Samson is a mirror for Israel: raised up from nothing, set apart by God, blessed with special gifts and a special calling. Yet like Israel, Samson presumed upon the grace of God, ignored his special status; he was a Nazirite only outwardly. He thought he could pursue forbidden relationships, and pursue the allure of freedom to be like other people, all the while thinking that God would never leave him.
Is this passage not showing us today the folly of ignoring our calling to live for God and expecting we will always have him? He is the Lord of great patience, mercy, and faithfulness. He raised us up from nothing. And we have received grace on top of grace from him, so that we might live out our calling to his praise. But he is not a God we can assume is always with us no matter how we live as his children. We may never think that simply because we are Christians, that we can live contrary to his Word and think he will never leave us. That his favour will continue to shine upon us. Christ said to the church of Ephesus, You have abandoned your first love…. Repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent
(Revelation 2:4–5). Christ said to Laodicea, You are lukewarm, and so I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked
(Revelation 3:16–17). So whether to ancient Israel, the early church, or the church today, Samson’s downfall still speaks: don’t presume upon the grace of God. Watch out, lest you fall, leave your first love, become neither hot nor cold, and forfeit God’s presence, lose your lampstand. Our God may not be mocked.
But there is a bit of Samson and Israel in each of us. Not a day goes by in our lives where we do not toy with sin, where we do not ignore our calling to live by his Spirit. Coddling sin, being friendly with iniquity, familiarizing our hearts with impurity or immorality, who can say he is innocent of all that? We are not immune to temptations and to spiritual struggle. Sin holds out its call to freedom. Freedom to live just like others. Freedom to pursue what your heart wants. But sin wants to destroy us. Satan is happy to conspire with the Delilahs of our lives—be it pride, selfishness, greed, gossiping, lust, or another weakness. And the enemy is quite fine with us feeding these, and assuming that God will always be around for us. Our text pleads with us not to view the pleasures and temptations of the world as things we can fool around with and presume we have enough strength to get out of when we decide. Our passage cries out to us not to take for granted God’s mercy, patience, and faithfulness, and that he will always get us out of a jam when needed.
20 And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him.