I HAVE BEEN A NAZIRITE

In scripture, when something important and divine is about to happen through a person, it often begins with their parents' temporary infertility. It happened to Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, and in this bit of scripture, to Samson's mother. Though the parents interpreted their childlessness as faultiness, God had simply placed a pause on their ability to conceive. And the reason is because He has a plan and a place for that child to be born into. He arranges the perfect circumstances for that child to live out his specific purpose within the grand scheme of God's plan; we learn how that applies to our own life through the life of Samson in the Book of Judges.

Superficially, Samson comes across as a bit of a contradiction; in comparison to the sanctity that surrounded his conception, the choices Samson makes in his life seem rather reckless. But God was behind all of it, and the intended end result achieved. 

• BIRTH OF SAMSON, THE NAZIRITE 

An angel was sent to the mother of Samson both to inform her of her impending pregnancy and to instruct her on how she was to rear the child. God wanted Samson to be raised as a Nazirite, which meant that from conception, his mother was not to imbibe alcohol or eat any unclean foods. She was also instructed to never cut her son's hair. God was arranging for a child to be born as a representative of dependence on the will of God. 

Samson's parents heeded the word of the angel once Samson was born; he grew and the Lord blessed him. So is it then strange that once grown, Samson's first recorded act was to deliberately contradict God's word? For Samson fell in love with a woman forbidden to him, a woman of an ancient people called the Philistines who believed in false gods and lived corruptly. In Deuteronomy 7:3, God taught His people to marry like-believers, because non-believers would lead them away from their faith. Samson's parents were troubled by their son's request for the Philistine woman. Yet Samson insisted, and the reason why was given to us: "it was of the Lord,... he sought an occasion against the Philistines."

God had a plan to infiltrate the Philistine nation, via Samson and make a display of His power against the power of their false gods and corrupt lifestyle. So God encouraged Samson to marry a Philistine, creating an opportunity for another region of the world to hear what He has to stay about corruption. 

• STRONGER THAN A LION

While walking through a vineyard, Samson came across a young lion. Normally this would be a terrifying situation. But actually this was a personal moment between Samson and God, arranged of course, by God. For the Spirit of God came mightily upon Samson, and Samson was able to tear open and kill the lion. And this occurrence happened to exhibit the strength of God within Samson; the famous strength of Samson, so wrongly attributed to Samson, actually came from God. 

The whole situation serves as this metaphor: within the vineyard, that is: the protection of God, we have strength enough from God to be stronger than the enemies that happen upon us. All of this happened before Samson took the woman as his wife. When he returned to the place to retrieve her, he came across the deceased lion. This time, the lion was filled with honey, and Samson ate it. 

In other words: Samson recognized that his strength came from God. It's not important that Samson ate honey out of a lion, his strength was not sustained by the honey. It is important that Samson was sustained by the honey, the word and strength and will of God. He took all of it into his life, body, mind and soul. It was sweet. 

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are Your words to my taste,

Sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Psalm 19:9-10... The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

Samson then turned his experience into a riddle in order to churn up the Philistines: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." The riddle captured the attention of the Philistines. Samson's experience with the lion procured an audience, and Samson the Nazirite was on the stage. The riddle churned up the people. They wanted the answer, but of course were unable to guess it. They did not witness Samson with the lion or the carcass with honey. But the real reason they were unable to answer the riddle was because they did not know the word of God. They did not have the spiritual wisdom to figure it out.

So the people told Samson's wife to pull the answer from him and to pass it on to them; they were desperate for the answer because they had made a large bet that they did not want to lose. She agreed. She wept and guilt-tripped Samson into telling her answer to the riddle: "What is sweeter than honey? and what is stronger than a lion?"

Indeed Samson answered the riddle with two questions. The answer to those two questions was the heart of the issue: God. Not the machinations of people. Not the might of a man. God. A lesson the Philistines needed to learn. In Deuteronomy 9:4, God explained that His campaign against nations such as the Philistines was due to their wickedness. God infiltrated their camp with His message in an effort to teach them about righteousness. Samson told the riddle, not because he was tricked but because it was meant by God to be told.

• WITH THE JAWBONE OF A DONKEY

Samson continued to pretend to be out-played by the Philistines. He allowed himself to be captured by the Philistines after a retaliatory attack he made on them when they remarried his wife to another man. While bound at wrists with cords, the Spirit of God came mightily upon Samson once again and the cords came off of his hands. Freed, Samson picked up the jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand men. The metaphor in this, even when the resources are limited, the strength of God is not. The Philistines were unable to subdue or even thwart Samson because of God's spirit over his life. 

