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Obedience – the Stories of Samson and Joshua

Samson is one of the heroes of the Bible. He made a covenant with God that he would abide by the commandments, and as a token of this covenant, he promised God that he would never cut his hair. He grew to be mighty and strong, and everyone wondered what was the power behind his strength. A beautiful and cunning woman named Delilah managed to get him to confess that his strength came from his hair, and she caused a servant to come in and cut his hair while he slept. His strength was taken from him, and he ended up blind and a prisoner.

Joshua took over Moses’ position as leader of the Israelites after Moses died. The Israelites were searching for the Promised Land, and came upon a land called Jericho, which lay in their path. It had a massive wall around it, and the Israelites were confounded as to how they were going to get around it. The Lord told them to march around the city of Jericho once a day for six days, and then on the seventh day, to march around it seven times, and then yell and blow their horns as loudly as they could. This they did, and on the seventh day, after their horns had grown silent, the walls of Jericho fell down.

What do these two stories have in common? Obedience.

There was nothing magical about Samson’s hair. He was given strength because he obeyed the commandments of the Lord, and when he ceased to be obedient, his strength was taken from him. We might say, “Well, he didn’t choose to cut his hair – that was all Delilah’s fault.” Yes, it was her fault, but he made a crucial mistake – he got too close to her, and he divulged his secret to her. If he had been concentrating on his standards and hadn’t been lured off by a pretty face, his story would have ended up much differently. As it was, he was given a momentary reprieve and was given enough strength to pull down the pillars to which he was chained, killing everyone underneath, but he died too. That’s a pretty sad ending to his story.

There was nothing magical about marching around in circles and blowing horns. It’s not that the echoes of the horns caused sound waves to crack the foundation – nothing so scientific as that. The Israelites were obedient to the things God had asked them to do, and so He blessed them by making the wall fall. I imagine those Israelites must have felt pretty silly. I imagine that the taunts and ridicule of the people high up on the wall must have embarrassed them, but they knew they were doing what God had commanded. At the end of the seven days, it wasn’t the people of Jericho who were laughing any more.

Sometimes we’re asked to do things that don’t make sense. We’re asked to do things that just feel silly. We don’t know the reasons why, and we wish we did – it would make our decisions to obey that much easier. But when we obey in faith, we are blessed for that obedience. We may not see the reason right away, but we will. For now, our task is to believe and obey. It will all come clear later.

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