Vows of Holiness

Vows of Holiness

Walking In Sanctification

In this article we will study the life of Samson.  Samson was called from the womb to walk in the Vow of the Nazirite.  This Vow was to be between Samson and Yahweh all the days of his life.  This Vow was a walk of Holiness to keep Samson pure and undefiled before the face of Yahweh.  As long Samson kept his side of the Vow Yahweh would give him the power he needed to conquer the enemies in his life.  The Nazirite was to show their Vow to God by letting their hair grow long.  This was the outward and main sign of the Vow, the one that all could see.  There were also inward parts to the Nazirite Vow that were only between Yahweh and Samson.  In our lives we need both outward Vows and inward Vows to walk in Holiness with our Heavenly Father.  The Vows we make will give us boundaries and help us walk in Sanctification.  Like Samson as long as we keep our Vows to Yahweh He will give us the power we need to overcome the enemies in our lives.

The Birth Of Samson

In Judges 13:1-5 Yahweh appears to a woman who was barren and tells her she is going to have a son.  His name is Samson.  Samson was called by Yahweh to rescue Israel from the hand of the Philistines.  He was also called to be a Nazirite from birth, and the calling was to last all the days of his life.  Not only was this child to have a special walk of Holiness, the Angel of Yahweh told Samson’s mother she would be required to walk in Holiness while she is pregnant.  She is told to be sure to eat only clean food and she was restricted from wine or strong drink while the child was in her womb.

This teaches us that the training of children, to follow the Lord, begins in the womb.  We must raise our children to walk in Holiness from conception all the days of their life. 

The Nazirite Vow

In Numb 6 we have the instructions for a person who wants to take the Vow of a Nazirite.  Taking this vow is similar to a fast.  It is a set time to consecrate oneself to Yahweh.  The person taking the Vow cannot eat anything from the grape vine from the seed to the skin, no grapes, wine, or raisins can be eaten.  The person cannot be around any dead bodies.  The Torah does not specify if the dead body is a man or a beast.  In my opinion it includes both.  The person must let the hair of their head grow and no razor may touch it during the set time of the Vow.

This THING Is From Yahweh

In Chapter 14 of Judges Samson is enticed by a Philistine woman.  The very people that Yahweh wants Samson to get victory over and deliver Israel from, Samson is now drawn to.  

The very thing Samson is to have victory over in Yahweh’s Kingdom is now the very thing that is beginning to entice him.

Judges 14:4   His father and mother didn't realize the LORD was at work in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines, who ruled over Israel at that time.

In vs 4 we read that this thing (being enticed by a Philistine woman) is from Yahweh.  Yahweh was creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines.  The things in your life that have enticed you are the very things that Yahweh wants you to have victory over.  He is the Author and Finisher of your faith.  He creates opportunities to have victory though you.  He allows things in your life, so that He is the one to get Glory after He defeats the giants you face.

From God’s Perspective

Yahweh is in control of all things and uses them for His purpose in Earth.  In Gen 45:5 Joseph tell his brothers that they sold him into slavery then in the next phrase he says “God sent me.”  So which is it?  

Gen 45:5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.

In vs 7 he says again “God sent me.”

Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 

And to make his point very clear he says in vs 8,

Gen 45:8   “it wasn’t you who sent me here it was God.”

Reading the story in Gen 37 it is very clear that Joseph’s brothers threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery.  But in the eyes of Joseph and from God’s perspective it was His plan to have this happen in order to save many lives.

God Desires To Use You

The same is true in our lives and in the life of Samson.  The things we face which seem to be sin, whether people sinning against us or our own sin nature, are the things that God is allowing (creating an opportunity) in order to ultimately (after we have victory) bring Glory to His Great Name.  Our Heavenly Father is the Author of The Story of Our Life and He wants to get Praise and Glory, when He defeats the giants we face.  His purpose in the Kingdom is to bring life to others and Glory to His Great Name through our trials and struggles.

