What is the source of strength?
A few years ago I used to go to the gym with my son. We had a membership and it was great because for a few dollars a month you can go in, use all the weights and equipment, even meet with a trainer if you want, and ideally, over time, get stronger.
Some of you are looking at me and you’re probably thinking… Are you sure you were lifting the right weights at the gym?
Whenever we think about strength, we think about different things.
We think about physical strength. Big muscles. Appearance. The ability to lift heavy weight, do hard things, and being physically resilient.
We think about mental toughness. Mental health is an important topic in our world today and part of that conversation is being mentally strong, raising kids who are mentally resilient, having the ability to not get too high or too low when the hard things of this life come our way.
We might even think about having strong character, strong values. In a world that in so many ways is lacking integrity and character, having strong values that give us the strength to stand up for what’s right, make wise decisions, and do the next right thing is as important as ever.
There are all kinds of ways we need strength and we need to be strong and they are all important and they all come to us the same way.
Strength always comes through tension.
It’s always built through tension.
There’s a reason gyms are filled with heavy weights. The only way to get stronger is to lift them. To let your muscles build and grow as you add tension and resistance to your body.
The only way to build mental toughness is to face hard things, work through them, and then do it again. It’s not easy, but learning how to do hard things, work through difficult situations, have hard conversations, is a way to build mental strength.
And in the same way, we can build strong character when we stand up for what we believe in, do what’s right even when it’s hard. That tension produces in us strong character.
All that may be true, and more could certainly be said about all the ways we need strength and all the ways we build strength, but it still leaves one question largely unanswered…
What is the source of our strength?
The Strength of Samson
If you were to ask someone this Bible trivia question, Who was the strongest person in the Bible, chances are most people would get this one right.
Samson is one of those characters in the Bible we love to talk about because of his strength. God had given him superhuman strength, there is no doubt about that. He had the ability to fight entire armies all on his own and win. He once defeated a lion with his bare hands by ripping him apart! Then there was the time he picked up the city gates, I mean, lifted the posts out of the ground and everything, and carried it away, uphill over 50 miles, just because he could. He had superhuman strength.
But, Samson’s story was anything but heroic, in the end, it was tragic.
It all began when an angel of the LORD came to his mom. We don’t know her name, all we know is that up until this point in her life, she was unable to have children. All that changed when this angel visited her and told her…
Judges 13.5
“You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and his hair must never be cut. For he will be dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
Whatever is about to happen to her, this is going to be a miracle. It’s going to be miraculous. She runs to find her husband, a man named Manoah, to tell him what’s just happened. He can hardly believe it. He wants to talk to this angel and hear it for himself. Manoah prays to God to send the angel again so he can hear it for himself, and God does! God answers that prayer!
This child has been promised by God and this child comes with special instructions.
He is going to be dedicated to God from birth as a Nazarite.
Typically, being or becoming a Nazarite was a choice someone made as a way to devote themselves to God. But in this special case, Samson was chosen to be devoted to God in this special way for a special purpose.
To be a Nazarite meant that you didn’t drink wine or alcohol or even eat grapes (Numbers 6:3–4), you didn’t cut your hair (Numbers 6:5), and you didn’t touch a corpse (Numbers 6:6–7). This was a vow a person would take for a certain time in order to set themselves apart as devoted wholly to God.
Strong for a Purpose
For Samson, God is setting him apart as a person who will be wholly devoted to God NOT just for a certain time, but for his life, for a purpose.
The purpose?
“He will begin to rescue Israel from the Philistines.”
What’s interesting about Samson’s story is that it’s different from the other stories of the men and women God raises up in the book of Judges to lead His people.
Samson isn’t even born yet, but God has chosen him as the next leader for his people. He’s announcing his birth and giving his parents special instructions.
Typically, the people of Israel are crying out to God for deliverance and then God sends a new leader to help them get out from under whatever oppression they’re under.
But this time, the people aren’t crying out to God. They’ve been suffering under the oppression of the Philistines for forty years, twice as long as any other time in the book of judges, but they aren’t crying out to God.
And God says that Samson will “begin” to deliver Israel, indicating that for the first time Israel’s deliverer will not deliver them completely.
