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This is the Secret, May 8
Judges 16:15-23
And he wist not that the Lord was departed from him.
Judges 16:20
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Day by day Delilah urged him, until “his soul was vexed unto death;” yet a
subtle power kept him by her side. Overcome at last, Samson made known the
secret: “There hath not come a razor upon mine head; for I have been a Nazarite
unto God from my mother’s womb: If I be shaven, then my strength will go
from me, and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.” A messenger
was immediately dispatched to the lords of the Philistines, urging them to come
to her without delay. While the warrior slept, the heavy masses of his hair were
severed from his head. Then, as she had done three times before, she called,
“The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!” Suddenly awaking, he thought to exert
his strength as before, and destroy them; but his powerless arms refused to do his
bidding, and he knew that “Jehovah was departed from him.” When he had been
shaven, Delilah began to annoy him and cause him pain, thus making a trial of
his strength; for the Philistines dared not approach him till fully convinced that
his power was gone. Then they seized him and, having put out both his eyes,
they took him to Gaza. Here he was bound with fetters in their prison house and
confined to hard labor.
What a change to him who had been the judge and champion of Israel!—now
weak, blind, imprisoned, degraded to the most menial service! Little by little
he had violated the conditions of his sacred calling. God had borne long with
him; but when he had so yielded himself to the power of sin as to betray his
secret, the Lord departed from him. There was no virtue in his long hair merely,
but it was a token of his loyalty to God; and when the symbol was sacrificed
in the indulgence of passion, the blessings of which it was a token were also
forfeited
Had Samson’s head been shaven without fault on his part, his strength would
have remained. But his course had shown contempt for the favor and authority
of God as much as if he had in disdain himself severed his locks from his head.
Therefore God left him to endure the results of his own folly
[135]
16
Patriarchs and Prophets, 566
.
17
The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 2:1007
.
139