2Cr 1:3-5 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

The First Mistake

The first mistake Samson makes is lusting after something Yahweh wants him to destroy, namely a Philistine woman.  Although Scripture tells us that “the Lord was in this, creating an opportunity to work against the Philistines,” the desire came from within Samson’s sinful nature.

As we will soon find out, the lust Samson had for something Yahweh wanted him to destroy, led him to make another bad choice.  As a Nazirite Samson was not supposed to eat or drink anything that comes from the grapevine.  Let us look at what Samson does next:  

Judges 14:5 Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnath, and came to the vineyards of Timnath: and, behold, a young lion roared against him.

In this passage we read about Samson going to a place called the Vineyards of Timnath.  This is a serious mistake; he is getting way to close to another thing Yahweh had told him stay away from.  He was not to eat or drink anything from the grapevine but in this passage he is walking around near some vineyards.

In Judges 14:5&6 Samson kills a lion that roars at him.  Notice the lion roars but does not attack.  He attacks the lion and kills it.  This is another thing he does wrong.  He killed and animal, causing him to break one of the Nazirite Vows, which is not to be near a dead body.  Samson could have kicked or hit the lion and caused it to flee but he chose to rip it in half.  The Torah tells us that anyone touching the carcass of an unclean animal becomes defiled until evening.  Samson now has broken the written Torah and one part of the Nazirite Vow. 

Sinning In Secret

In verse 6 the scripture tells us that Samson didn’t tell his parents what he had done.  Why wouldn’t he want to tell parents?  Because they knew what he had vowed to Yahweh in regards to being near a dead body.  They would have reprimanded him.  

In like manner when we sin, we like to keep it a secret.

In verse 8 scripture says, after some time (probably a week or two) he returned to take this Philistine woman.  The word return is to turn around and go backwards. Samson is now walking backwards not forward.  This is never a good direction to be moving.  The next phrase says that he turned aside to look at the dead lion.  The word turned aside is a word in Hebrew that means to depart from the way.  He is now walking backwards and has departed from the WAY.  Scripture records that he looks at the carcass of the lion.  This word can be translated as gaze or stare.  He is gazing or staring at a carcass (death).

Samson is staring at death, this is the essence of our sin nature, we love to gaze at what Yahweh calls death

Holiness

Yahweh called Samson to live a life of Holiness.  Samson had made vows to live his life set apart to God.  The word Holy in Hebrew is Kadosh.  This word means set apart or separated.  Samson was to live his life different from all other people, which is what living Holy means.

The Battle to walk in Holiness begins in our mind.  Samson thought in his mind about this Philistine woman.  After meditating on her for some time, he had a strong desire to have her.  This led him to begin making bad choices in other areas of his life.  The same is true in our lives as believers; the battle is in our mind.  The mind is the battlefield between the Enemy and the Holy Spirit.  Choose life.

One thing we can learn from Samson is that we need to take our thoughts captive and make them submit to the will of Christ (2 Cor 10:4&5).  If we make vows of Holiness we need to keep them.  Most of us have “vineyards” in our lives, areas that are forbidden to us, but may be fine for someone else to enter into.  If you don’t have “vineyards” in your life, you may need to establish some and don’t go near them.

Tasting Death

Samson had killed a lion and then went back after a week or two, to look (stare) at it.  Here we have Samson looking at something which he knows is unclean.  When people struggle with Holiness they often times can’t keep their eyes off of unclean objects of death.  Inside the cavity of the dead lion was a beehive dripping with honey.  What Samson does next is something that is hard to imagine, he reaches into the dead lion and scoops out some honey and eats it.  He touches sin and death, and as he ingested the honey he was internalizing the sin.  The sin became a part of him AND it was sweet.  Sin is sweet for a season.  Let this be a warning to those who stare and gaze at death.  If you find yourself looking at death you are very close to crossing the line which will lead you to touching and then to tasting or internalizing it.   

Samson then takes this honey, from the carcass of an unclean animal, and gives it to his parents.  They also eat of the unclean honey.  Samson did not tell them the honey came from a dead lion.  Here again Samson is keeping his sin a secret and now his sin is affecting the people closest to him.  This is also true for us, if we continue in sin it will have an influence on the people who are closest to us.

