Samson’s Plunge to Disaster

He did not know that the LORD had left him.

Judges 16:20

It seems like there are two Samsons. There is Samson the gifted believer, who has godly parents, God’s calling, and God’s Spirit at work through him. He is a courageous hero who delivers God’s people. And there is also Samson the irresponsible fool, who is a liability to God’s people, acts like a juvenile delinquent, and refuses to listen to his parents.

Yet the Spirit of God is on him at a time when God’s people knew only defeat, and God used him to take out an entire legion from the army of a wicked regime. How can such courage and foolishness be bound up in one man? How can God use one who shows such a lack of judgement?

The rest of the story repeats the same pattern. Samson falls in love with a woman called Delilah. She pesters Samson for the secret of his strength, and eventually he tells her; if his hair was cut, he would lose his strength. There was nothing magical about his hair, but this was the secret sign of his consecration to God, and it was the Spirit of God who gave him his power.

One night while Samson was asleep, Delilah cut his hair. So, when the Philistines came to arrest him, his strength was gone. That’s where we come to one of the saddest verses in the Bible: “He did not know that the LORD had left him” (16:20).

So why did Samson take such a plunge to disaster? Because he never developed self-control. How many ministries have taken a plunge to disaster because of passions that were never brought under control? If you do not master your passions, your passions will master you. That was the tragedy of this man’s life. So gifted, and yet so out of control.

Are you mastering your passions? Or are your passions mastering you?