Samson thanked God for the victory, and then became thirsty. He thought the extreme thirst would kill him. The symbolism is that without provision from God, the spectacular display of strength would have killed him. But because Samson remembered God in victory, God remembered Samson in his near moment of defeat. God provided water, the living water (John 4:13-14), and revived Samson's spirit. If we are going to achieve beyond the boundaries of human ability, we need divine sustenance. 

If we are going to achieve as soldiers within this righteous army, we need God. If we are going to change the world with the mere, metaphorical, jawbone of a donkey, we need to remember God. Our spirits need to be sustained and revived by Him.

• FOR I HAVE BEEN A NAZIRITE 

It became the sole intent of the Philistines to find out where Samson's strength came from. God had neatly arranged the situation. The answer they were so desperate for was the message God wanted, all along, to give them. 

Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, but their story was not of love. Delilah worked with the Philistines in a deceptive plot to unearth the "secret" of Samson's great strength. Once they found out, their plan was to overcome Samson, bind and afflict him. In three attempts, Delilah asked Samson the source of his strength. Three times Samson lied.

• “Please tell me where your great strength lies, and with what you may be bound to afflict you.” And Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings, not yet dried, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

• Then Delilah said to Samson, “Look, you have mocked me and told me lies. Now, please tell me what you may be bound with.”So he said to her, “If they bind me securely with new ropes that have never been used, then I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”

• Delilah said to Samson, “Until now you have mocked me and told me lies. Tell me what you may be bound with.”And he said to her, “If you weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom”—

Every time Samson gave Delilah an answer, she betrayed him and called the Philistines to attempt to subdue and capture him. They were, each time, unable to do so. In allowing himself to be betrayed by Delilah, Samson displayed to the Philistines that the source of the strength he had was different than all other sources of strength.

And then Samson told Delilah the truth.

Samson explained that his strength came from his vow as a Nazirite: "for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb." But to Delilah and the Philistines, it seemed as though he was saying that his strength came from his hair. They would soon learn to discern the difference. They heard: if you cut my hair, my strength will leave me. But Samson actually meant that if he was ever cut off from God his strength would leave him. If he ever betrayed his vows to this cause of righteousness, his strength would leave him. The hair was merely symbolic. 

With the truth, the Philistines were finally able to capture Samson. They shaved his hair and bound him. When Samson attempted to run away as before, he realized that the strength of God left him. They put bronze chains around Samson's hands and imprisoned him.

But Samson's hair began to grow back.

Delilah is infamously known as a betrayer. But did her manipulative antics cause Samson to succumb to temptation and abandon his God?  No, God, with Samson, out-maneuvered Delilah and everyone else. Samson divulged the "secret" precisely when he was meant to, as he was meant to. As he was destined to do even before birth! 

Indeed Samson's hair began to grow right back. His hair, the symbol of God as His strength, his vow of a Nazirite never to cut it or change faith. It grew back, immediately. His strength grew back, because strength from the Lord is not something someone else can ever take away from you.

• THE TEMPLE OF THE FALSE GOD

The Philistines were so ruthlessly excited about capturing Samson that they decided to offer a great sacrifice to their "god" Dagon. And this is where God's plan finds fulfillment. The Philistines were ignorantly convinced that their false-god was stronger than Samson's God, our God. They thought that Dagon had broken Samson's strength. But it was actually God who had temporarily, and for the purpose of teaching the Philistines a lesson, removed Samson's strength and allowed him to be captured.

With the temple of their false god filled with men and women, the Philistines brought Samson up from his prison cell to perform. They thought the performance would lame and weak; after all, they believed they had subdued Samson. They meant to mock him. Samson entered the temple, thousands of Philistine eyes on him. And as all of them were gathered together for their false god, Samson called aloud to the True. Samson prayed aloud for the strength of God he had known all his life... and he received it. Samson placed his hands on each of the two supporting pillars the temple and pushed. The temple of the false god came pouring down in a great display of the strength of the True God. God's campaign against the Philistine's wickedness accomplished through Samson.




