also must have the same earnest heart as Peter, desiring to have part with Jesus.

 

As we have seen above, Samson could have a relationship with God through his hair. This was because God had made the hair of the Nazarite the separated “sign.” At the Last Supper, Jesus also gave the eleven disciples the sign of the name of Jesus, so that even after Jesus departed, Jesus and His disciples could continue to have a relationship with one another (John 16:24-25, John 17:6, 11-12). Therefore, just as Samson could use that great strength through his hair, the disciples of Jesus were able to do many mighty works in the name of Jesus. For this reason, the apostles used the name of Jesus in everything: when they prayed (John 14:13-14), when they preached forgiveness of sins (Acts 10:43, Luke 24:47, 1 John 2:12), when they baptized (Acts 2:38, Acts 10:48, Acts 19:5), when they cast out devils (Mark 16:17, Luke 10:17, Acts 16:18), and when they healed the sick (Acts 3:6, 16, Acts 4:10, 30).

 

Thus, just as the disciples of Jesus were able to have a relationship with Jesus “in the name of Jesus,” we too can have a relationship with Jesus today in the name of Jesus (John 17:20). Therefore, just as the disciples believed and relied on the name of Jesus in all things, we also must live believing and relying on the name of Jesus in all things. As mentioned earlier, Samson and the disciples of Jesus had no power in themselves. Likewise, the help that assists us does not come from ourselves, nor can it be obtained from this world. It comes only from God, who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2, Psalm 124:8). Therefore, in order for us to receive the help of Jesus, we must know and believe that we must have the name of Jesus. This is because the name of Jesus is the name of God, and it is the name that makes God and us one.

 

Psalm 124:7-8 “7Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”

John 5:43 “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”

John 17:11, 26 “11And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. 26And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

Amen.