King David sits across from the prophet, awash in shame. He is afraid, stunned at Nathan’s rebuke from God who has laid bare his adultery, deceit and murder. His heart races because his life, at its zenith just a few minutes ago, is now in freefall.
Samson awakes from a nap in the lap of a woman. He chuckles at Delilah’s words “The Philistines are here!” until he realizes that his fabled strength has been shorn away. His life and twenty-year rule as judge of Israel have just collapsed.
The stories of these two men bring us to the altar. Let us consider how they fell so far and how God redeemed their failures.
David knew he was flawed; we see him in the psalms continuously acknowledging his frailty. He safeguarded his intimacy with God with prayers, songs, writings and worship. David also anchored himself through friendships that provided strength, perspective and accountability. They kept David outside of his own head, and they saved his life more than once. David was a home builder. When Jerusalem was captured, he right away built a home for his family. These disciplines served him well in the years following his fall.
Samson, too, enjoyed God’s blessing, but he was more of a loner. He focused on his work, enemies and conquests. The account of his life in Judges 13-16 doesn’t reveal any healthy friendships. He was unprotected and utterly reliant upon his own judgment and strength. Samson was a roamer not a home builder. He could usually be found behind enemy lines or roaming hostile neighborhoods. When the Philistines came, he couldn’t even cry for help because no one knew where he was.
David ruled for forty years; the Messiah would come from his lineage. Samson died in his prime, blind and in captivity; but he found his faith again before his death (see Judges 16:28). He is named in Hebrews as an example of those who “through faith…were made strong out of weakness” (Hebrews 11:32-34, ESV). Both David and Samson show us that God’s mercy does its best work when there is no hope. In turn, God calls us to move forward righteously, humbly and accountable. We are to let him do his full redemptive work in us so that we may finish strong.
“I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you” (Isaiah 44:22).