Turning Strength into Weakness Part 2

Hey everyone.

I am at home today, with Aaron, who is slowly recovering form a bout of pneumonia.  Any way, I thought that I would continue the story of Samson.  Last post, I talked about how Samson did not listen to his parents, who were ultimately more righteous than he was.  As we continue through the story we will see how much trouble he could have avoided if he had listened to his parents.

The next part of the story we can see that Samson does not take his vows to God very seriously.  Going back to Judges 13 and the appearance of the angel, we see in v. 7 that Samson was to be a Nazirite.  Now, Numbers 6 tells us the vows that a Nazirite must take.  First, they don't cut their hair.  Second, they do drink wine, or eat grapes or raisins.  Third, they cannot touch a dead body.  These are Nazirite vows that someone would take over a period of time as a sign of dedication to God.  But, Samson was to do this for life.

OK, as the story continues, Samson is walking with his parents to Timnah where his Philistine bride awaits.  He goes off by himself into a vineyard and kills a lion with his bare hands.  On his second trip to Timnah, he revisits the vineyard and finds honey in the carcass of the lion.  He takes the honey and then gives some to his parents.  Here is where we realize that Samson does take his vows to God very seriously.  He breaks one of his vows by touching the dead lion's body.  One also has to wonder what a guy who has vowed to God that he would not drink wine or eat grapes is doing wandering around a vineyard.  It seems that the only vow he took seriously was the hair vow.  We can be the same way, though.  We can justify almost any behavior.  We get as close to the line (of sin) as possible and as long as we don't cross it, we think that it is OK.  It's foolish though, if we flirt with sin, eventually it will win.  God told Cain, in Genesis 4:7, "sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you."  Do we realize that sin desires to have us.  It is wise then to stay away from it.  In other words, if you don't eat grapes, stay out of the vineyard.

Later, at his wedding party, Samson who has definitely broken one vow, and messed around with breaking another, turns his vow-breaking into a riddle to entertain his wedding party.  The riddle leads from one disaster to the next.  Again Samson turns strength into weakness because he does take his vows before God very seriously.

Tom