Title: Growing Hair on Bald Heads
Bible Book: Judges 16 : 22
Author: Jesse M. Hendley
Subject: Strength; Sin; Love, God's; Grace
Objective:
Introduction
The subjects of the Bible are so very interesting. Some people think the best books are the novels that men weave out of their own imaginations. But I want to remind you that there is not a more interesting book than the Bible.
We are thinking now about the man Samson. The text is found in Judges 16:22. "Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again." You see, Samson had his hair shaved. He was bald headed. Verse 17, "Samson told her all his heart and said unto her, There hath not come a razor upon my 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 like any other man."
This is the story of Samson and Delilah. Delilah is the woman who worked for the Philistines, the enemies of the Lord. Here was Samson with one of the enemies of the Lord, and she was trying to find out the source of his strength. Finally she persuades him to tell her the source of his tremendous strength. He tells her, "I am strong because I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb."
When I was a boy, I read about Samson in the Old Testament Scriptures and the great stories of the Old Testament heroes. Let me pause here to say that if you are a parent trying to teach your child the Word of God, and God help you to do that, START WITH JESUS. Make sure your child knows the great things about the Person of Jesus Christ. Make Him the most important theme to your child, because it is a PERSONAL relationship to Jesus that saves. I believe that if I had had that emphasized in my life as a boy I would have come to Christ at an earlier age. If I had known the truths about JESUS! His Life, the great truths about Him, and why He came - to die for my sins - I would have received Him at an early age. Instead of that I studied the great heroes of the Old Testament, and one of them was Samson.
Samson had a tremendous physique and there was some relation between his long hair and his physical strength. Samson did tremendous exploits. He took a lion and grabbed a jaw with one hand and the other jaw with the other hand and rent it in two parts, just tore it asunder completely. It was a feat of strength to do a thing like that.
One day when the enemies of the Lord had him locked up in one of their cities he went down to the gate and pulled the gate up by its very foundations in the ground and carried it off on his shoulders and walked away laughing at those who thought they had him trapped in that great city. He took the jawbone of an ass and slew 1000 Philistines! He didn't have an automatic rifle or a machine gun. He just grabbed up the jawbone of an ass and slew 1000 enemies of God and Israel. He was God's champion and did mighty exploits. This young man was greatly used of God. Then, all of a sudden, we find him with his strength completely gone because of SIN that came into his life. Samson went under because of SIN. We see the Philistines now taking him and putting out his eyes. They brought him to Gaza and bound him with fetters of brass and made him grind in the prison house as a servant of the enemies of God.
I. The Reason for his Strength
Let's go back now and see the source of his strength. He told Delilah, "I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. But if I be shaven my strength will go from me and I shall be weak and be like any other man."
An explanation of the Nazarite is found in Numbers 6. "And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, ‘Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When a man or woman shall separate themselves and vow the vow of a Nazarite to separate themselves unto the Lord, they shall separate themselves from wine and strong drink.’"
The word “Nazarite” means "a separated one." He was separated from sin, unto God, from birth. He was totally dedicated unto God.
The source of our strength is separation! Paul writes in one of the Corinthian letters and says, "Come ye out from among them and be ye separate and touch not the unclean thing, and I will be a Father to you and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." If you want to know why you do not have spiritual strength, look at this statement of God's Word. Are you touching some unclean thing? Now, what you think is unclean and what GOD says is unclean may differ. If you are touching what God says in unclean, then God's power cannot come into your life.
Samson once had great power and did exploits for God. He was the hero of Israel! God used him powerfully and mightily against the enemies of Israel. He was greatly used of God. Everyone who knows the Lord at all wants to be used of God. The secret of his power was his SEPARATION from everything unclean and separation to the Lord, total dedication unto God. God cannot use an unclean vessel, one not totally dedicated unto him. A Nazarite was one totally separated unto God.
