Lessons for Us from Samson's Nazarite Vow

Part of the Nazarite bow was to not cut the hair! Why?

It was an outward symbol of the vow. It said to the world (physical and spiritual), "I am consecrated, set apart, and holy unto the Lord!" It was a sign of submission to the rigors of holy living to draw closer to the Lord.

Samson was to keep the Nazarite vow perpetually from his birth. In return he was given super-human strength, and with it the Lord intended to save the Israelites from oppression. But instead, he squandered his gift. He broke every part of the vow except the cutting of his hair, because he enjoyed his strength and he was aware that it was the key to it.

When the Lord calls us to holy living, He gives us rules to live by. If He could give Samson physical strength through not cutting his hair, is it no possible that He grants us spiritual strength when we commit to the same?  Not because of any intrinsic natural super-power in our hair, but rather God-given, grace-granted power for our commitment to submission to obedience to the Word of God?

Could it be that our hair really is the key?

Just as Samson became vulnerable to attack when he began the slippery-slope of sin, don't we often do the same?  He was to stay away from the defilement caused by death, and yet he killed a lion and tore out it's jaw-bone. Aren't each of us guilty of dead works? We do things for God and yet do them for the wrong motives  and then have the unmitigated poor taste to wield them as a weapon of our pride.

He was to avoid alcohol and yet it was alcohol that caused his judgment to be impaired.

He was not to lie with foreign women. How often do we step out into foreign lands and flirt with the world out there? Once there do we not make unholy unions with the forces there and then bring them back into our home via television? Internet? Customs and practices? And then we make excuses for not keeping pure. But, all the while we keep the outward vesture of our strength.

How like Samson we truly are! Failures on and all, unable to keep even the smallest vow if it proves inconvenient, while making a show of our strength.  What shame! In the end he was a blind captive.

And yet, God's Word proves him to be a man of faith.  He didn't attain "first-tier" commendation in the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11), but Paul did include his name in verse 32, telling us that if he had time, he would have also extolled the virtue of Samson's faith.

This is encouragement to us! We fail over and over. We compromise with the world and with sin. We do not remain holy. And yet...God can use us in a mighty way!

Thank You Father! Praise You, o Lord, for Your steadfast love and mercy. Thank you for chastisement for sin. Thank You for loving us through it and restoring us after it. Thank you Father for hidden strength and call to live holy and sanctified. Thank You for using even the most undeserving of us. Praise You God! Thank You for Your Word.