The day I began to prepare for Keenan’s Birthday party my daily bible reading was Judges 13. And it was the first time I really began to think about how Samson was on a special diet too, just like Keenan.
For those of you reading this that don’t know already, my son has an inborn error in his metabolism, that prevents his body from processing protein. We must carefully weigh, measure and journal every bite of food he eats. If he eats to much protein, it will build up in his body and began to kill his cells, including brain cells therefore doing brain damage. If he doesn’t eat enough protein, his body cannot regenerate cells and grow properly. He drinks a 20oz of a modified protein shake every day that helps him get the proper amount of protein. We have know about this since he was 13 days old, every baby is tested for it in the hospital, it is called the PKU test. PKU is short for phenylketonuria, only one in every 20,000 kids has it. If you would like to read more about it I put a link on the bottom of the blog that will link you to the national PKU website.
But since this blog isn’t about PKU, I digress, the thing that I started thinking about is Samson got distracted with what the limitations of what he couldn’t have/do. In Judges 13 an angel of the Lord came an visited Samson’s mother who was childless. The angel told her to obey a set of rules because the child she was going to have was going to have a special calling on it’s life. It was going to be a Nazarite from birth. In Numbers 6 the bible lays out the rules for the Nazirite vow it says: “If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite, he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins .As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins."'During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the LORD is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long. Throughout the period of his separation to the LORD he must not go near a dead body. Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head.” Numbers 6: 2- 7
So this was to be Samson’s life. From birth Manoah and his unnamed wife, knew that they had to teach Samson the rules of his calling. When they went to birthday parties and grapes were on the table being served or passed around they had to say “No, Samson, those aren’t for you”. Or when their friends said “oh, your child is lovely is that a boy or a girl?” they had to explain why their kid had crazy wooly hair when the other kids got regular haircuts. When Samson’s grandma died, one parent had to stay home from the funeral and explain to Samson, why he wasn’t allowed to go. This must have felt like a life of a lot of rules for a young boy to grow up with. I know a lot about that.
But with that set of rules came great blessings, God’s call on your life is nothing to take lightly. God had set Samson apart from before he was born. God had his hand on his life, and had a purpose and a direction he was taking Samson. Samson saw and enjoyed that calling and that blessing. He heard God’s voice on who is was supposed to marry, he killed a lion under the power of God’s anointing, he caught 300 foxes, tied their tails together, and set them on fire, (that couldn’t have been easy). He killed a bunch of Philistines with a dried up donkey jaw bone. He knew how it felt to be under the power and anointing of God.
I think that Samson’s down fall was that Samson began to get focused on the restrictions of his calling rather than the blessings that the calling produced in his life. He kept thinking about the things he couldn’t do and it weighed him down. I think that is evident when he finally tells Delilah the secret to his strength in Judges 16:17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."
His strength was not in his hair, it was in his covenant relationship with God. The hair was the outside sign of something that was supposed to be going on in the inside. The whole point of a Nazirite vow was to show separation for special time for God to be doing something in your life. Samson’s time was just supposed to be longer than most. He had been separated from birth to have a special purpose put on his life. He kept the outside façade going but on the inside things were changing. The shaving of the hair, was the last sign of the relationship that had been cut off. By the time he got to the point of telling her about his hair, he had taken many steps away from God.
The time he spent after the Philistines had captured him and imprisoned him his hair had time to grow and his relationship had time to restore. So when the time came “he was able to kill more philistines in his death than he had in his entire life”. Judges 16:30b
As Christians, there are things we “can’t” do. Not because God wants to restrict us from having fun, but because God wants us to be safe. If we focus more on what we can’t do than the blessings that come from being in covenant relationship with the Father then we will be like Samson and it will only be a matter of time before we fall. When you are tempted to count you long list of “can’t” dos, I challenge you to instead begin to start listing your benefits and blessings of being in a covenant relationship with God. Keep your focus on the Father and you will find fulfillment.