What was he separated from? A Nazarite was separated from all wine and strong drink. "He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, shall drink no vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, or dried grapes, nothing that is made of the vine, from the kernels even to the husks." He was to have nothing at all to do with wine or strong drink. That means his mind and whole being and all his thoughts shall be set upon God. When a man is under the influence of wine in any degree he is to that degree not himself. Something else is controlling him. Wine is controlling him. That is why people under the influence of wine and strong drink do things they would never think of doing if they did not have that liquor. Wine and strong drink break down moral resistance. That is a known fact. People commit all manner of immorality under the influence of drink that they would not do if they did not drink. Murders have been committed, and people have found themselves in jail wondering what they were doing there, and they had murdered someone under the influence of drink and didn't even know what they were doing. Under the influence of wine you are not yourself. You are out of control.
When we come to God, we must really want Him with all of our entire being. We must be absolutely honest on the inside. God will not have lip profession without the heart. At one time God said, "These people draw near to Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me." God wants your heart. He must have your heart. So we are not to have any sort of stimulation except spiritual stimulation to love the Lord and serve Him because we love Him and want Him more than anything else in all the world. Do you want God in this way?
Secondly, there was no razor to come upon his head. Verse 5. "All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head, until the days are fulfilled." He shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow." Long hair was the sign of a Nazarite in the Old Testament time. Long hair is something that can be seen. No razor was to come upon Samson's head. What does this mean? It means that a man separated unto God would be a peculiar person. People would consider him as a peculiar person. When the people of Israel, the men with their short hair, would walk around the streets of Jerusalem or other cities of Israel and down the street came a man with hair down to his waist, unshaven, uncut, they knew that this man was a peculiar man, different from the usual person. He was a Nazarite. He had the power of God upon him. He was separated unto the Lord.
Friends, Christians always will be a peculiar people. They will always be different. Not simply by physical hair but by spiritual life, not considering whether it pleases men or not, but only if it pleases God. If we please God, many times we will not be pleasing men. So his long hair was a SIGN of his total separation to God and obedience to God's Will, contradictory to what men do and men think.
Let me repeat, if you walk with God you will be a peculiar person to the average person, the person who does not know the Lord. But we are to be willing to do that. Not to be peculiar for the sake of being peculiar, but because the Christian life really is different from the life of the man in the world. The life of the man and woman who walks with God will be different from the life lived for the world.
Thirdly, he was not only to abstain from all wine, and not to cut his hair, but also he was not to be polluted by a dead body. "He shall come at no dead body. He shall not make himself unclean, though it (the dead body) be the body of his father or mother or brother or sister. All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord." "If any man die very suddenly by him, he hath defiled his consecration." Not coming at a dead body means total separation to God. They were not even to assist at the funeral services of their dearest loved ones. The strongest natural affections were to be laid aside, for affection and service to the Living God!
What does it mean? Just what Jesus said in the New Testament when a man came to Jesus and said, "Lord, I'll follow You, but first let me go and bury my dead loved one." Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead, and you get on about My business. Follow Me." What is the burying of dead loved ones, with SOULS PERISHING around us? Oh, friends, we haven't caught a vision of this at all! The dearest thing on the face of the earth is to be SET APART at this particular time. Does that mean that God, Who is so very tender; God Who watches the sparrow fall to the ground, DOES NOT CARE when our heart aches for some loved one who has gone? What does He mean? Well, think about it for a moment. Can you help that departed loved one by grieving? Not at all. But you CAN HELP some souls that are dying and going to hell by going to THEM! "Does that mean, Preacher, that we ought always to be after souls?" Yes, every hour we possibly can we ought to be after souls for the Lord Jesus Christ. People are dying. People are going to hell, and there is no time for the usual things. We should give ourselves totally to the service of our God and not let even the nearest affection keep us from doing the will of God. The will of God must be FIRST.
