Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years.

2 A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was childless, unable to give birth. 3 The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, “You are barren and childless, but you are going to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 4 Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean. 5 You will become pregnant and have a son whose head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb. (NIV)

Roy Castle sang the theme song of a children’s television programme, ‘Record breakers’. The show highlighted stories from ‘the Guinness Book of Records’. Roy was himself one of the presenters, and his song said ‘It takes dedication, if you’re gonna be a record breaker.’

Today’s reading shows that Samson was to be ”…a Nazirite, dedicated to God from the womb.” Therefore, his mother had to live as a Nazirite while he was being nourished by her in the womb. The details of the Nazirite vow are contained in Numbers 6:1-21. They need not detain us here, other than for us to note that it spoke of ”dedication” to the Lord.

I heard Alan Shearer talking about Harry Kane’s recent award of the ‘Ballon D’or’ – a trophy given annually by France football to the world’s best performing footballer. Shearer was effusive in his comments about Harry. He said, ‘He is a good example of where dedication can get you.’

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be fully dedicated to you, with nothing held back