God placed Samson in perfect position to make an incredible display of God's unbeatable strength. Samson will not have been the first (or the last) to discover that what God considered to be the "perfect position" was often a prison cell surrounded by enemies. Because God, and Jesus, have the intent to spread the righteous word of God throughout the world. This message of righteousness is meant for the people who live in opposition to it. In order for the message to be heard by the right people, God places His people in what at first appear to be the wrong places. Betrayed, captured and imprisoned, Samson was exactly where God wanted him to be! 

The takeaway for us is that if we are committed to God's cause of righteousness, He is working through us to accomplish His purposes. Whether we realize or not, God is working in the details of our lives. He is expertly using our life and voice and choices to accomplish the plan He made for us before we were born.

EVERLASTING COVENANT

If we were to sum the Kingdom of God up in one word, the word would be family. God cherishes His family and each member of it. His covenant with humanity, (I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you, Genesis 17:7) is a promise of eternal union. 

Not only does God cherish His family in word, He also does so in action. He is present and attentive, leader and provider, counselor, comforter and protector. As so, as we subdivide as smaller families within His large family, God's hope is that we will nurture our families as He has nurtured His. But that is just not always the case and never has been. And so this will be an exploration of what scripture has to say about unions... and separations. 

• BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY

God created the heavens and the earth. He created the seas and trees and the animals. He created Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve are metaphors for men and women, respectively. He created humanity. Concerning humanity: 

... Male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth... Genesis 1:27-28

It was always His intention that we would be fruitful and multiply. In other words, love and create relationships with each other. Unite and create families together. He did not just advise us to do create families, He blessed the undertaking of it. He planned for us to increase. He planned a promised land for us to bring out families into. Family has always been a part of the plan; in fact, the Bible tells the story of a family. From Adam and Eve to Noah and Abraham, Jacob and David, David to Obed and Ruth... all the way to Jesus, who ultimately made all people members of one family.

• ONE FLESH

Separation is not the plan of any relationship at onset. Even in the middle of a relationship-hardship, separation is not the intention, or the desired result. So what does the Bible have to say about pragmatically avoiding that outcome? Well to start, when two people decide to be in a relationship, that union must become the nucleus of their life. 

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

If marriage is the choice, marriage becomes the priority. The health and stability and functioning of the union does not deny or deprive the other aspects of family in the married couple's lives but does supersede them. And the second part of that verse is to become one flesh. What does that mean? How is that done? The explanation comes in two parts from Paul in 1 Corinthians 7:3-4,

Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

Marriage the constant flow of affection and respect. It is owed to each other because each have promised to give it. Marriage was never meant to be a flippant contract.  To unite with a person means to absorb their needs as your own. To work and persist and champion their survival and happiness as one's own. In a way, you become indentured to the person you marry. And unless the love between two people is deep and sincere, that statement feels unappealing or like a chore. But it is the way marriage was intended by God. It's how God loves His family. Jesus used His time on earth to serve His family, Matthew 20:28. Essentially couple should only enter into a marriage if they mutually wish to serve the other. Not to be served, but to care for that other person.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

This advice was given with the intention that each person would deal more affectionately with the other than the individual would even with themselves. It is meant to be beneficial, not restrictive. In such relationships, it not a scary thing for a spouse to have authority over the other. Just as God has authority of us, it is not a scary thing. Because the decisions He makes on our behalf are only, and always done out of good and selfless intentions. Love and compassion drive His every move.

This does not mean that each become slave to the other. It does not mean that each is the other's master (you have been freed from all forms of slavery by God, Galatians 4:7). If the relationship, or a member of the relationship, suggests that this is the case... that is not a union you should make. Jesus served humanity but was not our slave. God has authority over us but does not strip us of our free will. Not even God makes decisions for us, so definitely nobody else can. And always remember that if one can overrule the other... the other one can overrule the other. Thus what is created is a relationship based on service and compromise. Love and respect. Decisions are made together, sacrifices are made together. 

• HARDNESS OF YOUR HEART

Indeed family is a blessed thing to God, and that which unites in the name of God, "let no man separate." (Matthew 19:6) He wants us to work and fight for the health and unity of our family. But humans are not as faithful as God. And therefore families do become separated. One prevalent reason for this: adultery. This can cause guilt and shame. Sometimes people remain in adulterous relationships because they fear punishment from God. But adultery has steadfastly been the exception to the rule. Once, God even divorced His own people because of their faithless adultery in their relationship with Him! 