Judges 13 ends this way…
When her son was born, she named him Samson. And the LORD blessed him as he grew up. 25 And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him while he lived in Mahaneh-dan, which is located between the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol. – Judges 13.24-25
Over the next three chapters, Samson’s story unfolds but it’s nothing like you would expect. You might expect this divinely announced and appointed leader to rally the troops, gather the army, and go to war with the Philistines. You might expect his character and valor to headline the story. You might expect God to do the impossible again, helping Israel overcome impossible odds to find freedom once again as the people of God and in so doing, return to worship Him.
Purpose vs. Passion
But instead, the story of Samson is tragic in every way. Samson grows up and the Lord begins to “stir” in him, but instead of a godly leader we get this…
Judges 14.1-2
“One day when Samson was in Timnah, one of the Philistine women caught his eye. When he returned home, he told his father and mother, “A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me.”
Instead of living into his God given purpose, Samson is consumed with passion.
This is the human side of faith. So often God’s purpose in our lives is pushed aside because of our passions.
Instead of rallying the troops to liberate his people, Samson falls in love with a Philistine.
This would be a problem that plagues Samson again and again but it all starts right here. His parents can’t believe it. Israelite men don’t marry Philistine women. But Samson has fallen for one of the daughters of the enemy. And like a spoiled child he rudely orders his parents to get the girl for him.
Long story short, Samson goes with his parents to “get the girl.” They make the arrangements and there is a seven day festival before the wedding day. But all of it falls apart when Samson has a falling out with the wedding party. He goes into a rage, kills 30 men, and then goes home because things didn’t go his way.
Turn the page and Samson has calmed down, decides to go back and finish marrying his fianće only to find out that her dad already gave her away in marriage to his best man! That sent Samson into another rage. He burned all the wheat fields of the Philistines and destroyed their olive groves and vineyards.
As you could probably guess, that didn’t sit well with the Philistines. So they sent an army to find Samson and capture him. His own people turned on him and delivered him into the hands of the Philistines. They tied him up with new ropes but ropes couldn’t contain Samson’s strength. He broke those ropes and then picked up the jawbone of a donkey and killed a 1000 Philistines.
After that battle, Samson cried out to God for the first time. And do you know WHY Samson cried out to God?
Judges 15.18-19
Samson was now very thirsty, and he cried out to the LORD, “You have accomplished this great victory by the strength of your servant. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of these pagans?”
Samson remembered God when he was thirsty.
And do you know what God did?
So God caused water to gush out of a hollow in the ground at Lehi, and Samson was revived as he drank. Then he named that place “The Spring of the One Who Cried Out,” and it is still in Lehi to this day.
Turn the page and we find Samson doing the unthinkable once again. He sleeps with a Philistine prostitute. Word gets out that Samson is in town. The Philistines try, again, to capture him but you can guess how that worked out.
Because of Samson’s special strength given to him by God, there’s no Philistine or Philistine army that is any match for him. He is able to single handedly slay the lion and conquer Philistine armies. But Samson has a problem, and it’s a problem that would literally kill him and keep him from fulfilling God’s purpose for him.
He has forgotten that God is the source of his strength.
Instead of fulfilling God’s purpose for his life, he gives in to his passions over and over again.
Delilah
Perhaps Samson’s most famous failing happens next when he sees another Philistine woman by the name of Delilah.
Like every time before, Samson sees something he wants, someone he wants, and he gives in to his desire rather than depending on God.
God’s purpose in his life is pushed aside because of his passions.
Samson may love Delilah, but Delilah doesn’t love Samson. She loves money. And the Philistine kings are offering her a lot of it if she will help them finally capture and defeat Samson. They know he has special strength. They’ve seen first hand what he can do. But they don’t know how he does it. And they want to know his secret. So they offer to pay Delilah a ton of money if she will find out Samson’s secret.
Three different times, Delilah tries to get Samson to tell her his secret. Each time, Samson makes something up. Delilah was frustrated and kept nagging Samson to tell her his secret.
And then this happened…
Judges 16.17-19
17 Finally, Samson shared his secret with her. “My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I was dedicated to God as a Nazirite from birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”
18 Delilah realized he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the Philistine rulers. “Come back one more time,” she said, “for he has finally told me his secret.” So the Philistine rulers returned with the money in their hands. 19 Delilah lulled Samson to sleep with his head in her lap, and then she called in a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. In this way she began to bring him down, and his strength left him.”
