[One-Verse Meditation]

Judges 16:22 (NIV) “But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.”

[Meditation]

Samson, who boasted in his own strength, finally falls. He gives in to Delilah’s persistent temptations, discloses the secret of his strength, and his hair is shaved off. “Not knowing that the LORD had left him” (v. 20), the source of his strength, he is captured by the Philistines. His two eyes are gouged out, and he who once carried the gates of an enemy city on his shoulders is now reduced to grinding grain like an animal in prison.

But in this pitch-black despair, the Bible records a single line of hope: “But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.” This is not simply a physical description of hair growing back over time. Rather, it shows that the faithful love of God, who never gives up on His failed covenant people, is beginning to work again. Samson, through his life, betrayed God and disregarded the covenant, but God remained faithful to His promise.

Through this process, God teaches Samson the true meaning of being a ‘Nazirite.’ He makes him realize that strength is not in his hair, but only in God. Paradoxically, the Philistines thought they knew the secret of his strength (his hair), but they never knew the real secret (God’s covenant), and so they fell into pride, praising their own god.

This story of Samson is our story. Even in the place of our failure, God never gives up on us. Rather, through that failure, He makes us rely not on our own strength but on God’s power, and helps us realize our true identity as ‘God’s Nazirites’—that is, in Christ Jesus, the true Nazirite before God.

[Prayer]

Lord, thank you for letting me know the grace of hair that grows back even after being shaved. Holding onto Your faithful love that does not stop even in my failure, let me live this brilliant today. Amen.
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[Daily Reading]

Judges 16:13-25