This is a continuation of pondering Samson’s life. His life was marked by series of outbursts, battles, victories, and some defeats. Surprisingly despite his lack of self-control, he was able to keep his Nazirite vow. He did not cut his hair nor did he touch wine as far as we know. However, he did pollute himself with dead animals which would have been a violation of Leviticus laws. He also joined himself with a prostitute (See Judges 16:1-3); later he went after a woman called Delilah who seduced him to tell her the secret of his strength.
We need to pause for a moment and think about Samson as a leader and a judge of Israelites. This man served God for twenty years! That’s a long time. If you were a fellow Jewish person during his era, would you have respected him? Would you have considered him a leader and a judge?
In today’s Christianity, we can so easily get disenchanted with Christian leadership, and we don’t usually stop there. Eventually the disenchantment leads to being disappointed with God for allowing faulty leadership to continue to have a negative impact on others. People walk away from church and from faith because some leaders failed them. If I lived in that era, I would have had a very hard time believing that Samson was doing God’s will in spite of his indiscretions and lack of self-Control!
Unfortunately, there are no simple answers to flawed leadership. It is clear that Samson was called into ministry before he was conceived, so there is no doubt that God had a call on him. The issue is, “Did his disobedience make him ineffective? According to below scripture, the answer is, “No.” .
And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Hebrews 11:32-34
In the book of Hebrews, Samson is named among the “Hall of Faith” people who did mighty exploits for God. We can conclude that in spite of all his issues because Samson had faith in God, the Lord chose to use him. His story continues with his eyes being gauged by the enemy because they were able to take away his strength temporarily by cutting his hair. However, at the end, as his hair grew longer, he pulled down walls and killed every Philistine in sight and killing himself (See Judges 16).
Samson fulfilled God’s purpose while his sins led him to get killed as well. Sin always works against us not for us, and destroys the very one who passionately holds on to sin! Sadly, while God’s plans were accomplished, Samson did not appear to have experienced much peace in his life!
The most important lesson we can learn from Samson is that obedience has a greater priority than being used by God! Being effective for God is not necessarily the measure of our spiritual maturity or obedience. God can use anyone. If we are not obedient, we may fulfill God’s purpose, but not have a fulfilling life on the journey!
