Read Judges 16

“Then [Delilah] lulled [Samson] to sleep on her knees, and called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him. And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” So he awoke from his sleep, and said, “I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!” But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him. Then the Philistines took him and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza. They bound him with bronze fetters, and he became a grinder in the prison.” (Judges 16:19–21)

The account of Samson is as peculiar as they come! We often see Samson with the eyes of a child, thinking of him as some sort of superhero with divine strength. Indeed, what Samson achieved was legendary! From slaying thousands, to ripping apart lions, to dead-lifting foundations out from the ground, Samson had everything you’d want to see in a hero — or did he?

While the Lord bestowed upon Samson his incredible strength and used Samson to deliver Israel from the Philistines in the end, the biblical account reveals that Samson was far from a hero — alarmingly far. For while Samson had extraordinary physical strength, he was remarkably feeble in regards to spiritual strength.

Yes, he was stronger than a lion, but he was a vulnerable lamb in spirit. Yes, he could slay thousands with nothing more than brute strength (with the help of a jawbone of a donkey), but he was as spineless in his lusts as a common coward. Yes, he could rip foundations apart and haul a heavy load upon his shoulders, but the fortitude of his own soul was cracked and crumbling. Though Samson was called out by God to be a holy Nazarite, he was as godless as the Philistines. Though he was in a position to rule Israel, he would refuse to rule over his own passions and emotions.

The verdict: Samson was a spiritual child in the body of a physical giant.

It should be no surprise, then, that Samson’s ultimate defeat came well before his hair was cut by that seductress, Delilah. In the end, his physical strength left him because his spiritual strength failed to mature. And it was this that cost him everything.

Beloved, what a curious case for us to consider for our own lives! Oh, how I wish it was more curious still, but sadly, it is more common than we realize.

How many of us are grown up physically, but have remained babies spiritually? How many of us can handle the cuts and scabs of life in our bodies day by day, but cry out like infants as soon as our souls experience scratches? How many of us can readily sink our teeth into a steak, but have not grown beyond milk to sustain our Christian walks?

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” (Hebrews 5:12–14)

Oh, let us not be as foolish as Samson! Let us not remain babes in the Word, and adolescents in our faith, and young sucklings in our spirits! God has called us to maturity, Beloved! Christ has called us to act and to think and to live according to the new man created after Himself, not as the old child created after Adam.

“Put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22–24)

What further call to action do we need? What greater warning than that of Samson’s?

Dear friend, do not let the tragic irony of Samson’s life be rewritten in your own! — whose strength left him as quickly as his hair was cut off, whose lustful eyes were eventually plucked out by the enemy, and whose final resting place was buried under the rubble of false idols. Ironic, indeed!

May we be warned, Beloved. It is time for us to grow up.

“For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)