The question of how a life with so much promise, a life that was prophesied to accomplish great things for God, got so far off track, forces us to wrestle with difficult theological questions:

• If God knows the future, does He then predetermine our future?
• How do we balance God’s foreknowledge with our right to choose?
• Are the choices really ours?
• If we make poor choices, do those choices derail God’s purpose for our lives?

Let it Begin

Listen to what the angelic visitor says to his mom even before Samson was conceived:

I can only imagine the joy and comfort in this moment. A woman who has struggled to conceive a child with her husband relishes the news that not only would a child be conceived, but his destiny was to be a deliverer. If Samson’s mom and dad lived today, I can imagine them impoverishing themselves with rounds of IVF, contemplating adoption, wondering if they needed to find a surrogate, and then hearing that their God was going to do for them what doctors, scientists and lab techs couldn’t do. Their child was destined to bring peace and deliverance to their community.

How God’s Foreknowledge Influences Our Lives

God knows our future but does not determine our future; that is left up to us. But that does not mean we were created purposeless. There is a purpose and a glory that God has designed to get out of every life (see Jeremiah 29:11).

Now, just because God gets the glory does not mean that you won’t have to answer for the mistakes made in life in the judgment. But remember, that is the purpose of the cross where all sin was punished. Every mistake, every foolish decision, every time we went against the will of God, even when we knew better, even when we could hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, even when we could sense that we were going down the wrong path, even when it seemed like there was a big flashing stoplight in our lives and we blew through it.

Because of the cross, we can get a “not guilty” verdict. Because of the cross, we can pass from death to life.

How You Work It

Humanity’s freedom to choose does not frustrate or deter God’s plan for every person’s life. We choose whether or not we will be blessed by the glory designed for our lives.

These two verses are deep and powerful. It is what remains after the test that God will reward us for. It is what remains after the fire that God will reward us for. It is what remains after the storms in life that God will reward us for.

But verse 15 is a sober warning: some people who are saved will have nothing to show for it. And that is the story of none other than faith’s Hall of Famer, Samson .

If you say yes to God, He will get the glory because look what He did with someone like you. If you say no to God, He will get the glory, because look at how far He went to try and save someone like you. He gave you every chance, every opportunity. And you just would not be saved. And when the record books in heaven are opened, we will praise and worship God that He tried so hard to save us.

Mission

Like Samson, each one of us is set aside from before conception to have a special relationship with God and to do a work for God.

Manoah wants to know how the child will accomplish the mission, which the angel does not answer. Rather, the angel is instructing these parents to do their part. The message to them is, pay attention to setting the right example for him. This mother was to watch her diet and her drink. And maybe here is why the angel does not answer Manoah’s question, because God is not going to determine Samson’s mode of life or his rule of life; but either way he is going to be the deliverer.

Hall of Fame Moment

There are times in life when God allows us to reap what we sow to get us to accomplish His will for our lives.

The tragic story of Samson is that even though he was a judge to the children of Israel for 20 years, that distinction is just a footnote in his story. That is because everyone focuses on his failures and his disastrous relationships. One failed relationship after another; until one of those bad relationships cost him his freedom and his eyes.

Alone, enslaved and blinded, Samson is still going to accomplish God’s will for his life. But look at how God kept trying to get Samson on track. God was going to use Samson to His glory, but He, God, wanted Samson to feel blessed as a result of God using him.

So Chapter 16 begins with Samson going to see a “lady of the evening,” but remember, the Bible says be sure your sins will find you out. And so Samson is discovered by the Philistines and they try to lock him in the city.

After he escapes from that trap, he finds another Philistine woman, Delilah. Delilah demonstrates three times that she is no good. But despite all of that evidence, Samson can’t give up Delilah, won’t give up Delilah. He is singing that old song, “If loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”

Unfortunately for Samson, he never changed the station and kept on singing “if loving you is wrong, I don’t want to be right.” And he kept singing it until they cut off his hair, put his eyes out, and were laughing at him as he was grinding at the mill. And every so often they would bring him out to make fun of him. In his blindness, he finally regained his perspective.

And the question for many of us is what is it going to take for us to see clearly?

The question is not whether or not God is going to get the glory; the question is what will it take for God to get the glory out of your life? How many failures, how many disastrous relationships, how many jobs will you have to lose, how many kids will you have to watch suffer, for God to get the glory out of your life?

Pete Palmer, a former teacher, school principal, is President of the Allegheny East Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.