When we sin, we oftentimes don’t see why our sin affects God so much.
Why does my lying or stealing or coveting offend God?
Especially when I feel that my decisions don’t have anything to do with God.
For instance, when I lie to people, why would that bother God?
I wasn’t lying to God, so why is He upset about it?
Why does our disobedience offend God so intensely?
By the end of this post,
you will know exactly what our disobedience means to God and
you will learn something about sin, that the world doesn’t want you to know.
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We are taking a glance at the life of Samson.
Samson is to be a Nazirite.
The rules of a Nazirite are written in Numbers 6:2-7 NKJV.
Samson was to be set apart and follow the rules of a Nazirite.
This means that his hair couldn’t be cut, he couldn’t touch dead things and he could not even get close to ingesting grapes or anything that could produce alcohol.
These were the commandments over his life; therefore, the breaking of these commandments for Samson would be sin.
As we continue going through Samson’s life, we see that he has a habit of dipping his toes into sin.
In chapter 14, we see him go to Timnah and he finds a Philistine woman there.
The philistines are one of Israel’s enemies so him wanting to marry a woman from that land, is him opening himself up to a dangerous situation.
We see him compromise in
Samson came to the vineyard of Timnah…
he cannot consume anything from a vineyard, yet he went to a vineyard.
He was allowing himself to get close to sin.
Then he killed a lion and later ate honey from that lion.
He could have found honey in many places…
Why did he choose the honey that was made inside the carcass of an animal?
He touched the honey not the carcass but the Nazirite law states that he cannot get near a dead body.
This, for him, is sin; but he is obviously being careful to cross that line in a way that doesn’t look like sin.
He allowed himself to smell the temptation of the vineyard and he is falling for a philistine woman who does not know the Lord his God…
Samson actually commits sin and we know that he does so without wanting to repent, because he avoids telling his parents.
He probably doesn’t want to tell them because then he will be held responsible for his sin and he will have to decide to undergo the process of cleansing as written in Numbers 6.
The process of cleansing is basically repentance for what you have done to break your vow, whether it was broken intentionally or unintentionally.
We know that Samson is aware that he has sinned because he won’t speak openly about it and he shows no sign of regret for breaking his vow.
He doesn’t try and cleanse himself privately…
he tries to hide it, so he can continue to get away with it.
Also, notice that the Nazirite vow is not a magic status that guarantees super strength, yet Samson has a supernatural strength!
This strength did not run in his family and it did not come with the title Nazirite…
“And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.”
Judges 14:6 NKJV.
It was the Spirit of God or the Holy Spirit that came upon him and it was the strength of God,
not of Samson.
Samson did not workout.
He was not Hercules.
Nor, was he born half human and half Superman.
He was just a regular man who was called to be a Nazirite judge for Israel and he was whom God chose to show His strength through.
So, this strength was never Samson’s…
Keep this in mind.
As we continue in Judges 14, we learn that Samson didn’t stop thinking about what he did. He made a riddle about his sin and bet that no one could figure it out.
He felt like he got away with his sin and no one could find out what he did.
He made a riddle for men but he was actually playing games with God.
He was starting to feel like he was untouchable.
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after his anger leads him to vengeance, which leads him to killing and destroying crops, he is more open with his sin and he picks up the jawbone of a recently killed donkey and he kills 1,000 men with it.
He isn’t remorseful and he doesn’t apologize for his sin.
He actually seems proud of how he used the jawbone of a donkey to kill 1,000 philistines.
You would certainly think that God has had enough of Samson’s arrogant disobedience by now!
I mean, sure, the philistines are finally being defeated by Israel, but Samson is blatantly disregarding the vow over his life.
I expect God to discard Samson but God does the opposite…
“Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the Lord and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?” So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.”
Judges 15:18-19 NKJV.
Samson still thought it was by his own hand but permitted by God.
He actually started to be haughty with God, yet God didn’t destroy him!
God gave him water and revived his weary soul.
What?!
God is not being a push over, God is being merciful.
If sin harmed God or offended Him so strongly, why would God allow Samson to break his Nazirite vow?
If Samson being unclean by wine, dead things or a shaved head, would damage God in any way, why would God permit even one act of disobedience?
God didn’t condemn or even punish Samson for breaking his vow!
The LORD called Samson to be a Nazirite, but He didn’t base His love for Samson on that.
God didn’t say,
“if you fully keep your Nazirite vow, I will use My strength through you and I’ll never leave you thirsty.”
God committed to His vow to Samson even if Samson didn’t commit to his Nazirite vow to God.
God was not caught off guard by Samson’s disobedience.
God wasn’t hurt by Samson’s flirting with sin.
Surely, plenty of God’s people have cut their hair, drink wine and almost all of them have been near the dead.
All of God’s people have fallen short up to this point.
It wasn’t Samson’s rude attitude or his disobedience, that made God finally remove His Spirit from Samson.
Do you want to see what it was?
Go to Judges 16:4-20…
Why didn’t God depart earlier in Samson’s life, when he first broke his vow?
Is it just because Samson cut his hair?
Why would cutting his hair off be the sin that made God finally leave Samson?
Well, that wasn’t what made God remove His Spirit from Samson.
God saw something change in Samson’s heart.
