Can't Take Notice

“And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he wist not that the LORD was departed from him.” (Jud 16:20 AV)

This verse is one that oft times troubles me.  It troubles me because Samson digressed to the point he couldn’t realize God’s hand was no longer on him.  The Nazarite vow required three abstentions.  The Nazarite could not touch anything to do with the fruit of the vine.  Samson failed in that he went down to the vineyards of Eschol.  He may not have partaken of the fruit of the vine, but he did transverse through them.  That is where he violated the second requirement.  He killed a lion.  On his way back through the vineyard, he ate honey found in the carcass of the lion he killed.  The second requirement was he touch no dead thing.  The third and last occurs in our passage.  The Nazarite was to allow his hair to grow.  He was not to set a razor upon his head or face.  Delilah enticed Samson to reveal this secret and consequently was shaven in the middle of the night.  All three requirements for the Nazarite vow were violated.  Now here is where it bothers me a bit.  Samson didn’t notice.  It never occurred to him that God’s hand was not on him.  He never stopped to think his actions meant no power of God.  He assumed it was always there so when it wasn’t, he couldn’t discern God’s absence.

I have worn facial hair for the better part of my adult life.  I started when I was fifteen.  A mustache was the beginning.  For most of those years, I had a goatee.  Once in a while, a full beard was the style.  However, when fall time hits and my allergies rear up, I find myself shaving clean and leaving it that way for about a month.  It keeps my face from breaking out.  If anyone has ever done that, you know it feels really strange.  For almost half a day or more, your face feels really funny.  I would know it if I woke up with all my facial hair gone.  I wouldn’t need a mirror.  I could tell without feeling my face.  The cold air would make my face feel naked.  What if someone shaved my head?  If I woke up and found my hair was all gone.  I think I would notice without the need for viewing my reflection.  It wouldn’t take someone else’s comment for me to realize something was different.  The cool air on my bald head would immediately tell me something was missing and things were different.

Which brings me back to Samson.  What would possess him to get to a point there would be a disconnect between his missing hair and the hand of God?  Delilah specifically asked him what it was that gave him his supernatural strength.   The fact he only mentions his hair goes to prove he was aware he violated the other two requirements.  Otherwise, he would have mentioned those, too.  Even after he rehearsed to Delilah and his own mind that his hair was the last of the three Nazarite vows he must keep, it never occurred to him that once that vow was broken, God would remove His hand.  What was the disconnect?  We may never know.  We can make some guesses and therein make an application.  Could it be that Samson believed his purpose in defeating the Philistines was greater than the vow and as long as he was pursuing that purpose, the vow was secondary?  Sort of like we believe the call to serve God is greater than the need for a testimony!  What if Samson misunderstood the cumulative nature of the vow?  Perhaps he thought since he violated some and his strength remained, there was something to exercising liberty that overrode the vow.  In other words, he saw no end to God’s grace.  Or, perhaps he never attributed all his might to the hand of God and therefore, never truly saw God’s hand to begin with.  Hard to miss something one never realized in the first place.  Whatever the reason, Samson got to the place in his life that when God’s hand left him, he didn’t even notice.  How sad.