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. Jeremiah 3:8 

God is reasonable. Much more reasonable than ruthless, strict religions can be to the people who follow them. No religion, church or person has the authority to condemn another person for the dissolution of their marriage. God does not expect a person to stay with a faithless spouse. He wants our unions to be healthy and stable. Adultery corrupts and destabilizes the union; so God's advice in word is not to commit adultery (Exodus 20:14). And His advice in deed, is to not remain with someone who has (Jeremiah 3:8).

As for divorce on other grounds, it too has a precedent. A long time ago. Jesus explains in Matthew 19:8 explains that Moses granted people to divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. It's important, albeit disheartening, to remember that God knows that we will fall short of His mark. And so divorce is not an unforgivable sin. Like all other times we disappoint Him, sincere remorse and commitment to character growth is enough for His forgiveness. 

And it's important to remember that God is not angry because a rule was broken. He's sad because a family was. He had the best intentions for that family and had wished that all people involved did too. But He gets it. He understands the situation as no one else does.

• PAUL'S POINT

The apostle Paul has his own advice about marriage: (paraphrasing) skip it, like I have, 1 Corinthians 7:7. This is not necessarily God's opinion. As we read, God encourages, loves, and blesses families. Paul's advice was given from the perspective of a constantly-travelling preacher. And the letters he wrote were often to people of the same profession. Paul did not think it wise or fair or even adequately possible for a person to maintain a family as well as a nomadic life.

All of that to say, Paul did not think a person should start a family unless it could be their main priority. Paul's opinion is not law. And of course many, many people juggle more things than just one. Not only because they might have to, but because they want to. Faith and kindness and hard work help us to achieve beyond our limits.

However some people are like Paul; they do not have the desire or need to marry; their marriage is to the word of God, Matthew 19:11. Since we know God blesses unions and families, marriages and children are not a bad thing. But neither is the choice not to have those things. Yet, and this is very prudent of Paul to mention, it is better for a person to marry than burn with passion, 1 Corinthians 7:8. In other words, if the prospect of celibacy and singleness is a chore or undesirable to you, do not even try; and if you're going to lust after all as a single person, choose one and love them as a married person.

The upshot: when you marry, mean it. And if you don't mean to marry, don't mingle. Keep the covenants you make by only making covenants you intend to keep. If you were harmed, God will heal you. If you have harmed you can heal. Endeavor to love people well, in union and divorce.

FACETS OF FORGIVENESS

How do we determine who deserves forgiveness? As humans, we have each needed both to give forgives and to receive it. Scripture has much to say on the subject of forgiveness; and the truth is that there are several facets of forgiveness. There are different perspectives from which to view the process and eligibility of forgiveness for ourselves and others. When it becomes necessary to forgive, therefore, we can contemplate our situation from the perspective of: the law of God, ourselves and Jesus.

• AS GOD

Repentance looks like a scary word. Many people have bad connotations of the word because it has been aggressively presented to them. But God never meant the word to be accusatory or used maliciously. He invented the concept for our benefit, so that we would stop being driven by unkind behavior, thus polluting the peace within ourselves. To live without kindness and remorse is an unhealthy life, and God would prefer that we were healthy... sustained by happiness born of kindness.

And of course ultimately, the only people who will exist in the kingdom are the kind. More than reward for the kind or punishment for the unkind, it is just the state of Kingdom of God: Only righteousness can exist within it. Our bodies need oxygen to survive the earth; our souls need righteousness to survive heaven. 

Repentance, by definition, means to be sincerely regretful and remorseful. Essentially it means accountability: an admission of a wrong. And to take accountability one step further by changing our behavior. The process of repentance is to admit, regret, and change. And that process leads to character growth and redemption.

So when John the Baptist enters the scene to prepare the way for Jesus' arrival, his plea is for humanity to repent "for the remission of sins", Mark 1:4. You see, though God loves each of us freely, forgiveness has certain requirements. You have to want it. And the person who wronged you has to want it. Sincerely. Enough to regret the behavior and to change it. 

And there are times in the Bible when forgiveness was sincerely earned and granted, but the relationship was weaker. There are times in the Bible when forgiveness was sincerely earn and granted and the relationship was stronger. Because there were incidences when people regretted their behavior because they regretted the consequences; they repented because it benefited them to re-adhere to the covenant. And there were incidences when people regretted their behavior because they understood it to be fundamentally wrong and were ashamed. As God discerns between the level of authenticity, so must we. 