As soon as that happened, Delilah called the Philistines to come in and capture Samson. This time, he didn’t have the strength to fight them off. They captured him, restrained him, gouged out his eyes, and took him away. He didn’t have the strength to stop them because “the LORD had left him.” (16v20).
It’s important to note that Samson’s hair wasn’t the source of his strength, it was just the sign of the source of his strength.
As a part of the Nazarite vow, not cutting your hair was an external sign of an internal commitment to and dependance on God. Truthfully, not cutting his hair was about the only part of the Nazarite vow that Samson kept. But the source of his strength wasn’t his hair, the Source of his strength was God.
Samson’s story has a rather tragic ending. He’s been wasting away in a Philistine prison camp. He’s blind. Bound. The once undefeated leader of Israel and conquerer of Philistine armies who had been a problem for the Philistines for 20 years is now blind as bat. He’s the person they walk by and laugh at because of what’s become of him.
God’s purpose in his life was pushed aside because of his passions.
Dagon
In fact, the Philistines are throwing a party to celebrate their god, Dagon, and they bring Samson out for entertainment. There are about 3000 Philistines at the party and they just want to laugh at him. So they tie him up between two pillars at their temple.
The Philistines had forgotten one thing about Samson while he was wasting away in their prison. They forgot about his hair. About how his long hair was a sign of His God given strength. And now, his hair has grown out again.
Samson remembers God and prays to him for only the second time in his life. The first time, he prayed for water and God provided. This time, he prays a very different prayer:
Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me again. O God, please strengthen me just one more time. With one blow let me pay back the Philistines for the loss of my two eyes.” Then Samson put his hands on the two center pillars that held up the temple. Pushing against them with both hands, he prayed, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And the temple crashed down on the Philistine rulers and all the people. So he killed more people when he died than he had during his entire lifetime. – Judges 16.28-30
In his final act of strength, Samson destroyed the enemies of God that day. Unlike the judges that came before him, he didn’t completely deliver Israel from their enemy, but the Lord “stirred” him in order to “stir” something up within His people.
To help them remember who was and is the source of their strength.
To call them to seek Him and desire Him and look to Him and have a renewed passion for His name.
The question for Israel, for Samson, and for us is one in the same:
Who is the source of your strength?
I don’t know if you heard the news, but a rookie from South Africa won the 2025 World’s Strongest Man competition in Sacramento, CA this year. His name is Reyno Nel.
He’s 30 years old and he’s an electrical engineer. He wasn’t supposed to win this year. Other guys, more experienced competitors, other guys who are more well known were expected to compete and win. But Reyno took home first place by half a point. He was the first rookie since 1997 to win the World’s Strongest Man Competition.
One of the events that set him up to win the title is called the Hercules Hold. (PICTURE). In this event, you stand between two pillars, each weighing 350 lbs, for a total of 700 lbs, and you hold them up as long as possible. Reyno Nel held those pillars for 75.63 seconds, demonstrating incredible physical and mental strength.
The source of his strength was the gym. He spent about 15-17 hours a week in the gym preparing for the World’s Strongest Man Competition.
Who is the source of your strength?
How do you prepare for the challenges you will face in this life? How do you build the PHYSICAL strength, the MENTAL strength, the SPIRITUAL strength you need not just to survive, but to flourish and thrive, to experience the abundant life that God has for you and Jesus promised all those who put their faith in Him?
There is only ONE Source you can turn to, ONE Source you can go to.
God is the Source of our Strength.
What have you been looking to in order to look strong? To be strong?
Have you been depending on your own strength? Our own strength can only carry us so far. Is it time to for you to return to God? To put your hope in God? To ask God, invite God, to be the Source of your strength? To give you the strength you need to face whatever comes your way today?
Like Samson, like Israel, it is easy to lose our way. To take our eyes off of God.
It’s easy to depend on our own strength. But here’s the invitation and the promise for today. God wants to be the Source of your strength. And when you call on His name, He is faithful to be the Source of your Strength.
Whatever you need today, turn to Him. Lift your eyes to Him. Depend on Him. He is faithful to save.
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