Having A Bible (Or Hair) Simply Isn’t Enough To Gain God’s Strength & Wisdom

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.’ (Psalm 25:5)

Those who see me on a regular basis that since the COVID lockdowns know I do not use a razor or clippers at all, with the exception of trimming my mustache and eyebrows, and on occasion on the bald top of my head. So the hair has grown over my shoulders and the beard is down on my chest.

I often refer jokingly as being 98.7% in compliance with Leviticus 19:27, where God states that under the Levitical or Mosaic Law men should not cut their facial or head hair. While my 98.7% compliance reference is true (I like to eat food without the mustache getting in the way, and I don’t want to look like Andy Rooney or that Japanese PM with overgrown eyebrows), my choosing of not trimming my hair or beard stems more from simply a retreat from when I had to wear suits and ties when under corporate edict, and earlier under the US Army’s ‘high-&-tight’ hair mandate.

I had longer hair and a beard when I was a younger man, so it doesn’t bother me. It isn’t as much of a factor in the Florida heat as some may think, and there is some benefit in terms of relating to others, who seem more comfortable coming to talk to me than others who are of the more traditional clean-shaven or trimmed facial beard look, and having more traditional hair styles of today’s modern man.

One day I may decide to revert back to such a more traditional look that folks believe an old bald guy should have, but for now I’m comfortable being more in line with Sasquatch than with Telly Savalas. Until I get a hankering for lollipops and return to a shaved scalp and face, I’ll stick with beef jerky and the hair that goes with that.

There is no magical association with my hair, though. My hair, for example, failed me a long time ago on the top of my head as it decided to start leaving there in my late 20s.  As I lost hair on my head, the stomach grew bigger so perhaps that could be evidence of a correlating effect, but since there are an abundance of bald men who are still strong that this is not a good example of such a correlation as being related to hair and belly fat.

I hold no illusions that long hair doesn’t do anything for me physically or Spiritually, except perhaps in aiding in my witness a wee bit more than it detracts from it. It certainly hasn’t helped me in the strength department as it seemed to do with Samson. If one needs to gain strength physically, one needs to hit the gym and get into shape.

When you need to gain strength Spiritually, we need to live by Psalm 25:5. and turn to the Lord in prayer, Bible study, and Christian fellowship and immerse ourselves in Him and His Word. Allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us and to seek His counsel give us that strength to face whatever we encounter.

I was looking at Judges 16 (where Delilah keeps asking Samson where his strength lies), and I thought of this:  Where did Samson’s strength come from?  Was it indeed his hair, or was it the Faith that his strength came from God, with Samson’s obedience as a Nazirite not to cut his hair?  We often place our faith in an object or a person; placing our faith in these things will fail us as these things are fallible.

Physical strength does not come from weights on a bar that sit on the floor in a corner of our home, but from us picking up those dumbbells and working on curling those weights to build muscles. Likewise, our Spiritual strength doesn’t come from simply possessing a Bible. Many people have Bibles in their homes, never opened and never read. It’s just another object that collects dust on a table or shelf. We have to open those Bibles and read them, applying what God instructs us to do and live according to His instructions.

Samson’s strength came through Faith; misrepresenting that his hair equaled strength allowed that when it was cut, he no longer had his strength. After he was blinded and fell weak, Samson regained his strength only when he turned back to God and asked Him to provide Him the strength to push the two pillars of the temple over, to collapse its roof onto himself and the Philistines inside.

Like a Bible unread and collecting dust, the Bible is just an object. We should cherish and respect the Book, but to simply think it provides an aura of God’s power is not true in and of itself. The Bible must be read, studied, and its instructions followed to gain a connection into God and His power and understanding. Samson’s hair did not have power; Samson obeying God’s instructions upon the Nazirites and himself not to cut their hair gave him strength.

Faith must be in what God can do, and not what we can do or have.  Samson’s example is to obey God and to have Faith in Him and not in self or in objects, like hair.  Samson took God’s gift of strength for granted; had Samson been more humble and less narcissistic perhaps God would have stopped Delilah (or to have Samson keep his mouth shut), or God would have allowed Samson to keep his strength even after Delilah had his hair cut (by a wayward barber). 

Unlike Samson, we should not waste our gifts on self but on following the Lord, learning more about Him, and allowing Him to teach us.  We need to continue to have our Lord as our leader and allow our Faith to be in what He can do. Don’t place your Faith in hair or an object as that does nothing, have Faith in God and His instructions.