by uacheesehead
Ric Flair was a master at verbal manipulation. His mic skills were unprecedented, even in light of today’s current sports entertainers. It has been said that, “when you look into Flair’s eyes when he gives a promo, you believe every words that comes out of his mouth!”
“All the women want to be with me, all the men want to be like me. “ –Ric Flair
This is a classic Flair-ism. His arrogance on the mic was matched in the ring. When he came to the ring, women swooned and men visualized themselves as the most visual member of the Four Horsemen. He was a hero, villain, joker, and playboy. Very much like Sampson from the Old Testament.
Sampson was born a Nazarite, which meant that he never was to cut his hair, never to eat raisins or grapes, not to drink wine and never to touch a dead body. He was to live his whole life totally dedicated to service and to the will of God.
Samson grew to manhood with the strength of several men. He won great battles single-handedly against the Philistines. The children of Israel had not been obedient to God and so God allowed them to be overcome by their enemies. This happened several times throughout the history of the children of Israel. When the people became sorry for their sins they prayed and repented. This would be personified in Sampson’s life and death.
Samson won many battles against the Philistines and they grew to hate him. Eventually, Sampson became the judge who ruled the country for twenty years afterward. Sampson grew proud of all his accomplishments and began to move away from God. And this is when the Philistines plotted against him.
The Bible records that Samson broke all of his Nazarite vows. He drank wine, he ate grapes, he touched a dead body and he did not dedicate himself totally to the Lord God. But his greatest vise was women.
Samson fell in love with a beautiful Philistine woman named Delilah who had been promised a great sum of money from the Philistines if she could discover the secret of his incredible strength.
Night after night he visited her residence to spend hours with her. And every day Delilah teased and begged Samson to tell her the secret of his tremendous strength. Sampson thought that he was hopelessly in love with her because of her great beauty and charm. So he teased and misled her about the secret of his strength.
Finally, all the begging and teasing wore Sampson down and he reviled his weakness: the cutting off of his hair. While he slept, the deed was done, Sampson was imprisoned, his eyes were gouged out with white hot pokers, and he was chained to a huge stone wheel grind grain into flour, around and around, all day long, every day. Samson was destined to spend the rest of his days doing the job that an ox would do, grinding at the mill. He frequently was put on display for the Philistine people to mock him and to heap scorn upon him as their former mighty enemy whom the Philistines had reduced to a life worse than death.
But one day, Sampson had an opportunity to repent and get revenge upon his captors. Sampson, whose hair grew back, heard that there was to be a great festival in the Temple of Dagon. Three thousand people, including the Philistines’ most powerful political, military and religious leaders would be in the temple, worshipping their false god.
Sampson prayed “Oh, God please forgive me for my sins and please use me for your glory one more time.” And when the Philistines brought Sampson out, he pushed against the great stone pillars until the temple crumbled down upon the Philistines and Sampson himself.
Will your pride and your ‘pet sins’ cause you to miss out on all that God has upon you?
For further reading: Judges 13-16
