“However, after the hair on his head had been cut off, it began growing back again.”-Judges 16:22
Samson has fallen from heaven into hell.
Here was a man who held the glorious position of being one of but a handful of Judges over Israel.
A man who was feared and revered by both friend and foe.
A man considered so invincible the earth trembled wherever his feet walked.
Yet he was now chained to metal shackles and reduced to doing woman’s work.
A lot of depictions of this event show Samson handcuffed to some enormous machine-like grain grinder that was usually driven by a donkey or ox.
Those depictions are way off because that type of grain mill didn’t even exist until 700 years after Samson passed away.
The truth is Samson was chained and forced to sit at a your typical stone grain mill and one handful at a time ground grain from morning until night…
Which means the picture I posted up above is NOT accurate.
“Then why did you post it?” you ask?
Because I thought it looked cool man and I couldn’t find another one.
And besides, on second thought that picture is a good way to communicate how folks misrepresent what really happened.
Anyways, onwards.
The humiliation for Samson must have been unbearable.
Yet there’s one little detail the author of the Book of Judges went out of his way to tell us.
Samson’s hair started to grow back.
Why would the inspired author go out of his way to share such a trivial piece of information?
I mean isn’t it obvious his hair would grow back?
That’s like saying the sun rose the next morning.
Really?
What a surprise (thick sarcasm intended here)!
Like duh.
No, what’s really being implied here is that Samson had begun to re-examine his relationship with the Lord…
And how he had failed so terribly at this relationship.
In other words, Samson had begun to walk the painful path of repentance leading to restoration.
There’s a Biblical pattern here that can be summed up in four easy steps.
FIRST, if we stop being faithful, our spiritual strength will weaken leaving us wide open to the temptations of the world.
And keep in mind, I said if you stop “being faithful”, I didn’t say if you “lose your faith”.
There’s a huge difference and if you don’t remember what it is, go back and check out my earlier posts on this topic in this series of articles about Samson.
SECOND, once your spiritual strength goes, your usefulness to the Kingdom of God will begin to evaporate into thin air.
This is when depression sets in and a numbing darkness starts to take over your soul.
THIRD, when our degree of unfaithfulness reaches the boiling point so to speak, the Lord will depart from us.
When I say “depart”, I don’t mean to the point of no return.
I mean in the sense that God will no longer actively protect us or be an influence in our lives leaving us wide open to attacks from the enemy.
FOURTH AND FINALLY, after we’ve gone through the above three stages, our destruction will arrive.
You’re probably thinking at this point…geez, is there any good news here at all?
Yes, there is.
When you become aware of your sin and sincerely repent of it, then the Lord will return to you.
But I wouldn’t overlook the fact that sin has consequences that CANNOT be overturned this side of heaven.
During judgement day, if we have sincerely confessed our sins to God, He won’t count our transgressions against us and cut us off from heaven for all eternity.
But the scars of what we have done will remain with us for the rest of our days here on earth.
Samson lost both of his eyes and they were never restored.
So think about that.
I mean I wouldn’t go around thoughtlessly sinning left and right just because you think the Lord will forgive you if you repent later.
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