Told Her All His Heart

Ah yes! This chapter makes me want to recant on everything I said yesterday! And yet... The Spirit of God does not retract His assessment in Hebrews 11:32 about Samson, and He wrote the same book I read!

In Judges 16 today we read of the familiar story of Samson and Delilah. It boggles the mind really! Four times! Four times! (do you know what I'm talking about?)

I can just picture burly Samson convincing himself that he was strong enough to withstand the womanly charms of Delilah (the very area he struggled in while a youth). And so he stayed and listened to her whine, accuse, blame, manipulate, beg, chide...thinking all the while he was in control, and perhaps he could even make a game of it.

And for a while, he did just that.

But somewhere along the time frame, he snapped. Was it the daily pestering? Was it the lusts of his flesh? Did he actually begin to believe that he was indestructible? Perhaps he thought he would be able to sense it if anyone got near his head to shave it while he slept?

Maybe he convinced himself, "aw, the hair is just a symbol of my strength, I know it really comes from God." And indeed that is true, but if God told him to have long hair for the Nazarite vow, then he needs must always have it. He can't just dispose of God's methods and expect God to bless his disobedience.

But whatever he was thinking, something switched inside of him, and he "told her all his heart." Discernment escaped him, and he became a puppet playing into Delilah's script. Three times we read he told her all his heart. Even strong Samson was not strong enough to flirt with his weaknesses.

Now, tempting as is to try and chase down the idea that "a fool venteth all he knows" or "in the multitude of words there is sin," or etc., I'm rather taken up with the idea of what it would look like if we "told Jesus all of our heart!"

Proverbs 3:5-6 says,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.

But I think the Darby translation has something to offer us when it comes to telling all of our heart...

Confide in Jehovah all of your heart,
lean not on your own intelligence.
in all thy ways acknowledge Him (or give Him knowledge of),
and He will direct thy paths.

Do with the Lord, what Samson did with Delilah.
No, not the lying part.
And no, not the playing games part.
But rather, tell Him ALL of your heart. Even the parts you want to hide, or the areas you don't want to relinquish control over. ALL! And lo! Watch clarity appear!

The glorious thing for us is, as we lay ourselves bare before the Lord, we don't have to worry about the possibility of being exploited, or our vulnerabilities being taken advantage of. He is no Delilah! He won't sell us out for 11,000 pieces of silver!

He can be trusted -- wholly trusted -- with ALL of our hearts!

Ah Lord God, I want to run to You and tell You all of my heart. So You can have ownership of it and take up residency in it. Help me to honestly live in honesty with You!

Just another tidbit off the subject...interesting 11,000 pieces of silver was paid for the life of Samson, whereas the Creator of the Universe sold only for 30.