“The Lord works in mysterious ways.” Ok, so maybe it’s an overused phrase . . . maybe it’s one of those “pat answers” used to say something when we don’t know what to say . . . one of those explanations we have for what is, quite frankly, unexplainable . . . one of those “go to” phrases, when things don’t line up within the confines of our thinking. Call it what you will . . . but it’s true . . . and, as I’m reading the first part of the story of Samson this morning, I don’t know how you can reach any other conclusion. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

That Samson was “a chosen one” is beyond dispute. God Himself visits his barren parents through the Angel of the Lord and informs them of the special calling He will have on the son to be born to them. Their soon-to-be-conceived son is to be set apart from birth. He is to be raised according to the Nazirite vow, as a someone consecrated to and for the Lord . . . God having chosen him to “begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.” (Judges 13:5).

Ok, if I were take just that and write the rest of the story, it would look so different from how it actually played out. My Samson would grow up to look like a well-chiseled movie star, and to act like Moses at the height of his ministry. My Samson is carrying around rolls of Scripture (maybe even the actual tablets from the Mount themselves) . . . quoting them left, right, and center. My Samson is full of “God-speak” . . . my Samson is “the believer’s believer” . . . he’s praying 25 hours a day . . . he’s helping poor ladies across the street. Whatever “almost perfect” looks like, that’s the guy I’d write in to the story . . . because He was raised in a God-fearing home . . . and because he was set apart from birth by God Himself . . . and because He was called to serve God’s mighty purposes . . . and because the Holy Spirit regularly came upon him.

That last one, especially, is what makes Samson such an enigma for me. In my reading in Judges 13 through 15, four times the Spirit of God is mentioned in regards to Samson. As he grew as a child, “the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him” (13:24-25). Later, as a young man, he is attacked by a lion, “and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” and he tears the lion apart (14:6). Again, in Judges 14:19 and 15:14, I read that “the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him” . . . and I guess that’s why I think this guy should have been such an example of “a man of God” . . . ’cause I guess I have this thought that the Spirit only comes upon “godly people” . . . like they deserve it, or something. But, as I read it, Samson played fast and loose with his Nazirite vow. First, he lusts after Philistine women . . . doesn’t align with God’s instructions not to get tangled up with the people of the land. Then, he’s eating honey out of the dead lion’s carcass . . . in direct violation of his Nazirite calling (Num. 6:6-7) . . . then he starts gambling with the friends of his Philistine bride-to-be . . . which just leads to things unraveling in a big way.

So what’s up? He’s not fitting my image of what guys act like who regularly have the Spirit come mightily upon them. Answer: God works in mysterious ways. This isn’t about Samson really . . . it’s about God’s determination to loosen the strangle hold the Philistines had over Israel for the past 40 years (13:5). And God had determined he would accomplish His purposes through Samson . . . even using Samson’s wandering eyes for the foreign women. When his parents tried talking Samson out of pursuing this Philistine beauty from Timnah, it says, “But his father and mother did not know it was of the Lord — that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines” (14:4). If God was ready to move against the Philistines, why do it this way? Why use a guy with clay feet? Why use a guy with a high calling and such a high opinion of himself that he re-writes the rules as he goes? I don’t know . . . God works in mysterious ways.

But work He does! And in His Sovereign determination, He chooses to come upon this less than holy Nazirite with His Holy Spirit. He uses “playing loose with the rules” to play out His purposes. It’s not really about the Samson upon whom the Spirit comes . . . but all about the Spirit who uses the imperfections of God’s chosen to work God’s power and plans. Oh, what an awesome God is our God . . . mysterious? . . . yes . . . mighty? . . . you bet . . . worthy of all glory and praise? . . . amen!