Monday 31 December 2018

SAMSON AND HIS BROKEN NAZARITE VOW


For behold, you shall conceive and give birth to a son, and no razor shall come upon his head, for the boy shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel from the hands of the Philistines.” 
(Judges 13:5, NASB).

Here we read of Samson’s call to be a Nazarite from the womb. To be a Nazirite means to be separated unto the Lord. The Nazirite vow is threefold: 1. No razor shall come upon his head speaks of Strength (13:5; 16:19); 2. No wine or strong drink speaks of Self control (13:7, 14, Gal. 5:23); 3. No eating from that which is unclean speaks of Separation (14:9; 15:15-16; 2 Cor. 6:17). Out of these three restrictions in the Nazirite vow Samson was guilty of breaking two of them. No where do we read of him breaking his vow of abstaining from wine or strong drink. We can at least give credit to Samson for that. Samson was the judge of Israel who failed to judge his own life. So the lesson we as believers can learn from Samson's life is to be sure we are living sanctified, set apart lives for God's glory. We need to guard against the world's razor that wants to cut away the power we have in Christ. We need to have control of ourselves by abstaining from the world's pleasures. Then finally we need to separate from feeding upon the husks of this world so we can feast upon the Bread of life.