It was a dark time in the history of the nation of Israel. The Philistine infiltration down the sea-coast had become a full scale invasion. God allowed this because His people had turned to idolatry. In the year 1075BC at the battle of Aphek the subjugation of Israel was complete, 1 Sam. 4. The ark, the symbol of divine presence, was captured and the tabernacle at Shiloh was destroyed. The boy born that day to a dying mother was aptly named ‘Ichabod’ meaning ‘The Glory is departed’. Things could hardly have been darker!
This was the very year when two men began public ministry in Israel. The ministry of Samuel was spiritual – a calling of the nation to repentance. The fruit of this ministry was seen twenty years later at the battle of Mizpeh – a restored people were delivered from Philistine dominion, 1 Sam. 7. The ministry of Samson was of a militant character, to remind both the Philistines and Israel that God, even though forsaken by His people, was still the God of power. When there was genuine repentance there could be deliverance. Though Samson did not live to see it (he died just before the battle), God did deliver His people at Mizpeh. In the twenty years between these two battles Samson’s task was to ‘begin to deliver Israel’, 13. 5.
Samson’s birth to a previously barren mother was by divine power and then he had twenty years of divine preparation in a godly home marked by Nazarite devotion. Preserved from wine and defilement, his hair untouched by razor, God would use him in divine purpose. When the moment was ripe, God would use this instrument for His glory. In God’s time, ‘the spirit of the Lord began to move him at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol’. Divine presence with him would be the secret of realizing all his potential for God.
Every believer’s new birth is an act of divine power. New Testament is seen in obedience to the word and devotion to the Lord, giving each believer a divine potential for God. In realizing this potential the power of the Spirit of God is available.
