The Line that Won't Get Crossed
When I was little, I heard about Samson, how strong he was, and how an evil woman named Delilah convinced him to tell her the secret of his strength. He told her he would lose his strength if his hair ever got cut, she ratted him out, he became weak, but then God made him strong again and he killed a lot of evil Philistines. Or something like that. Imagine my surprise almost 20 years later when I decided to study the entire book of Judges and all of its blood, sex, and gore. Samson was on a slippery slope almost from the beginning. I know we tend to favor his triumphant last hours in chapter 16, but let's back up to the beginning. In chapter 13, we meet Samson's parents, who were barren and begged the Lord for a child. He promised them that not only would He send them a child, but the child would be a deliverer of his people (the Israelites were being ruled by the Philistines at the time). The only catch: they were never to cut his hair. It's pretty evident that...