Samson Chosen By God

 After Gideon’s death, the Jews repeatedly turned away from God, and time after time he sent judges to get them back to following the Lord.  Finally, about a hundred and sixty years after Gideon defeated the Midianites, the Israelites had been conquered by the Philistines.  God chose a man named Samson to free them again.  Judges 13:1-5 describes how he was called.  “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years.  And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.  And the angel of the LORD appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.   Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

 

Numbers 6:2-12 gives the requirements for being a Nazarite.  “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried.  All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk.

 

All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in the which he separateth himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow.  All the days that he separateth himself unto the LORD he shall come at no dead body.  He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.  All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.

 

And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing, on the seventh day shall he shave it.  And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons, to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, for that he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day.  And he shall consecrate unto the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering: but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.”

 

All of the Jews were expected to keep the moral and ethical standards otf the Levitical law, but the Nazarite was to go beyond that.  Not only was he to avoid any unclean foods under the law, he was not to eat or drink anything that came from a grape vine, so that there was no questions of drunkenness.  When Jews touched a dead body, they were to quarantine themselves for twenty four hours to avoid spreading potential diseases.  The Nazarite was not allowed to come in contact with any dead body, even for members of his own family.     

 

As a sign of his commitment to God, the person was to shave their heads when they started, then let their hair grow until their commitment was over, when they would shave their head again.  If they broke that commitment, even by accident, they were to start the entire process again, spending eight days in quarantine, and offering special sacrifices for violating the vow.   Because Samson was to be a Nazarite from birth, even his mother was to observe those rules. 

 

Manoah and his wife took the responsibility seriously, praying for further instruction.  God sent the angel to repeat the instructions, in Judges 13:13-14.  “And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah, Of all that I said unto the woman let her beware.  She may not eat of any thing that cometh of the vine, neither let her drink wine or strong drink, nor eat any unclean thing: all that I commanded her let her observe.”

 

Please note that God has set similar requirements for those who are involved in ministry, in the New Testament, as described in I Timothy 3:1-121.   “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)   Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.  Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

 

Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.  And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless.  Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.  Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.”   

 

It is easy for us to get the feeling that God only works with those involved in the ministry or that they have some special faith.  Of all the great people of faith in the Bible, only Paul and Samson are mentioned as taking the Nazarite vow, and even Paul’s was a temporary vow, as we see in Acts 18:18 and Acts 21:23.    As we will see, Samson did not live up to the requirements of his vow, yet bod blessed him, using him to free Israel from Philistine domination.    Clearly, we can act in faith without taking such a commitment on ourselves and expect God to bless our actions.