Samson: It’s Never Too Late
Samson: It’s Never Too Late
To the Israelites, Samson was like a superhero. For twenty years, he performed great exploits for God against the oppressive Philistine nation. Judges chapter 16 tells the story of his capture. Delilah, Samson's woman, commissioned by the Philistine leaders to find out the secret that lay behind Samson's strength. Endlessly, day after day, she nagged at him and prodded at him. Eventually, he wore down and revealed to her the secret behind his strength. “No razor has ever been used on my head,” he said, “because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man.”
While he lay sleeping on her lap, she had his head shaved. When he awoke, according to verse 20, “he did not know the Lord had left him.” They captured him, gouged out his eyes, and threw him into prison. Samson was strong in body, but weak in character, and eventually was destroyed because of sin. In prison, his hair began to grow. In prison, he humbled himself and cried out to God, despite completely misusing and abusing the gifts God had given him in his life.
When Samson repented of his pride and his rebellious spirit, he was used more mightily of God as a blinded slave than as a seeing strong man. In his final moments, according to verse 30, when he pushed the pillars down that held up the walls and the roof of the temple, he killed more Philistines that day than in the twenty years he led Israel combined.
Beloved, Samson may have waited to the end of his life to surrender to God, but you don't have to. It's never too late to repent of sin, believe the gospel, and receive the free gift of salvation. If there is grace for Samson, there is grace for you! Don't let the deceitfulness of sin harden your heart!
How shall you escape if you neglect so great a salvation? This is Laine Wilder for Carry the Light Ministries, bringing you Insights From an Elder.
by Laine Wilder
author of “Insights From an Elder” for
Carry the Light Ministries
