Preached on 03-14-99

SAMSON

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"For behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. And no razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb; and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines." (Jud. 13:5)

MOST, IF NOT ALL OF US, have known and loved the story of Samson from the days of early childhood. Certainly it is a story which has great appeal to children. It is the story of a hero, a man of incredible strength, who fought the enemies of Israel -- the Philistines -- single-handed. He was a man who couldn't be bound, for he was able to break new rope with the strength of his arms. When he was trapped inside the Philistine city of Gaza with the gates closed, he simply picked up those massive city gates and carried them to a hill near Hebron about forty miles away. Samson could do the most marvelous things. He once killed a young lion with his bare hands. In battle he displayed incredible power. Once, with the single jawbone of an ass he killed a thousand Philistines in one battle.

There was, of course, a secret to Samson's strength. It lay in the fact that his hair had never been cut. Here also was the key to his downfall. He was enchanted by a harlot called Delilah, a woman who, the Writings indicate, may well have been a sorceress (SDmin 4747). Delilah finally got him to tell her his secret. She called the Philistines while he was sleeping, and they shaved off his hair, and so took away his strength. They then put out his eyes and took him to Gaza, where he was made to grind in the prison. It seemed a humiliating defeat for such a mighty man. But Samson's fight against the Philistines was not yet over. They brought Samson out to make sport of him. There was a huge number of them in the building where they were gathered. On the roof alone there were three thousand people. Samson's hair had started to grow by this time, and after praying to the Lord for strength, he took hold of the two main pillars, and, in one last mighty display of strength, he caused the whole building to collapse. He died, but in so doing he took with him more Philistines than he had killed during his whole life.

It is a wonderful and dramatic story. But it is, of course, more than this. It is a story of the Word, a story provided by the Lord for our spiritual instruction. And so, we would ask, what is it that the Lord is telling us by means of this story? What is meant by this man who, because of his long hair, possessed the most incredible strength.

It is evident from the Old Testament that hair had an important symbolic meaning. Aaron and his sons, for example, were not to shave their heads (See AR 47, Lev. 10:6). Baldness was often associated with shame. For instance, we read in Ezekiel that "shame will be on every face, baldness on all their heads" (Ezek. 7:18). Then, there was the time when forty-two youths were torn to pieces by two she-bears for calling Elisha the prophet a "bald-head" (2 Ki. 2:23-24).

Hair acquires its greatest significance, though, in the case of the Nazarites. A Nazarite was a man or woman who had taken a special vow to separate him or herself to the Lord for a specific period of time. The laws relating to this special vow are to be found in the Book of Numbers (Num. 6). Once somebody had made a vow to be a Nazarite, he had to obey these special laws. He wasn't to drink any wine or strong drink. Indeed, he wasn't even to eat grapes or anything else from a grapevine. He wasn't to touch or come near any dead body, even if it was a member of his family who had died. A Nazarite was to be regarded, and was to regard himself, as holy to the Lord. And the supreme badge of this holiness lay in his hair. We read that "All the days of the vow of his separation no razor shall come upon his head; until the days are fulfilled for which he separated himself to the LORD, he shall be holy. Then he shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow" (Num. 6:5).

Now the Writings teach that the Nazarite represented a person of the celestial church. The celestial church was the very first church here on earth -- a golden age before evil arose, a golden time when men and women were governed by love of the Lord. This is why a Nazarite wasn't allowed to drink anything coming from the vine. The vine represents the spiritual church which would arise after the celestial church had fallen. Also, since those of the celestial church received life in fulness from the Lord, the Nazarite, in representing those who were celestial, was not allowed to approach a dead body. But the Nazarite represented more than a celestial person. Because those of the celestial church, especially, were likenesses of the Lord, the Nazarite therefore also represented the Lord (AC 3301). This we would expect. Because the Nazarites were people set apart as holy to the Lord, obviously they had to represent the Lord Himself. That is why they had long hair during the entire period of their vow, for this long hair represented something of the Lord Himself.

It was the same with Samson. He also was a Nazarite, though there were certain differences between his case and that of other Nazarites. Obviously Samson, as a warrior, came into contact with dead bodies. Also, whereas a person usually became a Nazarite by taking a vow during adulthood, Samson was a Nazarite from birth. As his mother was told by the angel before he was even born: "the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb to the day of his death" (Jud. 13:7). So it was that Samson, as a very special Nazarite, was to represent the Lord throughout his life, and his uncut hair played an essential part in this representation. But why was the length of his hair so important? There are many other people in the Word who represented the Lord, and yet rarely is the hair given as great an emphasis as it was in the case of Samson. Samson, though, didn't simply represent the Lord. He represented a particular attribute of the Lord. Though there were many people who represented the Lord in the Old Testament, each represented Him in a different way. The prophets, for example, because they taught the people, each portrayed something of the way in which the Lord leads people to the truth. The kings also represented the Lord, but they represented ways in which the Lord governs people. Samson, however, was neither a teacher nor a ruler. He was a deliverer. His whole life was devoted to delivering the Israelites from the Philistines. So it was that he represented the Lord as the Deliverer, the Savior -- as the only one who has the power to deliver us from our spiritual enemies.

This was the reason for Samson's uncut hair. Hair is, of course, a part of the human body. Now, each part of the body has a distinct correspondence. In general, the higher parts of the body correspond to higher spiritual things, while the lower parts correspond to lower spiritual things. The head has a higher correspondence than do the feet, for example. But correspondence rests not only upon position in the body, but also upon function. The heart, having such an important function, corresponds to something deeper than, say, the bones.

