The word betrayal brings a lot of pain at the same time a lot of experience with it. We all go through it not once but several times in our life. And let’s admit it guys nobody wants to be in a place where you are betrayed, it takes a lot of me time, friends and family consoling you and yet you not being able to forgive and forget the person enhances the pain to another level and let’s say if you are the one who has betrayed someone yet you will be in the pain of regret which can be even more terrifying.
How do you deal with your betrayals it could be from a romantic relationship, a family member or a friend? Let’s modify the question how do you deal with it as Christians?
So many times, it happens that we lend money to someone when they are in a bad situation and it so happens that they pretend to not even know you, so many people get cheated in a marriage, in a relationship, they keep their partner deceived from so many things that should be crystal clear in a relationship. In fact, we live in an age where deceiving and betrayal is almost normal. Every second person gets cheated on with some or the other thing.
In this world full of such things lets see what the bible has to say about it. The last love story we discussed was a love triangle but this time we are here with a love story from the book of judge, Samson and Delilah, which will resonate with a lot of you because of its betrayal element. Also, it stresses upon the fact that I had mentioned earlier that the bible is not full of idealistic heroes and their stories of courage rather their stories of flaws and how they repented for it. The book of judges also focuses on how Israelites kept disobeying God’s word and hence, faced the terrible consequences of it. Yet when they turned to God for the desired help, God being our Abba father did answer their prayers and carved a new way for them.
Samson one of the most famous characters of the bible owing to his strength that he derived from his uncut hair and how God had chosen him for delivering the God’s own people. Samson grew up knowing that the Lord has chosen him to free his own people from slavery as Israelites were always the soft targets to invasions, loots, robberies and slavery. He and his family kept a secret from the outer world for years which they had to in order to fulfil the God’s word. Samson’s uncut hair was the reason he had such incredible strengths and he was told strictly by the God himself not to cut it or else he will lose his strength that he is supposed to use for the betterment of the Israelites. He was indeed individually blessed by the Lord himself. He grew up the right way, the way he should have been. Infact, there’s a renowned story in the bible which says how the strong samson drew a line and all this was being observed by people of philistine, the biggest rivals of Israelites. They all obviously got a hint that he is indeed very strong and what if he poses them a great danger in the near future. They would then have absolutely nobody to loot and torcher. Hence, Philistine came up with a trap to kill Samson and know the secret behind his humongous strength. They appointed this heavenly beautiful and charming lady called Delilah who swept men off their feet. Beneath her beauty she had evil thoughts and intentions to weaken Samson and give Philistine an edge. Obviously, Samson immediately fell for her as she was supremely beautiful and grace. The family was against it but he was already in head over heels love with her and denied everybody including God and went ahead and married her. She used to question him every day, the same question that where does his incredible strength stem out from? Now, God gave Samson a choice whether he wants to obey the Lord and his will or does he wish to go against it? Doesn’t it completely resonate with our personal lives as well that how we fight this battle as well between our choices and God’s choices? In a very small period of time, Delilah realised that the strength of samson is all derived from his hair? And then in no time she sold him to the enemies. Imagine what Samson must have gone through at that point of time, the women he had loved with all his heart has actually been planning to get him killed for a few pennies? Isn’t the pain relatable, now, also don’t forget what God must have went through when his own chosen, especially blessed child chose to go against him. How would you feel depressed, pathetic or would you turn to god and ask him to deliver you with strength to overcome and forgive?
Samson’s hair was chopped, he lost all his strength, he was given excruciating pain, he was blinded and what not. He understood what big mistake he had made by disobeying God’s word and his family’s views. But here’s the part that brings us to a beautiful lesson that despite all these he turned to god for help and god did help him. He gave samson his strength back because samson regretted for his mistake and chose to repent it as he was aware of the fact that all the Israelites would have to suffer the consequence of his unforgettable mistake. We all do mistakes, we all sin and feel bad about it but do we actually go to god and seek his help? No, most of the time it’s a no, we rather go to teen other people and discuss it and multiply our sadness and grief. Isn’t it? We actually drift away from god instead of going towards him the moment when we need him the most. Remember, we have to go to the God, God doesn’t come to us, we have to initiate, we have to seek him.
A lot of people complain me being a Christian, another Christian has betrayed me, he is not worth calling a Christian. Making such a bold statement without even realising that we are humans we can sin, we can make mistakes but we also have the choice to compensate for it by repenting instead of crying over it and regretting it.
In the case of Samson he disobeyed and faced terrible pain and consequence. But god did give him a second chance and Samson pulled down the entire temple of Dagon with him which off course killed him too but he actually freed Israelites because all the enemies who would create trouble were also killed in that incident of the temple being brought down.
Another story of betrayal is associated with Christ, how Judas and then Peter betrayed Jesus Christ. Little did they know that Christ was here to obey God’s word and sacrifice himself, it was already prophesied and the destiny and nature of Judas too was a part of that prophecy. Both realised their mistake and Judas decided to take his own life, which is a heinous crime in the eyes of God and Peter on the other hand chose to repent.
The learning here is we all sin, we all do mistakes but it’s up to us to ask for forgiveness and repent for it rather than regret it all along your life. When Samson asked God for help with all his heart, God did help him and his people were saved. In fact his body was not lying damaged under the temple but rather it was saved and his family could bury him.
Ask God forgiveness with all your heart and he will give you a second chance to repent and compensate. Remember, the choice is always yours whether to regret or repent?
