Your Hair Will Grow Back

A while back I read a blog post with this title and it stuck out to me so much that I studied this story out for myself. 

The story goes that there was a woman that was barren and an angel appeared to her telling her that she would have a son. She was told not to drink wine or strong drink and not to eat any unclean thing. The angel also told her that he would be a Nazarite from birth and that his hair should never be cut. The angel said her son would begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.  If you know the story you know that Samson had incredible physical strength given to him by God. Unfortunately, Samson also had an appetite for the wrong women.

One of these women was paid to find out the secret to Samson’s strength. She was told she would receive 1,100 pieces of silver from each of them which amounts to around $89,641 in our day. Now that’s a lot of money! So she took the job. 

She went to work asking and begging Samson to tell her his secret. Samson lied to her three times and three times she called the Philistines to capture him. But each time he was able to arise, shake himself and be free.

The Bible says “she pressed him daily with her words, and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death“. So, she nagged him about this daily until he was just couldn’t take it anymore and he finally gave in and told her all his heart. Let me just say, we as women need to be careful how we handle our husband’s secrets. The bible says we are to be his help meet. We need to help our husbands become all that God has called them to be, not to ridicule them or make them “pay” for their shortcomings. Anyway, she could have kept the secret to herself, but no, she had dollar signs in her eyes. So she called for the Philistines, caused him to fall asleep on her lap and had his head shaved.  Then she begin to yell “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!” Samson jumped up and shook himself like before not realizing that the Lord had departed from him. They bound him, gouged out his eyes and Sampson wound up grinding in the mill house as a slave.

But wait! That’s not the end of the story! Yes Samson messed up! He trusted the wrong person. He didn’t listen to his parents about getting mixed up with women that didn’t believe the same way. He went his own way and got caught up in the world. Sometimes God lets us hit rock bottom so we can realize what our true purpose in life is. 

Judges 16:22 KJV
Howbeit the hair of his head began to grow again after he was shaven.

Read that again – His hair began to grow again! His hair grew back!! Does that mean his strength came back? 

The Matthew Henry Commentary says it like this: “Samson’s afflictions were the means of bringing him to deep repentance. By the loss of his bodily sight the eyes of his understanding were opened; and by depriving him of bodily strength, the Lord was pleased to renew his spiritual strength. The Lord permits some few to wander wide and sink deep, yet he recovers them at last, and marking his displeasure at sin in their severe temporal sufferings, preserves them from sinking into the pit of destruction. Hypocrites may abuse these examples, and infidels mock at them, but true Christians will thereby be rendered more humble, watchful, and circumspect; more simple in their dependence on the Lord, more fervent in prayer to be kept from falling, and in praise for being preserved; and, if they fall, they will be kept from sinking into despair.”

Sampson repented for what he had done. He never got his eye sight back but God renewed his spiritual strength.  When they brought him out for their entertainment. Samson asked to feel the pillars of the house. His enemies weren’t paying attention, they didn’t realize his hair was growing back and what that meant. Sampson felt God’s strength one more time and killed more of his enemies in his death than he did during his lifetime.

So what does this all mean? No we don’t have to die for our sins. But no matter how far you’ve gone or how much you’ve messed up…your hair will grow back. God can and will use you for His glory. Don’t listen to the enemy. Don’t believe the lie that you can’t get back to where you were or can’t be loved or used by God anymore. Your hair will grow back. Don’t let the enemy convince you to sit it out because of your sin. Your hair will grow back.

We need to do everything we can to run from our Delilah (take a lesson from Joseph) and skip having our heads shaved…but if you’ve already messed up, please rest and rejoice in the fact that there is a space of repentance and your hair will grow back! God will renew your strength!