Oh, beloved, isn't that a terrific statement that God makes? God looks at things realistically. You cannot help your loved ones who die. There is no way in the world to help them. They left this world the minute the breath left the body. Why turn aside from God's work in a moment like that? The important thing is SOULS DYING. God sees it realistically God sees souls slipping into hell. God sees US concerned about everything in the world but the main thing. Souls are dying! WIN THEM. You can't save people who are already dead. If that loved one died without Christ you can't do anything about them now. Do it before they die. Get to them before they die. If the loved one went to heaven, they are better off than you are as far as your surroundings and circumstances are concerned. The place to be well-off is IN THE WILL OF GOD, whether it is yonder in heaven with the Lord or here in this present world. He is looking after us, taking care of us. The important thing is to walk in the will of God!
Suppose in one of these three things the Nazarite was defiled. Suppose a man suddenly died right beside him and he TOUCHED the dead body and he was defiled. "Then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing. On the seventh day shall he shave it." Those great locks of hair were the symbol of his CONSECRATION TO GOD and the secret of his power spiritually.
II. The Results of his Sin
But Samson let SIN come into his life and defiled his separation. He went down to Gaza and joined himself to a harlot. Later we find him on Delilah's knees. Delilah was the woman of the Philistines! Here was a mighty man greatly used of God, brought down to nothing by SIN that he permitted to come into his life. She tormented him until he told her the secret of his strength: "My strength is that I have been a Nazarite unto God from my mother's womb. I have been separated unto THE LORD. He has done all this in and through me! If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me and I shall become like any other man."
While he was asleep, Delilah had the enemies come in and shave off his locks. In verse 19 we read that she made him sleep on her knees, and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head, and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. (A little woman, beating the great servant of God!) She said, "The Philistines be upon them Samson!"
Samson awoke out of his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times before and shake myself. I am the same man that I always was." But he wasn't because "he knew not that THE LORD WAS DEPARTED FROM HIM." God had taken away the blessing and the power!
What did they do?
Notice the results of SIN. The Philistines took him, put out his eyes, took him down to Gaza, bound him with fetters of brass and made him grind in the prison house, a servant of the Lord in the house of the enemy grinding like a beast of burden! What a terrible thing. Somebody says, "What an awful thing for SIN to come into the life of one who has been used of God. This is the end of Samson. No blessing can come out of his life anymore."
III. The Restoration of Samson
But listen to me. God is a wonderful God. He is RESTORING people who seek His Face! Even though Samson's eyes were never restored, his power was. God used him AGAIN! Read the record in verse 22, "The hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven." A symbol of God's blessing and restoration. Samson in the hand of the enemy realized his defeat and confessed his sin and repented of his sin and "the hair of his head began to grow again."
Beloved friends, Psalm 23 says, "He restoreth my soul." I don't know who you are, listening to me today. You may be like Samson, who let a terrible sin wreck a portion of his life, until he came back to God. There isn't a person listening to me today or on the face of this earth who can look over the past year and say, "I have lived a perfect life before God. I have not thought evil thoughts or spoken evil words whereby I have hindered the blessing of God in my life." To that degree that you and I have touched unclean things or have allowed unclean things to touch us, we have been bereft of God's power to that degree. God's power always comes through obedience to God's will! Separation FROM that which displeases Him; separation totally UNTO GOD. Wherever you and I are today, the year ahead can be a great year FOR GOD if we will give ourselves totally unto Him and in separation from the things of this world.
"The hair of his head began to grow again." The end of the story is that God brought down a great number of Philistines and gave Samson a great victory. He prayed unto his God and asked God to give him the victory again.
Conclusion
The Lord loves you. He wants to forgive your sins. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse, us from all unrighteousness." Whoever you are, if you get right with God and honestly in your heart and life start living for HIM, you will experience RESTORATION in your soul. You will have renewed power and victory in your life. The way to do it is to COME TO CHRIST. It is not turning over a new leaf; it is coming to the Cross of Calvary for the FORGIVENESS of your sins, receiving Jesus into your heart, feeding daily upon His Word, walking in the strength that He gives you from the Word, obeying His will for your life. When you do this, DIVINE LIFE will come into your being, and you will begin living in the strength that GOD pours into you. Will you do it?