Three times Samson was asked where his strength comes from and he lied three times about what caused his strength.
When they came to bind him, Samson still had the strength to break free.
When he finally revealed that his hair was the source of his strength, they came to bind him, but this time when Samson tried to break free, he couldn’t.
in Judges 16:20 he said,
“I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free!”
He saw the pattern…
He wasn’t oblivious!
He knew that men kept trying to capture him using the fake weaknesses that he told Delilah he had.
Samson was playing with the men and he was so full of himself that he enjoyed showing them how strong he was.
It’s not like he wanted to be captured, but he saw previously that he broke his vows and the strength never left him…
He started to believe that the strength really was his own.
He told Delilah about a vow that he wasn’t suppose to break, knowing very well that the men would come again and test his weakness.
He knew the men would then come and cut off his hair!
In a way, he was challenging God.
He figured that he would still get to be strong even after he broke another vow.
He believed that he was super strong and God couldn’t take that away.
When he basically asked for a hair cut he was convinced that he would not see repercussions as a result of his disobedience.
He had forgotten where the strength came from.
This is actually what hurts God.
God didn’t need Samson’s hair to be long!
Samson’s hair started growing back the moment after it was cut.
God saw that Samson no longer set Him as Lord, but Samson set himself as lord.
Samson no longer acknowledged that God was the real source of his strength…
He believed that he was the master of his life and that no matter what he did, he would not lose the gift that he was given.
Samson was living for himself and God used every single foolish and selfish decision he made, to give Israel victory of the Philistines, in the end.
At the end of this story, God places His Spirit in Samson one last time to destroy the Philistines.
God hadn’t fully left Samson, He just removed the power that Samson was abusing.
The sin Samson committed was much deeper than the Nazirite Vow.
God didn’t need Samson to keep his hair long or refrain from grapes.
Those were promises in their relationship, to keep Samson set apart for God’s purpose, but God is not dependent on our religious traditions.
It is important to keep the promises that we make to God and it’s important to see what delights God’s heart and to actually do those things… but
our works are not our strength!
God showed Samson mercy because God was showing Samson two important things…
- God isn’t looking for an opportunity to destroy him, and…
- God isn’t reliant on Samson’s obedience to get the job done.
We see scriptures that say that women should never braid their hair or wear jewelry and men should never cover their head during prayer or shave their beards.
God doesn’t depend on our religious traditions to do the work that He has created for us to do.
Our God is not offended by a woman braiding her hair and He is not caught off guard when a man shaves his beard.
We are looking at the surface when we think like that.
Go deeper to the context of which God asked such specific vows to be upheld.
God wants us to regard Him as Lord.
When we choose to break our vows to Him, it is like a woman who is married but refuses to wear a wedding ring, though the husband and her vowed to keep their rings on.
The husband doesn’t need her to keep that vow, he will still be with her.
It’s when she refuses to live the life of a married woman and she goes out to be with any man that will give her what she wants.
That’s what hurts the husband.
This is what hurt God.
God did not leave Samson as a result of breaking the rules, because Samson hadn’t yet regarded himself as master of his life…
He still regarded God as LORD.
When he stopped regarding God and was confident, in his heart, that he was truly the source of his strength, God didn’t encourage him in this false belief.
God loves us…
Oh my goodness, He loves us so much!
He is willing to be slapped in the face a lot and still be right by our side…
This also means that, He loves us too much to let us believe that we can live our lives without Him as our Lord.
God wouldn’t let Samson continue to believe that he was the authority.
He wouldn’t let Samson believe that he was now god.
The LORD let him get to the very edge of trusting more in himself than he did in God…
As a loving Father, God took that power away from His child when he started using it selfishly.
God is still God,
even if we sin,
even if we fall short
and even if we don’t do all of the Christian things that people expect of us.
He doesn’t need us to do everything well in order to love us and use us for His purpose!
God used every dumb decision that Samson made to win the victory.
He just doesn’t want us to get to the point where we trust in other things or even our own self, as the master of our lives.
God is hurt when we make things, other than Him, our gods.
God loves us and He is perfect at being our God, because He created us!
Of course it offends God when we choose to make ourselves or other things that He created, the things we place our trust into.
We oftentimes put too much weight on little Christian ideologies like
not listening to certain kinds of music,
memorizing a new verse every week,
wearing a cross necklace and
participating in Church organized events.
Those things are all amazing and we should not remove those things from our lives!
If you make vows to do these things, I am so happy that you made that commitment!
However, not keeping those things won’t break God.
The reason that we make vows, is because we don’t want to drift from our relationships.
The relationship is deeper than the vows though.
Remember that God loves you so much and when you fail to keep all of your vows, He has not left you!
He isn’t waiting for you to fail.
He just doesn’t want to lose the relationship in total!
It would hurt Him to lose you.
Please don’t believe that your sin affects God.
God just doesn’t want you to drift away and put your faith and trust in other things, people or yourself, as lord of your life.
He wants to prevent us from removing Him from the throne of our hearts.
That’s what really hurts God and that should be what we consider before we act everyday!
We shouldn’t say,
“I need to do this because I’m a Christian!”
We should respond,
“I love God and I just want to express my love for Him and keep getting closer to Him, so I will do this.”
To God, it’s all about the heart!
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
