Meeting Needs: A Brief Look at Samsom

Every human being has deep needs that they want met. God has put those needs in our souls; it is part of our makeup. As a result of the Fall of man and God’s subsequent curse, however, just as sure as we have needs they will not be met while here on earth. Ultimately this cup can only be filled by God, the one who created us. Yet drinking from his cup is often difficult and requires more faith than we are willing to give. So we settle. We settle for a smaller cup or a cup that is only partially filled. We try to meet our needs through others rather than God. In doing this we both put a burden on others that they can never carry and we show a fundamental lack of faith that God can and will meet our needs.

In the story of Samson we see a perfect example of someone who was given incredible gifts and responsibilities by God. Samson, though, still had the same kind of needs that all humans do. He needed to be loved, respected, accepted, and enjoyed. Rather than looking to God for those things, however, Samson turned to ‘lesser lovers.’ One big error Samson made that so many of us do is that he focused on the external rather than the internal qualities to fulfill his felt needs. In the NASB, Judges 7 reads:

3Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she looks good to me."
7So he went down and talked to the woman; and she looked good to Samson.

Despite God’s warnings in Deut. 7:3-4, Samson filled his desires in an expedient way. Notice that twice in this short passage Samson wants this woman because she looked good. Samson was focused on the shallow and the external rather than the things of God. This is so often the case when we seek to fulfill our needs with others rather than God. God looks to the internal not the external things (I Samuel 16:7). James seems to have this in mind when he says in chapter 1: “14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Temptation to fulfill our needs with shallow things leads to sin, which will eventually lead to death.”

Samson also made the mistake that so many of us make; he showed a lack of faith in God and took the easy way out by trying to fill his needs by his own power. Lacking faith is, in its essence, a violation of the first commandment (Exodus 20:3). We set ourselves up as a god, believing that we can fulfill our own needs rather than trusting in the one, true God. Psalms 37:4 says that if we delight in God, “he will give [us] the desires of our heart.” This is true if we will only believe it. One thing that I find interesting is that we like to read this verse as if it says if we delight in God he will give us everything we have ever wanted. It seems to me to be more in keeping with God’s nature if we read as though it says if we delight in God he will give us new wants that are in keeping with his goals. Either way, though, the message is to delight in God; to let him meet our needs.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of trying to use others to meet our needs rather than God because we tend to focus on shallow things and be shallow in our faith. If we trust in God, however, he promises us that he will meet our needs.