Touching Death Again

In Judges 15:14 Samson was attacked by a group of Philistines.  The Spirit of Yahweh comes upon him and he killed 1,000 of them by hitting them with the jawbone of a donkey that had just died.  Don’t just gloss over this important part of the story.  Pay close attention to what scripture records, Samson picks up the jawbone of an unclean animal that had just died.  It was fresh, it was not dried out in the sun, it probably had rotting meat on it, still attached, but this did not stop him from touching it.  This is the second time Samson touches dead, unclean beasts.  Samson could have just relied on the Power that was flowing through him from the Holy Spirit, he did not have to pick up that unclean bone and fight with it.  Samson has now found himself getting use to sinning and use to breaking the Vows that he once considered sacred.  The more we sin the easier it is to continue in it.

The Final Mistake

Samson’s last wife was given to his best man, so he goes to find another woman.  He falls in love with a woman named Delilah.  Delilah is from the Valley of Sorek.  This is a valley that runs along the border of the Israelites and the Philistines.  Here again we read that Samson is walking right on the edge of where Yahweh has told him not to go.  Samson was called from birth to deliver Israel from the Philistines.  But for some reason Samson is now walking right along the edge of the territory that borders Israel and the Philistines.  Samson is walking on the fence, so to speak, playing games with God.

The leaders of the Philistines offered to pay Delilah if she could find out where his strength came from.  She began to ask him questions about how he could be tied up and overpowered.  At first he told her stories that had nothing to do with his Nazirite Vow, but after she nagged him until he couldn’t take it anymore, he began to give her answers that included clues to his strength being in his hair.

Finally he gave in to her whining and nagging.  He told her that if his hair was cut he would lose his strength.  Scripture records that Delilah put Samson to sleep in her lap.  Then she called for a man to shave of his hair and she began to torture him before he woke up.  How is all this possible, before Samson even wakes up?  It is my opinion that the way Delilah had Samson put to sleep on her lap was she enticed him to drink wine.  If Samson was drunk and passed out this would explain how someone would be able to cut his hair before he woke up.  If this is true, this just another part of the Nazirite Vow (drinking wine) that he would have broken right before crossing that final line and allowing his head to be shaved bald.  Then she called for the Philistines to come attack him and when he arose, Scripture records that he didn’t know that Yahweh had left him (Judges 16:20).  He had sinned so much, breaking all of the Nazirite Vows that the Lord could leave him and he didn’t even realize it.  The philistines seized him and poked out his eyes and put him to work grinding grain in prison.  After some time his hair began to grow back.  While in prison walking around in circles all day Samson began to repent and asked God to let him have one more chance to get even with the men who did this to him.  

 Yahweh heard his cry and gave him another chance to get even.  One day, Samson whose baldhead is now covered with hair, was called to entertain the Philistine rulers.  As they laughed at him, Samson was placed between two pillars that held up the palace.  Samson prayed for the Spirit of Yahweh to come upon him one last time as he pushed against those pillars with all his might.  Yahweh heard his cry and the pillars became like straw and snapped into pieces.  The ceiling collapsed and the palace was destroyed, killing everyone in it including Samson.  On that day he defeated more Philistines at one time, than all the former times when he was living.   

Keeping Your Vows

Scripture tells us to be Holy because Yahweh is Holy.  To be holy is to be separated from the world and flesh and to God.  Each of us should have areas of separation from and to.  These areas of separation from, become like vineyards that we should not go near.  From time to time in our walk, we will be tempted to go strolling through these vineyards, to stare at death or to touch things we should not.  If we give in to our flesh we will begin, like Samson to make compromises in other areas which will result in, the Lord leaving us and we won’t even be able to discern it.  

 Samson literally lost his sight because he stared at death.  He was forced to walk in circles grinding grain because he chose to walk in sin.  The Lord probably won’t bring us literal blindness today, but he may take away one’s ability to see with the eye of the Spirit.  If we continue to choose sin, those choices will result in a life of walking in circles.  Let us choose life, with His help you can walk in personal Vows of Holiness.