At his birth, Samson was pledged to God and God takes these things seriously. Samson, however, did not. God gifted him with amazing superhuman strength and awesome hair. Samson seemed to forget who gave him the gift out of love. He leaned only on himself, but he knew better than to cut his flowing locks. He used his strength in battles to crush his enemies like it was his business and oh….business was good.
One day this hottie caught his eye, Delilah. Oh how well she would look as a trophy to his greatness.
Secretly though she had been paid to take him down by seducing him. That wasn’t a difficult job apparently.
Night after night they laid together and she tried to determine the source of his great strength so he could be destroyed. Samson, in addition to great pecs had an equally great sense of humor and he would come up with hilarious reasons for his strength and Delilah tried them all, only for him to flex back up and laugh at her foolishness. Lust makes you do some crazy stuff.
Women have a way of nagging though (just ask my husband about the menagerie I’ve acquired through batting my eyes) and he finally confessed he had been pledged to God and he could never cut his hair or he would lose his strength.
That night she had his hair cut off and as he woke, he was weakened. The strength was gone.
He was blinded and sold to slavery. They kind of forgot to groom him and his hair grew back.
In these moment of weakness he remembered his promise from God and how much he was loved. He forgot about himself and finally he prayed.
Now the Philistines (these are the bad guys) threw a great feast to celebrate their victory without Samson slaying them all. They brought him out in shackles, this once mighty warrior, to laugh at him and scorn him.
Samson braced himself on the pillars of the crowded temple and prayed sincerely one last time, “Dear God….please remember me….give me my strength one more time to avenge what has happened.”
God listened and the temple fell under Samson’s hands killing more of the enemies than he ever had in battle. Samson was also delivered safely to the arms of the Father he was pledged to who loved him so much to answer his plea.
How many times in our lives do we get so proud of ourselves that we forget who made us special in the first place?
How often have we desired something so much that we were willing to divulge our deepest secret to be used against us?
How often have we been betrayed?
This is a people problem, not a spiritual issue. We get hurt when we place our trust on people and not on our Father. People will fail us, situations will weaken us, but our God will lift us up higher and stronger than ever.
But how great is it that our Father who loved us all along, never forgot us. Not for a minute!! Just waiting for us to cry out for help when we needed it most!
This story has been told of being sad because of the great betrayal, but I find it uplifting to know that we are more than our superficial gifts, we are children with a Father who will never forget us. He’s just waiting to rescue us and show us how great we always were.
Categories: Adversity, faith, restored
From Lost To Found: Everyone’s Journey 
To Be Content In A Messy World 
Where I Am Now 
Whale Of A Tale – Navigating Rough Waters With Depression 
Alycia Neighbours 
A little side point that interests me in the story of Samson (I told you it fascinates me) is that cutting of hair was just ONE of the Nazarite vows. He was also not to touch anything dead but he did so repeatedly (without losing his strength). He was not supposed to indulge in alcohol. He certainly wasn’t supposed to marry, or even date, outside his faith! I don’t see anywhere in Scripture that God said that he would lose his strength by cutting his hair! It seems to me that any of his many violations would have been cause for his loss of power. But Samson believed that cutting his hair would result in that loss (maybe his greatest fear?) and God allowed it to be so!
And the restoration of his strength, which coincided with hair growth, was a gift from God, an answer to a believer’s prayer, rather than a natural result of growing hair.
I love you, girlie! So glad you are back!
Excellent points and I agree….I think it was his confession of his pledge in a moment of lust that took Gods hand from him in that moment.
Glad you liked the article. It was a toughie.
All right, you made a good point about the Samson story, but let me give you some background information. I was 3 when mother started reading Bible stories. I do remember that by the time I was 5, Mother gave me a choice of bedtime stories. I always wanted the Bible stories except for Samson. I did not like the betrayals in the story. I get that fact that God gives all of us a choice–to keep our vows that was made or to be tempted and to give into the temptation. Now the other reason I didn’t like the story. I thought that Samson was a dumb jock. Delilah keep asking him about his strength; he kept giving her silly answers. She kept trying to take his strength. He was dumb enough to keep going back for more because he loved her? I just never understood Samson. He was blessed by God, and yet he kept doing everything God told him not to do. I still do not like the Samson story, but thank you for trying to give me a different view of it.
Like Samson, everyone has disappointed God many times in their life, and yet He still loves us and is there for all of us. We just have to ask.