Samson's strength was in his Nazariteship. It was because he allowed his Nazariteship to lapse under the wiles of the woman who had won his heart that Samson the strong became weak. Barnabas exhorted the new believers at Antioch "that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord" (Acts 11:23). The very thing that should have marked Samson's life in an outstanding way was the purpose God gave him. Now Samson's, not only tragic, but fatal weakness lay in the fact that he trifled. If he happened to meet a few Philistines he carelessly knocked their heads together and went on singing, and if he met a Philistine woman who pleased him he abandoned himself to the gratifications of his lusts and forgot entirely his purpose - he was a trifler.There was an absence of serious purpose in his heart corresponding to the purpose that God had given for his life and oh, that there might be in our hearts and minds what the word of God tells us God has done with us and for us, and that with purpose of heart we should cleave to the Lord. One might well ask whether Samson attained the happiness that he sought. If for one moment we contemplate Samson, his eyes gone, grinding in the Philistine prison then we will see what comes from trifling with the serious issues of life and forgetting the divine purpose for our lives and the divine power and the love of Christ that lies behind it all as a motive for us.
But there was at the end of Samson's life a gleam of encouragement. Perhaps he was the person whom the writer, by the Spirit of God, had in mind when he said that "by faith...... out of weakness were made strong" (Heb.11:34). We read of the deep groaning of prayer with which Samson called to the Lord to restore him his strength that he might at the end fulfil his purpose. When the blind slave leaned on the pillars of the vast hall the house fell upon the Lords and upon all the people that were therein. "So the dead which he slew at his death were more than they which he slew in his life" (Jud.16:30).
Let us therefore watch and pray and the Lord will keep us faithful to himself. Remember that interview which he never heard or knew about, "Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lies" (Jud.16:5). Our unseen foes are ever ready to entice, taking occasion by our unguarded hours. Charlotte Elliott's hymn may well close our meditation on Samson whose unguarded hours were so tragically fruitful of failure:
"Principalities and powers
Mustering their unseen array
Wait for thine unguarded hours,
Watch and pray."
"Watch as if on that alone
Hung the issue of the day
Pray that help may be sent down
Watch and pray."
Charlotte Elliott knew very well when she wrote "Watch as if on that alone" that it did not depend on this alone, for she was the woman who wrote
"Just as I am without one plea
but that thy blood was shed for me
and that thou biddest me come to Thee,
Oh Lamb of God I come."
she knew that in the end it depends upon the love of God and the precious blood of Christ, and so what she wrote was "Watch as if on that alone".
"Now unto him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen" (Jude 24-25)