Samson.  Interesting character.  He doesn’t seem like the nicest guy.  He’s bent on revenge over and over again.  He just seems rough and mean and not very smart.  Yet we remember him for his strength.  Hmmmmm….

Samson’s mom was infertile.  But one day an angel came to her and told her that she would give birth to a son who would one day “begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”  God had a big plan for this little guy.  He was going to give him great strength.  But Samson would never be able to cut his hair (his sign that he was set apart for God) or he would lose God’s strength.

In Judges 13 it says that Samson “grew and the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir him…”  He chose a Philistine wife, which of course distressed his parents.  After all, he was supposed to deliver them from the Philistines.  But God had a plan.  “His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.”

Samson’s strength began to show up in extreme ways – tearing apart a lion with his bare hands, catching three hundred foxes and tying their tales together and lighting them on fire to destroy Philistine crops and property, attacking and slaughtering in revenge for the death of his first wife, breaking out of bindings and ropes, killing a thousand men with the jawbone of a donkey.  And every time he had this super strength, it was because “the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power”.

But then Samson got cocky and stupid.  He fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who was bribed by the leaders of the Philistines to find out the secret of his strength.  After lying to her many times about where his strength came from, he got tired of her asking and nagging and told her everything.  Dumb.  Of course, she took full advantage of that information and while he was sleeping had his head shaved.  Although he didn’t cut his own hair, he put himself in a vulnerable position where others could take away what God had given him.  And it cost him God’s strength and presence.  Judges 16 – “And his strength left him…But he did not know that the Lord had left him.”

Left powerless, the Philistines over took him, gouged out his eyes, put him in shackles and left him in prison.  What about the promise of his delivering Israel from the Philistines?  Did his mistake cost the promise?  “But the hair on his head began to grow again…” God wasn’t done with Samson yet.

He was now the laughing stock of the Philistines as they thought that they had brought this “god” of a man down.  When they brought him out of his cell to “entertain” them, Samson asked to be placed against a pillar.  He cried out to God to give him vengeance one more time.  He wanted to get back at them for gouging out his eyes.  So short sighted.  No pun intended.  He had a selfish reason for wanting to destroy these people. But God’s vision was perfect and he saw the big picture.  This was the finale of Samson’s life and how he would use him to begin the deliverance of the Israelites.  So he gave Samson one more burst of strength and the “entertainer” brought down the house.  Literally.  (That was a pretty good one, wasn’t it ???? :-))  And he went down with them.  Judges 16:30 tell us, “Thus he killed many more when he died than when he lived.”

Isn’t that just like God?  He took a woman who couldn’t get pregnant and gave her a son.  He took the son who was not the brightest bulb, or the most refined and used him supernaturally to accomplish His purposes.  Even when Samson’s requests and actions were selfish, God answered with the bigger picture in mind.  This gives me great hope once again.  That God can take the unlikely and do great things.  And the strength He gives is not for our own selfish pleasure, but for the greater good and the accomplishment of His purposes.  What He chooses to do through my life does not begin and end with me.  I am just a part of the bigger process.  Just like it was in Samson’s case.  It says that God would use Samson to “BEGIN the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines.”  Samson got to be part of the bigger plan.  Part of it.

That’s what I want to realize when I feel overwhelmed and incapable of all the people that need to be reached and all the ministry that needs to take place and all the mentoring that I would love to do.  God will use me because of who He is and not because of who I am.  And when He does, I can rest in the fact that He will use me in my part of the process, not the whole thing.  Which eliminates both anxiety and pride and elevates Jesus, Himself.

I like that.