In terms of its correspondence, the hair of the head therefore poses something of a paradox. Because it is part of the head, it surely has to correspond to something very high indeed. But if we consider the amount of life in the hair -- it is, after all, basically dead, and certainly not something the body actually needs in order to function -- it would seem that the hair must correspond to something very lowly, very external. The paradox disappears, though, when we realize that the correspondence of hair has to do with both internal and external things. Specifically, the hair corresponds to external or natural things in which internal things can be present. Because good and truth reside within a man's head, so the hair, which is an outgrowth from the head, corresponds to this good and truth as they are present in external ultimate things. And so, when hair is used in the Word to represent a quality of the Lord, it stands for the way in which the Lord can be in the deepest and the most external things at the same time.

Now we are all familiar with the phrase, "the First and the Last" as applied to the Lord. It is part of our liturgy. Now this phrase, "the First and the Last," comes from the Book of Revelation. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last" (Rev. 1:11; see also Rev. 1:8). And truly the Lord is the First and the Last, for not only is He the First, in the sense that He is the origin of all things; He is also the Last, for His presence extends even to the most external and lifeless things of the universe. The Lord comes to us not only from within, giving us life and inspiring us with love and with the light of truth. He also comes to us from without -- in things that might at first appear as dead and as lifeless as the hair of the head. It is because of this that the Lord has the power to save us. And it is because of this that Samson, who represented the Lord as the Deliverer, was forbidden to have his hair cut. Without his hair, his strength, his power to deliver, would be lost.

The Lord Himself is, of course, infinitely powerful -- there is no limit to the potential blessings He is able to bestow. But if this power is to be effective in the case of an individual person, then that person must cooperate, freely and willingly, with the Lord. And so, the Lord's power and strength to save us from evil depends, for its efficacy, upon the degree to which He can convince us, in freedom, to forsake our evil ways.

This is why the Lord, in order to save us, must be present in both firsts and lasts. The Lord can, of course, flow into our minds directly with His love and wisdom. But this takes place above our consciousness, beyond our awareness, without our free cooperation. So that we might be free, the Lord also has to come to us from without -- come to us on a lower plane where we can be aware of Him, and where we can consciously and freely cooperate with Him. This is why the Lord had to come down to earth in order to take upon Himself the power to save us. This also is why He has given us His Word.

The Word is something outside us. It is something we can freely respond to. It is something we can choose to pick up with our hands. It is something we can choose to read with our eyes. It is something we can understand and think about. The letter of the Word is generally very simple and very external. On the surface it appears to talk a great deal about things that are merely worldly. Yet the Word is written in a miraculous way. Contained within these external literal things are the Lord's love and wisdom. As we read the Word, our thoughts, the way we think of things, are organized by the Lord, so that He can descend into our minds. In this way the Word, and thus the Lord from whom the Word is, can be present with us not only in the highest and deepest things, but in external ultimate things as well.

Some people think of the Word as a book, a book containing various ideas which may or may not be relevant to their lives. Some may even be fascinated by the ideas and subjects treated of in the Word. But still, they see it only as an intellectual thing -- something to study and think about, but not as something to actually live. This is what a Philistine really is. A Philistine is someone who thinks of the Word only as a matter for the intellect. Such a person, if he enjoys intellectual things, may read the Word, but he will be reading it for the wrong reason. Or, if he doesn't enjoy intellectual things, then he simply won't bother to read the Word. Such an attitude -- the attitude that the Word is only an intellectual matter -- is always a threat to the church, just as the Philistines were always a threat to the Israelites. The Philistines were never completely defeated by Israel.

But the Word is far more than an intellectual treatise. The Word is the coming of the Lord. It is the very way in which the Lord comes into our minds from without, from things last, so that our minds, and our very lives, can gradually be organized to receive heat and light from the Lord from within, from things first.

By means of the Word the mind of even an ignorant or totally unlearned person can gradually be led by the Lord, so that, unknown to himself, the interiors of his mind are filled with wisdom. As he reads the Word with reverence, the angels of heaven, and the Lord Himself, are especially present with him, affecting him in countless secret ways.

There is power in this, the power to save. Within His Word the Lord speaks to us. He speaks with the power to inspire and convince all but the most obstinate, to turn to Him, and to follow Him in both faith and in life.

People outside the Lord's church, people who do not have the Word, are a special case, and are led by the Lord in other special ways. But for those in the church, there is only one way the Lord can save them, and that is, through His Word. The letter of the Word is like the hair of the Lord's head -- apparently lifeless when viewed superficially -- but containing and enclosing the thoughts of the Divine mind. The Lord cannot deliver us without His Word any more than Samson could deliver the Israelites from the Philistines without his hair.

If we have neglected the Word, if the Old and New Testaments and the Writings are gathering dust on our bookshelves, then we have effectively cast Samson, our only hope of salvation, into a prison. But it is really we ourselves who are then bound. And it is we who are blind, for without the Word we have nothing of spiritual light. Our only hope is that Samson's hair might grow once more -- that we might turn once again to the Word, so that the Lord's power to save us might be restored.

This is why, if someone doesn't have as a habit the regular reading of the Word, then he should make it a habit. There is more power in the habit of reading the Old and New Testaments, and in reading the Writings, than we could ever imagine. It is a power represented by the strength of Samson. Samson represents the Lord. He represents the power of the Lord to save us. When we read His Word and when we live the way it teaches, the Lord is with us. He is with us right down to the most external things of human life. He is with us with Divine power, with the power to deliver us, with the power to save us from evil, with the power to lead us to Himself in heaven.

Amen.

Lessons: Jud. 13:1-5; 16:1-5,15-22,27-30; AR 47

© 1999 by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose