“For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines.”
Judges 13:5
These words were spoken to the parents of a child who came to be known as Samson. A movie and a mini-series have been made about him. According to the rest of his story in the book of Judges, he started off good, with the potential of accomplishing a lot, but then, came up short of fulfilling his purpose in life.
I wonder how many of us start our lives with the same potential, especially our Christian lives, but as time goes by we slowly whittle down our potential through our own mindsets and actions.
Samson was an Old Testament Judge in Israel, who the people looked to for hope of deliverance from their enemy, the Philistines. But, as the years passed by that hope began to be cut away. At the end of his life, everything that he stood for was stripped away.
The Nazarite vow for Samson involved three major commitments; not to drink fermented drinks, no haircut, and don’t touch any dead body. He completely failed to keep these commitments.
I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve made what would seem to be small commitments to the Lord, and then broke them, and thought nothing of it. As I think about the wasted years of Samson’s life, as well as my own, I appreciate the fact that at the end of his life the Lord gave him one last chance to make a difference. Therein is my hope in God, that He isn’t through with me yet.