AP

Judges 16:22  But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.

If there is any benefit to be gained from reading through this distressing chapter in God’s inspired Word, revealing to us the outworking of his Saving Purposes in Human history, it must be to show us just how stupid we are in our fallen condition in sin, and therefore how much we NEED saving, and how this can only be on the basis of his Sovereign MERCY and GRACE alone (mercy being NOT getting what we DO deserve, and grace being GETTING what we DON’T deserve!).

It is incredible to think that Delilah could be so upset by Samson’s failure to love/trust her fully while she was obviously and viciously plotting to betray him to death.  But is even more incredible that Samson could be so ‘thick’ as to fall for her ruses time and again!

There was no intrinsic magical power in Samson’s hair.  His obligation not to cut it was to be a constant outward symbol of his obedience to the Nazarite vow to which he was committed and which entitled him to depend on super-normal strength from the LORD as a ‘rescuer’ of his people.  In the process of Delilah’s seducing him into revealing the secret of his strength, his progressive experience of enjoying success at the expense of his enemies clouded his spiritual vision and lulled him into minimising the part GOD and the VOW played in the scheme of things,  and maximising his own PERSONAL input.  He even tested this out a bit by involving his symbolic hair in the penultimate ploy and finding his strength was unaffected (13-14).  He was on an extremely hard, and costly, and humiliating learning curve: every talent we have is only a gift from God, to be used in obedient submission to his laws, and for his glory.

By God’s grace, Samson benefited from this painful journey.  There was nothing abnormal about the regrowth of his hair after the shave; what was special was what it signified to this blinded prisoner – his SIN was FORGIVEN.  The humbled, broken self-emptying servant of God that now occupied Samson’s being was at last ready to give his life in the service of his LORD – and to earn a place among the HEROES of faith in Hebrews 11.

Let us also LEARN and REMEMBER from all this that even our SAVING FAITH is a gracious GIFT from God – something HE gives to US, and NOT something we OFFER TO HIM.