You may be wondering, how could this girl possibly get her name mixed up with one such as Samson? Well, it comes down to one thing:
Pride.
Yeah. Have you ever read the story of Samson? We all know Regina Spektor has a pretty good song about him, but beyond that. Who is Samson really?
Simply put, Samson was born as a promise to Israel.
For the seventh time, the nation had turned away from the Lord and was left to undergo a severe oppression by the Philistines. All of the tribes were feeling the impact and, finally, they turned to God and cried out. Samson was born to a man named Manoah and his wife, whom an angel had told that Samson would begin to save Israel. He was not allowed to drink wine and his hair was to grow long and never be cut as a sign that he was a Nazarite or “one who has a vow”. So Samson grew and became the strongest man ever mentioned in the Bible. And, pssst! If he broke his vow and cut his hair or drank wine, his strength would go from him! Years go by and Samson plows his way through the Philistines, killing and conquering at his leisure, out of his anger, at his own will, chasing human emotion. One day in the midst of his rampage, he spots a Philistine woman named Delilah and falls in love with her. Delilah, however, was desperate to save her people and she sought the secret to his strength. In the middle of the night, she cut Samson’s hair and handed him over to her people.
They gouged his eyes and sent him to work as a beast of burden in a prison. But while he was there, his hair grew long again and Samson renewed his vow to God. He realigned his heart with the Lord and his strength was returned. At this time the Philistines were having a feast to thank their god for delivering Samson into their hands. Many thousands were gathered there, three thousand Philistines were on the roof alone! They sent a boy to fetch him from the prison, leading him to the feast by a rope to amuse the crowd. After a while, he asks the boy to lead him to the pillars at the front of the temple so that he could rest. Instead of resting, he calls out to God for his strength and for vengeance upon the Philistines and pulls the pillars down, killing more Philistines in this moment than he had in his entire lifetime.
Whew. I hope that the differences between him and I are somewhat obvious to all of you who read this, so I won’t get into that. What is similar though, is that Samson and I are prideful. We are driven by our own motives, ebbing and flowing to the emotions coursing through us. That, and we both had our hair chopped off.
Keep in mind though, that no matter how big we’ve failed, it’s never too late to humble ourselves and turn to God.
“I thank you, Lord, with all my heart; I sing praise to you before the gods. I face your holy temple, bow down, and praise your name because of your constant love and faithfulness, because you have shown that your name and your commands are supreme. You answered me when I called to you; with your strength you strengthened me.” Psalm 138:1-3
