And she (Delilah) said to him (Samson), “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me where your great strength lies.” And when she pressed him hard with her words day after day, and urged him, his soul was vexed to death. And he told her all his heart, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man.” (Judges 16:15-17 ESV)
Strength
Samson’s hair was NOT magic. Samson’s Nazirite vows were NOT ritualistic. Samson was NOT strong because he was devoutly obedient to the Lord.
Samson was a Nazarite. God blessed Samson’s Nazarite-ness by giving Samson supernatural strength. But the profession of Faith that undergirded Samson’s vows is the real aim, goal, and foundation of Samson’s situation.
Samson’s revelation to Delilah of the Strength behind his strength displayed Samson’s last falling away from that faith. More than the cutting of his hair, his choice of Delilah over God showed God Samson’s unfaithfulness.
He gets his strength back at the end, not because his hair regrew… but because his growing hair matched his returning true faith.
Faith is not a vague faith. The focal point of faith is not in a vague divine being. Faith, to be faith, is found in, through, by, because of, and all about Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Nothing else is faith.
Samson received the blessing of strength because he believed in the Messiah to come.
For Samson, Jesus was necessary for Samson’s strength.
And it is for us, too. We might not carry off gates or kill hordes of foxes… but whatever strength God grants us is because of Christ. Strength to endure temptation. Strength to overcome sorrow. Strength to keep on keeping on. Strength to hope. Strength to believe. Strength to love.
We need Jesus to have strength.