The less sincere apology requires us only to settle with that person without animosity. They have apologized and meant it, even if not for the right reason. It does not, however, require us to continue to trust or even associate with that person. Conversely, the more sincere apology nourishes the ground of the relationship enough that trust can be re-grown if we choose to try. 

The verse, Mark 1:4, from above continues: then all ... went out... confessing their sins. But it is not merely the act of speaking of our sins that God requires in repentance. The confession is between self and God and often, the wronged person(s). The confession is  useless if not made to any/each of those three parties. Because the confession is the accountability, the remorse and the commitment to change that enables the remission of the sin.

• AS YOURSELF 

Forgiveness if often a difficult concept to wrestle with... and an even more difficult process to undertake. Scripture is quite comprehensive in its advice for every situation, but just in case it did not explicitly address each question we would have, Jesus left us this advice:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39

So one: to love God with whole heart and souls means to live and operate within His law. Should we find ourselves in a situation that we are unsure if forgiveness is deserved, we can look to scripture. God certainly has not forgiven all people (Numbers 16:32). He has offered to forgive all (Romans 10:13), He has forgiven many (Revelation 7:9). But He has not forgiven all; there were people who did not want/ ask for it and therefore did not receive it (Joshua 10). There were people who expected it but did not deserve it (John 8:39-44). Their repentance was insincere.

The distribution of forgiveness can be difficult to discern. But with the exception of murders and the truly evil (Leviticus 24:17), God has not given us permission to kill or harm people who have wronged us or made mistakes. He has always discouraged us from malicious behavior. One of God's first charges to humanity was to never descend to the disgraceful behavior of their enemies (Romans 12:2). That is not a way to achieve solution or absolution. So at the very least, if we find ourselves unable to readily forgive, we must not retaliate. 

Jesus' second piece of advice from that scripture is to love your neighbor as yourself. This requires honest self-examination. It's easy to guess or say how you would behave in reverse situations. But often our idea of ourselves is more ideal, more polished than we actually are. When in doubt, Jesus advised, do as you would have someone do to you. Very rarely would we actually choose disciplinary action against ourselves, so we have to be careful in administering too-harsh disciplinary action against others. True, they (and we) need it sometimes and it is beneficial. But when someone wants to rebuild a bridge, or even just to apologize for its destruction, we should consider their apology with compassion.

• AS JESUS

And compassion is where it really gets sticky. The final facet of forgiveness is from Jesus' perspective; and His ability to forgive is essentially depth-less. Wrongfully captured, ruthlessly mocked, brutally nailed to a cross next to actual criminals... Jesus asked God to forgive the people responsible for all of it: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Luke 23:34

Now that level of forgiveness might seem inaccessible to us from our fragile, prideful humanity. But Jesus is the example of the ultimate. Of what we aspire to, even knowing that without Him, we would never reach it. Jesus, the embodiment of the word of God, of compassion, is able to forgive without the participation of the wrong-doer. 

In Matthew 18:21-22, Peter asks Jesus how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him. Seven times? Jesus replied: seventy times seven times. In other words: endlessly. Over and over again. For whether the person actually or eventually regrets their actions, God's justice will and inevitably vindicate the innocent, the wronged and the righteous. 

Jesus' relationship was strong enough that He trusted in all of the promises scripture makes: God defends and avenges His children; God ensures that is meant for evil is turned to good for His children; God works all the for the good of those who love Him. And that kind of faith in God renders life so that even when we forgive the unforgivable... the unresolved consequences of their behavior do not prevent resolution in our lives. God arranges the resolution we need to have peace, to move on, to rebuild. 

God is aware of the conditions of the world. It's tumultuous down here so life can be difficult to navigate. Jesus therefore said this to us: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. God wants us to be harmless... but He knows that by others we will sometimes be harmed. While He wants us to have the capacity for forgiveness, He does not expect us to be unwise about it. To not do harm, but also to be vigilant of the harmful. 

He does not want us to allow people to walk all over us. He does not advise or command us to trust the people who have hurt us, or to invite them into (or back into) our homes our families. He only advises us to forgive them. Jesus asks us to love them, too. When Jesus had risen, He did not appear to the people who had wrongfully captured, ruthlessly mocked, and brutally nailed Him to a cross...even though He had forgiven them. He returned to the people who loved Him well. Jesus wants us to be with the people who love us well, too, without any noxious weeds of un-forgiveness in the periphery.