Pulling out my black-colored pencil and underlining words and phrases associated with sin is something I know I’m gonna do when I start reading about the life of Samson. He is the embodiment of his age as he cruises along making bad choices because he decides to make life choices based on what’s right in his own eyes (compare Judges 14:3b & 14:7 with Judges 21:25). But this morning, I’m using my black pencil to underline things I don’t think I’ve ever underlined before. And, as I do, I’m thinking, “Dude! Wash your hands!”

And behold, a young lion came toward him roaring. Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and although he had nothing in his hand, he tore the lion in pieces as one tears a young goat. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done. . . .

After some days he returned to take her. And he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion, and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. He scraped it out into his hands and went on, eating as he went. And he came to his father and mother and gave some to them, and they ate. But he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion. . . .

And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men.

(Judges 14:5b-6, 8-9; 15:15 ESV)

Samson tore a lion to pieces with his bare hands. Yuck! After a few days, he went to admire his handiwork and finds honey in the rotting carcass and scraped it out into his hands and ate it. Gag! Later, to defend himself against a Philistine vigilante, he finds a fresh jawbone of a donkey — fresh, I’m thinking, as still sporting flesh — and picks it up with his hands. Disgusting!

Dude! Wash your hands!

This guy was born into a Nazirite vow (Judges 13:5), a vow of consecration meant to declare he was the LORD’s. And part of that vow, specifically, was to not eat anything unclean (Judges 13:4) — like honey from the cavity of a dead and decaying animal. In fact, the way of the Nazirite required him not to make himself unclean by coming in contact with any corpse at all (Numbers 6:2-7). How come?

“All the days of his separation he is holy to the LORD.”

(Numbers 6:8 ESV)

Yeah, you can underline with your black-colored pencil Samson’s “big sins” . . . like lustfully getting mixed up with a Philistine woman (Judges 14:1-3), or arrogantly messing with his wedding guests (Judges 14:12-18), or angrily murdering 30 innocent bystanders (Judges 14:19), but it’s the small stuff — like playing fast and loose with keeping his hands clean — that sets the tone for whether Samson would take seriously his call to be “holy to the LORD.”

Is there an application here? I’m thinking.

I’ve been called to be separate and touch no unclean thing (2Cor. 6:17). I’ve been told to be holy, even as my God is holy (1Peter 1:14-16). How are my hands?

I should try and keep them clean. But, honestly, it’s pretty hard to do as I battle this old man in me, often referred to as “the flesh.” Too often this guy is also tempted to do what’s right in his own eyes. There’s just too much contact with the flesh I am trying to die to to keep these hands without stain.

But I know how to make them clean again. And again. And again. And again. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So, dude! Wash your hands!

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(1John 1:9 ESV)

Freshly cleansed hands because of the finished work of the cross. And clean hands are a pretty good start towards being serious about a consecrated life.

Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
       And who shall stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart . . .

(Psalm 24:3-4a ESV)

Only by God’s grace. Only for God’s glory.