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The secret of strength

“Tell me the secret of your great strength, and how you can be tied up and subdued.”

Samson, the central figure in the book of Judges, has a claim to be the strongest man in the Bible. He ripped apart a young lion with his bare hands. He struck down a thousand Philistines in a mountain pass, with a donkey’s jaw bone. He tore down the city gate in Gaza and carried it away to Hebron. He was a one-man platoon.
 
Naturally, the Philistines, Israel’s enemy at the time, wanted to know the secret of his strength. Knowing he had a weakness for women, they offered Delilah money if she could extract the secret from him. Again and again she pestered him – what was the secret of his great strength?
 
Eventually, he gave in. “No razor has ever been used on my head”, he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
 
That was it – his hair! So while Samson was sleeping, Delilah got the clippers out, and when he woke up, his strength had gone. He couldn’t escape the ropes his enemies had tied him up with.
 
This Bible episode had a powerful lesson for the original readers, as it does for us.
 
The Nazirite vow (see Numbers 6:1-21) meant being specially set apart, dedicated to God – and uncut hair was a sign of that.  Samson was only strong – in God’s supernatural strength – as long as he kept to that set-apartness.
 
In this respect, Samson seems in the book of Judges to be a microcosm of the whole nation. They, too, were set apart for the LORD: His distinct people. So long as they worshipped Him alone, and kept to His distinct ways, they were strong. But when they simply tried to blend in with the nations around them, their strength wilted.
 
In fact, we could say that Samson embodies the message of the whole book. The original readers of Judges were tempted to forget their special privileges and status before the LORD, and to adopt the ways and theologies of the nations around them. The message is clear: don’t do that! Israel has strength from the LORD, which He will give, if only they will trust Him and not compromise! Samson is there to remind them that He promises enormous strength, if only they are faithful!
 
And don’t the churches today need to hear again of that strength? Here is a strength from God, which others might envy, but is lost by compromise. In his first letter, Peter suggests we’ll be most effective at outreach when we don’t follow the world’s agenda.
 
I need that lesson – we all do.