I have read the story of Samson in the book of Judges many times, and I have often wondered what is the message in it for God's children today. After all, a story about a man who had such strength come upon him that he did things like: kill a lion by tearing it apart with his bare hands; kill a thousand of Israel's enemies with the jawbone of a donkey; lift the city gates right up out of the ground and put them on his shoulders, carrying them to the top of a hill . . . to name just a few . . . what can we learn from that?!

Then, one day, I saw something tucked away in the story--a message for God's children especially. (I know that there are many others, and this is just one of them--such an important one.)

Something stood out to me when I read: "And she (Delilah) made him sleep upon her knees; and she called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head; and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him" (Judges 16:19).

As you probably already know, Samson was raised up by God and given great supernatural power to begin to deliver Israel out of the hands of their enemy, the Philistines, who had kept them in bondage for forty years. The Spirit of God would come upon Samson, and he would have victory over them.

The Lord had told Samson's mother, even before he was born, that her son's hair must never be cut; for he was to be a Nazarite, a special servant of God. If his hair was cut, then God's power would not come upon him, and he would be weak just like any other man.

But while he had his head of hair, he was always victorious over the Philistines. His enemies didn't know that his hair was where his power lay, and they were determined to find out what the secret of his strength was so that they could attack that and overcome Samson.

It was through a woman that Samson had fallen in love with, called Delilah, that his secret was revealed. The Philistines had said to Delilah that they would give her "every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver" if she could get Samson to tell her the secret of his strength (Judges 16:5). Delilah was eventually successful in doing that, and then, needless to say, the Philistines gave him his very first haircut.

Samson's strength went away, and he was weak just like other men. The Bible says that "the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house" (Judges 16:21).

But what is the message here for us? It is in this verse: Delilah "called for a man, and she caused him to shave off the seven locks of his head." Samson had "seven" locks. The secret of Samson's power and strength was in his seven locks of hair.

Seven is a complete number and it is also the number of rest. In Hebrews, chapter 4, it says: "And God did rest the seventh day from all his works" (verse 4). And God wants His people to enter His rest and cease from their works, for the Bible says, "For he that is entered into his (God's) rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his"(verse 10). Samson with his seven locks of hair on his head is a symbolic picture of a child of God having entered the rest that God has for him: "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God" (Heb. 4:9).

Hair is something that comes out of the head and symbolizes the thoughts that come out of the mind. When the Holy Spirit renews our thoughts (gives us a revelation) to see what it means to be in God's rest and cease from our own works, we, like Samson, will have power over the enemy--not a physical enemy like the young lion he defeated, but our spiritual enemy, Satan, who "as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1Peter 5:8).

But what does it mean to enter God's rest and to cease from our own works? What are those works that we are to cease from?

When Christ died and bled on the cross, He was doing everything that needed to be done to make us believers righteous in God's sight (2Cor. 5:21); everything that needed to be done to make us acceptable to God (Eph. 1:6); everything that needed to be done to cause God to be at peace with us (Rom. 5:1); and everything that needed to be done to secure our eternal salvation (John 10:28). The work we need to cease from in order to enter God's rest is to cease from trying to do that which has already been done for us by Christ on the cross.

When Christians, by their performance, struggle to make themselves more righteous--more acceptable to God--then what Christ accomplished for them on the cross is of no effect to them in their daily Christian walk (Gal. 5:4). When they believe that God is mad at them because they feel they haven't behaved as a Christian should, they are like Samson when he was bald with his seven locks shaved off, and they are spiritually weak. They are not resting in the finished work of Christ. When He gave up His life on the cross, Jesus said, "It is finished" (John 19:30).

Every one of us as Christians can be a spiritual Samson with his seven locks of hair if we let God reveal to our minds what it means to rest in Him, and then are willing to enter that rest by ceasing from our own works. And just like Samson had great power in the physical realm when "a young lion roared against him" (Judges 14:5), we will have power in the spiritual realm over the enemy of our souls: ". . . the young lion . . . shalt thou trample under feet" (Psalm 91:13).

So, child of God, you can be like Samson with his seven locks of hair or like Samson with his bald head. If you choose the latter, you will still belong to the Lord and end up in heaven. But if you cease from your own works and rest in what your Savior has done for you on the cross, you will enter a rest here on earth such as you have never known. And that rest will be the secret of your strength.